Archangel Raphael Each Sephira on the Tree of Life has several associations: colour, geometric shape, god or goddess energy, and a number, for example. Each Sephira is also associated with a group of angelic beings like the Seraphim, and with an archangel. I don’t usually mention these associations in the readings that I do on Instagram because it feels as though they are more intimate in the way they manifest, at least for me. They are how Divinity works through the Tree of Life, and they offer us a way to interact with each Sephira as it represents an unfolding aspect of God. It is a more ..read more

The Thoth 6 of Disks and Hawthorn blossoms You might think that a card from the suit of Wands would rule the decan of May that included Beltane. It’s such a fiery energy, after all. And I expected to find that it was ruled by a 2 or 3, since Beltane is often described as being the start of summer. So, 2 or 3 of Wands, maybe? Surprise! To me, anyway. The 6 of Disks rules the decan for Beltane. But it made perfect sense when I found out that Beltane is actually a holiday celebrating the height of spring. So many websites will tell you that it’s the start of summer and on some level that’s alwa ..read more

Everyone likes bees these days and it’s a good thing because they are so central to our survival on the planet. But even before we knew about their role in pollination around the world, people still thought of them as useful little creatures, working hard and in particular, working as a unit to support the survival of the hive. I have always thought bumblebees were adorable and I know I’m not the only one. A friend once told me her daughter used to go out into their back garden in the spring, wait for them to land on her hand, and then pet them. I was more than a little jealous. The Luttrell ..read more

La Maison Dieu from the Nicolas Conver Tarot de Marseilles published by Artisan Tarot It is one of two or three Tarot cards that pulls everyone up short. You draw The Tower, and everything comes to a screeching halt. If you’re like me, you kind of blank out for a moment, or hear that dead-air, offline buzz. This is big. The way I learned The Tower was as an external force coming in out of nowhere like a lightning strike. Although really, even lightning is not this bad because at least you know you’re in the middle of a storm; but The Tower is out of nowhere. Perfectly decent day and then wha ..read more

The Thoth Fool In the vast majority of Tarot decks, The Fool is the first of the Trumps and is numbered zero. From there decks move into number I for The Magician and II for the High Priestess, and so on. It’s all in order and makes perfect sense. Once upon a time, The Fool lived in between Trump XX Judgement and XXI The World. I learned Tarot with The Fool at the ‘beginning’ of the Major Arcana, so this placement seems very odd to me, at the far ‘end’. Then again, the Majors are circular. In the RWS arrangement, you move directly from The World into The Fool again. So really, when The Fool ..read more

The Tree of Life has had different structures over the years, and interpretations of the structure can change depending on how you see its organisation and source. One interpretation that intrigues me is that Kether is still too divine to truly be a part of the Tree of Life, which means the Tree ‘starts’ with Chockmah. To make up the tenth Sephira, we then include Da’ath as part of the Supernal Triangle. How does this affect the Tree of Life – in fact, does it? And what can it mean for Tarot? One of the patterns on the Tree of Life is of three triangles plus Malkuth, i.e. three triangles that ..read more

Consciousness of Mars I’m spending time meditating on Gevurah this week. It’s part of the work and study I’m doing as I practice ‘Counting the Omer’, from Tarot and the Gates of Light by Mark Horn. At first I resisted allowing myself to dive too deeply into Gevurah because I thought, “I’m not a restrictive kind of person! I am all about the love and light!” and that’s true, but it can only be true in part because none of us and nothing here in Malkuth is purely anything. We live in a dualistic world, with the seeds of one thing always at the heart of the next thing. “But I can focus on love ..read more

The Thoth Tarot and the RWS are sister decks. They were both created by members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and used that organisation’s principles and aims; for example, both decks are based on the Tree of Life and the Qabalistic system behind it. One major difference is, of course, the artwork. But more significantly – although reflected in the artwork – is the extent to which each deck engages with the Tree of Life, and then allows us to do so. I base this theory on the way I use Tarot and the Tree of Life, integrating order and direction into a reading. Any reading with any de ..read more

A selection of cards from ‘The Deck of the Hebrew Letters’ In 1855, Eliphas Levi published Dogma et Rituel de la haute magie, in which he assigns the letters of the Hebrew alphabet to the Tarot Major Arcana. The correspondence was first mentioned in 1781 by Antoine Court de Gébelin, but Levi arranged the associations more closely to the system that we use today: he assigned Aleph, the first letter, to le Bateleur, the Magician, and proceeded from there. It makes sense, since the Magician is Trump 1. Because The Fool is numbered 0 – essentially being ‘unnumbered’ – Levi didn’t place it at the ..read more

When Aleister Crowley was working with Lady Frieda Harris to create the Thoth deck, he was careful to include references to each card’s place on the Tree of Life in its imagery. In the Major Arcana, it is the Hebrew letter in the bottom frame that tells you where the cards reside. The order of the Hebrew alphabet matches exactly the order of the Major Arcana, so Aleph, the first letter, is assigned to The Fool, and Beth, the second letter, is assigned to the Magus, and so on. This wasn’t a new idea — Eliphas Levi (1810-1875) had made this observation publicly a hundred years before. So Crowley ..read more