terroin
Please save me some time in ploughing through the text of Oedipus Aegyptiacus and the like. Did Kircher (or any other pre 19th century scholar) give an attribution of elements, planets and signs of the Zodiac to the paths of the Tree of Life which looks anything like Eliphas Levi's or the Golden Dawn's? By that I mean the 22 paths between the Sephiroth, not the Sephiroth themselves.
I am particularly interested in the planetary attributions of the Hebrew “double” letters (Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Kaph, Pe, Resh, Tau). Early versions of the Sepher Yetsirah simply put them in Ptolemaic “outside-in” order, viz: Beth=Saturn, Gimel=Jupiter…Tau=Moon.
Later (traditional Jewish) Kabbalists give some variant orders.
However, Eliphas Levi, who draws extensively on Kircher, enunciates a completely different order, in his The Key of the Mysteries
“THE DOUBLE LETTERS: BETH. Reflection, thought, the moon, the Angel Gabriel, Prince of mysteries [High Priestess].
GIMEL. Love, will, Venus, the Angel Anael, Prince of life and death [Empress].
DALETH. Force, power, Jupiter, Sachiel, Melech, King of kings. [Emperor]
KAPH. Violence, strife, work, Mars, Samael Zebaoth, Prince of Phalanges. [Strength (Trump 11)]
PE. Eloquence, intelligence, Mercury, Raphael, Prince of sciences [Star].
RESH. Destruction and regeneration, Time, Saturn, Cassiel, King of tombs and of solitude [Judgement].
TAU. Truth, light, the Sun, Michael, King of the Elohim [World].”
The Trump names are my additions, based on Levi’s well known alphabet-trump correspondence, beginning with aleph as the Magician, beth the Popess…etc.
This looks to me very much like a retrofitting exercise. Levi seems to have looked at the Tarot trumps to which the double letters corresponded in his system and arbitrarily re-sorted the planets to indicate some resemblances, eg the Emperor as Jupiter and Mars as Strength.
The Golden Dawn apparently re-sorted them again to accord with its (beth=Magician, gimel=priestess…) correspondences. Notably, the Priestess stayed with the Moon and the Empress with Venus, but attributed to different letters.
I would love to learn that Levi wasn’t just arbitrarily reshuffling, but had his letter(path)-planet correspondences from an older source; one that wasn’t concerned with Tarot.
If there is such a source, the nice match with the Trumps would require an explanation.
Apologies for the length of this post. Can anyone plase advise?
I am particularly interested in the planetary attributions of the Hebrew “double” letters (Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Kaph, Pe, Resh, Tau). Early versions of the Sepher Yetsirah simply put them in Ptolemaic “outside-in” order, viz: Beth=Saturn, Gimel=Jupiter…Tau=Moon.
Later (traditional Jewish) Kabbalists give some variant orders.
However, Eliphas Levi, who draws extensively on Kircher, enunciates a completely different order, in his The Key of the Mysteries
“THE DOUBLE LETTERS: BETH. Reflection, thought, the moon, the Angel Gabriel, Prince of mysteries [High Priestess].
GIMEL. Love, will, Venus, the Angel Anael, Prince of life and death [Empress].
DALETH. Force, power, Jupiter, Sachiel, Melech, King of kings. [Emperor]
KAPH. Violence, strife, work, Mars, Samael Zebaoth, Prince of Phalanges. [Strength (Trump 11)]
PE. Eloquence, intelligence, Mercury, Raphael, Prince of sciences [Star].
RESH. Destruction and regeneration, Time, Saturn, Cassiel, King of tombs and of solitude [Judgement].
TAU. Truth, light, the Sun, Michael, King of the Elohim [World].”
The Trump names are my additions, based on Levi’s well known alphabet-trump correspondence, beginning with aleph as the Magician, beth the Popess…etc.
This looks to me very much like a retrofitting exercise. Levi seems to have looked at the Tarot trumps to which the double letters corresponded in his system and arbitrarily re-sorted the planets to indicate some resemblances, eg the Emperor as Jupiter and Mars as Strength.
The Golden Dawn apparently re-sorted them again to accord with its (beth=Magician, gimel=priestess…) correspondences. Notably, the Priestess stayed with the Moon and the Empress with Venus, but attributed to different letters.
I would love to learn that Levi wasn’t just arbitrarily reshuffling, but had his letter(path)-planet correspondences from an older source; one that wasn’t concerned with Tarot.
If there is such a source, the nice match with the Trumps would require an explanation.
Apologies for the length of this post. Can anyone plase advise?