Wang - Qabalistic Tarot

296 Pages·2007·24.91 MB·English

by  Robert Wang

The
QABALISTIC
TAROT

A TEXTBOOK OF MYSTICAL PHILOSOPHY

Robert Wang

SAMUEL WEISER, INC.

York Beach, Maine

The Tarot Symbols on the Tree of Life.

CONTENTS

PREFACE, xv

INTRODUCTION,
Modem Tarot Studies: A Nineteenth Century Legacy
1
The Search For "Truth"
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 5
The Golden Dawn
10
The Golden Dawn Tarot
12
The Rider-Waite Deck
13
Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot
14
Book "T" ..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 15

THE QABALAH
Origins of the Qabalah
20
The Sepher Yetzirah (Book of Formation)
21
Medieval Qabalism
21
The Renaissance: Hermeticism and Christian Qabalah
23
Magus to the Queen
25
Rosicrucianism .. ~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 25
Later "Rosicrucians"
26
Hermetic-Qabalistic Deceptions
27
Hermetic-Qabalah and The Golden Dawn
28
The Tree of Life
29
Concepts
32
"Secret" Paths
37
Negative Limitless Light
39
The Four Worlds
39
Qabalistic Symbolism
43
The Sephiroth and Their Symbols
-
44
The Minor Cards
47
The Court Cards
50

PATTERNS OF THE SEPHIROTH
Kether, The Crown
53
The Aces
56
Chokmah, Wisdom
60
The Twos
63
The Kings
66
Binah, Understanding
69
The Threes
71
The Queens
74
Daath, Knowledge
77
Chesed, Mercy
78
The Fours
80
Geburah, Strength
83
The Fives
85
Tiphareth, Beauty
88
The Sixes
92
The Princes
94
Netzach, Victory
98
The Sevens
101
Hod, Splendor
103
The Eights
106
Yesod, Foundation
108
The Nines
111
Malkuth, Kingdom
114
The Tens
117
The Princesses
120

THE MAJOR ARCANA ON THE TREE OF LIFE
Applications of the Sepher Yetzirah
125
The Matemals: Air, Water, Fire
125
The Double Letters: Planets, Localities, Days, Gateways,
Contrasts
128
The Simple Letters: Signs of the Zodiac
131
The Cube of Space
131
Numerology
135
Sets of Paths
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 137
The Initiatory Scheme of the Tarot
140
THE UNIVERSE, Tau
145
JUDGMENT, Shin
149
THE SUN, Resh
154
THE MOON, Qoph
158
THE STAR, Tzaddi
162
THE TOWER, Peh
166
THE DEVIL, Ayin
172
TEMPERANCE, Samekh
176

DEATH, Nun
181
THE HANGED MAN, Mem
186
JUSTICE, Lamed
190
WHEEL OF FORTUNE, Caph
195
THE HERMIT, Yod
201
STRENGTH, Teth
205
THE CHARIOT, Cheth
210
THE LOVERS, Zain
215
THE HIEROPHANT, Vau
220
THE EMPEROR, Heh
225
THE EMPRESS, Daleth
230
THE HIGH PRIESTESS, Gimel
234
THE MAGICIAN, Beth
239
THE FOOL, Aleph
245

PRACTICAL WORK
Skrying
251
Divination
252

REFERENCE
Colors on the Tree of Life
263
Colors and Sounds on the Tree of Life
264
Angels of the Decans
265
Divine Names of the Sephiroth
265
Thirty-Two Paths of Wisdom
266

NOTES, 267

INDEX, 279

ILLUSTRATIONS

Color. Plate I, The Tarot Symbols on the Tree of Life
Color Plate II, The Tree of Life in a "Solid Sphere"
Fig.
1 The Ten Holy Sephiroth on the Tree of Life
30
Fig.
2
Development of the Tree of Life diagram
31
Fig.
3
The Path of the Flaming Sword
32
Fig.
4
The Triangles of the Tree of Life
32
Fig.
5
The Pillars on the Tree of Life
33
Fig.
6
The Divisions of the Soul
36
Fig.
7
Attribution of Elements to the Pentagram
37
Fig.
8
The "Secret Paths" on the Tree of Life
38
Fig.
9
The Four Worlds
40
Fig. 10
The Four Elements
42
Fig. 11
Attribution of the Minor Arcana to the Tree of Life
45
Fig. 12 The Court Cards on the Tree of Life
46
Fig. 13 The Signs of the Zodiac in the Twelve Houses
48
Fig. 14
The Decans
49
Fig. 15
Attribution of the Minor Cards and the Court
Cards to the Zodiac
51
Fig. 16
Attribution of Planets to the Hexagram
90
Fig. 17
The Symbol of Venus on the Tree of Life
100
Fig. 18
Attribution of the Major Arcana to the Tree of Life
126
Fig. 19
Attribution of Maternal
127
Fig. 20
The Cards on the "Path of the Flaming Sword"
128
Fig. 21
Planetary attributions to the Tree of Life
130
Fig. 22
Signs of the Zodiac on the Tree of Life
132
Fig. 23
The Signs of the Zodiac on the Tree of Life as
Cardinal, Fixed, and Mutable Elements
133
Fig. 24
The Cube of Space
134
Fig. 25
Cards considered as Opposites
137
Fig. 26
The Cards on the Middle Pillar
138

Fig. 27
The Paths from the Thirty-Two Paths of Wisdom
139
Fig. 28
Patterns of Form and Force on the Tree of Life
140
Fig. 29
Parts of the Soul
142
Fig. 30
The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
165
Fig. 31
Levi's Interpretation of the Wheel of Ezekiel
196
Fig. 32
Two Ways of Representing that which is encompassed
by Mercury
242

PREFACE

The purpose of this book is to demonstrate the relationship between the
Qabalah, a time-honored mystical system, and the Tarot. To do so is to
pointedly disagree with some very great Jewish scholars, who state that no such
relationship exists.
What I have attempted to do in this work is to integrate some of the very
complex threads of Qabalistic symbolism and interpretation, emphasizing the
relationship of the Tree of Life (primary symbol of the Qabalah) and the Tarot
as taught in the tradition of the Hermetic Qabalah. I must emphasize that I am
not writing on the Hebrew Qabalah, but on a separate and distinct system also
based on Hebrew texts. In my opinion, the Hebrew scholars have been mistaken
in their perception of late nineteenth century occult developments as merely a
romantic and misunderstood pastiche of mystical Hebrew lore.
Moreover, I have attempted to demonstrate that the principles of the
Qabalah are appropriately applied to any ordinary Tarot deck. To that end this
work reproduces four entire decks, including the Marseilles Tarot. Very little
discussion is accorded that work, chosen as a comparison with the more
symbolically concise modem decks because it is the most common and popular
of the decks crystallizing the cards' early imagery. The Marseilles Tarot is a
"standard" deck, the other three decks used here are those related to the
nineteenth century occult fraternity, The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
Those decks are The Golden Dawn Tarot, The Thoth Tarot and The Rider-Waite
deck. One other deck, not shown, but which I recommend very strongly, is that
of the late Paul Case and his organization, The Builders of the Adytum. This is
a deck to be hand colored by each student.
Besides this deck,
Case produced some exceptionally good Tarot
literature, to which I have devoted considerable attention. His correspondence
courses on Tarot, written more than forty years ago, are still being distributed.
And, since distribution is restricted, I must quickly note that I am in no way

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The Qabalistic Tarot

associated with that organization, having been provided a complete set of his
courses by sympathetic friends.
Case was a brilliant teacher who must be credited as the first to apply
the terms ofmodem psychology to the cards, an approach very much like that of
Carl Jung. I consider Case to be the first great modem scholar on the Tarot,
unrecognized as such generally because his major works have been available
only to corresponding students of the Builders of the Adytum, who are asked
that they be kept confidential.
I have found his ideas, which have influenced my approach, very
profound, but with reservations. I question his dogmatic reliance on Gematria
(Qabalistic numerology), as well as some of his interpretations of Waite's
symbolism. Moreover, at the time Case was writing, our psychological language
was in a state of development, and his courses do not reflect today's more
precise terminology. A student must "read between the lines," considering forty
years of publications on the occult since Case wrote his courses. A great deal of
what Case did not say to his corresponding students has been published
explicitly by Regardie, Butler and others.
Such criticism does not apply to his small work entitled The Book of
Tokens, written in 1934. If there is one single book which I would recommend, it
is that collection of essays on the Hebrew letters. It is a milestone of
philosophical literature, showing the Tarot to be a key part of the Western
Mystery Tradition.
A comment might also be in order here about my frequent reference to
the works of Aleister Crowley, considered by many to be one of the twentieth
century's great fiends, and by others to be the torchbearer of the religion of the
future. It is very difficult to be objective about Crowley, but in making the
attempt I have been impressed by the profundity of his writings on the Tarot.
His work remains instructive despite criticisms which may be leveled against
his personal behavior. I suspect that history will view Crowley as very much a
representative of the early twentieth century, a period which espoused the
aesthetic of the avant garde: What was new and shocking was better, by
definition, than what was old. This idea actually underlies all of modem art,
music and literature, not to mention the behavior patterns of the artistic elite of
London, Paris and New York during the nineteen twenties and thirties.
Crowley's behavior fits this pattern, as does the very style of his cards, which is
essentially Cubist, the most important and avant garde of all styles of modem
art during his prime.
It is important to appreciate this conceptual difference, imbedded in the
Crowley deck versus the others. The Order ofthe Golden Dawn (1888-1900) was
created at a period when an idea was revered according to its antiquity. Thus
the leaders claimed that their Order's history traced deep into the past of
mankind, and invoked the monolithic ideological structure of the Gods of Egypt.
Crowley, on the other hand, says that a new age has arrived (of which he is, not
coincidentally, the prophet). Old may be good, but new is better.
I may well be criticized for staying too close to traditional symbolic lines
in this work, particularly since the climate today is one of rather sweeping re-

Preface
xvn

organization of symbol systems. A number of books have recently appeared in
which the traditional placement of Tarot cards on the Tree of Life has been
radically altered. And, frankly, there are several keys which I might assign
differently were I starting with no prior conceptions about where the cards
should be placed.
But the system, while drawing vitality from gentle modification, does
not graciously suffer radical overhaul at the hands of any single individual. It
appears intended to develop slowly, each authority incorporating some socially-
based alteration, making the discipline of greater value to the contemporary
society. A system, whether cult, religion or meditative program, is an access
pattern into the inner worlds, one agreed upon and strengthened by generations
of use. It is a path into the unknown paved with culturally-determined, though
universally applicable, symbols. And within any given school, the symbols may
be manipulated and variously applied. Certainly, I have no quarrel with those
who have virtually turned the Tree of life upside down with their combinations
and permutations of ideas. But to do so mitigates the powerful group effort
called "tradition," and potentially creates a new Path. Expressed in another
way: It is the agreement over time on the meaning of a set of symbols which
makes a system a Path. To this end I have given only those attributions which
are now commonly accepted. This is not to imply that such attributions are
immutably correct, rather to suggest that their accepted interlock is of greater
immediate utility to the student than some of the many divergencies.
In this regard, Gareth Knight makes a profound observation. In his
Experience of the Inner Worlds he describes the workings of a group using the
Tarot cards as psychic doorways. He states that "From a formal Qabalistic
point of view it was found possible to start any Path working from virtually any
Tarot trump - which suggests that the sacrosanct and rigid application ofTarot
correspondences to the Tree of Life is of little real importance."!
Thus, one must always approach these materials with the attitude that
no matter how specific the system, it is only one means of approaching an inner
reality. My own style of approach involves building a solid intellectual
foundation for the ideas of each Tarot card, yet doing so with full understanding
that every tower of ideas must eventually fall, and a new tower built in its place.
Each of us builds our own Qabalah, which changes as we learn. What this
means is that we all begin with the same concepts, which we personalize and
incorporate into our own systems, so that they take on real meaning. And the
more we learn, the more we see the original concepts in a different light than
when we began.
In attempting to present a basic framework for study, I have tried to
show how concepts have been derived wherever possible. Most of all this means
a frequent repetition of the Tree of Life illustration, applying different sets of
corresponding symbols. To understand the Hermetic Qabalah means to draw
literally hundreds of Trees of Life, until the myriad interrelationships begin to
make sense. What I have done here is to provide examples of my own
manipulation of Qabalistic ideas, i.e., those ideas which when seen graphically,
have led to special insights. A work such as this can only be a record of its

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The Qabalistic Tarot

author's learning process. I must add that this work focuses entirely on the
philosophy, rather than on the practical exercises involving the Tarot. Those
exercises, both meditative and ritual, have been so extensively discussed by
others that there is no need to repeat them here. Of course, I have cited the most
important books in which these procedures are to be easily found.
Let me say, finally, that this book has been extremely difficult to write,
and I doubt that it will be much easier to read, although I have done my best to
simplify abstract concepts wherever possible. The irony is that the baroque and
convoluted system of ideas called Qabalah, that impossibly complicated
intellectual exercise which is the topic of this book, leads to an inner reality of
such beauty and simplicity thatit could be explained to a child. Yet itis the very
complexity of this exercise of approach that makes the inner simplicity
meaningful and comprehensible.
Robert Wang
Columbia, Maryland
1982

INTRODUCTION

MODERN TAROT STUDIES:
A NINETEENTH CENTURY LEGACY

This is a book of philosophy, of metaphysics, describing a profound system of
self-exploration imbedded in seventy-eight simple pictures known as the Tarot.
And while these cards have long been publicly associated with odd cults and
gypsy fortune tellers, they are increasingly capturing the attention of serious
students, who view the cards as a repository of a very complex system for the
development of inner knowledge.
Perhaps the inventors of the Tarot cards intended that they should be
understood as a graphic summation ofthe principles of the Qabalah, or perhaps
not. At least there is no written evidence to suggest this, and the great Jewish
scholar of the Qabalah, Gershom Scholem, is probably correct in his assertion
(however deprecatory) that the connection was made by late nineteenth century
English and French occultists. One way or the other, the interlock of Tarot and
Qabalah is so precise that the systems are mutually explanatory. And actually,
the likelihood that the two systems developed independently gives far greater
authority to the ideas of both because it points toward their mutual roots in
universal Truth.
Yet, a great deal of nonsense has been written about both the Tarot and
the Qabalah, the sale of a large percentage of occult literature being a tribute to
the public's gullibility. Thus, we should be grateful for the scholarly works of the
past few decades. Scholem pioneered studies on the Jewish Qabalah, while the
western trends have been admirably researched by scholars such as Frances
Yates, D.P. Walker, Francis King and Ellic Howe. Serious research is
increasingly disabusing us of incorrect notions about the roots of modem

2
The Qabalistic Tarot

esotericism, and we should not be disturbed to see sand-eastles tumbling. If a
system has inner merit it will remain unscathed. We must also appreciate that
what is known as The Mysteries has apparently, until very recently, been
transmitted through a secret oral tradition.
Despite increased public interest, surprisingly little attention has been
paid to the Tarot by academia, though the cards are a veritable gold mine of art
history and metaphysical philosophy. They should be of great interest to any
medievalist, being clearly of the same temperament which produced the
sculptural programs of the Gothic cathedrals. It is likely, also, that the cards in
some way relate to the medieval books of Emblemata and to those delightful,
and supposedly historical narratives called the Chansons de Gestes.
What the Tarot represents is an allegorical journey, each card being the
experience of something (a universal energy) along the way, rather like the
episodes in Dante's Divine Comedy, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress or even
Tolkein's Trilogy of the Ring. And the idea of an adventuresome and perilous
journey through unknown territory was typical of medieval literature. The
analogy here is that to travel in the middle ages was as dangerous and difficult
as to travel the inner paths of the Mysteries. So one might agree with the monk
who in 1377 suggested that the Tarot was a mirror offourteenth century society,
saying that the cards represented"... the state of the world as it is now most
excellently described and figured."2 Early decks show many of the Virtues and
Liberal Arts so important to the iconographic programs of Gothic Humanism,
some of which remain in today's standard Tarot keys: TEMPERANCE is
Prudence, STRENGTH is Fortitude, JUSTICE remains Justice, etc. All of these
cards are female, as the Virtues and Liberal Arts were always represented,"
Even an Emperor was visible in the real society. That had been
especially true since 1200, when the Pope crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman
Emperor in an attempt to strengthen Christianity by aligning it with a great
secular power. And when we come to THE HIGH PRIESTESS, we find that
tradition related her to the legend of a "Female Pope,"! circulating at just this
time in history. The evidence for the fourteenth century origin of the cards is
convincing, and hopefully some historian of medieval art history will pick up
these fascinating threads and provide us with the real historical answers.
On the other hand a considerable number of well-trained esotericists
insist that the cards are of very ancient origin. Itis likely that these individuals
are, through the Tarot, encountering the shadows of other systems which have
been used to approach the same universal energies. Such differentiation is often
extremely difficult on the inner plane, which may explain why the experiences
of so many students contradicts historical evidence. Of course, if the Tarot can
be of use to us in something so important as the development of inner
understanding, study of its origins is little more than a pleasant side trip. The
same is true for the very question of an original link between Qabalah and the
Tarot, although we are not here proposing that such a link was originally
intended between Tarot and the Hermetic Qabalah on which this present book
is based.

Introduction
3

That system, developed in Europe from the time of the Renaissance, is a
westernized Qabalah. It grew from the improbable attempts of fifteenth century
philosophers to incorporate the essence of Jewish mysticism into Christian
thought. The history of the modification of these ideas by the philosophers of
the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is particularly interesting.
But it is the nineteenth century developments which are most important for us.
During that time the Hermetic Qabalah, largely de-Christianized, reached its
fullest expression with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The leaders of
that fraternity performed the remarkable task of unifying the disparate
elements of the Western Mystery Tradition (Qabalah, Hermeticism, Astrology,
Neo-Platonism, Dee's Enochian Magic, etc.) in such a way that it formed a
coherent method of inner exploration for the fin de siecle temperament. There
are few modem schools of western esoteric thought which have not been
affected in some way by the developments of that group. And as one discusses
Hermetic Qabalism, one of necessity refers to the Golden Dawn as its primary
modem expression. Hermetic Qabalah and Golden Dawn must be considered
virtually synonymous.
Nor is it significant whether the esoteric tenets of this group were
handed down secretly for generations, or if they were meticulously culled from
ancient manuscripts in the British Museum. The authority of any group derives
entirely from its inner contacts. The "Secret Tradition," "The Mysteries," or
whatever this may be called, can be tapped into by anyone. An individual or
group becomes a part of an ancient tradition by contacting inner teachers in
that tradition, and it would certainly appear that the decks used to illustrate
this book are the result of such inner contact.
The three key decks of the modem era were all produced by members of
that fraternity: The Golden Dawn Tarot (designed by MacGregor Mathers), The
Rider-Waite Deck, designed by A.E. Waite, and the Thoth Tarot designed by
Aleister Crowley. A fourth major deck, already mentioned, is that of Paul Case
for the BOTA. His version is an excellent correction of that issued by Waite.
The Waite deck, one of the most popular ever published, seems to have
been designed with such concern for oaths of membership in the Order that it
remains entirely exoteric. It is included in the hope that those who may have
chosen to study the deck may find its (often admirable, occasionally unaccep-
table) symbolism more useful when considered from the standpoint of the
Hermetic Qabalah.

The Golden Dawn Tarot is an esoteric deck, intended for the private use
of members of the Order. Crowley's deck is also esoteric, in that it conceals the
nineteenth century Order's symbolism. Certainly, Crowley's Thoth Tarot is the
most original recent contribution to Tarot studies.
Unfortunately neither Crowley nor Mathers has received appropriate
credit for their work with the Tarot. And because of their occasionally
outrageous behavior, both men have been fair game for social historians.
Moreover, their scholarly limitations have made them the butt of jokes by
meticulous researchers on the Hebrew Qabalah. But a study of any Mystery