The Tarot and the Tree of Life Correspondences

22 Major arcana cards: 22 letters of Hebrew alphabet
4 suits: Tetragrammaton (God's 4 letter name)
Tree of Life = diagram describing universal laws of reality
- Downwards = human body, unconscious
- Upwards = Divine source of soul, higher self
- 10 nodes (sephirah; minor arcana), 22 connective paths (major arcana)
- Each connective path is a lesson necessary to learn to move to next node. Collectively called the Path of the Serpent; represents journey to divine and to spiritual healing.
- But they don't talk about what the lessons are?
- I assume the lessons are related to each Major arcanum card's symbolic meaning.
- Yeah the symbolic meanings don't line up either.
- Each major arcana correlates with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which has its own semantic and symbolic meanings
- Ex: The Fool corresponds to the letter Aleph, which semantically means Ox and symbolically means primal energy.
- There's a whole table.
- Ngl I have no clue how the Tarot cards relate to their supposed corresponding letters.
- The Minor arcana suites each correspond to an element, letter, and world
- Wands : Fire : Yod (Closed hand) : Atziluth (the world of Emanation; Divine; Faculty of intuition)
- Cups : Water : He (window) : Beri'ah (world of creation; spirit; faculty of feeling)
- Swords : Air : Vau (Hook, nail) : Yetzirah (world of formation, psyche, faculty of thinking)
- Pentacles : Earth : He : Assiah (world of manifestation, body, faculty of sensation)
- This is where the minor arcana suite "associations" come from
- In the Kabbalah, there's 4 worlds, each of which correspond with a letter in the Tetragrammaton (Yod, He, Vau/waw, He)
  - They're all connected to make a ladder connecting the material and divine worlds; referred to as Jacob's Ladder, a stairway to heaven that Jacob dreamed about in the Bible.
  - Material world > formation world > Creation world > Emanation world (the source, the root)
  - Each world/suite is made of 10 nodes/cards (not counting court cards) that interlock with each other. Starts w/ 10 at the bottom, goes up to Ace at the top.
- Each node is a diff aspect of God/Self/Pysche
- Individually called a sephirah, collectively called a sephiroth
- Top (the Ace) is closest to God/Self/Psyche, and as you go down closer you get to manifestation/material world.
- Ace of Wands is closest to Divine. 10 of Pentacles is closest to material world.
- Ace/1 - Kether/Crown
  - Closest to god, unity, eternal source, pureness, potential
- 2 - Chokmah/Wisdom
  - divine masculine, expression of full power of suit(?), insight
- 3 - Binah/Understanding
  - divine feminine, harmony, contemplation
- 4 - Chesed/Mercy
  - stability, discipline, structure, form
- 5 - Geburah/Severity
  - destruction, motion, change, upheaval, chaos
- 6 - Tiphareth/Beauty
  - consciousness, balance, integration, connecting divine and physical
- 7 - Netzach/Victory
  - strength, determination, concentration
- 8 - Hod/Splendor
  - communication, expression of energy, reasoning, action, movement
- 9 - Yesod/Foundation
  - refinement, reflection, imagination
  - To move to 8/Splendor, one must learn
- 10 - Malkuth/Kingdom
  - physical world, energies manifest, tangible form of all emanations
- Nodes 2+3, 4+5, 7+8, are all counterparts/related in someway.
Apparently the court cards are related to astrology

DIADesignGuild / game-studio

The Tarot and the Tree of Life Correspondences #61