Cheiromancer
In this forum there have been a number of people who have tried to make their own set of correspondences between the paths of the tree of life, astrological signs/planets/elements, and the Hebrew letters. The biggest difficulty is to find a non-arbitrary way of making the correspondences line up. The Golden Dawn (GD) system, for all its imperfections, is about as good as any system out there.
In case anyone reads this thread and doesn't know how the GD assignment works, here is a brief summary:
It is tempting to try to tinker with this system. For example, you might ask why the Moon cannot be assigned to Luna. The problem is that the 19th letter of the aleph-bet is qoph, which is not a double letter. If you assign (say) gimel to the Moon, then what will you assign to the High Priestess? A single change ends up starting a domino effect. There are any number of ways this can proceed:
Each planet is assigned the signs of the zodiac that they govern as follows:
The first sign listed is assigned to the “upper” path that connects to the associated planet; in the case of Saturn, Capricorn is assigned to the right side, and Aquarius to the left. Leo is placed to Sol’s right, and Cancer is placed to the left. It turns out that the resulting diagram has an unusual property; there is a route (the “Moon’s Journey”) that transits every path on the tree and returns to the starting point with minimal retracing of steps, touching the spheres in reverse order (10, 9, 8, etc.), the planets in ascending order (Luna, Mercury, Venus, etc.), and the signs in ascending order starting from Cancer (Cancer, Leo, Virgo, etc.), all with only 28 steps. Given the geometry of the tree, no complete route can get back to its starting point in less than 26 steps; given the placement of the planets and the requirement that the sign each rules touch the planet’s path, the minimum length is no shorter (as far as I know) than 28 steps.
The rule for the assignment of astrological signs is orderly (top to bottom, right to left) and gives a pleasing number: 28 is the approximate number of days in a lunar month (the “28 mansions of the moon”) and is a perfect number in the mathematical sense of being equal to the sum of its divisors.
To follow the "Moon's Journey" go from sphere to sphere in the following order:
10
9 8 7 6 8 5 4
7 9 6 3 5 4 2
6 1 2 3 1 6 4
5 6 9 10 7 8
10
You may interchange the position of Capricorn and Aquarius if you like: just interchange right and left when moving among the top three spheres. You may also assign the elements to the horizontal lines at your discretion (I prefer Fire, Water and Air from top to bottom). Other than that, no other arrangement will permit the Moon's Journey to be completed in only 28 steps. Thus an order is imposed on the tree that is independent of the aleph-bet.
A jpg and pdf is attached of the tree with only the signs of the zodiac and the planets filled in.
In case anyone reads this thread and doesn't know how the GD assignment works, here is a brief summary:
The Hebrew alphabet (or Aleph-Bet) has 22 letters, of which 3 are “mother letters”, 7 are “double letters” and 12 are “simple letters”. The letters of the Hebrew alphabet can be assigned to the trumps in order (with the Fool corresponding to Aleph), with the mother letters indicating the elements, the double letters indicating the planets, and the simple letters indicating the signs of the zodiac. The letters are also assigned to the paths of the true in an orderly pattern that, roughly speaking, is top to bottom and right to left on the tree of life. This results in each path having an astrological sign, planet or element as well as a trump and a Hebrew letter. (Note: the layout of the tree of life is according to Athanasius Kircher, not the Lurianic tree or the Gra tree)
Kabbalistic texts do not all agree on how the planets correspond to the double letters. The GD ordering of the planets is Mercury, Luna, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Saturn. This ordering allows Sol to be assigned to the Sun card, since the 20th letter of the alphabet (Resh) corresponds to the 20th trump (Trump 19, counting the Fool = 0 as first) and is a double letter.
Kabbalistic texts do not all agree on how the planets correspond to the double letters. The GD ordering of the planets is Mercury, Luna, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Saturn. This ordering allows Sol to be assigned to the Sun card, since the 20th letter of the alphabet (Resh) corresponds to the 20th trump (Trump 19, counting the Fool = 0 as first) and is a double letter.
It is tempting to try to tinker with this system. For example, you might ask why the Moon cannot be assigned to Luna. The problem is that the 19th letter of the aleph-bet is qoph, which is not a double letter. If you assign (say) gimel to the Moon, then what will you assign to the High Priestess? A single change ends up starting a domino effect. There are any number of ways this can proceed:
jmd said:Perhaps there are some letters that do have a 'better' fit to some cards than to others, but their respective exegesis and symbolic import are sufficiently broad for various plausible correlations to be suggested. After all, those who argue for (as an example) the Fool and its association with Alef, Shin, or Tav (the three most common attributions) present plausible reasons for so doing.
I think working out a personal system of correspondences is a noble challenge, akin to designing your own tarot deck. But if you do not use a GD-type system, you have effectively no way of linking together the main four components; paths, trumps, astrological signs/planets/elements, letters. I see two ways of proceeding:kwaw said:I think the symbolism is multivalent enough to allow for any number of possible variations.
- Modify the GD system slightly. After all, the GD system interchanged Justice and Strength, and used an unusual order of the planets. A few tweaks to the GD system should be legitimate.
- Adopt the system I will describe in the following paragraphs.
Each planet is assigned the signs of the zodiac that they govern as follows:
Saturn: Capricorn and Aquarius
Jupiter: Sagittarius and Pisces
Mars: Scorpio and Aries
Venus: Libra and Taurus
Mercury: Virgo and Gemini
Sol: Leo
Luna: Cancer
Jupiter: Sagittarius and Pisces
Mars: Scorpio and Aries
Venus: Libra and Taurus
Mercury: Virgo and Gemini
Sol: Leo
Luna: Cancer
The first sign listed is assigned to the “upper” path that connects to the associated planet; in the case of Saturn, Capricorn is assigned to the right side, and Aquarius to the left. Leo is placed to Sol’s right, and Cancer is placed to the left. It turns out that the resulting diagram has an unusual property; there is a route (the “Moon’s Journey”) that transits every path on the tree and returns to the starting point with minimal retracing of steps, touching the spheres in reverse order (10, 9, 8, etc.), the planets in ascending order (Luna, Mercury, Venus, etc.), and the signs in ascending order starting from Cancer (Cancer, Leo, Virgo, etc.), all with only 28 steps. Given the geometry of the tree, no complete route can get back to its starting point in less than 26 steps; given the placement of the planets and the requirement that the sign each rules touch the planet’s path, the minimum length is no shorter (as far as I know) than 28 steps.
The rule for the assignment of astrological signs is orderly (top to bottom, right to left) and gives a pleasing number: 28 is the approximate number of days in a lunar month (the “28 mansions of the moon”) and is a perfect number in the mathematical sense of being equal to the sum of its divisors.
To follow the "Moon's Journey" go from sphere to sphere in the following order:
10
9 8 7 6 8 5 4
7 9 6 3 5 4 2
6 1 2 3 1 6 4
5 6 9 10 7 8
10
You may interchange the position of Capricorn and Aquarius if you like: just interchange right and left when moving among the top three spheres. You may also assign the elements to the horizontal lines at your discretion (I prefer Fire, Water and Air from top to bottom). Other than that, no other arrangement will permit the Moon's Journey to be completed in only 28 steps. Thus an order is imposed on the tree that is independent of the aleph-bet.
A jpg and pdf is attached of the tree with only the signs of the zodiac and the planets filled in.