Theos-Talk Archives (April 1995 Message tl00023)

Alan: <Part 2a of my ~Keys to Kabbalah~ uploaded to
theos-buds.  Part two deals mostly with the Tarot.>

Thank you for Part 2.  Your use of the Tarot is especially
interesting to me.  When writing in the Enochian milieu, I
was faced with the problem that the standard Tarot with its
22 trump cards simply didn't fit.  So, I had to design my
own own deck.  The Enochian Tarot has 30 trump cards, one
for each of Dee's Aethyrs.  I was very reluctant to move
away from the standard structure of 22 trump cards, but
was forced to do so.

To those unfamiliar with Tarot:  The theory behind the
Tarot deck is that the deck reflects the structure of our
universe; as above so below, the universe is a macrocosm
and the Tarot is a microcosm (as are we).  It is the
Western equivalent of the I Ching (although C.G. Jung says
that this role belongs to Geomancy, Geomancy never caught
on like Tarot).  So, meditating on the cards is equivalent
to meditating on the universe itself.  Reading the Tarot,
like reading the I Ching is a synchronistic event in the
Jungian sense (Jung gives an excellent interpretation of
how the I Ching works in his intro to Wilhelm's
translation, and I believe that this can be carried over
to the Tarot as well).

        Jerry S.