Le Mat//Shin (a la covina hermiticia)

cougina machek

Hieroglyph: Shin
Roman: C
Tarot Card: Fool
Astrological Symbol: Air

Meaning: Arrow in indefinite flight, undecided, then incapable of following through on decision, beyond control of self, then a conceptualization of means on how to follow through, and finally the implementation of them. This card represents both the beginning and the end of the Tarot in the context of study toward achieving total Unity with Self (body, mind, and soul). It does not achieve it for you, but is used to describe the process of spiritual evolution in relation to the little I self. It literally travels through the rest of the Arcana to become itself again with the knowledge of purpose and means to achieve completion.

So now, as we reincarnate, having begun this process with an earlier post called "The Fool," it would seem possible that you may not have to begin again. The concept of self is extremely difficult, for part and parcel of the concept is that one has not yet achieved it. The processes of Tarot and Cabala, particularly with the hermetic approach, is that you achieve this self, so that you may begin the pursuit of the SELF. Ah, we're stuck with the Roman alphabet, which is constantly being abused, semanticized, subliminized, and objectivised by capitalistic consciousness. Capitalism in itself, inherently, expresses I over Thy, me over you, yet, in our complex society, without capitalistic thought, we would not have many of the things that are available to us, and enhance our comfort, our joy, and, unfortunately, our lack of ability to see self. The purpose of this blog and these teachings will be to attempt to assist you in living on both sides of this very, very nebulous fence.
 

venicebard

Hieroglyph: Shin
Roman: C
Tarot Card: Fool
Astrological Symbol: Air
May I ask—out of genuine curiosity and without seeming too judgmental—if you actually believe the inventors of tarot would have expressed all the Hebrew letters (in their alef-bet order) by trumps in numerical order except one, namely shin? The one asking (me) IS a believer in the correspondence of trumps and letters, but according to an orderly bardic tradition of numbering arising from number symbolism—which survived in Ireland (referenced there in medieval times) and Wales (the evidence for which is slightly more obscure)—rather than simply the order of letters in one particular alphabet (there being multiple traditions of letter-order in various ancient alphabets). This shin=LeMat theory is quite puzzling to me.
Ah, we're stuck with the Roman alphabet, which is constantly being abused, semanticized, subliminized, and objectivised by capitalistic consciousness. Capitalism in itself, inherently, expresses I over Thy, me over you, yet, in our complex society, without capitalistic thought, we would not have many of the things that are available to us, and enhance our comfort, our joy, and, unfortunately, our lack of ability to see self. The purpose of this blog and these teachings will be to attempt to assist you in living on both sides of this very, very nebulous fence.
This fascinates me. First of all, (after pointing out that shin is S, not C) I would like to say that one is only stuck with the Roman alphabet if one wants to be, since the other ancient alphabets—including even the Tifinag and ogam consaine alphabets used in early 2nd-millennium-BCE Scandinavia if we include the work of Barry Fell and associates—are there for us to study and contemplate. I agree that the Roman alphabet is a distorted model to use (awkward in expressing phonetic values even, given the alteration of certain vowels in English)—expecially in its having distorted gimel/gamma into C—yet its parent alphabet (western Greek) is an important bit of evidence in that it retains F (digamma) as well as the consonantal value of [h]eta (Latin H).

Second, I should point out something obvious that is rather well expressed in the runic alphabet (the elder futhark), namely that in order to GIVE something as a 'gift' (name of rune for hard G, G being desire) one must first ACQUIRE it through some sort of 'harvest' (name of rune for soft G, which also means 'year'). This I point out simply to reinforce the point you made about what we would lack without what little morsel of (the hated because misunderstood) 'capitalism' has survived recent govt. attempts to completely curtail it.
 

cougina machek

Unfortunately...

...rhetorically, but not semantically correct. WE definitely do not wish to distort the written word, or change history, by saying that something existed at a given time, particularly alphabetically or hieroglyphically. The concept that we deal with here is allegorical only in respect to individual consciousness. The precept being that the intelligences (spheres) are connected by 22 paths, and then whether these be dealt with Masoretically, as we have done as Levi, which is perhaps in a minor conflict with Mathers, and in major conflict with 3rd century doctrine (unfortunately unavailable at this time), the paths themselves represent the 22 concepts of consciousness. Whether it be Masoretic, Greek (I'm not sure how many runes there are, but certainly here, too).

It is irrelevant whether Le Mat be an s, an sh, a c, or a ch. The relevancy is in the concept. The concept being that of seeking, seeking and not finding, and feeling oh-so-lost. Why am I here? What am I supposed to do? What matters in this material space? Obviously, there is something more valid than this space, and as Le Mat progresses on its journey, it occasionally finds an interesting rock, or a unique little stick, which it picks up and places in its little bag. Constantly wandering through initial consciousness, I am, progressing to consciousness of opposition, Beth, going through the Empress, Emperor, etc., constantly picking up those little stones and sticks. And as it passes through that androgynous concept of the Star and the moving elements, it realizes that it does not have the courage to jump off the cliff. It takes a turn, either to the right or to the left, depending on which direction it is traveling along the cliff, and heads into the forest, and begins throwing the sticks and stones at the most violent and violative entities and energies it can find, in its own consciousness and physical reality, until they become angered enough to begin attacking this fool. Of course, a fool would have no courage, and begins running as rapidly as possible, away from the bears, the crocodiles, the devils, the demons, and as it reaches the edge of the cliff, suddenly the abyss would be very appealing, and the fool would jump.

This entire concept, if one were to truly get into Tarot from the viewpoint of hermetics, or the absolute Kabala, basically represents the concept of developing the courage to enter the unknown.

I sincerely enjoyed your response, and getting to express this, and hope we can continue this conversation. I am not exceptionally well read on the esoteric arts. Have been a little busy this lifetime. However, in the past, I have expressed myself in several treatises. So, I rely upon my rather archaic investigations. But, I assure you that I will attempt to communicate. Thank you.

Cougina

PS We have not yet begun to relate the paths to the spheres. And, Lordy, Lordy, what is the Ain Soph?
 

venicebard

Still curious about the shin-as-LeMat theory: do adherents of this placement of shin (which I presume includes yourself) believe it to actually have been the original intent of the tarot's designers? I should think such a theory would need documentation more solid than simply the word of a modern occultist (Crowley, was it not?).

There were 24 runes in the elder futhark: it contained two forms of G, or gort the ivy—the wanderings of desire—namely 'harvest', desire to take in, and 'gift', desire to give out; and, for the letter that immediately followed G in the tree-calendar, it had both the P of the bethluisnion or bardic tree-alphabet and the Ng or Ñ of ogham, the form of tree-alphabet the Irish—and before them the Scandinavians—used in inscriptions, the two seemingly expressing the division between P-Celts (Britons) and Q-Celts (Gaels). Classical Greek also ostensibly had 24 letters, but this entailed omitting (as letters per se) one in each sequence of nine letter-numbers: vau-digamma (F) or 6 in the sequence 1-9; koppa (Q) or 90 in the sequence 10-90; and 'sampi' (Greek counterpart of Hebrew tzaddi) or 900 in the sequence 100-900. The Greek alphabet (from the western form of which Latin evolved) is a rather complex issue: for example, omega was evidently reintroduction of the U (or O) of the Logos, which is spelt AUM or AOM and pronounced (as if issuing from a smile) "ee-ah-oh-oom" nasally in smooth transition—the full vowel spectrum capped with "mm"—this U having been replaced amongst what Merkavah (specifically Sefer Yetzirah) calls the three 'mothers' (alef-shin-mem) by shin (to shush the U, or more accurately to represent the Prunikos or harlot aspect of Sofia, the feminized Holy Spirit or U of the Logos, M being the Father and A the Son, from the Gnostic perspective).
 

Teheuti

Still curious about the shin-as-LeMat theory: do adherents of this placement of shin (which I presume includes yourself) believe it to actually have been the original intent of the tarot's designers? I should think such a theory would need documentation more solid than simply the word of a modern occultist (Crowley, was it not?).
First - it was not Crowley who corresponded Le Mat with Shin. It was Eliphas Lévi. Thus began the whole French Tradition of Tarot & Kabbalah that was followed more or less by Paul Christian, Papus, Wirth, Edmond/Bellini, Baldi, Guler, Dali, Zain (and the whole Egyptian Tarot contingent).

So I think the first question is: WHY did Eliphas Lévi link Le Mat with Shin?

I want to hijack this thread, however I'm going to start a new one in the Historical Research section:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?p=3003149#post3003149

Please respond there if your interest is in historically documenting this trend.