Aleph -- Ox

Huck

wizzle said:
All 22 cards need to fit every single path in a convincing way.

Hm .. the cards don't need to fit ... it's (only) the individual human mind, which thinks it necessary, just cause of his desire, that there is a connecting system between Tarot cards and Hebrew Alphabet, pathes, astrological elements, parts of the human body, best betweeen all and everything, all in a great mandala and everything is part of a great analogy. Nice vision ...

Occasionally such projected analogies make sense and occasionally not.
When a Moon becomes Pisces and a Star Aquarius and a Justice must be twisted with Strength, a Hanging Man in Air must reflect Water, a lonesome Hermit and Father time (= Kronos = Saturn) must present a virgin, then we're at the point, that there are a little too much contradictions, and we better don't insist, that there was a system between Tarot cards and Kabbala, or if there was, then perhaps it might be better to look for really good arguments or other systems.

Systems can also be nice and interesting, when they've some individuality ... so Kabbala is simply Kabbala and Tarot cards are simply Tarot cards.

But nobody hinders you to take kabbalistic or astrological symbols as "new, own, fresh created Tarot elements" in your own system ... and nobody hinders somebody else with different opinions to do the same in his own way.

But you (and also this other one) will not change the "as it had been". Crowley, Waite and others also couldn't.
 

jmd

I tend to agree with Huck that 'nobody hinders you to take kabbalistic or astrological symbols [...] in your own system'.

In many ways, this is one of the important considerations when looking through the work of previous promulgaters of specific systems of correlations: what is it that they are introducing, and is there justification that warrants its further acceptance?

Just to clarify my earlier post in relation to wizzle's. I did not say that wizzle was in error, but rather that I personally disagree with a small part of it based on what one actually means by 'well established'.

In wizzle's own earlier post, the statement was made that '[...] depending on the Rabbi, the 22 letters were assigned in different ways to paths 11 - 32. By the time of the Golden Dawn, this was fairly well established' (my emphasis). Here is a clear link not to Kircher and non-Jewish sources, but rather what I took to be a clear source of Jewish Kabalistic expression - perhaps incorrectly.

For that, the very quote wizzle uses may be sufficient if taken at face value, viz., Dummet & Decker's History of the Occult Tarot:
[...] they seem unaware that Jewish Cabalists contemplated alternative diagrams and favored quite different principles for associating the pathways with letters of the Hebrew alphabet.​
 

Dulcimer

rainwolf said:
I searched through AT, and The book of thoth, but I still could not find a reasonable explanation as to how 'Ox' applies to the fool. I know it is also 'plough', but that doesn't make it any easier.

So how does The fool represent Ox?

similia said:
I don't think The Fool represent the Ox, but rather Aleph (of which Ox is one meaning) contributes to the meanings of The Fool.

Hope I'm not too late to put in my 2 cents.

No animal was held in higher esteem by the ancient Hebrews than the ox. On it depended their entire rural economy. The root letters ALPh also means "tame", "to learn", and "to teach". So the idea then is that the word means bending the will of something wild and untamed to one's own purposes. Or to bring order out of chaos, civilisation from barbarism, enlighten the dark, teach the innocent, etc.


The Fool, in whatever pack, is always pictured as an innocent. But in Thoth it is a picture of Something coming out of Nothing. Crowley refers it to the Ain Soph, "the Negative above the Tree of Life, the source of all things". So the Fool represents potent force, but unrealised, unharnessed, unrevealed. Raw power, wild, unknowing, dark, like the untamed ox, ready for harnessing by The Magus who must bring it under his Will. ;)
 

kwaw

jmd said:
For that, the very quote wizzle uses may be sufficient if taken at face value, viz., Dummet & Decker's History of the Occult Tarot:
[...] they seem unaware that Jewish Cabalists contemplated alternative diagrams and favored quite different principles for associating the pathways with letters of the Hebrew alphabet.​


They may have been unaware of the numerous amount of tree structures, but they were aware of at least one Luria tree, as it is a Luria tree that is drawn on Mackenzies cypher manuscript, somewhat oddly the GD chose the Kircher tree over that which Mackenzie had drawn [a Luria tree the same as one in Rosenroth]. Decker for one is aware of this, as he mentions it in his 'Art and Arcana', though perhaps he wasn't aware of it when the 'History of Occult Tarot' was written. The Kircher tree also is a traditional Hebrew tree [that is the general structure of spheres, paths and letter allocations], at least according to Dummet & Decker who wrote they had confirmation of such from the Kabbalistic scholar and historian Moshe Idel. I think most of the 19th occultists would have been aware that there were alternative trees, or at least one other, because as well as Kircher they all knew the Knorr von Rosenroth compilation [as can be proven by their references to it, and Mather's translation of part of it in 'The Kabbalah Unveiled'], and he reproduced a different tree to Kircher. Westcotte was also aware of the Gra attributions, he uses the Gra correspondences in his essay on the Isis Bembo tablet [which essay Decker suggests is the source for the correspondences used in the El Gran Esoterico deck].

The Cipher Manuscript tree:
http://www.hermetic.com/gdlibrary/cipher/cipher43.htm
http://www.hermetic.com/gdlibrary/cipher/cipher44.htm

Other folios relating to tarot:
http://www.hermetic.com/gdlibrary/cipher/cipher28.htm
http://www.hermetic.com/gdlibrary/cipher/cipher32.htm
http://www.hermetic.com/gdlibrary/cipher/cipher36.htm
http://www.hermetic.com/gdlibrary/cipher/cipher37.htm
http://www.hermetic.com/gdlibrary/cipher/cipher39.htm
http://www.hermetic.com/gdlibrary/cipher/cipher53.htm

The Justice / Fortitude switch and other stuff on tarot:
http://www.hermetic.com/gdlibrary/cipher/cipher54.htm
http://www.hermetic.com/gdlibrary/cipher/cipher55.htm
http://www.hermetic.com/gdlibrary/cipher/cipher56.htm

Here is the index to all the folios [you can go through all of them one by one using the next button]
http://www.hermetic.com/gdlibrary/cipher/index.html

Kwaw
 

kwaw

jmd said:
For that, the very quote wizzle uses may be sufficient if taken at face value, viz., Dummet & Decker's History of the Occult Tarot:
[...] they seem unaware that Jewish Cabalists contemplated alternative diagrams and favored quite different principles for associating the pathways with letters of the Hebrew alphabet.​

If you have gone through the cipher manuscript to which links I gave, you will note that it contains at least 3 different trees, one without Daath showing the lightening paths, and two with Daath but with different pattern of paths; suggesting perhaps that as the initiate goes through the grades of the cipher manuscript they contemplate alternative diagrams. Beyond such suggestion it demonstrates that alternative trees were known [which should have been obvious to anyone with a basic knowledge of kabbalistic literature even without knowing the cipher manuscripts, given well known diagrams in Kircher, Rosenroth and the famous frontpiece of the latin translation of Gikatilla's Gates of Light for example]. It seems improbable that Decker and Dummet were unaware of such, and are not just here indulging in anti-occultic polemics [and even harder to believe that anyone with even a basic knowledge of tarot and kabbalistic history would accept such a remark as fact].

This statement I think reflects not so much the 'facts' as were known to Decker/Dummet but the general judgemental and ridiculing tendency in their shared works towards 'occultism' and 'occultists' in general. Though I think in his own works Decker seems more sympathetic and open minded.

Kwaw
 

Rosanne

Kwaw-Thank you for the links on the cipher- I found it/them really interesting.
One of the resons I have stayed away from commenting on these matters is that I (aside from my lack of understanding on the subject) had thought the following as true.
Kabbalah is the Jewish doctrines about divinity.
These were first seen in the Essenes -200Bc to 400Ad
Kabbalah was the term used in the Middle Ages for the same (as above ) spiritual practices.
Cabala is the word when talking about(and studying) the diaspora of Jewish mystical thought from the 10th Century through to the 18th Century in Europe.
Qabalah is from the 18th Century when Christian and Judiac knowledge was blended. It was at this time that it used in conjunction with Tarot? Numerology? Astrology? and the Tree of Life was co- opted with the Hebrew Alphabet and assigned to Tarots Majors? (please excuse me if my terminology is crude).
If the above is correct what I would like to know is- When TdM was used was there 'Kabbalah' inherent in it? Was the usual tree with its Sefirot ( I have seen others curtesy of jmd and sacred geometry) always assigned the same way ie Kingdom -Malkuth crown-kether? I have gathered the paths are in dispute? ie Who decided Malkuth to Yod was the path of Judgement?etc. I have a great deal of trouble when trying to find out about 'Qabbalah' and who to rely on as an authority. It is me not the book but I found the Garden of Pommegranates to hard to follow (like Waite lol) and would like to know where to start. ~Rosanne
 

Dulcimer

Rosanne said:
Kabbalah is the Jewish doctrines about divinity.
These were first seen in the Essenes -200Bc to 400Ad
Kabbalah was the term used in the Middle Ages for the same (as above ) spiritual practices.
Cabala is the word when talking about(and studying) the diaspora of Jewish mystical thought from the 10th Century through to the 18th Century in Europe.
Qabalah is from the 18th Century when Christian and Judiac knowledge was blended. It was at this time that it used in conjunction with Tarot? Numerology? Astrology? and the Tree of Life was co- opted with the Hebrew Alphabet and assigned to Tarots Majors? (please excuse me if my terminology is crude).
If the above is correct what I would like to know is- When TdM was used was there 'Kabbalah' inherent in it? Was the usual tree with its Sefirot ( I have seen others curtesy of jmd and sacred geometry) always assigned the same way ie Kingdom -Malkuth crown-kether? I have gathered the paths are in dispute? ie Who decided Malkuth to Yod was the path of Judgement?etc. I have a great deal of trouble when trying to find out about 'Qabbalah' and who to rely on as an authority. It is me not the book but I found the Garden of Pommegranates to hard to follow (like Waite lol) and would like to know where to start. ~Rosanne

Hi Rosanne!

Firstly, it is all Qabbalah (although Kabbalah is OK since the Q sounds like a K). Those other spellings are just sorry attempts at translation. The Hebrew is QBLH; the first 'a' is short while the second and third are long; the 'B' is usually a soft 'v' sound, so to make it a hard sound the letter is doubled. The accent is on the second syllable.

Actually, the Qabbalah is a generic term. The word means "received", and "tradition" and covers just about anything that constitutes Jewish mysticism. What we commomnly understand as The Qabbalah and the Tree of life is derived from two sources:
The first is pre-19th century texts such as The Zohar and Sepher Yetzirah; a collection of books and treatises as confused, impenetrable, and contradictory as any you'll find by Crowley.
The second is post-19th century texts such as Crowley's "Liber 777" and Dion Fortune's "The Mystical Qabalah", which seek to make it palatable to Western understanding.

The fact is that although we like to call ourselves Qabbalists what we practice has very little in common with traditional Jewish mysticism. What we generally follow is the result of late Rosicrucion, Golden Dawn, and Thelemic "study". I have put study in inverted commas because there is also a lot of invention and artistic creativity, as well as unrelated subjects such as myth and alchemy, been crowbard into it. And what I mean by "it" is the Tree of Life diagram. The standard form of which we all know and love. The names of that Tree have remained unchanged, although Sephirah 4 is sometimes called Gedullah. The English names are simple translations of the Hebrew names.

Nevertheless, for good or ill, it has become the Western Mystical System par excellence and if it helps us to live fulfilling lives then what does it matter if the Rabbis shake their heads in disbelief. And, hey, what's good enough for Madonna is good enough for me!;)

Regarding the Paths; the various schools of thought, each putting their own arrangement of cards and symbols onto the various paths is their attempt to communicate with the Tree, and therefore with their own inner life, in a language which they can understand. The wonderful thing is that it works whatever you put there! Provided you work with the Tree - which entirely depends on how much you believe in what you are doing - you'll find the Tree will work for you!

There is no empirical truth that the path between Malkuth and Hod is given Judgement. It wound up there because, according to the Rosicrucians, Judgement equals Shin and Shin was given the 31st path:

"The only reason that 22 Paths were allotted to the tree was that the Hebrew Alphabet had that number of letters. Differing Schools attribute the letters in different ways, and all claim to get results. Any letter-association will bring some kind of results, but only to those accepting it. A serious snag to the Hebrew attrubutions for Western occultists is that it only communicates in Hebrew...It was mainly to overcome this language difficulty that purely ideographic symbols such as Tarot and Zodiac were attached to the Paths. The thoery of this was sound, but the practice proved weak, since so few agreed which card fitted where.

"There are few if any serious divergences about the Sephiroth themselves, but the paths have become more of a battleground for disentient occultists, rather than peaceful promenades in search of knowledge. Each different School takes an assortment of numerals, letters, Zodiac signs, and Tarot Trumps and assigns these conflicting symbols to whichever Paths they consider most likely. Then they declare their own doctrine of infallibilty and defy all unbelievers.

"All we can read are the opinions and theories of others, which may or may or may not be helpful. Each Qabalist must formulate the Tree according to his own life within its pattern. Those unable to do this cannot be Qabalists"
All quoted from The Ladder of Lights, by William G. Gray, which I heartily recommend as a starting point.

It is highly debatable if Qabbalah was used in TdM. I don't think it was but there are some who believe so. The trouble is that any correspondance has been made after the event, so to speak, and so can prove anything (Nostradamus anyone?). The problem is that you'd have to find some kind of correspondance with the Qabbalah of the time. Not so easy.

Apart from Ladder of Lights, I would recommend Dion Fortune's The Mystical Qabalah and Gareth Knight's two volume A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism as excellent starters.

A few links if you're interrested:
For a history of The Qabbalah and The Zohar:
http://www.kabbalah.info/engkab/mystzohar.htm
For the Sepher Yetzirah:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/yetzirah.htm

Hope this helps;)
 

kwaw

In Rabbinic tradition the number of canonical books is twenty-four, five in the Torah, eight in the Nevi’im and eleven in the Kethuvim. From the initials of this three-fold division of the canon comes the Hebrew word for the Bible, Tanakh. In another tradition however, the canon is composed of 22 books divided into four categories, Torah, Histories, Wisdom and Prophets. In the Septaguint Ruth follows Judges and Lamentations follows Jeremiah, and these two smaller books in some traditions are considered as appendices to those they follow, giving 22 books.

The four part twenty-two book arrangement has been called the 'Alexandrian' canon. The Jewish historian Josephus, 1st century c.e., refers to 22 biblical books in ‘Against Apion’ 1.42. It is also refered to by several early church fathers and is reflected in the arrangement of the earliest complete Septaguint manuscripts c.4th century c.e. ["The Jewish Study Bible", Oxford University Press 1985].

The canon of 22 books corresponds to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet and early on the rule of number symbolism that seeks to find correspondences between groups of equal parts can be seen in action. St. Jerome [c.347-420] in ‘On the books of Samuel and Malachi’ wrote, "As there are twenty-two letters through which, in Hebrew, we write whatever we have to say, and the range of the human voice is defined by their intrinsic sounds, so too there are reckoned 22 books by whose words and principles the still weak and dependent infancy of the righteous man is nourished by the teachings of God." In 1531 Cornelius Agrippa in his ‘Occult Philosophy’ wrote "Twenty-two signifies the fullness of wisdom, and so many are the characters of the Hebrew alphabet, and so many books does the Old Testament contain." [Decker, R. "Art and Arcana" 2004]

In medieval number symbolism twenty-two through its association with the bible and the Hebrew alphabet was a number symbolising completion and the sum knowledge of wisdom, especially in regard to holy teachings. Account of such played a part in Augustine’s division of the City of God into twenty-two chapters, and probably played a part to in the late Christian division of St. John’s revelations.

The eventual stabilisation of the number of tarot figures to twenty-two probably rests upon the symbolic significance as a number of completion, in which the sum of all wisdom and knowledge is contained. Itself related to the correspondence of twenty-two to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and tradition of twenty-two canonical books. Given the syncretic tendencies of the period in which Tarot arose it is surprising we have to wait until the 18th century and the publication of ‘Monde Primitif’ by Court de Gebelin for the suggestion of a 1:1 correspondence between the tarot figures, the Hebrew letters and cabala to first appear. That being said, though the number 22 was considered a number of 'completion' through its association with the hebrew alphabet, such does not necessarily mean that a 1:1 correspondence was intended.

The other '22' symbolism of the time is arithmetecal, in that a circle was considered 22/7. The circle again, like the sumbolsim of the holy alphabet and the 22 books of the bible was considered holy; the circle without beginning or end but made of One line, being a symbol of divinity,

Thus the valuation and continuation of a series of 22 probably relies on the cultural vaue of the symbolism of the number 22. In his 'Art and Arcana' Decker says that the early painted decks [non-bembo, such as the Star] contain pseudo hebrew letters [ personally from the reproductions in Kaplan I cannot see such].

That the number 22, as a numerical symbol of 'wholeness' and comptetion, the sum of all spiritual and wisdom knowledge from A-T, does not mean that a one-one correspondence was intended. Anymore than Augustine in his 'City of God' or the late medieval division of revelations into 22 chapters.

However once such a division is made then the nature of number symbolism is such that a 1:1 correspondence is going to be made, even is such were not intended.

The difficulty in making a 1:1 correspondence lies in the placement of the un-numbered or zero card the Fool. Court de Gebelin and de Mellet in ‘Monde Primitif’ put it at the front, before the Bateleur. The fool illustrated in de Gebelin is numbered ‘0’, as it was in some Italian and Swiss packs, though in the Tarot de Marseille pattern it is generally left unnumbered [with a couple of exceptions that number it zero]. Comte de Mellet described it as ‘the zero of magic computation’s. They suggested a 1:1 correspondence between letters and trumps in descending order, so Alef the first letter corresponds with XXI the World, and Tau the last letter with the Fool [or ‘Madness’].

In the 19th century Eliphas Levi produced a correspondence based upon ascending order, but starting with Alef – Bateleur and placing the Fool in 21st position to correspond to the letter Shin. This has become the mainstream of the ‘Continental’ system, though in the 20th century the placement of the Fool to last place and to the letter Tau has become increasing popular.

Also in the 19th century Kenneth Mackenzie produced a set of correspondences based upon ascending order, while retaining the same position of the Fool as de Gebelin and de Mellet, but transposing the positions of Justice and Strength. This became the basis of the Golden Dawn and the ‘English’ tradition.

For myself I have rejected the 21st letter Shin position. As to the question of first and last, consider it can be both, 22/0. As to a Hebrew letter that can symbolise both and thus claim a correspondence with the Fool, there is I think only one, and that is the letter Alef.

One, Alef and the Fool is my personal preferencel. But thereagain, if you have read my posts, you will see that I have interpreted several diiferent allocations, including the planetary/double letters both at the beginning of the sequence and at the end.

Variety of correspondences is not only a matter of differences between 'English' and 'Continental' Hermetic attributions. Differences can also be found within Jewish Kabbalistic tradition also. Do not seek in any of these an 'authority' for a particular set of correspondences, but rather an example of a 'method', a 'process' of interpretation and discovery of meaning.

Kwaw
 

Rosanne

kwaw said:
Variety of correspondences is not only a matter of differences between 'English' and 'Continental' Hermetic attributions. Differences can also be found within Jewish Kabbalistic tradition also. Do not seek in any of these an 'authority' for a particular set of correspondences, but rather an example of a 'method', a 'process' of interpretation and discovery of meaning.

Kwaw

Thank you Kwaw- you have posted that which I wanted to know.(I have printed your post) I have increasingly felt an imbalance in my understanding and attitude to Tarot, which I would like to correct.

Dulcimer thank you also for your straightforward answer and have read and marked the links you gave. I have absorbed more than I thought by reading these threads more carefully than previously. I have attempted to read Dion Fortune and found her far too flowery for me but am obviously starting at the wrong end lol.
Which brings me to jmd... Thank you I have taken on board your recommendations and will read about the Kabbalah first, then after some acquaintance will then read about Qabalistic Tarot. I have raided the local second hand store and have found several of the books you suggested. I also Found these if you could(or anyone for that matter) give them a grade out of ten? 'Tree of Life' 'Adam and the Kabbalistic tree' 'A Kabbalistic Universe' by Z'EV ben SHIMON HALEVI, Major trends in Jewish Mysticism by Gershom Scholem, 'The Secret Doctrine of the Kabbalah' by Leonora Leet, 2 Introductions 'Kabbalah' by Paul Roland and 'Principles of the Qabalah' by Amber Jayanti.(Light reading by the looks of them)
I could not find William G Grays Ladder of Light have put order in at Library
Nor Gareth Knight's books (also ordered)- :D This should keep me busy for a while. Thanks very much everyone for your help. ~Rosanne
 

Sophie

Dulcimer said:
So the Fool represents potent force, but unrealised, unharnessed, unrevealed. Raw power, wild, unknowing, dark, like the untamed ox, ready for harnessing by The Magus who must bring it under his Will.
The Fool might be an untamed bull (yet to be proved!) - but in no way could he be an untamed "ox", for the simple reason that oxen are always, by nature, tamed (unless there were divinely operated castrations five millenia ago). The ox represents nature already tamed, and therefore suits the Magician/Bateleur rather better (this is a separate argument from that of Alef/breath of God/Fool, which I find more persuasive than the Fool/Alef/Ox one).