The Tree of Life Tarot – Mystical Keys

The Ten Actors & Twelve Scenes of the Major Arcana

The 28 Mansions of the Moon & the 56 Minor Arcana

There are approximately 28 days in each lunar cycle:
With 14-cards per suite, the 28-night times can be represented by the two female suites (Water & Earth) and the 28-day times by the two male suites (Fire & Air).

The 52-cards of the common playing card deck (13-cards per suite) can represent the 52 weeks in a year. The 52-card deck predates the Tarot, and its’ 13-card suites reflect the nature of the elements better than the minor arcana because the 3 court cards can represent the 3 modalities of each suite: Cardinal, Fixed, & Mutable.

A New Universal Tree of Life and Tarot

This study is not intended to argue with those who are already totally invested in their own belief system or as to what they believe are the true meanings of the Tarot cards. Some believe that the Tarot cards are esoteric representations of some sacred journey of the soul or ancient initiations rites, others believe it is a picture book of astrology and other esoteric notions. People often believe whatever suits their opinions, desires or simply justifies their own perceived needs. This subject matter is riddled with wild speculations about hidden meaning and false claims of their supposed ancient esoteric heritage. I wanted to bypass these foolish attempts to claim some unprovable ancient authority or lineage to some esoteric tradition, like so many have done before. So, I started from scratch to try to build a system of correspondences that adheres to its’ own continuity of contiguous connections from seed to tree. My hopes are that others might also be inspired to take a leap of faith into the vast abyss of knowledge, without any preconceptions of truth, fear of being wrong, or the lust to be right. I can only hope to inspire a few people to embark on their own rugged ride of self-discovery without prejudice as they search for wisdom, understanding, and the crown of inner light.

I can also say, with much certainty, that there is absolutely nothing to fear from the Tarot cards in and of themselves. Rest assured that the cards will not harm you in any way by using them, whether it be for fun, education or divination, for they do not have any magical powers somehow infused into them. They are simply a deck of cards made of normal ink and paper and all the rest is just in peoples’ head.

The history of the Tarot is not very clear at all, and no one really knows the intended meaning of the original cards or even who first created them for that matter. Those who claim that they are the supposed keepers of a traditional translation of the Tarot cards are simply trying to sell a pack of lies to gullible groupies of lost lore. The people who like to make spurious claims about being part of some old esoteric tradition have very shallow roots at best or, most likely, they’re just selling you a pot of pure bullshit that they’re calling a pot of pure gold. It is truly anyone’s guess as to the actual intended meaning of the original Tarot cards. The introduction of the Tarot cards during the 14th century renaissance was but a small part of a much larger influx of new ideals about culture and philosophy that was pouring into Europe at that time and was nothing more than a game.

The Tarot cards had only started to be incorporated into western esoteric schools of thought in the 19th century. However, it wasn’t until the early 20th century, with the arrival of the Rider-Waite deck in 1906, that the interest in the Tarot cards really blossomed and spread in America. This deck was put together by two members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn: Pamala Colman Smith designed the cards under the direction of Arthur Edward Waite in 1909. The symbolism of this particular Tarot deck was heavily influenced by Alphonse Louis Constant, a.k.a. Eliphas Levi, who was a French occultist of the mid-eighteen hundreds who was the first to associate the Tarot cards’ major arcana with the 22 paths in the Hebrew letters and the Tree of Life. Since the Rider-Waite deck came out there have been a plethora of different Tarot decks published with similar symbolism and designs, especially during the revival of esoteric subjects in the 1960’s. There was also another design republished in the 60’s called the Thoth Tarot deck, which was first published in 1944 that became popular in the 1960s. The Thoth deck was painted by Lady Frieda Harris under the direction of Aleister Crowley for his Ordo Templi Orientis school. For a good source of information on many of the different Tarot designs and interpretations that are out there I recommend getting the Dictionary of The Tarot by Bill Butler.

There are certainly parallel relationships that can be made between the 22 Hebrew letters and the Tarot. They are both based on the same number of major components, as well as the astrological attributes that both of them incorporate into their systems. However, although the 22 Major Arcana of the Tarot deck have been grafted onto the western esoteric traditions approach to the Qabalistic Tree of Life since Eliphas Levi first proposed the idea, there are still many differing opinions as to which Atu should be assigned to what path on the Tree of Life. That meant for my purposes the Major Arcana attributes would need to be fully reevaluated in order to find the most harmonious path placements on this proposed Tree of Life system. Hopefully this approach to the Tarot and Tree of Life will help keep this version from being just another regurgitated variation of some antiquated system. Especially since some of these old systems had already been infected with a lot of gross errors from their initial sprouting.

My own reconsideration of the Tarot cards attributes (see above) is a result of over forty years researching the many different Tarot interpretations, design variations, and the Tree of Life from both the eastern and western perspectives. It didn’t take long to realize that there really wasn’t any actual ancient Tarot tradition. The so-called traditions were nothing more than esoteric sales pitches based on wild guesses and a lot of cleverly concocted claims of ancient provenance. We really don’t know anything about what they did or did not know when the original Tarot was created, nor does it matter for the purposes of this particular proposal for a new Tarot construct. For this construct to be a fully self-sustaining system there needed to be a common premise from which all the components could be built from in order to maintain a coherent thread of continuity throughout.

To be able to incorporate this Tarot construct with the Tree of Life system I needed to first determine what the most harmonious relationship between the different symbolic systems might be and then to attempt to find any possible path correspondences consistent with this approach to the Tree of Life. To do this I first had to break the deck down into those cards that had an obvious association with a particular attribute in the Tree of Life; then to move on to the other cards to see what the less obvious attributes might be that would still be able to maintain a harmonious relationship with the other cards. The images of each card also had to be reflective of the notions expressed with the three fundamental symbol languages used in the system: Mathematic (numbers and geometry), Astronomic (zodiac and planets), and Rhetoric (letters & names).

The first symbols within the Tarot whose cards I needed to resolve were the numbers zero through twenty-one of the major arcana. Since there were two differing opinions about what the number of the Fool card should be, either zero or twenty-two, I started with analyzing the Fool. The Fool as the zero card is the most commonly used today and I believe the most suitable. Most notably because the ideal numbers start with the zero and the notion of the fool card is the image of a mindless nobody, a zero, a vagabond, someone with no social value. At the same time that the Tarot showed up in Europe, Jewish merchants and Romani communities were also immigrating into Europe, bringing with them new perspectives on religion, business and mathematics. Both of these cultures either came from or through the middle east, which were predominantly Islamic, and subsequently they would have been very familiar with the use of the Indian/Arabic number system that used the number zero in their mathematics. The very idea of zero was a new numerical concept to the Europeans of that era. The very notion of zero also implied infinity, which was considered a heretical idea by the Catholic church in those days. The church doctrine was rooted in the idea that one was the source number: one God, one son of God, only one way to get to heaven, and the end times with a final judgement day, but certainly not the idea of an infinite number of days with no end.

The only other cards where there is a major difference of opinion regarding their number attributes are the Strength and Justice cards; which one should be assigned to the number eight and which to the number eleven? One school of thought believes the Strength card should be assigned the number eight, while the other school attributes it to the number eleven and the Justice card to the number eight. Which of these two differing opinions were correct or were both of them wrong? Either way, these two cards would clearly need to be reexamined, and the most harmonious numerical associations determined, before they could be incorporated into this particular Tree of Life system. I settled on using number eight for the Strength card and number eleven for the Justice card (a.k.a. Balance card); because the numerological nature of eight was strength and it also better represented the dynamic character type of the Strength card, whereas the Justice cards’ image represented the zodiac sign of Libra more, given its’ image of the scales, and the number eleven was also in the middle of the deck with ten cards on either side, as well as, the equilibrium implied by the two ones in the number eleven itself.

Once the number associations were determined a clear pattern started to emerge in the first ten cards, which all represented personal characteristics, I moved on to resolve the more elusive astrological attributes in the next twelve cards of the Major Arcana. The cards ten thru twenty-one appeared to be more representative of the different experiential environments of the zodiac than the first ten single digit cards so I approached them accordingly. It is notable that the single digit verses the double-digit numbers have very distinctly different types of central themes in their designs. The first ten cards each had a personality type at the center of their image, whereas the next twelve cards are more focused on an experience or an environment as the central theme of the card.

If you were to look at the different characteristics of the images and names in the Major Arcana, you will see a pattern start to emerge that has numerical parallels as well. The first ten cards (using zero for the Fool and eight for the Strength card) can all represent a particular planetary personality type and, if you were to look at the natures of the planets currently being considered, the natural progression of planets is also reflected: The Fool as The Baby (Sun), the Magician as The Boy (Mercury), the High Priestess as The Girl (Venus), the Empress as The Mother (Earth), the Emperor as The Father (Mars), the Hierophant as The Teacher (Jupiter), the Lover as The Mate (Saturn), the Charioteer as The Inventor (Uranus), the Courageous as The Hero (Pluto), and the Hermit as The Wise(Neptune). At the time of this analysis Pluto, due to its’ eccentric oblong orbit, was situated between Neptune and Uranus. Pluto may go a further distance away from the sun, but its’ orbit is the eighth orbital ring out from the sun because it always has to travel between the orbits of Neptune and Uranus.

The remaining twelve cards follow a similar pattern of association with the zodiac; they are not personality types so much as they are experiences that we may all go through in life. The Wheel of Fortune reminds us that we reap what we sow (Taurus). The same goes with the experiences of the other double-digit cards: The Justice card as Balance or Fairness (Libra), The Hanged Man as Sacrifice orSurender (Pisces), The Death as Ending or Transformation (Scorpio), The Temperance as Blending or Transmuting (Sagittarius), The Devil as Fear or Restriction (Capricorn), The Lightning Struck Tower as War or Destruction (Aries), The Star as Knowledge or Aspirations (Aquarius), The Moon as Ebb and Flow or the Risks of Rest (Cancer), The Sun as Growth or Attainment (Leo), The Judgement as Duality or Contrast (Gemini), The World as Perfection or Fruition (Virgo).

The question of whether or not to include the outer planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto would also be debated, being how they were discovered centuries after the original Tarot deck was even developed. If preserving original intent of the cards was my only concern this would be a valid consideration. However, I was not concerned with the lack of historical knowledge of the outer planets, since what we now know about these three outer planets can easily conform with the dynamic characters that already existed in the first ten Major Arcana, I proceeded to see how they could be harmoniously incorporated. In fact, they fit so well together that it makes me wonder if these three outer planets may have been somehow known about already, perhaps numerically, or that their dynamic influences, although unseen, were still somehow felt and characterized by the descriptions of their elder gods.

The term “as above so below” was an esoteric concept that had been around at least since the Hermetic tradition of the Emerald Tablets of Egypt. This concept could also be applied in reverse, “as below so above”; in that from the observations of numeric and cyclic patterns on earth, they could deduce that there would also be similar influences coming from unseen planets cycling above us in the same manner as seen below. The Platonian idea that the study of numbers allowed us to see beyond our limited eyesight and the belief in the cosmic harmony, inherent in the music of the spheres’ philosophy, had already suggested that there may be more planets in our solar system than we could see with our naked eyes. I’m just saying that this notion is not as far-fetched as you may initially think.

There are two different arcana in the Tarot, the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. I believe the Major Arcana is reflective of the Solar system and the Minor Arcana of the Earths’ Lunar system. They both have their distinctly different patterns and cycles that we observe and experience over time. In this system the major arcana is a representation of ten different character types, corresponding to the ten major planetary dynamics, and twelve zodiac expressions, situations or environments that we may experience in life. In this system the themes of the major arcana relate more to the larger social considerations and conditions of life. Whereas the minor arcana represents the mundane, day to day, concerns of our life, which we may have as the moon cycles through its’ phases and the twelve signs throughout the year.

The Major Arcana, viewed as a theatrical play of life, follows a cast of ten actors as they progress through the environments and experiences of the zodiac. Whereas the minor arcana’s’ court cards can correlate to the four weeks of a 28-day lunar month. The total minor arcana of fifty-two cards can correspond to the number of weeks in a year. Whereas the thirteen cards per suite of the common playing card deck can reflect the number of full Moons in a single solar cycle. Either way, both the 56 minor arcana cards and the 52 common playing cards can correspond to the cyclic patterns of the Moon through four elements.

Both the Major and Minor arcana can also be broken down into several sub-categories that have been overlooked by other writers on the Tarot. The major arcana has two major categories: The ten character cards, which consist of the single number digit cards 0-9, and the twelve zodiac cards represented by the twelve double digit cards 10-21. Whereas the minor arcana contains four categories called the suites, which represent the four astrological elements consisting of two male groups called swords and wands (fire and air) and two female groups called disks and cups (earth and water). The Minor Arcana breaks down even further into ten number cards (a decant) and the court cards. Within the common 52-card deck there are three court cards, which can correspond to the three modalities of cardinal, fixed and m used the images of the first ten major arcana cards of the Rider-Waite deck to illustrate the ten major planetary characters of our solar system. I also found that the nature of the twelve experiences of our souls’ journey through the zodiac were depicted sufficiently enough in this deck to illustrate these notions as well. However, to really accurately depict these attributes, a newly designed deck would be necessary to fully express the ideas I am putting forth in this interpretation of the Tarot. However, for the purposes of this particular Tree of Life construct, just defining the Tarot attributes were enough for me to proceed with finding their corresponding paths on the Tree.

The Minor Arcana can also represent the emotional influences and more mundane experiences in our personal lives. The minor arcana, like the Moon, has its’ own rhythms and behaviors that are distinctly different from the rhythms and behaviors of the Solar cycle, as is seen in the major arcana. The Moon orbits around the Earth approximately every 28-days with thirteen full moons a year. The more mundane routines and rhythms of life that occupy most of our day-to-day concerns and dreams, night in and night out, can affect our lives just as profoundly as the larger social considerations of the major arcana, but they just don’t necessarily have the same shared impact on other people in our society. Mundane activities like counting down the days until your next menstrual cycle, simply planning for your payday, or routine days off, all would fall under the minor arcana’s’ sub-lunar influences. The 56-cards of the Minor Arcana allows these cards to be used as a correspondence to the lunar cycle of 28 days, where each day cycle is divided into two parts, night and light, with the male suites representing the light portion of the cycle and the female suites representing the night portion of the cycle.

During the age of enlightenment in the western world, a time when all the exotic stories and goods from the eastern parts of the world were flowing in abundance to Europe. There were European nobles who seized on the opportunities that arose from the new eastern trade routes and to also introduce Europe to esoteric knowledge coming in from the east, along with the writings of long-lost philosophers from ancient Greece. The printing presses also discovered a new card game to sell called the Tarocchi. This game was made only of loose-leaves it didn’t need the expensive bindings and leather cover of a typical book of those days and could be printed relatively cheaper and distributed easily in a simple paper box.

The use of Tarot cards for divination became popular after Antoine Court de Gébelin, a French archaeologist, published a book in the late 18th century associating the Tarot with fortune telling and ancient esoteric teachings. They may have been used for divination before this time, but there just wasn’t any record of this type of use, although true diviners can use almost anything to foretell the future, like sticks, stones, tea leaves, etc… The Gypsies have also been known to use the 52 common playing cards, among other things, for divination purposes long before the 18th century. Unfortunately, all attempts to give any credit to the Romani peoples’ contributions to the esoteric traditions of Europe are rudely rejected and, like everything else they may have done in Europe, severely scrutinized by the extremely xenophobic and bigoted white Christian nationalists of Europe and America.

	Fire Signs	Water Signs	Air Signs	Earth Signs
ACT I The Cardinal Signs	16 Aries The Lightning Struck Tower	18 Cancer The Moon	11 Libra The Scales of Justice	15 Capricorn The Devil
ACT II The Fixed Signs	19 Leo The Sun	13 Scorpio The Death	17 Aquarius The Star	10 Taurus The Wheel of Fortune
ACT III The Mutable Signs	14 Sagittarius The Temperance	12 Pisces The Hanged Man	20 Gemini The Judgement	21 Virgo The World

FIRE Blades Spades Swords	WATER Vessels Hearts Cups	AIR Staffs Clubs Wands	EARTH Disks Diamonds Pentacles
Male Element This suite represents the element of fire, which reflects the nature of heat, transformation, and control by force. Swords are forged in the fire. Fire can either keep us warm or burn down our house.	Female Element This suite represents the element of water, which reflects the nature of fluidity, emotions and the power of adaptability. Cups are containers for liquids like water which can hydrate us or drown us.	Male Element This suite represents the element of air, which reflects the nature of oxygen producing plants, photosynthesis, and the power of wind. Staffs are made from trees which can give us oxygen or blow us away.	Female Element This suite represents the element of earth, which reflects the nature of food, property and the physical power of possessions. Disks are made from the earth which can provide us food or smoother us in dirt.

The Ten Actors & Twelve Scenes of the Major Arcana

The 28 Mansions of the Moon & the 56 Minor Arcana

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