part0012

In this section I will briefly introduce Kabbalah as a context for the Thoth Tarot, however, as with Alchemy and Astrology, it is a subject that requires much further reading for a thorough appreciation. [33] The reader is directed to a recommended reading list available through the Arch of Bou-Saada mailing list and we will also return to the subject in the second volume of this present series on the Minors.

The original impulse of Kabbalah emerged from a first century school of Jewish mysticism termed Merkabah , meaning ‘chariot’. These mystics utilised secret methods of spiritual ascent in order to attain mystical experience. [34] These experiences can be recognised as those common to any modern adept following the western esoteric initiatory system, for example; "the world changed into purity around me, and my heart felt as if I had entered a new world". [35]

The teachings of the Merkabah mystics became part of the Heikhalot school, whose name means ‘palace’, referring to the spiritual planes which were ascended by the mystic. The description of these journeys seems to bear similarities to the journey of the soul into the Underworld depicted in the ancient Egyptian Book of Coming Forth by Day , with magical words or appropriate names of the gods to be spoken before each door is passed and entrance is granted to each palace.

The collective writings that became the Holy Zohar are now widely acknowledged to be the work of Moses de León, dating from 1280. These dense and complex writings, written in Aramaic, emerged in Spain and rapidly become a foundation stone of Kabbalistic study.

Many of the later Kabbalistic schools are formed from material drawn from these titles, finding in them interpretation and meanings revealing the work of God and Creation. The school formed at Safed in the sixteenth century produced many of the leading thinkers of Kabbalah, particularly Rabbi Isaac Luria, called the Ari (1534-1572), and Rabbi Moshe Cordevero, the Ramak (1522-1570). The former is responsible for much of the current structure and cosmology of Kabbalah, as the Lurianic school of thought provided answers to many of the more complex issues of Kabbalistic thought, particularly relating to the ‘breaking of the vessels’.

The next major historical development of Kabbalah came with the formation of the Hasidic Movement in the mid 1700's, based around the Rabbi Israel, more commonly known as the Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760), which means ‘master of the word’, a high mark of respect in Kabbalism.

Having briefly examined the development of Kabbalah within the Judaic mystical tradition, we now attempt to sketch some of the significant points at which it passed through to the occult tradition, particularly in Europe, and then to the modern Magician, in this case, Aleister Crowley.

The Kabbalah and its teachings passed across into the magical philosophy primarily by transition through medieval Christian thinkers who saw in Kabbalah a model and validation for their own tradition. From the late fifteenth century Jewish converts to Christianity brought Kabbalistic views to the attention of other theologians. A Platonic Academy in Florence, founded by Giovanni Mirandola (1463-94) furthered research and discussion of Kabbalah amongst the philosophers of the time. The later publication of the Shaarey Orah , ‘Gates of Light’ in Latin (1516) brought further interest in the teachings of the Bahir and the fundamental plan of the Tree of Life.

The prime source for the precursors of the occult revival were without question Athanasius Kircher (1602-80), a German Jesuit whose Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1652) detailed Kabbalah amongst its study of Egyptian mysteries and hieroglyphics, and Cornelius Agrippa's De Occulta Philosophia (1533).

Other works, such as those from alchemists including Khunrath, Fludd and Vaughan indicated that the Kabbalah had become the convenient meta-map for early hermetic thinkers. Christian mystics began to utilise its structure for an explanation of their revelations, the most notable being Jacob Boeheme (1575-1624). However, the most notable event in terms of our line of examination is the publication of Christian Knorr Von Rosenroth's (1636-89) Kabbala Denudata in Latin in 1677 and 1684, which provided translations from the Zohar and extracts from the works of Issac Luria.

It was this work which, when translated into English by MacGregor Mathers (1854-1918) in 1887 as The Kabbalah Unveiled , alongside already existing translations of the Sepher Yetzirah , provided the Kabbalistic backbone of the Golden Dawn Society, from which issued many of the more recent occult Kabbalists, such as Dion Fortune (1891-1946), who summarised the Sephiroth in her Mystical Qabalah (1935) and Aleister Crowley (1898-1947).

The Catholic mystic and Golden Dawn member, A. E. Waite also produced many works examining the secret tradition of Kabbalah although Gershom Scholem says, of all of these occultists, that they relied more on their imagination rather than their knowledge of Kabbalah, which he saw as “infinitesimal". [36]

Another stream stemming from Rosenroth's work came through Eliphas Levi (1810-75), who became familiar with Cabalistic Martinism through Hoene Wronski (1778-1853) and had read both Boehme and Rosenroth amongst others. He also became a student of tarot through the writings of Court de Gebelin (1725-84), who ascribed to the tarot an ancient Egyptian origin. From de Gébelin and Rosenroth, Levi synthesised a scheme of attribution of the tarot cards to the twenty-two paths of the Tree of Life, a significant development in that it provided a synthetic model of processes to be later modified and used by the Golden Dawn as mapping the initiation system of psychological, occult, and spiritual development. Levi wrote, "Qabalah ... might be called the mathematics of human thought". [37] Crowley continued Levi's work in the Book of Thoth , published originally in the Equinox III.5, 1944.

However, the first connection of tarot and Kabbalah came through a piece of writing in Antoine Court de Gébelin’s Le Monde Primitif , which was published in 1781. A contributing author to these volumes of analysis of the ancient world, the Comte de Mellett, about who comparatively little is known, wrote that there was a connection between the 22 Major cards of the tarot to the 22 Hebrew letters. [38] It is this idea, published only a little over two hundred years ago, that gave rise to the connection between Kabbalah – the Jewish system of mysticism – and tarot cards.

However, the correspondences between the two systems were uncertain and changeable, as the structure of the tarot – notably the ordering of the Major Arcana cards, was not agreed upon by these early authors, including Etteilla (1738 – 1791), who arguably became the world’s first tarot teacher. [39]

Whilst authors such as Etteilla took the ideas in de Gébelin and produced new works on tarot cards for cartomancy (fortune-telling) other authors took a wider scope and connected the cards to not only ancient Egypt (as originally popularized in de Gébelin) but to Kabbalah. Again, this is only within the last two centuries, and no earlier.

In Europe, the rise of a wave of esotericism took these ideas and wove them into the expanding awareness of Kabbalah, to create a synthesis of thought that has been called by one leading scholar of traditional Kabbalah, a “supreme charlatanism”. [40]

This “charlatanism” however, led to a productive wave of writing and consideration of the universe. It was French occultist Eliphas Levi (1810 – 1875) who can be seen first to use the Kabbalah as a universal map of esoteric thought, modelling not only the chapters of his books on the structure of the Hebrew letters – and hence Kabbalah and through correspondence, tarot – but also much of his writing. There are sections in his works of text and poetry that deliberately and explicitly follow the sequence of Hebrew letters and their correspondences to both tarot and Kabbalah. [41]

This usage inspired the founding members of the Golden Dawn in 1888, and in parallel, Crowley and A. E. Waite, who both immersed themselves in the symbolic synthesis of tarot and Kabbalah as a map of the initiatory system and designed it into their decks – and hence every deck that has modelled itself on their designs.

We must first look to the work of Comte de Mellet in Le Monde Primitif to appreciate the earliest roots of the correspondence of tarot and Kabbalah. In the text below we reference the original volume of Le Monde Primitif which can be viewed at Gallica (Bibliothèque nationale de France), both the two existing English translations and a French typescript. [42]

The main proposal of the work was that the twenty-two Major Arcana of the tarot cards were letters, or tableaux , which together could be arranged to form sentences and language, as it was seen that the hieroglyphs were similar; pictures instead of letters. There was a mere footnote that “the Hebrew language has 22 letters” whilst the main text focused on the alleged Egyptian connection.

Already though, the twenty-two Arcana were seen as a progressive narrative, in this early instance as a grand story of the Ages – a theme that would later be reflected in the work of both Levi and Crowley. [43]

Gold : The Universe (World) gives birth to mankind (Judgement) and then are created the Sun (Sun), Moon (Moon), Stars and fish (Star, corresponding to Aquarius). There is a fall from heaven (Tower) and the Devil (Devil) comes to end the Golden Age.

Silver : We are led by an Angel (Temperance) who teaches us to live and try and avoid death (Death) and accident (Hanged Man) now we are no longer in the Golden Age. We are assisted in this by our strength to cultivate ourselves and resist our own wildness (Strength). In coming to realise we now live in an inconstant and changing world (Wheel) we seek (Hermit) Justice (Justice).

Bronze/Iron : In the wars that follow (Chariot) we are caught between vice and virtue, no longer led by reason (Lovers). We raise religions and rules (Hierophant) and set Kings (Emperor) and Queens (Empress) upon the earth. This leads the people to pride, idolatry [High Priestess as Junon and the Peacock] and deception (Magician).

This leads to the eventual madness of our race, which is seen as the Fool card, where the tiger biting his legs is viewed as “remorse” trying to delay our inevitable march towards folly and crimes.

Levi’s model of the Ages, itself drawing from the eschatology of Joachim of Fiore, influenced Crowley’s development of the Aeons, filtered through the ancient Egyptian mythology of the Golden Dawn. This notion of Aeons is illustrated profusely throughout the Thoth Tarot.