Major Arcana symbol alphabet?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 02 Feb 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

augursWell	02 Feb 2003
I'm wondering if there has ever been an alphabet of sorts that uses single characters/symbols for each of the Tarot Major Arcana cards. There are signs for each of the signs of the Zodiac, why not for each of the major arcana cards of the Tarot? Anyone have any ideas or information on this? Thanks.

jmd	02 Feb 2003
Mark Filipas (who is expected to be one of the key speakers at the International Tarot Conference in Melbourne in 2005) has written a small e.book which looks at precisely this - ie, the Major Arcana as an illustrated alphabetic sequence. His site links to his Alphabetic Masquerade, of which the first full chapter may be downloaded. In terms of recent interesting investigation, this is one, in my opinion, of the more interesting.

rota	03 Feb 2003
I've read this first chapter, and it's fascinating. If the 22 Majors are intended also as an alphabet book for the Hebrew language, it only broadens and deepens the ocean of information to be found in Tarot. ++++++++ But this may not be exactly what augurswell is talking about. Maybe he/she means an actual graphic font that somehow encapsulates Tarot ideas within it. That would be an interesting idea also, although obviously it would be suited best to a 22-letter alphabet. Modern English uses 26, making correspondences less clear.

Baneemy	04 Feb 2003
I don't think augursWell is talking about a literal alphabet at all--just a set of simple symbols that could be used as a sort of shorthand to represent the trumps. Something along the lines of the astrological symbols for the planets and signs, or the alchemical symbols for the elements and such. As far as I know, no such "alphabet" exists, but I agree that it would be useful. -Baneemy

jmd	05 Feb 2003
I do stand corrected in my rather hasty reading of augursWell's post. I suppose that the quick reading of the post, amidst glancing through various others, warmed my memory and interest in Filipas's e.book... In terms of replying to the original post, them, the difference between, for example, astrology and the Tarot (& I realise this is obvious), is that whilst the former needs a system of quick glyphs for noting various relations, Tarot's would be given by the cards at hand themselves. There exists, nonetheless, many 'shorthand' versions, the most common of which is to use Roman numerals for the Majors, and a hindo-arabic numeral or Roman letter followed by a spade/sword, heart/cup, wand/club, or diamond/coin, hence, II; XVIII; KnH; 3S stands for: Popess; Moon; Knight of Heart/Cups; three of Swords The problem with developing new sigils, then, would be whether they are sufficiently useful for them to 'catch on'. Looking forward to reading differing views...

rota	05 Feb 2003
I've found that I write down card spreads in my notebooks this way, with the addition of a small ® for a reversal.

Baneemy	05 Feb 2003
The problem with using Roman numerals for the majors is that not all decks use the same numbering system. There's the good old Justice/Strength debate, of course, but some decks depart from the Marseilles order even more radically. The Pythagorean Tarot, for instance, uses Ferrara-style numbering.

jmd	06 Feb 2003
I agree with Baneemy that using Roman numerals for the majors may lead to confusion with, for example, Strength and Justice... if the 'system' is universalised. For any individual, however, this is less likely, as most of us either use one type of deck, or have a prefered numbering (if not, a brief note stating the deck - eg, Mar(seilles) or RWS would resolve this potential problem). Still, Baneemy's criticism stands, for if one wants to develop a more universal script or shorthand, these dilemnas have to be resolved. A small or subscript 'R' I too use for reversals, except that I tend to cross the right-hand bar (as used to indicate retrograde motion in astrology).

Baneemy	06 Feb 2003
I have my own system of two-letter abbreviations for each trump (Fl, Bt, Ps, Es, Er, Pp, etc.) and single letters for each suit (B, C, E, D) and court rank (K, Q, C, V). I also use the retrograde/pharmacy symbol for reversals, like jmd. -Baneemy

Minos	07 Feb 2003
Hebrew letters have been in common use for this purpose since the 19th century.

jmd	08 Feb 2003
Minos is correct here - and as an example, Alef has commonly been used to refer to the Magician (unless one follows the altered order given by the GD, in which case one would say that this letter refers to the Fool ;)).

Minos	08 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by jmd Minos is correct here - and as an example, Alef has commonly been used to refer to the Magician (unless one follows the altered order given by the GD, in which case one would say that this letter refers to the Fool ;)). Ah yes, you mean the "French-style" attributions, no? :) There are 22 trumps and 22 Hebrew letters. There are two major ways of relating them - the difference hinges on where the Fool goes. Papus and Eliphaz Levi and many other French writers put the Fool between The Judgement and The World, and start of Aleph=Magician, ending with Fool=Shin and World=Tau. The Golden Dawn way (IMHO the more correct way), which is more prevalent in the English speaking world, put the Fool at the beginning, and start with Fool=Aleph and end with Judgment=Shin and World=Tau. A variation on the Golden Dawn method (IMHO the most correct way) is the one used by Crowley, where a couple of changes are made, the most major being that Emperor=Tzaddi and The Star=Heh. Full details in the Book of Thoth.

Laurel	08 Feb 2003
Like JMD, I am fascinated with Mark Filipanas' work. He goes through and makes some hard to ignore arguments that each individual image within each of the major arcana cards relates to a single alphabetical letter. I don't consider myself fluent enough in Hebrew or historical tarot to offer a genuine critique, but I have to agree with Rota- if Mr. Filipanas is right, I think this it is a way to broaden and deepen the knowledge of the tarot tremendously. I think it also paves the way for doing a modern tarot, using English/French/language of choice in a very novel way... ~LAS

augursWell	09 Feb 2003
Sorry to have dropped this thread on everyone and then seemingly disappeared. :) It was a busy week. The Filipas e.book link was a very good and interesting one. As some have suggested I did mean actual "sigils" to represent each card of the Major Arcana. I have personally adopted a simple english shorthand of using the names and also a suit and number for the Minor Arcana. I also use the Aeclectic Tarot "smilies" shorthand when necessary but I usually have to look them up on my cheat sheet. I am aware of the method of assigning Hebrew letters to each card but I feel that the Hebrew letter should have an affinity with the nature of the Major Arcana card in question instead of just starting with aleph and going through all the cards in order (which varies from deck to deck). My interest in this was not to use one system to describe another but to arrive at a unique system that is descriptive of the cards themselves, unique symbols of their own. Some fairly obvious symbols: Scales = Justice Moon = Moon Star = Star Sun = Sun etc.

augursWell	09 Feb 2003
Leon Efron has a Jewish Tarot at http://pws.prserv.net/leon/Tarot-articles/majorarcana.html which, to my mind, has a good correspondence between the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the Major Arcana. As a Jew himself I think he has put a good deal of thought into the correspondences and the way they relate to the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Leon's Tarot 22

jmd	09 Feb 2003
Whether or not a person is Jewish may certainly indicate the severity with which s/he may enter Kabbalistic studies, and knowledge of Hebrew will certainly assist further reflections on various nuances of letter associations and meanings, but it will not, of its own, lead to correspondences with the Tarot which stand on their own. The above site, for example, flies in the face of the number meaning of the letters (remember that in Hebrew, one isn't 'associated' with Alef, but that Alef IS one!). The Golden Dawn's influence, and the incredible skill which Mackenzie and Mathers had for combining various systems, has been taken on by many of various cultures. A person's knowledge and skill with a particular language &/or culture will certainly assist in further seeing what has, usually, been already determined to be somehow 'correct'...

Macavity	09 Feb 2003
But he gets the numbers right, doesn't he? ;) Gimatrical (sic) number one corresponding to Aleph etc. and you can throw away the card numbers. But he seems to agree with other sites of this ilk, except for the rather glaring anomalies between the planetary assignments in the LAST two columns though? I can't quite figure why he doesn't go the whole hog and come up with something like: http://www.psyche.com/psyche/tarot/RevivedTarot/index9.html Thereby avoiding the problem and being somewhat more compelling maybe? I'm never quite sure if these are one and the same person(s) but this also forms the basis for: http://basilikon.tripod.com/lurianic_tarot/index.htm The "Lurianic Tarot"... quite a nice deck too. Macavity (Who just happened to be looking at all this, doubts the above is pertinent, BUT notices after a while one's brain starts to slowly fry... :D)

jmd	10 Feb 2003
As Macavity pointed out, the site does give the correct valuation of the letters in one of the later columns. My point was that if someone was going to take the Hebrew letters as central, then their numerical value is also central. As Minos mentioned, the continental 'tradition' (which, incidently, Levi passed on to Mackenzie about twenty years prior to the GD's formation, and which the latter altered - for worthy considerations) at least places the first ten cards of the Major Arcana according to corresponding values upon both the card and the assumed Hebrew letter correspondence (ie, Beyt=2=High Priestess/Popess; Gimel=3=Empress; Dalet=4=Emperor; etc.) - such of course seems counter-intuitive to those of us who have worked in various ways either GD letter association or imagery (eg., RWCS inspired decks). With regards to the later sites mentioned, again, it is wonderful to see what people do with various materials, and the Lurianic Tarot is a wonderful title for a deck in which its creator acknowledges part of its inspiration. To my mind, however, to call a site or page The Revived Tarot: 7 Major Arcana Restored According to the Sepher Yetsira/Yetzirah gives inaccurate information, and possibly misleads. The Sefer Yetzirah-based 'corrections' are made already presuming certain planetary attributions to the cards (example, Mars to XVI the Tower). If one accepts these, then, if one also wants to make Hebrew letter correlations, the exercise of the site is useful - bearing in mind that it has used the Saadia correlations (which in any case are the most common amongst Sefer Yetzirah variations, and coincide with my personal favourite Raavad version). So, in a nutshell, to use Hebrew letter associations, those sites, unlike Mark Filipas (who appears to work from first principles), seemingly assume Golden Dawn correlations, and then make further adjustments to suit other reflections and studies. All worthwhile - as long as this is understood, and not presumed to somehow be found intrinsincally in such ancient and independently very worthwhile text (ie, the S. Yetzirah). ... apologies for the long post - and thankyou to Macavity for posting such wonderful sites and comments which add to, certainly, my own reflections and quests :).

Macavity	10 Feb 2003
Since it was a fairly (though not too!) long post, I would like to thank JMD for the spot of penetrative thought. :) I'm beginning to think that working from first principles is indeed the key. It's for that reason I am coming to love Clive Barrett's "Egyptian Tarot" Thoth-alike (shameless plug!) HIs kaballistic and alphabet assignments make relatively little(?) claim as to derivation or historical accuracy, but he certainly achieves a great degree of self consistency in such things ;) Macavity

Macavity	10 Feb 2003
As a postscript to the above, I have just come across the "alphabet of the magi" - a set of sigils which are used on e.g. the IBIS Tarot Majors: http://www.spiritone.com/~filipas/Masquerade/Reviews/ibis.html And since I didn't really notice before, I also checked my LoS "Egyptian Tarot"... And Lo and Behold they are used on those majors too. There are quite a lot of sources of this font on the net for any fellow font freaks out there. The authenticity is (probably) to be taken with a fair sized pinch of salt? ;) Macavity

augursWell	11 Feb 2003
My mention of Leon Efron's Jewish Tarot had more to do with the Major Arcana cards themselves in the way that he has expanded upon them using Hebrew and Jewish language and ideas. For example the "Hanged Man" and its relationship to sacrifice and the story of Jonah, if I remember the card well enough. This was what I meant about correspondences as well as the way that he relates the Hebrew alphabet to the Major Arcana. However, I've spent more time with Filipa's webpages on his theory of the cards being an Hebrew alphabetic picture book and I think I'm convinced about his theory. It seems to hold up as a theory. I'd be interested in how everyone feels his theory fits in an historical context.

augursWell	11 Feb 2003
Macavity, Would you happen to have any links to a download file for the font that you mentioned? Or perhaps somewhere I could start? Thanks.

Minos	11 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by augursWell Macavity, Would you happen to have any links to a download file for the font that you mentioned? Or perhaps somewhere I could start? Thanks. I found one here: http://fonts.lordkyl.net/desc/amgi.html This script was supposedly invented by Count Cagliostro in the 18th century, although according to Mark Filipas's always helpful site, it may actually have been thought up by a French occult writer named Paul Christian around 1870.

Macavity	11 Feb 2003
And someone who has been kind enough to assign the Major numbers... http://wolf.mind.net/library/magic/alphabets/magi.gif :)

vijeno	11 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Baneemy I have my own system of two-letter abbreviations for each trump (Fl, Bt, Ps, Es, Er, Pp, etc.) and single letters for each suit (B, C, E, D) and court rank (K, Q, C, V). I also use the retrograde/pharmacy symbol for reversals, like jmd. -Baneemy I somehow worked myself into a mess, mostly because I use german and english abbreviations intermixed, like this: K K = König Kelche = King Cups Q K = Queen Kelche = Queen Cups ... I would really be interested to hear more about your (and of course others') system, for the purely egoistic end to adopt it for my own purposes vijeno

jmd	11 Feb 2003
I suppose the 'trick' is to use abbreviations which will work for you. The ones I gave earlier tend to be those which many people I know have tended to prefer - although I personally use a variation, which I'll list below. With regards to the courts, I tend to use (either, though the first more often,) of the following: King - K or R Queen - Q or D Knight - C or Kn Page - P or V With regards to the suits, I tend to often use either the alchemical symbols for the four elements - ie, triangle crossed or uncrossed either up down - with usually either a small 'e' (epee=sword) or 'w' (wand/staff) attached (as I might at times use either Fire for (more often) Swords but (rarely) Wands); or a circled equal-armed cross for Coins; a double-stemmed 'branch' for clubs/Staffs; a heart for cups; and a Roman cross for Swords. The pips I tend to use Roman numerals 1-10, though at times I use an 'A' for the ace. As for the Majors, I tend to always use the Marseille sequence, written in Roman additive numerals (eg, Hermit is VIIII). The Fool, un-numbered, I usually use three dots (thus: ...). This is, of course, just my own shorthand, which has varied a little with time, and will probably continue to.

augursWell	13 Feb 2003
Macavity, Thanks for the links. They were very helpful. :) +++ I'm still wondering a bit about the "Filipas Theory". If the Tarot Major Arcana came into being as a simple Alphabetic (Aleph-Beit) picture book of the Hebrew language, were the Minor Arcana cards part of this as well? Or were the Major Arcana cards simply grafted on to Tarrochi(sp)? Why include allusions to the standard pieces used in the game of Chess? Was Tarrochi meant to simply be a more complex game than chess and the Major Arcana was a part of this? I think the choice of imagery, even if each card required images for a specific letter, for the original cards Filipas uses is still esoteric and symbolic in nature. There are probably hundreds of words/symbols that could have been used for each card but those specific ones were chosen.

jmd	14 Feb 2003
augursWell, I have no doubts that your well-written concerns would be better answered by Mark Filipas than myself, for I have not replicated the careful analysis he has with the relevant resources - but at any case, here are some comments for further discussion. With regards especially to 'There are probably hundreds of words/symbols that could have been used for each card but those specific ones were chosen' let us take some considerations into account: Assumption : designed as an abecedarium If the Major Arcana was designed as an abecedarium, then that certain choices were made for inclusion would not be arguments against the choice, any more than not including alligators on an 'a' card would speak against an illustrated 'a' card. The choice amongst the possibilities would have sought for some kind of consistency or progression and certain aspects may have been deliberately omitted (eg, an ox on I, a house on II, a camel on III, etc.) Lexicon more limited than its modern equivalent Though there undoubtedly are numerous possibilities which could have been used in each card's imagery, I suspect that the mediaeval lexicon did not have the range available now - thus, maybe it wasn't so much hundreds to choose from... but even if it was, does this not speak for the thesis? From the possibilities of inclusion, again some kind of image consistency may have been searched for, thereby excluding certain otherwise useful images. Esoteric/allegorical choice (s) Produced within the period of its emergence, an abecedarium (especially if for adults) would contain weaving patterns of related and allegorically-pleasing meanings. In its very production phases, certain originally 'proposed' items for inclusion would have been weeded out. As you say, each card contains esoteric imagery which points to the cards being more than mere abecedaria. This, however, speaks not so much against the proposal. Rather, and this is a point I agree with, the abecedaria aspect is yet another (possible) influence on the overall pattern, seeking to possibly properly give a structured order to an otherwise apparently random one.

vijeno	14 Feb 2003
As a working hypothesis, I'd guess that the Tarot incorporated the earlier esoteric interpretations of the hebrew alphabet The Alephbet is already seen as a means of creation in the sepher yetzirah, afaik about 700 A.D. But otoh, perhaps, Tarot and Cabbalah aren't even a distinct teacher-pupil type relationship, but have developed in parallel. But I'm not a Tarot scholar of any kind, these are just simple guesses. Aahhm.... as for useful abbreviations, I just made my own set for the Majors (and I HOPE I have the discipline to stick to it). Here it is: http://www.vijeno.at/cgi-bin/showpage.cgi?nr=537 I avoided using numbers, because if I reconsider the numbering system I follow, the old notes might be useless then. vijeno

The Major Arcana symbol alphabet? thread was originally posted on 02 Feb 2003 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.