AUTHOR’S NOTE: I’m currently reading T. Susan Chang’s Tarot Correspondences: Ancient Secrets for Everyday Readers, and I’m at the point where she talks about the indirect connections between sephiroth on the Hermetic Tree of Life that aren’t joined by established “paths” along with their associated trump cards. In baseball terminology, we could say that she goes “around the horn” by using the channels that communicate with adjacent sephiroth as an oblique way to reach the destination. In his book Qabalistic Tarot, Robert Wang discusses the 16 so-called “secret paths” (attributing them to Paul Foster Case and dismissing any Golden Dawn involvement) that – when combined with the 22 overt paths – link every sephira to every other sephira in an elaborate configuration, with only Tiphareth receiving no such supplemental augmentation (nor does it need any).

In her example, Chang examines the invisible link between Geburah, the fifth sephira of Mars and Yesod, the ninth sephira of the Moon, mentioning that one can “get there from here” after a fashion by either following the path of Justice to Tiphareth and thence to Yesod via that of Temperance, or pursuing the path of the Hanged Man to Hod and then navigating the route of the Sun to Yesod. However, I was struck by the fact that traveling the “secret path” between Geburah and Yesod intersects the path of the Devil (and therefore Saturn) “on the perpendicular.” (Mars and Saturn share an affinity for the Devil due to their mutual bond with Capricorn.)

I interpret this card in this position as the “bow” of a “bow-and-arrow” array, with the “arrow” poised to spring forth from the sphere of Mars and find its mark in the sphere of the Moon, thereby creating unexpected “dynamic tension” between the two otherwise dissociated sephiroth. Since there are no trump cards ascribed to these secret paths, I decided that Temperance, with its relationship to Sagittarius (“The “Archer”), could be located there as a secondary correspondence echoing its primary position between Tiphareth and Yesod on the “Path of the Arrow,” thus consummating “on a lower arc” the ‘chymical wedding” that was initiated in the parallel path of the Lovers. This placement is also reinforced by the fact that 5+9=14, the number of Temperance.

On the opposite side of the Tree, another secret path can be invoked to connect Chesed, the fourth sphere of Jupiter, to the ninth sphere of Yesod, this time intersecting with the path of Death “on the perpendicular.” I would double up on the Emperor for this clandestine path as a secondary manifestation of Mars energy (this time in Aries, its sign of rulership), creating an inverted Fire triangle with Strength at the base, Temperance on one leg, and the Emperor as “the Rule of Law” or “Paternal Authority” on the other, and featuring the feminine Moon at the apex gathering the masculine power of Mars and Jupiter from the other two angles (the influx of solar virility is already present).

It’s notable that Scorpio, the sign associated with Death, is also ruled by Mars in classical astrology, and the numbers of Chesed (4) and Yesod (9) sum to 13, the number of Death. In this case, Death is the “bow” and the “paternal potency” of Aries is the “arrow” that buries itself in the Moon of Yesod. (A further testament to the validity of this arrangement is the fact that the Emperor and Death are numerological counterparts by “Theosophical reduction” since 1+3=4).

A couple of years ago I made an attempt to adjust the planetary and zodiacal correspondences and the paths on the Tree of Life for the Major Arcana according to what I called “astro-psychological” principles that grouped the energies according to their assigned sector (Transpersonal; Social; Interpersonal; or Personal) on the Tree. (I realize that this model wreaks havoc on the assumptions made above, but my goal at the time was different.) I’m including it here as a matter of related interest without analysis of its “secret path” implications.

I’ll leave that up to you, but I suggest concentrating on any formal paths crossed by “secret” paths and the nature of any regular or irregular triangles produced by the affiliation. (Pay particular attention to what is going on at the convergence of the horizontal path of Temperance, the vertical path of the Hanged Man, the secret paths between the second and eighth and the third and seventh sephiroth, and the “right triangles” they form in my redesign. This would seem to be a key point of “mediation” for the rectangle of six sephiroth that surrounds but does not include Tiphareth in the “secret compact,” while also bringing “apex” Mercury and Venus into high focus in the “Personal Sector.”)