by Marcus Katz
Woman - Synthesis of ISIS Neptune Athor Amiah and Binah
Great Supernal Mother pouring on Earth Waters of Creation which unite and form a river at her feet influence of Chokmah – binah and restored world.
Bird of Hermes on Tree of Knowledge.
Tree of Life on opposite side.
[Symbol of Mars] over woman’s head.
Heptagram on her head
[Symbol of Venus] over bird of Hermes
[Symbol of Aquarius] Firmament dividing & Containing the Waters
[Symbols of Jupiter, Sun & Venus in a column to left, with Saturn, Moon and Mercury to right in column, and Mars in centre]
“Daughter of the Firmament, the Dweller between the Waters”
18 [Qoph] MOON: Moon on Side of increase. 4 [Yods] falling 32 rays – path of yetzirah. Jackals of Aunbri’s [Anubis] guarding Gates of East and West, one standing one lying down [pencil sketch of figures] Crayfish or Scarabeus. Two Towers. Stream from horizon.
“Ruler of Flux and Reflux, the Child of the Sons of the Mighty”
19 [Resh] SUN: 12 Rays waved & salient alternately.
36 Secondary Rays
72 Tertiary Rays
7 [missing symbol, likely Yods] on each side falling
Portions of Circular wall
Children on water and earth. [sketch of two figures].
“Lord of the Fire of the World”
20. [Shin] JUDGMENT: Angel crowned with Sun. Surrounded by Rainbow in which leap Seraphim. Trumpet - influence of Spirit descending from Binah banner Ert [Sketch of Banner with Cross]
Pluto emerging from Volcanic rock. ISIS Full face NEPTHYS profile coming from Water. HORUS rises from Cubic Tomb in [Sketch of arms in 2=9 sign]
Centre 7 [Yods] descend in rays of light from rainbow [Sketch of 7 Yods in arc]
“Spirit of Primal Fire”
21 [Tau] UNIVERSE: Wreath of 12 big and 72 small circles. Woman, scarf, legs crossed Wands in hands, one down one up, luna crescent on head.
Heptagram in woman
Kerubim round Man Eagle
Ox Lion
[Sketch of circle with Heptagram and four Kerubim names in position as text]
“The Great one of the Night and Time”
With these images of the twenty-two Major Arcana in our mind, as would have been placed within Golden Dawn ceremonies, we can lay out a Tree of Life and see how these might variously illustrate the nature of every aspect of the Tree. We will first look at several reasons why we should utilise this system and learn correspondences for our spiritual work.
The Tarot and Tree of Life
The Tree of Life diagram was not notably taken out of its original Judaic context until the first translation of Gates of Light in 1516. The tarot, meanwhile, arose in its acceptably recognised format and structure in the earlier 15th century. This actually dates the origination of the tarot structure prior to common knowledge of the Kabbalah, although the Kabbalah itself had been developed for many centuries prior – there being evidence of the Sepher Yetzirah being in existence by the 10th Century.[12] There are no historical records of their connection until the supposition made by Comte de Mellet and Court de Gébelin in 1781.
After Etteilla’s work in popularising the tarot as cartomancy, the first author to then significantly develop the connection between the two systems of tarot and Kabbalah was Eliphas Levi (1810-1875) who utilised the tarot as a convenient filing system for his esoteric ideas and as chapter sections in his books. This utilisation was taken up even more explicitly by Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), whose poetry, shorter pieces of fiction, Holy Books, and other works are often structured upon the Tree of Life – verses of 10 or 22 lines, keyphrases, paragraphs structured on the elements, can all be seen to be based on correspondences.
So the first use we have in learning the correspondences between tarot and the Tree of Life is for a simple utilitarian and practical reason – it is so we can read and understand the writings of those who have gone before us on the path of the Western Esoteric Initiatory System. The Kabbalah is one of the languages which they learnt, spoke and in which they wrote, so we cannot pretend to understand their writing if we do not even know the language in which it was written.
That was the first piece of esoteric advice I ever received, from a man called Andy, the owner of the Ace of Wands bookshop in Derby, when I wandered into his shop as a spotty teenager in the early 1980’s and tried to load myself up with books by Crowley, Fortune, Regardie and Anton LaVey. He laughed, pointed me back to the shelves, and had me pick up instead a beginners book on Yoga, and a beginner’s book on Kabbalah. He said to me:
“You’ll be better learning what they learnt first, then reading what they wrote”.
That was the first sentence I ever heard from a teacher and now I pass it on – learn some of the language first, experience some of the exercises first, and it will be much easier in the long-term. There are many other good reasons to learn the correspondences, some of which will become more obvious as your experience develops, but in the meantime, we will look at the primary reasons.
Why Learn the Correspondences?
The Tree of Life and the tarot do not arise in nature outside of us; the Sephiroth do not exist in the same way that a cloud exists, nor for that matter, does love. The archetype drawn as the Empress on a card does not exist in the same way that a river or a mountain exist; nor even is she the same as a real Empress. The word Empress does not exist in the same way to that which it signifies; a real woman sat on a real chair, given authority over some land or another. In fact, the word Empress is not the same as the same word in Bosnian or Bulgarian, Arabic or Cantonese.
In addition to that, when we look at a mountain, a river, the object of our love or a cloud floating in the sky above a Bosnian landscape, we do not truly know what we are observing. It depends on our own state at the time – most importantly – and our senses. A dolphin will not look up and see that cloud in the way we do, neither will a telescope. However, both the dolphin and the scientist looking through a telescope may fall in love with the cloud, in their own particular and peculiar manner.
The world arises for us in our experience, and our experience shares some commonality; in language, in the archetypal patterns, in the form of a spiral that we all agree is the shape of a shell, an unfolding fern leaf or a galaxy – even the water draining from our bath agrees to conform and with our notion of a spiral.
And with that concept of a spiral, we make further observations; we see deeper patterns, perhaps. We see that often life is like a spiral in other ways; we appear to go around in circles and return to something we have done before, only now we ourselves have moved on, we see the same thing differently. Or perhaps we feel that we are spiralling downwards instead; into debt, into addiction, into disaster, just like the bath water. Or perhaps we realise we can never step in the same river twice, even though there is no real river, nor are we stepping into it.
But having these ideas, seeing these patterns, we can observe more fully, we can realise things about our engagement with the universe that we may not have previously seen, and we can learn – and act differently in future. We can use our awareness of these fundamental patterns arising out of the interface apparently between our self and the universe to shape our reality in a very practical sense, test them, and find the limits of our existence.[13] This is the Great Work.
By making a correspondence between two systems or more, we increase our ability to recognise, incorporate and utilise these universal patterns, and in so doing we further the Great Work. In fact, by making correspondence, we also get to elicit the patterns, through invocation and evocation and other mechanisms of truly engaging life, not escaping it.
Why Tarot? Why Kabbalah?
The test of any correspondence system is its ability to model reality as we experience it. It should be able to diagnose and predict events and demonstrate comprehensiveness, congruity and consistency to experience. If I am in a business meeting a
nd there are three other people, all of whom are very different yet seem to be working very well together, I might expect to discover that they correspond to three of the four Court Cards in tarot or three of the classical Elements. This will further tell me that I should draw upon the fourth “missing” element to best fit into the meeting.[14]
It can be said that unless we have a model – or part of one - we cannot expect to observe its pattern in our perception. I recall first learning about “force-field analysis” during a business diploma, whilst being engaged in my first management role. I suddenly “saw” the events playing out around me in terms of force-field analysis, between team members, different teams in the company, and between the company and its competition. Whilst I would have been vaguely aware of these events, the model gave me a pair of glasses which brought them into distinct focus, rather than the vague blur of uninformed sight or total ignorance. There are many models and systems that when you see the world through them, they can change your entire awareness and resultant behaviour, whether for business or mysticism.
The Kabbalah and tarot have stabilised into reasonably structured systems over centuries of experience. As the Kabbalists say, “ten and not nine, ten and not eleven”.[15] The tarot is universally recognised as a common structure of 22 Major Arcana, and 4 Suits, with 10 Minor cards and 4 Court Cards in each Suit. These find immediate correspondence to the 22 Hebrew letters, the 4 Worlds, and the 10 Sephiroth of the Tree of Life by their basic structure.
It is as if when we go exploring the world, no matter where we start and what we do, we find almost the same thing is underneath – or above it – all. Something incomprehensible, which we then model in exactly the same way, no matter the language.
We could equally use Chakras, the I-Ching or the Runes, for example, as part of our correspondence system, however, the further we culturally remove ourselves from our own history, the more difficult it may be to map correspondences for the time we have and the practical usage it will give us.
There are sufficient correspondences for a lifetime of study and appreciation in the tarot and the Kabbalah; although we may extend that quite quickly to astrology, herbalism, classical divinities, colour symbolism, numerology, and other systems that are woven into the Neo-Platonic, Hermetic or Gnostic garments worn by the tradition.
We will now look at the reason for different systems and then go on to look at the core correspondences. In further chapters we will unpack and explore the several different of the most fundamental correspondence systems.
Why Different Correspondence Systems?
An often off-putting aspect of esoteric is the currency placed on correspondence systems, and their validity against some notion of truth. The “one true system” is often the one “most secret” and revealed only to an “exalted grade”, until a member of that grade leaves their Order in some conflict and publishes it for everyone to see. It then appears that the system is only a variation on a theme.
I was taught originally that truth was a measure of the usefulness of an idea in practice. I could believe it “true” that I could fly, but it would not be a particularly useful notion if my Will was to live a long life, and I tested that belief from the top of a tall building. The instruction I was given along with that concept of truth was “test everything”. A far more practical philosophy than most, such considerations soon drive the practitioner to the most useful models and maps for their experience.
Each correspondence system is just such a map and just a model, as we have already described. And like maps, we can have a whole range of maps of the same location, each useful for different journeys.
When I am looking for a map of London, where I am going to drive to visit my son, I look for a map that shows the streets, the one-way systems, and the current traffic diversions. I do not look for a map of the same place that shows its variations in temperature, geography, or contours.
However, if I were considering walking around a place, I would want a more granular or detailed map – of the same place – and perhaps even one that showed contours.
If I were a wheelchair user, I might require another layer on that map, not necessarily required by others making the same journey. If I am just going into London for a night out, a little pamphlet with a humorous cartoon map of the “Best Pub Crawl in London” would probably suffice until the following day.
It is exactly the same with the correspondence systems of the Tree of Life, that different stages of the spiritual or life journey, different purposes, and different states of being require different maps. Those maps are all illustrating the same place – our engagement with the Universe – but marked differently for different types of journey.
It is only when we mistake the map for the territory, as a “real thing” with “validity” that we could even think of arguing that “System X” is “better” than “System Y”. To the Adept, that discussion would never even arise as a possibility. It is not even that one system is “better” than another; the systems are maps, not the thing being mapped.
So the Golden Dawn system of correspondences, drawn from various sources, hung upon the Tree of Life in a particular pattern, is useful for those working through the GD system; and for those practising magick in general, from its generally Hermetic, Gnostic and Neo-Platonic sources.
The system as modified by Crowley, to switch the Emperor and the Star between the paths marked Heh and Tzaddi, is useful for those who align with Crowley’s reception of the Book of the Law. Although, it is notable that even Crowley forgot later about his switch, when he wrote about the Emperor card in his Book of Thoth.
The Waite-Trinick system of correspondences, which is a more major (if you’ll pardon the pun) variation on the Golden Dawn system, is more useful, in my mind, to those following the considerations of a peculiarly Christian esotericism above the grade of Adeptus Minor. It is at that point that the reasons for holding a magical map become obsolete and redundant.
There are other variations; Charles Stansfeld-Jones (1886–1950) turned the correspondences upside-down, and later, so did William G. Gray (1913–1992). Neither of these systems received a particularly wide-spread attention or take-up into whatever passes for mainstream esotericism. Another alternate system is proposed by Paul Roland (2005) and there are many more if you go searching for them online.
In tarot, the correspondence of Major Arcana to the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet and hence to the Tree of Life will mainly depend on whether we place the unnumbered Fool at the beginning or end of the sequence, or even prior to the World card as in some variations. Similarly, the correspondence of the Court Cards to Astrology receives variant treatment according to which version of Astrology one might be considering. It will also depend on whether we place Da’ath on the Tree of Life or not, and whether we have three or one paths connecting Malkuth to the Tree.
The important thing is the doctrine itself; the principle of correspondence – and its primary purpose, which is to create a state of mind in which all things are interconnected in a pattern beyond observation, imagination, thought or attachment – one that ultimately arises in awareness as a simple unity. We do not get lost in disagreements about someone else’s illusion, as the map is a part of the territory, and further, it lies within the territory.
In summary, then, we have different systems for different purposes – my recommendation is the same as was given to me, to learn one, and test its usefulness. If you do not test your map against your experience, you will never realise that you are a long way away from the destination it describes to those who do make the journey.
We will next look at two of the primary systems of correspondence (Golden Dawn and Waite-Trinick) used within the Order of Everlasting Day and note several of the further variations for your exploration. These maps can be further explored in astral travel, dream-work, ritual, and by other means in addition to mapping everyday experience.[16]
However, before we look at the systems, we will provide the basic
meanings of the Sephiroth on the Tree. We will then later in the book look at the paths themselves. In this way we can build our knowledge and experience of the Tree in stages.
The Sephiroth
The Kabbalistic model of the universe, most often depicted as the Tree of Life is composed of ten Sephiroth. Whilst these are commonly drawn as circles, sometimes simply as ten concentric circles, more often as ten circles connected by the twenty-two Paths, they are not simply circles. A common mistake in many books is to refer to them as “spheres” but the term is not related to the Greek word for ‘sphere’.[17] In fact, it is closer in relation to the Hebrew word for ‘sapphire’, which reflects the radiant nature of the divine.
A number of other synonyms are used for the Sephiroth; “sayings”, “names”, “lights”, “powers”, “stages”, even “garments”, “mirrors” and “shoots”. The Zohar refers to them also as “aspects”.[18]
Whatever they are called, they are ten aspects of the Universe, each with their own qualities and nature. When they are arranged together, they function as an entire engine of divine creation.
For ongoing reference, the list below gives the most simple name and general significance of each of the ten Sephiroth on the Tree of Life as they are usually seen in Kabbalah.[19]
1. Kether – the crown of the Tree, the divine source and singular point of all creation.
2. Chockmah – the force of the Tree, the male energy.
3. Binah – the form of the Tree, the female energy.
4. Chesed – the expansive nature of creation, love and mercy.
5. Geburah – the constraining nature of creation, fear and severity.
6. Tiphareth – the harmonizing point in the centre of all things, the self.
7. Netzach – the natural cycles of eternal creation and nature, the emotions.
8. Hod – the definition of things into formation, the structure of the mind, analysis.
