by Marcus Katz
Shuffle the 40 cards.
Lay the top 10 cards out, face-up, in the pattern of the Tree of Life (illustrated below). This is your divination.
Illustration. Tree of Life Layout
The Schemata Analysis
Write down next to each Sephirah the numerical difference between the card number (Aces are 1) and the number of the Sephirah. This will indicate the areas in which the event is most aligned and misaligned to the “grand cosmic plan” or “ideal template” of creation.
So if you place a 5 of Wands in the first position, 1, that’s a difference of 4, so write down “4” by that first circle on a piece of paper or copy of this diagram. If the next card was a 2 of Pentacles in position 2, that’s a difference of 0.
Example: You notice that the Ace of Swords has fallen into the position of Kether, the first Sephirah, numbered 1 (a difference of none!). Whilst further down the Tree, the 3 of Cups is in the position of Malkuth, numbered 10 (a difference of 7). This would indicate that the event was aligned in its conception, source and root – it started well and powerfully, but ended very misaligned; the 3 of Cups is 7 away from the ideal 10, perhaps suggesting that the nature of companionship (an interpretation of the card) stopped you from fully realizing your ambitions in action.
You may also notice whether the alignments and mis-alignments are towards the top of the Tree or the bottom, to the left or to the right. This will indicate whether the event was on rocky ground at its commencement (upper Sephiroth) or completion (lower Sephiroth), or in the aspects of its energy (right pillar) or structure (left pillar).
Example: There are several cards in your reading which are misaligned greatly; these are on the left-hand side of the Tree spread as you are looking at it. These might be the 9 of Wands in position 3, the 10 of Swords in position 5 and the 2 of Cups in position 8. The cards on the other side of the spread seem more congruent, being the 3 of Cups in position 2, the 4 of Pentacles in position 4, and the 9 of Pentacles in position 7. The left hand column has a total variance of 17, the right column a variance of 3 – quite noticeable. This would indicate a major problem in the organisation, structure, rules and regulations or expectations, being on the pillar of Form. The energy of your life is far more successful, on the Pillar of Force, it is just being wasted or mis-applied in the structure.
Now look at whether any of these variations or strengths indicates which area(s) of your life require resurrection, according to the associations of the Sephiroth to life. For some I have also given planetary correspondences for those with Astrological knowledge:
Kether: Aims, goals, spiritual development
Chockmah: Masculinity, power, energy, wisdom
Binah: Femininity, understanding, depth
Chesed: Expansiveness, love, mercy, charity [Jupiter]
Geburah: Rigour, Control, Discipline, Structure [Mars]
Tiphareth: Harmony, balance, centeredness [Sun]
Netzach: Nature, cycles, habits [Venus]
Hod: Learning, knowledge [Mercury]
Yesod: Dreams, imagination [Moon]
Malkuth: Health & Wealth, Body, Material [Saturn]
So, one advanced student had an example with the 3 of Swords in the position of Netzach, writing:
Netzach (Nature, cycles, habits) – 3 of Swords
Difference - 4
Divinatory Meaning – A really bad card, in a really bad position. Well, actually, in the right position, and well dignified, I think the Three of Swords can actually be an excellent card – if you're editing a piece of work, or making a business deal the cynicism and critical sharpness of the three make it a fantastic card. Of course, in a spot as emotional as Netzach, it's not so good. Here it speaks to me of an undeveloped, but very sharp, analytical system, tearing apart of Venusian rhythms. A well nurtured Netzach sphere sets the foundations that we fall back on, and the kind of non-book knowledge that we need. The three of swords here speaks to me of imbalance by way of self doubt and destructive thought processes.
The overall conclusion he reached on looking over the whole Tree and the differences was quite a revelation to him:
“Interesting, as this spread wobbles. It wobbles quite badly on the left at the top, then gets pulled right back into the middle at Tiphareth... but that in itself is an overcompensation that makes things wobble on the right in the lower part of the tree. All this wobbling and overcompensation creates a stunted product at the end where it's obvious that the whole aim of the process has been more about achieving stability than creating something.”
Illustration: Tree of Life Numbers and Names of Sephiroth
Calibrated Spreads
A calibrated spread is a way of reading the cards against a set template or pattern, an idealized pattern in which the cards are already structured. This is not just a “spread” as it is designed to be read as a measurement against an ideal layout of the cards. The difference between the cards as they are placed and what they “should be” is the indication of how you “measure up” to the perfect situation. There are many ways of doing calibrated spreads and these are more fully explored in Tarosophy, the book.
The week ahead will be challenging, intriguing, totally original and magical. We hope that it provides your relationship new insight, development and change - and gives you a whole new way of looking at Tarot.
Resurrection Engine: Gate 2
Cogs
This is the second gate of our Resurrection experience, and is simply called “Cogs”.
We have the whole of today and tomorrow to look over these loose cogs before we stick them together into our Engine.
The Cogs of the Engine
Take a look at these Tarot Cards from your deck:
The World
The Chariot
The Hermit
The Emperor
If you were to get these together in a reading, what would you think? How would you interpret them? What keywords do you associate with them? Take some time to consider your answer.
Now consider them as response to our first gate – “What is it in life I need to resurrect?” How would you interpret these in your own case?
Finally, consider these as four pieces of a single machine. What role do they have in the machine, and if you put something into the machine at the World end of the machinery, how would it come out at the Emperor end? What would each of these cogs do to a piece of light passing through it, or an innocent person such as the Fool?
One way of doing this is to suggest lessons for each of the cards mentioned above to teach to the Fool as they encounter the cards on a journey, so for example, the “World” might teach the Fool, “Everything has a purpose”. Then this would indicate that the cog of the Engine represented by the World is “Purpose”.
You might also like to consider these “secret” keywords which are from the Tarosophy book, modeled on the responses of almost 50 Tarot readers:
World - Beginning
Chariot – Momentum
Hermit – Solitude
Emperor – Endurance
When you have looked at these four cards as individual cogs and as a sequence, we can now see what we can build from them. See if you can move these cogs around and engage them with each other in different ways, like a jigsaw. This can be done by putting them together and coming up with new concepts, descriptions, lessons, interpretation, divination or keywords to summarize their combinations.
You can use these keywords or your own concepts of each card. So for example, put the words for the World and the Chariot together and see what word comes to mind:
Beginning + Momentum = ? (Sprouting, Charging, Spurting?)
Then try Hermit and Emperor:
Solitude + Endurance = ? (persistence, retreat, resolve?)
And when you have done two pairs, put the results of the pairs together, engaging all of the cogs, so for the example above you might end up with:
Sprouting + Persistence = A Bulb coming to flower i
n the Spring.
Try this in various combinations.
Conclusion
We have chosen these cards for a particular reason which will be explained later. For now we can see how we can work with the Majors as individual cards, in sequence or in combination. These are essential skills for all divination.
Resurrection Engine: Gate 4
Fuel
This is the fourth gate of our Resurrection experience, and is where we “fuel” our Engine. This is the first actual proper gate in the sense we use them, as it is an engagement in real life in response to a reading. Which means that you have to do the response before the next spread can be given, otherwise it won’t make any sense!
We have the whole of today and tomorrow to look over our previous machining and perform the action required to pass through this gate.
The Fuelling of the Engine
Perform a simple three card reading using your entire deck. The question is very simple.
What is the first step I can take tomorrow to trigger this resurrection?
You then have 1-2 days at most to take this step IN REAL ACTIVITY before the Engine can be completed. Without the fuel of real life, this engine is meaningless.
Further Work (Optional)
If you would like to use your schemata in more detail, you can refer to the MAJOR cards which correspond to the paths connecting to your areas of greatest difference. These will indicate the “lessons” you need to learn to balance this energetic difference or imbalance.
So for example if you had a major difference in Chockmah, position 2, the cards connected to that are the FOOL, EMPRESS, EMPEROR and HIEROPHANT. You would then consider what lessons these reflect in that imbalance with regard to your question.
A diagram follows below on the Tree of Life and the Major cards.
Illustration. The Tarot on the Tree of Life.
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Resurrection Engine: Gate 5
Tea Break
This is the fifth gate of our Resurrection experience, and is an opportunity for us to continue to fuel our engine, whilst making sense of what we have already accomplished, and preparing for the last few pieces to fall into place. We Resurrectionists call for a Tea Break!
We will get back to work tomorrow, but for now let’s take a look at what all of this has been about!
We will then complete our engine over the next few days!
The Tree of Life
Firstly, of course, we have been learning all about the Tree of Life in Kabbalah with particular respect to how it is used in the Western esoteric system. This is as a map of experience and creation itself. The diagram of Sephiroth (numerical emanations 1-10) and Paths (connections 11-22, corresponding to the Hebrew letters) provides a wonderful framework on which to hang other systems, including Tarot.
To further explain, here are some titles, other than those generally given, of the Sephiroth. You may wish to take tea, and now look at these in connection with your Schemata, to see if these explain more about your original calibrated reading.
We have given the English transliteration of the Hebrew letters for each of the Sephirah. You will soon see why this is so important, and discover you have already learnt something quite profound you can do to use your Tarot to understand Kabbalah!
The usually given titles are marked in bold, the other descriptions are alternative meanings of the word itself, for example, Kether is usually referred to as the “crown” but it also means “to encompass”.
Sephirah
Hebrew
Translations
1. Kether
KThR
Crown, diadem, to surround, beseige, wait, encompass
2. Chockmah
ChKMH
Wisdom, experience, knowledge, intelligence, insight, judgement, science, midwife
3. Binah
BYNH
Understanding, insight, prudence, reason, discernment
Da'ath
DA'aTh
Knowledge, insight, wisdom, understanding
4. Chesed
ChSD
Mercy, grace, piety, beauty, good-will, favour, benefit, love, kindness, charity, righteousness, benevolence, to do good
5. Geburah
GBVRH
Strength, power, force, valour, courage, victory, might, God, hero
6. Tiphareth
ThPhARTh
Beauty, splendour, magnificance, ornament, honour, glory, boast
7. Netzach
NTzCh
Victory, splendour, glory, truth, power, firmness, confidence, eminence.
Duration, perpetuity, eternity, lasting, enduring.
To excel, be superior, strength, blood, to be chief.
Music-master, precentor, to sparkle, shine, win.
8. Hod
HVD
Glory, splendour, majesty, renown, ornament, beauty
9. Yesod
YSVD
Foundation, base, ground, principle, compilation
10. Malkuth
MLKVTh
Kingdom, dominion, realm, reign
Correspondences
Now we can reveal two things you have already learnt: the secret of correspondence and the Kabbalistic technique of the way of permutation, or Tzeruf. These are both powerful techniques and rarely taught or published, so we hope you enjoy your discovery of them both!
Firstly, the core of Western esotericism is correspondence – that one thing corresponds to another. Thus, we can correspond the Hebrew letter Mem to the Tarot Card of the Hanged Man and the element of Water. Let us leave aside how this works, why and which system to use, for the moment!
So we can see that the Hebrew letters and the Tarot cards correspond:
Letter
Path on Tree
Connecting
Sephiroth
Tarot
Correspondence
Astrological
Correspondence
Aleph (A)
11
1-2
0 : FOOL
Air
Beth (B)
12
1-3
I : MAGICIAN
Mercury
Gimel (G)
13
1-6
II : PRIESTESS
Moon
Daleth (D)
14
2-3
III : EMPRESS
Venus
Heh (H)
15
2-6
IV : EMPORER
Aries
Vau (V)
16
2-4
V : HIEROPHANT
Taurus
Zain (Z)
17
3-6
VI : LOVERS
Gemini
Cheth (Ch)
18
3-5
VII : CHARIOT
Cancer
Teth (T)
19
4-5
VIII : STRENGTH
Leo
Yod (Y)
20
4-6
IX : HERMIT
Virgo
Kaph (K)
21
4-7
X : WHEEL
Jupiter
Lamed (L)
22
5-6
XI : JUSTICE
Libra
Mem (M)
23
5-8
XII : HANGED MAN
Water
Nun (N)
24
6-7
XIII : DEATH
Scorpio
Samekh (S)
25
6-9
XIV : TEMPERANCE
Sagittarius
Ayin (A’a)
26
6-8
XV : DEVIL
Capricorn
Peh (P)
27
7-8
XVI : TOWER
Mars
Tzaddi (Tz)
28
7-9
XV
II : STAR
Aquarius
Qoph (Q)
29
7-10
XVIII : MOON
Pisces
Resh (R)
30
8-9
XIX : SUN
Sun
Shin (Sh)
31
8-10
XX : LAST JUDGEMENT
Fire
Tau (Th)
32
9-10
XXI : UNIVERSE
Saturn/Earth
Now because Hebrew is taken in Kabbalah as the divine language, reflecting the construction of the Universe, all words have hidden meaning. So if you take a word, such as resurrection, spelt in the Hebrew word for it, ThChYH (Tau-Cheth-Yod-Heh), you can discover the hidden nature of the concept by analysing the letters – and we can do that through correspondence with our existing (or growing!) knowledge of Tarot!
So in our system we look at the corresponding Tarot cards:
Tau: Universe/World
Cheth: Chariot
Yod: Hermit
Heh: Emperor
And we can then discern more about the nature of resurrection from those images and all that we know about them. You may recognize these cards … Yes, they are the COGS in our resurrection engine!
You can now start to rapidly unlock Kabbalah with your Tarot knowledge. Here’s one way to start, by analyzing the Hebrew names of the Sephiroth! Students of mine will recognize this technique and may have applied it already, but for others, you can take each Sephiroth spelling as given in the previous table, find the Tarot correspondences for it from the other table, and explore the meanings of each Sephiroth!