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What are Tarot Cards?
The Tarot are a deck of 78 cards that are made of 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana cards. The Major Arcana all have names and start from the number 0. The Minor Arcana are now seen in the modern deck of cards used for games. The modern deck has only 3 suit card's whereas the Tarot have a 4th card called The Knight. When a Major Arcana card appears in a reading it refers to major events in a persons life. The Minor Arcana refer to everyday occurances.
Below are 3 Cards from the RiderWaite Deck.
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History of the Tarot Cards
The Tarot first appeared in Italy in the 15th century. Its history is clouded but we know that the 22 Major Arcana Cards are linked with the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The Hebrew letters are used in a system called the Kabbalah which has been around for several thousand years prior to the emergence of the Tarot Cards.
Some points of historical interest are:-
-The Kabbalah was adopted by the Mystical Christians as they saw the Trinity within the Triads of the Tree of Life.
-During the 1400's the Inquisition was on the rise. Anyone caught with heretical information could be burned at the stake.
-The 22 letters were transcribed into picture form, ie The Major Arcana
cards such as The Fool. This made the information less conspicuous and
easier to pass onto others. The Major Arcana was also used as a tool of meditation and reflection on our place in the Universe.
-The use of Tarot was taken up by the Romany or Gypsys in the 1600's. This led to a split in the path of the Tarot. They started the use of Tarot as a tool of divination. It
was found that the symbolism in a card acurately reflected an occurance
in a persons life.
-In the 1800's a group called the Golden Dawn popularised the Tarot and its connections with the Tree of Life. The Rider-Waite deck became the father of all modern Tarot Decks..
-Since then many different Tarot decks have emerged but the practice of
doing readings is still the same.
The Tarot and the Tree of Life.
The Kabbalah came into being to show a way out of our Karma. It describes how to walk a middle path between two extremes. It shows us how to balance our intellect and emotions which turns the mirror of our ego into a window. The Tarot through the use of its imagery is an easier system for those that are unfamiliar with the Hebrew alphabet. The Tarot uses archetypes as symbols to reflect where we are at any time. The Major Arcana equates to the karma we bought into this life. The Major Arcana also shows how to walk the path of reunification over many lives. The Minor Arcana shows how that Karama manifests in our mundane lives as our psychological makeup. Each suite of the Minor Arcana is a path unto itself. Each suite symbolises one of our 4 bodies. These bodies need to be bought together to act as one body as we walk towards the Light. The Minor Arcana shows how this can be done.
The Tree of Life can be seen as the Tao of the West. It shows us how to walk the middle way. Regardless of what aspect of the Tree is being worked the end result is the same. It is a guide to finding healing and wholeness not only on the physical plane but on the spiritual plane as well.
The two diagrams below show the Tree of Life according to the outer Golden Dawn (left) and the Tree as depicted through the Oral tradition (right) that has been passed down by word of mouth since the middle ages. Anyone with inner knowledge of the Tree will know that the Oral Tree is in fact Jacobs Ladder. The Star card takes us to Tipheret in Atziluth which as far as we can evolve to while still in a physical body. The final Daat guards the door to Source to protect us from its infinte illumination.
The Tree of Life According to the Sepher Yetzirah |
Jacobs Ladder |
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