AUTHOR'S NOTE: After re-reading the Sepher Yetzirah and some of its modern commentary for the first time in several decades, I decided to rework the correspondences for the trump cards on the paths of the Qabalistic Tree of Life to align them with my renewed (some will say "skewed") awareness. During a discussion on one … Continue reading A Loony on the Paths
Tarot History
Projection and Reflection: Trump-Card Pairs and Triplets
AUTHOR'S NOTE: While reading The Tarot of the Bohemians by "Papus" (Gerard Encausse) I came across an interesting approach to correlating the Major Arcana that was new to me. This is the last of my essays from the book unless I read it again at some point in the future. In line with his "positive-negative-neutral-transitional" … Continue reading Projection and Reflection: Trump-Card Pairs and Triplets
Scrambled Symbolism: Revisiting the Sepher Yetzirah
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently had occasion to revisit the Sepher Yetzirah (Hebrew "Book of Formation") as part of a discussion about the relationship between the tarot trumps and the 22 paths of the Hermetic Tree of Life. Once one acclimates to the euphoric "God-talk" and its mystical exhortations, the material in the brief epistle invites … Continue reading Scrambled Symbolism: Revisiting the Sepher Yetzirah
The Thoth Atu or Keys: Major Arcana in Brief
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This essay - the third and final installment of my Thoth "deep dive" series - is by far the most challenging. Crowley's take on the Major Arcana was nuanced and complex, full of syncretic flourishes and just plain ol' mystical ambiguity. But at least his rarefied excursions into occult profundity were a product … Continue reading The Thoth Atu or Keys: Major Arcana in Brief
Papus and the “Universal Fluids”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As I delve deeper into The Tarot of the Bohemians by "Papus" (Gerard Encausse), I've encountered his mystical take on the Kabbalistic concept of "the Descent of Spirit into Matter." Although my brain is starting to feel like a pretzel, I'm soldiering on and trying to render the best of it into comprehensible terms. … Continue reading Papus and the “Universal Fluids”
The Tarot Cosmology of Papus
AUTHOR'S NOTE: A couple of weeks ago I posted an essay in which I took issue with the Golden Dawn's arrangement of the Kings, Queens and Knights on the Chaldean wheel of the zodiac. Rather than the Queens being Cardinal (a dynamic and enterprising mode), I've always felt that they should be Fixed due to … Continue reading The Tarot Cosmology of Papus
Papus and the Trump-Card Septenaries
AUTHOR'S NOTE: With the numbers One through Ten, Papus (Gerard Encausse) found major inspiration in the quaternary paradigm, by which he managed to turn ten "pips" into a triad of four-card arrays. (See my previous essay.) With the trump cards he adopted a septenary model instead, and strove to bring the two onto the same … Continue reading Papus and the Trump-Card Septenaries
Papus and the “Formula of Tetragrammaton”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In The Tarot of the Bohemians, Gerard Encausse (aka "Papus") spends the first 20% of the book playing with the numerology of the cards and relating them to the four Hebrew letters of the "ineffable Name of God" (euphemized as "Tetragrammaton"). Papus stacked up the trump cards in "quaternaries" (four-card sets) following the … Continue reading Papus and the “Formula of Tetragrammaton”
Last Waltz: The Universe and Beyond
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The World card of the tarot (aka "the Universe" in the Thoth and other esoteric decks) prompts endless questions from beginners who are not yet versed in its symbolism. Is it in fact a "good" card that portends success for the seeker because it displays a dancing woman who seems serene and utterly … Continue reading Last Waltz: The Universe and Beyond
Rolling Back the Golden Dawn’s Syllabus
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've known for some time that those who prefer classical decks like the Tarot de Marseille to the esoteric reveries of the post-Occult Revival don't subscribe to the conflation of Hebrew letters and trump cards in general, and particularly not to the model proposed by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Rather … Continue reading Rolling Back the Golden Dawn’s Syllabus
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 