Tarot and Kabbala

reply to Bernice

Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
I collect information on Tarot history and then I start cleaning out my files and these things remain unresolved for me--such as the 22 Trumps and the Hebrew alphabet. It always seemed odd that someone would immediately think of the the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet in relation to a game of bridge. Probably the association between the Trumps and Hebrew alphabet existed prior to the "occult revivals." This connection, though, is tenuous and won't be found in Agrippa, Trithemius, or Reuchlin. We have no way of knowing whether they associated Tarot cards with Kabbalah. But there is a way of circling the problem. Reuchlin, and possibly Trithemius might have been associated with a "fraternity" whose chosen saint was a Kabbalist, that is St. Jerome (4th Century translator of the Bible into Latin, the Vulgate). St. Jerome is an unlikely choice for a favored saint on his personality alone because he apparently was very grumpy and unpopular. But he did have some Kabbalistic ideas about the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, gematria, and so on. His name has come up before with other Tarot historians and I have to find those to post the remarks. What hasn't been explored so much is the artistic tradition around St. Jerome. It was fashionable for people who were humanists and possibly members of this fraternity to pose as St. Jerome. Every major painter of the Renaissance has a painting of St. Jerome. Maybe the Hermit card is a reference to St. Jerome. He also often has a lion with him. I know all this is vague, but it's a thought. Maybe someone else has something more concrete. Warm regards

reply to Bernice

Hi Bernice,
Here are those credits:
That the cult of St. Jerome might be a clue. St. Jerome was an early Kabbalist--before there were Kabbalists. (credit to article on St. Jerome and the Christian Kabbalah posted by nouspraktikon on website Pico Ultraorientalis) This 4th Century translator of the Bible into Latin from Greek and Hebrew apparently had a terrible personality, although he did know about early Kabbalistic methods such as gematria, and mystical qualities to the Hebrew alphabet. He particularly emphasized the mystical attributes of the number 22 due to its association with the Hebrew Bible of 22 books and the 22 letters of the alphabet. (credit to Ronald Decker in his Art and Arcanan). Apparently he was chosen as a patron saint among the Renaissance humanist who were seeking to reform the Catholic Church. Nicholas of Cusa and Cardinal Albergati were both painted as St. Jerome in his study. Every Renaissance artist seems to have a version of St. Jerome who is often painted with a lion. Niccolo Colantonio's St. Jerome in his Study Removing a Thorn from the Lion's paw (1445) resembles the Hermit. But Francesco Benaglio's Saint Jerome found in the National Gallery Washington is so "hermit" I am sure you will agree there is some connection. Hopefully this will post, Warm regards..

Hello Bee and all here.

-Btw...

-Can anyone tell me why Eliphas Levi attributed LE MAT to the letter Shin ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_(letter)

a-It is the number 21 of the alphabet
b-It s number value is 300

-That is surely a "Sin" I just think the association Levi done.

My best.

Hello Yygdrasilian:
Here I am with you at all when you said " The origins of Tarot, particularly the Trumps, has nothing to do with Kabbala "

-And for the rest here just "ask" to Gershom Scholem.

-The origins of the Tarot can be traced till the work of Marsilio Ficino
For example thanks to his translation of the Corpus Hermeticum.

My best.

Yygdrasilian said:

To be perfectly honest, I haven’t quite yet decided when exactly the association began either.

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You haven't "quite decided" ? You get to DECIDE ?

deus ex machina?

gregory said:

You haven't "quite decided" ? You get to DECIDE ?

Click to expand...

Maybe... I have a few hypotheses that fit. So, for the time being, I am suspending judgment. I certainly don't think the matter is settled.
Perhaps you would like to share your thoughts?

Yygdrasilian said:

Maybe... I have a few hypotheses that fit. So, for the time being, I am suspending judgment. I certainly don't think the matter is settled.
Perhaps you would like to share your thoughts?

Click to expand...

I wouldn't presume to trouble you with them; they are but thoughts. "Hypotheses" would be a bit better than your getting to DECIDE, though. "Decide" implies that you would be making a ruling for us lesser mortals. You could always be wrong.

recommend Art and Arcana by Ronald Decker

Hi All,
I have been reading Ronald Decker's book for the Medieval Scapino Tarot deck. Decker has written some excellent essays on the sources for the Hebrew alphabet's association with the Tarot deck. As I proposed above, perhaps the Hermit card is St. Jerome, and this might be the source for the number 22--a symbolic reference. Decker writes that "Athanasius Kircher, in his Oedipus Aegyptiacus reproduces two of St. Jerome's lists of Hebrew homonyms. Through this intermediary, they descended to none other than Eliphas Levi." However, this does not address what I sense is the difficulty here. There is the issue of the actual history and the transmission of Hebrew alphabet through written documents such as Trithemius, Agrippa, Kircher, etc. to Eliphas Levi. Then there is the subsequent evolution of occult Qabala, which is focused primarily on an occult reading of the Tree of Life. Both the Hebrew Kabbalah and the Occult Kabbalah are valid imaginary systems, but in the end very different. Occult Qabala comes directly out of the speculations of Kircher and Trithemius. Even Dion Fortuna admits that she is not basing her "pathworking" on the "Rabbis." Her system and Aleister Crowley's system are barely related to Hebrew Kabbalah other than the use of Hebrew letters (I am drawing on an article in the Dictionary of Gnosis Y Western Esotericism edited by Wouter j. Hanegraaff). I honestly do not know how much magic is practiced by Kabbalistic Rabbis or whether the Kabbalah is used mostly as an interpretive method of scripture. And, I am inexperienced in magic so I can't comment on how the Hebrew alphabet works in that regard. My understanding, though, is that angel magic came from Trithemius; and the Hebrew association along the Tree of Life came from Kircher. Don't know if this helps or just confuses things? Warm regards

Me Too, Kapoore

Kapoore,
I've been gnawing at this bone for about 25 years now,
and have published a book on it. See my profile.

The historical evidence - i.e. those few documents and decks that have survived intact dover time, do not indicate such a link, but thats hardly evidence. More like a lack of evidence.

Some investigators of early tarot study the flow of artistic styles through the various decks. This can be reasonably indicative, but never guaranteed.
One artist may invent a style, but none of his work survives. Another artist may pick up that style and use it at a later date, and so forth.
Its indicative, but not guaranteed. However, in the near vacuum of real evidence, it serves well.

My approach has been to follow concepts or bodies of thought, sometimes called memes. It seems clear to me that there is a strong correspondence between concepts in the occult tarot, and kabala, and alchemy.
Stragely, manny people on these fora seem to think that studies of artistic style are guaranteed and absolute, whereas studies of concept flow and evolution is complete nonsense. Strange.

Be careful in your studies however. There are two forms of Kabala. There is the original Jewish kabala, which is based on 40 concentric rings, and modern kabala which is based on the "Tree of Life" structure.

The Tree of Life structure is generally attributed to one Moses de Leon who lived in Spain and Portugal in about 1250 to 1320, roughly, from memory.
This is the one you should study. This occultist tree of life shows the creation myth as the descent from Godhood down to the material world, and so also represents the path that we must climb back up. (although thats a very christian concept. Thelemites believe that we should stay here until we die, and enjopy it while it lasts).

Spain at that time was recovering from the Crusades, and was a melting pot of Christians, Jews and Moors. Moses de Leon was a Christian monk and developed the tree of life to try to bring together the three religions (under christianity, of course).

The interesting bit about memes etc. is the strong correspondence between some alchemical images and the Tarot major arcana. Also the Tarot can be mapped onto the tree of life. I don't use the usual attribution of the cards to the paths, as I found this led nowhere. I developed my own pattern instead.
This poattern allows me to draw correspondence between the tree of life, Tarot and alchemical concepts. And they fit REALLY well.
It is that strong correspondence that leads me to believe that they all ultimately come from the same source - Moses de Leon.
While he probably didn't draw the first Tarot himself, he created a concept structure, or meme, that has survived to this day, and would certainly have been well known to his contemporaries.

Spain at the time was a great centre of intellectualism, much like the Italian Renaissance which came shortly after. There is even a reasonably strong possibility that the renaissance started in Spain, and migrated to Italy where it grew to fame. de Leon's concepts would have been prevalent in that culture, and so could easily have influenced the choice of pictures to put on Tarot cards when that finally came about.

Most of the matching Alchemical images I found are dated in the Renaissance, and hence after the advent of Tarot cards. This is generally taken to mean that they are derived from the Tarot images. However there is the other possiblity that is simply ignored by most Tarot historians - that they share a common origin.

An analogy.
Homo Sapiens appears similar to Chimpanzees, and appears later that chimpanzees. Therefore Humans evolved from chimpanzees. WRONG.
Both evolved from a common ancestor, regardless of the timeline.

So, Kapoore, don't let the anal-retentive "S" types put you off your path.
There are two possible explanations of the Tarot/Occult timeline, and one cannot be proved over the other. If tracking memes is out, why is tracking art styles acceptable? Where would science be today if Charles Darwin had given in to the "obvious" answer and not looked for another one?

B
Call me Hestia - I support you fully.

beanu said:

This occultist tree of life shows the creation myth as the descent from Godhood down to the material world, and so also represents the path that we must climb back up. (although thats a very christian concept. Thelemites believe that we should stay here until we die, and enjopy it while it lasts).

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A little off topic on this thread so I'll be very brief, but that is an incorrect representation of Thelemic principles. The Thelemic holy book and system in general is actually entirely about the process of climbing back up the tree for union with deity, however there is no "moral" recommendation for asceticism or rejection of the physical along the way, and no doctrine that suggests the journey is recommended for all.