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kwaw

I believe you're right! I remember seeing it in my B.O.T.A. course material somewhere recently, but of course I can't find it now. I don't recall any court-card correspondences though.

cross-posted as I edited in the souce - Tree of Life, lesson 7

Crowley's Tree of Life with unicursal hexagram that appeared in an early edition of 777 may also partially allude to the hidden paths

As mentioned by another poster above, the Diamond Path associations are given in the Mutational Alchemy Tarot --

*eta: Wang gives a different reference, perhaps the material was moved around as the lessons were revised, so depends on which revision you have ---

On the hidden paths Wang wrote:

"The idea of Paths which are “secret,” or “hidden” seems to have been
introduced (or at least popularized) by Paul Case. 60 There is no evidence of the
Golden Dawn having schematized any Paths other than the traditional thirty-
two. Actually, the Secret Paths are nothing more than the connection of every
Sephira with every other Sephira (Figure 8), suggesting that it is possible to
move directly from any form of consciousness to any other. This theory is a
mitigation of the idea implied in the usual Tree of Life diagram, that we must
pass through one Sephira before we encounter another.


38 The Qabalistic Tarot



"Figure 8. These Paths connect each Sephira to each other. Tiphareth already has a
traditional Path to every Sephira except Malkuth. A) The “Secret” Paths on the Tree of
Life. B) The Unicursal Hexagram derived from the Tree.


"The concept of Secret Paths definitely expands the possibilities of the
Tree. It also allows us to see certain relationships which would not be obvious
otherwise, such as the derivation of the Unicursal Hexagram from the Tree
itself. This figure was first published by Aleister Crowley, who undoubtedly
derived it in this way. In a Tree of Life drawn by Crowley, and published in the
1955 Neptune Press edition of 777, we discover that Crowley has shown all of
the additional lines between Sephiroth required to make that figure."

Attached : the Hidden Paths, figure 8 from The Qabalistic Tarot by Robert Wang:
 

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Barleywine

cross-posted as I edited in the souce - Tree of Life, lesson 7

Crowley's Tree of Life with unicursal hexagram that appeared in an early edition of 777 may also partially allude to the hidden paths

As mentioned by another poster above, the Diamond Path associations are given in the Mutational Alchemy Tarot --

*eta: Wang gives a different reference, perhaps the material was moved around as the lessons were revised, so depends on which revision you have ---

I have it as Lesson 7. I get the most value out of contemplating the "inner workings" of the diagrams. Case lost me with the numerical and mathematical subtleties.
 

kwaw

crossposted - edited my last post and inlcuded an attachement with the diagram from Wang
 

Barleywine

"The concept of Secret Paths definitely expands the possibilities of the Tree. It also allows us to see certain relationships which would not be obvious otherwise, such as the derivation of the Unicursal Hexagram from the Tree itself. This figure was first published by Aleister Crowley, who undoubtedly derived it in this way. In a Tree of Life drawn by Crowley, and published in the 1955 Neptune Press edition of 777, we discover that Crowley has shown all of the additional lines between Sephiroth required to make that figure."

I recall Crowley claiming somewhere that he had "solved" the problem of constructing the Unicursal Hexagram. This explanation certainly makes sense. It's been a long time since I read Wang. I'll have to revisit that book soon.
 

Aeon418

Crowley's Tree of Life with unicursal hexagram that appeared in an early edition of 777 may also partially allude to the hidden paths
Possibly. But I've just taken a quick glance at it and the first thing I noticed was the absence of paths between Geburah and Malkuth and Chesed and Malkuth. If the object of the exercise was to illustrate the hidden paths they would surely be there. Personally I suspect that diagram is just a regular Tree with various geometrical shapes projected onto it.

This figure was first published by Aleister Crowley, who undoubtedly
derived it in this way.
Undoubtedly? :confused: Crowley would have already been familiar with the unicursal hexagram from his Golden Dawn training.
 

Naomi Ningishzidda

The "hidden paths" are supposedly 16 possible links between the Sephiroth that are not already connected by existing paths on the Tree of Life. The first of these 'potential paths' does not open up until Geburah 6=5. At this stage some theorise that paths between Geburah and Malkuth, and Geburah and Yesod appear. (This could indicate changes in the body and subconscious.) The remaining 14 potential paths are said to appear during the remainder of the climb up the Tree.

The allocation of the Court cards to these potential paths is new to me. 16 Courts and 16 paths may be a happy coincidence or maybe it's something more. In the absence of an Ipsissimus to confirm or deny, we will just have say it's an interesting theory.

That's because it is new. But the Hidden Paths attributions in that booklet do not seem to follow any kind of rational ordering. It certainly isn't based on the Mutational Alchemy Tarot. m1thr0s followed a strict chronological ordering using his proximity principle. I don't know what they're doing there, but it would be nice if they explained themselves.

Hmm, by the way, not only are there 16 Court Cards, there are 16 Geomantic characters. (Puer, Caput Draconus etc.) as well as 16 Jungian Meyers-Briggs personality types. m1thr0s 729 was an Ipsissimus, but you'll have to take my word for it until physics catches up.
 

Aeon418

But the Hidden Paths attributions in that booklet do not seem to follow any kind of rational ordering.
It appears to be some sort of elemental attribution. Whether it's a rational ordering or just a pretty pattern is a mystery to me though.

All the Wands Court cards connect to Chokmah/Fire. All the Cups Court cards connect to Binah/Water. All the Swords Court cards connect to Kether/Air.

The Pentacles fill the remaining four Paths between Chesed, Geburah, Yesod and Malkuth. I suppose that's meant to symbolise Fire(5) + Water(4) + Air(9) + Earth(10) = Earth/Pentacles.
 

Aeon418

The following is an attempt at correlating the suggested attributions of the 'Hidden Paths' with what they are actually supposed to represent.

[*NB. This isn't an endorsement of the attributions. It's just way of trying to find some sort of meaning (or lack of meaning) in a pretty pattern.]

Adeptus Major 6=5

Page of Pentacles.
Geburah to Malkuth - the Physical body receiving the influence of Volition.

King of Pentacles
Geburah to Yesod - the Subconscious receiving the influence of Volition.

Adeptus Exemptus 7=4

Queen of Pentacles
Chesed to Malkuth - the Physical body receiving the influence of Memory.

Knight of Pentacles
Chesed to Yesod - the Subconscious receiving the influence of Memory.

Magister Templi 8=3

Page of Cups
Binah to Malkuth - the Physical body receiving the influence of Super-consciousness.

King of Cups
Binah to Yesod - the Subconscious receiving the influence of Super-consciousness.

Queen of Cups
Binah to Netzach - Desire receiving the influence of Super-consciousness.

Knight of Cups
Binah to Chesed - Memory receiving the influence of Super-consciousness.

Magus 9=2

Page of Wands
Chokmah to Malkuth - the Physical body receiving the influence of Will / Life stream.

King of Wands
Chokmah to Yesod - the Subconscious receiving the influence of Will / Life stream.

Queen of Wands
Chokmah to Hod - the Intellect receiving the influence of Will / Life stream

Knight of Wands
Chokmah to Geburah - Volition receiving the influence of Will / Life stream.

Ipsissimus 10=1

Page of Swords
Kether to Hod - Intellect receiving the influence of the Seed-self.

King of Swords
Kether to Netzach - Desire receiving the influence of the Seed-self.

Queen of Swords
Kether to Geburah - Volition receiving the influence of the Seed-self.

Knight of Swords
Kether to Chesed - Memory receiving the influence of the Seed-self.
 

Michael Sternbach

While I am certainly going out on a ToL limb, I do find the idea interesting that the hidden paths could make it possible to eventually link the Court Cards to the Tree too.