ONE FAMILY PLAN
Tarot
"The traditional tarot consists of a pack of 78 cards made up of Four Suits of 14 cards each, together with 22 Trumps, or Major Arcana, which tell the story of the Soul... Each suit consists of ten numbered cards, as in the modern playing cards, but there are four instead of three honours: King or Knight, Queen, Prince or Emperor, Princess or Knave."
(Israel Regardie, The Golden Dawn, Second and Third Knowledge Lectures)
The Four Suits Are:
Wands or Sceptres comparable to Diamonds.
Cups or Chalices comparable to Hearts.
Swords comparable to Spades.
Pentacles or Coins comparable to Clubs.
The ten small cards of each suit refer to the Sephiroth. The four suits refer to the Letters of the Tetragrammaton:
Sceptres or Wands to Yod, Cups... Heh, Swords... Vau, Pentacles... Heh (final)
The Four Suits refer also to the Four Worlds of the Qabalists:
Sceptres to Atziluth [Archtypal: Pure Deity], Cups- Briah [Creative: Archangelic], Swords- Yetzirah [Formative: Angelic], Pentacles - Assiah [Action: Matter, Man, Shells, Demons]
22 Paths, 22 Letters, 22 Trumps
The 22 paths of the Sephiroth are linked with the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, accounting for all things in the universe and the way to God. They are also linked with the 22 major trumps of the Tarot. If fully understood, it is believed the Tarot figures would reveal the secrets of the inner mechanism of the universe. It is the hidden rhythms of the Dance of Life...
0. The Fool - numbered 0, 21, or 22 - court jester in early decks - some show an old man in ragged clothing or naked child holding a wolf by a leash. Though a symbol for foolishness and madness, his is a divine folly as the Spirit of God about to descend into the nothing, falling from the cliff at the beginning of creation... also the perfected spirit of man as he nears the One. The Fool is 0, containing all things and yet is no thing. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." (John 3:8) Golden Dawn assigns to Aleph, French assigns to Shin. It means folly and madness. Magical title "The Spirit of Aether"
I. The Magician - also called "the Mountebank" or "the Juggler" - old decks show huckster in broad brimmed hat standing behind table covered with assortment of items for sale - modern decks turn table into altar and objects on table into magical working tools, and huckster into mage clad in robes of an adept- GD assigns to Beth, French assign to Aleph - human will, intelligence, communication, skill, trickery, and deception - magical title: "The Magus of Power"
II. The High Priestess - also called the Popess or Juno... the Virgin Mary... she is the gnosis (ultimate knowledge of God, gateway to heaven), a seated high priestess in front of a veil (between God [Kether] and Christ [Tiphereth] there is a Veil) in Pope's garments or the goddess Juno on a throne. In Golden Dawn, it corresponds to Hebrew letter Gimel. The French assign it to Beth. It means wisdom, revelation, the ebb and flow of cyclical phenomena, and intuition - magical title is "Priestess of the Silver Star"
III. The Empress - pregnant (representing evolution of Godhead from infinite to finite through the universe's creation), fair-haired, and smiling- her path linking Hokmah and Binah - crowned and enthroned woman, corresponds to Venus the Goddess of nature and love - GD assigns to Daleth, French assign to Gimel - fertility, productiveness, happiness, motherhood - magical title: "Daughter of the Mighty Ones"
IV. The Emperor - alter ego of the Pope, ruler of all things material, God or man imposing order and form on things, crowned and enthroned man - GD assigns to Heh, French assign to Daleth - power, authority, fatherhood - magical title: "Son of the Morning, Chief among the Mighty"
V. The Hierophant - also "the Pope" or "Jupiter" - Pope in official garments with triple cross of papacy in one hand and 2 kneeling monks at his feet... corresponding to the process of "projection" in Alchemy where the perfect substance, Philosopher's Stone is mingled with a base metal and turned to gold... Above and Below/God and Man/the Gold and the Base Metal - GD assigns to Vau, French assign to Heh - wisdom, spirituality, authority - magical title: "Magus of the Eternal Gods"
VI. The Lovers - shows a man choosing between two women, many show a young couple together with a child (or Cupid) - Rider Waite deck... shows Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, gulf between God and man crossed through the creation of humanity in the image of God... love and innocence, temptation, symbol of the union of opposites, to cross over to the One, man must balance the opposites of his nature and reconcile them - GD shows scene of Andromeda's rescue from a sea monster by Perseus - GD assigns to Zayin, French assign to Vau - magical title: Children of the Voice Divine, the Oracles of the Mighty Gods...
VII. The Chariot - man (warrior) on a chariot driven by 2 sphinxes, one white and one black (opposites that have been yoked), symbol of the union of the sexes, from the "below" of manhood to the "above" of Godhood - GD assigns to Cheth, French assign to Zayin. - victory and success - not necessarily stable and lasting - magical title: "Child of the Power of the Waters, Lord of the Triumph of Light"
VIII. Strength - 11th or 8th in modern decks - image of woman opening or closing [forcibly closing] the mouth of a lion... woman's unnatural dominance implies the discipline of submission to the abnormal and distasteful... self-discovery of this discipline is a beginning of rapturous ecstasy, reaching its height in the next card, the Chariot - GD assigns to Teth, French assign to Cheth - power and ability to overcome obstacles - magical title: "Daughter of the Flaming Sword, Leader of the Lion"
IX. The Hermit - This path joins Hesed (Father) with Tiphereth (Christ, the sun, the lifeforce)... magician has found the Master in himself - old man in hooded robe bearing staff and lantern - GD assigns to Yod, French assign to Teth - wisdom, prudence, secret knowledge, loneliness, initiation - magical title: "Magus of the Voice of Light, the Prophet of the Gods"
X. The Wheel of Fortune - wheel of 7 spokes, presided over by an angel holding a sword in one hand and a crown in the other, destiny, fate, cycle of nature, growth and decay to which all things are subject... as a man sows... sown in Justice, reaped in the wheel - rising and falling tides of life's fortune - wheel with figures rising and falling on it - GD assigns to Kaph, French assigns to Yod - change of fortune, moderate degree of happiness, transition, evolution - magical title: "Lord of the Forces of Life"
XI. Justice - judgment that follows the death of the hanged man is a woman bearing a sword in her right hand with scales in her left... conflicting elements equally balanced, undergoing a purgatory, or a cleansing - 8th card but moved to 11th in Golden Dawn deck for reasons of Cabalistic symbolism, copied by many other decks - woman seated on a throne, sword in one hand, pair of scales in the other - GD assigns to Lamed, French assign to Cheth - balance equilibrium, and legal matters - magical title: "Daughter of the Lords of Truth"
XII. The Hanged Man - suggests "a great awakening that is possible" and that "after the sacred Mystery of Death there is a glorious Mystery of Resurrection" (Waite), man hanged by one foot, this was done in Renaissance times to criminals - GD assigns to Mem, French assigns to Lamed - sacrifice, initiation, period of delay or suspension, reversal, renunciation - Aleister Crowley calls his posture "Sleep of Shiloam" which probably means "sleep of Sialam" - magical title: "Spirit of the Mighty Waters"
XIII. Death - skeleton with a scythe, mowing a field of human heads with hands and feet growing in their place, symbol of death and resurrection in nature... lopped heads are the seeds falling to the ground out of which new shoots will arise, corresponding to "putrefaction" in alchemy, a condition of spiritual exhaustion and decay from which comes new life - GD assigns to Nun, French assign to Mem. Not death - change or transformation - Magical title "Child of the Great Transformers, Lord of the Gates of Death"
XIV. Temperance - connecting Tiphereth and Yesod, spiritual orgasm as the soul mounts from a lower to a higher plane - woman or angel pouring liquid from one vessel to another - represents watering down strong wine to make it less intoxicating... the sphere of human consciousness is Tiphereth with Yesod is the unconscious... "If attention is directed to the unconscious the unconscious will yield up its contents, and these in turn will fructify the conscious like a fountain of living water. For consciousness is just as arid as the unconscious if the two halves of our psychic life are separated." (C.G. Jung) - GD assigns to Samech, French assign to Nun - combination of forces, reconciliation, moderation, and arbitration... magical title: "Daughter of the Reconcilers, the Bringer Forth of Life"
XV. The Devil - devil with horns and hoofs, holding a man and a woman on a leash of chains, emblem of power and mastery of this world, forces of pride, ambition, and lust - GD assigns to Ayin, the French assign to Samekh. It is fate through the power of the unconscious mind and supernatural evil. Magical title: "Lord of the Gates of Matter, Child of the Forces of Time"
XVI. The Tower - 2 persons fall from a tower struck by lightning - also called "the House of God" and "the Lightning-Struck Tower" ...symbol of ejaculation, collapse of a false philosophy - GD assigns to Peh, French assign to Ayin - it means danger, crisis, destruction, and liberation - magical title: "Lord of the Hosts of the Mighty"
XVII. The Star - nude woman kneeling at the edge of a pool of water, from 2 vessels pouring water, one onto the ground and one into the water. Stars shine in the sky. She is nature, pouring out the water to revive the world in the springtime. She is the water of life in woman, in the mind, bringing hope to the troubled spirit - In the Golden Dawn, the trump is assigned the Hebrew letter Tzaddi. The French system assigns it to Peh. It means hope, unexpected help, and spiritual guidance - magical title "Daughter of the Firmament, Dweller Between the Walters"
XVIII. The Moon - from light to darkness, older ways of thought is dissolved - dog and wolf baying at the rising moon... it is the fashioning of the child in the womb, the clothing of imagination with flesh - GD assigns to Qoph, French assign to Tzaddi - deceit, delusion, intuition, unknown - magical title: "Ruler of Flux and Reflux, Child of the Sons of the Mighty"
XIX. The Sun - path leading to HOD (higher mental faculties), dazzling light that frees the mind from the petty concerns of this world... as the man begins to identify with the One - image of sun with child in walled garden beneath it - GD assigns to Resh, French assign to Qoph - success, victory, healing, happiness - can represent sudden death - magical title: "Lord of the Fire of the World"
XX. Judgement - the symbol of aspiration, yearning for better things - resurrection of the dead with an angel blowing a trumpet while the dead climb out of graves - GD assigns to Shin, French assigns to Resh - final settlement or outcome of an affair, renewal, rebirth - magical title: "Spirit of the Primal Fire"
XXI. The Universe - also called "The World" - symbol of joy, lightness, release- the leaving of this earthly existence and the entry into a higher world - nude or partly nude woman dancing in oval space at center surrounded by symbolic designs... corresponding to the 22nd path, leading from Malkuth (earth) to the Astral Plane's threshold in Yesod. GD and French assign to Hebrew letter Tau - magical title: "Great One of the Night of Time"
