Symbolic Study of the Tarot and the Tree of Life

Thank you Iomax,

This is a map of the world, like there is so many. Words can only transmit the aspect of the sephirah HOD to stay in the language of the Tree of Life.

The important is to walk the land without having to look at the map anymore.

As I wrote for Hod : Behind each created thing, the initiate perceives the archetype, the plane that contributed to the manifestation of the object in a particular form. Who drew up these plans? God, considered as the Architect of all worlds. Such a perception of God is the responsibility of this Sephirah.

Enjoy!

[lomax]

Originally Posted by Legrand

Thank you Iomax,

This is a map of the world, like there is so many. Words can only transmit the aspect of the sephirah HOD to stay in the language of the Tree of Life.

The important is to walk the land without having to look at the map anymore.

As I wrote for Hod : Behind each created thing, the initiate perceives the archetype, the plane that contributed to the manifestation of the object in a particular form. Who drew up these plans? God, considered as the Architect of all worlds. Such a perception of God is the responsibility of this Sephirah.

Enjoy!

I like kabbalah and i know only the basics.
Most of the people here don't want to know about such things.Most likely to consider you as satanist,etc.(lol)

Hello Iomax,

No need to talk for others.

Always a pleasure to know what you experience.

Regards

Week 45: Path between Netzah and Tiphareth in Yetzirah

This tarot card of the paths, more than others, shows how its meaning changes from one world to another in the Tree of Life symbolism. In Assiah (disks) the scorpion aspect comes out. In Yetzirah (swords) the serpent aspect comes out. While in the next world Briah (cups) going up the Tree, it will be more the eagle aspect.

Letter: Nun

XIII - Death: “This card is attributed to the letter Nun, which means a fish; the symbol of life beneath the waters; life travelling through the waters. It refers to the Zodiacal sign of Scorpio, which is ruled by Mars, the planet of fiery energy in its lowest form, which is therefore necessary to provide the impulse. In alchemy, this card explains the idea of putrefaction, the technical name given by its adepts to the series of chemical changes which develops the final form of life from the original latent seed in the Orphic egg.

This sign is one of the two most powerful in the Zodiac, but it has not the simplicity and intensity of Leo. It is formally divided into three parts; the lowest is symbolized by the Scorpion, which was supposed by early observers of Nature to commit suicide when finding itself ringed with fire, or otherwise in a desperate situation. This represents putrefaction in its lowest form. The strain of environment has become intolerable, and the attacked element willingly subjects itself to change; thus, potassium thrown upon water becomes ignited, and accepts the embrace of the hydroxyl radicle.

The middle interpretation of this sign is given by the serpent, who is, moreover, the main theme of the sign. [The Qabalists embodied in the Book of Genesis, Caps I and II, this doctrine of regeneration. NChSh, the Serpent in Eden, has the value 358: 50 also MShICh, Messiah. He is, accordingly, in the secret doctrine, the Redeemer. The thesis may be developed at great length. Later in the Legend, the doctrine reappears in slightly different symbolism as the story of the Flood, elsewhere in this Essay explained. Of course, the Fish is identical in essence with the Serpent; for Fish=NVN=Scorpio=Serpent. Also, Teth, the letter of Leo, means Serpent. But Fish is also the Vesica, or Womb, and Christ -and so on. This symbol resumes the whole Secret Doctrine.] The serpent is sacred, Lord of Life and Death, and its method of progression suggests the rhythmical undulation of those twin phases of life which we Call respectively life and death. The serpent is also, as previously explained, the principal symbol of male energy. From this it will be seen that this card is, in a very strict sense, the completion of the card called Lust, Atu XI, and Atu XII represents the solution or dissolution which links them.

The highest aspect of the card is the Eagle, which represents exaltation above solid matter. It was understood by the early chemists that, in certain experiments, the purest (i.e., most tenuous) elements present were given off as gas or vapour. There are thus represented in this card the three essential types of putrefaction.

The card itself represents the dance of death; the figure is a skeleton bearing a scythe, and both the skeleton and the scythe are importantly Saturnian symbols. This appears strange, as Saturn has no overt connection with Scorpio; but Saturn represents the essential structure of existing things. He is that elemental nature of things which is not destroyed by the ordinary changes which occur in the operations of Nature. Furthermore, he is crowned with the crown of Osiris; he represents Osiris in the waters of Amennti. Yet more, he is the original secret male creative God: see Atu XV. "Redeunt Saturnia regna." It was only the corruption of the Tradition, the confusion with Set, and the Cult of the Dying God, misunderstood, deformed and distorted by the Black Lodge, that turned him into a senile and fiendish symbol.

With the sweep of his scythe he creates bubbles in which are beginning to take shape the new forms which he creates in his dance; and these forms dance also.

In this card the symbol of the fish is paramount; the fish (Il pesce, as they call him in Naples and many other places) and the serpent are the two principal objects of worship in cults which taught the doctrines of resurrection or re-incarnation. Thus we have Oannes and Dagon, fish gods, in western Asia; in many other parts of the world are similar cults. Even in Christianity, Christ was represented as a fish. The Greek work IXThUS, "which means fish and very aptly symbolizes Christ", as Browning reminds one, was supposed to be a notariqon, the initials of a sentence meaning "Jesus Christ Son of God, Saviour". Nor is it an accident that St. Peter was a fisherman. The Gospels, too, are full of miracles involving fish, and the fish is sacred to Mercury, because of its cold-bloodedness, its swiftness and its brilliance. There is moreover the sexual symbolism. This again recalls the function of Mercury as the guide of the dead, and as the continuing elastic element in nature.

This card must then be considered as of greater importance and catholicity than would be expected from the plain Zodiacal attribution. It is even a compendium of universal energy in its most secret form.”
(The Book of Thoth)

Week 46: Tiphareth in Yetzirah and the 6 of Swords

General Symbolic of Tiphareth:

Tiphareth (Beauty) sits in the centre of the Tree of Life, in the middle of the central pillar. It is the outermost manifestation of the five most subtle sephiroth, while being the spiritual principle of the four most dense sephiroth. It's Kether on a lower plane, and Yesod on the upper plane.

Tiphareth is halfway between the body (material world of Malkuth) and the first expression of the divine Kether). For Irenaeus of Lyon, "the son of God became man so that man could become son of God" (Against heresy).

Tiphareth is to the Tree what the sun is to our world; the vital centre, the heart. If everything emanates from Kether, Tiphareth keeps all the Elements of the Tree in relation to each other. With the exception of Malkhut, each sephirah is directly connected to Tiphareth by one of the paths. It is comparable to the eye of the cyclone, a place of calm and security in the centre of the storm. Unless our lives are centered around an appropriate point, we get lost in chaos. Without an inner sun to illuminate us, everything disintegrates and dissolves. This center is God in us, the Self, the Holy Guardian Angel. This is the sun to which Tiphareth draws our attention to the tree. It is the light that we must find to arrange around it the whole of our inner and outer universe that it will transfigure. In a second step, he will be entrusted with the direction of our life. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of this task, the only true objective of Magic.

Tiphareth is the centre of the second triad of the Tree, who’s other two angles are Gerubah and Chesed. This triad, reflecting the three upper sephiroth, is the one that remains after the death of the body and mind. In privileged moments, the voice that the inner listening perceives is that of the Self, and not that of God or disembodied spirits.

It should be noted that there are two circuits in the trails. The first is that of the Light distributed to the sepiroth via Tiphereth, and the second is a system of exchanges between the sephiroth themselves. The origin of the light comes from Kether, but from a practical point of view, the distribution centre is Tiphareth.

The six sephiroth of which Tiphareth is the center are sometimes called the Universal Man. From Kether's point of view, this man is a child. From Malkuth's point of view, he is a king in his kingdom. In the Bible, according to the name expressed for "God", we know to which sphere of the Tree this particular mode of manifestation should be assigned. Any reference to the son refers to Tiphareth.

There are three types of magical images of Tiphareth; a child, a king-priest and a sacrificed god. The child indicates that this is where our "individuality" begins, distinct from that of others. The king (divine right) between the heavenly city and the human city. The sacrificed god shows that we must divest ourselves of our individuality to join the union with God. We descend the Tree with the child, we live with the king, and finally ascend to accept the sacrifice of ourselves.

In the tradition of Western mystery schools, the first of the great initiations confers the power to converse with our Guardian Holy Angel. The characteristic of this state is that there are no visions or voices. The higher consciousness (Tiphareth) is beyond the mind (Yesod). Pure intuition, it contains no image perceptible by the senses.

Moreover, any inner experience where the vision ends in dazzling light is assigned to Tiphareth. Visions of a clearly defined shape (characters for example) are characteristic of Yesod. En-stasis without form or light, such as the one described by Plotin, tends to reach Kether.

Tiphareth in Yetzirah: MALAKIM

In Hebrew, MALAKIM (Kings, Those Who Rule) refers to angels; the Qabalah uses the latter term to name more specifically those of this sephirah.

They act mainly on the mineral world, the environment in which the beings of Creation evolve.

They produce the mineral kingdom, metals, gems, and are the soul of all mineral medicine. They give man the necessary strength to overcome the powers of lies, and grant him the reward for which he peregrinates here on earth.

They decide which spiritual path is to be followed by the one who reaches Tiphereth. Once the experience of this sephirah is successful, they strengthen the will and the body of the adept so that he can accomplish his task.

The 6 of Swords - Science:

“Tiphareth shows the full establishment and balance of the idea of the suit. This is particularly the case with this card, as the intellect itself is also referred to the number Six. Mercury, in Aquarius, represents the celestial Energy influencing the Kerub of the Man, thus showing intelligence and humanity.
But there is much more than this in the symbol. The perfect balance of all mental and moral faculties, hardly won, and almost impossible to hold in an ever-changing world, declares the idea of Science in its fullest interpretation.

The hilts of the Swords, which are very ornamental, are in the form of the hexagram. Their points touch the outer petals of a red rose upon a golden cross of six squares, thus showing the Rosy Cross as the central secret of scientific truth.”
(The Book of Thoth)

Week 46: Path between Hod and Geburah in Yetzirah

Letter: Mem

XII – The Hanged Man: “This card, attributed to the letter Mem, represents the element of Water. It would perhaps be better to say that it represents the spiritual function of water in the economy of initiation; it is a baptism which is also a death. In the Aeon of Osiris, this card represented the supreme formula of adeptship; for the figure of the drowned or hanged man has its own special meaning. The legs are crossed so that the right leg forms a right angle with the left leg, and the arms are stretched out at an angle of 60° so as to form an equilateral triangle; this gives the symbol of the Triangle surmounted by the Cross, which represents the descent of the light into the darkness in order to re deem it. For this reason there are green disks-green, the colour of Venus, signifies Grace-at the terminations of the limbs and of the head. The air above the surface of the water is also green, infiltrated by rays of the white light of Kether. The whole figure is suspended from the Ankh, another way of figuring the formula of the Rose and Cross, while around the left foot is the Serpent, creator and destroyer, who operates all change. (This will be seen in the card which next follows.)

It is notable that there is an apparent increase of darkness and solidity in proportion as the redeeming element manifests itself; but the colour of green is the colour of Venus, of the hope that lies in love. That depends upon the formulation of the Rose and Cross, of the annihilation of the self in the Beloved, the condition of progress. In this inferior darkness of death, the serpent of new life begins to stir.

In the former Aeon, that of Osiris, the element of Air, which is the nature of that Aeon, is not unsympathetic either to Water or to Fire; compromise was a mark of that period. But now, under a Fiery lord of the Aeon, the watery element, so far as water is below the Abyss, is definitely hostile, unless the opposition is the right opposition implied in marriage. But in this card the only question is of the "redemption" of the submerged element, and therefore everything is reversed. This idea of sacrifice is, in the final analysis, a wrong idea.

"I give unimaginable joys on earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice."

"Every man and every woman is a star."

The whole idea of sacrifice is a misconception of nature, and these texts of the Book of the Law are the answer to it.

But water is the element of Illusion; one may regard this symbol an evil legacy from the old Aeon; to use an anatomical analogy, it spiritual vermiform appendix.

It was the water, and the Dwellers of the Water that slew Osiris; it is the crocodiles that threaten Hoor-Pa-Kraat.

This card is beautiful in a strange, immemorial, moribund manner. It is the card of the Dying God; its importance in the present pack is merely that of the Cenotaph. It says: "If ever things get bad like that again, in the new Dark Ages which appear to threaten, this is the way to put things right." But if things have to be put right, it shows that they are very wrong. It should be the chieftest aim of the wise to rid mankind of the insolence of self-sacrifice, of the calamity of chastity; faith must be slain by certainty, and chastity by ecstasy.

In the Book of the Law it is written: "Pity not the fallen! I never knew them. I am not for them. I console not: I hate the consoled and the consoler."

Redemption is a bad word; it implies a debt. For every star possesses boundless wealth; the only proper way to deal with the ignorant is to bring them to the knowledge of their starry heritage. To do this, it is necessary to behave as must be done in order to get on good terms with animals and children: to treat them with absolute respect; even; in a certain sense, with worship.”
(The Book of Thoth)

Week 47: Path between Tiphareth and Geburah in Yetzirah

In the Thoth tarot card VII and XI have different Names and the place of the card has been changed in the Tree.

“It is impossible to drop a pin without exciting a corresponding reaction in every Star.”

Letter: Lamed

VII – Adjustement: “This card in the old pack was called Justice. This word has none but a purely human and therefore relative sense; so it is not to be considered as one of the facts of Nature. Nature is not just, according to any theological or ethical idea; but Nature is exact.

This card represents the sign of Libra, ruled by Venus; in it Saturn is exalted. The equilibrium of all things is hereby symbolized. It is the final adjustment in the formula of Tetragrammaton, when the daughter, redeemed by her marriage with the Son, is thereby set up on the throne of the mother; thus, finally, she "awakens the Eld of the All-Father."

In the greatest symbolism of all, however, the symbolism beyond all planetary and Zodiacal considerations, this card is the feminine complement of the Fool, for the letters Aleph Lamed constitute the secret key of the Book of the Law, and this is the basis of a complete qabalistic system of greater depth and sublimity than any other. The details of this system have not yet been revealed. It has been thought right, nevertheless, to hint at its existence by equating the designs of these two cards. Not only therefore, because Libra is a sign of Venus, but because she is the partner of the Fool, is the Goddess represented as dancing, with the suggestion of Harlequin.
The figure is that of a young and slender woman poised exactly upon toetip. She is crowned with the ostrich plumes of Maat, the Egyptian goddess of Justice, and on her forehead is the Uraeus serpent, Lord of Life and Death. She is masked, and her expression shows her secret intimate satisfaction in her domination of every element of dis-equilibrium in the Universe. This condition is symbolized by the Magic Sword which she holds in both hands, and the balances or spheres in which she weighs the Universe, Alpha the First balanced exactly against Omega the Last. These are the Judex and Testes of Final Judgment; the Testes, in particular, are symbolic of the secret course of judgment whereby all current experience is absorbed, transmuted, and ultimately passed on, by virtue of the operation of the Sword, to further manifestation. This all takes place within the diamond formed by the figure which is the concealed Vesica Piscis through which this sublimated and adjusted experience passes to its next manifestation.

She poises herself before a throne composed of spheres and pyramids (four in number, signifying Law and Limitation) which themselves maintain the same equity that she herself manifests, though on a completely impersonal plane, in the framework within which all operations take place. Outside this again, at the corner of the card, are indicated balanced spheres of light and darkness, and constantly equilibrated rays from these spheres form a curtain, the interplay of all those forces which she sums up and adjudicates.

One must go more deeply into philosophy; the Trump represents The Woman Satisfied. Equilibrium stands apart from any individual prejudices; therefore the title, in France, should rather be Justesse. In this sense, Nature is scrupulously just. It is impossible to drop a pin without exciting a corresponding reaction in every Star. The action has disturbed the balance of the Universe.

This woman-goddess is Harlequin; she is the partner and fulfilment of The Fool. She is the ultimate illusion which is manifestation; she is the dance, many-coloured, many-wiled, of Life itself. Constantly whirling, all possibilities are enjoyed, under the phantom show of Space and Time: all things are real, the soul is the surface, precisely because they are instantly compensated by this Adjustment. All things are harmony and beauty; all things are Truth: because they cancel out.

She is the goddess Maat; she bears upon her nemyss the ostrich feathers of the Twofold Truth.
From this Crown, so delicate that the most faintest breath of thought must stir it, depend, by chains of Cause, the Scales wherein Alpha, the first, is poised in perfect equilibrium with Omega, the last. The scales of the balance are the Two Witnesses in whom shall every word be established. She is therefore to be understood as assessing the virtue of every act and demanding exact and precise satisfaction.

More than this, she is the complete formula of the Dyad; the word AL is the title of the Book of the Law, whose number is 31, the most secret of the numerical keys of that Book. She represents Manifestation, which may always be cancelled out by equilibration of opposites.
She is wrapped in a cloak of mystery, the more mysterious because diaphanous; she is the sphinx without a secret, because she is purely a matter of calculation. In Eastern philosophy she is Karma.

Her attributions develop this thesis. Venus rules the sign of the Balance; and that is to show the formula: "Love is the law, love under will". But Saturn represents above all the element of Time, without which adjustment cannot take place, for all action and re action take place in time, and therefore, time being itself merely a condition of phenomena, all phenomena are invalid because uncompensated.

The Woman Satisfied. From the cloak of the vivid wantonness of her dancing wings issue her hands; they hold the hilt of the Phallic sword of the magician. She holds the blade between her thighs.

This is again a hieroglyph of "Love is the law, love under will". Every form of energy must be directed, must be applied with integrity, to the full satisfaction of its destiny.”
(The Book of Thoth)

Week 48: Geburah in Yetzirah and the 5 of Swords

General Symbolic of Geburah:

Geburah (force) occupies the central position on the Pillar of Severity. A destructive aspect of strength, it counterbalances the protective and conservative aspect of Chesed.

Wherever there is a form that survives its own usefulness, Geburah must intervene. "Geburah the Destroyer" is as necessary to the balance of the Tree as Chesed, who watches and protects. Inaction should not be confused with balance. In our changing world, the real stability is that of the rider on his bicycle, which results from a conglomerate of forces. Here, any immobility is synonymous with a fall.

With a swift gesture, Geburah tears the object of desire out of our hands. It is this courage and spirit of resolution that destroys any false indulgence.

Some people swear by the strength of Geburah. Others never intervene other than by being passive in the face of conflict. Everyone here is unbalanced.

Geburah in Yetzirah: SERAPHIM

The name SERAPHIM derive from the word Saraph, so it is those who burn that animate Geburah.

They keep their semi-animal appearance; they have human figures; their body is naked, and they carry wings.

According to the Jews and the Targums, they would be a category of angels exercising a ministry related to divine holiness and purification. Fires consume, purify, and illuminate everything they touch. According to Isaiah's description and the meaning of the name of the SERAPHIM, they can be seen as igneous powers which extend, by their wings or extensions, in all six directions (right, left, front, back, above and below).

In some ancient rites, representations of demons symbolizing the worst aspects of ourselves were consigned to a bonfire. They can be interpreted as a call to the SERAPHIM to unfold their purifying flames. They do not punish, they purify. And if we have not been able to correct our inner imbalances by other means, the SERAPHIM will not let us enter Paradise without using their flaming swords.




The 5 of Swords - Defeat:

“Geburah, as always, produces disruption; but as Venus here rules Aquarius, weakness rather than excess of strength seems the cause of disaster. The intellect has been enfeebled by sentiment. The defeat is due to pacifism. Treachery also may be implied.
The hilts of the swords form the inverted pentagram, always a symbol of somewhat sinister tendency. Here matters are even worse; none of the hilts resembles any of the others, and their blades are crooked or broken. They give the impression of drooping; only the lowest of the swords points upwards, and this is the least effective of the weapons. The rose of the previous card has been altogether disintegrated.

The historian is happy to observe two perfect illustrations of the mode of this card and the last in the birth of the Aeon of (1) Osiris, (2) Horus. He will note the decay of such Virtue as characterized Sparta and Rome, ending in the establishment of the Pax Romana. As Virtue declined, corruption disintegrated the Empire from within. Epicene cults, such as those of Dionysus (in its degraded form), of Attis, of Adonis, of Cybele, the false Demeter and the prostituted Isis, replaced the sterner rites of the true Solar- Phallic gods; until finally (the masters having lost the respect, and so the control, of the plebs, native and alien) the lowest of all the slave-cults, dressed up in the fables of the vilest of the parasitic races, swept over the known world, and drenched it in foul darkness for five hundred years. He will delight to draw close parallels with the cognate phenomena displayed before the present generation.”
(The Book of Thoth)

Week 49: Path between Netzah and Chesed in Yetzirah

Letter: Kaph

X – Fortune: “This card is attributed to the planet Jupiter, "the Greater Fortune" in astrology. It corresponds to the letter Kaph, which means the palm of the hand, in whose lines, according to another tradition, the fortune of the owner may be read. [Kaph 20 Peh 80 =100, Qoph, Pisces. The initials K Ph are those of κτεις and φαλλος] It would be narrow to think of Jupiter as good fortune; he represents the element of luck. The incalculable factor.
This card thus represents the Universe in its aspect as a continual change of state. Above, the firmament of stars. These appear distorted in shape, although they are balanced, some being brilliant and some dark. From them, through the firmament, issue lightnings; they churn it into a mass of blue and violet plumes. In the midst of all this is suspended a wheel of ten spokes, according to the number of the Sephiroth, and of the sphere of Malkuth, indicating governance of physical affairs.

On this wheel are three figures, the Sworded Sphinx, Hermanubis, and Typhon; they symbolize the three forms of energy which govern the movement of phenomena.
The nature of these qualities requires careful description. In the Hindu system are three Gunas-Sattvas, Rajas and Tamas. The word "Guna" is untranslatable. It is not quite an element, a quality, a form of energy, a phase, or a potential; all of these ideas enter into it. All the qualities that can be predicated of anything may be ascribed to one or more of these Gunas: Tamas is darkness, inertia, sloth, ignorance, death and the like; Rajas is energy, excitement, fire, brilliance, restlessness; Sattvas is calm, intelligence, lucidity and balance. They correspond to the three principal Hindu castes.

One of the most important aphorisms of Hindu philosophy is: "the Gunas revolve". This means that, according to the doctrine of continual change, nothing can remain in any phase where one of these Gunas is predominant; however dense and dull that thing may be, a time will come when it begins to stir. The end and reward of the effort is a state of lucid quietude, which, however, tends ultimately to sink into the original inertia.

The Gunas are represented in European philosophy by the three qualities, sulphur, mercury and salt, already pictured in Atu I, III and IV. But in this card the attribution is somewhat different. The Sphinx is composed of the four Kerubs, shown in Atu V, the bull, the lion, the eagle and the man. These correspond, furthermore, to the four magical virtues, to Know, to Will, to Dare, and to Keep Silence. [These are the four elements, summed in a fifth, Spirit, to form the Pentagram; and the Magical Virtue corresponding is Ire, to go. "To go" is the token of Godhead, as explained in reference to the sandal-strap or Ankh, the Crux Ansata, which in its turn is identical with the astrological symbol of Venus, comprising the 10 Sephiroth.(See diagram)]. This Sphinx represents the element of sulphur, and is exalted, temporarily, upon the summit of the wheel. She is armed with a sword of the short Roman pattern, held upright between the paws of the lion.

Climbing up the left-hand side of the wheel is Hermanubis, who represents the alchemical Mercury. He is a composite god; but in him the simian element predominates.

On the right hand side, precipitating himself downward, is Typhon, who represents the element of salt. Yet in these figures there is also a certain degree of complexity, for Typhon was a monster of the primitive world, personifying the destructive power and fury of volcanos and typhoons. In the legend, he attempted to obtain supreme authority over both gods and men; but Zeus blasted him with a thunderbolt. He is said to be the father of stormy, hot and poisonous winds; also of the Harpies. But this card, like Atu XVI, may also be interpreted as a Unity of supreme attainment and delight. The lightnings which destroy, also beget; and the wheel may be regarded as the Eye of Shiva, whose opening annihilates the Universe, or as a wheel upon the Car of Jaganath, whose devotees attain perfection at the moment that it crushes them.

Picture of the card:

Week 50: Path between Tiphareth and Chesed in Yetzirah

Letter: Yod

IX – Hermit: “This card is attributed to the letter Yod, which means the Hand. Hence, the hand, which is the tool or instrument par excellence, is in the centre of the picture. The letter Yod is the foundation of all the other letters of the Hebrew alphabet, which are merely combinations of it in various ways.

The letter Yod is the first letter of the name Tetragrammaton, and this symbolizes the Father, who is Wisdom; he is the highest form of Mercury, and the Logos, the Creator of all worlds. Accordingly, his representative in physical life is the spermatozoon; this is why the card is called The Hermit.

The figure of the Hermit himself recalls the shape of the letter Yod, and the colour of his cloak is the colour of Binah, in whom he gestates. In his hand he holds a Lamp whose centre is the Sun, portrayed in the likeness of the Sigil of the great King of Fire (Yod is the secret Fire). It seems that he is contemplating---in a certain sense, adoring---the Orphic egg (greenish in colour) because it is conterminous with the Universe, while the snake which surrounds it is many-coloured to signify the iridescence of Mercury. For he is not only creative, but is the fluidic essence of Light, which is the life of the Universe.

The highest symbolism of this card is, therefore, Fertility in its most exalted sense, and this is reflected in the attribution of the card to the sign of Virgo, which is another aspect of the same quality. Virgo is an earthy sign, and is referred especially to Corn, so that the background of the card is a field of wheat.

Virgo represents the lowest, most receptive, most feminine form of earth, and forms the crust over Hades. Yet not only is Virgo ruled by Mercury, but Mercury is exalted therein. Compare the Ten of Disks, and the general doctrine that the climax of the Descent into Matter is the signal for the reintegration by Spirit. It is the Formula of the Princess, the mode of fulfilment of the Great Work.

This card recalls the Legend of Persephone, and herein is a dogma. Concealed within Mercury is a light which pervades all parts of the Universe equally; one of his titles is Psychopompos, the guide of the soul through the lower regions. These symbols are indicated by his Serpent Wand, which is actually growing out of the Abyss, and is the spermatozoon developed as a poison, and manifesting the foetus. Following him is Cerberus, the three-headed Hound of Hell whom he has tamed. In this Trump is shewn the entire mystery of Life in its most secret workings. Yod Phallus Spermatozoon Hand Logos Virgin. There is perfect Identity, not merely Equivalence, of the Extremes, the Manifestation, and the Method.”
(Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:



The hermit – Celtic Dragon Tarot: