AUTHOR’S NOTE: I’ve been ramping up my study of the esoteric “Cube of Space” while reading Lon Milo DuQuette’s Tarot Architect. It’s a conceptual model that I’ve never fully appreciated nor had any practical use for, but that is about to change.

In doing so I compared DuQuette’s illustration to that of Robert Wang in Qabalistic Tarot and found that while they agree on trump-card placement they aren’t consistent in terms of compass-point orientation. For example, DuQuette sets the Eastern vertical face of the cube (occupied by the Empress and its sidekick, Venus) to the viewer’s right while Wang sees it as the “back wall” opposite the observer, with all of the other features rotated counterclockwise along with it except Above and Below, which are constant and revolve around the central axis formed by the Fool. I get the impression that the visual correlation of the faces between the two images doesn’t really matter much as long as all of the directional correspondences and their interrelationships are shown correctly in both.

My own point-of-view is rooted in a slightly different paradigm. As a Northern Hemisphere astrologer, my concept of direction is predicated on having to face South to find the Midheaven on the ecliptic (the diurnal path of the Sun), with North and the Imum Coeli at my back and below; the Eastern horizon and the Ascendant on my left; and the Western horizon and the Descendant to my right. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn placed the elements and seasons on the compass-points by assigning Air/Spring to the East, Water/Autumn to the West, Fire/Summer to the South and Earth/Winter to the North.

Frankly, I think these seasonal assignments have more to do with the classical “humours and temperaments” of the elements as they apply to the Northern European climate – Sanguine (Mild and Dry)/Air/East; Phlegmatic (Cool and Wet)/Water/West; Choleric (Hot and Dry)/Fire/South; and Melancholic (Cold and Dry)/Earth/North – than with any zodiacal assumptions because in the “natural” horoscope fiery Aries rises in the East at the Spring Equinox while airy Libra is in the West, earthy Capricorn – abode of the Winter Solstice – is in the South and watery Cancer – likewise of the Summer Solstice – is in the North. Along with the Ptolemaic astrological framework, this seasonal backdrop is the one I’ve always used in my own work with the tarot. By way of comparison, conventional compass points are based on Magnetic North, with East on the right, West to the left and South behind the North-facing “orienteer.”

For the most part, the elements associated with the tarot trumps at the cardinal points of the Cube of Space do not agree with any of these arrangements. (I understand that they were derived from the location of the Hebrew letters as explained in the Sepher Yetzirah.) The Empress in the East is Earth, not Air or Fire, while the Wheel of Fortune in the West is Fire, not Water or Air. The Sun in the South does accurately represent Fire (but not Earth), although I’m less enthused by the Tower in the North because it also reflects Fire and not Earth or Water. But a case can be made for each of these mismatches.

The Empress corresponds to the Hebrew letter Daleth, meaning “door,” and we can surmise that the Eastern horizon represents the portal (some might say “birth canal”) from which the Sun emerges to begin its daily journey across the heavens; in addition, Venus sometimes appears as a “morning star.” The Wheel of Fortune presides over sunset, and the unpredictable turning of the Cosmic Wheel leaves us unsure whether we will see another dawn. This card is associated with Jupiter, which was once considered a Water planet due to its traditional rulership of Pisces and it still retains a little of that elastic fluidity as the “Underlord of the West.” The blazing Sun in the southern realm of Fire needs no further explanation. Although the Tower is more destructive than constructive, its planetary correspondence – Mars – finds its exaltation in earthy Capricorn (perhaps not coincidentally paired with the preceding card, the Devil), while the Qabalistic number of Mars – Five – can be connected with the idea of “breaking eggs to make omelettes.” So, by a stretch of the imagination, the opportunity for (forced) “reconstruction” is embodied in the Tower’s iconography.

I have yet to thoroughly explore the “ordinal” points (Northeast, Northwest, Southwest and Southeast) and their adjoining edges that border the six faces of the Cube, so I will most likely have more to say on the subject as my study progresses. Thus far I’ve noted some “numerological counterparts” between the trumps at opposite edges (Strength/Star; Hermit/Moon; Emperor/Death; Lovers/Devil), one alchemical partnership (Lovers/Temperance) and three sequential “bounding pairs” (Emperor/Hierophant; Lovers/Chariot and Star/Moon. It will be interesting to examine whether the planes between them tie in via any kind of metaphysical commonality or convergence.

The Cube of Space as presented by DuQuette and Wang appears to be another fabrication of the Golden Dawn using their not-always-convincing alignment of the tarot trumps to the Hebrew letters. As was once said to me about esoteric correspondences in general, “Some guys made up a bunch of stuff but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.” We shall see.