Studying the Tree of Life and Tarot

Flaxen

I'm a long-time user of the Thoth tarot but one aspect of it has generally made my eyes glaze over - the Qabalah. :) No matter how many times I try to read about it, very little seems to sink in.

Yesterday, I bought Dion Fortune's 'The Mystical Qabalah' in the hope that working with it alongside the Thoth will help some of those associations sink in. As I go through the different sephiroth and paths, I'd also like to compare it with other GD based decks.

So...I was thinking...I can't be the only person wanting to get to grips with this. Is there anyone who would like to join me on a journey learning about Qabalah and how it relates to the GD decks?
 

Oink

I am SO in! :D This is perfect timing - one of the officers at the local Oasis just started a monthly Qabalah class last week, so I've decided to make it my study focal point for now as well.

I read with the Thoth almost exclusively these days, but I enjoy mixing it up sometimes (especially for "special" readings) and doing comparitive study. Some other decks I have that might be topical:
Hermetic Tarot
Magickal Tarot
Tarot of Cermonial Magick
Tarot of the Sephiroth
Via Tarot

Do you have a structure in mind of how you want to approach all this? I'm up for anything! :)
 

Flaxen

Hooray!

Another traveller on the journey. :)

I was thinking of tackling it one sephirah at at time, looking at how it expresses itself in the different worlds and basically forming a free-flowing discussion here. I think I'd like to explore the philosophy behind it and link it to real-world examples.

Nice selection of decks by the way - I've also got the Navigators of the Mystic SEA which is very qabalistic.
 

Flaxen

Kether - The First Sephirah

Title: Kether, the crown

Magical Image: An ancient bearded king seen in profile

Other titles give: Existence of Existences, Concealed of the Concealed. Ancient of Ancients, Ancient of Days, The Primordial Point, The Point within the Circle, The Most High. Lux Occulta. Lux Interna. He. Amen.

Spiritual Experience: Union with God

Virtue: Attainment. Completion of the Great Work.

Correspondance in Microcosm: The cranium, the Sah, the Yechidah, the divine spark, the thousand petalled lotus.

Symbols: the point, the crown, the swastika

Tarot cards: The four aces.
 

Flaxen

Kether represents the the part of the three in which there is no form, simply pure being. It seems to relate to the state which is called nirvana - the blending back with the godhead. It is the One and transcends duality found lower down the tree.

Looking at my Thoth aces, I notice some of the symbols of Kether. I hadn't grasped their possible significance before.

Ace of Swords: There is a crown which the sword penetrates.
Ace of Cups: Is the cup resting on a thousand-petalled lotus?
Ace of Wands: represents Kether in Atziluth. I like how the light seems to penetrate all the way down the tree. It is limitless power.
Ace of Disks: this is more of a puzzle to me - do the angel wings signify spirit becoming matter?

All the cards seem to give that sense of the spirit which lies behind all things. Dion Fortune sums this up with the line '..its mode of existence is not manifested, but is the cause of manifestation.
 

Barleywine

Kether represents the the part of the three in which there is no form, simply pure being. It seems to relate to the state which is called nirvana - the blending back with the godhead. It is the One and transcends duality found lower down the tree.

Looking at my Thoth aces, I notice some of the symbols of Kether. I hadn't grasped their possible significance before.

Ace of Swords: There is a crown which the sword penetrates.
Ace of Cups: Is the cup resting on a thousand-petalled lotus?
Ace of Wands: represents Kether in Atziluth. I like how the light seems to penetrate all the way down the tree. It is limitless power.
Ace of Disks: this is more of a puzzle to me - do the angel wings signify spirit becoming matter?

All the cards seem to give that sense of the spirit which lies behind all things. Dion Fortune sums this up with the line '..its mode of existence is not manifested, but is the cause of manifestation.

I would be delighted to get in on this thread. I've studied the "hermetic" qabalah (cabala, etc.) for years but there is always more to learn. In his book The Qabalistic Tarot, Robert Wang mentions the wings in the Golden Dawn version of the Ace of Pentacles (or at least his rendering of it with Regardie's input) as showing that the primordial elements of Kether must pass through Spiritual Air before manifesting into matter. About the Thoth Ace he says that the wings apparently represent the four Archangels, whose powers serve to balance one another, creating stability (I assume he means preparatory to manifestation).

But there is another way to look at the Ace of Disks. Wang says of the RWS version that it shows the "fruition" of matter rather than matter itself. In other words, the fructifying principle that quickens the seed-state representative of Kether in the Material World and renders it fruitful. In typical blunt fashion, Crowley gets at this idea by, as Wang observes, putting his "personal phallus symbol" on the card. The Root of the Powers of Earth at its most literal, it seems to me.
 

Flaxen

I would be delighted to get in on this thread. I've studied the "hermetic" qabalah (cabala, etc.) for years but there is always more to learn. In his book The Qabalistic Tarot, Robert Wang mentions the wings in the Golden Dawn version of the Ace of Pentacles (or at least his rendering of it with Regardie's input) as showing that the primordial elements of Kether must pass through Spiritual Air before manifesting into matter. About the Thoth Ace he says that the wings apparently represent the four Archangels, whose powers serve to balance one another, creating stability (I assume he means preparatory to manifestation).

That is very interesting. Could the 4 wings also be a reference to the 4 Qabalistic worlds do you think? It's my understanding that the 4 worlds overlap each other and the wings in this card also do that.

But there is another way to look at the Ace of Disks. Wang says of the RWS version that it shows the "fruition" of matter rather than matter itself. In other words, the fructifying principle that quickens the seed-state representative of Kether in the Material World and renders it fruitful. In typical blunt fashion, Crowley gets at this idea by, as Wang observes, putting his "personal phallus symbol" on the card. The Root of the Powers of Earth at its most literal, it seems to me.

:) Yes, that is typical Crowley. I did notice that rather interesting perspective - it is the process by which we, as spirits, become matter after all.
 

PathWalker

Not joining in, just a ponder - I've just received and started reading the Ellen Cannon Reed books about kabalah and paganism and tarot. They might be worth a look through if you're inclined the pagan way, or if some other writing is too stodgy to wade through?

"eyes glaze over" describes my journey too, which is why I hoped this fresh direction might help me.

Good luck with your studies
Pathwalker
 

Barleywine

That is very interesting. Could the 4 wings also be a reference to the 4 Qabalistic worlds do you think? It's my understanding that the 4 worlds overlap each other and the wings in this card also do that.

Especially interesting since, in the Book of Thoth, Crowley mentions SIX wings and relates them to the the number of the Sun (meaning, I assume, its association with Tiphareth). He then ascribes the joined symbolism to an "affirmation of the identity of Sol and Terra."

Personally, I can only see four sets or eight individual wings, nothing that looks like six (unless the darker areas on either side of the sigil are intended to be two more sets, or the two sketchy wing-like things at the top and bottom of the "Vesica" are them). Wang seems to have seen it as four wings too, although probably because it fit his symbolism to do so.

I would think that almost any four-fold symbolism could be seen as carrying an echo of the four Qabalistic worlds, even as it can be related to the four elements or the Formula of Tetragrammaton.
 

Barleywine

Not joining in, just a ponder - I've just received and started reading the Ellen Cannon Reed books about kabalah and paganism and tarot. They might be worth a look through if you're inclined the pagan way, or if some other writing is too stodgy to wade through?

"eyes glaze over" describes my journey too, which is why I hoped this fresh direction might help me.

Good luck with your studies
Pathwalker

Interesting that you should mention it, since I just recently discovered I have a renewed interest in paganism, primarily of the Celtic variety rather than the "classical" (Mediterranean) tradition. My only exposure (other than reading the Farrar's "A Witch's Bible Compleat" many years ago) has come from Frazer's "Golden Bough," which is a tough read but full of information.