Alef = I-Bateleur or = Fou ?

Sophie

Right, I've seen all sorts of correspondences thrown about this forum, with alef as Fool, or alef as I-Bateleur (that's my view, btw), and tav as Fool, or tav as XXI-Le Monde. That pesky Fool seems to get about! I have no preconception as to the fool being tav or shin (a preference for shin), but I do have some trouble accepting alef as anything else but 1, since alef also means 1 in Hebrew, and begins everything, as does Le Bateleur, who is the creator in the Tarot.

So I am curious to read the rationale behind attributing alef to the fool, instead of to the first card of the Tarot, the one always numbered 1 in all systems of Tarot - I- Le Bateleur, the Magician, the Magus, whatever.

(NB: this is a different question than where the fool is ultimately placed, which is a discussion that Fulgour and jmd have been having - see the Fool=shin or Fool= tav thread in this area).

Thanks for your thoughts,
Sophie
 

Fulgour

Not about Kabbalah, just Vanity...

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, desiring to create
a proper Magus for its gifted members, and wanting Mercury
for The Magician, decided that "zero equals one" and so shifted
the entire Major Acrana ~ The Fool would become Aleph and
go first, and then the second letter Beth's planetary niche would
conveniently become available for Mercury, and The Magician.

Verily, thrice great Hermes and Thoth himself were thought to
represent the embodiment of Mercury, ancient Babylon's Nebo.
 

Rosanne

Hi- I am pleased to see you here. I can stretch my mind again. I was under the impression that The Hebrew Letter aleph meant among other things -power. The Le Bateleur is One. His appearance or the way his arms are positioned, is in the shape of the letter aleph. His element is air, which is also associated with aleph. Thats my understanding. Please forgive my starting steps in Marseilles, but I think you're right. Regards Rosanne
 

kwaw

Both of these [and other] systems have their proponents and it is clear each 'works' within the terms of reference of the symbolic systems of their proponents; which on the surface at least would indicate any correlation is arbitrary and the symolism is multivalent enough to make any number of correlations, there is no 'one true' way so use which ever you are most familiar with or which seems to make sense to you.

As for alef 'means' one therefore corresponds to the card with the roman numeral 'I' on it fine, Aleph also means 'bull', as there is a bull on XXI do we therefore conclude alef = XXI 'Le Monde'. By the same logic Kaph=20=XX judgement., OK but after kaph any such correlation breaks down, Kaph also means among other things the pans of a pair of scales, so do we say therefore it corresponds to 'Justice' as it has a pair of scales on it? Beith means house so do we attribute it to XVI the 'house' of god?

As for the magicians stance resembling the letter aleph, why not the solar wheel of the swastika, which fits in which the attribution of the letter Beit to Sunday. One coincidental resemblance to a letter does not a case make, the three figures rising in 'Judgement' suggest the letter Shin, and proves nothing.

Kwaw
 

Sophie

kwaw said:
Both of these [and other] systems have their proponents and it is clear each 'works' within the terms of reference of the symbolic systems of their proponents; which on the surface at least would indicate any correlation is arbitrary and the symolism is multivalent enough to make any number of correlations, there is no 'one true' way so use which ever you are most familiar with or which seems to make sense to you.

Thanks Kwaw - I was hoping to draw you into the discussion ;)
I see your point about the various meanings of alef, but I'm still curious - how do you attribute alef to the Fool?
 

smleite

The fact that Aleph means “bull” doesn’t make me think about the bull (or ox) in XXI; I prefer to look for a hidden bull, rather than a visible one, in this case (because in Le Monde, together with the bull, there are other figures assuming the same level of importance). It makes me think about the bull in which Jupiter / Zeus transformed itself when he seduced Europe – thought maybe the animal Mithra fights with could also make an interesting correlation?

“House” is more than a house; it is a hidden place (of intimacy), a refuge, a chamber of secrets, a receptacle, a mother’s womb… A house, taken as an archetype, is not a menacing or terrifying place, nor forces out its occupants, as in La Maison-Dieu. As to this latter, it reminds me of the sentence "Terribilis est locus iste! Haec domus Dei est et porta coeli" (Genesis, 28,17), or "terrible is this place: it is the house of God, and the gate of heaven…” The most famous use of this sentence seems to be over the door of the church of Rennes-le-Château, but I must inform that here in Portugal we have a very interesting 16th century mural painting, executed inside a 12th century templar rotunda, where the same words are written.

It is true that Beith, or Beth-El, means “the house of God”, but it also designates a rock, the rock upon which Jacob rested his head when he had his inspired vision at the place called Bethel (Bethany, if I am not mistaken). So… maybe we could see La Papesse, second arcane and therefore equivalent to Beith, as the personification of that very stone, since she – as Papesse – is the feminine counterpart of the Pope, and the Pope is in fact Peter, or Pierre, or – the rock? As Beith, she would simply be La Pierre. This rock is an axis-mundi, or an omphalos (belly button?), a sacred place, that could be also represented as a temple or as an altar. I can understand La Papesse in this sense… the altar of the Law? And isn’t the Book of the Law open in her hands?

Well, and from here we could go on and on: the philosopher’s stone, the freemason’s square stone, etc… but this is not about La Papesse (or Beith). As to Aleph, I still recall that, by transforming itself in a bull (correspondent to the Taurus constellation) Jupiter gave a demonstration of its shape shifting abilities – he acted as a deceiver, a trickster, a… Bateleur? Anyway, I don’t know much about the subject, but it seems that in very ancient times the Hebrews called Aleph to the Taurus constellation. As to the Bateleur, his hat could, of course, be a symbol of the bull’s horns, usually depicted in immense proportions.

An interesting site about the bull (and Taurus): http://www.winshop.com.au/annew/Taurus.html

From here, I can’t resist to copy this passage, which is all about the bull as a “beginner” and a “creator” – just as Le Bateleur:

“The bull was a powerful phallic emblem signifying the paternal creative power of the Demiurgus. (…) As the sign rising over the horizon at the vernal equinox constitutes the starry body for the annual incarnation of the sun, the bull not only was the celestial symbol of the Solar Man but, because the vernal equinox took place in the constellation of Taurus, was called the Breaker or Opener of the year . For this reason in astronomical symbolism the bull is often shown breaking the annular egg with his horns . (…) The white bull was also symbolically sacred as the appointed emblem of the initiates , signifying the spiritualized material bodies of both man and Nature.”

Silvia
 

Fulgour

kwaw said:
One coincidental resemblance to a letter does not a case make, the three figures rising in 'Judgement' suggest the letter Shin, and proves nothing.
That's why it's so easy to match The Magician with Aleph.
It isn't about one single correlation, it's all 22 together :)

The mystery around The Fool's attribution is more about
the organic nature of the aplhabet: It's not a closed set.
 

Moonbow

Ok I am about to say something very stupid here... :) so please be nice to me.

Why? Why do we need to apply the Hebrew letters to tarot cards? Does it affect the way they are read, or is this for curiosity and to help close a few niggling puzzles in history?

All answers in plain O'level History language please :)

I also remember reading this at the time and thinking... WOW! I'm sure you have all read Mark Filipas' Hebrew Alphabet:

http://www.spiritone.com/~filipas/Masquerade/Essays/alpha.html
 

Fulgour

Phoenician (Hebrew, Etc.)

It's just good to know, like the names of colours,
but it has very little to do with how you paint :)
 

kwaw

Moonbow* said:
Why? Why do we need to apply the Hebrew letters to tarot cards?

'We' Don't. Some of us find it useful, its not obligatory.

I also remember reading this at the time and thinking... WOW! I'm sure you have all read Mark Filipas' Hebrew Alphabet:

http://www.spiritone.com/~filipas/Masquerade/Essays/alpha.html

Yep, anyone with a biblical and rabbinical hebrew dictionary could do the same, according to their own preferences and with a totally different result [and without even making up words like TMPU, and still retain a chain].

With all the synonyms in kabbalistic literature not included in such dictionaries then the skies the limit [unfortunately, neither Mark or anyone else has been able to find the word TMPU in any hebrew dictionary or 'undictioned' use of the word in a kabbalistic text].

Mark says, and I am willing to believe him though he doesn't record his research, that his word list represents the 'best' of the alternatives that he has researched. He then goes on to say that such a 'best' is worthy of further investigation, despite the fact that the 'best' that he can find fits in with that which one would expect from 'coincindence'; which would lead one to think there is no correlation and Marks evidence, if true, disproves any correlation, and is unworthy of any further invesigation..

[As with any language there are many more words beginning with some letters than others. Mark's list reflects this, and is thus within what one may expect by chance, there is no statistical significance whatsover. If as Mark says this is the best fit, then we must conclude there is no 'lexiconical' correspondence between the Marseille and the Hebrew alphabet. Lists, as Mark says, can be made with any series, but having made alternative lists he says aleph-magician yields not only a 'majority' of words but a 'chain' within the series that others don't. Unfortunately when you look at his list his 'chain' depends upon an invented word [Tempu - and this is ignoring the 'stretches']; and statistically his opinion that 'most' equals 'statistically significant' is wrong. It would be far better for his argument if there were a limited number of words applicable to each card {say betqeen 4-6 each card} than 20+ for some and 1 or two for others, especially when this pattern matches the number of words per letter in the language and thus matches what you would expect by chance. If there were even four words for the letter that has the least number of words in the dictionary to match the corresponding card then this may indicate an element of design rather than chance - but according to Mark's 'best fit' there isn't].

Kwaw