The Sephirot, the Tarot, and a Small Anecdote

Learning the Sephirot is probably one of the most important things you can do for understanding the Thoth deck. The more you work with the Sephirot, the more the cards open up for you. I would actually say this is more important than learning the nuanced meaning of every card. Because once you figure each cards place on the Sephirot out, a lot of their meaning can be figured out just from that. I would say probably the two biggest knowledge systems for the Thoth deck are the Sephirot and Zodiac, with the former being more important than the latter.

"Qabalists have widely applied the cards of the tarot as keys to the Tree of Life. The 22 trumps (major arcana) are seen as corresponding to the 22 Hebrew letters and the 22 paths of the Tree; the ace to ten in each suit correspond to the ten Sephiroth in the four Qabalistic worlds; and the sixteen court cards relate to the classical elements in the four worlds.^[9][10] While the sephiroth describe the nature of God, the paths between them describe ways of knowing God.^[11]"

^"The emanations of creation arising from Ain Suph Aur are ten in number, and are called Sephiroth (סְפִירוֹת, singular Sephirah סְפִירָה, "enumeration"). These are conceptualised somewhat differently in Hermetic Qabbalah to the way they are in Jewish Kabbalah^[5]. See Sephirot for the Jewish conceptualisation.

From Ain Suph Aur crystallises Kether, the first sephirah of the Hermetic Qabalistic tree of life. From Kether emanate the rest of the sephirot in turn, viz. Kether (1), Chokhmah (2), Binah (3), Daath, Chesed (4), Geburah (5), Tiphareth (6), Netzach (7), Hod (8), Yesod (9), Malkuth (10). Daath is not assigned a number as it is considered either a false or a hidden sephirah^[6].

Each sephirah is considered to be an emanation of the divine energy (often described as 'the divine light') which ever flows from the unmanifest, through Kether into manifestation^[7]. This flow of light is indicated by the lightning flash shown on diagrams of the sephirotic tree which passes through each sephirah in turn according to their enumerations.

Each sephirah is a nexus of divine energy and each has a number of attributions. These attributions enable the Qabalist to form a comprehension of each particular sephirah's characteristics. This manner of applying many attributions to each sephirah is an exemplar of the diverse nature of Hermetic Qabalah. For example the sephirah Hod has the attributions of; Glory, perfect intelligence, the eights of the tarot deck, the planet Mercury, the Egyptian god Thoth, the archangel Michael, the Roman god Mercury and the alchemical element Mercury^[8]. The general principle involved is that the Qabalist will meditate on all these attributions and by this means acquire an understanding of the character of the sephirah."

It's funny, I had a brief flirtation with Qabalah back in early high school, if I had known better I would have just stuck with it. I wonder if I still have that old book? I'm slightly reticent about the Qabalah now in this post-Madonna world, but whatever, "I needz ur knowluge gunz, knowz!"

Incidentally, I had incidence to use the tarot this weekend. I had arrived at a crossroads in the middle of Pennslyvania, both literal and figurative. And I ended up using the tarot to help me get perspective on the options available to me. I also made an offering to Odin there, leaving some coins at the crossroad juncture. 10 minutes later it was storming and pouring down rain(it had been pretty clear to that point). I also saw a ton of ravens, and everyone was walking their dog in front of me(I'd parked in a pet area on accident). I still need to get much much better if I'm ever to make proper sense of any of that, but I try. There's no sense in doing magic if you aren't going to bring it in on the major events of your life.