The Magician and The Fool &c.

[Fulgour]

When using my Tarot cards in a reading I assign
the first letter (Aleph) to The Magician, because
he is the first card... and because I see at work
a triadic unity of the three mother letters, being
Aleph Mem Shin (Air Water Fire). Here is why:

Because the three are one, with the introduction
of Aleph there is automatically also Mem & Shin.
They form a singular entity, a trinity of "3" units.

Air Water and Fire here also indicate three signs:
Aquarius Scorpio and Leo. That leaves Taurus...
the fixed sign of Earth~then the second letter is
Beth (The High Priestess) and signifies the Moon.

It is as though Aleph announces ~ "All rise!" and
the Moon comes forward. But there is more here,
because being exalted in Taurus, in the 2nd house,
the Moon is setting the stage for Aries. Here's how.
Venus is the third letter (Gimmel) The Empress...
Venus is exalted in Pisces, the 12th house, and
that is "behind" Aries. Now the show can begin...
with the fourth letter (Daleth) The Emperor: Mars.

Mars rules Aries, but (and this is a big but) the Sun
is exalted in Aries~ so it isn't about Mars here at all,
it's the key fitting into the lock of the door provided
by the Moon and her companion Venus ~ all begun
by Aleph and his clear introductory announcement.

Aleph says "All rise!" and the Moon comes forward.
Air Water and Fire greet Earth. And the Moon sets
the stage along with Venus for the Sun to join her.

*

Does anyone else use the letters with the cards this way?
It would be very helpful and interesting to discuss here
how we use our Tarot cards and their correspondences,
and my hope is that this will be a friendly environment.

Also, I promised Umbrae that we'd discuss why The Fool is
so often assigned letter 21 (Shin) and "what's up?" there...

Thanks! ~Fulgour

PS: This is not Kabbalah, and not Historical Research.

 

[Fulgour]

Air Water and Fire here also indicate three signs:
Aquarius Scorpio and Leo. That leaves Taurus...

To clarify here, Aleph Mem and Shin are not
Aquarius Scorpio and Leo, but "exalted" in
those signs. Aquarius Scorpio and Leo are
letters 18 Tsade, 14 Nun, and 9 Teth.

 

[Fulgour]

I'd like to add also, that I don't use traditional astrology
for the Major Arcana. I think here we 'create' our own.

Books about astrology are usually of the horoscope type,
but in the Majors I think we have the greater mysteries.

 

[Fulgour]

99% of books use the 0=1 system of The Golden Dawn and
also their planetary attributions. But it's based on Kabbalah.

0 The Fool 1st Letter Aleph "Air" (sometimes Uranus)
1 The Magician 2nd Letter Beth [a planet] "Mercury"
2 The High Priestess 3rd Letter [a planet] Gimmel "Moon"
3 The Empress 4th Letter Daleth [a planet] "Venus'
4 The Emperor 5th Letter He "Aries"
5 The Hierophant 6th Letter Waw "Taurus"
6 The Lovers 7th Letter Zayin "Gemini"
7 The Chariot 8th Letter Heth "Cancer"
8 Strength (moved from 11) 9th Letter Teth "Leo"
9 The Hermit 10th Letter Yod "Virgo"

10 The Wheel of Fortune 11th Letter Kaph [a planet] "Jupiter"
11 Justice (moved from 8) 12th Letter Lamedh "Libra"
12 The Hanged Man 13th Letter Mem "Water" (sometimes Neptune)
13 Death 14th Letter Nun "Scorpio"
14 Temperance 15th Letter Samekh "Sagittarius"
15 The Devil 16th Letter Ayin "Capricorn"
16 The Tower 17th Letter Pe [a planet] "Mars"
17 The Star 18th Letter Tsade "Aquarius"
18 The Moon 19th Letter Qoph "Pisces"
19 The Sun 20th Letter Resh [a planet] "Sun"
20 Judgement 21st Letter Shin "Fire" (sometimes Pluto)
21 The World 22nd Letter Taw [a planet] "Saturn"

If you look you will see all 22 of the Majors have been changed
from what was their original position by using Zero equals One.
Zero equals One was done so that The Magician would be placed
second and thus be able to have a planet ~ Mercury. That was all
The Golden Dawn cared about, their precious Mercury Magus.

Did you also see where after some Letters I wrote [a planet]?
That is because there is no known authoritative ordering for
the 7 Planets in the Phoenician (Hebrew) alphabet. Unknown!
That really means you can determine for yourself how you
want to arrange those attributions, but "...Zero equals One..."
that's simply wrong to my way of thinking. It was a gimmick.

Here are the 12 Months from the Phoenician and Hebrew
calendars, with their corresponding Major Arcana cards:

Nisanu (Nissan) Aries : Letter 5 (He): V The Hierophant
Ayaru (Iyar) Taurus : Letter 6 (Waw): VI The Lovers
Simanu (Sivan) Gemini : Letter 7 (Zayin): VII The Chariot

Du'uzu (Tammuz) Cancer : Letter 8 (Heth): VIII Justice
Abu (Av) Leo : Letter 9 (Teth): IX The Hermit
Ululu (Elul) Virgo : Letter 10 (Yod): X The Wheel of Fortune

Tashritu (Tishri) Libra : Letter 12 (Lamedh): XII The Hanged Man
Arach-Samna (Cheshvan) Scorpio : Letter 14 (Nun): XIV Temperance
Kislimu (Kislev) Sagittarius : Letter 15 (Samekh): XV The Devil

Shabatu (Shevat) Capricorn : Letter 16 (Ayin): XVI The Tower
Tebetu (Tevet) Aquarius : Letter 18 (Tsade): XVIII The Moon
Adaru (Adar) Pisces : Letter 19 (Qoph): XIX The Sun

Here are the Planets According to Distance from the Earth
in Kilometres
Moon
384,404
Venus
38,050,900 minimum (261,039,880 maximum)
Mars
54,510,620 minimum (401,355,980 maximum)
Mercury
77,269,900 minimum (221,920,880 maximum)
Sun
147,085,800 minimum (152,104,980 maximum)
Jupiter
588,404,520 minimum (968,460,580 maximum)
Saturn
1,195,772,020 minimum (1,658,854,940 maximum)

And so here is my version of the Tarot correspondences:

1 Aleph I The Magician "Air" (Mind)
2 Beth II The High Priestess "Moon"
3 Gimmel III The Empress "Venus"
4 Daleth IV The Emperor "Mars"
5 Nisanu (Nissan) Aries : Letter 5 (He): V The Hierophant
6 Ayaru (Iyar) Taurus : Letter 6 (Waw): VI The Lovers
7 Simanu (Sivan) Gemini : Letter 7 (Zayin): VII The Chariot
8 Du'uzu (Tammuz) Cancer : Letter 8 (Heth): VIII Justice
9 Abu (Av) Leo : Letter 9 (Teth): IX The Hermit

10 Ululu (Elul) Virgo : Letter 10 (Yod): X The Wheel of Fortune
11 Kaph XI Strength "Mercury"
12 Tashritu (Tishri) Libra : Letter 12 (Lamedh): XII The Hanged Man
13 Mem XIII Death "Water" (Body)
14 Arach-Samna (Cheshvan) Scorpio : Letter 14 (Nun): XIV Temperance
15 Kislimu (Kislev) Sagittarius : Letter 15 (Samekh): XV The Devil
16 Shabatu (Shevat) Capricorn : Letter 16 (Ayin): XVI The Tower
17 Pe XVII The Star "Sun"
18 Tebetu (Tevet) Aquarius : Letter 18 (Tsade): XVIII The Moon
19 Adaru (Adar) Pisces : Letter 19 (Qoph): XIX The Sun
20 Resh XX Judgement "Jupiter"
21 Shin XXI The World "Fire" (Spirit)
22 Taw "0" The Fool "Saturn"

As you can see the important differences are that "One equals One"
and I've assigned the Planets according to their distance from Earth.

 

[fairyhedgehog]

You seem to be having quite a conversation in here all by yourself

I have to say that I don't understand the references. You said in your first post that it's not Kabbalah. (I thought all the Hebrew letters were to do with Kabbalah?). Is it astrology? And what is the 0=1 controversy?

This is a non-specialist forum (usually) and I'm feeling pretty confused here.

 

[Fulgour]

hi fairyhedgehog

One of the hardest things to do is explain something,
anything really... imagine telling someone how to tie
their shoes? Words can do only so much. I'm trying~
and it is a struggle and I do accept criticism about it,
to lay my cards on the table. All twenty-two of them.

No kabbalah. Hebrew letters actually do have some
meanings all by themselves, from the Phoenician...
there are the 12 months (over one-half the Majors)
and the 3 Mothers (Aleph Mem Shin= 3 elements)
which only leaves 7 letters unaccounted for...
the 7 plantes. Sorry I had to work so hard trying
to get my (hopefully simple) points across. Whew!

and Thank You for your very courteous reply!

 

[firemaiden]

Well, the zero = 1 or 1 = 1 conversation seems to be raging all over the internet. No one has brought up zero = 2. But perhaps that is for another forum. It is my observation that people who study Kaballah often do poorly in Math. But I am looking forward to the development of this thread. Most interesting is the subject of the placement of the Fool. Why 21? (We will keep firehoses at the side of the stage just in case, and I suggest we all begin by cutting our fingernails.)

Oh... to answer the question, about how we each take our correspondances. Well, I have to say, I personally think correspondances to systems outside tarot (kaballah, astrology, herbology, mineralogy, numerology, anatomy, gastronomie and zoology) are silly and arbitrary, but as long as we know they are arbitrary, well then, I guess they could be fun if you are into that sort of thing.

This said, I have the highest sympathy for Aleph = Magician, and will happily stand in your camp. C'est logique.

 

[starrystarrynight]

Hmmm...zeroes and ones...ones and zeroes.

The binary system upon which all of computerville is, uh, computed.

Coincidence? You be the judge.

(Sorry, just a little humor there...I know, very little! But I find numbers interesting.)

One of the hardest things to do is explain something,
anything really... imagine telling someone how to tie
their shoes? Words can do only so much.

A very early exercise in writing in my child's elementary school was to write a piece on how to instruct someone else the method of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I thought it was a wonderful assignment--quite thought-provoking for me, the parent, at least! The child, on the other hand, wasn't too impressed with having to do it!

~~~~

I have not the depth of your knowledge on the subject at hand, so I cannot comment. I will just read on and learn.....

 

[Umbrae]

Great stuff Fulgour!

And I apologize – I thought you used the Fou as the 22’d card the Majors (making it Tau).

I prefer it as 21/shin.

I want to look at the Fool as not a village idiot or a court jester type fool.

In ancient Greek an idiotes (Latin idiota) - the origin of our word "idiot" - is an individual, a person concerned only with his own private affairs, a commoner with no interest in public affairs, who is assumed to be ignorant, unskilled and vulgar (OLD & LSJ, s.v.).

The Fool is also described, as il Matto (the Madman), il Folle, or le Fou (the Fool). The Idiot represents the commonplace person, living in a personal world, whether through ignorance, insanity, or rugged individualism.

He is pictured as being ‘on the road’, not about to plummet off a cliff, and almost always (there are lots of exceptions in Tarot) there is an animal, reptile, or amphibian biting or attempting to bit him. Placing him out in the open places a contextual aspect upon him, and creates a sense of homage to the trickster deity and not the innocent or idiot as viewed today – an innocent or an idiot would be in a village or a castle.

Every non or pre Christian culture, has its trickster deity. Loki, Raven, Coyote, Eshu, Legba, Hermes, Manannan Mac Lir, Krishna, Crow, Hare, Spider….

The Trickster is about moving upon the roads, he exists in the doorway that leads out, the crossroads at the edge of town, he is of strangers and thieves, of the northeast corner. He lives on the spirit road between the living and the dead, a messenger of the gods, and a guide for the dead; he is the boundary crosser and the boundary creator, clown, keeper of the gates, ferryman, lord of apples, lord of the other-world, voracious, cunning, sly, wise, and lord of those in-between-gray-places; he does not live near the hearth.

Le Mat as the spot between heaven and earth, the moment the sun reverses itself; he creates a distance only he can span. He sets others at odds, or places boundary markers in new and unusual places… The destroyer and the creator; neither good nor evil yet both…He is Chaos…If he were the innocent or the idiot as modern interpretive theory tells us, he would not have been pictured on the road. He is the boundary crosser and mover; he alters internal social distinctions.

Shin means Tooth. What do teeth do? What does a tooth do? They grind down, they chew, they alter the state of what goes in the mouth. It may be a chicken breast, lightly breaded and browned – drizzled with a honey lemon ginger glaze…until it hits your teeth. Then it becomes a chewed pulp.

Second concept. It takes 20 cards to lay out a Fib Sequence. After 20 cards, it (the sequence) is explained, the initiates are invited to carry out their own researches (Tau), based upon the sequence start – Le Fou acts as a Greek Chorus.

It’s also a time to discuss the conceptual aspects of the concept of Zero, so that initiates are able to carry out their researches into Divine Proportion.

…and as Velcro replaces shoelaces…try explaining what a shoelace is…and as to tying them? Fergitaboutit…

Second subject in thread

Explaining things. Explaining thing, or how we explain things, or how do we experience our reality in a way to explain to others…

We can try – but suppose that through censorship or rationing – you cannot use certain letters of the alphabet. Or perhaps somebody has stolen or moved letters about…what then?

Ladle Rat Rotten Hut
The Story of a Wicket Woof and a Ladle Gull

Wants pawn term, dare worsted ladle gull hoe lift wetter murder inner ladle cordage, honor itch offer lodge, dock, florist. Disk ladle gull orphan worry putty ladle rat cluck wetter ladle rat hut, an fur disk raisin pimple colder Ladle Rat Rotten Hut.
Wan moaning, Ladle Rat Rotten Hut's murder colder inset. "Ladle Rat Rotten Hut, heresy ladle basking winsome burden barter an shirker cockles. Tick disk ladle basking tutor cordage offer groin-murder hoe lifts honor udder site offer florist. Shaker lake! Dun stopper laundry wrote! Dun stopper peck floors! Dun daily-doily inner florist, an yonder nor sorghum-stenches, dun stopper torque wet strainers!"
"Hoe-cake, murder," resplendent Ladle Rat Rotten Hut, an tickle ladle basking an stuttered oft.
Honor wrote tutor cordage offer groin-murder, Ladle Rat Rotten Hut mitten anomalous woof.
"Wail, wail, wail!" set disk wicket woof, "Evanescent Ladle Rat Rotten Hut! Wares are putty ladle gull goring wizard ladle basking?"
"Armor goring tumor groin-murder's," reprisal ladle gull. "Grammar's seeking bet. Armor ticking arson burden barter an shirker cockles."
"O hoe! Heifer gnats woke," setter wicket woof, butter taught tomb shelf, "Oil tickle shirt court tutor cordage offer groin-murder. Oil ketchup wetter letter, an den - O bore!"
Soda wicket woof tucker shirt court, an whinny retched a cordage offer groin-murder, picked inner windrow, an sore debtor pore oil worming worse lion inner bet. Inner flesh, disk abdominal woof lipped honor bet, paunched honor pore oil worming, an garbled erupt. Den disk ratchet ammonol pot honor groin-murder's nut cup an gnat-gun, any curdled ope inner bet.
Inner ladle wile, Ladle Rat Rotten Hut a raft attar cordage, an ranker dough ball. "Comb ink, sweat hard," setter wicket woof, disgracing is verse.
Ladle Rat Rotten Hut entity bet rum, an stud buyer groin-murder's bet.
"O Grammar!" crater ladle gull historically,"Water bag icer gut! A nervous sausage bag ice!"
"Battered lucky chew whiff, sweat hard," setter bloat-Thursday woof, wetter wicket small honors phase.
"O Grammer, water bag noise! A nervous sore suture anomalous prognosis!"
"Battered small chew whiff, doling," whiskered dole woof, ants mouse worse waddling.
"O Grammar, water bag mouser gut! A nervous sore suture bag mouse!"
Daze worry on-forger-nut ladle gull's lest warts. Oil offer sodden, caking offer carvers an sprinkling otter bet, disk hoard-hoarded woof lipped own pore Ladle Rat Rotten Hut an garbled erupt.
MURAL: Yonder nor sorghum stenches shut ladle gulls stopper torque wet strainers.
(Howard L. Chace)

 

[Fulgour]

Wabi and Sabi: The Aesthetics of Solitude

To be alone
It is a colour that
cannot be named ~
This mountain where cedars rise
into the autumn dusk

Priest Jakuren
(Fujiwara Sadanaga)
c. 1139–1202

Wabi is literally: Poverty (non-dependence upon material possessions)
Sabi is literally: Aloneness (solitude or even loneliness).

The original connotation of wabi is based on the aloneness or separation from society experienced by the hermit, suggesting to the popular mind a misery and sad forlornness. Only by the fourteenth century in Japan were positive attributes ascribed to wabi and cultivated. As Koren1 puts it, The self-imposed isolation and voluntary poverty of the hermit and ascetic came to be considered opportunities for spiritual richness.

I was reading this today and could actually see The Fool.

Wabi is simplicity that has shaken off the material in order to relate directly with nature and reality. This absence of dependence also frees itself from indulgence, ornateness, and pomposity. Wabi is quiet contentment with simple things. In short, wabi is a way of life or spiritual path.

I like the idea of The Fool as independent and happy!

...recognition of duality as illusion, the clinging to ego and the material world as leading to suffering, the fear of death precluding a fulfilling life, the appreciation of life's evanescence as a prompt to living in harmony with nature. The life of the hermit came to be called wabizumai in Japan, essentially "the life of wabi," a life of solitude and simplicity. Sabi suggest natural processes resulting in objects that are irregular, unpretentious, and ambiguous. The objects reflect a universal flux of "coming from" and "returning to."

Maybe we're the ones experience the illusion, fearing chaos?

Wabi-sabi is an intuitive appreciation of a transient beauty in the physical world that reflects the irreversible flow of life in the spiritual world. It is an understated beauty that exists in the modest, rustic, imperfect, or even decayed, an aesthetic sensibility that finds a melancholic beauty in the impermanence of all things.

I wanted to post something on this (wabi-sabi) even though
it's completely new to me... what I was looking for was the
definition of "Persian Flaw" to apply it to using 21 "Shin" for
The Fool (when he's obviously Tav). It's perfectly imperfect!

Here's more (and where I got my quotes) at this link:
http://www.hermitary.com/solitude/aesthetics.html