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"Three Fathers and their
generations, Seven conquerors and their armies, and Twelve
boundaries of the Universe.
See now, of these words, the faithful witnesses are the
Universe, the Year and the Man."
-Sepher Yetzirah
The top Right
Tree of Life arrangement is based on a combination of the tarot
numbers and strives for the most harmonious arrangement of all the
numbers used to each other. The names of the Tarot cards were added
according to their corresponding number attribute.
The top left
Tree of Life path arrangements are based on a geometric configuration
of the astrological attributes and can also be seen in the
Cube of Space
section.
The ten Ideal
Number characters, 0-9, corresponds with the ten character cards
of the Tarot: 0- The Fool, 1- Magician, 2- High Priestess, 3- Empress,
4- Emperor, 5- Hierophant, 6- Lover, 7- Charioteer, 8- Courageous,
and 9- The Hermit.
The twelve remaining double numbered Tarot cards, 10-21, coincide
with the twelve Zodiac signs: 10-Taurus, 11- Libra, 12- Pisces,
13- Scorpio, 14- Sagittarius, 15- Capricorn, 16- Aries, 17- Aquarius,
18- Cancer, 19- Leo, 20- Gemini, and 21- Virgo.
The relationship between the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana is
the same as the the relationship of the Solar Cycle to the Lunar
Cycle. The Major Arcana consists of two primary sets of consideration:
the ten major bodies in the Solar System and a twelve zone spatial
division of space and time called the Zodiac.
The 56 Minor Arcana cards of the modern Tarot decks consists of
two primary categories, male and female elements, with 28 cards
each. These male and female sets each consist of two more subsets
of 14 cards each: representing the four elements of Earth, Wind,
Fire, and Water. The Lunar cycle, in turn, has 28 days (male)
and 28 nights (female) and consists of 14 waxing (male) and 14 waning
(female) days.
The older Minor Arcana, a.k.a, the common playing cards, or gypsy
deck, only had 52 cards; ten pips and three court cards. Although
it is a different number than the present Tarot it still reflects
Lunar relationships. There are 13 moon cycles in a year and 52 weeks
in a year. The three court cards correspond to the three dimensional
modes, cardinal, fixed, and mutable, and the three states of the
Moon, new, partial (waxing & waning) and full.
The Tarot and the Tree of Life may have originally come from different
approaches to teaching the same theories of Numbering, Naming, Imaging,
and the Harmonizing of them within the Moment. I can certainly see
how they had gotten married to each other in the first place; and
I can see no good reason not to continue using them in conjunction with
each other.
This is a basic demonstration of breaking the Tree of Life down
into its primary components; then reconstructing the pieces, from
a present point of view, into a new vessel of a greater, more relevant,
value to the modern mind than the myriad of previous vessels.
(The Seven Double and the Twelve Simple Hebrew Letter
associations are taken from Wm. Wynn Westcott's' translation
of the Sepher Yetzirah)
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