Zephyros
I find that Kabbalistic interpretation goes more to the root of what makes the card what it is, with the astrological placement acting as modifier depending on the placement on the Tree of Life and corresponding World. The symbols and drawings on the card itself act to flesh out the character of the card, some with very conflicting attributes (Crowley's 27 pages on the Fool illustrate this).
Learning basic Kabbalah and then applying that to the Minors really put them in perspective for me, so Chicken Qabala by DuQuette might be useful to you. Not Tarot-specific, but easily adaptable once one gets a certain foothold. I think taking a card apart and then rebuilding it using the rules it was created with serves to make it "come alive" far more than any ready-written meanings, in whatever format. Learn the basic spine and GD structure, and you have an invaluable tool that could be used to analyze and delve deep into practically any deck.
Learning basic Kabbalah and then applying that to the Minors really put them in perspective for me, so Chicken Qabala by DuQuette might be useful to you. Not Tarot-specific, but easily adaptable once one gets a certain foothold. I think taking a card apart and then rebuilding it using the rules it was created with serves to make it "come alive" far more than any ready-written meanings, in whatever format. Learn the basic spine and GD structure, and you have an invaluable tool that could be used to analyze and delve deep into practically any deck.
). But the Tree of Life has been rendered - at least in a Western Hermetic sense - fairly intelligible and approachable by a number of writers: Dion Fortune, Paul Foster Case, William Gray, Gareth Knight, Robert Wang, Israel Regardie. Even the most casual exploration of these sources reveals a remarkably -and, as you say, mysteriously and surprisingly - coherent set of correspondences between the sephiroth, the paths and and the Minor and Major Arcana, respectively (even though some Hebrew mystics have vehemently disavowed any such intention). On the other hand, I wouldn't urge the Zohar on anyone who isn't an Hebraic scholar. As an English-speaking layman (although with Middle Eastern roots that call to me), I've only dabbled in that via Mathers' The Kabbalah Unveiled, and didn't get very far. Wynn Westcott's translation of the Sepher Yetzirah comes down somewhere in the middle. Perhaps you or Closrapexa can recommend other sources that are closer to the Hebrew root of the knowledge while still being written for an inquiring neophyte. To anyone who is interested in puzzling out the qabalistic associations and ramifications, this study will repay the investment in time and intellectual effort many times over.