Alternate Systems of Correspondence?

I believe in the adage "art out of adversity," that creation is at its best when it is somehow limited to a certain framework. It is completely possible (and even allowable) to change the ordering of the Hebrew letters, but one runs the risk of creating something completely different and unrecognizable. I am all for changing the ordering of the Trumps, but changing the sequence of the letters does somehow strike a jarring note with me. I don't think the sequence is divinely inspired, but my guess is that there is reason why Kabbalists played around with Tree, but never touched the actual alphabet.

Let's see if this works. Sorry the paths aren't colored. Both files are the same image, but the jpeg was trimmed a little so as to enhance the resolution.

Edit: the letter assignments have been updated by the file called "Cairo Tree.pdf" a few posts further down.

It's the middle of the night here, I'll look at it more in-depth tomorrow, but it looks very, very interesting!

What was your reasoning/system in assigning the paths?

I don't have my notes on the Hebrew letters, which I suspect are kind of flaky. I am happy with the astrological correspondences, though.

The classical order of the planets was based on how fast they moved across the sky. Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. Starting from Malkuth (Earth) I assigned them in that order to the Sephitot in a left-right-middle pattern that made a pleasing arrangement.

I liked the effect that the middle "social" area of the tree (centered around tipheret) was bounded by mercury on the left and venus on the right. The Greek names are Hermes and Aphrodite, and a hermaphrodite is one that has both male and female characteristic. So male/female as a social organizing principle is present in the tree. I liked that. I talked about it being a cosmograph earlier.

The horizontal paths were assigned according to the elemental correspondences of the letters of the tetragrammaton: fire, water, air, (earth = malkuth, again).

Each astrological planet rules two signs (except the Sun and Moon, which rule only one). I got that from Agrippa. Moon: Cancer. Sun: Leo. Mercury: Gemini and Virgo. Venus: Taurus and Libra. Mars: Aries and Scorpio. Jupiter: Pisces and Sagittarius. Saturn: Aquarius and Capricorn. I arranged the signs of the zodiac on the diagonal paths so that they would connect with the ruling planet.

I found that there was a unique sequence of 28 steps that took you from Malkuth all the way through the tree and back, touching the sephirot in reverse order, the planets in ascending order, and the zodiacal signs in order (starting from Cancer). I don't think there is any faster route; this is what helped me fix the signs.

Well, not quite unique. You could interchange Capricorn and Aquarius if you wanted Aquarius to link Kether and Chokmah instead of Capricorn. It's a long story why I put Capricorn into path 11 - I'll post it later if you're interested.

The planetary assignments are highly traditional; I think 5 out of 7 of them agree with the Golden Dawn. I assign the Moon to Luna, though, instead of the High Priestess. The High Priestess gets associated with the Moon's sign, though - Cancer. And Saturn is the Hermit. I think I may have seen a version of the Hermit where he holds an hour glass instead of a lamp. Anyway, the Hermit is Chronos/Saturn - Father Time.

Some of the correspondences between the signs of the zodiac and the trumps were given previously in the thread. (Like Pisces = Hierophant). Some are just based on the image depicted; Libra = Justice, Strength = Libra. Virgo = Star. Aquarius (the water bearer) = Temperance. I thought a lot about interchanging Temperance and the Star; I kind of liked the idea of the virtues being close together, and there is water being poured in both pictures. But the Angel in Temperance isn't really a maiden (which is what "virgo" means), and I liked the abundance of wings in the cards for Temperance, the Devil, and Judgment at the top of the diagram.

Numerical balance played a role. Note cards 6&7, 4&5, 14&15, 12&13. Cards 2, 8, 11 and 17 also have a relationship (1 + 1 = 2, 1 + 7 = 8) that, oddly enough, works even if cards 8 and 11 are switched. With the position of the Emperor and the Hierophant you have the temporal and spiritual authorities of Late Medieval Europe in a dominating position in the social "middle" of the tree.

On the whole I am quite happy with my astrological correspondences. It is mostly the letters of the Hebrew alphabet that are giving me trouble, as I have discussed elsewhere in the thread. Oh, and the name of the arrangement. I can't think of a name that is suitably specific (e.g. not just "revised" or "reformed" or something) without sounding pretentious or egotistical (e.g. "gnostic" or "hermetic", or "Cheiromancer's"). "Cairo" comes from an arabic word for Victory, and sounds like the first part of my forum name, so I thought it would do.

Very interesting. I will need to take some time to digest your ideas, but what I see makes reasonable sense.

Admittedly, the Lurianic model that I prefer isn't the most "tarot-friendly" arrangement of the simples -- and if you keep the planet with the card the doubles aren't the greatest fit either. This doesn't bother me overmuch: I'm not wedded to hanging the majors on the Tree; QBL and Tarot are separate, though to a degree complimentary, systems in my estimation. I won't deny some correlation, but correlation does not define causality. It is of course possible to incorporate QBL heavily into the design of a deck, and there is even a rather interesting Lurianic deck available.

(The G.D. and Crowley were fond of essentially equating disparate systems via judicious hammer-taps, filing, and squinting just right -- but that's a rant for another time.)

Cheiromancer said:

On the whole I am quite happy with my astrological correspondences.

Click to expand...

Well, isn't that the ultimate goal? Something that works for you? I like Luria's correspondences and layout: they work for me and resolve certain issues I have with the Kircher Tree and the G.D./Crowley attributions of the letters to the paths. That's me, you're you. LRichard is LRichard, and closrapexa is closrapexa. Everyone's mileage varies, and my answer isn't necessarily going to be yours.

Cheiromancer said:

It is mostly the letters of the Hebrew alphabet that are giving me trouble, as I have discussed elsewhere in the thread.

Click to expand...

Consider also that the letter-trump correspondences weren't set in stone until relatively late in the game.

There is another arrangement of the simples (on the Lurianic tree layout, but "adopt, adapt, and improve") that is more "tarot-friendly"; you might have a look and see if there is anything that helps.
J.S. Kupperman, Tarot and Kabbalistic Sacred Geometry. Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition, Nr. 17, v. 2.

WOW!

People here are into not only into "checking the internal map" but redrawing it to help comprehend its corresponding 'external but changing reality'.

And that is supposed to be the 3rd principle of a healthy psychology.

I know ... I know ... it does sound cynical but I have been exposed to so much of the reverse lately.

I had trouble for years trying to fit the 'standard tree model' (if there is such a thing) on to a map of human astro/psychology now it fits fine IMO as I changed the 'Tree' to fit the purpose at hand instead of trying to force the purpose into an inappropriate model.

Great stuff ... good work

Ok, I think I have a better assignment of letters.

Say that Alef is 0, and number the rest of the alef-bet in order; Bet =1, Gimel =2, etc. For several of the paths on my tree, the Hebrew letter agrees with the number of the trump; Bet (1) is the Magician, Dalet (3) is the Empress, Kaf (10) is the Wheel of Fortune, Pe (16) is the Tower, Resh (19) is the Sun, Shin (20) is Judgment.

Now for a few of the paths, I didn't particularly care what letter I gave them. So I can reassign Samekh (14) to Temperance and Ayin (15) to the Devil. Some I *do* care about; Mem (12) is the only unassigned mother letter, so it has to be the World. So what I do is assign letters as follows:

World = 12 (Mem)
Hanged Man = 13 (Nun)
Death = 9 (Yod)
Hermit = 21 (Tav)

The letter assigned to the card leads to another card, whose letter leads to another, and so on, until the cycle is complete. World -> Hanged Man -> Death -> Hermit -> World.

I really would like the Emperor/Aries to have Zayin. An Emperor should have a sword! And besides, Zayin looks like the symbol for Aries. I also would like the Lovers to have Vav; it connects and is generative. So it ends up that I can set up another 4 step cycle:

Emperor = 6 (Zayin)
Lovers = 5 (Vav)
Hierophant = Chet (7)
Chariot = He (4)

Now a cycle of 3:

The Moon = 2 (Gimel)
Priestess = 8 (Tet)
Justice = 18 (Qof)

Finally, the Star gets Lamed (11) and Strength gets Tsadi (17).

devilkitty, your link was very helpful! It told me that Tet (8) is associated with Justice and Lamed (11) is attributed to Fortitude, which is basically Strength (the power of the spirit to master the flesh). These links appear at one remove through the letter assignments. There are a few other similar associations; Zayin (6) to the lovers, Chet (7) to the Chariot, Nun (13) to Death and Scorpio.

edit: The thing about my relying more closely on the correspondences Kupperman sets out is that it highlights the exceptions and deviations when I don't. Take Tav, for instance. It is the last letter of the aleph-beth, and is a double letter. I assign it to a planet, since it is a double, and Saturn, because Saturn is last in the Chaldean ordering. Can Saturn be assigned to the World card, the last card of the tarot? Not likely; the symbolism and iconography is just too discordant. But introducing any change means a domino effect. I think the World is too significant to be anything but an elemental card, and its placement reflects the dome of the sky (the waters above the earth). So it is Mem, which means more domino effects because now the Hanged Man needs a new letter. And so on.

The cycles these "once-removed" attributions are not merely disruptive. Take the linkage between the Priestess, Justice, and the Moon, and see the pillars that are prominent in the iconography of the cards. That these cards should be linked in this system is a nice touch! I imagine I'll find more hidden gems if I look.

A pdf and JPEG is attached. They supersede the earlier versions.

edit 2: minor formatting changes on the tree.

Recursion

Something interesting happens when you number the Hebrew letters 0-21:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C4v940ktyCg/UmYvH6lvixI/AAAAAAAAAHU/Sa2P9bNP44k/s1600/32+ways.jpg

Yygdrasilian said:

Something interesting happens when you number the Hebrew letters 0-21:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C4v940ktyCg/UmYvH6lvixI/AAAAAAAAAHU/Sa2P9bNP44k/s1600/32+ways.jpg

Click to expand...

Pretty, but I have to confess I don't understand most of it. Is there some connection between the numbering of the Hebrew letters and the figures displayed above them? I don't see the 3-7-12 pattern in any of those arrangements of colored dots, so I suspect not.

While there is a reasoning behind the recent numbering of Aleph as zero, is this the traditional Lurianic way of doing this? When connecting Tarot to the Tree it makes sense for the Fool to be Zero, hence there is a kind of bastardization going on, but seems to me that if we go simply by logic, Aleph should be very properly One, both because of its value and because of its position at the beginning.