Kabbalah/Tree of Life system... and Tarot

foolMoon

To me the GD system is most traditional and familiar, so I am going with them. But still questions will keep rising on why and how they come to the associations. This will be asked, discussed and criticised. Some will be understood and agreed, and some might remain as mysteries, or denied.

But at the end of the day, I will just accept them as they are, because the most fundamental associations in life do not have explanations. For example a person and his parents and relatives ...etc - they are associated by destiny, no reasonable explanation. That association is always with the person, no matter what happens or what has been said, no one can deny, or change it.

The person goes out into the world and makes new associations with other people depending on the circumstances, and partly by destiny and partly by willful choice throughout her life.

I should accept the traditional association (which is the GD system for me) of Tarot, Cabala, Alchemy and Astrology as fundamental association. Throughout the journey of Tarot learning, I might come across the time when I will be making my own associations for these elements depending on the real life experiences and Tarot readings and experiences.

But at the end of the day, as said above, I will just accept them as they are, because the most fundamental associations in life do not have explanations.
 

Richard

What impresses me about the GD system is its internal consistency. Even though some attributions may be questionable, I have never found a contradiction within the system. It is as if Mathers had a mathematical mind.
 

foolMoon

R. Wang seems highlighting on this topic pretty well in his "Qabalistic Tarot"

Wang; Qabalisitc Tarot said:
I may well be criticized for staying too close to traditional symbolic lines in this work, particularly since the climate today is one of rather sweeping re-

organization of symbol systems. A number of books have recently appeared in which the traditional placement of Tarot cards on the Tree of Life has been radically altered. And, frankly, there are several keys which I might assign differently were I starting with no prior conceptions about where the cards should be placed.

But the system, while drawing vitality from gentle modification, does not graciously suffer radical overhaul at the hands of any single individual. It appears intended to develop slowly, each authority incorporating some socially- based alteration, making the discipline of greater value to the contemporary society. A system, whether cult, religion or meditative program, is an access pattern into the inner worlds, one agreed upon and strengthened by generations of use. It is a path into the unknown paved with culturally-determined, though universally applicable, symbols. And within any given school, the symbols may be manipulated and variously applied. Certainly, I have no quarrel with those who have virtually turned the Tree of life upside down with their combinations and permutations of ideas. But to do so mitigates the powerful group effort called "tradition," and potentially creates a new Path. Expressed in another way: It is the agreement over time on the meaning of a set of symbols which makes a system a Path. To this end I have given only those attributions which are now commonly accepted. This is not to imply that such attributions are immutably correct, rather to suggest that their accepted interlock is of greater immediate utility to the student than some of the many divergencies.

In this regard, Gareth Knight makes a profound observation. In his Experience of the Inner Worlds he describes the workings of a group using the Tarot cards as psychic doorways. He states that "From a formal Qabalistic point of view it was found possible to start any Path working from virtually any Tarot trump- which suggests that the sacrosanct and rigid application of Tarot correspondences to the Tree of Life is of little real importance."!

Thus, one must always approach these materials with the attitude that no matter how specific the system, it is only one means of approaching an inner reality. My own style of approach involves building a solid intellectual foundation for the ideas of each Tarot card, yet doing so with full understanding that every tower of ideas must eventually fall, and a new tower built in its place. Each of us builds our own Qabalah, which changes as we learn. What this means is that we all begin with the same concepts, which we personalize and incorporate into our own systems, so that they take on real meaning. And the more we learn, the more we see the original concepts in a different light than when we began.
 

Richard

R. Wang apparently turned against the GD system after Israel Regardie expressed disapproval of the Regardie-Wang Tarot, which Wang agreed to design. Wang subsequently did the Jungian Tarot, which has not received much attention.
 

foolMoon

R. Wang apparently turned against the GD system after Israel Regardie expressed disapproval of the Regardie-Wang Tarot, which Wang agreed to design. Wang subsequently did the Jungian Tarot, which has not received much attention.

Interesting info. Thank you Richard. I believe that their works, even if diverged to minor or major differences, all contribute to part of the paths for reunification with God.

I think that once one chose to follow one particular system like the GD, it is a religion. One needs to accept certain unknown mysterious parts of the system, learn, meditate and practice on them.
 

Whatsawhosit

the tree and it's paths

i was taught in school the tree has no set form so to speak. the sephiroth are in an endless dance. The paths and their positions in the tapestries represent that motion and the hierarchical nature of each spehiroth im relation to one another.

the tree they show in all the old books is really just a loose diagram of life.

i giggle a little when I read old books that make a big deal about switching the sephiroth around to hide something


over the years I found it well to create a suit of minors as aleph through yud to meditate upon, each easily describing it's corresponding sephiroth.
 

Zephyros

i was taught in school the tree has no set form so to speak. the sephiroth are in an endless dance. The paths and their positions in the tapestries represent that motion and the hierarchical nature of each spehiroth im relation to one another.

the tree they show in all the old books is really just a loose diagram of life.

i giggle a little when I read old books that make a big deal about switching the sephiroth around to hide something


over the years I found it well to create a suit of minors as aleph through yud to meditate upon, each easily describing it's corresponding sephiroth.

Yes, the Tree is merely a model, the same way actual terrain looks nothing like a map of the same area. Nice thoughts.

I wonder, in what school do they teach the Tree of Life? :)
 

Whatsawhosit

I went to Hebrew school in the Detroit area in the 1980's. That is all you learn, to pray and the traditions and mechanics that the prayer is for....and to speak Hebrew I guess. I spent my time in the library and the sinagouge where the old guys and the books were.

They had the best chocolate to lure me in.
 

Barleywine

Yes, the Tree is merely a model, the same way actual terrain looks nothing like a map of the same area. Nice thoughts.

Interesting that just today I was looking up the Alfred Korzybski quote "A map is not the territory it represents." I learned that it wasn't original, but an adaptation of mathematician Eric Temple Bell's statement "The map is not the thing mapped." However, Google Earth seems to have rendered both of them obsolete. You can learn something new every day studying this stuff! :)
 

Richard

Interesting that just today I was looking up the Alfred Korzybski quote "A map is not the territory it represents." I learned that it wasn't original, but an adaptation of mathematician Eric Temple Bell's statement "The map is not the thing mapped." However, Google Earth seems to have rendered both of them obsolete. You can learn something new every day studying this stuff! :)

It depends on one's definition of the term "map." In mathematics it is primarily verbal. In common usage it is primarily nominal.