Tarot and the Gates of Light

by Mark Horn

  *3 Sephirot is plural; Sephira is singular.

  *4 If you study Kabbalah on your own, you will encounter different opinions and teachings about the order of the emanations, their names, and so on. The beauty of the story of the revelation at Sinai is that there is a unique revelation for each of us.

  *5 Ein Sof can be translated as meaning “without end” or “infinite.”

  *6 All following quotes from the Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) are from The Standard Prayer Book. Some words have been changed to remove gender bias; for example, “He” has been changed to read “One.”

  *7 In Judaism, the day begins at sunset, so the Sabbath begins on Friday night, known as Erev Shabbat.

  *8 Tikkun Olam means “healing or repairing the world,” and as taught by Rabbi Isaac Luria, it was about the path of raising the scattered sparks. Today most Jews use the phrase to mean the pursuit of social justice.

  *9 Arthur Edward Waite considered his version of the deck “rectified”—that is to say, a return to the original order and meaning of the cards. A number of deck creators make similar claims. Recently, Yoav Ben-Dov, working with the numerous versions of the Marseilles deck, poked fun at the idea of a rectified deck and then created his own “rectified” version of the Marseilles deck as designed by Nicholas Conver in 1760 that I like.

  †10 In the Raziel Tarot, a new deck inspired by Judaic myth and legend created by Rachel Pollack and Robert Place, the connection between Solomon and amulets (Pentacles) is made directly. When the Minor Arcana for the Raziel deck becomes available, it would be interesting to try this practice with that deck.

  *11 Traditionally, the Sephirot also correspond to what I will call characters in the Hebrew Bible. Male and female characters are assigned to each.

  *12 The midrash is a genre of rabbinic literature that includes stories created to resolve contradictions or explain gaps in the biblical narrative. For example, there is no account in Genesis of what Abraham’s father did for a living, but any Jewish child can tell you he made idols; the story of Abraham smashing idols in his father’s shop is a midrash. Historically, the Midrash refers to a specific collection of these interpretive stories composed between 400 and 1200 CE, but people have continued to write midrashim (the plural form) up to today.

  *13 Rabbi Isaac Luria’s mythic account of Creation begins with the Tzimtzum. In the beginning, the Divine Presence filled the universe, so there was no room for Creation. Thus, the Divine contracted Its Self in order to create a space for Creation. This contraction is known as the Tzimtzum. This suggests that creation is separate from the Divine. However, despite this “contraction,” the Divine Presence is understood as filling the universe. It is only our limited perception that makes it appear otherwise. For more on this topic, see “How the Ari Created a Myth and Changed Judaism” by Howard Schwartz on the Tikkun website.

  *14 Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer (1700-1760), the founder of Hasidism, was known as the Baal Shem Tov, which means “Master of the Good Name.” This title is a reference to the fact that he was known as a miracle worker who used practical Kabbalah to effect cures. He also was a master storyteller whose message was one of mystic joy.

  *15 If compassion fatigue is an issue in your life, there are resources, starting with the website of the Compassion Fatigue Awareness Project.

  *16 Remember, every Sephira includes its shadow opposite.

  †17 “Justice, justice shall you pursue.” Deuteronomy 16:20

  *18 The root of the word halakha means “the way,” so that in a way, it’s like the Buddhist word dharma. Except that in common usage it refers to the laws of Jewish life—the laws of the Torah as interpreted by generations of rabbis in the Talmud and other sacred documents.

  *19 For those struggling with this issue, The Gate of Tears: Sadness and the Spiritual Path by Rabbi Jay Michaelson is an excellent spiritual guide.

  *20 I have often wondered whether Pamela Colman Smith was familiar with this image and was influenced by it when she designed the Ten of Pentacles.

  *21 This is a line from the Amidah, the “standing” prayer recited three times a day, every day by observant Jews, which also includes these lines: “You sustain the living with lovingkindness . . . support the falling, heal the sick, loose the bound, and keep faith to them that sleep in the dust.” One can interpret the final clause as referring to both those who are dead and buried and the poor who sleep on the ground outside. See page 54 of The Standard Prayer Book, translated by Simeon Singer.

  *22 In Hebrew, the root of the word tzedakah, most often translated as “charity,” is the word tzedek, most often translated as “justice” or “righteousness.” Tzedek is also related to the word tzadik, a righteous or saintly person. One of the beliefs of mystical Judaism is that there are always at least thirty-six hidden tzadikim (plural) on the planet, and the power of their righteousness is essential to the continuation of humanity.

  *23 Oddly enough, the Morris dance traditionally takes place on Pentecost. You can see an example on YouTube under the title “Beltane Border Morris Dance Up the Sun (May Day 2016).”

  *24 The Shield or Star of David, the six-pointed star made of two interpenetrating triangles, represents the essential oneness of the transcendent and immanent.

  *25 See his Eighty Four Thousand Poems, a “darshan diary” in verse that is unpublished but available online from several sources. Osho is perhaps better known as Rajneesh, and here’s an example of someone who taught spiritual truths while using his position to abuse his followers and amass great wealth. I like what he wrote, but as with many who achieve spiritual “power,” he fell prey to his own shadow.

  *26 HinJu = A Jewish person who also observes Hindu practices.

  *27 Hebrew for “gladness or joy,” this word often refers to a joyful celebration of blessings. It is also used as a given name.

  *28 The word Tanakh is an acronym, made from the words Torah, Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings), and it is used in Judaism to refer to the books of the Hebrew Bible.

  †29 One of the greatest rabbinic sages of the first century CE. The Sefer Yetzirah is ascribed to him, though this is unlikely to be true.

  *30 This is a celebratory expression of congratulations. The word mazel in ancient Hebrew meant “constellation,” so that using this expression was like saying you were born under a good sign of the zodiac.

  *31 I recognize this is a highly problematic term that spans a wide range of beliefs and practices for which there is no fully definable category. I’m generalizing. Something I generally don’t like to do. Ahem.

  *32 And on a completely tangential note, if the plural of mouse is mice, why isn’t the plural of spouse, spice?

  *33 People disagree: Is the sun setting or rising in this card? I choose to see it as sunrise, obviously, since ten is the end of a cycle and the start of a new cycle. A new day.

  *34 In the myth of creation in Lurianic Kabbalah, the first time the Sephirot were emanated they were not in proper relationship. Unable to hold the Divine energy, they shattered, and the resulting shards are spread across all creation.

  *35 Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter came to be called the Sefat Emet, after the name of his most famous work, which in English can be translated as the Language of Truth, or more colloquially, Straight Talk.

  *36 Today academia has given us the unfortunate descriptor cisgender to describe this. I do not accept this labeling since for some people my gender role presentation would appear to be the default heteronormative male, but for others I would be quite queer. Cisgender is reductionist, and as such I reject this label.

  *37 Proverbs 3:18, Lamentations 5:21. You’ve probably noticed that the Torah is referred to as a Tree of Life. Indeed, the Kabbalists believed all the secrets of Creation are hidden in the Torah and that it holds the energy of all the Sephirot. This is why for a Jewish Kabbalist, Torah study is essential. And it’s why I find the occult Qabalah, which gives short shrift to the classic Judaic texts, somewhat ungrounded
at the least and an antiSemitic appropriation at the worst.

  *38 One of my favorite books, which presents this holiday as both metaphorical and urgently true, is This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared: The Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation by Rabbi Alan Lew, z’’l.

  *39 Here I want to make a distinction between the People Israel—that is, the historical tribal group that is the origin of the modern Jewish traditions—and people who may not be Jewish at all. Inasmuch as the name Israel was given to Jacob after he wrestled with the angel and it means One Who Wrestles with the Divine, I consider anyone who does this kind of work just such a God-wrestler. So while such a person may not be a member of the Jewish people, he or she is of the People Israel. That’s my universalist take on our particularist tribal origin story.

  *40 Baal was a god worshipped by other ancient Near Eastern peoples; Baalim is the plural form. Baal also means “master” and “husband” in Hebrew, depending on the context.

  *41 I grieve for the Facebook generation, which struggles with the distance between the image management of their online personas and the reality of who they are. Social media has made this split deep and epidemic.

  †42 But what about open relationships? you may ask. What about polyamory? This is a big subject, enough for another book that I’m not the one to write. I know people in open relationships that are spiritually Intimate. I’m just not sure that I can live this way, so it’s not my way.

  *43 In these systems, Keter is identical with Ein Sof, and so is above and beyond the Sephirot. Thus, Da’at, Knowledge, becomes the Sephira below Chokhmah and Binah to harmonize their energies. The Chabad Hasidic sect follows this system, and Chabad is an acronym for these three Sephirot.

  *44 Yes, there was the Sola Busca deck, which influenced Pamela Colman Smith, but for all intents and purposes, before the Waite-Smith deck the tradition was overwhelmingly without human situational imagery.

  *45 The origin of this practice is an imitation of Christ’s forty-day fast in the desert, a practice that some scholars think he took on as a member of one of the very few ascetic sects within Judaism, the Essenes.

  Endnotes

  EPIGRAPHS

  Rav Abraham Isaac Kook, Sefer Orot Hakodesh 1:268.

  Campbell, Inner Reaches of Outer Space, xx.

  KABBALAH, TAROT CARDS, AND COUNTING THE OMER—WHAT’S THIS ALL ABOUT?

  1. Leviticus 23:15–16. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes from the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, are taken from the 1917 Jewish Publication Society version of The Holy Scriptures, According to the Masoretic Text: A New Translation. The text has been edited by the author to remove archaic language and syntax that is unclear to the modern ear, or to better convey the meaning of the text.

  2. Singer, Standard Prayer Book, Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkei Avot) 1:1.

  3. Westcott, Sepher Yetzirah.

  4. Levine and Brettler, Jewish Annotated New Testament, Acts 2: 1-6. Unless otherwise noted, all New Testament scripture quotes are from this edition, which uses the text of the New Revised Standard Version Bible.

  5. Joel 2:28.

  6. See Acts 2:17–18.

  7. Roberts, “Celebrating Easter for Fifty Days.”

  8. For this story of another example of revelation on the eve of Pentecost see, Alkabetz, “Shavuot Night in Salonika.”

  9. Ariel, Kabbalah, 211–12.

  10. Dan, Early Kabbalah, 34.

  11. Place, Tarot.

  12. See more at Tilles, “Kabbalah? Cabala? Qabala?”

  13. Decker, Depaulis and Dummett, Wicked Pack of Cards.

  THE TREE OF LIFE

  1. Michaelson, “An Introduction to the Kabbalah Part 8.”

  2. Pirkei Avot 4:1. All quotes from the Pirkei Avot, unless otherwise noted, are from the Standard Prayer Book, by Simeon Singer, 1915.

  3. Forster, Howards End, 214.

  4. To learn more about complexity theory and consciousness, see the lectures of Dr. Neil Theise on YouTube.

  5. Heschel, God in Search of Man, 172.

  6. Sameth, “Is God Transgender?”

  7. Kukla, “Classical Jewish Terms.”

  8. See Husband, World in Play.

  9. Decker, Depaulis, and Dummett, Wicked Pack of Cards, 72.

  10. See Katz, Magician’s Kabbalah.

  11. Place, Tarot, 184.

  12. Pollack, Rachel Pollack’s Tarot Wisdom, 321.

  13. See Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews.

  WEEK 1. CHESED

  1. Psalms 23:5, King James Version.

  2. Confessions of St. Augustine XI:13.

  3. Alchin, “Knighthood Ceremony.”

  4. Swarupananda, Srimad-Bhagavad-Gita, 2:17–21.

  5. Exodus 14:11–12.

  6. Kliegman, Tarot and the Tree of Life, 92.

  7. John 15:1–5.

  8. Hanes, “Singles Nation.”

  9. Luke 17:21, note f.

  WEEK 2. GEVURAH

  1. Deuteronomy 21:18–21.

  2. UNHCR, “Figures at a Glance.”

  3. U.S. Department of State, “Refugee Admission Statistics.”

  4. Deuteronomy 10:19.

  5. Matthew 25:35, 25:40.

  6. Pirkei Avot, 2:21

  7. I Kings 19:11–13.

  8. See Rabbi Sholom DovBer’s commentary in the article “Parshat Lech Lecha In-Depth” on the Chabad website.

  9. New York Times, “Popular New Idol.”

  10. Alcoholics Anonymous: The Big Book, 59.

  11. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning.

  12. Leviticus 19:16.

  13. Genesis 1:27.

  14. Exodus 18:18.

  15. Deuteronomy 30:12-14.

  WEEK 3. TIFERET

  1. See I Kings 3:16–28.

  2. Green, Radical Judaism, 35–36.

  3. Singer, Standard Prayer Book, 6.

  4. Ecclesiastes 1:18.

  5. De Ropp, Master Game.

  6. DeMille, Martha, 264.

  7. Pirkei Avot, 2:21.

  8. I Corinthians 13:11.

  9. See Horner, Minor Anthologies of the Pali Canon, 22.

  10. Dass and Bush, Compassion in Action.

  WEEK 4. NETZACH

  1. Shōwa, “Imperial Rescript on Surrender.”

  2. I Corinthians 13.

  3. Hyde, Trickster Makes This World.

  4. Exodus 2:11–14.

  5. Luke 9:62.

  6. Alcoholics Anonymous: The Big Book, 59.

  7. Numbers 12:6.

  8. Numbers 12:8.

  9. Numbers 12:3.

  10. Babylonian Talmud, Megilla 28a.

  11. Genesis 28:16.

  12. Numbers 13:33, 14:1.

  13. Song of Songs 6:1–2.

  14. Exodus 4:13.

  15. Babylonian Talmud, Yevamot 65.

  16. Singer, Standard Prayer Book, 64.

  17. Numbers 14:21–23.

  18. Decker, Esoteric Tarot, 257.

  19. Alcoholics Anonymous: The Big Book, 83.

  WEEK 5. HOD

  1. Singer, Standard Prayer Book, 91.

  2. Kantrowitz, Counting the Omer, 149.

  3. Psalms 23:5, King James Version.

  4. Jebb et al., “Happiness, Income Satiation, and Turning Points.”

  5. On the Forbes website, search on “Quotes Lily Tomlin.”

  6. Buber, Hasidism and Modern Man, 98.

  7. Csikszentmihalyi, Flow, 2.

  8. Sagan, Demon-Haunted World, 29.

  9. On the Wikiquote website, search on “Tertullian.”

  10. On the Wikipedia website, search on “Kalama Sutta.”

  11. Agrimson and Taft, “Spiritual Crisis.”

  12. Rūmī and Barks, Essential Rumi, 36.

  13. Kolbert, Sixth Extinction.

  14. Leviticus 26:3–5.

  15. Ezray, “Va’era.”

  16. Sen, Glorious Thoughts of Gandhi, 50.

  17. P
irkei Avot 1:14.

  18. Gandhi, Quintessence of Gandhi.

  19. Sherwin and Cohen, Creating an Ethical Jewish Life, 92.

  20. On the Wikiquote website, search on “Thomas Edison.”

  21. Jones et al., Immigration and Concerns.

  22. Mathews, “Victim Identity.”

  23. See Cameron, Artist’s Way.

  24. Exodus 34:29.

  25. Numbers 12:3.

  26. Sacks, Dignity of Difference.

  27. See Buber, I And Thou.

  28. Shulman, Kabbalistic Healing, 73.

  29. See Hammer and Feit, Omer Counter of Biblical Women, 8.

  WEEK 6. YESOD

  1. See Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 99a.

  2. Jami, “Yusuf and Zulaikha.”

  3. On the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) website, search on “Statistics.”

  4. II Samuel 13:15.

  5. Wikipedia website, “People v. Turner.”

  6. Hosea 2:15.

  7. Hosea 14:2, 14:5.

  8. Pirkei Avot 3:3.

  9. Hankins, Hoekstra, and Skiba, “Ticket to Easy Street?”

  10. Exodus 24:7

  11. Shakespeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream, I. I. 233.

  12. Matthew 7:4.

  13. Song of Songs 8:13.

  14. Proverbs 9:8–9.

  15. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews.

  16. Epstein, Open to Desire, 10–11.

  17. Epstein, Open to Desire, 12.

  18. Genesis 9:7.

  19. Liebschutz et al., “Relationship between Sexual and Physical Abuse.”

  20. See Hellner-Eshed, River Flows from Eden, 4.

  21. Hellner-Eshed, River Flows from Eden, 18.

  WEEK 7. MALCHUT

  1. Ecclesiastes 3:1-4.

  2. Hellner-Eshed, River Flows from Eden.

  3. Psalms 25:5–6, King James Version, adapted.

  4. Deuteronomy 25:19.

  5. Deuteronomy 25:18.

  6. Pirkei Avot 2:20.

  7. Kimball, When Religion Becomes Evil.

  8. Matthew 27:46.

  9. Kushner, Angels in America, 195–96.

  A NOTE ABOUT GOD LANGUAGE

  1. Singer, Standard Prayer Book, 195.

  Bibliography

  Agrimson, Laurie B., and Lois B. Taft. “Spiritual Crisis: A Concept Analysis.” Journal of Advanced Nursing 65, no. 2 (November 27, 2008): 454–61.