Sign
|
Cherub |
Zodiac |
Element |
Essence |
YHVH |
Wand
|
Lion |
Lion |
Fire |
Sulfur |
Yod |
Cups
|
Man |
Aquarius |
Water |
Mercury
|
He |
Swords
|
Eagle |
Scorpio |
Air |
Azoth |
Vav |
Disks
|
Bull |
Taurus |
Earth |
Salt |
He
|
Occultists have taken it a step further, as the Kabbalistic identification of cards is obviously not sufficient to serve the purpose. Paul Christian linked thirty-six minor arcana cards (excluding the aces) with thirty-six astrological decans. Similarly, MacGregor Mathers created a complex astrological scheme in which our Seven of Cups represents Venus in Scorpio, interpreted as illusory success. Each of these thirty-six minor arcana cards was assigned two Kabbalistic angelic entities of the Shemhamphorasch by occultists, each covering five degrees of the zodiacal circle (or one being a daytime and the other a nighttime angel). The Shemhamphorasch is the divided name of God, hidden in the biblical Book of Exodus 14:19, 20, 21. In Hebrew, each of these three verses consists of seventy-two letters (a total of 216, which is a solar number). If we write these three verses one above the other, the first line from right to left, the second from left to right, and the third again from right to left, we get seventy-two columns, each containing three letters. These three letters form one name to which we add the suffix el (aleph-lamed) or yah (yod-he) depending on whether it is a male or female entity. Each name has its angel with whom one can communicate in a special way using talismans. Each angel has its own specific specialty and jurisdiction. Additionally, there is a corresponding system of seventy-two demons that King Solomon supposedly summoned and bound. Occult-Kabbalistic speculation has gone further, connecting the court cards with invisible paths on the Kabbalistic diagram of the Tree of Life. These paths are invisible because they connect the sephirot that the arrangement of the twenty-two paths does not link. Thus, the entire tarot system can be embedded in the Tree of Life. This way, tarot has been Kabbalized, and Kabbalah has been tarotized.
Frances A. Yates, in her book The Art of Memory, mentions that the mnemonic technique of the philosopher Metrodorus of Scepsis (145 BCE – 70 BCE) was based on zodiacal signs. He connected memory with the stars. Metrodorus found or invented three hundred and sixty different places within the twelve zodiac signs and thirty-six decans. This allowed him to imaginatively move through the celestial sphere containing a total of four hundred and eight figures and use them for various mnemonic acrobatics. In Agrippa’s Second Book of Occult Philosophy, Chapter 37 is dedicated to describing thirty-six images that symbolize the nature and meaning of the astrological decans, supposedly of Babylonian origin and transmitted through the Arabs. These images, in their expression, facilitate the memory and interpretation of astrological principles, much like tarot arcana. Therefore, they represent a true astrological tarot, being entirely in the service of astrology and astromagic. I will not present each of them here, but only some that I have noticed have certain similarities with the appearance and interpretations of tarot cards.
For example, the description of the second decan of Aries depicts a powerful woman dressed in red (with a white interior), associated with the idea of domination and authority, reminding us of the Empress card. In the Arabic manual of talismanic astromagic, the Picatrix, this woman is dressed in green. Immediately following is the third decan of Aries, embodied by a male figure in a red robe. He wears a gold bracelet on one arm and holds a staff in the other, interpreted as restlessness due to the inability to achieve his ambitions. Here, we recognize the Emperor in a state of political impotence. In the Indian version of the first decan of Taurus, a farmer appears, as in Agrippa, but here the image also includes a book, while the second decan of Taurus in Agrippa's work features a key. Both the key and the book are symbols sometimes present on the High Priestess card. In the first decan of Leo, we see a man riding the beast, strongly reminiscent of the Strength card, particularly in Crowley's rendition, though in most tarots, it is a woman in relation to the lion. In the third decan of Virgo, we have an old man leaning on a staff, similar to the Misero card from the Mantegna Tarocchi or the Hermit. The first decan of Libra includes, among other things, a man reading a book, again recalling the High Priestess. The second decan of Libra depicts two furious and quarrelsome figures, above whom a third, well-dressed man sits on a chair, reminiscent of the motif of the Devil card. The second decan of Scorpio depicts a scene structurally similar to the Moon card: we see naked man and woman, and a man sitting on the ground, above whom two dogs are biting each other. On the Moon card, instead of the naked man and woman, we have two towers, and instead of the seated man, a figure of a crab. The third decan of Sagittarius shows an idle man playing with a stick, reminiscent of the Fool or Magician. The first decan of Pisces shows a man with a load on his back, but well-dressed, interpreted as a traveler, which connects this motif to the Fool card in the sense of a wanderer. The third decan of Pisces depicts two beautiful newlyweds, bearing a resemblance to the Lovers card.
I won't elaborate on theories here, but I must emphasize the significance of old astrological and astronomical iconography as one of the major sources of imaginative motifs for creating tarot images. In principle, asterism (a term I am using here outside of its usual sense) represents one of the powerful sources of imaginative images, given that humanity has always observed the starry sky, identified constellations and the regularities of celestial bodies, and shaped their abstraction into imaginative pictures connected with mythological facts. Thus, the ancient people encased their wisdom in the stars.
For the magical images that influenced Agrippa and, through Agrippa, the imagination of Giordano Bruno, Frances A. Yates states that they originate from ancient Egyptian teachings on stars and astral magic. She explains that Bruno, like Ficino, thinks in ways that are almost inaccessible to modern man. According to this worldview, imaginative images of stars are intermediaries between ideas in the supramundane world and the sublunary elemental world. By arranging, manipulating, or using star images, we handle forms that are one step closer to reality than objects in the world, although all are subject to stellar influences. The lower world can be influenced by changing stellar influences only if we know how to arrange and handle the images of the stars. In fact, the images of the stars are "shadows of ideas," shadows of reality that are closer to reality than physical shadows in the lower world. This is how Frances Yates interprets it. Furthermore, by imprinting imaginative images of higher forces into memory, we will understand lower things from a higher perspective. Also, lower things will be ordered in memory once we have arranged the images of higher things in it, which in a higher form contain the reality of lower things, a form that is closer to the ultimate reality. Keep this in mind when you open your tarot deck.
Aligning oneself with these astral images in imagination is one of the key aspects of magical work. Ultimately, Yates paraphrases Giordano Bruno, who says that different types of memory images have varying degrees of power, as not all images are equally close to reality. Those with the highest degree of power and that obscure reality the least, Bruno calls sigils. Sigils are used in memory systems of the occult art of memory as well as in specific magical operations. I am deeply convinced that the design of the minor arcana, although impersonal, represents an abstract variant of the concrete imaginative star images, similar to those described by Agrippa. Like geomancy or dominoes, they completely simplify the more complex imaginative forms originating from the ancient astro-magical imaginary. These images, in a less abstract form, are also expressed in the images of the major arcana of the tarot. Therefore, it is in these star sigils that one should seek the true sources of the tarot. At the same time, these sigils are also forms of encoding alchemical paradigms. To this end, it would be necessary to explore the connection between alchemy and astrology in the context of the genesis of the tarot, but this is currently beyond my expertise.