Kabalah & Tarot

This thread was in large part prompted by a number of past discussions, the frequent mention of Mark Filipas's The Alphabetic Masquerade and, with more immediacy, Catboxer's wonderful post replying in another thread.

Reflecting on both the mention by the Comte de Mellet, in the 18th century, of Hebrew alphabetic associations with the Major Arcana, and Mark Filipas's wonderful contribution (and I should add that a member has also mentioned a French book which had suggested something along those lines, but remain ignorant of the volume in question), it occurred that maybe, and quite possibly, there is a far deeper connection between Tarot and Kabalah than we are generally fond of acknowledging.

Firstly, let me dismiss the GD allocations, for Wescott and/or Mathers & co. needed to alter the deck to make it work in their sense. Likewise, the 'path' allocations to the Tree can be dismissed in this context, for their allocations can be altered to myriad forms and of course generate insights worth having, but not intrinsic to the deck.

Another comment made by Diana (and others) in the thread Marseilles being used for Divination originally? is that, in addition to history 'proper', there is what is referred to as oral history - as important but too often dismissed a little too promptly.

Unfortunately, it seems clear from de Mellet's own writing that he was unaware of historical Kabalistic connections - save his mention that they each consist of 22 letters, and may be combined to make words or a narrative - which any person thinking analogically, and aware of the numerical equivalence, may have made. He seems far more pre-occupied, in any case, with exegeting the Tarot as possible Egyptian remnant - hence his calling it the 'Book of Thoth'.

Nonetheless, a number of small points remain, and are worthy of deep reflection:

• Why has the Tarot Major Arcana precisely twenty-two cards, when earlier or parallel decks (such as the Visconti-Sforza and others) did not;
  
• the alphabetic fit presented by Mark Filipas for the Marseille pattern seems such intrinsic - could it have such connection;
  
• could not the designers have considered Hebrew letter associations, or even a Kabalistic text, and incorporated designs to somewhat reflect their reflection - of course, the text remains, if this were to be correct, as yet unidentified?

I am suggesting here that plausibly Kabalistic considerations need to be entertained, rather than dismissed because of either the other interests which E. Levi or the Comte de Mellet had. They each may have drawn on valid sources, but represented these in ways, and for purposes, suited to their peculiar interests - which some of us may also share, of course.

How will this thread ensue?

jmd said:

• Why has the Tarot Major Arcana precisely twenty-two cards, when earlier or parallel decks (such as the Visconti-Sforza and others) did not;
  
• the alphabetic fit presented by Mark Filipas for the Marseille pattern seems such intrinsic - could it have such connection;
  
• could not the designers have considered Hebrew letter associations, or even a Kabalistic text, and incorporated designs to somewhat reflect their reflection - of course, the text remains, if this were to be correct, as yet unidentified?

Click to expand...

(1) The fact that there are precisely 22 major arcana (in the TdM) doesn't necessarily mean the existence of connections with the Hebrew alphabet or with Kaballah. The number 22 would appear to have significance apart from, and originating prior to the time of, the Hebrew alphabet or the Kaballah.

Quoting from the entry for "Twenty-Two" in Jean Chevalier/Alain Gheerbrant's dictionary on symbolism (translated in English under the title Penguin Dictionary of Symbols):

"This number, perhaps symbolizes the manifestation of being in all its diversity and during its allotted time, that is, in both space and time. In fact, it is the sum total of the twenty-two letters which, according to the Kabbalah, give expression to the universe. .... However the interpretation of twenty-two as the 'symbol of all natural forms and of created history as a whole' may well go back to the time of the ancient Zoroastrians. Their Avesta was written in books each of twenty-two chapters and their collection of prayers contains twenty-two. The Revelation attributed to St. John comprises twenty-two chapters, too, while there are twenty-two major arcana in the Tarot."


(2) The TdM's major arcana consists of 21 numbered trump cards plus the (unnumbered) Fool card; furthermore, the Fool is a major arcana card, but not a trump card. Perhaps, instead of looking for significance in relation to the number 22, we should be looking for significance in relation to the number 21.

Thanks for your post, Rusty Neon - I had totally forgotten about this thread.

I suppose that, given my many other posts, it may be clear that I have long considered that the Kabalah and Tarot are best investigated - at least initially - separately. Yet, especially Mark Filipas's work seems to suggest that there may be a deeper and more intrinsic connection.

The Book of Revelations has before been connected to the Tarot because of its twenty-two chapter - and certainly, it may be, though also possibly not, that the number twenty-two has some significance with regards to the Hebrew alphabet. If it did, the common Judaic heritage of the Book of St John and the letters may be sufficient 'justification'. It may of course be more 'coincidental' or unconsciously thusly connected.

With regards to the twenty-two 'chapters' of the Avesta, I have read various views which I will need to revisit, paying more attention to this usage of twenty-two.

With regards to only 21 of the 22 Majors being numbered, this, in many ways, actually gives additional credence to Kabalistic connections, for the Sefer Yetzirah mentions 231 gates formed of the 22 letters. These, of course, are formed by each letter being joined to another, as posts of a gateway - the total number of combinations being 231.

Which is also the total number which results if the value of each of the major Arcana cards is added (I + II + III + ... + XXI = 231). This important Kabalistic number of 231, then, also emerges naturally but unexpectedly from the 22 cards.

It would certainly be interesting to find an important use of 22 prior to the usage of the Hebrew alphabet. As one of the numbers used in one of the approximations to pi (22/7), it has certainly an early usage - but did not think it antedated Hebrew.

These are all quite controversial considerations, but am coming to sense ever more strongly that alphabetic connections, in their Hebrew form, to the 'standardisation' of the Tarot via the Marseille, is far more intrinsically connected than had previously been assumed. Of course, this needs to also be moderated by views which acknowledge the yet earlier usage of similar hieroglyphs (sacred carvings) upon, for example, mediaeval Cathedrals and earlier places.

*Sigh*

People, who originated the Kabbalah?

Practicing Jews.

People, what religion expressly forbade creating human images as a violation of the First Commandment?

Judaism (up until the last two centuries.)

Jewish Mystics are no more likely to encode their cosmology in a series of pictures than they are to write it on bacon strips.

The same scholars who floated the idea of Hebrew letters being assigned to the Tarot also claimed they were Egyptian initiation symbols. That didn't pan out, so the "Hebrew Theory" persisted to give mystical uses for Tarot a respected (if illogical) lineage.

If you don't believe me, call your local Orthodox rabbi and ask him if he teaches Kabbala to non-Jews and if there are any pictures of humans in the books.

As there are various forms of Christianity, so too are there not only various shades of Judaism, but even various forms or ways of working Kabalistic tradition within (maybe I should repeat this word within more orthodox (as opposed to Orthodox) Judaism.

Also, irrespective as to whether images were promulgated within orthodox rabbinical milieux, they were, and quite extensively, used in the environment in which not only Kabalah developed, but Christian, Muslim and Cathar art and science flourished. Within this milieu, and within a milieu which also saw some Jewish converts to Christianity also assist in the use of Kabalah for further conversion, it is quite feasible that both images (which would then be permitted within the Christian context of expecially post-Suger times) and Kabalistic concepts blended in ways unforseen.

Of course, one should carefully study the Kabalah within its very clear Judaic rabbinical tradition. With regards to Tarot, however, that is not where they are likely to yield the best results, though important they be. Rather, it is in the various ways not-too-orthodox Jews, in their interactions with others, and in their disregard for the graven images (though this could easily be justified without feeling one has broken a commandment, depending on how one interprets the 'graven image' instruction given via Moses), which may yet yield unexpected Kabalistic lore embedded against all odds within the deck's structure or in its images.

To approach such a line of research with a healthy scepticism is, of course, desirable. So is, in my opinion, having an open-ness towards various possibilities. As people, we are individually varied, and in earlier days as now, many of us achieve a balance between aeclectic and syncretic tendencies. Whomever put together the Tarot may also have been moved to integrate, syncretically, peculiar aeclectic elements which a historian or Traditionalist would just plain reject - then as well as now.

However, Tarot was, undoubtedly, not created by an Orthodox Rabbi. An Orthodox Rabbi, as incredible as it may seem, may have had, unbeknownst to him, deep influence on its design... would we want to preclude this as a possibility?

... and a small P.S. to Pagan X.

You may be surprised that some Orthodox Rabbi do in fact, in certain circumstances, 'take on' the teaching of Kabalah to non-Jews (& even to women non-Jews!). I have a dear friend, who also happens to be one of the world's most distinguished (living) Freemason, who has had such an honour. And personally, I would have to also add that in my personal opinion the honour was mutual.

There are other examples of the same, at least in Melbourne, which happens to have one of the stronger Orthodox Jewish communities amongst its population.

If you wish to consider the common imagery available to artists working in Western allegorical traditions, that just leads you back to the common intellectual heritage of the Renaissance that the Trumps clearly reflect...without Hebrew letters.

The claim of Kabbalah *specifically* serves the argument of Tarot as a continuous received body, which it isn't in an academic sense. The only evidence for Kabalistic connection is the number 22. That's pretty weak.

If the only evidence was in fact only the number twenty-two, then I would agree that the evidence for such connection, from either historical or iconographic perspective, would be very flimsy indeed.

Hence part of the reason I link to Mark Filipas's work in the first post.

The work he has done, in looking at the possibility of Hebrew letter and Major Arcana image correlation using simple alphabetic considerations, is quite remarkable. I have personally tried to view it from quite critical eyes, only for it to stand up all the more.

This is not to say that non-Marseille early patterns also included Hebrew letter notions (and thus Kabalistic considerations, if one wants to be very precise, possibly only indirectly). Very likely they did not - or at least I personally do not see such reflected in such decks as the Visconti-Sforza (under their various names).

It may be, if the Hebrew alphabet correlation with the Major Arcana is correct, that either some quite early but lost deck also carried such - and that, possibly, an oral tradition half lost did carry through. Numerous other decks (or their creators, really), not being aware of such, may have slowly altered parts of or even whole images.

It may also be, again if the Hebrew alphabetic correlation is correct, that this was a later (17th/18th century) impulse which worked itself into the deck in what came to be known as the Marseille pattern.

In either case, the Kabalistic considerations here made are not the ones popularised by E. Levi, nor the modifications (some would use harsher terms) made from the same by Wescott (and later again by Mathers) and other Golden Dawn influenced individuals.

To dismiss a possible Hebrew letter connection without meticulously investigasting the same is not, in my view, helpful.

To give a more personal spin on the issue, my paternal great-grandfather was a Rabbi of some note. His eldest son married a Christian, and so did this latter's eldest son... and from hence I came. Black sheep in a family of two generations (though possibly more) of black sheep. Does this mean, however, that Kabalistic considerations were not considered within my own family?

Also, quite differently to this, a friend of mine (an Anglican priest, incidently, who is now semi-retired) and I ran a year-long course on the Kabalah and Tarot a number of years ago. Our primary sources for the Kabalah, apart from especially Genesis (and, actually, other parts of the Tanak, though mainly from the 'T' part of the Tanak), the Sefer Yetzirah, Bahir & Zohar, works by G. Scholem, A. Kaplan, and M. Idel were used. Our limitations was mainly our unfortunate relative lack of Hebrew - a great limitation we would only concede too readily. Amongst one of the regular was in fact a Othodox Jew... well educated (of course) and quite open to wonderful discussions.

Such are possibilities in the life of people, both in earlier times as now, that the 'letter of the law', where Kabalists limit discussions to those within narrow circles, doesn't preclude those small circles from shedding seeds of Light in their environment, to be taken up in ways which to Rabbi within the circle may probably not disapprove of as much as some of his own flock.

I have taken the time to mention these two more personal situations to illustrate quite simply that cross-fertilisation of ideas is far simpler than may be envisioned. To state (I am not suggesting that anyone in this thread has done so, by the way) that in times past there would have been far greater restrictions seems to me to impose our caricature of Victorian times upon the vastly different times and temperaments of, for example, 12th century Languedoc or Provence.

Use of Imagery in Jewish Mysticism

Place the 22 letters/tarot Atu in a circle. 'Why a Circle?' Because the circle is a geometric metaphor for the singularity of G-d (as it is formed of one line) and the infinity of G-d (as it is without beginning or end). The circumference of a circle to its diameter is considered 22/7ths, and 22 is the number of the Hebrew letters with which G-d formed creation in the mystical Bera****h tradition. The diameter's measure is 7/7ths, and relates to the seven points/directions of the hexagram sealed by the permutations of YHV/IAO, the seven lower sefiroth of manifestation, to the seven days of the week/creation, the seven pillars of wisdom, the seven vertical lines of the tree of life, the seven songs of exultation sung by the seven archangels in the Merkabah (divine throne-chariot) tradition, and the seven heavenly palaces of the Hekhaloth (heavenly palaces) tradition [all of which traditions are assimilated under the umbrella of 'kabbalah', along with a variety of gnostic, neo-platonic, hermetic and christian elements).

Pair each letter/Atu with every other letter/Atu. Pair each adjacent letter, drawing a line between each point, and imagine then each line the tangent of a circle. This is your first circle. Pair each second letter, your second circle.... and so on to every 10th letter, the 10th circle. Pairing each eleventh (on opposite sides of the circle) each line passes through the center, from which point now radiate 22 radii and 10 circles ('32 paths of wisdom') composed of 231 lines ('gates'). These are the paths and gates to the seven heavenly palaces in which resides the divine chariot (as in the vision of the cherubim, chariot and scroll in Ezekiel). [And 231 of course is the sum of the numbers 1-21].

The paths within and between the heavenly palaces are the stations [hebrew: TRCh] of the 'forms' of the Gods [Elohim]. "And the likeness of the living Gods is engraved on the vestibules by which the King enters, luminous spiritual figures of glorious light…works of art of many colours" [4Q405 14-15, I]. All the works of art "are marvelously linked, many coloured spirits…glorious figures engraved on glorious bricks of splendour and majesty. All their works of art are living gods, and their artistic figures holy angels" [4Q405 19 ABCD]. "The Cherubim bless the 'image' of the throne chariot [4Q405 20 ii, 21-22]. "At their stations are spirits, many coloured like the work of a weaver, splendid engraved figures. The 'likeness' of the spirit is like a work of art of fine gold….their pattern mingled like the work of art of a weaver" [4Q405 23, ii]. The vestibules are engraved with the forms of the gods, so that "When the gods of knowledge enter by the doors, and when the holy angels depart towards their realm, the entrance doors and exit gates proclaim the glory of the King, blessing and praising all the spirits of God when they depart and enter by the gates." [4Q405 23, I].

In the Heckaloth and Merckabah traditions various figures, 'forms of the gods', were visualised as gateways to the vision of the paths to the heavenly palaces. Much in the same way in fact that tarot cards may be used by modern occultists to explore in 'vision' the paths of the tree of life (into which the Heckaloth and Merkaba traditions were assimilated).

By no doubt coincidence one [of several] words for 'forms, figures' is derived from the Hebrew root TAR. It means to “draw, sketch, describe, trace in outline” (Piel form), in the Qal form means “to encircle, to encompass”. The sense of drawing an outline comes from the general sense of drawing a circle [re: set the letters in a circle?]. There is also a sense of drawing a boundary as in “protecting” in this root, which we see in the related root THR, a root which means “pure, purify”, as in consecrated, set aside, protected by a boundary. In the bible we find the root TAR is used when Esau asks the Witch of Endor "MH-TARV" ["what form (his)" - ie, describe the ghost of Samuel]. Also we find it in where it means mark, form or engrave [ITARHV] in describing the creation of an idolatrous image. [Not that I am claiming this to be the 'etymology' of the word 'taro' (tarot, tarok, tarocchi, etc) just point out what is to me an interesting coincidence that connects the use of tarot among modern occultists exploring the paths of the tree and the jewish mystics of the merkabah tradition describing the 'forms of the gods' that were engraved on the vestibules of the heavenly palaces].

Kwaw
References:
The Sefer Yetzira by Aryeh Kaplan
Songs for the Holocaust of the Sabbath [can be found in "The complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English" by Geza Vermes
The Bible - Samuel 28:14; Isaiah 44:13

Pagan X said:

*Sigh*

People, who originated the Kabbalah?

Practicing Jews.

Click to expand...

I don't think it is as simple as saying Judaic Kabbala came first and
Christian and Hermetic versions are a later development. Present day 'traditional judaic kabbalah' is by and large that of the Lurianic school, and Christian and Hermetic cabbalah streams were developing at the same time as Luria was developing and teaching his kabalah. While it is true that the primary texts of a specifically Christian Cabbalah (I am thinking Mirandola, Kircher?) belong to a later period I think it is maybe an over simplification to say that 'Christian Cabbala is a later development'. As early as the 13th Century Abraham Abulafia was teaching a christianised verion of the Kabbalah in Italy [at the same time as Leon de Moses was 'discovering' the zohar]. There are parallels too with the teachings of Ramon Lull, though it is possible (I would say probable) that the direct influence upon Lull was Sufism. Any parallels that can be made are perhaps more
indicative of either the influence of Sufism upon the development of Kabbala or an example of a parallel that is to be expected between apparently diffent doctrines pertaining to the same universal truths.

More pertinent is the fact that Judaic Kabbala in its early
development was itself heavily influenced by Christianity. In
his 'Origins of the Kabbalah' Scholem notes in particular parallels
with the works of John Scotus and Joachim de Fiori [connected of course with the visconti and the theory of the 'popess' card in the visconti deck. Also, through his belief in the emergence of the dawning of a new age of the holy spirit, possibly connected to the 'world' card as figured as 'anima mundi']. From textual
analysis of primary texts Scholem himself at least was fairly convinced of a direct influence of Scotus and possibly other Christian philosophers/theologians upon the early kabbalistic schools. The influence of Christianity upon the Kabbala was recognised by many Jewish commentators. During the initial period in which the Kabbalah first appeared it was a widely held opinion within the Judaic Orthodox mainstream that the Kabbala was a heretical doctrine of Christian origin, and was treated as such by the orthodox Jewish laity.

The early kabbalistic schools of Southern France and Northern Italy were heavily influenced by the Jewish Gnostic tradition; taking as one of their primary texts the pre-kabbalistic gnostic text the Sefer Yetzira and texts of the Maaseh Merkabah mystical tradition. They appear to have been actively eclectic and syncretic in their approach. There was already a long-standing ' cross pollination' between Gnosticim, Hellenism and Hermeticism (as indicated perhaps by the fact that the major texts of Corpus Hermetica were included among the gnostic texts at Nag Haamadi for example). Into this was mixed Christian (both orthodox and heterodox) and eastern concepts.

So eclectic and syncretic was early kabbalah in fact that, though it
emerges from Jewish gnostic tradition, it can hardly be
termed 'Judaic' in any meaningful sense of the term; or at least in
any sense that would be acceptable to the orthodox. It is only later, in the Zoharic tradition of the Spanish schools and in the
Lurianic/Safed schools that there is developed a 'Jewish redaction'
of the kabbalah that is more (though not universally) acceptable to Judaic Orthodoxy. However, it retained sufficient of the Christian and Hermetic elements to allow each of these to branch off into their own forms of Cabbalah/Qabalah.

So it may be correct to say that 'Judaic Kabbalah' is the first
specific 'brand' to emerge from this theosophical syncreticism; and
that specifically 'Christian Cabbala' and 'Hermetic Qabalah' are
later developments. However it would appear that the seeds of each were bound together at origin but divurged along paths that would allow them to emerge enriched but true to themselves, each able to retain their own specific identity.

To say that 'Christian' or 'Hermetic' cabbalah is 'later' however is
to ignore the fact that specifically 'Judaic' and 'Christian'
versions of the QBLH were developing concurrently. A strictly
chronological viewpoint of the history based on emergence of primary texts ignores the complex inter-relationship between the various strands from which the divergent aspects of the QBLH developed. To postulate a connection between hebrew letters, the kabbalah and the origins of the tarot does not neccesitate a specifically 'jewish' origin.

Kwaw