Tree of Life Tarot - Mystical Keys

A New Universal Tree of Life and Tarot

This study is not intended to argue with those who are already totally invested in their belief of what are the supposed true meanings of the Tarot cards and their attributes. Some believe that the Tarot cards are esoteric representations of a sacred journey of the soul, some think they represent an ancient initiation rite, while others may believe it is a picture book of astrology or some other esoteric notion. People will often want to believe whatever suits their particular prejudices, personal desires, or maybe even just a simple childhood fantasy about witches and demons. So, just to be clear, whatever your preferred Tarot deck or interpretation of the cards may be, this study probably won’t validate or confirm any of your prescribed beliefs. However, if you are open to entertain a few new thoughts about the Tree of Life or the Tarot, these ideas might even help you navigate through the parts of the seekers dimly lit road that were too littered with debris and overgrowth to see clearly before. My main focus in this work is on the use of the Tarot deck as a loose-leaf book about astrology and not so much about its’ uses for divination.

Although the Tarot can certainly be used for divination, true diviners can use almost anything to foretell the future; ordinary things like sticks, stones, tea leaves, and even common playing cards are just some of the many things that can be used by fortune tellers. 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. However, the Gypsies have used the 52 common playing cards (among many other things like crystal balls and tea leaves) 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 often rudely rejected or arrogantly ignored, much like has been done with anything else the Gypsies may have contributed to European music and art history: But that’s another tall tale to tell.

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 reading them, whether it be for fun, education or divination. The Tarot cards in and of themselves do not have any supernatural or demonic powers somehow magically infused into them; they are just a deck of cards with pictures made from a normal printers’ regular ink and paper.

The history of the Tarot is not very clear at all, and no one really knows what the intended attributes or meaning of the original Tarot cards were meant to be, if anything at all; none the less, over the years a lot of meaning has been projected onto them. The people who like to make spurious claims about knowing the true meaning of the Tarot because they are supposedly part of some ancient esoteric tradition really have very shallow roots at best, and most likely are just selling you a pack of theories that can neither be proved or disproved. It is truly anyone’s guess as to what the actual intended meaning of the original Tarot cards were since there aren’t any source records of them to be found. The introduction of the Tarot cards to Europe during the 14th century renaissance was but a small part of a much larger influx of new ideals about culture and philosophy that was also pouring into Europe at the same time.

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 22 major components, as well as the astrological attributes that both 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. I wanted to avoid the unprovable claims of original intent or meaning of the Tarot cards and focus on how they could be used today. This meant that I needed to reexamine the structure of the Tarot from the ground up. And if I was going to use the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck to represent the 22-paths of the Tree of Life I would also have to reanalyze all the attributes associated with each Tarot card before I could even try to apply them appropriately into any new Tree of Life system.

I initially looked for some basic patterns and groupings in the deck to see how the numerical and astrological attributes might fit together in the most harmonious manner. There are clearly 22 astrological components that can be considered, which are divided into two groups, the ten planets and the twelve signs. However, there were a few symbols within the 22 cards of the Major Arcana whose attributes needed to be resolved in order to make these two pattern groups much clearer. First, I needed to resolve the issue about whether the number of the Fool card should be zero or twenty-two, and the differing opinions over whether the Strength card or the Justice card should be number eight or eleven.

The issue of whether or not the Fool should be assigned to the zero card, as is the most commonly used attribute for the Fool card today, was not that hard to resolve. Most notably because the ideal numbers start with zero and the image of the fool is a beginning of a journey not the end. The notion of zero as the first number in the number line was very controversial at that time, but today it’s a given and not radical at all. The number zero was introduced to the Europeans at the very same time that the Jewish merchants, who were already adept at using the Arabic number system, were settling into Prague and Venice. Which just happened to be the same time that the first Tarot cards were being published in Europe. Furthermore, the image of the fool card is that of a mindless nobody, a vagabond, someone with no social value, a zero.

The other Tarot cards, where there was a major difference of opinion regarding their number, were the Strength and Justice cards. The dispute was over which one should be assigned to the number eight and which to the number eleven. One school of thought believes that the Strength card should be assigned to the number eight and the Justice card to eleven, while the other school thinks the opposite. Either way, these two cards would first need to be reexamined, and the most harmonious numerical associations determined, before they could be incorporated into this revised Tarot attribute arrangement and Tree of Life system. I settled on using the number eight for the Strength card and eleven for the Justice card, mainly because the numerological nature of number eight is strength, which makes it a more appropriate representation of the Strength card. Whereas the Justice cards’ image very clearly represented the zodiac sign of Libra, given its’ image of the scales. The number eleven was also in the middle of the deck with ten cards on either side, i.e. balance, as well as the equilibrium that the two ones of the number 11 suggest. There is also their particular affinity to one of the two major numerical groups that are intrinsically present in the Tarot deck: the ten ideal numbers cards (0-9), which are character based images that are more akin to the Strength card then they are to the Justice card, and the double digit number cards (11-21), which are images that are more akin in their experiential subject matter to the Justice card. With this arrangement there are now two clear groups; one group of ten planetary characters corresponding to the ten ideal numbers (0-9) and the other group of the twelve zodiac signs corresponding to the remaining twelve double digit numbers (11-21).

Once the question of what the appropriate Tarot card number and image associations for this construct was answered, a clearer pattern in the overall deck emerged. The first ten cards all represented human characteristics, and the remaining twelve cards were more experiential in nature. I think it is very notable that the single digit cards verse the double-digit numbered cards of the Major Arcana have very distinctly different types of central themes in their designs: the first ten cards all depicted personality characteristics. The first ten cards are also very much in line with the astrological characteristics of the Sun and the nine planets. Whereas the remaining twelve cards can appropriately depict the experiential and environmental situations of the twelve zodiac signs. The parallel patterns that could be made by assigning the attributes the different components in this manner gave this approach to the Major Arcana showed far more relevant relationship patterns than any previous explanation of the attributes had ever done before.

This arrangement of the first ten cards allows them all to 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 in our solar system is also accurately reflected: The Fool as The Baby (0-Sun), the Magician as The Boy (1-Mercury), the High Priestess as The Girl (2-Venus), the Empress as The Mother (3-Earth), the Emperor as The Father (4-Mars), the Hierophant as The Teacher (5-Jupiter), the Lover as The Mate (6-Saturn), the Charioteer as The Inventor (7-Uranus), the Courageous as The Hero (8-Pluto), and the Hermit as The Wise (9-Neptune). Pluto is assigned the number 8 because, although it may go a further distance from the sun than the other planets, its’ oblong orbital ring is only the eighth ring out from the sun and thereby always has to travel between the orbital rings of Neptune and Uranus on it orbits around the Sun.

The question of whether or not to include the outer planets of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto could also be debated, being how they were discovered centuries after the original Tarot deck was invented. And if preserving the original intent of the Tarot cards was my only concern, this would be a valid consideration. However, I was not concerned with the lack of historical knowledge of the three outer planets, since what we now know about these planets can still easily conform with the dynamic characters that exist in the first ten Major Arcana cards. So, I proceeded to see if they still could be incorporated into the deck harmoniously. 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 because of numerical parallels, or that their dynamic influences, although unseen, could have somehow been felt and characterized in other ways, as seen in the classic descriptions of the 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”; so that from the observations of the numeric and cyclic patterns on earth, they could assume that there were also parallel influences emanating from some unseen planets above us. The Pythagorean and Platonian ideas that the study of numbers allowed us to see beyond our limited eyesight, and their belief in cosmic harmony, inherent in the music of the spheres’ philosophy, suggested that there may be more planets in our solar system than could be seen with our naked eyes.

The theme of the remaining twelve cards follows the symbolic nature of the twelve zodiac signs. The zodiac signs are not just about the personalities types the sun may have while in those signs; they are about the types of experiences or environmental situations that we may all have or go through in life. For instance, The Wheel of Fortune reminds us that we will reap what we sow (10-Taurus), the Justice card implies Balance or Fairness (11-Libra), the Hanged Man is the experience of Sacrifice or Surender (12-Pisces), Death can indicate an Ending or Transformational experience (13-Scorpio), Temperance is the experience of Blending or Tempering (14-Sagittarius), the Devil is the experience of Fear or Restriction (15-Capricorn), the Lightning Struck Tower suggests the environment of War or the experience of Upheaval (16-Aries), the Star card implies the gaining Knowledge or an Aspirational experience (17-Aquarius), the Moon card as the environment of Ebb and Flow or experiencing the Dangers of the Night (18-Cancer), the Sun card an environment of Growth or experiencing Attainment (19-Leo), Judgement implies Duality or Contrasting environments of life and afterlife (20-Gemini), and the World card refers to the experience of Perfection or a more Harmonious environment (21-Virgo).

There are also two major divisions in the whole Tarot deck, the Major and the Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana is primarily reflective of the Solar system and the Zodiac, whereas the Minor Arcana is primarily reflective of the Lunar cycle and the four elements. They both have distinctly different patterns and cycles that can be observed and experienced over time. In this system, the themes of the Major Arcana can relate to our larger social situations, considerations, and conditions of life. Whereas the Minor Arcana can represent our more sub-lunar concerns and the mundane experiences that we may have day-to-day as the Moon moves through each sign every lunar cycle; like counting down the days of your menstrual cycle, or simply planning for your next payday, or your next day off, these would all fall under the Lunar influence represented by the Minor Arcana.

The Tarot Show
The Ten Actors & Twelve Scenes of the Major Arcana

How the 56 Minor Arcana and the 52 Common Playing Cards relate to the cycles of the Moon.

The Minor Arcana is identical to the common playing cards, except for the addition of the Page to the court cards. However, Pages were not really considered to be part of a royal court, for they were just common servants and held no military rank or had any aristocratic status. In my opinion, to have four court cards is misleading and lacks any real meaningful purpose in the Minor Arcana. Maybe it was just added to have another extra point card while playing the game of Tarocchi. But there you have it, a tradition born without any real explanation or meaningful purpose and perpetuated by peoples’ presumptions that there are some hidden meaning to justify the ignorance of a basic elemental fact; every element has only three modalities, not four: Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable.

The 52-card deck predates the Tarot deck by hundreds of years, it originated in China during the Tang dynasty around the 9th century AD and eventually made its’ way into Europe via the Islamic cultures of the Mediterranean by the 14th century. The 13-card suites reflect the triune nature of the elements they represent better than the more modern Minor Arcana deck, because the 3 court cards can each represent one of the 3 elemental modalities: Cardinal, Fixed, or Mutable. For example, if the King of Hearts card represented the cardinal modality of water, then it would represent the sign of Cancer; in turn, the Queen of Hearts could then represent the Fixed sign of Scorpio, and the Jack of Hearts could represent the Mutable sign of Pisces. The three modalities are a fundamental consideration of the four astrological elements and not to represent these attributes in the Minor Arcana is rather stupid and serves no practical purpose. The 52-cards of the common deck can also correspond to the 52 weeks in a year.

The one thing that I can say in favor of having 14 cards per suite is that with 28-cards per elemental gender they can correspond to the 28 days in a lunar cycle: The 28-night times of the 28-day lunar cycle can be represented by the female water and earth suites of 14-Cup & 14-Disk cards, and the 28-daylight times of the 28-day lunar cycle can be represented by the male fire and air suites, 14-Sword & 14-Wand cards.

The most annoying misrepresentation of the elements in the Minor Arcana that I must address is the erroneous association of the fire and air elements to wands and swords respectively. The wands, which are made from trees, to be associated with fire is an egregious insult to nature herself, and a great danger to us all if we continue to project such a destructive force upon such a delicate resource. In turn, a sword is forged in fire and like fire can destroy any life that it might encounter, like an axe can chop down a tree or a sword can cut down a person. The trees, which the wands are made from, are a primary source of oxygen in our air, and the smell of their flowers, wood, and leaves are an inspiration for us all when we breathe in their enlivening fragrance. The wands not only represent the trees but all the plants on our planet that help to sustain our life with the air and food that they provide for us.

So, to believe that wands represent fire is yet another example of a novice rushing past the introductory warnings in the ancient texts in order to get to the more complicated chapters where they think the real powerful secrets are hidden. So, they accept the elemental information without double checking it with nature to see if it is actually accurate or an appropriate association, as they were told they should do in the preface of the ancient books. Perhaps this was just a clever technique the ancients would use to weed out the impatient seekers who were too eager to brush over the simple basics and get on to the “good stuff”. The eager beavers would brush off the introductory warnings not to just take other people’s word for the truth, but that the sincere seeker should do the suggested homework and verify the validity of the proposed knowledge by checking it out in nature to see if it was true. For without the ability to understand the importance of proof checking your most basic arithmetic problem, then how can you ever be expected to understand the more complex formulas of advanced algebra, let alone get the correct answers.

So, if you really want to hide any potentially dangerous information from the profane, those who lack the necessary patience to wield such profound power, you can simply switch an attribute in the four basic elements and they would never be able to make the high magic formulas, whose results they so desperately lust for, ever quite work out right. Oh well, they should have done their homework assignments.

	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.

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