An Introduction to the Study of Tarot

Alternative Religions

Filed In:

Alternative Religions

Related Subjects

• Tarot
• Hermeticism
• Gnosticism

Buy the Book

• Tarot, Paul Case

Paul Foster Case

Alternative Religion/ Library

In the minor trumps the Tetragrammaton corresponds to the suits as follows:

Yod	Heh	Vau	Heh
Wands	Cups	Swords	Pentacles
Yod	Heh	Vau	Heh

Its connection with the cards in each suit is:

1	2	3	4
4	5	6	7
7	8	9	10
King	Queen	Knight	Page

The king represents 10, because 10 is Malkuth, "the kingdom", personified by the sovereign.

These four quaternaries stand also in a relation to each other similar to that between the letters of Yod-Heh-Vau-Heh. The first (1,2,3,4) corresponds to Yod, and its members denote activities peculiar to the archetypal world. The second (4, 5, 6, 7) is to the first as Heh is to Y od, and it belongs to the creative world. The activities of the formative world, symbolized by Vau, are indicated by the third group. Finally, the synthesis of all these numbers and planes is the material world, where the abstract powers of the ten Sephiroth, indicated by numbers, assume personal form, represented by the court-cards, which correspond to the second Heh.

"The clue to the attribution of Yod-Heh-Vau-Heh to the major trumps is the fact that each letter of the Hebrew alphabet represents a number. From Aleph to Teth the letters are signs for units from 1 to 9; from Yod to Tzaddi they designate tens from 10.to 90, and from Qoph to Tau they stand for hundreds from 100 to 400. Our knowledge of the correspondences between the letters of the Tetragrammaton and numbers, therefore, leads to the following attribution of Yod-Heh-Vau-Heh to the Hebrew alphabet:

Yod	Heh	Vau	Heh
Aleph 1	Beth 2	Gimel 3	Daleth 4
Daleth 4	Heh 5	Vau 6	Zain 7
Zain 7	Cheth 8	Teth 9	Yod 10
Yod 10	Kaph 20	Lamed 30	Mem 40
Mem 40	Nun 50	Samekh 60	Ayin 70
Ayin 70	Peh 80	Tzaddi 90	Qoph 100
Qoph 100	Resh 200	Shin 300	Tau 400

Substituting the numbers of the major trumps corresponding to the Hebrew letters gives the following table:

Yod	Heh	Vau	Heh
0	1	2	3
3	4	5	6
6	7	8	9
9	10	11	12	/
12	13	14	15
15	16	17	18
18	19	20	21

The seven quaternaries thus formed are also related to the letters of the name. The first corresponds to Yod, the second to Heh, the third to Vau, and the fourth to the second Heh. This last becomes the Y od of a second series of four quaternaries. Thus, although there are only seven quaternaries in the twenty-two major trumps, they include two distinct groups, of which the first includes the cards from zero to twelve, while the second comprises the trumps from nine to twenty-one. The first group symbolizes the universal process of involution, the descent of spirit into matter, through the four worlds as follows:

	Yod	Heh	Vau	Heh
Yod	0	1	2	3	Archetypal
Heh	3	4	5	6	Creative
Vau	6	7	8	9	Formative
Heh	9	10	11	12		Material

The second series represents the process of evolution, the ascent of spirit from the material to the archetypal plane. Hence the order of the worlds is reversed, thus:

	Yod	Heh	Vau	Heh
Yod	9	10	11	12	Material
Heh	12	13	14	15	Formative
Vau	15	16	17	18	Creative
Heh	18	19	20	21		Archetypal

In addition to establishing a general meaning for each card in the pack, this arrangement indicates analogies between cards that stand in similar relations to the letters of the Tetragrammaton. There is a marked correspondence between the cards numbered 0,9,. and 18, for instance, because they are all related to Y od and to the second Heh. The full significance of these correspondences, however, will not be perceived by the student until he has gained some knowledge of the esoteric meaning of the Hebrew alphabet. This will be considered briefly in the next chapter.

Next>

<Return to Start

Return to Texts Index

Can't find what you're looking for? Have an idea or a question? Let us know in the Discussion Forum