Yael R.

Dragwyla First North American rights

Email: Polaris93@aol.com 17,963 words
http://polaris93.livejournal.com/

Qaballah and Tarot: A Basic Course in Nine

Lessons

Lesson III: The 22 Paths of the Tree of Life and the

Greater Arcana of the Tarot

B. The Individual Paths

See handouts for Keys 11-32, and examine the diagram of the Tree of Life. Compare each Path with
the Tarot cards traditionally associated with it.

1. Key 11
Aleph a, “the Ox.” Trump 0, The Fool. The Element Air (, , or ), the Planet Uranus n.
Cardinal (arithmetic) value of 1; first position in Hebrew alphabet (ordinal value of 2). Connects Sephirah
1, Kether with Sephirah 2, Chokmah. Roman-English equivalent: A.

a. Qaballistic meanings and theory

The Archangel Raphael, Who rules the Element Air, is the Archangel of this Trump, which is
associated with the Gods and Spirits Liberty, Ouranos, Urania, Eris, Hermes, Mercury, Raven, Coyote, etc.
Traditionally the letter “A” of the Roman alphabet corresponds to it. Key 11 connects Sephirah 1, Kether
with Sephirah 2, Chokmah; it represents the beginning of the descent of Force into Form, the first step of
the binding of energy into matter according to the Magickal formula E = mc 2.* The numerical, cardinal, or
arithmetic value of Key 11 is 1. And when the numerical values of the individual Hebrew letters – a (1), l
(30), p (80) – that spell Aleph, the letter associated with this Key, are added together, their sum is 111.
Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, so that its ordinal value is the same as its cardinal value.

*If you don’t think that’s a Magickal formula, examine photographs of Hiroshima taken a few days after
August 6, 1945 e.v. to see what a few pounds of metal can do to a city of several hundred thousand
inhabitants! And after seeing films of hydrogen-bomb tests in the South Pacific, any medieval wizard
worth his salte would have readily sworn that only sorceries direct from Hell itself could accomplish
such marvels.
 Each of the Keys has associated with it a complete sub-Universe of things. These are given in detail
in, e.g., Aleister Crowley’s Liber 7776, my own Liber 777 Updated and Extended,7 and my New Magicks
for a New Age,7a but here is an exemplary list of some of those that are associated with Key 11, just to give
you some idea of the range covered in each case. (for the other Paths, please consult the works just cited,
or those of Gareth Knight, Dion Fortune, and Israel Regardie included in the bibliography for this course
for more complete selections of associations and the Qaballistic theory behind them.)

Yetziratic title: Fiery or Scintillating Intelligence.

Hebrew letter: p l a (Aleph), meaning “Ox.”

Numerical value: 1.

Element: Air, the parent of manifest existence; Æther or Quintessence; Void (Zen combat arts);
Chaos

Title: The Spirit of Æther.

Principle: Breath or Ruach, the vital principle of all life. r w a [ w s } y a (Ain Soph Aur),
“Limitless Light” prior to Creation. Breath of the beasts of the field.

Planet: Uranus Ý

Name of Planet in Hebrew: r w r d (DRVR, Freedom”)

Element (Alchemical): Air (, , or )

Element (chemical): Uranium 92U

Ecological process, realm, or principle: the gaseous atmosphere of our Planet; meteorology

Physical chemistry: laws and principles pertaining to gases; ionic bonding

Colors: bright pale yellow (King Scale); sky blue (Queen Scale); blue-emerald green (Emperor
Scale); emerald, flecked gold (Empress Scale)

Gods:

Greek: Ouranos (Uranus), Zeus; Hermes; the bisexual Zeus; Dionysos Zagreus; Bacchus
Roman: Jupiter (Who is associated with Wood/Air (naturally growing things) in the Far East)
Egyptian: Nu, Harpocrates
Scandinavian: Odin, Wotan
USA, France: Liberty-Urania
Celtic: The Green Man of Spring
Christian: The Holy Ghost, the Paraclete
Hindu: Krishna
Other: the Great Hags (with respect to Their agelessness and ability to transcend time);
Parsifal; Baphomet, the ass-headed “God” of the Templars

Meditation: on Wind, Air, or the Void (Sky) of ninpo and kendo cosmology.

Magickal power: Divination.

Perfume: galbanum (perfume from a resin from Persian fennel).

 Magickal Weapons: the Dagger or Fan.

Musical tone: E natural.

Qlippoth: Amprodias, the demon of the Eleventh Path or kala of the Tunnels of Set. Attributed to
the Element Air and its negative aspect. This demon or shadow is associated with the number
401. It may be evoked by vibrating its name in the key of ‘E.’ The sigil should be painted in
luminous pale yellow on a square ground of emerald flecked with gold.* The Demon King
associated with Aleph is Oriens, King of the Demons of the Air.

*See Kenneth Grant, Nightside of Eden (London: Skoob Books Publishing, 1994), pp. 154-161.

Stones: Topaz, chalcedony; any sky-blue stone; artificial stones

Metals and minerals: uranium, radium, pitchblende

Plants: aspen; mutated plants, sports, and hybrids

Animals: Eagle (Cherub of Scorpio, in which Uranus is exalted; also, the Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus
leucocephalus) is the national bird of the United States of America, in whose natal chart
Uranus is rising, conjunct the Ascendant and the Fixed Star Aldebaran, hence very strong in
that chart); Man (Cherub of Aquarius, which Uranus rules); the bat, especially the vampire
bat of South and Central America, a genius among bats; the bear, man-like in form and
intelligence; the pig, manatee, and porpoise, which have naked skins like human beings and
are highly intelligent;

Drugs: peppermint; homeopathic tincture of uranium, uranium ore, or pitchblende at × 11

dilution*

Magickal image: A bearded ancient, seen in profile.

Lineal figures: the Airy Triplicity – Amissio, Puella, Trititia.

Domain: Lord of the Sylphs and Faery.

Archangel: Raphael.

Quarter: the East.

In Buddhist symbolism, the Head, the 1,000-petaled lotus.

*I.e., dilution by (102)11 = 1022 parts of solvent (generally purified water) to one of substrate, in this case,
uranium or its ore.

Far Eastern cosmological associations:

Wood/Air. The East. Spring. Vitality. Production. The Solid but Workable. Sour. Blue or green.
Controls liver and gall. The Dragon. The Planet Jupiter. Yang – the Pine. Yin – the Bamboo. Tin. Air.
Salt. Produces Fire, is produced by Wood/Air (naturally grown things), destroys Earth, is destroyed by
Metal (made things).*

Trigram from the I Ching: Sun (“The Gentle”/Penetrating, Wind)

––––
––––
– –

*For these and other cosmological associations from the Far East, see J. C. Cooper, Chinese Alchemy: The
Taoist Quest for Immortality (New York: Sterling Publishing Co., 1990), passim, but especially
Chapter 10; Jack Hoban, Ninpo: Living and Thinking as a Warrior (Chicago: Contemporary Books,
1988), Part III; Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings (there are numerous translations of this
work; one useful one, in this context, is the one by Victor Harris, published by the Overlook Press of
Woodstock, New York, 1982), passim; and the Richard Wilhelm and Cary F. Baynes translation of
The I Ching, or Book of Changes (the Richard Wilhelm translation rendered into English by Cary F.
Baynes; forward by Carl Jung; preface to the Third Edition by Hellmut Wilhelm. New York:
Bollingen Foundation Inc., 1930. Bollingen Series XIX, Princeton University Press, 1973), passim.

Many other associations are possible, but this gives some idea of the types of things that may be keyed to a
Path (or a Sephirah).
This path is the one by which the Illumined soul proceeds from the direct Vision of God face to face,
which is experienced in Sephirah 2, Chokmah, to the ultimate transcendental experience of Kether, actual
union with God.
The Element Air is attributed to this Path, a good symbol for the Spirit because of its unconfined
nature and the way in which it tends to permeate all things, as well as extending physically to a great
height. In turn, the Ether is even more extended than Air, for which reason the title of this Trump is “The
Spirit of Æther.”
Like the physical atmosphere of our world, Spirit can be taken for granted or even ignored in spite of
the fact that is essential for life – is, in fact, the essence of Life itself – but even so, it can make itself felt in
powerful ways, just as the atmosphere can produce hurricanes and tornadoes. In addition, the atmosphere
disperses and attenuates whatever contaminates it; this is a good analogy of the Great Unmanifest, which
attenuates things into non-existence from the point of view of manifest reality. In this it resembles the
action of God the Disintegrator, the great Fourth Aspect of God, associated with Shiva, Kali, the Editor, the
Critic, and all the other Gods of destruction. Earth confines, Water dissolves, and Fire transforms, but it is
predominantly Air that disperses.
Like all the other Paths, the Eleventh Path can be traveled in two different directions. Its ascent is
the final approach to Samadhi, Union with God, leading to manifest dissolution: those who walk with God,
like Enoch, “are not.” Its descent, on the other hand, is the beginning of the Descent of Power symbolized
Qaballistically by the Lightning Flash; for this reason it represents first beginnings.8
Uranus, the Planet associated with Key 11, is the Planet of precipitate action and violent change. This
is very much in accord with the Trump for this Path, Trump 0, The Fool. The Fool represents not only
what some have called “that folly of God which is wiser than the wisdom of all mankind,” but also the
tendency to leap before looking, a.k.a. Damnfoolishness.
On the other hand, the God Ouranos, for Whom the Planet Uranus is named, is Lord of the Sky, hence
Lord of the Powers of Air. Thus Uranus also fits well with the traditional association of this card and Path
with the Element Air.
Above all, the Goddess Liberty-Urania is associated with this card. Both Air and Uranus represent
completely untrammeled freedom, especially freedom of Spirit. There is no more Uranian sentiment than
that expressed in the poem on the base of the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Isle in New York City Harbor:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

 With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost, to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

The problem is that all too often, we tend to confuse liberty with libertinism, freedom with absolute
license. The preservation of freedom requires an unceasing vigilance and an awesome responsibility to live
one’s life in such a way that one does not jeopardize either one’s own liberty or anyone else’s. While the
ascending mode of this Path represents Liberty in all its sweetness, the descending mode represents the
terrible responsibilities and eternal vigilance necessary to keep Liberty alive:

The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which
condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the
punishment of his guilt.

– John Philpot Curran (1750-1817 e.v.), speech upon the right of Election of the
Lord May of Dublin (July 10, 1790 e.v.)

What country before ever existed a century and a half without rebellion? . . . The tree
of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is
its natural manure.

– Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826 e.v.), letter to William Stevens Smith (November 13,
1787 e.v.)

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what

never was and never will be.

– Thomas Jefferson letter to Colonel Charles Yancey (January 6, 1816)

b. Design and Title of Trump

As the psychologist Carl Jung observes in his study appended to Paul Radin’s The Trickster, as an
archetypal figure the Fool is one of the most important symbols in the Collective Unconscious. He
represents the Self at the beginning of the Journey of Life, the lackwit, the God-touched who has
abandoned his wits for something better, “that Folly of God which is wiser than the wisdom of all
mankind.” He is the trickster whose practical jokes so often backfire, Wiley Coyote foiled yet again by the
Roadrunner. He is Han Solo and Luke Skywalker of Star Wars. He is Punch, Reynard the Fox, Alfred E.
Neuman, and Harlequin. He is Robert A. Heinlein’s Max Jones of Starman Jones and Friday of the novel
of the same name, Jack Sawyer of Stephen King and Peter Straub’s The Talisman, Sister and Roland
Croninger and, to some extent, Sue Wanda of R. R. McCammon’s Swan Song. He is the stupid sibling left
sitting at home in the ashes on the hearth when his or her older siblings go out into the world, who must
eventually rescue them from that world when all their intelligence proves to be of far less value than his/her
cunning, kindness, and trust in the Gods. Both Simple Hans and Cinderella, the Fool fails in everything but
folly – and by the latter wins a kingdom.
 He was known in medieval Germany and the Low Countries as Tyl Eulenspigel, in Russia as the Fool
of God, and in Charlemagne’s France as Our Lady’s Juggler. He is Dostoevsky’s Prince Mishkin, the
entire citizenry of the wonderful land of Chelm, Merlin at King Arthur’s Court, and Coyote, Raven, and the
Trickster in American Indian tales. Above all, he is Hermes-Djehuti, Lord of the Winds, God of Practical
Jokers and Lord of Wisdom and Justice, Whose justice is sometimes rough indeed.
Whoever designed the first Tarot pack knew the Fool well in one or another of these guises, for
legends of the Fool were already part of the “family history” of European humanity. But in general the
Fool was not known in Europe as a standard hero; rather, he was known at the royal courts which first
commissioned production of and used the Tarot as the Court Jester or Court Dwarf who was, in spite of his
inferior status and strange appearance, one of the very few who could speak unpleasant truths to the King
and Queen and get away with it. Today, here in America, as elsewhere, the Fool lives on in such
manifestations as the Clown of the great circuses, the Punch & Judy show, the television comedian, and the
latter’s cartoon clone, Wiley Coyote, Sylvester the Cat, Tweety Bird, Goofy, and all the other escapees
from the Toonworld asylums. He is the hero of the New Orleans Mardi Gras, the Rio Carnival, and
Munich’s Fasching, conductor of one last, grand outbreak of insanity and indulgence before the privation
and self-discipline of Lent close life in for the last hard days of Winter.
At one and the same time the Fool is what we like least about and dare not repudiate in ourselves, the
irrepressible Child who is also the seed of tomorrow and tomorrow’s tomorrow, our most spontaneous and
untutored nature, the Spirit within us stripped naked. Likewise, Trump 0, The Fool, represents the Spirit of
the entire Tarot pack. In the earliest packs known the Fool is shown towering above tiny human figures,
the Giant of Folly who is also the Angel of Supra-Rational Sanity, crazy Tom O’ Bedlam who nevertheless
somehow, alone of us all, is capable of making that first journey “ten leagues beyond the wide world’s end”
without which the species can never hope to survive and thrive. His madness is that of God’s Holy Fool,
and it is that madness that illuminates the cards of the Tarot. For in any reading of Tarot, it is a Fool who
asks the question, and another Fool who answers.
Another name for this card is The Alchemist. Alchemy does produce consistent results upon consistent
operations, but even so, there is always an element of the unexpected in its products – above all, in the
changes in the Alchemist himself over the course of many years of study and practice of the subject.
Alchemy is a spiritual discipline whereby one attempts to come to know the Spirit by working directly with
its ultimate Throne, Matter, an aim very much in the spirit of Trump 0, The Fool.
Images of The Fool have varied widely. These include:

Aquarian: A dreamer, holding a blooming rod over his right shoulder, and a white rose in his right
hand.

Bembo: A ragged fool, with feathers or straw in his hair. This fool, like that of Gringonneur, may be
based on European carnival customs of burning or drowning an effigy of the carnival king on the
last day of carnival or the first of Lent. In some festivals, the effigy was provided by a living man
or woman, which sometimes led to fatal misadventures when the crowd got a little too
enthusiastic. This custom very likely has its roots in the custom of killing the Solar King at the
end of a Solar year. Another custom that may have contributed something to it is that of the
burning of the Wicker Man. The latter was a custom of the Druids in which a colossus made of
wicker, similar to a scarecrow, with a representation of a man’s head at the top was built, its
hollow interior filled with prisoners of war, criminals, and even, sometimes, innocent persons; the
whole figure was then burnt as a sacrifice to the gods.

Crowley: A staring, horned fool, oblivious of a tiger biting his leg, a crocodile behind him, and a
landscape littered with occult symbolism

Golden Dawn: Entitled “The Spirit of Α ι θ η ρ ,” the Trump shows “a bearded ancient seen in
profile.”

Gringonneur: A gigantic fool, wearing only a jockstrap, stands in Gargantuan triumph over four not
very distressed people.

Insight: The Fool setting forth on his journey. A grinning cat attacks him.
 Marseille: Same basic design as Insight, except that the cat has torn away part of the Fool’s trousers.

The New Tarot: Titled “The Nameless One,” the card shows a naked figure accompanied by a dog-like
being leaving a field of bones. In one hand, the figure carries an open scroll, which he reads as he
journeys; in the other hand he carries a furled scroll. Above him a spider hangs from its web.

Swiss: A court fool in parti-colored red, blue, and yellow, very similar to the Joker in an ordinary
playing card pack as well as to the general portrayal of the character The Joker in the Batman
comics

Waite: A young man in gorgeous vestments pauses on the edge of a precipice. In his left hand he
carries a white rose; in his left is a costly wand, from which a wallet embroidered with exotic
designs falls over his right shoulder. A little white dog bounds joyfully at his side. Blue sky is
above him, great mountains in the background, a yawning abyss before him. The Sun blazes out
of the sky at the upper right.

Wirth: A wildcat attacks the Fool’s left leg; the Fool wears an expression of great pain.

America’s Tarot*: The color of the Fool is the gold or yellow of Air. He has the horns of the Ox, and
between them is a phallic cone of white light, representing the influences of Kether, from whence
he comes. He is shown against a background of Air, at the top of which is the star-spangled
blackness of Space, filled with a pulsing aurora of red, white, and blue. He dances above an
Abyss. Bursting into the world in a completely unexpected entrance, he dances through it with
utter blithe innocence. He wears green, like the Green Man and all the other Springtime traditions,
but his shoes are the brilliant yellow-gold of the Sun. His light-green coat is embroidered in a
darker green with cartooned symbols of the psilocybin mushroom, datura flower, morning-glories,
and the peyote cactus. In his right hand he bears a wand, tipped with a pyramid of white,
representing both the Solar Father and Chokmah; in his left he carries a blazing pine-cone,
representing both the phallic power of the Father and the fertility of plant life. From his left
shoulder hangs a bunch of purple grapes, representing fertility, sweetness, and the basis of the
divine drunkenness of the followers of Dionysos; their stems have the form of rainbow-hued
spirals, the same as that of the four-dimensional space-time continuum, and are intertwined with
Cannabis plants. Upon these spiral whorls are other attributions of divinity, from the vulture of
Maat and the Dove of Venus/Isis/Mary to the ivy sacred to the devotees of Dionysos; the many-
colored Butterfly of Air; the winged globe with its twin serpents, echoed by the twin infants
embracing on the middle spiral. Above all are three Cannabis flowers forming one larger flower,
representing the Trinity giving Their blessing to the Fool. A tiger, running up behind him, fawns
upon him; below his feet in the Cosmic River, filled with lotus blossoms, crouches a crocodile.
The Sun is in the center, forming a focus for the rest of the card. Symbols of Air and Uranus
abound in this card. Alternate: Alfred E. Neuman on a construction beam high above New York
City, about to step off – in the windows of a near-by building are All the Gang at MAD, who are
cheerfully waving him on. The New York City skyline and the Statue of Liberty constitute the
background. A bald eagle flies overhead. A pit-bull is clinging to the calf of Alfie’s leg. Ghost-
over of Aleister Crowley.

The Divine Comedy Tarot*: Dante falls down the hole, beginning his journey into Inferno and on to
Purgatory and Paradise.

Biblical Tarot**: Jesus of Nazareth, as a youngster; Genesis.

*Proposed design by Yael R. Dragwyla. The Deuces through the Tens would represent the nine Circles of
the Inferno, and the adventures experienced there; the Aces would represent the Powers of Hell; the
Greater Trumps, in order from 0, I, . . ., through XXI, would represent Dante’s descent through Inferno
 and the lessons learned on the way; and the Court Cards would represent various characters met along
the way.

**Proposed design by Yael R. Dragwyla. In the Twelfth Century, the Albigensians, an heretical sect of
Christianity, clandestinely taught the Bible to the common people, who were generally illiterate, by
using a set of cards with pictures very like today’s Tarot Trumps. (This was for safety’s sake. If
anyone representing the Church happened to come in during a teaching-session, they could all pretend
they were just playing a game. “Who, us, Ossifer? We were just playing a friendly game of
cribbage!” Each card represented one or more books of the Bible, and every symbol in it had a
specific meaning related to that/those book(s). For a modern Tarot version of their teaching cards, the
Greater Trumps would depict the books of the Bible, for both the Old and New Testaments; the Court
Cards would represent the Kings, Prophets, and Patriarchs as well as the Apostles; and the Lower
Arcana would illustrate specific Biblical teachings, e.g., the Eight of Cups would represent the
Beatitudes, the Seven of Wands would symbolize the Seven Days of Creation, etc. Perhaps two
different packs could be created, one for the Old, the other for the New Testament.

John Burt’s MAD Tarot**: Alfred E. Neuman steps blithely off one moving girder towards another,
about 30 or 40 stories above the street, while a bulldog pulls at his pants cuff.

The Robert A. Heinlein Tarot†: A starry-eyed young man dressed in the uniform of the Space Patrol at
a spaceport, just stepping aboard a Patrol space-ship. In the middle ground are tall space-ships in
the form envisaged during the Golden Age of Science Fiction, in the shape of slender rockets. In
the background can be seen the Statue of Liberty, holding her torch high. A scaly, umpteen-
legged little whatsit clings to the young man’s pant’s-leg, obviously a creature of some world
other than ours.

The H. P. Lovecraft Tarot‡:

The Stephen King Tarot††: Tom Cullen, from The Stand, and Jack Sawyer, from The Talisman,
setting out joyfully on a journey, Wolf (from The Talisman) bounding along at Jack’s heels. They
are on the brink of a precipice above a vast Abyss; behind them are “purple mountain majesties,”
shining in the Sun, and the sky is a deep, rich blue. Tom and Jack each carry a bindle on a staff
held over his shoulder, Tom dressed in a T-shirt and blue bib-alls and Jack in a white silk blouse
and tan trousers, both young men wearing sandals; Wolfie has only the clothes he wears,
consisting just of dark blue bib-alls. The bindles are patterned in fantastically colored designs
incorporating images suggesting boundless fertility (e.g., grapes), wealth, etc.

The R. R. McCammon Tarot‡‡: At the center of the card is a circular shield, divided into three pie-
shaped wedges, in each of which is a different instance of the Fool, taken from McCammon’s
novel Swan Song, all of whom have their feet by the center of the shield (i.e., so that all are
oriented with heads toward the rim of the circle, feet at its center): At the top are Swan and Josh,
just after they have emerged from their impromptu bomb-shelter in the middle of a burned-over
Kansas; to the left are Roland Croninger and Colonel Macklin, with the Shadow Soldier standing
just behind Macklin, emerging from the survival redoubt into a burned-over Idaho; and to the
right are Sister, nee Sister Creep and Artie Wisco, standing in the slagged-over, burned out ruins
of Manhattan, Artie dressed in his burned mink coat and pajamas, Sister in her Salvation Army
cast-offs. In the very center of the shield is a much smaller circular area, concentric to the larger
shield, on the rim of which the feet of these Fools rest; within this smaller circle is a cameo of
Dante Alighieri and his guide Virgil, as they appear in Gustav Doré’s illustrations for the Divine
Comedy.
*Designed by the author of this course. An artist has not yet been commissioned for it. The backs of these
cards show the Statue of Liberty with a bald eagle flying overhead; their backgrounds are red, white,
and blue. Borders around the facing pictures bear the name of the Trump and are executed in red,
white, and blue. As with the Lower Arcana and the Court Cards of this pack, each card has a double-
face, á la the Court Cards of playing-card packs, except that the two halves of the card are not exact
duplicates or even mirror-images of each other. Rather, the one signifying the Reverse position of the
card is a parody (Qlippoth) or a redemption of the one signifying the Upright position. For example, if
for Trump XIV, Temperance or Art, which is associated with the astrological Sign Sagittarius and
hence travel, religion, philosophy, etc., if the Upright half shows, say, a spaceship or train, Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., or Socrates, the lower half would show a traffic-jam on the L.A. freeway
interchanges, Elmer Gantry, or Hitler.

**The MAD Tarot © 1997 by John Burt, Corvallis, OR. Given with gracious permission to use in any way
desired to the author by Mr. Burt.

†A proposed design for a Tarot pack depicting the works, life, and ideals of the libertarian writer Robert
Anson Heinlein, by Yael R. Dragwyla. Each Trump contains a scene from one of his novels, or
captures an idea from one or more of his essays, and the Lower Arcana and Court Cards represent
characters and modalities from his work. The CD-ROM version would play his song “The Green Hills
of Earth” (from his short story of the same title) to start whenever it was used.

‡Design proposed by Yael R. Dragwyla. Each Trump represents one of Lovecraft’s best-known works
and/or a basic motif from the Cthulhu Mythos, and/or one of the Elder Gods or Great Old Ones; the
Lower Arcana show specific scenes from his stories; and the Court Cards represent characters in his
work.
††Design proposed by Yael R. Dragwyla. Each Trump represents one or more of King’s novels and stories
(those with common or interwove themes may be included in the same Trump). The Lower Arcana
present specific scenes from his novels. The Court Cards represent characters from his novels.

‡‡Design proposed by Yael R. Dragwyla. Possibly execution by Rowena, the artist who has produced
most of the covers for McCammon’s major work. Each Trump represents one or more of King’s
novels and stories (those with common or interwove themes may be included in the same Trump). The
Lower Arcana present specific scenes from his novels. The Court Cards represent characters from his
novels.

c. Divinatory Meanings
Upright: Originality, audacity, venturesome quest. Folly, eccentricity, insanity. The consequences
following on every action, for better or worse. An original, subtle, sudden impulse or impact, coming from
a completely strange or unexpected quarter. The Mighty and Terrible One, or, the Beast. Unexpected,
unplanned, or challenging influences. The dreamer confronted with choices must act with great care. The
Crown of Wisdom. The Primum Mobile acting through the Airy Signs of the Zodiac. Man progressing
towards evolution. The author, creating a story. Anarchy. The irrational. Mathematically speaking,
“weird” numbers and structures, such as, e.g., √-1, e, the Klein Bottle, a Wild Sphere, non-linear structures,
etc. The Divine Bum, the Holy Fool. A gambler. The end of a cycle. All of the virtues of a fool,
including total openness to the Will and Word of God; by another reading, Jesus of Nazareth. Chaos, the
Void, Sky. The spiritual innocent containing within himself cosmic racial wisdom. The spirit evolving
inward toward its source. Will. Will-power. True Will. Magickal intention. Dexterity. High adept of
Ninjutsu combat arts. The wisdom of the unconscious mind. That which comprises all possibilities of
movement, an infinite number of degrees of freedom. The transfinite, transfinite quantities, transfinite sets.
Fractal dimensions, an infinite number of dimensions, etc. The omnipresent, the infinite, the eternal. That
which cannot be helped, that which will take care of itself, that over which we have no control. Alpha and
Omega, beginning and end. 0 or infinity. Both the Void before Creation and the accomplishments of God
on the Seventh Day of Creation. Random chance or contingency. The reverse of the Hanged Man. The
spirit in search of experience. The flesh, fleshly life. The life of the senses. The Alchemist (used in the
sense of those who pursue and attain ultimate wisdom). Folly. Mania. Extravagance. Intoxication.
Delirium. Success and achievement through unconsciously-directed actions. The Querent. A conception,
pregnancy, or child. Any of the Airy Signs (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius) or dwads (twelfths of a Sign; the
first dwad or 2½° of a Sign is ruled by that Sign itself; the second, by the Sign that follows the given Sign;
the third, by the second Sign following the given Sign; etc., e.g., the first dwad of Libra is ruled by Libra,
the second by Scorpio, the third by Sagittarius, etc.) of the Zodiac. Uranus direct (the astrological
condition); if next to a card signifying an astrological Sign, means Uranus direct in that Sign, and all
indicated associations.

Reversed: Inconsiderate or thoughtless action. The slave of material things, who is inevitably ruined.
The respiratory organs and functions. Epilepsy, insanity, fluxes, rabies, viral infections. Impulses leading
to major problems. Careless promises. Insecurity. Mishandled intention. All of the drawbacks which a
fool could possess. Will applied to evil ends. Weakness of will. Low cunning. Knavishness. A knave.
Madness. Foolishness. The Puffer (the sort of idiot who takes up the work of Alchemy solely for the
purpose of getting rich, or for idle thrills – another word for such persons is frequently “maimed,” “dead,”
“dismembered,” “mad as a hatter,” etc.). Negligence. Apathy. A really bad mistake, one which may be
potentially fatal. Uranus retrograde (the astrological condition); if next to a card signifying an astrological
Sign, means Uranus retrograde in that Sign, and all indicated associations. Power poltics.

d. Interrelationships of the Path and the Trump

This card is attributed to the letter a (Aleph), meaning “Ox.” Aleph is the first of the three Mother
letters, a (Aleph), m (Mem), and c (Shin), which correspond in various, interwoven ways with all the
Triads of esoteric cosmology, e.g. Fire, Water, Air; Father, Mother, Child; Sulphur (an oil extracted from
a substance by Alchemical means), Salte (a mineral ash extracted from a substance by complete calcination
or combustion of the substance), and Mercury (a vapor extracted from a substance by Alchemical
processing); etc.
The number of this card is 0. Because of this, it is associated with the Negative or Three Veils of the
Zero above the Tree of Life, Ain (Zero or Nothingness), Ain Soph (Limitlessness), and Ain Soph Aur
(Limitless Light), the source of all things. It is the Qaballistic Zero, and as such it is virtually identical with
the Zen concept of Void or Sky, representing the Unconscious, the “space through which eagles (brilliant
ideas and impulses) fly,” and the Greek idea of Chaos, the Mother of all that exists, the Great Ground of
Being that was before anything was. As Crowley says, “It is the equation of the Universe, the initial and
final balance of the opposites; Air, in this card, therefore quintessentially means a vacuum.”* In modern
physical cosmology, it refers to the nothingness out of which was born the Universe, the void in which
somehow came to be equal numbers of virtual particles and anti-particles which, coming together in mutual
annihilation, produced the energy that provided the raw material for Creation at the Big Bang.

*Aleister Crowley, The Book of Thoth, op. cit., p. 53.

In medieval Tarot packs, the title of this card is Le Mat, adapted from the Italian word matto, meaning
“madman” or “fool.” But according to some legends, the Tarot, or at least that part of it which comprises
the Greater Arcana, had its origins in Egypt; and the Egyptian Mat, Maut, or Maat is the Goddess of
Wisdom, Who takes the form of a vulture. This Goddess is an earlier and more sublime modification of the
idea of Nuith (the night sky, the Void, empty space, the space-time continuum) than is Isis, Who is
associated with Trump II, The High Priestess.
Two legends are connected with the vulture that are of interest here. The first is that it has a spiral
neck. There is a theory, first postulated by Zoroaster in his Oracles and in modern times by Albert Einstein
and his colleagues, that the shape of the Universe, regarded as a space-time holon, is a spiral. According
to the other legend, the vulture was supposed to reproduce by “the intervention of the wind,” that is, that
the female vulture was impregnated by the spirits of the wind. By analogy, the Element Air is the father of
all manifest existence, an idea that is also echoed in Anaximenes’ school of philosophy.
Therefore this card represents both the father and the mother, albeit in the most abstract sense of these
ideas. Thus it identifies male with female, stripping gender away from the idea of “the parent.” This has a
reflection in developmental biology; the newly fertilized ovum or zygote is sexually neutral, and only
begins to exhibit gender during much later stages of its development – a course of development which can
be deliberately guided in one or another direction by judicious administration of hormones to the mother’s
body at various stages of pregnancy, regardless of the actual sex-chromosomes possessed by the fetus. On
a more abstract level, this is represented by the fact that 0 = (+1) + (-1).
There are a number of traditions, legends, and ideas that go into this card. The first has to do with
times and cultures when a man became king not by right of birth, but rather as a result of conquest.
Frequently the new king was a foreigner, an outsider, who killed the old king and married that king’s
daughter. The upside of this arrangement was strong selection for virility and competency in the new king,
who had to win his bride in open competition. In the oldest fairy-tales, this motif is repeated again and
again. The ambitious young stranger is often a troubadour; he is almost always in disguise, often in a
repulsive form – “The Beauty and the Beast” is typical of such tales. The king’s daughter may also be
camouflaged, e.g., “Cinderella,” “Snow White,” “The Sleeping Beauty,” etc. The story of Aladdin and his
fabulous Lamp is an extremely elaborate version of this sort of tale, replete with instances of the use of
Magick. In these stories are the beginnings of the legend of the Wandering Prince – who, by the way, is
always and ever the fool of his family, the “lackwitted” younger son who sits at home while his brothers go
marching off in search of fame, fortune, and glory. There is an old saying: “the family nitwit had better go
into the church,” which isn’t entirely in the spirit of ridicule: in the East, the madman is believed to be
possessed by spirits, a holy man or a prophet, God’s Holy Fool. So deep does this idea run that it is
actually embedded in our language: “silly” means empty, as in the Vacuum of Air, the Zero, the Void, e.g.,
“the silly buckets on the deck.” The word itself comes from the German selig, “holy,” “blessèd.” The Fool
is most strongly characterized by his sheer innocence, one of the most important features of the story.
To ensure the succession in such cultures, it was devised that the blood royal should really be royal
blood, and that the succession should be fortified by the introduction of the germ-plasm of the stranger,
rather than letting it go to hell as the result of continuous and ever more involuted inbreeding. Sometimes
this idea was pushed a little too far, and the introduction of the “disguised prince” may often have been due
to a set-up arranged by the king, the father, who furnished the younger man with secret letters of
introduction. After all, the only profession older than the Oldest One is politics! 
The Green Man of the Celtic Spring Festivals and the April Fool are still other expressions of the idea.
The Green Man personifies the mysterious influences that generate the Springtime and the rebirth of life in
a frozen world. The April Fool represents the urge to gambol and play that comes upon all of us at the
return of the light and heat of the Sun of the Vernal Equinox, the joy and return of spirits that rises in all
living things at that time. The folly, foolishness, and release of Mardi Gras are also part of these traditions.
Yet another tradition is that of the Paraclete, the Dove of the Holy Spirit, descending on Mary to
impregnate her with the Christ-child. Both Easter and the traditional conception of Jesus of Nazareth occur
around the time of the Vernal Equinox (since the traditional birthday of Jesus is The Winter Solstice).
The origins of the legend of Parsifal (Percival or Percivale), the core of the mystery of the Savior Fish-
God, and of the Sangraal or Holy Grail are disputed. Apparently it arose first in Brittany, the land of
Merlin and the Druids; the Welsh version of this tradition, which lends much of its power and beauty to the
Arthurian Cycle, may have come into existence even earlier. This legend, like that of The Fool, is purely
pre-Christian in origin, not a trace of which is found in Nordic mythologies. Parsifal represents the
Western form of the tradition of the fool, who graduates from wanton innocence to sanctification.
Another tradition of relevance here is that of Mako, the son of Set, or Sebek, the various forms of the
Crocodile God of Egypt. Indeed, in some versions of the card, it is a crocodile rather than a dog that
pursues and worries the leg of the dancing Fool. The crocodile represented the enormous fertility of the
Nile and the importance of the Nile’s annual flooding to ancient Egypt. Dagon of the Sumerians and the
Fish as the representation of the name of the Christ are other representations of this idea. And in the
mythology of Yucatán it was “the old ones covered with feathers that came up out of the sea” who were the
first men, and the beginning of human history, the human world.
Harpocrates or Hoor-pa-Kraat, the God of Silence, is another image of the Fool. It is out of the Silence
of Eternity that Creation comes, and the moment of its coming is represented by these Gods, as it is
represented by Trump 0, The Fool.
 Zeus Arrhenothelus, the bisexual Zeus, is another association for this card. So is Dionysos Zagreus, an
avatar of Dionysos Who possesses horns, as the Ox does. And so is Bacchus Diphues, associated with the
ecstasy of intoxication, the mania, frenzy, or divine drunkenness of the Holy Fool. Shiva, Whose sacred
herb is Cannabis, and Mescalito, the Spirit of Mescaline, are likewise associated with the card.
Finally, Baphomet, the “God” of the Templars, is associated with this card because of the various ideas
represented by its image: ambisexuality, extreme fertility, and so forth.
The design of the card generally embodies all these various ideas and their corollaries. The color of
the Fool is the gold or yellow of Air. He has the horns of the Ox, and between these horns there is phallic
cone of white light that represents the influences of Kether, from whence he comes. He is shown against a
background of Air, sheer open Space, above an Abyss. He bursts into the world completely unexpectedly,
dancing through it with utter blithe innocence. He wears green, like the Green Man and all the other
Springtime traditions, but his shoes are the brilliant yellow-gold of the Sun. In his right hand he bears a
wand, tipped with a pyramid of white, representing both the Solar Father and Chokmah; in his left he
carries a blazing pine-cone, representing both the phallic power of the Father and the fertility of plant life.
From his left shoulder hangs a bunch of purple grapes, representing fertility, sweetness, and the basis of the
divine drunkenness of the followers of Dionysos; the ecstasy lying in wait in the grapes is represented by
their stems, which have the form of rainbow-hued spirals, the same as that of the four-dimensional space-
time continuum. This suggests the Threefold Veil of the Zeros manifesting in divided light as a result of
his intervention. Upon this spiral whorl are other attributions of divinity, from the vulture of Maat and the
dove of Venus/Isis/Mary to the ivy sacred to the devotees of Dionysos; the many-colored Butterfly of Air;
the winged globe with its twin serpents, echoed by the twin infants embracing on the middle spiral. Above
them all are three flowers in one, representing the Trinity giving Their blessing to the Fool. A tiger fawns
upon him; below his feet in the Cosmic River, filled with lotus blossoms, crouches a crocodile. Resolving
all the many symbols and images, the Sun in the center forms the focus of the microcosm. The picture as a
whole symbolizes Creative Light.
In terms of eukaryotic multicellular (and thus human) development, this Path represents conception
and the first few stages of cell-division involved in the formation of a blastula. It also signifies the neonate,
whether the chick or beetle newly emerged from its egg, the butterfly from its cocoon, or the newborn
mammal.

2. Key 12
Beth b, “House.” Trump I, The Magician or The Magus. Mercury Ø Cardinal or arithmetic value of
2. Second letter of Hebrew alphabet (ordinal value of 2).” Connects Sephirah 1, Kether with Sephirah 3,
Binah. Roman/English equivalent: B.

According to the Yetziratic Text, this Path is called the Intelligence of Transparency, implying the
ability to see things as they really are. The form no longer conceals the luminous image of the Creator, but
instead reveals it. As it were, the Veil of the Temple is no longer opaque; no longer does one see “in a
glass, darkly.” This isn’t surprising, since this Path leads from Binah, representing the principle of form in
Spirit, to Kether, the very source both of Form and its inherent energy.
This state of consciousness is a ‘species of Magnificence’; its special title, given in the Yetziratic
Text, ‘Chazchazit,’ derives from the Hebrew word j z j (ChZCh), “seer” or “one gifted with the abilities of
a seer” (from t w z j [Chazuth], “a vision”). The highest form of this faculty is implied here, i.e., the
ability to acquire spiritual knowledge by means of transcendental abilities, a very much more delicate and
accurate form of inner perception than even intuition, which is in turn a very much higher and more
accurate form of awareness than clairvoyance, clairaudience or any of the other various forms of lower
psychism.10

Far Eastern cosmological associations:

Water. The North. Winter. The Hidden. Cold. Fluid. Salt. Black. Controls kidneys and bladder.
The Black Tortoise. The Planet Mercury. Yang – a Wave. Yin – a Brook. Mercury metal (quicksilver).
Aqua fortis. Produces Wood/Air (naturally grown things), is produced by Metal (made things, ores),
destroys Fire, is destroyed by Earth.
 Trigram from the I Ching: K’an

– –
––––
– –

a. Qaballistic meanings and theory

This Path is an extremely advanced mode of consciousness entailing awareness of things as they are in
reality, together with an ability to perceive the true plan of Creation as it exists in the realms of Kether and
then bring it down in the form of a true imprint into Binah, the Lord of Form. A good analogy of this is the
graphic artist who paints things exactly as he or she perceives them, including the changes in color lent to a
scene by shadow; the lay-person, viewing the finished painting, generally unconsciously translates the
scene in his or her mind into a three-dimensional image in which the overall color of a thing is invariant,
the changes in its hue from one side to another illusions due to the play of light and shadow, but as painted
by the artist, these changes are quite real differences in hues. The viewer perceives a mood, an atmosphere,
or an aura in the painting due to these differentiations of hue where the artist simply rendered the play of
light and shade in his or her original subject with absolute accuracy, the mood/atmosphere/aura being only
the viewer’s projection into or interpretation of the painting according to that play.
Just as the dedicated artist must eventually reproduce his or her ideas and inspirations into some
physical form, such as a painting, sculpture, written work, or other artistic work, so it is necessary to bring
the plan, will, or intention that first arises in Kether down into the regions of form, since without a manifest
result, the acquisition of knowledge is ultimately sterile and without value. However, the knowledge and
effects produced here are far beyond what is normally understood by these terms. Eventually, the impulses
of Kether must be brought all the way down into the levels of mind and physical manifestation, but here
only the formulation in the concrete part of Spirit of those impulses is considered.
The Tarot Trump for this Path, Trump I, is called The Magickian or Magus. A Magickian or Magus is
one who brings things from the regions of Spirit down to lower levels of the Inner Planes; in this context, it
is from Kether to Binah that the transfer is accomplished. Generally the Magickian is shown on the card as
wielding the Wand, Rod, or Staff of Power, standing before the Table of Manifestation. He or she wears a
hat in the form of a figure-eight laid on its side, i.e., an infinity symbol ∞, representing the Veil of the
Negatives or Three Zeroes from which Kether first arises and the immortality of the soul and spirit.
The Planet assigned to this Path is Mercury, Who is also associated with Hod, the Sephirah of Magick.
However, the Magick of Hod takes place at a far lower or denser level of reality than that considered here.
The shape of the astrological glyph assigned to this Planet, Ø, gives an appropriate indication of the
nature of this Path; it includes the glyph of Venus, Ù, the Circle of Spirit or the Sun above the Cross of
Manifestation, crowned with the Lunar Crescent of the Receptive Soul. This sigil thus represents the idea
of Spirit active on all the levels of Matter together with receptivity toward the higher forces of the cosmos.
The Hebrew letter for this Path, b (Beth), means “House.” It is on this Path that the House of Spirit is
being built, or at least its foundations, though at this stage the effects of the functioning of this path upon
the Individuality, the primary target of the influences of the 18 th Path, j (Cheth), aren’t really very
noticeable. The House under consideration is a holy one, which might better be called the Temple of the
Spirit or the Ark of the Covenant. In one sense, this Temple is the mortal body, or, collectively, all bodies
occupied by Spirit, the whole man living in the real world, who should be a living expression of the
blueprint laid down in his or her own microcosmic Kether. The aims of initiation, the apotheosis of mortal
development and evolution, is the creation of a fit dwelling for Spirit. When this is achieved in the real
world, here on Earth, the result is equivalent to what has been called the new Jerusalem, descended from
Heaven to Earth. This is indicated by the shape of the Hebrew letter, which incorporates a thin horizontal
line at the top joined by a vertical bar to the thick horizontal line at the bottom. This shows that the abstract
impulses of the Spirit in Kether descend as a true imprint in the dense world of manifestation: in other
words, that the Kingdom of Heaven shall be made manifest on Earth.

Hebrew letter: b (Beth), “House”

 Numerical value: 2

Planet: Mercury

Name of Planet in Hebrew: b k w k (Kokab)

Colors: Yellow (King Scale); purple (Queen Scale); gray (Emperor Scale); indigo, rayed violet
(Empress Scale).

Gods:

Egyptian: Djehuti, especially as the Dog-Faced Baboon

Greek: Hermes, especially in His role as Psychopompos
Roman: Mercurius
Norse: Odin
Hindu: Hanuman; Vishnu (as Parasa-Rama)
American Indian: Raven, Coyote, Trickster, Spider Woman
West African: Anansi-Spider
Haitian Voudon: Legba
United States of America: Alfred E. Neuman, the Yellow Kid (of Sunday Comics fame), the
Katzenjammer Kids (ditto; since Hans and Fritz may also be twins, they also represent
Mercury as the ruler of Gemini); Bugs Bunny (comics, cartoons); Little Lulu (comics,
cartoons); Little Iodine (Jimmy Hatlo’s creation in the Sunday funnies)

Archangel: l a p r (Raphael)

Choir of Angels: \ y h l a y n b (the Beni Elohim (the Sons of God, who came down to mate with
mortal women))

Angel: l a p r (Raphael)

Intelligence: l a y r m (Tiriel)

Spirit: t r t r t p t (Taphthattharath)

Buddhist meditation: Yellow

Precious stones: Opal, agate

Plants, real and imaginary: vervain, herb Mercury, marjolane, palm

Animals, real and imaginary: swallow, ibis, ape, weasels, ferrets, martins, skunks

Christian associations: Church of Sardis, the Holy Ghost

Mineral drugs: mercury metal

Magickal powers: Miracles of Healing, the Gift of Tongues, Knowledge of the Sciences – i.e., control
of forces and things below the level of consciousness; the focus by concentration of energy from
above (i.e., from Kether)

Vegetable drugs (plant extracts): all cerebral excitants, e.g., caffeine

Vice: Falsehood, the Lie, Dishonesty, Envy

 Mathematical entities: the Octagon, the Octagram, the Calvary Cross

Magickal image: A fair youth with winged helmet and heels, equipped as a Magickian, displaying his
art

Title of Tarot Trump: The Magus of Power

Legendary order of being: “Voices”; witches and wizards

The body: the nervous system

Diseases: ataxia, aphasia, leprosy, Lou Gherig’s disease (from which Stephen Hawking, one of the
Great Magi of the 20th century, has suffered since he was 20, which was supposed to have killed
him six months after he contracted it – but 35 years later, he’s still going strong), multiple
sclerosis, polio, rabies

Perfumes: mastic, white sandalwood, mace, storax, all fugitive odors

Magickal weapons: the Wand or Caduceus

Element (chemical): Mercury (metal), 80 Hg

Ecological process, realm, or principle: the winds

Physical chemistry: vaporization, sublimation (Mercury is one of the three major products of the
Alchemical decomposition of matter; in this case, the word means a sort of vapor, the other two
products being Sulphur, meaning an oil, and Salte, meaning the ash resulting from complete
calcination of the substance; these three decomposition products are respectively associated with
the Mutable, Fixed or Cherubic, and Cardinal or Movable Signs of astrology)

Qlippoth: Baratchiel, attributed to the 12th Path or kala of the Tunnels of Set. His number is 260. The
number should be painted in a yellow deeper than that used for the sigil of Amprodias, upon a vesica-
shaped plaque of indigo rayed with violet. The name should be vibrated in the key of ‘E,’ as with the
previous sentinel; but with a suggestion of chattering or tittering accompanying the vibration, which
should not be even.* The traditional Demon associated with this Planet is l a m s (Samael, “The False
Accuser”).

*Grant, Nightside of Eden, op. cit., pp. 162-165.

Musical note: E natural.

Qaballistic Intelligence: Transparency.

b. Design and Title of Trump

Title: The Magus or Magickian

Design: Generally, a juggler, prestidigitator, or actual Magickian holding a wand, standing before a
table upon which are the symbols of the Four Elements and the Suits of the Tarot, i.e., a Wand,
Cup, Sword, and Pantacle.
Bembo’s Tarot: This pack shows an unhappy juggler, seated; on the table before him are a covered
dish, a glass, a knife, and two pennies; his left hand holds a Rod.

The Swiss Tarot shows a fairgrounds mountebank. On a table before him are several balls, horns,
cups, and an open box. He holds a Rod. The overall suggestion is of a juggler.

The Insight Tarot is more or less the same as The Swiss Tarot, with the addition of a hat in the shape of
a lemniscate.

The Italian Tarot is also similar to the Swiss Tarot, with the addition of two closed boxes.

Wirth’s pack: Here, the symbols on the table have been replaced by those for Suits of the Tarot, i.e., a
Cup, a Sword, and three Pentacles or Coins. The Magus himself holds a Wand.

Waite’s Tarot: A Magickian standing behind a table. In his upraised right hand is a Wand, and his left
hand is extended downward, pointing toward the Earth. Above his head is a lemniscate,
symbolizing Eternity. On the table before him are the symbols of the four Suits, i.e., a Wand,
Cup, Sword, and Pentacle. Red roses bloom above him, and red roses and lilies in front of him.

Crowley’s Tarot shows Hermes, leering. Above Hermes’ head is the Hindu symbol for male/female
joined, with wings. At the lower right is the Ape of Thoth. Hermes plays with the symbols of the
four Suits. Behind Hermes’ head is a snake, symbolizing both the Uraeus headdress of the
pharaohs and the caduceus of Hermes, and perhaps also Kundalini energy, the Wisdom gained
through study of the Qaballah, and sheer phallic energy. According to Crowley, no true
representation of this card is possible, since it represents perpetual motion.

The New Tarot: Retitled “The Changer.” It shows a man, dressed as an Eastern monk, standing astride
a white sphere, his arms outstretched to either side. In his right hand is a lotus, from his left water
falls, on his left shoulder there is a hooded vulture or falcon that has sunk its claws into his flesh,
and before him, on a blanket, are the symbols of the four suits of the Minor Arcana of this pack:
Snakes (Wands), Pears (Cups), Scimitars (Swords), and Stones (Pentacles).

America’s Tarot: a montage of American genius, including Bill Gates, Thomas Edison, Hyman G.
Rickover, Nikola Tesla, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington Carver, Mark Twain, Jack
Benny, Jellyroll Morton, etc. Article I of the Bill of Rights.

The Divine Comedy Tarot: Virgil appears to Dante to be his guide through Purgatory

Biblical Tarot: Melchizedik, the priest who circumcised Abraham; Joseph, in his coat of many
colors, interpreting dreams for Pharaoh; Moses, parting the Red Sea; Jesus in his ministry.

John Burt’s MAD Tarot: Alfred E. Neuman with a table full of MAD merchandise (sign: “Our prices
cheap!” – with outrageous prices on the labels on the merchandise . . .)

John Burt’s Nerd Trumps*: What kind of monitor is the Magician’s infinity-sign running on? (Sounds
more like the problem is the platform – Windows 95 caught in some sort of GPF.)

The Robert A. Heinlein Tarot: Michael Valentine Smith of Stranger in a Strange Land. On the left
side of the card are images of Mars á la Heinlein, e.g., bouncers, old ones, the red desert, etc., as
depicted in Red Planet Mars, and on the right are images of Earth.

The H. P. Lovecraft Tarot: Nyarlathotep, High Priest of the Starry Wisdom cult and an agent of the
Crawling Chaos.

The Stephen King Tarot: Jack Sawyer, of The Talisman, bringing the Talisman home in triumph
 The R. R. McCammon Tarot: Swan of Swan Song after her transformation and acquisition of her
“inside face,” pressing her hands to the Earth, bringing it to life. Plants spring up from the burned,
lifeless Earth at her touch. Her adoptive father, Joshua Hutchins, a tall, broad-shouldered black
man with a handsome face and burn-scars on his hands, watches her with fatherly pride;
something about him suggests Hermes Psychopompos.

*The Nerd Trumps © 1997 by John Burt, Corvallis, OR.

c. Divinatory Meanings
Upright: In Freemasonry, “house-building” refers to esoteric Masonry itself. Hence the Path, the
name of whose Hebrew letter means “House,” suggests the Hermetic Arts and Sciences as one meaning of
this card. The control of forces and things below the level of the conscious mind. Energy from above,
focused by attention, through either Magick, meditation, combat arts, the fine arts, or the practical arts.
Magick. Human Will as the Earthly reflection of God’s Will, promoting good and preventing evil. Skills,
wisdom, adroitness, elasticity, craft, cunning. Occult wisdom and power. The willing acquiescence of
control of one’s life to the skilled and educated unconscious, as in Ninjutsu combat arts. The beginnings of
consciousness. The intellect. Strength of Will. Adaptability. The search for meaning. The Will in
general, and its exercise, either alone or in harmony with God. The Crown of Understanding. The
beginning of material production. The Primum Mobile acting through Alchemical or Philosophical
Mercury on Saturn. Skill, wisdom, adaptation. Craft or cunning depending on neighboring cards. The
destiny of man struggling with the undercurrents of the occult. Dexterity. Psychopompos leading the
Querent into new experience (where Hermes is not only the conductor of souls, but is also the Divine
Magus). A Magus or Magickian. Ability with women. Agility. Wit. The Spirit, receptive to cosmic
forces and, at the same time, activating matter. Mercury in His apotheosis. Abstract Will. A female
inquirer. Man seeking for the God in Heaven and, simultaneously, the demon below. The Creator. A
striving toward unity. Initiation. The Querent him- or herself. Beginnings. Time, seen as an ironic spirit,
looking forward. A torch waved in the Void. The possession and communication of gifts of the Spirit.
The divine Will as it is manifest in mortals. Skill. Diplomacy. Address. Subtlety. Illness. Pain. Loss.
Disaster. Snares of enemies. Mercury direct (the astrological condition; if next to a card signifying an
astrological Sign or part of one, means the Planet Mercury direct in that Sign, which all the indicated
associations).

Reverse: The nervous system. Any diseases of or injuries to the nervous system, including aphasia,
ataxia, rabies, epilepsy, leprosy, tertiary syphilis, etc. Black Magick, sorcery. Fraud and trickery in the
context of mercantilism, politics, etc. Prestidigitation, juggling. Low cunning. Deceit. Theft. Messages
and business transactions. Interference of one’s acquired preconceptions with the matter at hand.
Overcontrol by the conscious mind of one’s actions and life, with resultant problems. Weakness of will.
Weakness of intellect. Indecisiveness. The use of power for destructive or evil ends. Hesitation. Guile.
Uncertainty. Change caused by chance. Trickery. Extremes of difficulty. Instability. Impotence. Will
applied to evil ends. Knavishness, knaves, a knave. A physician or healer. A veterinarian. Mental illness.
Disgrace. Disquiet. Mercury retrograde (the astrological condition; if next to a card signifying an
astrological Sign or part of one, means the Planet Mercury retrograde in that Sign, which all the indicated
associations).

d. Interrelationships of the Path and the Trump

Mercury is above all the Bearer of the Wand, representing Energy sent forth. This card therefore
represents the Word or Logos by Whom the world were created, the Will and Wisdom of God, and the True
Will of the Magus. Beth is the Path connecting Kether to Binah, so that Mercury, the Messenger of God, is
appropriate for this Path. Another appropriate symbol for the Path is thus Lucifer.
 However, Mercury is also associated with action in all forms and phases. He is the fluidic basis of the
transmission of all activity, the living Intelligence informing the substance of such transmission. In terms
of modern physics, He is the principle of electric charge. He represent continuous Creation.
He represents the Law of Reason, or of necessity, or chance, the secret meaning of the Word, which is
the essence of the Word and the condition of its utterance. Because of this, together with the fact that
Mercury represents duality (as in His rulership of Gemini, the Twins), He represents both truth and
falsehood, wisdom and falsehood, dichotomies, oxymorons, and paradoxes of all kinds. The spirit of the
unexpected, He overturns all established ideas. He is the Lord of the trickster, the prestidigitator, and the
practical joker, as well as of the thief: if He can’t accomplish His desires by fair means, He will do so by
foul, as shown by Greek and Roman legends of the youthful Mercurius-Hermes. Because He is the
unconscious Will, he cannot be understood by the conscious mind; His position on the Tree of Life is
above Binah, “Understanding,” which from His point of view has not yet been formulated; still farther
down the Tree of Life from Him is Da’ath, “Knowledge.” He is thus above all things which can be
consciously analyzed and understood.
As the second emanation from Kether, He is in a sense the adult form of the first emanation, Aleph, the
Fool, Whose number is Unity. According to LaVey, the Child is a natural Magickian, spontaneously and
unconsciously, instinctively performing Magick – the Art and Science of producing Change in conformity
with Will – throughout all his or her waking and sleeping hours. The essentially Magickal world-view of
the small child, so derided by Freud, is in fact essential to the child’s ability to practice exercise and control
of his or her own Will via spontaneous play and other activities, without which the competency of the adult
in any sphere will never been realized. Later on, as the young child passes the threshold represented by his
or her first introduction to society and school, he or she “learns” (Da’ath) that belief in and practice of
Magick is “silly” and “childish” or even “mad,” and tries to adopt an “adult” (i.e., reductionist and
socialized) point of view. For a while, this is necessary for the child’s further socialization, for otherwise
he or she would not find enough value in others to respect their wishes enough to refrain from pushing his
or her own agenda at the expense of everyone else’s. But later, “the Magick may return,” either
accidentally and spontaneously or through training and education, e.g., through combat-arts, artistic, or
mathematical training. At this stage, the now-grown child, a young adult, must go back and consciously
recover all those instinctive skills and abilities which he or she exercised so easily and spontaneously as an
infant and toddler, but which he or she “put away as childish things” upon introduction to society at the age
of 5 or 6, repressing them and then forgetting that he or she had done so. Now, through tremendous effort
and concentration, he or she once more begins to exercise and focus those ancient, primordial Magickal
skills, learning to trust in the Unconscious and make the Ego its servant.
In terms of mammalian development, this card represents the acquisition of language. In human
beings this generally occurs between the ages of one and three years of age; in other animals, such as cats,
elephants, dogs, etc., it occurs at different ages depending upon the species. It is also associated with toilet-
training in such organisms as human beings, cats, and other organisms that bury their scat. In a more
general sense, it is associated with that time in one’s life during which all the most basic, necessary skills
are acquired, from walking to communication. And it is also associated with the nervous system in general,
and the mammalian and cephalopod nervous systems in particular.

3. Key 13
Gimel g “Camel.” Trump II, the High Priestess. Luna ×. Cardinal value of 3, ordinal value of 3.
Connects Sephirah 1, Kether with Sephirah 6, Tiphareth. Roman/English equivalents: G, C.

a. Qaballistic Meanings and Theory

According to the Yetziratic Text:

The Thirteenth Path is named the Uniting Intelligence, and is so called because it is
itself the Essence of Glory; it is the Consummation of Truth of individual spiritual
things.
 This is an elegantly concise summary of the fundamental basis of spiritual reality: Unity = the Essence
of Glory = Truth. Moreover, this Path is on the direct line of contact between Spirit (Kether) and
Individuality (Tiphareth). It is part of what might be called the backbone or spinal column of the Tree of
Life, the long Path between Spirit and Earth, Kether and Malkuth, which, for purposes of analysis, are split
into three: the 32nd, 25th, and 13th Paths. The Atziluthic colors of all three of these Paths are the same: the
Blue of Love and Aspiration, darkening to indigo in the denser levels of Form.
The vertical line up the Tree is the Path of the Arrow, the Way of the Mystic, who seeks not the
manipulation of occult powers, but rather Union with God. The blue of the lower levels of this Way is
darker. The reason that the 32nd Path has the color indigo on the Atziluthic Scale is because that color is
associated with Saturn, the planet of Form and Limitation. One cannot, must not, undertake the Way of the
Mystic unless one is completely grounded in Form and has learned all its lessons. To try to ascend to the
higher realms before the lowest levels of the Tree of Life are mastered is cowardice, not holiness, not
saintliness but sin, a regression on the Path of Involution. Such a regression is a form of sorcery, regardless
of the wannabe mystic’s ostensible high intentions. In such a case, ‘holiness’ is used merely as a way of
escape, as a tool for personal use – i.e., as a means of blaspheming against { r a h y n d a (Adonai ha-
Aretz) – God inherent in the living world.
The Path of the Mystic ascends from Malkuth along the 32nd Path, the Gateway to the inner planes, and
passes through the Unconscious domain of Yesod. From Yesod the Mystical Way leads through the
‘wilderness’ of the 25th Path, the Intelligence of Probation, the first Dark Night of the Soul before the
golden dawn of Tiphareth is reached, and contact with the ‘God within’ is achieved. Even so, this contact
with Tiphareth is just the lowest aspect of the ‘God within,’ for this Path leads still further on, right up to
the ground of Spirit, Kether. This latter half of the Mystical Way is the 13th Path, g (Gimel). Gimel means
“Camel,” a reminder that here is another Desert, a higher octave of the 25 th Path, and therefore the second
Dark Night of the Soul. As the first Dark Night of the Soul might be termed a symbolical crossing of the
Gulf, so this second one indicates the way across the Abyss
For anyone who has taken up the “occult” way, developing the powers in action of the Individuality in
Earth, most, if not all, the excrescences should have been cleared away from his or her soul on the 19 th
Path, which links Geburah, Sephirah 5, with Chesed, Sephirah 4. For any such, making his or her way
across the Abyss from Chesed through Da’ath to Binah, he or she would undergo this experience yet again,
but this time more “by reason of the altitude of the Divine Wisdom,” which “exceeds the comprehension of
the soul,” than because of any “baseness and impurity.”
This way out of Chesed to Binah is known as the “secret silent Path.” It is called “secret” because it
does not appear on the traditional Tree of Life, and “silent” refers to its quality of “nothingness.” The
experience of this Secret Path is one of loneliness and desolation, the Path of Chiron and the Shaman. In
other words, it is the same as the Dark Night of the Soul encountered on the 13th Path, which is to be
expected since both Paths are Ways across the Abyss, through the crepuscular realms of Da’ath. It is, in
fact, a final purification, one leading to the experience of the approaches to the final Union with God, the
Spiritual Experience of Kether.
In Qaballistic terms, this is the initiation known as “The Babe of the Abyss.” This is nothing that can
be conferred by means of a simple ritual; rather, it is a condition attained only by means of years of
spiritual striving. At best, a so-called “initiation ceremony” on the physical plane can only be a triggering
mechanism for getting a process started within a soul, and a confirmation of what has already been
achieved. Real initiation is a subjective realization which comes about as a result of a natural process of
growth; it is not a thing that can be bought, sold, given, or received. By analogy, consider graduation
ceremonies and commencement rituals: they do not confer education or maturity upon the graduate, but
only serve to acknowledge what has already been accomplished and (it is hoped) to inspire the graduate to
go on to achieve great things in the real world. Even more to the point, consider a Marine recruit going
through Boot Camp and then getting advanced to PFC: this advancement on paper at best only
acknowledges whatever skills the new Marine has acquired in Boot Camp as well as his or her potential for
accomplishment in the field. Initiation isn’t merely a question of knowing a great number of symbols and
their traditional meanings. Instead, it is a state of being.
The High Priestess of Tarot Trump II is frequently compared to Isis. There is a great deal of truth in
this comparison. The Silver Star of Crowley’s A∴ A∴ is the Star Sothis, or Sirius, the star sacred to Isis*
and attributed to the Sephirah Da’ath.** Isis is also associated with the Moon, the astrological ascription of
this Path.
*Also to Djehuti, Lord of Magick, Divination, Justice, and Wisdom.

**It is also the Star of the new Aeon of Horus, i.e., of the Age of Aquarius.

Now, the Moon is intimately connected with the Earth, as well as with the lower Astral, ruled by
Malkuth, Sephirah 10, and Yesod, Sephirah 9 on the Tree of Life. Luna is the Lord of Flux and Reflux, and
is as well an archetype of receptivity. Thus Da’ath is akin to Yesod; in fact, Da’ath could be called a
higher octave of Yesod. In terms of the ascent of the Tree of Life, Da’ath is a gateway to Outer Space:
Sothis or Sirius, associated with Gimel, is the extra-Solar body most closely connected with this Solar
System.* Descending the Tree, however, looking at things entirely from the point of view of the living
Solar System, the Lunar aspect of Da’ath has to do with the fundamental working of the laws of cyclic
action and polarity. The close analogy to the lower Astral is also important, for the latter has two aspects:
it unites all things in Earth, and it holds them in dense physical existence. It is evasion of these two factors
that constitutes the bulk of mortal troubles, obvious in the chaotic state of the world today; the causes are
denial of the unity of all things, the sin of separation, and refusal to face Earthly reality.

*Actually, though Sirius is only about 8 light-years away from us, there are several Stars even closer. The
closest is Alpha Centauri, Sagittarius A, a Star rather like our own Sun in many respects, and one
which may harbor carbon-based life similar to our own world’s. Sirius, on the other hand, is a young,
hot blue Star that will probably end as a supernova, and which is unlikely to have Earth-like Planets
with terrestroid life-forms. While Sirius has long been recognized for its occult influence, there is no
reason that any other Star doesn’t have some sort of influence on us, however small or strange, and this
surely goes for all those Stars closer to us than Sirius.

According to Qaballistic theory, this wholesale deviation from spiritual reality resulted in the
formation of the Gulf and the Abyss. It is these two obstacles along the line of contact between Spirit and
Earth that cause most of the trouble, and result in unpleasant experiences of both of these Dark Nights of
the soul. However, the repercussions of these blockages go further than just giving mystics a bad time, for
they also play an important part in all world conditions, especially in the area of sexuality and relationships
of all kinds.
The human Spirit is androgynous and thus any attempt to deny the conditions of existence in Earth
manifests as an urge for Independence. This, it is true, is the Virtue of Yesod, but an exaggerated or
compulsive manifestation of a Virtue results in a Vice. So we may have the androgynous Da’ath state of
the Spirit attempting to exert itself in the lower analogue of Da’ath, Yesod. This means an inability to form
any satisfactory relationship, particularly a sexual one. There is no such thing as independence in the
physical universe; all are related and complementary to each other, bound together on the one hand by the
etheric Machinery of the Universe, and on the other hand unified in Love in Earth to the degree that
spiritual redemption is achieved. Where Love is missing, one has only the mechanics of sex, enslaved by
the false image of androgynous independence. “Independence” shouldn’t be regarded as a dirty word, and
is in fact often necessary. The problem arises from compulsive behavior and appetites.
Such things may first arise out of what seem at the time to be the highest of motives, aspirations, and
ideals; but when they become compulsive, they turn deadly. This is particularly so on a group level in the
inhuman, depersonalized bureaucratic government of any large, organized social unit, the functioning of
which depends upon adherence to a book of rules rather than the dynamic initiative of individual human
beings. This applies to private business corporations as well as government departments: no one has a
monopoly on inhumanity. A red hot coal will burn the hand that picks it up, however commendable the
motives involved. The Laws of any plane are paramount upon that plane, so one shouldn’t try to rise onto a
plane until the laws of that plane one is on are mastered.
The letter of this Path, Gimel, can be likened to a cosmic battery, the two Yods at top and bottom being
terminals of the battery. If the power is suddenly switched through the line in between, the channel must be
capable of standing up to it. Thus the contacts of higher mystical experience should not be attempted until
life in Malkuth, the real world of the Outer Planes, has been mastered. Above all, this requires acceptance
and full control of the forces and conditions of the dense physical universe.11

Far Eastern cosmological associations:

Yin. Silver. The Female.

Line: Yin

– –

The Qaballistic associations for this Path include the following:

Astrological: Luna

Qlippoth: Gargophias. This name should be vibrated or “howled” in the key of G Sharp. Her sigil
should be painted in silver on a black circle. Her number is 393, which is allied to the numbers
392 and 933. Just as Gimel is associated with AL, its Qlippothic shadow or Tunnel of Set is
concerned with LA. Traditionally, l a y l m g (Gamaliel, the Obscene Ass) is the Regent of Hell
or Demon associated with Gimel.

Colors: blue; silver; cold pale blue; and silver, rayed sky-blue.

Gods:

Egyptian: Hathor; Chomse; Djehuti; Isis

Greek: Artemis, Hekate, Persephone (as the Maiden Koré)
Roman: Selene, Luna
United States of America: Liberty, Freedom
Revolutionary France: Liberté
Hindu: Chandra, Kali, Shiva, Chandi, Parvati, Durga
Norse:
Haitian Voudon:
Jewish: Queen Shabbat; the Archangel Gabriel

Christian associations: Mary, Mother of God; Laodicea

Buddhist Meditation: Loathsomeness of Food

Precious stones: moonstone, pearl, crystal, coral

Plants, real and imaginary: almond, mugwort, hazel, moonwort, ranunculus, aloe, white ginger

Animals, real and imaginary: dog, cat, Woman, camel

Magickal Powers: the White Tincture, Clairvoyance, Divination by Dreams

Mineral drugs: silver nitrate (in homeopathic dilutions of not less than 10 22 parts pure water to one of
silver nitrate)

Plant-derived drugs: juniper, pennyroyal, all emmenogogues

Perfumes: menstrual blood, camphor, aloes; all sweet, virginal odors

 Magickal Weapons: the Bow and Arrows

Lineal figure: the Enneagram (9-pointed Star), Nonagon (9-sided regular polygon), Triskedekagram
(13-pointed Star), a regular polygon of 13 sides, etc.

Musical note: G Sharp

Trigrams of the I Ching:

b. Design and Title of Trump

The High Priestess of Trump II is a memorial for two medieval legends, that of Pope Joan, and that of
the Visconti Papess.
The Visconti Papess, Sister Manfreda, was elected by the Guglielmites, an Italian religious sect. One
of their beliefs concerned the sect’s founder, Guglielma of Bohemia, who died in 1281 e.v. but supposedly
would be resurrected in 1300 e.v. on the Feast of Pentecost, initiating a new age wherein women would be
Popes, rather than men. In preparation for this, the Guglielmites nominated Manfreda Visconti to be their
papess. However, when Sister Manfreda was burned at the stake in 1300 e.v., that scotched the idea of a
female Pope for quite awhile.
On the other hand, the legend of Pope Joan has exerted a powerful effect on the European imagination
since the late 13th Century. The first popular report of Pope Joan was in 1282 e.v., in the writings of Martin
Polonus. According to Polonus, after the death of Pope Leo IV (c. 855 e.v.), one John Anglus, a native of
Metz, was elected to the throne of St. Peter, remaining Pope for two years, five months, and four days. It
was discovered that this Pope was in fact a woman when, on a procession from St. Peter’s to the Lateran,
she collapsed as a result of the process of childbirth. At this point, the story becomes somewhat vague.
Either Pope Joan was torn to pieces by the enraged mob, who thought they’d been conned (after all, the
election of a woman to the office of Pope was at the time a dire sacrilege), or else she died in childbirth. In
either case, it was a great story. Many were all too eager to believe the worst of Rome and of the Popes, a
it was, and the legend of Pope Joan simply confirmed their most delightfully evil imaginings about the
Vatican. However, there is just one tiny flaw in the story: after the death of Leo IV, only one and a half
months elapsed before the consecration of Pope Benedict III, for the coronation as Pope of whom a wealth
of high dependable evidence exists.
Another source for the story may have been Crusaders returning from the Middle East who brought
back the story of “The Fisherman’s Wife” from One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. In this story, the
fisherman’s wife asked for several things from a miraculous Flounder she found among the rest of her
husband’s catch: that she become Empress (granted), then that she become Pope (granted), and finally that
she become God. At that point the pious Flounder returned her, by the same Magickal means as before, to
the humble cottage wherein she had first conceived her delusions about assuming the power and grandeur
of God. If this is the true origin of the story, it explains the lack of any real historical existence for the
existence of a medieval female Pope; the story, once spread to the people of Europe by the returning
soldiers, would have undergone the inevitable transmutations which always attends the reception of one
culture’s stories by another, vastly different culture, ultimately taking the form of the story of a disguised
female Pope.
Knowledge of these legends was readily available to the early designers of the Tarot. Sister Manfreda
was immortalized in the Bembo Tarot cards, which were painted for her distant relative, Bianca Maria
Visconti, now preserved in the Pierpont Morgan Library; it is her face which looks longingly towards
Heaven in the card of the Papess in the Visconti Tarot. As for Pope Joan, she became something of an
ecclesiastical joke, turning up in the writings of many Church Fathers anxious to prove or disprove the
story, according to their beliefs. Later on, she appears in the novel Pope Joan by Emmanuel Royidis,
which was translated into English by Lawrence Durrell.
Whatever the ultimate sources of the story, it continues to exert a strong influence on Tarot design.
The design of The High Priestess is one of the strongest of the all the Major Arcana in both Waite’s and
Crowley’s packs, though in both she actually represents the High Priestess of the Eleusinian Mysteries,
Persephone as the bride of Hades (Whose Planet is Pluto, associated with Kether, the upper terminus of
this Path), as well as Isis and other Lunar Great Mother Goddesses.
The following are the various designs for this card:
 Bembo: A nun, wearing the triple crown and the habit of the Umiliata Order, holding a breviary or
Bible in her left hand. This card, dating from about 1450 e.v., may be the earliest representation
of the Papess in the Tarot.

Swiss: Juno, standing with her peacock.* In many Tarot packs of Southern France, the Papess was
replaced by Juno in order to avoid giving offense to the Church.

*The peacock is a symbol of the Sign Aquarius. See footnote, below, for America’s Tarot.

Insight: A high priestess of Isis, seated on a throne, flanked by lotus pillars. She holds a partially
visible scroll bearing the legend “Torah,” meaning the first few books of the Old Testament and
the Law of Deuteronomy. On her breast is a Solar cross; at her feet is a waxing crescent Moon.
On the pillar to her right the word Boaz, signifying negation, is partially visible; on that to her left
is the word Jachin, meaning “Beginning.”

Marseille: A seated female Pope, wearing the triple crown. She has an open Bible on her lap.

Wirth: Similar to the traditional, with the addition of a crescent Moon to the crown of the high
priestess. In addition, she holds the Keys of St. Peter.

Waite: A priestess of Isis, the Solar cross upon her breast and the waxing crescent Moon beneath her
left foot. She sits between the pillars Boaz and Jachin, in front of a screen decorated with
pomegranates. In her lap is a rolled-up Torah scroll. On her head is a crown symbolizing the
waxing, waning, and full Moon and, by extension, the Great Triple Goddess (Maiden, Matron, and
Crone).

B.O.T.A.: Like Waite’s, except that the pillars between which the priestess sits are lotus buds rather
than opened flowers, signifying that she is a virgin, symbolizing latent or undeveloped powers.

Aquarian: A pensive priestess sits in front of a curtain upon which are figures of pomegranates. In her
left hand are several flowers. Two rods stand on her left, signifying Boaz and Jachin.

Crowley: Isis enthroned. She is Isis because in her lap are the bow and arrows of the Virgin Goddess
Diana (the Maiden aspect of the Triple Goddess). On her head is the crown of Isis. Between her
and the viewer is a screen, in front of which are grapes, a lotus, crystals, a cone, and a camel.

New: Retitled “The Mother,” this card shows a nearly naked woman standing between the two pillars,
one of which is light and the other dark. In her upraised left hand is a lotus, and in her right is a
lightning bolt. Between her breasts is a seven-pointed Star. She is crowned with a double-headed
snake. Above her head is the Sign of Aquarius.

America’s Tarot: Lady Liberty,* ghost-over. Haji Ali the Camel-Driver, leading a train of camels
across the deserts of the American South-West. Sojourner Truth. Article II of the Bill of rights.

*In the traditional natal horoscope of the United States of America, erected for July 4, 1776 e.v. at 2:14:55
a.m. Standard Time, Liberty Hall, Philadelphia, PA, Luna is the highest Planet in the chart. Her
position in that chart is 18° 10’ Aquarius, while that of the Midheaven (10th House cusp) is 13° 57’
Aquarius. The number 13 is repeated frequently in this chart in the positions of the Planets and House
Cusps, especially the placement of Sol, Who is in the 13 th degree of Cancer (at 12° 44’ Cancer).
Uranus, the Planet associated with the Goddess Liberty, is rising, at 8° 53’ Gemini, conjunct the Fixed
Star Aldebaran; the Ascendant’s placement is 7° 35’ Gemini; the ruler of Gemini, Mercury, is at 24°
28’ Cancer; and the ruler of Cancer, Luna, is in the Sign ruled by Uranus, Aquarius. Thus three
Planets together dominate the destiny and nature of that nation: Luna, associated with all great Mother
Goddesses, including Lady Liberty, Mother of Exiles; Mercury, the Lord of Speech and Wisdom; and
Uranus, Mercury’s higher octave, Lord of technological innovation and expertise, of breakthrough
discoveries, and of the universal brotherhood of humanity and, by extension, of all life, everywhere in
the Universe.

The Divine Comedy Tarot:

Biblical Tarot:

John Burt’s MAD Tarot: Moxie Cowznowski, with a pillow stuffed into the front of her jeans.

The Robert A. Heinlein Tarot: A montage of scenes from “The Man Who Sold the Moon,”
“Requiem,” The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and Rocket Ship Galileo.

The H. P. Lovecraft Tarot:

The Stephen King Tarot:

The R. R. McCammon Tarot:

c. Divinatory Meanings
Upright: Alternate titles: “The Priestess of the Silver Star” (Crowley), “The Crown of Beauty” (the
Golden Dawn). Memory. The unconscious mind. The Collective Unconscious (another link with
Hades, husband of Persephone). A high priestess. The possibility of form. A Goddess of
Fertility. Fertility as an attribute. Pure, exalted, and gracious influence. Change, alternation,
tides, fluctuation, flux, increase and decrease (in any astrological chart, Luna rules changes of all
kind; like Saturn, the progressed Moon manifests form and is a ruler of Time). A liability to be
overcome by enthusiasm. Potential. Inspiration. Revelation. Divination. Intuition. A wise or
prophetic woman giving good advice. The beginning of sovereignty and beauty. The Primum
Mobile acting through the Moon upon the Sun. The occult. Intuition. The forces of nature.
Safety. Power over events. A revealing of something hidden. Certainty triumphing over evil.
Doors opening, new opportunities. Psychic abilities. Astral projection. Primordial instincts. The
path of secrecy or silence. Desolation. Nothingness. Purification. The acceptance of absolute
despair. Illumination. Spiritual enlightenment. Science. Wisdom. Knowledge. Education.
Wise adaptation of Solar power. Enlightenment brought to a previously unillumined mind. A link
between the Unmanifest (Kether) and phenomenal reality. A woman of authority, with the powers
of persuasion. God the Woman or the Divine Mother. The eternal feminine. Constancy.
Fidelity. Repose. Stability. Endurance. Art and artistic ability. Wealth. The Masonic Lodge.
The formative. The healing. Nature’s great Web of Life. The World Wide Web. Internet.
Destiny. Kismet. Moira. The spiritual bride and mother. The Queen of the Borrowed Light. The
cohabiting glory. Supernal understanding and indwelling glory. Pregnancy. Gestation. Secrets.
Mystery. The future as yet unrevealed. Silence. Tenacity. Justice, especially divine justice (with
reference to the fact that this Path passes through Da’ath; also, Djehuti, the Egyptian Lord of
Justice and Wisdom, rules the Moon). Transmutation. The Black Dragon of Alchemy.

Reversed: The physical Moon, and by extension a Moon of any Planet or a satellite of any larger
primary body. A camel. Blood plasma and its fractions; the brain; the left eye of a man, the right
eye of a woman; lungs; lymph (the fluid); spinal fluid; the stomach; the uterus. Emotional
instability or enslavement. Lack of foresight. Reluctance to take advice, which gives rise to
serious problems. Conceit. Sensuality. Superficiality. Intuition or psychic perception blocked or
 destroyed by hostility, hypocrisy, or some other negative influence. A virgin. An outgoing
woman. A woman with many lovers. A prostitute. A vampire. Decadence. Cynicism.
Ignorance. Incompetence. Superficial knowledge. Lack of skill, dyslexia, lack of coordination,
etc. Dumbness, laziness, resistance. Passive opposition. Passion. Moral or physical ardor.

d. Interrelationships of the Path and the Trump

This card is associated with Luna and all the Lunar Gods and Goddesses from the Babylonian Shin and
the Hindu Kali and Shiva to today’s Lady Liberty. In earlier versions of this card, the concern was with the
Spirit of Nature above the Abyss; the High Priestess is the first card connecting the Supernals with the
Sephiroth below the Abyss, and this Path makes a direct connection between the Father in his highest
aspect, Kether, and the Son in his most perfect manifestation, Tiphareth. Part of the Central Pillar of
Consciousness, in exact balance with the Pillars of Severity and Mercy, this Path represents the purest and
most exalted idea of the Moon (at the other end of the same scale is Trump XVIII, The Moon, associated
with the Sign Pisces, the lower Astral and the Qlippoth).
This card represents the most spiritual form of the Great Triple Goddess, Artemis of the Greeks,
clothed only in luminous veils of Light. In terms of the higher initiations, Light should be regarded not as
the perfect manifestation of Spirit, but rather as the veil hiding that Spirit, doing so all the more effectively
because of its dazzling brilliance. Thus the High Priestess is light, and the body of light, the truth behind
the veil of light, the soul of light. Upon her knees is Artemis’ bow, for she is the Divine Huntress, Hunting
by enchantment. The bow is also, however, the framework of a lyre or lute, for the highest form of
enchantment is through music.
From behind the Veil of Light, the third Veil of the Three Negatives (Ain, Ain Soph, and Ain Soph
Aur), matrix of manifestation, the Goddess Nuit, the potential for Form, this first, most spiritual
manifestation of the Feminine takes unto herself a corresponding masculinity by formulating from within
herself a geometrical point from which to begin manifesting potentiality. She is the idea behind all form.
As soon as the influence of the Supernals, through her, descends below the Abyss, that idea is made
complete in the form of concrete reality.
She is the Moon, Who, in every astrological chart, represents change and manifestation, Time, Form,
and Completion. She indicates birth, death, and every important life-change in between. She is Womb and
Tomb – and the Opened Tomb from whence issues forth the redeemed, resurrected Soul, reborn in the
Light of God. Maiden, Mother, and Crone, it is she who births life, sees it through its infancy and youth,
and lays it in the tomb at the last. She is fertility – and the Death made necessary by that fertility, without
which there could be no creativity, nothing new in the world. She kills that Life may continue and realize
all its potentials; she heals, that its mortal wounds shall not be fatal. She is the Womb of God and the
indwelling Wisdom, Sophia, of the power behind that Womb. She is Persephone, linking Hades, Kether, to
new life and the possibility of Redemption, Tiphareth. She is Divine Justice, restoring the Balance of the
World by means of judicious selective pressure. She is, in short, the Soul of Gaia, who counters every
negative impact on our living world’s life and well-being by means of the development of new strategies
for Life to use to continue itself in the face of an ever-changing, dangerous Universe.
Above all, she is Liberty, the Great Mother Goddess of Exiles and the Polyglot Universe of North
America, who breaks all chains, provides hope and a new start for even the most down-trodden.

4. Key 14
Daleth d, “Door.” Trump III, The Empress. Venus Ù. Cardinal value, 4; ordinal value, 4.
Connects Sephirah 2, Chokmah, with Sephirah 3, Binah. Roman/English equivalent: “D.”

a. Qaballistic Meanings and Theory

Just as the lower transverse Paths, the 27th (which connects Sephirah 8, Hod, with Sephirah 7, Netzach)
and 19th (which connects Sephirah 4, Chesed, with Sephirah 5, Geburah), are respectively, the “girders” of
the Personality and Individuality, this Path is the main girder of the Spirit itself. It is the hidden foundation
of all manifest being. The root of our existence is in Kether, but stable manifestation requires the
functioning of the principle of Polarity, which at this level is facilitated by the archetypal principles of
Chokmah and Binah – which are connected together by the 14th Path, Daleth.
Thus this Path is itself an archetype of all subsequent manifestation. It is a first true formation of the
principles inherent in the incoming flow of spiritual power from the Unmanifest and Kether. It is therefore
the gateway to manifestation, or, in the symbolism of the Hebrew letter, the Door to it. Likewise, it could
also be called the Door to the World of the Spirit, for Daleth is part of the Path of the Lightning Flash:
when returning upon that Way from Malkuth to Kether, this Path is the last channel of consciousness
wherein the Pillars of Manifestation in their function as upholders of Form have dominion. It is the Door to
“the Complete Illumination of the Vision of God face to face in Chokmah.”
It is upon its aspect of manifestation that the symbolism of the Tarot Trump lays emphasis. This
foundation stone of the building of the Temple of the Spirit in manifest existence is called the Daughter of
the Mighty Ones, thereby emphasizing its aspect of receptive Form. The Mighty Ones are the Principles of
manifest existence which are facilitated within the Tree of Life by Sephiroth Chokmah and Binah,
primordial force and archetypal form, root potency and root latency, Supernal Fire and Supernal Water,
Alchemical Sulphur and Alchemical Salt, together with all the vast complex of symbolism and meaning
implied by these two great Sephiroth, which represent the two Pillars of manifestation on the highest causal
levels. The Daughter of the Mighty Ones is another aspect of the feminine aspects of God. She is a
synthesis of all the Goddesses of the pagan pantheons.12

Far Eastern cosmological associations:

Metal. The West. Autumn. Destruction and decline. The solid but molded (as in casting). Acrid.
White. Controls lungs and larger intestine. The White Tiger. The Planet Venus. Yang – a Weapon. Yin –
a Kettle. Copper. Sublimate of mercury metal. Produces Water, destroys Wood, is destroyed by Fire.

Trigram: Ch’ien

–––
–––
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The Qaballistic associations with this Path include:

Yetziratic Title: The Illuminating Intelligence.

Astrological: the Planet Venus

Qlippothic associations: The guardian of the Tunnel of Set associated with Daleth is Dagdagiel. She
may be evoked by vibrating her name in the key of F Sharp, accompanied by a crooning or lilting
sound. Her sigil should be painted in vivid sky blue on a circle of bright rose rayed with pale
green. Her number is 55, a mystic number of Malkuth, the Sphere of Earth. The traditional
Demon associated with this Path is q r z b r u (A’arab Zaraq, the Raven of Dispersion).

Colors: emerald green (King Scale); sky blue (Queen Scale); early spring green (Emperor Scale);
bright rose or cerise, rayed pale green (Empress Scale).

Gods:

Egyptian: Hathoor
Greek: Aphrodite; Demeter
Roman: Venus; Ceres
Sumerian: Astarte
Babylonian:
Hindu: Lalita (sexual aspect of Shakti)
Norse: Freya
Buddhist meditation: Dark blue

Precious stones: emerald, turquoise, any green stone

Plants, real and imaginary: myrtle, rose clover

Animals, real and imaginary: sparrow, dove, swan, leopard

Christian associations: Thyatira

Magickal powers: Love-philters

Mineral drugs: homeopathic tincture of copper compounds at a dilution of 10 22 or greater parts pure
water to substrate

Vegetable drugs (plant extracts): all aphrodisiacs

Perfumes: sandalwood; myrtle; all soft, voluptuous odors

Magickal weapons: the Girdle

Lineal figures and numerological associations: the numbers 4, 7, 16, and 28; the Heptagram (seven-
pointed Star), the seven-rayed Star (seven rays radiating from a central point), a regular seven-
sided polygon; the square, the equal-armed cross

Title of Tarot Trump: Daughter of the Mighty Ones

Alchemical associations: copper; Salte (the completely calcined ash of a substance being processed
Alchemically), which must be energized by Sulphur (the oil that is one of the main products of the
Alchemical decomposition of substances, along with Salte and Mercury [vapor]) in order to
maintain the whirling equilibrium of the universe.

Legendary order of being: succubae

Parts of the body: genitals (and see entries under “reverse” for Trump, below)

Diseases: all STDs (sexually transmitted diseases): hypersexuality; diseases affecting the uterus,
fallopian tubes, vagina, etc.; sociopathology (insofar as Venus rules society and relationships of
all kinds, any dysfunction involving skills necessary to be a fully functioning member of society
and of one’s community would therefore be ruled by Venus)

Vice: Unchastity (Lust)

Musical note: F Sharp

b. Design and Title of Trump

The different designs of the various packs are as follows:

Bembo: A seated Germanic queen who holds her husband’s jousting shield, upon which is the German
Imperial Eagle. The card is also decorated with repeated designs of the three interlocked diamond
rings of the Sforza family.
Swiss: A seated queen, holding a Rod in her right hand, her left hand partially raised with her
forefinger pointing upwards.

Insight: A seated queen in flowing robes. Crosses repeated through the card. A general impression of
abundance.

Marseille: A German empress, seated, bearing in her left hand a sceptre surmounted by an orb and a
cross.

Italian: Similar to the Marseille and Bembo packs, with the addition of angel’s wings and a second
head for the eagle on the shield.

Wirth: A throned empress with the wings of an angel, her head surrounded by a corona of Stars. Her
left foot rests upon a crescent waxing Moon.

Waite: A seated empress who wears a crown decorated with pomegranates. On her head is a crown of
Stars. She holds a Rod upraised in her right hand. A heart-shaped shield with the sigil of Venus
on it sits on the ground at her right. In the background, a river can be seen; it becomes a waterfall
in the middle distance on the right side of the card. Ripe wheat covers the land at her feet.

B.O.T.A.: Similar to Waite’s, but here the Empress holds a heart-shaped shield with a dove upon it in
her right hand. In her left hand, she holds a sceptre that terminates in an orb. There are no
pomegranates visible here, but on her left are roses in full bloom.

Aquarian: Repeats the motif of ripe wheat, the crown of Stars, and the symbol of Venus upon her
shield.

Crowley’s: This card shows the Empress seated, holding an opened lotus in her right hand. On her
head is the Crown of Isis surmounted by a Maltese Cross. On her left hand is the waxing crescent
Moon, on her right, the waning Moon. In the foreground to her left is a shield that bears the
Imperial German Eagle. In the foreground at her right is a swan sitting upon a nest of cygnets.

New: In this pack, the card is retitled “Feeler.” It shows a priestess standing between two cypresses.
In the night sky above her is the Sign of Cancer. Her head is crowned with an ankh; snakes wrap
themselves around her ankles.

America’s Tarot: Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, other American Goddesses. The reverse shows
American female anti-heroes and porn stars against a street-scene of prostitutes. Article III of the
Bill of Rights.

The Divine Comedy Tarot: Beatrice

Biblical Tarot: Ruth; Mary Magdalene.

John Burt’s MAD Tarot: Annie Gaines dressed as the Statue of Liberty.

The Robert A. Heinlein Tarot: A scene from Farmer in the Sky; possibly with Lazarus Long’s mother,
Maureen Johnson, as pictured on the cover of To Sail Beyond the Sunset, in the foreground, rising
up in naked glory out of the seashell.

The H. P. Lovecraft Tarot:

The Stephen King Tarot:

 The R. R. McCammon Tarot: Swan from Swan Song, as a married woman, surrounded by fertile
fields and great forest, clothed and posed much as in traditional packs.

c. Divinatory Meanings
Upright: That through which something passes. Ingress. Egress. Transmission. Diffusion.
Dissemination. Division. Wisdom and folly. Luminous intelligence. The warm Mother Goddess. Nature.
The supreme power balanced by the eternally active mind and absolute wisdom. The universal fertility of
God. Nature in labor. Success, provided that productive activity is united with righteousness. The
implication that the fundamental law of the universe is Love. Love. Beauty. Happiness. Pleasure.
Success. Completion. Good fortune. Graciousness. Elegance. Luxury. Friendship. Gentleness. Delight.
Feelings or emotions (as distinct from intuition, which belongs to Trump II, The High Priestess, or to the
Suit of Cups). Maternity. Fertility. Sensuality in a general sense. Reassurance or security that comes
from sensory input. Isis unveiled; the maternal aspect of the Great Triple Goddess. The wisdom of
understanding. The union of the powers of originality and production. The sphere of the Zodiac
(Chokmah), associated with Neptune (Venus’ higher octave), acting through Venus upon Saturn. The
passive power of the material world. A force against which one cannot react. A state of affairs that
nothing can alter. The Sorrowing Mother, as Mary weeping over the body of her crucified son. A hostess.
A wife. Social organization. Society. Community. Relationships of any kind. The Gate of Manifestation.
The face-to-face vision of God. The complete illumination. The seed in the darkness of night. Mother
Goddesses. Goddesses of fruitfulness or fertility. Action. Plan. Undertaking. Progress in a matter.
Initiative. Love in its carnal aspects. Love between mental complements. Affection. Creative inspiration.
The Hermaphrodite: wisdom and understanding united in cosmic or universal love. The love of master
and student in the Mysteries. She reigns with Her love over all that has been born, all that is, and all that
ever will be. Knowledge. Universal fertility. The Corn-Woman. Earth, maternal and material, at the time
of Eden, before any human cultures existed. The matrix of civilizations. The fruitful mother of thousands.
Action. Length of days. The unknown. Clandestine matters. Difficulty. Doubt. Ignorance.

Reversed: The Planet Venus. Kidneys, bladder; the urogenital system; ovaries, fallopian tubes,
uterus, vagina; palate, tongue; saliva; female sex organs; skin (along with Tav and Saturn); urine; veins.
Diseases or dysfunctions involving any of the foregoing. Idleness (Sloth). Dissipation. Debauchery.
Fixation upon the role of motherhood, which can turn one into the devourer of one’s own children. The
Crone (although that attribution is better associated with Trump XVIII, The Moon). Sterility. Maternal
tyranny. Domestic strife. Psychic alienation. Poverty. A sense of the universe as impersonal or
malevolent. Delay in the accomplishment of something. Lust. Loneliness. A nymphomaniac.
Overindulgence. Extravagance. Inaction. Frittering away of power. Want of concentration. Vacillation.
Light. Truth. The unraveling of involved matters. Public rejoicing.

d. Interrelationships of the Path and the Trump

This card is attributed to the letter Daleth, “Door,” and the Planet Venus. To some extent, this card is
the complement of Trump IV, The Emperor, but its attributions are much more universal than are those of
the latter.
Daleth is the Path leading from Chokmah to Binah, uniting the Father (Chokmah) with the Mother
(Binah), Fire with Water, Wisdom with Understanding. This is one of the only three Paths that lie
completely above the Abyss, the other two being Aleph and Beth.
The symbol of Venus, associated with this card, is the only one of all the Planetary symbols which
comprises all the Sephiroth of the Tree of Life. In order, the circle touches the Sephiroth 1, 2, 4, 6, 6, 3,
while the Cross is formed by 6, 9, 10 (the upright) and 7, 8 (the crossbar). This implies that the
fundamental formula of the Universe is Love.
Venus has been called the “many-throned, many-minded, many-wiled daughter of Zeus.” Likewise,
the woman in this card recurs in infinitely varied form, making it impossible to summarize her meanings.
In this card, she is shown in her most general manifestation, combining the highest spiritual qualities with
the lowest material ones. She thus represents one of the three major products of Alchemical
decomposition, Salte, the completely calcined ash of a substance, representing the inactive principle of
nature and the Cardinal Signs. Salte must be energized by Sulphur, another Alchemical decomposition
product that is associated with the Fixed or Cherubic Signs, in order to maintain the dynamic equilibrium of
the Universe. The figure’s arms and torso therefore suggest the shape of the Alchemical symbol of Salte.
She is usually represented as a woman with an imperial crown and vestments, seated upon a throne. In
Crowley’s pack, these uprights suggest blue, twisted flames, symbolizing the birth of Venus from water,
the feminine, fluid element. In her right hand she bears the lotus Wand of Isis, representing the feminine or
passive, Yin power. The roots of the lotus are in the Earth beneath the water, or in the water itself, but it
opens its petals to the Sun, whose image is reflected within its chalice. The lotus is thus a living form of
the Holy Grail, sanctified by the light of the Sun (in Christian terms, by the blood of Christ). Also in
Crowley’s pack, two of Venus’ most sacred birds, the sparrow and the dove, perch upon her throne’s
uprights; on her robe are bees as well as dominos, surrounded by continuous spiral lines. She wears the
Zodiac for her girdle. At the back of the card is the Arch or Door, representing the letter Daleth. Summed
up, this card may be called the Gate of Heaven.
Overall, this card represents the balance of the Universe, the marriage of Wisdom and Understanding,
and the bonds which unite all things into one coherent whole, without which there would be nothing more
than a random collection of unrelated particles, drifting without reference to one another out to infinity.
The Empress thus represents the cohesive powers which knit the Multiverse together, from gravity through
the electromagnetic forces up to the strong forces that hold the subatomic particles of the atomic nucleus
together, as well as the bonds that knit lovers, families, communities, societies, civilizations, ecosystems,
and worlds together. She thus represents, e.g., love, affection, fondness, kindness, fellowship, marriage,
partnership, social interactions of all kinds, and all other phenomena involving relationship. In the abstract,
she represents mathematics, the Queen of the Sciences, the science of pure relationship. In this she is like
Neptune, the higher octave of Venus, Who is the lord of mathematics, computer software, systems theory,
information theory, etc.