Tarot cards and Kabbalah: the Meaning of the Major Arcana

If you have never heard about it, there is a straightforward correlation between the subset of Tarot Cards we name Major Arcanas and Kabbalah. The implications are so profound and true that if you have never heard about them you have missed a lot in terms of meaning and spiritual attributes of tarot. The link is established by taking a good look at the Tree of Life of Kabbalah. The Tree of life constitutes of 10 Spheres or Levels of Influence, called Sephirot (plural) and 22 Paths connecting these Sephirot (see the image for clarifications). The 10 Sephirot are:

• 1. Keter or Crown
• 2. Chokhmah or Wisdom
• 3. Binah or Understanding
• 4. Chesed or Kindness
• 5. Gevurah of Severity
• 6. Tiferet or Beauty
• 7. Netzach or Eternity
• 8. Hod or Splendor
• 9. Yesod or Foundation
• 10. Malkuth or Kingdom

The real “revelation” comes when realizing that there are 22 Major Arcana cards – same number as the number of connecting paths on the Tree of life. Now, you can imagine that in fact each of the Cards from this subset of Tarot has a certain specified meaning related to the meaning of those paths. Let us first see what a path on the tree of life could be. Given that a Sephirah (singular form) represents a certain definite state of consciousness or state of mind, the paths obviously indicate some change of consciousness from one to some other aspect of our psychic. Then, following this logic, the Major Trumps Card also depict this transition from one state of mind to another higher or lower cognitive state.

The rest is up to you, namely how you will interpret the Tarot cards having in mind the meaning of the Kabbalah Spheres and Symbols as well as their joining lines – paths on the Tree of life. This will give you plenty of material and symbolism if you are actually a Tarot cards reader, professional or not, nonetheless. Here are these relations enumerated (the number denotes the numeration on the cards):

• 1. Keter – Binah: The Magician
• 0. Keter – Chokhmah : The Fool
• 3. Binah – Chokhmah: The Empress
• 7. Binah – Gevurah: The Chariot
• 5. Chokhmah – Chesed : The Hierophant
• 4. Chokhmah – Tiferet: The Emperor
• 6. Binah – Tiferet: The Lovers
• 8. Gevurah – Chesed : Strength
• 2. Keter – Tiferet : The High Priestess
• 11. Gevurah – Tiferet : Justice
• 9. Chesed – Tiferet : The Hermit
• 12. Gevurah – Hod: The Hanged Man
• 10. Chesed – Netzach: Wheel of Fortune
• 14. Tiferet – Yesod: Temperance
• 16. Hod – Netzach: The Tower
• 15. Tiferet – Hod: The Devil
• 13. Tiferet – Netzach: Death
• 19. Hod – Yesod: The Sun
• 17. Netzach – Yesod: The Star
• 20. Hod – Malkuth: Judgment
• 21. Yesod – Malkuth: The World
• 18. Netzach – Malkuth: The Moon

In this article we have seen the not-so-visible link that exists between Kabbalah’s Tree of life and Major Arcana Cards. I hope this will be an incentive to engage into a more deeper investigation of the spiritual side of Tarot as well as Kabbalah itself.