dai
Although Sufism is often mentioned in tandem with Kabbalistic cosmogonic theories, the cycle of Divine Names and Attributes made famous by Ibn 'Arabi's academy is generally not addressed by Kabbalists. This being so even though Ibn 'Arabi lived in Spain during the time that Kabbalist doctrine was developed.
I have suggested in published form correlation between IA's Great Cosmic Cycle and the Triumphs, termed in Sufism as Image-Exemplars. Here's an introduction to that:
________________________
"Whether through goddess or angelic spheres, Rumi and Ibn 'Arabi fully informed Sufis and Hermetic Christians of the thirteenth century how to be fully liberated, ecstatic, and enlightened. After Ibn 'Arabi, the Chain of Being and the Path of Liberation were realized to be one in the same Way. Through emanated principles or spheres, the Divine becomes the World and the World realizes the Divine in a great cycle of simultaneous and concomitant descension and ascension. Following upon this path of realization, the Tarot was created to represent both cosmic manifestation and spiritual transcendence.
Ibn 'Arabi worked with systems and codes in the manner of an esoteric scientist (the root of which means “to know”). Key to the sacred sciences of Semitic cultures is the science of letters. Both Judaic and Islamic religions are based upon revelations of the Word. The Book of the World is the Logos eternally regenerating moment to moment through its sacred Letters or Immutable Essences. The twenty-eight letters of the Arabic alphabet signified the corporeal and incorporeal emanations of Allah. Ibn 'Arabi explained it thusly:
These transcendent letters that are all creatures, after being incorporeally condensed in Divine Omniscience, are carried down on Divine Breath to the corporeal stages, thus composing and forming the manifested Universe.
This science of letters conjoined with an associated science of numbers to form the root of all other sciences. As we have seen, Kabbalist knowledge was similarly based. It too sprouted in Spain (after germinating in Provence) during Ibn 'Arabi’s time. Like Ibn 'Arabi, Kabbalist masters traveled east to Alexandria, Damascus, and Constantinople.
Of remarkable import to our study of the Trionfi is Ibn 'Arabi’s realization that the Semitic science of letters is itself founded upon a more essential body of knowledge. He elucidates:
Preceding the Letters are the Divine Names themselves. They form a science, which like hidden treasure is known solely to the saints, whose intelligences gather understanding from Allah and whose hearts are bound to Allah, being ravished by Allah’s Bliss.
The Sufi science of letters and names was referred to by an Arabic term derived from the Greek word for signs. It formed a type of primordial semiotics – a code not only of the phenomenal, but also, more radically, of the archetypal noumenal. This complex system came to contain a mix of numerological algorithms, alchemical procedures, and emanationist hierarchies. It was elaborated at great length by Ibn 'Arabi’s school of metaphysics. One of the more popularly described models was composed of ten levels, each with ten attributes. A hierarchically transformative, dimensional, and energetic representation of ascending movement toward the Principal, embedded in the science of names, is what concerns us here.
Medieval scholars (both East and West) inherited from Ibn 'Arabi a cosmology of ascent and descent diagrammed as a circle. In this spiritually emergent worldview, we may find the origins of the Tarot Triumphs’ attributes and names. The Circle of Being does not actually close upon itself; rather it proceeds as an open spiral. It links twenty-eight archetypal stations of Universal Presence, divided into three distinct groups:
1. Through Grace, there is a descending of Divine Overflow as the formed or corporeal world. This descent involves fourteen cosmic stages of being, beginning with the Recompensor (Fool) and the Independent (Magician) and ending with the Quickener (Hanged Man) and the Slayer (Death).
2. Following that are seven degrees of ascending stations, which link the corporeal world after Death to the incorporeal Divine Domain of Surrounding Essence (World). These begin with the Precious (Tower) and the Nourisher (Star) and end with the Gatherer (Angel) and the Elevator (Justice).
3. The final seven degrees of this Great Chain of Causation and Being are beyond even the most sublimely spiritual forms of corporeal existence. They are brought into consciousness through the Universal Man. From the Surrounder (World) to the Divine Essence, these degrees of Allah are the ascendancy of nonformed spirit. They are understandable only as the development of Divine Pleroma (fullness). Because they are incorporeal, it is not possible to “imagine” these stations of trans-world reality, although names for them were revealed to the Prophet. From these seven degrees of Plentitude, the World perpetually manifests via an overflow of Bliss."
I have suggested in published form correlation between IA's Great Cosmic Cycle and the Triumphs, termed in Sufism as Image-Exemplars. Here's an introduction to that:
________________________
"Whether through goddess or angelic spheres, Rumi and Ibn 'Arabi fully informed Sufis and Hermetic Christians of the thirteenth century how to be fully liberated, ecstatic, and enlightened. After Ibn 'Arabi, the Chain of Being and the Path of Liberation were realized to be one in the same Way. Through emanated principles or spheres, the Divine becomes the World and the World realizes the Divine in a great cycle of simultaneous and concomitant descension and ascension. Following upon this path of realization, the Tarot was created to represent both cosmic manifestation and spiritual transcendence.
Ibn 'Arabi worked with systems and codes in the manner of an esoteric scientist (the root of which means “to know”). Key to the sacred sciences of Semitic cultures is the science of letters. Both Judaic and Islamic religions are based upon revelations of the Word. The Book of the World is the Logos eternally regenerating moment to moment through its sacred Letters or Immutable Essences. The twenty-eight letters of the Arabic alphabet signified the corporeal and incorporeal emanations of Allah. Ibn 'Arabi explained it thusly:
These transcendent letters that are all creatures, after being incorporeally condensed in Divine Omniscience, are carried down on Divine Breath to the corporeal stages, thus composing and forming the manifested Universe.
This science of letters conjoined with an associated science of numbers to form the root of all other sciences. As we have seen, Kabbalist knowledge was similarly based. It too sprouted in Spain (after germinating in Provence) during Ibn 'Arabi’s time. Like Ibn 'Arabi, Kabbalist masters traveled east to Alexandria, Damascus, and Constantinople.
Of remarkable import to our study of the Trionfi is Ibn 'Arabi’s realization that the Semitic science of letters is itself founded upon a more essential body of knowledge. He elucidates:
Preceding the Letters are the Divine Names themselves. They form a science, which like hidden treasure is known solely to the saints, whose intelligences gather understanding from Allah and whose hearts are bound to Allah, being ravished by Allah’s Bliss.
The Sufi science of letters and names was referred to by an Arabic term derived from the Greek word for signs. It formed a type of primordial semiotics – a code not only of the phenomenal, but also, more radically, of the archetypal noumenal. This complex system came to contain a mix of numerological algorithms, alchemical procedures, and emanationist hierarchies. It was elaborated at great length by Ibn 'Arabi’s school of metaphysics. One of the more popularly described models was composed of ten levels, each with ten attributes. A hierarchically transformative, dimensional, and energetic representation of ascending movement toward the Principal, embedded in the science of names, is what concerns us here.
Medieval scholars (both East and West) inherited from Ibn 'Arabi a cosmology of ascent and descent diagrammed as a circle. In this spiritually emergent worldview, we may find the origins of the Tarot Triumphs’ attributes and names. The Circle of Being does not actually close upon itself; rather it proceeds as an open spiral. It links twenty-eight archetypal stations of Universal Presence, divided into three distinct groups:
1. Through Grace, there is a descending of Divine Overflow as the formed or corporeal world. This descent involves fourteen cosmic stages of being, beginning with the Recompensor (Fool) and the Independent (Magician) and ending with the Quickener (Hanged Man) and the Slayer (Death).
2. Following that are seven degrees of ascending stations, which link the corporeal world after Death to the incorporeal Divine Domain of Surrounding Essence (World). These begin with the Precious (Tower) and the Nourisher (Star) and end with the Gatherer (Angel) and the Elevator (Justice).
3. The final seven degrees of this Great Chain of Causation and Being are beyond even the most sublimely spiritual forms of corporeal existence. They are brought into consciousness through the Universal Man. From the Surrounder (World) to the Divine Essence, these degrees of Allah are the ascendancy of nonformed spirit. They are understandable only as the development of Divine Pleroma (fullness). Because they are incorporeal, it is not possible to “imagine” these stations of trans-world reality, although names for them were revealed to the Prophet. From these seven degrees of Plentitude, the World perpetually manifests via an overflow of Bliss."