Hebrew and Astrology integrated into imagery

I'm planning on making a set of the Major Arcana for my senior year visual arts project. I'll be posting a list of how I'm adding the meanings of the Hebrew letters and the Astrological signs. Please offer feedback, and feel free to use any of my ideas.

Fool - Aleph meaning "ox" - Fool's cap shaped like ox horns - Air - Butterfly
Magician - Beth meaning "house or tent" - Located inside a tent - Mercury - Mercurial-themed garb
High Priestess - Gimel meaning "camel" - Camel kneeling at feet - Moon - Lunar-themed garb
Empress - Daleth meaning "door" - Symbolic door in background - Venus - Venerian-themed garb
Emperor - He meaning "window" - Stained glass window - Aries - Rams horns on helmet
Hierophant - Vav meaning "nail" - Holding nail in hand - Taurus - Sitting on bull, posed like Bodhisattvas in Buddhist art
Lovers - Zayin meaning "sword or weapon" - Cupid with arrow - Gemini - Two lovers
Chariot - Cheth meaning "fence" - Driver fenced in - Cancer - Crab symbol on breastplate
Strength - Teth meaning "snake" - Woman has uraeus on headband - Leo - Holding giant lion
Hermit - Yod meaning "hand" - Hermit pointing into cave - Virgo - In a wheat field
Wheel of Fortune - Kaph meaning "palm of hand" - Hands of Fortuna shielding wheel - Jupiter - Jovial-themed garb
Justice - Lamed meaning "goad" - Justice holding whip - Libra - Justice holding scales
Hanged Man - Mem meaning "water" - Hanging over pool - Water - Stream leading into pool
Death - Nun meaning "fish" - Fish curling up scythe handle - Scorpio - Blade engraved with scorpion
Temperance - Samekh meaning "pillar" - Djed talisman - Sagittarius - Two liquids form shape of bow
Devil - A'ayin meaning "eye" - Eye floating above head - Capricorn - Goat-headed devil
Tower - Pe meaning "mouth" - Door shaped like mouth screaming - Mars - Broken armor on ground
Star - Tsade meaning "fishhook" - Hei matau tattoo - Aquarius - Pouring out water
Moon - Qoph meaning "back of head" - Tiktaalik ("fishapod") seen from behind - Pisces - Tiktaalik related to fish, or could show some fish in pool
Sun - Resh meaning "face" - Sun has face - Sun - Sunny sky
Judgement - Shin meaning "tooth" - Fang shaped gravestones - Fire - Phoenix
World - Tav meaning "mark" - Dancer has mark on forehead - Saturn - Dancing like Shiva

That sounds great. You probably have read the very good book on the minor arcana, Tarot and the Tree of Life, if this is an area of interest for you--I thought it was very worthwhile and might be of interest to you on this project. This project sounds like it should be beautiful and intriguing.

donnalee said:

That sounds great. You probably have read the very good book on the minor arcana, Tarot and the Tree of Life, if this is an area of interest for you--I thought it was very worthwhile and might be of interest to you on this project. This project sounds like it should be beautiful and intriguing.

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I haven't read it yet, but now I'm definitely interested. Then again, there are so many good books on the occult, and I'm not even out of high school. I'd better save up to get this.

It is a worthwhile book--and I wanted to mention that my partner, who is a Torah scholar, says that there is a belief that the 22 major arcana came from the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Good luck with your studies.

donnalee said:

It is a worthwhile book--and I wanted to mention that my partner, who is a Torah scholar, says that there is a belief that the 22 major arcana came from the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Good luck with your studies.

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Thank you so much!

Quite impressive for someone so young. Heck, I learned it as a native language and I had no clue the letters had any significance (at the time, I am well out of highschool).

You suggest some very good ideas, and you might want to develop them further, given restraints of time and the effort you want to put into it. For example, there are reasons why each Major is attributed to its respective letter. The Empress is indeed door, but as the archetypal female, her "door" is the womb, by which we enter the world. The camel was a vital component of nomadic life, and so is a symbol of communication and travel. For reasons too lengthy to post here, the Priestess (usually known as the "intuition" card) is indeed to card of the divine spark, the word of God we see as intuition. As a religious authority, the Hierophant translates the intangible into actual work that you can do (hence he's attributed to dogged, hard-working Taurus), so his nail is what fastens above and below. Samech is more "tent peg" than pillar, although the significance is similar, it is the centgal idea of the universe, and since Temperance refers to the merging of materials, we can assume the only constant, or stabilizing force (like the peg one drives into the ground to hold the tent firm) is Change.

For Strength you might want to draw a Chimera, but that's just my own preference.

This got a bit more involved than I had planned, but ill be happy to answer any questions you might have, help, etc.

Thanks for the help, closrapexa! I suppose I can draw the angel of Temperance standing on a tent peg (Canaanite general sleepy from milk not included), which could also help suggest the shaft of the arrow. I'll definitely take some inspiration from the Chimaera idea, probably using the Chimera of Arezzo to help pose it.

I have a semi-serious question, though. I might add in a Happy Squirrel card, and I was wondering if there was any letter or letter-like character that would work. Does the inverted nun have any significance, and would it be sacrilegious to use it if it does?

For a Happy Squirrel card, I wouldn't use a letter but a diacritic sign - the shva. Just two dots. It makes every letter either vowel-less or introduces a gliding vowel. It's a tricky little thing. It looks just like two dots under a letter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shva

Just an idea...