Twenty-two Arcana of Tarot and Kabbalah

Explains the meanings of the twenty-second Tarot card (Return), the sphinx, the chariot, the Hebrew letter Tav, and the completion of the spiritual path.

Explains the twenty-first Tarot card: Transmutation, or The Fool, alongside the Hebrew letter Shin, the meaning of the twenty-one forms of Tara, and the biblical symbols of Abram, Hagar, and Sarah.  Lecture quote: "We look into the bible and we discover in the book of Jeremiah that when God is instructing his prophets, he says "Behold I have set before you a way of life and a way of death." This indicates precisely this twenty-first Arcanum, and you will note that this quote is from the twenty-first chapter of Jeremiah. A way of life and a way of death. What is indicated here is really the one path which Jesus spoke of, but you have to remember that if you are wandering in a wilderness and you come upon a path, that path will go two directions, not just one. So, you have to choose which way to proceed. Life is no different. All of us are stuck in the wilderness, lost in darkness, without any real or true sense of who we are or where we are or where we are going. For us, life is a series of circumstantial accidents upon which we have little or no control. We are tossed about by the forces of life and have very little control or will to exercise upon our own circumstances and in the guidance of our own life. This is because we are in fact, lost in the wilderness. This is the definition of the Fool. The Fool related to this arcanum wanders in the wilderness without a sense of direction, who wanders tossed about, confused, blind. The Fool proceeds along the one path but in the wrong direction: to spiritual death. Only the warrior takes the path in the right direction, to life.

Explains the twentieth Tarot card, Resurrection, the Seraphim (serpents), Jonah, and Mary Magdalene. Lecture quote: "Resurrection is rooted in the Latin word “resurgere” which means to resurge, remerge, to re-emerge; therefore, in order to deeply understand the meaning or the way in which we have to re-emerge, to resurge, to resurrect, it is necessary to talk about Christ because, according to many esotericists of the past, they state that the only being that resurrected is Christ.  Yes, we understand this, but from the esoteric point of view. Thus, here again we have to emphasize the statement that we have been repeating many times: “Christ is not a person, but an energy.” Christ is a Greek word that comes from the root, Khristos, which means worshipper of fire.  So, in synthesis, we have to state that Christ is fire, and that Christ is the only one that can resurrect, and this is the main point of this lecture. Christ resurrected within the body of Jesus of Nazareth. Christ resurrected within the body of Moses, within the body of Abraham, within the body of Krishna, within the body of Quetzalcoatl, Hermes Trismesgistus, St. Germaine, Babaji, Dante Alighieri, etc. Christ is the energy that descends from the Abstract Absolute Space, into the different worlds that are very well described in the Tree of Life (Kabbalah) with the names of Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiah.

Lecture quote: "Amongst all of the most basic aspects of the existence of humanity, the most fundamental unit in our social fabric is the marriage between a man and a wife. It is the union of male and female which provides the opportunity for the arising of life as we know it, and yet in this time, in these days, the sacred nature of the relationship between man and wife has been forgotten. It seems that in these days, the relationship between man and woman has become a game, a plaything, a little thing, something without gravity, and yet if you examine the very nature of society, the very nature of each individual life, we find that without the beauty and inherent necessity of the relationship between man and woman, none of these things would exist. It is no accident that when we study Gnosis, our fundamental concern, our primary point of issue, is precisely the relationship between man and woman. This is because not only do we find all of our social and individual needs arise out of the relationship of man and wife, but also all of our spiritual needs, because, as we know, “as above, so below.” With the recognition of the necessity of man and woman for the development of our social, political and family existence, we find that the relationship between man and woman is also necessary for our spiritual existence. The Arcanum 19 is the Arcanum of the alliance. It is also called Inspiration. This term "alliance" has a number of meanings, but in the immediate sense, it is obviously the alliance between a man and a woman, between husband and wife, and in Gnosis, in Gnosticism, we have this term, this phrase, The Perfect Matrimony, which of course is the title of the first book written by Samael Aun Weor. This book has the subtitle, "The Door to Enter into Initiation", and this is because the marriage, or the alliance between man and woman, is the very door to Eden, the door to heaven, the door out of suffering. So, in the Arcanum 19, we see the ideal couple, the perfect matrimony, the equilibrium, the balance between the two halves, the male and the female. The Gnostic student has as a goal the achievement of the perfect matrimony, the arrival at the development of the perfect matrimony, and it is easy for the student to assume that one begins with the perfect matrimony, but that is not the case. We begin with what we have. We begin where we are. The perfect matrimony is something that has to be developed, something that we have to aspire towards. That is part of the reason this card is called "Inspiration."

Lecture quote: "This Arcanum is related with two dogs or two wolves. Behind these two dogs or two wolves we see two pyramids. The pyramid is a symbol of thought; a symbol of the mind. As you remember the Egyptians were the builders of the pyramids in Egypt, of course, but there are other pyramids in different parts of the world; among the Mayans and Aztecs we find other pyramids built by the Toltecs, which means ‘The Builders,’ as the meaning of Masons is ‘The Builders.’ In Sanskrit, manas means ‘mind.’ The English word ‘man’ comes from that Sanskrit term manas; mind. So here we see the meaning of this Arcanum; we will say it is “to be or not to be,” because we find that it is related with the ninth sphere twice. On the Tree of Life, the ninth sphere is Yesod. Yesod is always related with the sexual organs, which we can see when we place Adam Kadmon behind the ten Sephiroth. Yesod is Hebrew and means “foundation.” And of course, 9 (Yesod) + 9 (Yesod) = 18 (The Eighteenth Arcanum).

Lecture quote: "Depicted in the graphic of the 17th Arcanum is a beautiful woman who rests comfortably on top of the waters, who bears in her two outstretched hands, two vials; one of gold and one of silver. Obviously the woman who appears without any veil is the revealed Isis: The Divine Mother, who appears in all her splendor, revealed and unclothed before the Divine sight of the initiate. To the common man she remains veiled, mysterious and invisible, and that is because true hope is not born in the hearts of the common man. The common man has vain belief, the concept of Hope, but not the experience of it. This unveiled vision of Isis, the Divine Mother, manifests in the consciousness of the one who knows the science of Venus, who knows how to unveil the mystery of the Divine Mother, whose mystery is only revealed to those who worship her in accordance with her laws."

Lecture quote: "The Tower that is collapsing: this is the Arcanum that is also called the Tower of Babel.  We are arriving at the point in which we have to explain in detail about the fall of humanity, in order to understand this Arcanum, related with the letter AYIN, which is related with the eyes, with the divine sight, with that divine sight related with all the powers of the human being.  When we talk about the divine sight, we have to understand that this is not only related with the power of clairvoyance. Divine sight is that power that allows us to see in a broad way all of that which is in relation with our inner Being.  We will say it is the power of understanding or knowing our own particular Being, because the only reason, the only objective, the only goal of creation is for the Being to know Himself.  This is why creation exists. In the universe, there are many levels attained in relation to the knowledge of oneself.  The knowledge of oneself is the knowledge of the Being, which is an army of children, an army that in the Hebrew language and in Kabbalah is called Elohim Sabaoth.  This is how Kabbalah explains the multiplicity of the unity.  These children, or parts of the Being, have different attributes and duties that they have to perform, powers that have to be developed, and all of them coincide with one another. When somebody acquires the development of all the powers of his inner Being, his own consciousness, this person has developed a diamond soul (vajrasattva). The diamond soul is the consciousness that is developed by experience in creation, with experience in the universe.  So the Being comes to know Himself by developing that soul, and in that development He acquires divine sight.  That divine sight is represented by the letter AYIN, and is the way in which we can see God, or the way in which we can understand or comprehend our own particular Monad, in relation with the universe. The only objective reason, the goal of creation, is to acquire that. In the development of this objective reasoning there are six degrees, and these are related only with the Direct Path.

Lecture quote: "The name Lucifer is Latin and means "the bearer of light, the carrier of light." The components are "Fer", to ferry, to carry; and "lux", "lucis", light: Lucifer. In Gnostic terms we call him Christos-Lucifer. Lucifer is grossly misunderstood. In modern times, people call him "the devil" and some worship him as if he were an arch-demon and Satan, and could give them powers, etc. And in truth, he can deliver powers to us, but there is a gross misunderstanding. If you look back into the histories regarding how Christianity developed, you discover, firstly, that originally the name Lucifer did not occur in the Bible. It was introduced into the Bible by a bishop named Jerome, but where did he get the name Lucifer? This person, Jerome, translated many of the old texts to form what is known as the Latin Vulgate. When he was translating this book, he reached the book of Isaiah, and there is a passage describing the king of Babylon as the Son of the Dawn: "How are you fallen from heaven, O Shining One, son of Dawn!" - Isaiah 14:12 But Jerome, in his interest in battling politically against another bishop whose name was Lucifer, a Christian bishop named Lucifer, Jerome translated the name of this king of Babylon as "Lucifer," as an attack against the competing bishop. He translated it as: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" (King James version) The original text does not say "Lucifer," it says "Son of the Dawn."  So this is a gross mistranslation with catastrophic consequences. Not only that, but how curious it is that there was a Christian bishop with the name Lucifer. Why would a bishop be named after the devil, if indeed that is who Lucifer truly is?  It seems more likely that any bishop would only be named after saints and high figures, so why is he named after Lucifer?

Lecture quote: "The Angel is mixing two elixirs; he is holding two cups or two jars in his hand which are two substances, related with the Sun and the Moon. The Sun is always a representation of the man, and the Moon is a representation of the woman. Here we have to go deeply into the explanation, because it is the Angel who is doing this mixture. And above the Angel you find the Sun with seven Rays, which has an esoteric meaning that implies a lot that we will try to explain in simple terms, thus, concentrate very deeply in order to comprehend. To begin, what is an Angel? You know that the word Angel comes from the Greek word angelos (plural angeloi), which means “messenger.” This name messenger is found in many places, in different scriptures, for instance in Sanskrit, the word for messenger or Angel is ‘Avatar.’ So there are different types of messengers or avatars, and different levels as well, and when we find here seven Rays of the Sun, we are directly related to the law of the Heptaparaparshinokh: the law that organizes creation. When we investigate the Angels Kabbalistically, we find that according to Kabbalah they exist in the world of Yetzirah, which is the world of Angels and formation. And they are related with the third triangle of the tree of life: Hod, Netzach, and Yesod. Yetzirah (the world of formation) and the Angels are directly related with the fourth dimension. The fourth dimension is Eden, that lost paradise of Milton.

Lecture quote: "The Arcanum 13 of the sacred book of the Tarot depicts a man wielding a scythe.  He dips his scythe into the waters in order to harvest the wheat.  The image of the Arcanum 13 is an image of a reaper – one who is reaping the seed or culling the grain of the earth. The card, or the sacred law of the number 13, is called “Immortality.”  The word immortality has at its core the Latin term “mort”, which of course begins with the letter “M.”  And mort, of course, refers to death. Interestingly, the 13th letter of the Hebrew alphabet is the letter “M” or “Mem.” The letter “M” is also found in the Sanskrit word for death, which is “mrtyu” in Roman letters.  But in the simplest form, in Sanskrit the term “death” can be simply said as “Ma,” or in other words, the letter “M” in Sanskrit. As everyone knows, in most languages “Ma” refers to the mother, and “Ma” is the beautiful phrase that the child speaks.  Often, the very first thing that a child will say is “Ma,” crying for “ma” – for mother.  And this term “Ma” of course is related to “mater” in Latin, which also means “mother.”  It is the root of the term “matter.” So we find death and the mother very closely linked, but also the water, the “mer,” the waters, related to the “M”. In Hebrew, the word for death is “met”, which is spelled, of course, with a “Mem”.  So the Arcanum 13 is related with death, and it encodes and contains the synthesis of the science of how to conquer death, or in other words, to acquire immortality, which is the name of this Arcanum.  But death has its science.

Lecture quote: "The Arcanum 12, the Apostolate, teaches us that in order to be an apostle we have to be patient and tolerant. Indeed, tolerance is one of the virtues that we need to develop in order to walk on this path, especially with this Arcanum, which is related with the great work.  The great work that everyone has to perform is the Self-realization of the Being, which is precisely the goal, the objective of life; this is why we are here in this universe, and this is why we exist: only for the Self-realization of the Being, because the Being wants to know himself. Remember that the letter Lamed that is at the bottom of the card related to this Arcanum is related with the phrase “Lev Meivin Daath,” which is translated as “a heart that understands knowledge.” Some kabbalists state that “Meivin” is also related to the supreme master, which is obviously Kether, because if we talk about the supreme master related with knowledge, with wisdom, we always arrive at Kether. As you know, Kether is the first Sephirah of the Tree of Life, and is related with the letter IOD, and that is precisely the letter on top, or the head of the letter LAMED. When it extends down to the bottom of the letter KAPH, it makes the letter VAV, which forms a tower in the air above the head (Kaph). This is something very significant, because we have to study the letter Lamed in relation to this man who (on the card) is hanged between two columns, and his foot is tied to that cross in the middle of a circle.

Lecture quote: "The image for this Arcanum shows us a woman who stands with great serenity before a lion. The lion has its mouth open. She reaches forward and closes its mouth with her bare hands. The Arcanum 11 at first glance appears to contain a rather straightforward symbolism. But for the Gnostic student, who investigates mythology or the religious symbolism contained in all the world's religions, we find that this Arcanum refers to a vast, extensive, and deeply interconnected symbolism. The lion is an ancient and ubiquitous religious symbol. We find the symbol of the lion in all the ancient mythologies and religions. It may be nearly as omnipresent as the serpent. In all the American traditions, the Mayas, the Aztecs, the lion or the great cat plays a central role. Also in the ancient mysteries of Egypt we find the lion as one of the oldest symbols. The ancient god of Amun-Ra, the solar father of the Egyptian mysteries is often displayed as a lion. Amun-Ra, the solar father in the Egyptian mysteries, is the progenitor of the family of gods. The Gnostic student does not make the mistake of attributing to these symbolic figures the kind of literal and superficial meanings that are often ascribed to these gods by archaeologists and school children. The Gods of ancient Egypt are symbols of Kabbalah. That is: they represent a profound scientific and mathematical mystery. Amun-Ra as the ancient solar divinity, the father of the gods, is the Sun God, or in other words, the Cosmic Christ. From himself he emanates or manifests a pair of twin gods. These twins gods are Shu and Tefnut. Shu is a masculine solar divinity. The word Shu from the ancient Egyptian refers to "dryness, emptiness, space." Shu is often represented as a lion, in the same manner as his father. We see in this a close similarity to the Greek mysteries, which we discussed in previous lectures. Shu bears a striking similarity to Apollo, who is also a twin God. Shu's sister and consort is named Tefnut. Tefnut in the ancient Egyptian refers to "moisture." So we see in Shu and Tefnut twin lion gods, because Tefnut is also represented as a lion, a lioness. And in many of her images, she has the body of a human and the head of a lion. Tefnut is related to the moon. Shu is related to the sun. These twin lion gods, the children of Amun-Ra represent an essential duality, whichin Kabbalah we find represented in the hidden sphere of Daath, known in India as Shiva-Shakti.

Lecture quote: "Of the ten Sephiroth, the tenth is at the very bottom of the tree of life; this is the Sephirah ‘Malkuth,’ (Hebrew for ‘the Kingdom’), which in relation with the four Worlds of Kabbalah, the four manifested Worlds, is the World of Assiah, the World of matter and action. In many of the lectures, we refer to the laws of evolution and devolution, and when we explain the descent of the ray of creation from the Ain Soph Aur down through the tree of life into Malkuth, we call it involution: The way in which the forces of the ray of creation descend into matter through different dimensions to finally arrive at the three dimensional world, the world in which we live. In the previous lectures, we explained that our planet is baptised with the name of Earth, and that it is called Earth because of the cosmic rounds or involution of the matter into the different dimensions which finally arrive at the three dimensional world. It takes a series of events or “involvements” of the ray of creation in different dimensions. In Kabbalah, we talk about three main Hebrew letters related with the elements Air, Fire and Water, which are Aleph, Shin and Mem. Each of these letters are related, Kabbalistically and Gnostically speaking, with three previous cosmic rounds, or epochs of development. The first round was related with the letter Aleph. The second round was related with the letter Shin. The third was related with the letter Mem. In other words, Air, Fire, Water. At this time, we are in the fourth round or fourth manifestation, we would say, of matter in this three dimensional world, which is a ‘terrestrial round.’

Lecture quote: Throughout all the World religions and mythologies, the snake is the most prevalent symbol. In fact, if we look at all the ancient mythologies, there are more cults to the snake than any other animal, or any other form; it is the most universal symbol. We also see it is the most ancient. In the Egyptian mythologies, the earliest symbol for the Goddess was a snake, and in Egyptian mythology Neith (Net) was the snake or serpent Goddess who is the founder of the universe and the Mother of the Sun (Ra). "I am everything which hath been, and which is, and which shall be, and there hath never been any who hath uncovered my veil." - Quoted by Plutarch in his "De Iside et Osir." We also see in Hinduism the same structure: the ancient snake Goddess or snake deity wrapped around the world. In Hinduism or in Sanskrit, she is called Anata, which means "endless one." The symbol of ‘Anata', or the endless one, is a serpent wrapped around the world, which in the West became known as Ouroboros. And we see if we look into the previous lecture that Ouroboros is depicted at the base of the graphic, which is the serpent eating its own tail. This primeval serpent obviously contains a potent symbolism; we see in it cycles of creation and destruction, evolution and devolution, the Wheel of Life itself. And this wheel is synonymous with the serpent, with the ancient snake. The snake is also an attribute of the Goddess Kali, the Goddess Durga. And here we see another aspect of this essential duality of the serpent. The serpent can be creative or destructive. This duality is critical and is expressed in all the religions and mythologies.  In the Bible, we see Moses raises his serpent upon a staff, and conquers the serpent of the Egyptians. So we see two serpents, one positive and one negative. Likewise, in the biblical book of Numbers, the fiery serpents of the ‘Seraph' are sent to bite the Israelites when they are disobedient.  Moses raises a bronze serpent upon a staff to heal them. So we see two serpents, or two aspects, two polarities; one positive, one negative. One creative, one destructive. 

Lecture quote: "We have arrived at the caduceus of Mercury, the number 8, with the wings of the spirit always open. Arcanum number 8 is associated with the two witnesses, which are related with the two forces, the two vital forces symbolized in many religions by the moon and the sun. Here we have to emphasize the deep meaning of the Hebrew letter ח "Chet," which is related with life. Remember that the Tree of Life is called "Otz Chaim" and there are many words in Hebrew written with Chet, like Chaioth (which means "living creatures") or Chaiuth (which means "life force") and different names like the word, for instance, "Enoch" which is written with Chet, “Henoch.” So, as you see, the form of the letter Chet is related with the two previous letters that we were describing in the previous lectures: the letter ו Vav and the letter ז Zayin. The letter Zayin is at the left, and the letter Vav at the right of the shape of the letter Chet, united, of course, by that invisible life force, which was explained here very clearly that it is the Kundalini, or the life force of God, which is related with the law of the Cosmic-Common Trogoautoegocrat, the reciprocal force that descends and ascends in different ways. There are two words in Hebrew that explain the descent of that force from the Ain Soph Aur and the ascension or return of that force. The descent of that force into the universe from the Ain Soph Aur is explained in the letter Vav, which we talk about very extensively in other lectures, but the returning of that life force into its own source is related with the letter Zayin. So, the movement of that energy, descending and ascending, is of course symbolized in the letter Chet; this is the active life force in the Macrocosmos and in the Microcosmos. So, pay attention here because there are two Hebrew words related with it, and because when we talk about the Tree of Life, we have to talk also about the Tree of Knowledge, because both trees share their roots; this is very important because without the knowledge of one tree, we cannot understand the other tree. These two trees are in the book of Genesis in the beginning, the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge together in the beginning of creation. Of course, these are two symbolic trees and that they embrace a lot.