Revised Tarot to Qabalah

[Edward Mason]

93,

You've altered a lot more than just Art and the Devil. You have a whole new Tree here.

How do you feel putting the Devil in place of Art helps the process of approach to Tiphereth? And in what way does Abrahadabra make the entire existing system moot?

EDIT:
What exactly is so critical about your "Proximity principle"'? The Tree is a psycho-spiritual guide, developed over many generations of practical experience.

93 93/93,
Edward

[Jim Eshelman]

I found that the short essay showed many symptoms of simply not understanding Tarot to begin with. In particular, the discussion of the numeric values of some of the cards was short-sighted: there are excellent reasons that Emperor/Tzaddi needs to be IV and Star/Heh needs to be 17. (The Tarot sequence and the letter sequence are not the same, and trying to force it just chips away at it.)

Besides the A'ayin-Samekh proposed switch, some of the other proposed switches are nonsense. For example, I could at least make a case for The Chariot / Cheth / Cancer being the Path of Tiphereth to Binah, but not of The Lovers / Zayin / Gemini being Geburah to Binah - that violates the essential characteristic of the card, the letter, and more. Ditto with the Hierophant-Star swap proposed - each of them suffers drearily.

[magictortoise]

I'll take a stab at the latter--that Tarot represents a story, "cards of Art", the Sephira don't represent euclidean geometry or proximity, as we are dealing with the journey of the Soul here, and not a strict logical anal-compulsive philosophic treatise by, example, Kant???

lullexwombrerental, do i get it rightly that you presume Immanuel Kant's philosophy to be more structured and appealing to be observed in a more disciplined way, then the selfdevelopment via climbing the paths of the Tree of Life?
(Sorry if i misread, and honestly i personally don't find much use of Kant's work.)
The way i see it - artistic expression is one thing, its an individual non-objective and creative interpretation of ideas/things or whatsoever...
To me it sounds like - as an artist, i came up with a creative interpretation of the law of gravity... shall i jump out of the window because my own artistic vision contradicts the reality of the law of gravity?
Dunno, some artists have done crazier things than that ...

[Edward Mason]

93,

It seems "Eye" or maya represents a traditional barrier between an aspirant an one's "future" self (or, transcending-including space-time barrier).

Of course. But Art/Sagittarius represents the aspiration to reach Tiphereth, which is more important than knowing about the egoic illusions that blind us to Tipheric reality. Its energy is essential to the process of piercing those illusions, hence its position on the standard Tree. However, the traditional arrangement also has the path of Ayin/Devil going into Tiphereth, so it isn't excluded. The creator of the site to which you linked seems not to understand that too clearly. What he doesn't understand, he replaces.

What confuses me most about it is its constant references to physics. I wouldn't study the Upanishads to discover parallels with genetics, nor the Gospel of St. Thomas to learn about principles of inorganic chemistry. And I wouldn't closely equate the Tree of Life, in a revised form or the traditional one, with the laws of physics. Sure, there will be occasional parallels, and the Tetractys material is kinda fun. But that doesn't mean it's of any help in the process of inner transformation. Whereas, the Tree we have is a proven tool for that.

Which, to my mind, is the best argument against not opting for superficially more "logical" arrangements. There are lots of mathematical relationships among the Tree and its components, but you could say that about the human skeleton. That doesn't mean our physical existence is for establishing a point about mathematics.

93 93/93,
Edward

[Jim Eshelman]

Jim, if could you could explain the Emperor/Star reasoning/intuition for its arrangement, that would be GRAND!

I'm unclear of your exact question (mostly because I don't know the antecedent of "its arrangement" - the thread has alluded to many arrangements). Could you clarify with a more precise question? Thanks.

[Wizardiaoan]

Good job Mithros,

I concur with and use the Tree as laid out in your essay. I noticed myself the traditional Kircher tree's discrepancy with Keys XIV and XV. The three paths from Kether go right-left-down as Keys O, I, II—but the three paths from Tiphareth go right-down-left as Keys XIII, XIV, XV. I have wondered if there was some intentional blind so as not to have the Devil upon the middle pillar? I like how the middle pillar is purple now: Saturn as Blue-purple, Capricorn as the same, and Moon as purple (I color Moon purple and Jupiter blue like the spheres of the tree).

I really like Key IV as 2-4, Heh is majestic as Jupiter the King, and the Hierophant is also great as 2-6, as Vau = 6 which emphasizes his solar, light bearing nature. I do not subscribe to Crowley's switch.

I like to call your rules of ordering the paths upon the tree "the nearest sphere first" process of emanation.