Symbolic Study of the Tarot and the Tree of Life

Path between Chokmah and Kether in Briah

As for the path between Kether and Binah where He is created going down and He dissolve back going up, the same applies here on the path between Kether and Chokmah, but this time it is the I that is created or dissolved.

Color of the path in Briah: Sky Blue

The fool is the Alpha and Omega when one puts the major arcana in a circle. Will he fall down the cliff or walk on the stars with his next step? Are they stars in the next world of Atziluth to come?



Letter: Aleph

0 – The Fool: “This card is attributed to the letter Aleph, which means an Ox, but by its shape the Hebrew letter (so it is said) represents a ploughshare; thus the significance is primarily Phallic. It is the first of the three Mother letters, Aleph, Mem, and Shin, which correspond in various interwoven fashions with all the triads that occur in these cards, notably Fire, Water, Air; Father, Mother, Son; Sulphur, Salt, Mercury; Rajas, Sattvas and Tamas.

The really important feature of this card is that its number should be 0. It represents therefore the Negative above the Tree of Life, the source of all things. It is the Qabalistic Zero. It is the equation of the Universe, the initial and final balance of the opposites; Air, in this card, therefore quintessentially means a vacuum.

In the medieval pack, the title of the card is Le Mat, adapted from the Italian Matto, madman or fool; the propriety of this title will be considered later. But there is another, or (one might say) a complementary, theory. If one assumes that the Tarot is of Egyptian origin, one may suppose that Mat (this card being the key card of the whole pack) really stands for Maut, the vulture goddess, who is an earlier and more sublime modification of the idea of Nuith than Isis.

There are two legends connected with the vulture. It is supposed to have a spiral neck; this may possibly have reference to the theory (recently revived by Einstein, but mentioned by Zoroaster in his Oracles) that the shape of the Universe, the form of that energy which is called the Universe, is spiral.

The other legend is that the vulture was supposed to reproduce her species by the intervention of the wind; in other words, the element of air is considered as the father of all manifested existence. There is a parallel in Anaximenes' school of Greek philosophy.

This card is therefore both the father and the mother, in the most abstract form of these ideas.

This is not a confusion, but a deliberate identification of the male and the female, which is justified by biology. The fertilized ovum is sexually neutral. It is only some unknown determinant in the course of development which decides the issue.

It is necessary to acclimatise oneself to this at first sight strange, idea. As soon as one has made up one's mind to consider the feminine aspect of things, the masculine element should immediately appear in the same flash of thought to counterbalance it. This identification is complete in itself) philosophically speaking; it is only later that one must consider the question of the result of formulating Zero as "plus I plus minus I". The result of so doing is to formulate the idea of Tetragrammaton.

The Fool is of the gold of air. He has the horns of Dionysus Zagreus, and between them is the phallic cone of white light representing the influence from the Crown [Kether: see the position of the Path of Aleph on the Tree of Life.] upon him. He is shown against the background of air, dawning from space; and his attitude is that of one bursting unexpectedly upon the world.

He is clad in green, according to the tradition of Spring; but his shoes are of the phallic gold of the sun.

In his right hand he bears the wand, tipped with a pyramid of white, of the All-Father. In his left hand he bears the flaming pine- cone, of similar significance, but more definitely indicating vegetable growth; and from his left shoulder hangs a bunch of purple grapes. Grapes represent fertility, sweetness, and the basis of ecstasy. This ecstasy is shown by the stem of the grapes developing into rainbow - hued spirals. The Form of the Universe. This suggests the Threefold Veil of the Negative manifesting, by his intervention, in divided light. Upon this spiral whorl are other attributions of godhead; the vulture of Maut, the dove of Venus (Isis or Mary), and the ivy sacred to his devotees. There is also the butterfly of many-coloured air and the winged globe with its twin serpents, a symbol which is echoed and fortified by the twin infants embracing on the middle spiral. Above them hangs the benediction of three flowers in one. Fawning upon him is the tiger; and beneath his feet in the Nile with its lotus stems crouches the crocodile. Resuming all his many forms and many- coloured images in the centre of the figure, the focus of the microcosm is the radiant sun. The whole picture is a glyph of the creative light.

Picture of the card:

Week 96: Kether in Briah and the Ace of Cups

General Symbolic of Kether:

The top of the building! The apex of the Middle Pillar where we can go no further, except to enter the unknown territories of the Veils of Negative Existence (in case of success) or to start again in Malkuth (in case of failure).

When ascending the Tree, Kether is the highest point of balance between the two Pillars. It is there that we can leave the Tree to enter the Unmanifested Ain Soph Aur and reach the Light from which we do not return.

Kether is. To reach Kether, we have since Malkuth worked hard, pruning, scouring the slag that had gathered on the divine spark within us. To reintegrate the first sephiroth, we don't have to do or believe in something, but be something. We must pass from one state of existence to another.

Let's not make the mistake of imagining Kether as located in the distance. It is in fact the closest sephirah to our real being. The Malkuth/Kether loop is complete when we "enter the kingdom of Heaven that is within us".

Kether means "Crown" in the royal sense of the word, but also the summit of any height, be it a mountain or a pillar.

Alchemist iconography shows the spirits of the planets receiving their light in the form of a crown from the hands of their king, the sun. In Yoga, and also in Islam, the crown of the head is the point through which the soul escapes from bodily limitations to ascend to the supra-human states. In Hindu mode, this is the Sahasrâra padma (lotus of a thousand petals).

Out of the boundless light comes a flash of lightning. Kether is the point from which this lightning flashes. It is the first stage of the condensation of Ain Soph, the first crystallization of what has not yet been manifested. There, God is a pressure.

In Kether, no form exists. Only the being in itself is present, which we can imagine as a blinding white light, undifferentiated in rays by a prism.

Kether is reached when we manage to conceive an existence without attributes, dimensions or parts.

The Central Pillar sums up our history. Man fell all the way to Malkuth, becoming a creature of the earth. As we raise our vision, we encounter Yesod and the mind. Higher still, we reach the Sun and converse with the Holy Guardian Angel (the Self). Finally, looking beyond the stars and nebulae, we seek the source of life. Beyond Kether lies our immortality. Communicating with this soul (Tiphereth) and then identifying with it (crossing the abyss) are the necessary steps to conscious immortality.

If in the Old Testament Elijah is taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire, the ascension of Christ (body, soul and spirit) into heaven is an evangelical attestation of this concept. He "spiritualized" himself to the point of gradually disappearing from the disciples level of existence.

Kether in Briah: Metatron

Color: Bright white

Metatron by Ros:


Metatron Cube:


Metatron is the highest angel of all. He is likened to the angel of YHWH, he is God in action. This is why he is called the small YHWH, manifestation of the great YHWH, or the Prince of the Divine Face. He is the angel sent from God par excellence, his integral spiritual descent, through which the totality of his emanations is manifested.

The etymology of the name is uncertain. It could be from the Hebrew nator (to watch) or the Latin metator (the one who measures) or the Greek metathronon (beyond, beside the throne). He is the angel of the Presence who alone sees the Supreme face to face, and through whom the Primordial Power is filtered to the rest of Creation.

Metatron was named the Divine Scribe. He inscribed the thoughts of God in the book that is Creation. His pen is the Middle Pillar, along which flows the luminous ink of the divine emanation, to be engraved in the translucent parchment of the Ether. Everything that was, is and will be, is inscribed in the form of celestial letters (the spiritual archetypes) in the divine book of Metatron.

Man alone, among all creatures, is capable of transforming himself, in a conscious and active way, into Metatron, which is his immanent prototype and of which the other archetypes are only aspects. This possibility of the transmutation of the individual man into Universal Man is confirmed by Tradition, in the story of Enoch's rapture to heaven. In the sacred history of Israel, Enoch, like Moses and Elijah, are among many other prophets and saints who, either in their spiritualized bodies or only in their souls - the body remaining inanimate on earth - realized the heavenly ascent, which leads to the union of man with God.

The magic name of Metatron is Yahoel (Joel), which means I am God. Behind Creation there is a consciousness of the Divine. In Malkuth, we think of Sandalphon as the feet of a being so great that we can see nothing more. In Kether, we encounter the very head of the same being, Metatron. As he is facing God, we can only see the back of his head. No man has seen God and lived. This vision is beyond human capacity.

The Ace of Cups – The Roots of The Powers of Water:

“This card represents the element of Water in its most secret and original form. It is the feminine complement of the Ace of Wands, and is derived from the Yoni and the Moon exactly as that is from the Lingam and the Sun. The third in the Hierarchy. This accordingly represents the essential form of the Holy Grail. Upon the dark sea of Binah, the Great Mother, are Lotuses, two in one, which fill the cup with the Life-fluid, symbolically represented either as Water, as Blood, or as Wine, according to the selected purpose of the symbolism. This being a primordial card, the liquid is shown as water; it can be transformed into Wine or Blood as may be required.

Above the Cup, descending upon it, is the Dove of the Holy Ghost, thus consecrating the element.

At the base of the Cup is the Moon, for it is the virtue of this card to conceive and to produce the second form of its Nature.”
(The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:

Changing Worlds

Kether in this world of Briah, like the two preceding worlds, will become Malkuth of the next world, here Atziluth. In Atziluth Kether will dissolve in Ein Sof.

In this last of four Worlds going up the Tree, Atziluth, Time and Form do not exist, so the process of transformation expressed by the 22 paths will have a lesser meaning than the 10 Sephiroth. Therefore, I will only explore the ten sephiroth and by-pass the study of the 22 paths in this World. I will also not repeat here the general description of each Sephirah.

On the path of Creation, going down the Tree, Atziluth (Hebrew word meaning proximity) is the first World arising from Negative Existence. Its name or title is the World of Divine Names.

Atziltuth is God, in all these aspects no doubt, but without contact with creatures. God acts directly and not through his ministers.

Every reader of the Bible has noticed that God is mentioned under various Names (Elohim, Adonai, Yavhe, etc.). These are not literary devices to avoid repetition, but terms for the different attributes and functions of one God. According to the Name used, we can know the aspect of the divine force to which the writer of the text refers. Ten Hebrew names representing ten different attributes of the divine are assigned to the ten sephiroth of this world.

In this world the intention to create is elaborated. It is the world of archetypes, of ideas. All the dynamics and laws inherent in the world of Atziluth are complete, except that nothing has happened, and nothing will happen until there is movement in time and space. It could have remained so, alone in its original condition if God had not wanted the unfolding of Creation. Its gigantic movement begins in Atziluth and operates according to the laws engendered by the Sephiroth. Although perfect, Atziluth is not fully realized in itself; it is like the will to have a house. This will has become conscious, but the principle of the house has not been defined, its form has not been designed, it has not been built - and yet the will already contains the seeds of all these processes.

Atziltuth will be associated here to Fire and the Wands in Tarot.

‘’According to Fulcanelli, the Phonetic Cabala (Fulcanelli's term for a special use of language, drawing on phonetic similarities and other symbolic techniques for expanding the expressive reach of words) is not the Hebrew Kabbalah; even the derivation is different: Cabala is derived from the Latin caballus, a horse, as in the Horse of Troy in the Iliad. It is basically homophonic and symphonic rather than numerical; it is based on phonetic assonance and resonance to echo The Gay Science in the words of the ancient Greek deities spoken in sacred ancient Greek nomenclature. According to Walter Lang, who wrote an introduction to the English translation of Fulcanelli's Le Mystère des Cathédrales, the basic principles of the Phonetic Cabala are restored in Fulcanelli's Magnum Opus.”
From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulcanelli


The four Worlds in a linear representation:

Week 97: Malkuth in Atziluth and the 10 of Wands

Color in Atziluth: Yellow

Mallkuth in Atziluth: Adonai Ha Aretz

Adonai comes from Adon (lord, master). It expresses the sovereignty of God and thus the feeling of the dependence of the creature, the notion that the man is at the service of the creator, that he belongs to him and owes him obedience as vassal to his suzerain. (Is this the sense of oppression expressed in the associated tarot card?)

The Ad root is the material, physical aspect, the unity extracted from the multitude, everything that emanates from something. The root Nai expresses the I, also Adonai can be interpreted: I am the physical existence, or I am the master or the pedestal, it is the God-man.

Adonai Ha Aretz can be translated as lord of the Earth. Another divine name of this sephirah, Adonai Melek means Lord and King.

The 10 of Wands: Oppression

“The number Ten refers to Malkuth, which depends from the other nine Sephiroth, but is not directly in communication with them. It shows the Force detached from its spiritual sources. It is become a blind Force; so, the most violent form of that particular energy, without any modifying influences. The flames in the background of the card have run wild. It is Fire in its most destructive aspect.

The card also refers to the influence of Saturn in Sagittarius. Here is the greatest antipathy. Sagittarius is spiritual, swift, light, elusive, and luminous; Saturn is material, slow, heavy, obstinate, and obscure.

The eight Wands are still crossed, showing the enormous power of the completed energies of Fire; but they have lost their patents of nobility. Their ends seem more like claws; they lack the authority and intelligence shown in the earlier cards; and in front are the two formidable Dorjes of the Two of Wands, but lengthened to bars.

The whole picture suggests Oppression and repression. It is a stupid and obstinate cruelty from which there is no escape. It is a Will which has not understood anything beyond its dull purpose,
its "lust of result", and will devour itself in the conflagrations it has evoked...”
(The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:

Week 98: Yesod in Atziluth and the 9 of Wands

Yesod in Atzilith: Shaddai El Shai

Colour: Indigo

To this Sephirah, the Qabalah attributes either the name El HHai or the name Shaddai and sometimes El Shaddai.

We will see the name El, which in this case is there to divinize the attribute Hhai which is not a divine name.

Hhai translates as Life or vitality and is characterised by this name, a reservoir of energy, the great reservoir of the energies of nature, of the life force from which everything comes and to which everything returns.

El HHai being the reservoir of life and Shaddai the nurturing mother, these two terms are often associated and referred to as El Shaddai.

The 9 of Wands: Strength

“This card is referred to Yesod, the Foundation; this brings the Energy back into balance. The Nine represents always the fullest development of the Force in its relation with the Forces above it. The Nine may be considered as the best that can be obtained from the type involved, regarded from a practical and material standpoint.
This card is also governed by the Moon in Sagittarius; so here is a double influence of the Moon on the Tree of Life. Hence the aphorism "Change is Stability".

The Wands have now become arrows. There are eight of them in the background, and in front of them one master arrow. This has the Moon for its point, and the Sun for the driving Force above it; for the path of Sagittarius on the Tree of Life joins the Sun and Moon. The flames in the card are tenfold, implying that the Energy is directed downwards.”
(The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:

Week 99: Hod in Atziluth and the 8 of Wands

Hod in Atziluth: Elohim Tsebaoth

Color: Violet

Elohim Tsebaoth, Lord of the Armies, God of the armies of Heaven is a less common expression than YHWH Tsebaoth, attributed to the Sephirah Netzach. In this case it is rather an expression designating the leaders of these armies, guiding heads symbolized by the archangels.

Elohim Tsebaoth designates everything that is with the forces of nature from YHWH Tsebaoth, i.e. winds, lightning, heat, cold, beasts and inanimate things.

The 8 of Wands - Swiftness

“The remaining three cards of the suit belong to Sagittarius, which represents the subtilizing of the Fiery energy; and Mercury rules the card, thus bringing down from Chokmah the message of the original Will.

The card also refers to Hod, splendour, in the suit of Fire, whence it refers to the phenomena of speech, light, electricity.

The pictorial representation of the card shows the Light-wands turned into electrical rays, sustaining or even constituting Matter by their vibrating energy. Above this restored universe shines the rainbow; the division of pure light, which deals with maxima, into the seven colours of the spectrum, which exhibit interplay and correlation.

This card, therefore, represents energy of high velocity, such as furnishes the master-key to modern mathematical physics.

It will be noted that there are no flames; they have all been taken up into the wands to turn them into rays. On the other hand, the electric energy has created intelligible geometrical form.’’
(The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:

Week 100: Netzah in Atziluth and the 7 of Wands

Netzah in Atziluth: YHWH Tsebaoth

Color of Netzah in Atziluth: Amber

YHWH Tsebaoth generally translates as Eternal of Armies or God of the Armies of Heaven. It is the army of the stars that adorns the forces of nature.

Therefore, much more than a God giving victory, YHWH Tzebaoth is similar to the term Cosmos of the Greeks and Universe of the Romans.

The word Tsebaoth (armies) appears in this expression the armies of all Creation, which spiritually and materially constitute an immense form with numerous divisions, composed of all kinds of troops, organized and commanded by the energy of YHWH. One of these divisions is that of the angels.

In Tsebaoth, the root TSE evokes the entrepreneurial idea of the crowd, of what rises, opposes, dams and threads. The BA root represents progression, coming. The OTH root is simply the plural feminine.

This name is composed is synonymous with the Almighty Creator, the supreme ruler, the master of the entire Cosmos. In the Greek version, this term is rendered by Pantokrator - Almighty.

The 7 of Wands - Valour:

“This card derives from Netzach (Victory) in the suit of Fire. But the Seven is a weak, earthy, feminine number as regards the Tree of Life, and represents a departure from the balance so low down on the Tree that this implies a loss of confidence.

Fortunately, the card is also attributed to Mars in Leo. Leo is still the Sun in his full strength, but the marks of decadence are already to be seen. It is as if the wavering fire summoned the brutal energy of Mars to its support. But this is not enough to counter- act fully the degeneration of the initial energy, and the departure from equilibrium.

The army has been thrown into disorder; if victory is to be won, it will be by dint of individual valour-a "soldiers' battle".

The pictorial representation shows the fixed and balanced wands of the last card relegated to the background, diminished, and become commonplace.

In front is a large crude uneven club, the first weapon to hand; evidently unsatisfactory in ordered combat.

The flames are dispersed, and seem to attack in all directions without systematic purpose.”
(The Book of Thoth)

Picture of the card:

Week 101: Tiphareth in Atziluth and the 6 of Wands

Tiphareth in Atziluth: YHWH Eloah Ve Daath

Burning heart:


Color in Yatziluth: Clear Pink


YHWH Eloah Ve Daath means God of my wisdom. Daath is the divine knowledge, the omniscience of God, of which he writes: ''And through Daath, the chambers are filled with all precious and pleasant things'' (Proverbs XXIV, 4). Eloah Ve Daath is the God who knows.

The 6 of Wands - Victory

Picture of the card:

[TheOracle]

Legrand, thank you so much for your contributions! I am enjoying this take on the tarot very much. I've sort of viewed it as part of an alchemical process in the past, but this really sheds more light on how it relates.

I really think you would love the Brotherhood of Light Tarot and the Sacred Tarot (accompanying book) to aid your journeys. The book has an index for symbolism across a wide range of practices with would prove to be most useful for this particular study. It also includes the Hebrew!

Thank you for sharing, and I will check back for more updates and future reading

Thank you The Oracle,

Nice reading you.