Tarot and the Gates of Light

by Mark Horn

  Besides the four worlds, the Jewish tradition also recognizes four levels of the soul, and of course, they also correspond to the four worlds. So when you work with the Sephirot in each world, you’re purifying your soul at each of these levels. These four worlds and four levels of the soul also correspond to the Tetragrammaton—the unpronounceable four-letter name of the Divine: YHVH. There are some who say that these four letters come from the Hebrew verb “to be” and that by taking out the vowels that indicate whether the verb is future, past, or present tense, the letters create a word that roughly translates as “is-was-will be.” That is to say, eternal and beyond time. Rabbi Mark Sameth gives a midrashic interpretation of the secret meaning of the letters, explaining that the name “was probably not pronounced ‘Jehovah’ or ‘Yahweh,’ as some have guessed. The Israelite priests would have read the letters in reverse as Hu/Hi—in other words, the hidden name of God was Hebrew for ‘He/She.’” So that the deity “was understood by its earliest worshipers to be a dual-gendered deity.”6

  I don’t believe that the Deity is dual-gendered so much as to say that It includes all genders (of which there are six in classical Judaism7) and is also beyond all gender. This may seem tangential, but I bring in this mind-blowing consideration of gender because amid this discussion of Kabbalistic concepts, along with structures and diagrams of correspondences, I want to be mindful that our ability to describe reality is filtered by our bodies, our sensorium, and our culture. And we are using these concepts to enable us to apprehend, if only for a second, much that is beyond our experience. So it bears repeating: the map is not the territory.

  THE TAROT CONNECTION

  Tarot and Kabbalah do share a history—just not the history described by the occultists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Scholarship finds no evidence for the existence of tarot cards much before the fifteenth century. Now, I know that just because academics can’t find any trace of something in history doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. After all, we have no scripts of the secular plays put on by traveling actors in the fifteenth century, but we know they existed because we have the written condemnation of these plays by the Church.

  Cards are ephemera, and the earliest examples we have are only a small number of cards from Renaissance Europe held in museum collections that survive for us to examine and study today. Upon examination, we can see competing systems and deck designs, some of which were used for games and gambling and some used for divination.8

  Nevertheless, Court de Gébelin, a French occultist of the eighteenth century, made the claim that the tarot was of ancient Egyptian heritage. His contemporary and a rival French occultist, Etteila, did him one better and claimed that individual tarot cards were actually pages from the Egyptian Book of Thoth, a collection of writings from the pre-Christian Egyptian religion. Etteila also claimed that this book was written by the god Thoth himself. So what the Zohar and the tarot both share are pseudepigraphal claims for a heritage of antiquity as an appeal to the authenticity of the secret wisdom found in them.

  Court de Gébelin claimed that the Major Arcana were numbered to correspond to the twenty-two letters in both the Egyptian and Hebrew alphabets. It didn’t seem to trouble him that at the time different versions of the deck that were in circulation sometimes had more and sometimes fewer than twenty-two cards or that ancient Egyptian didn’t use an alphabet. But to prove the correspondence, Etteila issued a “rectified” deck with twenty-two Major Arcana cards so that they matched up with the Hebrew letters.*9 Another French occultist of the time, Comte de Mellet, suggested that the tarot suits might possibly also be a Kabbalistic reference, with Cups assigned to Joseph (since he was Potiphar’s cupbearer), the Wands to Moses (since his staff plays an important role), Swords to David (since he was a warrior-king, though one could say he was just as much a poet), and Coins to Laban (here de Mellet gets pretty twisted in his reasoning).9 And while there really isn’t a connection between the suits and these Biblical figures, it works for at least three of the suits. In today’s decks, where Coins are replaced with Pentacles, a better correspondence would be to King Solomon, who was known as a master magician in folklore and who created amulets and talismans of great power.†10

  By the time we get to the early nineteenth century, Eliphas Levi (yet another French occultist who changed his name) had syncretized tarot, Kabbalah, Hermeticism, and other esoteric traditions. His writing deeply influenced the members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, an organization that is the source of the tarot decks in most widespread use today.

  In fact, the Golden Dawn used its own version of the Major Arcana as part of a ritual of initiation for all its members. As members moved up in the organization, they learned the mysteries of the twenty-two paths between the ten Sephirot as coded in the Major Arcana cards, since each path on the Tree corresponds to one of the Hebrew letters and each Major Arcana card was assigned a Hebrew letter. Each Sephira corresponded to a graded rank within the organization, attained once a member had mastered the esoteric spiritual teachings from the cards on the paths to that Sephirot.10 This initiatory guide map thus explicitly connected the tarot deck to the thirty-two mystical paths of the Sefer Yetzirah and Kabbalistic tradition. I can’t get the image of all of this as a kind of nineteenth-century British board game out of my head.

  At least three decks came out of the Golden Dawn membership. The deck created by Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Colman Smith is the most popular deck today, and you can find many images within it that refer to teachings of the Kabbalists as understood by these British occultists through their Hermetic lens. Here’s where the scholarship of Ronald Decker, who was the curator of antique cards at the United States Playing Card Company, has provided an extraordinary theory. While he believes there is no direct connection between Kabbalah and the Major Arcana, he suggests there is a link between the meanings of the Sephirot and the divinatory meanings of the Minor Arcana cards. In his book The Esoteric Tarot: Ancient Sources Rediscovered in Hermeticism and Cabala, he notes that the meanings of the numeral cards in the tarot deck as recorded by Etteilla align systematically with explanations of the Sephirot in one of the most widely known Kabbalistic works, The Gates of Light by Joseph Gikatilla.

  Rabbi Joseph Ibn Gikatilla was a contemporary of Rabbi Moses de León, the author of the Zohar. However, while it took a long time for the entire Zohar to be translated into Latin, Gikatilla’s masterpiece, The Gates of Light, was translated into Latin in 1516. Just as there are no scripts of the medieval plays condemned by the Church, there is no smoking gun that shows whether Etteilla was aware that the key phrases he used as the meanings of the Minor Arcana correspond to phrases used by Gikatilla in The Gates of Light.

  Decker surmised that there must have been a deck that someone wrote on to create Kabbalistic flash cards to learn from, so the definitions for the Sephirot were written on the Minor Arcana cards that correspond numerically. Then Decker provided a side-by-side comparison of Etteilla’s interpretations of the cards with descriptions of each of the Sephirot from Gikatilla, showing what appears to be a clear influence of Gikatilla’s descriptions on Etteilla’s interpretations—whether Etteilla was aware of their origin or not—and these interpretations have influenced all subsequent interpretations of the cards.

  Some of the imagery and the meanings in Waite’s deck were heavily influenced by Papus (yet another Frenchman who took an esoteric nom de plume), whose understanding of tarot came directly from his study of Etteilla. Waite used this information in his own explanations of the cards in his book The Pictorial Key to the Tarot.

  While several decks can claim their origin in members of the Golden Dawn, and all have Kabbalistic correspondences, my first deck was a Waite-Smith deck. It is the deck I have worked with the longest and the deck that is probably the easiest for people of European heritage to relate to. I like to think of this deck as a warehouse of Western symbolism (or a Renaissance Rorschach test). Learn all the symbols in this deck and you’ll hav
e a key to the mythology, art, and literature of Western civilization.

  The interesting thing is that Waite knew there was no “ancient” connection between Kabbalah and tarot. He understood that claims for the antiquity of the cards were spurious, and he rejected any correspondence between the Hebrew alphabet and the Major Arcana.11 Nevertheless, as an adept of the Golden Dawn, he seems to have understood that the systems reflected each other in ways that create constellations of deep meaning. The innovation that set the Waite-Smith deck apart from almost everything that came before is that the cards of the Minor Arcana depicted situational scenes with people and not just the objects of the suit. And because he gave Smith more latitude in her designs for the Minor Arcana, it’s no surprise that some Kabbalistic references appear in those cards.

  Rachel Pollack notes that despite Waite’s deep knowledge of Kabbalistic teachings, the meanings he assigned to the Minor Arcana and the images created by Smith for the Minors don’t always match with the Sephirot.12 This is true, since, of course, Waite was drawing from several traditions for his meanings, including alchemy. That said, Smith was an adept in the Golden Dawn, so she was certainly aware of some of the correspondences between the Sephirot and the numeric cards of the Minor Arcana. So while it might not be immediately apparent, I’ve found in my work with the cards for Omer meditation that there is always a relationship between each of the Sephirot and the situations in their corresponding cards, though sometimes the card image illustrates a negative meaning of a Sephira.

  For example, the Four of Wands would correspond with Chesed in Atzilut. Decker points out that Etteilla includes “covenant” as a meaning for this card and that in The Gates of Light, Gikatilla associated Chesed with a covenant. The image on the Four of Wands is of a chuppah—a traditional wedding canopy. In Judaism, marriage is a covenantal relationship of love. But there are other important connections between the image on the Four of Wands and the concept of a covenant.

  One of the stories about Abraham was that he kept his tent open on all four sides so he would be sure not to miss an opportunity to welcome a guest—an expression of Chesed—which is why he is the biblical personage associated with Chesed.*11 We can consider the image of the four wands as a tent open on four sides. Abraham, as the founding patriarch of the Jewish people, was also the first to undergo the B’rit Milah, the covenant of circumcision.

  Let’s circle back now to the image of the wedding canopy on the Four of Wands, which would be the very first card to consider on the first day of Counting the Omer. This symbol looks ahead to the very last day of the Omer, when we arrive at Pentecost—the symbolic marriage of the Israelites to the Divine Source, with the Torah serving as the wedding contract and Mt. Sinai as the wedding canopy.

  Moses betook himself to the encampment and awakened them [the Israelites] with these words: “Arise from your sleep, the bridegroom is at hand, and is waiting to lead his bride under the marriage canopy.”13

  It is doubtful that Pamela Colman Smith was aware of all of this, but she may have known some of it. And for me, it’s clear that when you approach each Minor Arcana image and its corresponding Sephira, you will always find a relationship that gives greater depth to the meaning of each.

  PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

  With this understanding that each numbered Minor Arcana card corresponds to one of the Sephirot and that each suit corresponds to one of the four worlds, you can see how combining the matching cards each day during the Counting of the Omer can be used to deepen meditation and reflection. Using the cards in this way can be a powerful tool that can help take you to great psychological depths and spiritual heights.

  Following the schema of pairing the week’s Sephira with the day’s Sephira, the third day of the first week of Counting the Omer is Tiferet within Chesed. Translating this to the tarot, these Sephirot would be represented in the world of Atzilut as the Six of Wands (Tiferet) as channeled through the Four of Wands (Chesed). Each day, you have a choice of four pairs of cards to work with, aligning with the four worlds. Putting pairs of cards together in this way can open you to experiencing the Sephirotic energies of each day in unexpected ways. If you’re an experienced card reader, even if this practice isn’t one you wish to follow, reading the cards with these Sephirotic relationships in mind will add depth and meaning to your readings.

  Of course, as I’ve noted previously, from a traditional Jewish point of view this is heretical. Not only is it a commandment not to make a graven image of the Divine, the Sephirot (which are not to be identified with the Deity Itself) also are never depicted through figurative representation. In fact, from a traditional Kabbalistic point of view, the tarot deck itself (which also employs Christian and pagan symbols) is to’e’vah, or taboo. As a Jewish-Buddhist, though, I’ve found much that is precious in many traditions and that wisdom from one can shine a light that deepens the experience of the other. I hope that your experience using the cards as an aid to Count the Omer gives you similar gifts.

  In fact, the Buddhist in me wants to point out a completely different kind of correspondence. It is said that before Gautama Buddha became enlightened, he sat for forty-nine days under the Bodhi tree and experienced Nirvana on the fiftieth day. Similarly, in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, after death, the “soul” of a human spends forty-nine days in the bardo before taking rebirth. Why should these very different religious traditions settle on forty-nine days as the period it takes for transformation? I don’t pretend to know the answer to this question—or even whether there is an answer to this question. But it’s interesting to note, and I suspect there is some deep hidden wisdom at work in this correspondence with the forty-nine day Omer practice.

  As you read through this guide, you will learn interpretations for each of the cards, even though this book is not a conventional guide to tarot card interpretations. In fact, because the same cards appear and reappear in different combinations, you’ll learn how these combinations change the meanings of each card. So if you haven’t already studied the cards before, this book will provide a more nuanced interpretation of the cards than you’ll find in many guides. Still, it’s always good to read other books on the subject. Similarly, if you are already a student of tarot but you haven’t studied Kabbalah, I hope this book inspires you to learn more about this Jewish wisdom tradition, as opposed to the occult version. You’ll find a number of good books on both these subjects and more in the bibliography.

  Now that you have a basic understanding of the Omer practice and basic Kabbalistic concepts and their correspondences with the organization of the tarot deck, you’re ready to begin a new way to practice this ancient spiritual discipline.

  How to Follow the Daily Practice

  THE RITUAL

  The ritual of Counting the Omer, as practiced by Jews for centuries, requires actually counting each day and week. And because Judaism observes the start of the day at sunset, the Omer is counted at night, while standing, in a ritual that includes a blessing and a prayer said before counting the day. I like this ritual. It sets the kavvanah, the Jewish practice of creating mindful and heartfelt intention. I make it a part of my practice, and I include a modified, nonsectarian version of the blessing and prayer below for those who wish to bring this intention to their practice as well.

  If you prefer to count in the morning, that’s okay too. But like any practice, it’s best to set aside a specific, regular time of the day that you know is only for this practice.

  USING THE CARDS

  The heart of this book is based on the forty-nine paired combinations of the Sephirot that occur during the Counting of the Omer. Each day of the count there are paired combinations of corresponding tarot cards. Because the four suits correspond to the four worlds, there are at least four possible pairings for each day, so that each day you can explore how the Sephirotic combinations affect the energy of that day in each world: spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, and physically.

  With four pairs a day, there are proba
bly too many pairings for most people to work with in one day, unless you’re living the life of a cloistered contemplative. So here are five different suggestions for ways to work with these card pairings to Count the Omer plus one advanced practice for when you have already worked with all four suits. Of the suggested ways to work, choose the one that makes the most sense to you and follow it through to the end.

  1. Follow One Suit

  Choose one suit and only follow that suit through the forty-nine days of the count. Choose the suit that best matches with the focus of the inner work you want to do this year. Next year, choose one of the other suits. Continue each year until you have done all four suits.

  2. Start at the Top of the Worlds

  Start with Wands and do the count with that suit only. Next year, do the same with Cups. Then go through the following suits, one per year, in order of the four worlds so that you finish in the fourth year with Assiyah and Pentacles.

  3. Around the Worlds in Two Hundred Days

  Do all four suits in one year, one suit at a time in order of the four worlds. Between each suit, on the fiftieth day, follow the practice for the fiftieth day recommended at the end of this book. In this way, you’ll finish the full work in two hundred days. You could start doing the count at the start of the traditional counting period and then just continue over the course of the year. Or start whenever it feels right to you.