Musick, Tarot & The Tree of Life
For those who have been keeping up with the work we’ve been doing around here, you’ll be familiar with our Musickal Meditation series, now available on YouTube. This set of meditations is designed to get you in touch with each of the 22 Major Arcana - as a way to connect, integrate and ritualize those archetypes. However, now that we’re a few in we thought it would be interesting, for further study, to add a short list of Qabalistic correspondences to each. We feel that this will offer the practitioner a chance to explore each card in a number of additional ways as listed below:
It allows us to observe the interrelationship between the cards, the elements, the signs, the planets, and other important esoteric symbols and concepts, so we can absorb and integrate their properties as we construct our own personal image of the Tree of Life in our psyche.
Each individual piece of information provides a window into the deeper meanings of the cards, and can thus be used as an aid for meditation or contemplation along with its corresponding musickal composition.
The Hebrew letters in particular can either be visualized or used as mantras. (We have included phonetic pronunciation guides beside each letter name to eliminate any guesswork.)
Here is an example of what we’ve included with The Magician:
Path: 12th Path
Connecting Sephiroth: Kether to Binah
Action: The Primum Mobile acting on Saturn through Mercury
Yetziratic Title: The Glowing Intelligence
Colour (Queen Scale): Purple
Hebrew Letter: ב, B, Beth (bayth)
Letter Name: House
Numerical Value: 2
When studying Qabalah, it is extremely helpful to keep a diagram of the Tree of Life at your side for reference - but make sure it adheres to your chosen system of correspondences.
The Path refers to the lines that connect the Sephiroth, or spheres, on the Qabalistic Tree of Life. There are thirty-two paths in all - ten for the Sephiroth, which are considered to be the primary paths, and twenty-two for the Hebrew Letters, which are considered secondary. The Sephiroth are also attributed to the 10 numbered cards in each suit, while the Hebrew letters correspond with the 22 cards in the Major Arcana. The Sephirothic paths are considered to be somewhat static, while the connecting paths are dynamic.
The Connecting Sephiroth refers to the two spheres that are joined together by the path, and the Action describes the operational relationship that exists between the three. The Magician, for example, connects Kether - the sphere of the Primum Mobile (undifferentiated oneness) - with Binah - the sphere of Saturn. Since The Magician is attributed to Mercury, we would describe this relationship as “The Primum Mobile acting on Saturn through the influence of Mercury.”
The Yetziratic Title refers to a name given to the path in the ancient Qabalistic text, Sepher Yetzirah, or The Book of Formation. Each title describes a distinct intelligence or divine mode of consciousness that its author attributed to each path on the Tree of Life. Simply put, it is another way of describing the manner in which the path manifests, this time in the World of Formation - the astral matrix upon which the Qabalists believe the material world is built. Some consider this to be the realm of the psyche, which we can access through meditative practices.
(Please note: I have chosen to use the Yetziratic titles from Aryeh Kaplan’s translation of the Sepher Yetzirah.)
The Queen Scale is one of four scales of colour developed by the early adepts of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn through “clairvoyant investigation,” as explained by Gareth Knight. Each scale is attributed to one of the four faces of the court cards, and thereby to one of the four Qabalistic worlds, which I will explain in a forthcoming series of posts. We have opted to use the colours of the queen scale for this list, as it is considered to be the standard in modern esoteric colour correspondence - and it is the simplest of the four to envision.
As we mentioned above, a Hebrew Letter is attributed to each of the twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana. These names are significant for a number of reasons, but for our purposes, we will limit ourselves to the basics - letter names and numerical values. A Letter Name is just that - a word that is formed by the name of a Hebrew letter. Take the letter ב, or Beth for example; not only is it the Hebrew letter for what we recognize as B, but it is also a word in itself, which means “house.” The ancient Qabalists gave this a further esoteric meaning; to them, it wasn’t just a house, but a temple - the holy temple that each of us is to build within ourselves.
In addition to sounds, glyphs, and symbolic names, each Hebrew letter is given a numerical value. These numbers form the basis of the branch of Qabalah known as gematria - a system of correspondence that is used to determine links between words based on the combined value of their letters. For example, the Hebrew words for unity and love, achad and ahava, each have a value of 13; when we add them together, we get 26 - the value of the divine name YHVH. The relationship between these words tells us a story - namely, that God is love and unity, at least according to Qabalists.
As you can see, the Qabalah and its building blocks - the Tree of Life, the Sephiroth, the Paths, and the Hebrew letters - form a complex system that can offer us a deeper insight into Tarot. With just a little bit of study and practice, it can add a whole new dimension to one’s understanding of the cards - especially the Major Arcana. But how can one use this information in conjunction with our Musickal Meditations?
We will return to The Magician for some examples:
For instance, one might wish to meditate on the number 2 - the value of the Hebrew letter Beth - and ask oneself how exactly it relates to The Magician. Though there are any number of possible insights, one might find that the Magician, as a symbol of self-consciousness, thereby implies the awareness of an other - a two to complement the one. The Magician is the subject and the world around him is the object; he seems to exist apart from his environment or is at least under the impression that he does. The Fool, on the other hand, whose letter Aleph holds the value of 1, can be seen as undifferentiated unity consciousness; he is not yet aware of his apparent separation.
Or, to take it further, one could even use the letter Beth as a mantra, and simply repeat it over and over during one’s meditation in order to identify oneself with the card and gain insight on an even deeper level. This is especially effective when paired with rhythmic breathing; as you inhale, recite the word mentally, then hold, and repeat it again as you exhale, and hold again, maintaining a steady pattern. We also recommend the practice of vibration - the deep, resonant enunciation of a word. It’s similar to chanting or intonation, and, when done properly, one can actually feel the word reverberating deep within the core of one’s being.
Please keep in mind, these are just a few examples.. Feel free to experiment and find the methods and practices that work for you, and if you’d like, please comment below to share your experiences.
Tim & Julia