ALCHEMIC AND JUDAIC SYMBOLISM IN THE TAROT:

INTERPRETING THE MAGICIAN

By Mihail Pretorian

Abstract:

The Tarot cards and their symbolism are sometimes neglected in scholarly circles and esoteric fraternal
organizations, despite of their rich archetypal symbolism, represented through artistic form. Our paper
provides a detailed inspection of the first Tarot Arcana known as The Magician and its corresponding
symbolic attributes, as they were detailed in the Rider-Waite card deck which we have used for our
research. The primary target of our article is to try not to neglect any of the elements that are present in the
imagery and to interpret them in different keys of esoteric thought, such as the field of spiritual alchemy or
Kabbalah.

Keywords: tarot, magician, alchemy, kabbalah, symbolism.

 Introduction

This paper focuses on ginning an understanding of the esoteric symbolism, alchemical and
kabbalistic nature of the Tarot card system. The Tarot cards offer occult instructions that remind man of the
inner moral, axiological development of his psyche, the journey of the soul that never started nor will it
never end. Although we cannot cover all the cards and their corresponding symbolism in our current paper,
we will be focusing only on one particular card from the deck, the one inquired in our study baring the title
The Magician, or the first of the 22 Major Arcanas that build the Tarot tabernacle, making use of various
works of known esoteric researchers to better cement our study.
Due to the fact that, over the years, many Tarot card decks have emerged with various designs, and
many scholars creating their own sets of cards for their studies, we have chosen to work in our study on the
Rider-Waite card pack, developed by Arthur Edward Waite and artistically rendered by painter and fellow
esoteric scholar Pamela Coleman Smith. It is worth noting the fact that although the art style is changed in
the myriad of decks out in the world, almost, if not all of them, respect the original, subliminal, archetypal
nature of a specific set of symbols, emanated from the beginning.
We have described in the first part of our current paper the origins of the Tarot cards, with a brief
history, their occult symbolism in philosophy, divination, alchemy and psychology to try to have a better
grasp on the understanding of their secrets and teachings throughout the course of time. We will be
discussing and analyzing various trace patterns for the historical origins of the Tarot cards deck and its
system of symbolical heritage from different acclaimed authors, thus trying to draw a historical line of this
hidden art.
We will deal with the artistic representation of the first Major Arcana, The Magician, and its
general information. Here we will cover the symbols that are present in the card painting, splitting it,
dissecting and working on a partial interpretation outlined in the form of obvious, general information.
The Magician is a card that represents the Ego side of the human psyche. Through its symbolism
that is evoked in the art, we discover that they reflect certain archetypes, which the ancient mystery schools
and ancient traditions were aware of in their time. We can correlate the image of this Arcana with the one of
an Alchemist. The card evokes the use of willpower, one of the two sacred gifts which have been bestowed
upon us, alongside with language, from which all culture and order have been able to emerge.
We discuss in the final sections of our paper the alchemical and kabbalistic interpretation of the
card and its symbolism found in correspondence with the traditions earlier mentioned. We feel that the card
evokes the image of a skilled craftsman, able to complete his work through the mental effort he pours in his
work, the image of the Alchemist, the intelligence of the letter Beth, the card’s corresponding Hebrew letter
and the importance of concentration in attaining mindfulness over the Self in the remaining conclusive part
of our current article.
 1. A brief history of the Tarot cards in Europe

The true origins of the Tarot cards cannot be traced to a certain point in time. Many theories are
disputed, such as: “Ranging from its creation in ancient Egypt by a mysterious priesthood or an evolution
from a number of extant games”.1 If we wish to follow the symbolism of the cards we can trace similarities
back to ancient Sumer, but unfortunately we would not find any viable evidence to assert if this was indeed
practiced and included in a specific divinatory system.
We can say though that for many occult followers and adepts, the tarot card is a tool for attaining
spiritual enlightenment, focusing more on the mental aspect of the human existence. In truth, initially there
wasn’t any occult knowledge in the Tarot or any ancient mystery school, this being regarded in previous
eras as scientific knowledge for their specific existing cultures present at those times. Later, these insights
were to be concealed due to the ignorance of some individuals, only the true souls having reserved the
privilege to pass on the legacy of truth in time. In our current modern times, with the advances of
technology and science along with their corresponding ontological axioms, many individuals, persons, are
becoming more aware and mindful about their self microcosms and the world, le monde, around them,
being able to change both only with emanated sheer will.
Thus, only one who is willing to devote himself to understanding the hidden meaning of life can
manage to pierce the veil and attain clarity in his long wander. As other authors have also inquired, this card
“evokes specific mystical, intellectual and emotional responses from the Inner Consciousness of the student
who has been taught how to look at it. As we earlier stated, it is no longer a secret that there exist Occult
Teachings that reveal the true nature of man, of the universe, and of their mutual relationship. Every
aspirant who has delved very far into philosophy, psychology or religion has come upon evidences of such
Teachings. If he has the courage take these clues seriously and the perseverance to investigate them, he is
inevitably richly rewarded”.2
In Europe, the Tarot cards gained much popularity in the Renaissance period and, even before this,
the deck and its symbolism were found in many occult traditions. In what it involves it, we find out the
following: “For many centuries it has been in circulation throughout the countries of Europe. In Austria,
Czechoslovakia, Italy and Spain it is even now employed for games. Long ago the Gypsies began to tell
fortunes with it, and their example has been followed by charlatans who have laid claim to the possession of
occult insight into the mysteries of the future.
This strange pack of cards has no exoteric history prior to the fourteenth century. The oldest
examples of TAROT designs preserved in museums were probably drawn about 1390. Occult tradition,
however, places the date of its appearance at about the year 1200”.3
Renowned author Arthur Edward Waite, who also designed the Rider-Waite4 card pack, is of the
opinion that “we are still seeking not only an origin in place and time for the

1 Helen Farley, A cultural History of Tarot, I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd, New York, 2009, p. 6.
2 Builders of the Adytum, Highlights of Tarot, School of Ageless Wisdom, Los Angeles, California, USA, 1931,
p. 6-7.
3 Ibidem, p. 8-9.

4 As we have noted in our Introduction, we have selected for our paper only the Rider-Waite card pack, designed by the

renowned occultist, freemason and member of the Golden Dawn lodge Arthur Edward Waite and painted by the artist Pamela
Colman Smith, also a member of the Golden Dawn. The name of the pack of cards holds the combined names of its designer,
Waite, and the publishing house name, the Rider Company. We note here that the deck was first released in the month of
January in the year 1909.
 symbols with which we are concerned, but a specific case of their manifestation on the continent of Europe
to serve as a point of departure, whether backward or forward. Now it is well known that in the year 1393
the painter Charles Gringonneur - who for no reason that I can trace has been termed an occultist and
kabalist by one indifferent English writer - designed and illumined some kind of cards for the diversion of
Charles VI of France when he was in mental ill-health, and the question arises whether anything can be
ascertained of their nature. The only available answer is that at Paris, in the Bibliothecque du Roi, there are
seventeen cards drawn and illuminated on paper. They are very beautiful, antique and priceless; the figures
have a background of gold, and are framed in a silver border; but they are accompanied by no inscription
and no number”.4 5 Two decades before Gringonneur painted the before mentioned cards, a German monk
by the name of Johannes described a Tarot card game bearing the name of Ludas Cartum which was played
around the year 1377.
Some believe that the tradition originated from the nomadic gypsies, when they managed to arrive
in Europe after 1400. One of the researchers that assert this is the acclaimed Dr. Gerard Anaclet Vincent
Encausse, or better known by his esoteric pseudonym as Papus. The Spanish-born French alchemist writes
in his work The Tarot of the Bohemians the following: “The Tarot pack of cards, transmitted by the Gypsies
from generation to generation, is the primitive book of ancient tradition. This has been clearly demonstrated
by Guillaume Poste, Court de Gebelin, Etteila, Eliphas Levi, and J.A. Vaillant.”6 Eden Gray, an author that
had a massive contribution to the contemporary development of the esoteric meaning of the Tarot cards,
agrees with Dr. Encausse and states that: “It seems incontrovertible that there is some link between the
Tarot and the Gypsies in their worldwide wanderings. The Gypsies did indeed roam through Europe at
about the same time that the Tarot cards began to be used around the shores of the Mediterranean. They are
heard in Austria in the twelfth century and in Rumania in the fourteenth.”7
Around the continent, when the Tarot game appeared, the emblems of the cards were suited to
match the country of residence. “When card games spread to France, Switzerland and Germany however,
modified suit emblems were introduced and became nationally accepted. We inherit in the familiar Spades,
Clubs, Hearts and Diamonds of today, the French system, which first appears in 1480.
The German Leaves, Acorns, Hearts and Shells, and the Swiss Shields, Acorns Roses and Shells
appeared between 1430 and 1460.”8
The Tarot card deck is composed of 78 cards which are divided into two categories. The first are
the 22 Major Arcanas or “Trumps”, followed by the Minor Arcanas or “suit

5 Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. Being fragments of a Secret Tradition under the Veil of Divination,
Originally published in 1910, p. 8.
6 Papus (Gerard Anaclet Vincent Encausse), The Tarot of the Bohemians, Chapman and Hall, LTD., London,

1892, p. 4.
7 Eden Gray, A complete guide to the Tarot, Bantam Books and Crown Publishers, Inc., New York, 1970, p. 6.

8 Gareth Knight, Tarot and Magic: Images for Rituals and Pathworking, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA,1991, p.

12.
cards” that correspond in number with that of a normal set of cards, built out of 4 stacks of one to ten and 4
others of “royal” or “court” cards. The emblems are represented as Swords, Wands, Cups and Coins, this
symbolism being inherited from the Italians, thus “The suit emblems that we associate with the Tarot are the
original Italian devices, and seem to originate from Turkish dominated Egypt, with possible roots in Persia
or even India [...] There is a strong tradition in Italian suit design for curved swords and wands with
spatulate ends, and this may have been their origin - Mamluk Egyptian cards imported possibly through
Venice.”9 10 11
We can find scattered information about the use of the Tarot cards for divination in the following
16th and 17th centuries. Even the famed Giacomo Girolamo Casanova mentions of fortune telling by the way
of cards in his autobiography, more precisely, he mentions of a lover of his, a Russian peasant woman who
would use a method of cartomancy with a regular set of cards.
Antoine Court de Gebelin (1719 - 1784), one of the authors previously referenced by Papus,
claimed in his work Le monde primitif° that the Tarot cards are borrowed from an ancient Egyptian
manuscript, The Book ofThothn. Court de Gebelin thought that a golden age of mankind had existed in the
past, thousands of years ago. In this book, he discusses the origins of language, writing, art etc.
The author explored the Tarot card universe in volume 8 of Le monde primitif. A strong possibility
exists that the cards were passed on, from generation to generation, in an esoteric manner, like all occult arts
and crafts, in the same manner previous authors stated it was handed down to early gypsies. We note here
that the French author studied the Tarot de Marseille card pack in Le monde primitif, many card decks
being drawn on this pattern (including the Rider-Waite pack). This particular pack, introduced in the 16th
century, came with new elements, including new trump cards and unique drawings.
Perhaps the most flourishing period for the study of this particular fortune-telling system was the
18th century. As soon as this age manifested in the wheel of time, people, mainly members of the
aristocratic class, were more and more interested in the hidden knowledge and meaning of the ancient arts.
The subject on the occult was also, in the past centuries, a desired topic by the upper classes, but now,
during this new century of

Ibidem.
10 Le monde primitif is a work comprised out of nine quarto volumes, published in 1781. The famous French author was a
highly-learned man for his era, a high-grade freemason, one of the 40 members of the Lodge of Philalethes (founded in the
year 1772) and a devout student of ancient cultures, even before archaeology and anthropology became strong scientific fields
of study.
11 This Egyptian god is recognized in the ancient lore as the scribe of the gods and is widely credited with the invention of the

hieroglyphic writing system. Thoth is the bringer of arts and magic and is well known as the author of The Emerald Tablets
or Tabula Smaragdina, the hermetic guide that is known to alchemists and adepts to contain the secrets of the transmutation
of elements. Many scholars link the sage Hermes Trismegistus as being incarnated in Egyptian times. It isi believed that he
was deified by the Egyptian people after his death for his astonishing longevity of 300 years. Other authors believe that he
was a High Priest of the Eleusinian Mystery School that was established in Ancient Greece. He is present in many
mythological writings, for the Romans he was the god Mercury, for the Greeks Hermes and for the Hindus Haruman. He is
even present in the Islamic writings of the Quran. In Freemasonry he bears the name of Hiram Abiff, the master builder. The
number of occurrences in so many belief systems is astonishing and maybe we will cover it in a future study.
illumination, where the influence of the church was weakening decade after decade, and the Inquisition
being left on the ground, defeated, laying its final breath, a new age of free, unrestricted curiosity had risen
among the free people of Europe. Magicians, alchemists and occultists that claimed to bear knowledge from
ancient times, passed on to them from lip to ear in their travels were appearing out of nowhere, some with
good and sincere intentions and others filled with vile ones, cheap magicians, charlatans in the making,
praying on the gullible social elite of their time.
The newly discovered Rosetta Stone meant new possibilities in uncovering the lost culture of
ancient Egypt. New knowledge was now available through the deciphering of the hieroglyphs. Antoine
Court de Gebellin unfortunately died before its discovery in 1799. It would have proven a great deal of joy
for him to have lived through the discovery of the tool used to decode the lost language of Egypt, due to the
fact he was convinced that the ancient language had been forever lost in the mists of time, the only
knowledge available for his time being passed on from mouth-to-mouth in select occult circles. “The thesis
of Court de Gebelin was not suffered to repose undisturbed in the mind of the age, appealing to the learned
exclusively by means of quarto volume. It created the opportunity of Tarot cards in Paris, as the centre of
France and all things French in the universe. The suggestion that divination by cards had behind it the
unexpected warrants of ancient hidden science, and that the root of the whole subject was in the wonder and
mystery of Egypt, reflected thereon
almost a divine dignity; out of the purlieus of occult practices cartomancy emerged into
12
fashion and assumed for the moment almost pontifical vestures”.
The French philosopher was obsessed with the notion that the Tarot cards were an occult system
exclusive to Egyptian culture, but on further inquiries, this statement seems to not be entirely true,
according to authors that followed the study of this ancient art. Other researchers are of the opinion that this
divinatory card system has its roots elsewhere, thus we find that “there is very little doubt that everyone
who became acquainted to, by theory or by practice, by casual or special concern, with the question of Tarot
cards, accepted their Egyptian character. It is said that people are taken commonly at their own valuation,
and - following as it does the line of least resistance - the unsolicitous general mind assuredly accepts
archaeological pretensions in the sense of their own daring and of those who put them forward. The first
who appeared to reconsider the subject with some presumptive titles to a hearing was the French writer
Duchesne, but I am compelled to pass him over with a mere reference, and so also some interesting
researches on the general subject of playing-cards by Singer in England. The latter believed that the old
Venetian game called Trappola was the earliest European form of card-playing, that it was of Arabian
origin, and that the fifty-two cards used for the purpose derived from that region.”
In the 19th century, the book Dogma and Ritual of Transcendental Magic appeared, penned by the
philosopher Eliphas Levi, in which he made the correspondence of the 22 Major Tarot Arcanas with the 22
letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Having been speculated that the cards’ system has Mid-Oriental, Egyptian
origins, it is no surprise that the ancient Hebrews had incorporated this knowledge in their kabbalistic
traditions. We too have also

Waite, op. cit. p. 20.

Waite, op. cit. p. 21.
covered the Semitic correspondence of the letter 2 (Beth) with the first Arcana in this article, from its
qabbalistic interpretations, as we may later see.
The 20th century, at least before the start of World War I, was beginning to flourish in spirituality
and philosophy, many researchers publishing with fervor incredible works on the subject of esotericism,
theology and Gnosticism. Among the authors we have previously mentioned, are Dr. Gerard Anaclet
Vincent Encauss, who published The Tarot of the Bohemians, the English occultists A. E. Waite and
Pamela Coleman Smith, who published in the year 1910 The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, along with the
world renowned Rider-Waite Tarot pack. Another prominent figure of the 20th century is Aleister Crowley,
the English novelist and critic, occultist and freemason. He created, with the help of the artist Lady Frieda
Harris, the Crowley-Harris Thoth card deck. He explained the symbolism of the cards in his work The Book
of Thoth, explaining their astrological, zodiacal and kabbalistic meanings.
Among the contemporary scholars, we find the English writer Gareth Knight and the American
occultist Paul Foster Case. But not only occultists and adepts of hidden traditions are interested in the
knowledge of the cards. Contemporary esoteric Tarot researcher Eden Gray writes of a list of authors and
fields of research she has encountered: “Many other contemporary scholars, writers, and psychologists have
been interested in, and inspired by, the study of the Tarot. Psychoanalysts have looked with respect upon
the symbols and their connection with the subconscious activities of the human psyche. Among those who
have taken cognizance of the Tarot are T. S. Eliot, in The Waste Land', Charles Williams, in The Greater
Trumps', William Lindsay Gresham, in Nightmare Alley; and P.D. Ouspensky, in A New Model of the
Universe. A. E., the famous Irish poet, belonged to the Order of the Golden Dawn, and the poet W. B. Yeats
was also a member of a secret order that dealt with the Tarot’s occults traditions. The followers of the famous
psychoanalyst C.G. Jung see symbols in the cards that relate to the archetypes of the collective unconscious.
Albert Pike’s Morals and the Dogma of the Scottish Rites makes reference to the cards; and Thomas
Troward, a founder of New Thought and one of the clearest exponents of the Science of Mind, has devoted
serious thought to the spiritual significance of this «oldest book known to man. »”14
In modern times, the esoteric mystery is still known only to the true adepts of the art. The cards
have found their way into the 21st century culture, though it is rather sad that such powerful tools with
occult meaning have fallen into the hands of the corrupt, many scammers profiting from false readings and
cheap divination shows offered to the naive and gullible. As numerous authors before have stated, the
mysteries of the Tarot cards’ tale are revealed only those who are willing to receive them and are able to
pierce the veil of darkness, the shell of its materialistic existence, to those who are courageous enough to
wander through the wild landscapes of the mind in order to find the hidden path that leads to the Temple.
Today, in the world, we can find a great diversity of Tarot card packs. Jean Huets, writes that:
“Hundreds, possibly thousands of different tarot decks are now in print around the world. The vast range of
tarot decks points to the fact that tarot aficionados also vary: from collectors and artists to mystics and
magicians, to psychics and psychotherapists, to herbalists... and on and on. Occultists use the tarot for
predictions, in ritual, and as «flash cards» for whatever system - cabbalistic, alchemical, quasi-Christian -
they might wish to

Gray, op. cit., p. 10.

14
study. Mystics use the tarot for meditation and, overlapping the occultists, for advancement in other-
worldly realms. Students of psychology can see in the figures of the tarot human types, elements of the
psyche, and archetypes.” 5

2. Artistic rendition in the Rider-Waite deck

The Magician, the illusionist or the scammer is regarded as being the gateway or entrance of the
Tarot temple. We have provided in Annex 1, at the end of our paper, the card for a best understanding of the
illustrated symbols we will be discussing further in our paper.
The artist that crafted the beautiful drawings of the Rider-Waite Tarot card pack was Pamela
Colman Smith, as we already learned earlier. “Pamela Colman Smith painted in watercolors the deck known
as the Rider-Waite Tarot. The deck was named after Arthur Edward Waite, who guided the artist through
the Major Arcana, and the first publisher of the deck, Rider of London. Like Etteilla, A.E. Waite claimed that
his was a «rectified» tarot, that is, occultly correct. It was based on the principles of the Hermetic Order of
the Golden Dawn: a blend of Rosicrucianism, Cabalism, astrology, Masonic ritual, alchemy, and European
mythology. Pamela Colman Smith was probably inspired by the designs of the late- fifteenth-century Italian
Sola-Busca Tarot, copies of which are housed in the British Museum. The Sola-Busca Tarot is the inly
known early tarot deck whose Minor Arcana shows scenes instead of symmetrical arrangements of suit
symbols. The original artwork of the Rider- Waite Tarot disappeared after World War II, as did the original
Sola-Busca Tarot, which was in Milan. By coincidence, they may have shared the fate of so much other art:
casualties of war.”12 13 14
In the cards’ drawing we can see a man that stands vigorously on his feet in front of a table, on it, a
pentacle, cup, sword and club being present, relating to the Minor Arcana suit cards, which we will discuss
in more detail in another section of our paper. In the versions of
/7

the Tarot de Marseille card pack, Le Beteleur is depicted wearing brightly colorful clothes which sends us
to the thought of ancient times, where the magician was often found at the entrance of circus shows, luring
wanderers with his tricks inside the tent, assuring the vagabonds that higher powers are to be found inside
only if they had the courage to step in. In other Tarot packs, like in our Rider-Waite pack, the Magician is
seen clothed in a white robe and over it a scarlet garment, an image that, nonetheless, alludes to the Templar
warrior monks.
A serpentine-like blue belt belt is encircling his waist, a crude image of Ouroboros, the ageless
dragon that bites its tail. He is holding a staff in his right hand, a symbol of the Caduceus or maybe the staff
of Jacob, a magnet held up high to gather sublime cosmic forces and to cast them down on the material
plane of existence. This staff is, also, a phallic representation, evoking masculine polarity, individuality.
Above his head, the symbol of

Jean Huets, The Cosmic Tarot, Copyright and licensed under the Creative Commons license, the Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike license, 2008, p. 7.
13 Ibidem.

14 See Annex 2.
infinity is drawn; his knowledge of self implies through this that he has achieved the transcendence of
space and time, an etheric promised dance, through which the mysteries of infinity are eluded to him last.
Climbing roses form an arch above his head provide the perfect temple for his work. It is worth
noticing that the rose is seen as a powerful alchemical symbol. It is seen as being the centre of the Garden,
the workplace, a mystic core in which nature is redeemed and perfection is unfolded. Author Dolores
Ashcroft-Nowicki made a beautiful remark on the symbol of the rose in her 1989 book Inner Landscapes. A
Journey into Awareness by Pathworking. She stated that: “Life is the greatest of all powers even through the
carefully designed and laid out square road, roses and lilies push their way up to the light. There is nothing
so lowly or so primitive in form that it does not lift itself to the source of all creation
1R

in worship”.
The Magician’s hands are positioned in the manner that reminds us of Eliphas Levi’s allegory of
Baphomet, the timeless formula Solve et Coagula evoking the rule of thumb for his craft. Contemporary
author Eden Gray writes that: “The hand holding the magic wand is the ego-consciousness reaching up for
power while the other hand points to earth, as if the Magician wills earth’s forces to be ambivalent to him. Or,
it might be said that with one hand he reaches up to take the hand of the Infinite for accomplishment in the
higher realms, while reaches down with the other to encourage the evolution of the lower kingdoms - thus
uniting Spirit and matter in eternity”.15 16
A. E. Waite writes that The Magician or the Juggler is “in the world of vulgar trickery. This is the
colportage interpretation, and it has the same correspondence with the real symbolical meaning that the use
of the Tarot in fortune-telling has with its mystic construction according to the secret science of symbolism.
I should add that many independent students of the subject, following their own lights, have produced
individual sequences of meaning in respect of the Trumps, Major, and their lights are sometimes suggestive,
but they are not the true lights. For example, Eliphas Levi says that the Magus signifies that unity which is
the mother of numbers; others say that it is the Divine Unity; and one of the latest French commentators
considers that in its general sense it is the will”.17 We notice that the position of his hands allude to the old
hermetic axiom “As above, so below; as below, so above”.
The cards meditation color is yellow, the color attributed to the element of Air. We can see that this
is the prominent color used in the illustration. It is also the color associated with gold, light, eternal and
pure, the color of the saint’s auras adorning their heads and that of the suns razes shining blissfully.
A table is depicted in front of the Mage with several objects on it. This image alludes to the idea of
an alchemist, one who has learned to use the four tools that are laid in front of him: a sword, a wand, a cup
and a club, representing the suit cards or minor arcanas. He has mastered his art through patience and
pedantry, he has transcended the illusion, his craft has condemned him to a perpetual movement, the way of
perfecting the great masterpiece

15 Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, Inner Landscapes. A Journey into Awareness by Pathworking, 1989, p. 147.
16 Gray, op. cit., p. 20.
17 Waite, op. cit., p. 8.
through continuous fervent experimentation. By applying the universal laws of the universe with the
virtues and principles of every-day living, the mage crafts his work, magic, and transmutes his own being,
gaining gifts and blessings. All the sages, including all of the great religion founders have stated, in one
way or another, that each human being is a magician, one way o another.
91

This card “does not contain the most higher of truths, but the most spectacular.” It signifies the
magical formula of the True Will, adaptation, cunning and mastery of one’s self, and in the next section of
our paper we have made a study on the individualism that the card specifically expresses by our point of
view.
The Magician often relates to a power inside us that, most times, many people are unaware about.
The power to change, the ability to grasp the mundane and transform it into magic is present in each human
being, and, as the Mage, our selves can transmute the lead (fear, anger, hate) into gold (courage, calm,
love).

3. The symbol of the Ego

This card is noted with the number I, implying the entrance in the Temple, as we have earlier
stated. Bearing the number I, this is an important aspect of the card. This number is a master number, the
original axiom, the monad, as well as the others. Papus states that: “All numbers are multiples of one, all
sciences converge to a common point, all wisdom comes out of one center, and the number of wisdom is
one”.
The Magician represents individuality, power, and fervor. This is not to be regarded as a positive
nor negative facet. The Tarot cards do not hold good or bad aspects, thus, trying to interpret them from a
bipolar point of view would be wrong from the start. Instead, the Tarot cards offer meaning to those who
have their ears and eyes open and their hearts filled with patience in understanding their occult aspects.
The Ego is a natural occurring psychological phenomenon in the cycle of human life; it is the gift
that gives form to consciousness in the physical plane of existence, matter imbued with spirit. Many wise
men thought of it as being a “tool” that paves the way to salvation and enlightenment. To master the Ego is
to overcome its illusions and break the foggy veil of the mundane spiritual confusion through a system of
alchemical transmutations, this requiring great willpower from behalf of the initiate. Though this method is
often painful and hard to accomplish from mental and emotional points of view, it is a necessary step
which, by universal laws, at one point or another, every individual must pass through its doors.
The Juggler or Magician is regarded as best expressing the Individual in the Tarot. To understand
the concept of Ego, ancient traditions used symbols to better grasp the psychological concepts that rose
during their routine life. Some souls always have been

Dan Seracu, Arta divinatiei, Editura Arhetip - R.S., Bucuresti, 1995, p. 24.

21
endowed with a wonderful habit of seeing magic unfold all around them, a natural curiosity towards the
hidden aspects of existence, a natural passion for decoding their own existence.
Before psychology there was shamanism, witchcraft and divination. Shamans and occultists had a
clear understanding of the archetypal nature of the human soul and made use of it by the means of
interpretation. Even before Sigmund Freud introduced his famed system of psychoanalysis, many ancient
cultures before him had already taken special interest in revealing the secrets of their subconscious, some of
them having survived through the ages to our current era.
We feel that the many esoteric societies have gained their occult knowledge through the use of
psychoactive compounds. One preeminent thinker, whom we think had insight of the potential of
psychoactive compounds in the process of attaining higher stares of being, was the philosopher Plato.
Whilst being initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries, Plato drank a brew called kykeon, made out of wine,
barley and goat’s cheese. Ergot is a parasitic fungus that grows on barley, containing the psychedelic
compound lysergic acid amid (LSA) which is a precursor to LSD-25. The initiates would fast for a period of
time and after, during the ceremony, they would drink the brew, inducing them in a revelatory state of
spiritual awakening. We also think that the kykeon brew could have contained the compound DMT, which
occurs in many plants from the Mediterranean area, these including the Acacia family. We can find
incredible symbolism relating to this practice and, although we will be covering this subject in a future
paper or book, we will make a short parenthesis on this matter in a few other short examples.
In terms of ethno botanical remedies, the American continent is full of history and ethno
pharmacological research potential. Central American shamans would induce vivid and lucid dreams during
the night by means of ingesting an herb known by the name of Calea Zacatechici, in the form of a tea, or by
means of smoking it. After their voyage to the sidereal planes of existence, they would return with the gift
handed down to them by the Gods and started “sculpting” it with the use of interpretation. Many scholars
are superficial and invoke only superstition when they hear of primitive divinatory practices, but for the
collective of that time, the shaman was the psychologist. He was as highly valued back then as a healer, as
any one of the modern day talented psychoanalysts and psychiatrists.
In Southern America, the native shamans still use the ancient medicine, revered among them by the
name of ayahuasca, a famed ceremonial tea amongst the natives, known
for containing the powerful psychedelic compound N,N-Dimethyltryptamine, from the
22
tryptamine family, the same compound we speculated was present in the Eleusinian Mysteries brew kykeon.
Many esoteric societies are known to have been using stimulants to attain higher states of
consciousness. We will note here that some of these hidden psychoactive stimulants have survived the ages
through their rich symbolism. We will note here that Freemasonry has

"trypt-amine \ 'trip-ta,meh \ n. [tryptophan fr. Tryptic, fr. Trypsin, fr. Gk. Tryein, to wear down (from its occurrence in
pancreatic juice as a proteolytic enzyme) + amine fr. NL ammonia] 1: A naturally occurring compound found in both the
animal and plant knigndoms. It is an endogenous component of the human brain. 2: Any of a series of compounds containing
the tryptamine skeleton, and modified by chemical constituents at appropriate positions in the molecule." (Alexander Shulgin
and Ann Shulgin, Tihkal. The continuation, Transform Press, California, 1997.)
 a symbol for the psychedelic compound mentioned earlier, though we believe this knowledge is lost, at
least in the most part of it, or, maybe, even worse, ignored by the members of the Order. The symbol is the
Acacia tree branch, and many species of this family are known for their traced amounts of DMT, some of
them still used in ceremonial drinks. We speculate thus that the ancient Semitic countries of the Middle-East
knew of the benefits of this psychoactive alkaloid had on the human psyche. Acacia nilotica or the gum
Arabic tree is a species indigenous to the Middle-East and Indian subcontinent, used also in a whole range
of medicines. From the acclaimed Masonic researcher Albert G. Mackey we learn that this “was esteemed a
sacred tree. It is the acacia vera of Torunefort, and the mimosa nilotica of Linnaues. It grew abundantly in
the vicinity of Jerusalem, where it is still to be found, and is familiar to us all, in its modem uses at least, as
the tree which the gum Arabic of commerce is obtained.
The acacia, which, in Scripture, is always called shittah and in the plural shittim, was esteemed a
sacred wood among the Hebrews. Of it Moses was ordered to make the tabernacle, the ark of the covenant,
the table for the showbread, and the rest of the sacred furniture. Isaiah, in recounting the promises of God’s
mercy to the Israelites on their return from the captivity, tells them, that, among other things, he will plant in
the wilderness, for their relief and refreshment, the cedar, the acacia (or, as it is rendered in our common
version, the shittah), the fir, and other trees. (...) The early Masons, therefore, very naturally appropriated
this hallowed plant to the equally sacred purpose of a symbol which has to teach an important divine truth in
all ages to come.”18
The psychoactive effects of the DMT molecule are described by users as being intense, an
immersion into a fractal environment. They describe it as a strong bond with the universe, an embracing of
all life as well as profound feelings of dissociation and the effect best known as the Ego Death among
modern day initiates. Many of them describe that along the “trip” they experienced they met with mental
and/or spiritual entities, describing the substance as opening a doorway into another dimension and sphere
of consciousness, where time unveils the truth of its illusion, where mortality is shed. Mackey offers a
beautiful description of the acacia plant, out of which we can find that the states previously described are
being painted in symbolic poetry and allegory. Thus: “The acacia, in the mythic system of Freemasonry, is
preeminently the symbol of the IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL, that important doctrine which is the great
design of the institution to teach. As the evanescent nature of the flower which «cometh forth and is cut
down» reminds us of the transitory nature of human life, so the perpetual renovation of the evergreen plant,
which uninterruptedly presents the appearance of youth and vigor, is aptly compared to that spiritual life in
which the soul, freed from the corruptible companionship of the body, shall enjoy an eternal spring and an
immortal youth. Hence, in the impressive funeral service of our order, it is said, «This evergreen is an
emblem of our faith in the immortality of the soul. By this we are reminded that we have an immortal part
within us, which shall survive the grave, and which shall never, never, never die. »”19

18 Albert G. Mackey, M.D., The Symbolism of Freemasonry: Illustrating and explaining its science and philosophy, its
legends, myths and symbols, 1882, p. 88, source: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11937/.
19 Idem.
 To be able to perform magic, one needs to be conscious of his surroundings, but, most of all,
conscious of his inner nature. The Arcana studied deals with control of external reality. It is well known to
all of us that a good magician is a master of illusions. To fool others with his illusion he must master it first,
and mastering ones confusion automatically leads to increased states of awareness. We may gain potential
and discover new paths that lead to our Higher Selves through mental exercise and spiritual practice,
something all esoteric societies and religions have been stating in their doctrines since the beginning of
human civilization.
To walk on the stellar fields of knowledge, one must also be grounded. Like a tree, the Magician
must have a strong bondage to our material plane in order to fuse the connection with his inner mental
nature. The character portrayed in the card is seen pointing with his left hand to the ground, his index finger
being stretched out, revealing that the earth is his current tool to reach the Heavens above. An important
symbolic aspect here is the fact that the right hand is pointing upwards and the left downwards, the right
hand being regarded as the masculine pole, the dominant, projective hand that directs energy, where as the
left one is regarded as the receptive hand, the one responsible for the action of receiving. This further
strengthens the fact that the Magician is power-oriented and passionate.
The Ego is materialistic. It is bom in this world, its final resting place being the same. During his
work, the student must take note of the vigor that the Arcana teaches. He must heed the fact that to attain the
connection and remember his superior, heavenly nature, one must take care of his physical integrity. We
will quote on this matter the scholar Manley P. Hall: “An unhealthy mind, even in a healthy body, will
ultimately destroy health”.
The Magician, in his right hand, holds the double-headed staff. The Mage has to cast down the
cosmic energies to earth and to bring back the telluric ones to heaven. Amber Jayanti states the same in her
book Living the Tarot, and agrees that: “The Magician bears a magic wand and headband. In order to make
magic, he must limit his concentration to the task before him. These symbols demonstrate how mental
discipline has the potential to transform you and your environment (the garden). Notice that the wand is two
headed - it draws energy from both ends - and is held in the Magician’s right hand to emphasize the
95

consciously acts to bring heaven to earth and earth to heaven. ”

The Ego is the Universe manifested. Through our conscious selves we create and destroy reality as
we wish. This is the side of the human psyche which the card evokes. The Fool has met the Magician, and
now only true willpower will be the force that drives him from now on through the Tarot temple.
His white head band brings us the thought that, for the moment, he is bounded in the material plane
of existence, the band representing his tie with the mortal plain. His red garment signifies the personality
that cloaks the spirit, the white garment. He is dressed for the ritual, the works may begin.
Though the knowledge that the Tarot is a divinatory system is true, it is, most often, rather
superficial, though it is not the only method of use for it. Many novices and students of the occult get easily
overexcited with the thought of having a glimpse of the future, even if it is shrouded in allegorical meaning,
thus forgetting the preparations that need to be 20

20 Amber Jayantii, Living the Tarot Applying an ancient oracle to the challenges of modern life, Wordsworth Editions; 4th
Edition, 2000, p. 59.
 undertaken, thoroughly, and with severe discipline, before actually applying the respective divinatory
techniques.
Meditating on Tarot cards and their imagery can enhance the profane daily life of the Tarot student.
The Magician is revered as an archetype of the beginning of any labor, spiritual and/or material. Dawn
Rothwell gives us a description of how empowering our Ego can be through her predictive meaning of the
Arcana: “Today is a day to look carefully at the tools on your table and the plans in your head and decide
exactly what it is that you are setting out to create. Our intentions, thoughts, and beliefs can indeed create
reality, but when was the last time you took a moment to have a long hard look about what it is you are
really creating and why? You have more power and more options than you think. Things that you see as
obstacles could actually be important tools and if you are loyal to your own self and passionate in your quest
you will find just how to use those tools for your best benefit. You have the ability to use the tools on the
table to make your own reality.”
This card is governed by intellect, the Ego being a mental construct. The Tarot student can attain
mindfulness of the True Self by meditating on the archetypal nature of The Magician. This Arcana also goes
by the title of Magus of Power. It can be used as a powerful tool in times of doubt or fear, its symbolism
awakening pillars of order and control.
Another author, Clive Barrett, offers us another interpretation of the cards nature: “This card
represents the intellect, its ability to probe and examine the environment and its power to change and
transform that environment if it is found wanting. Productive thought, creative ideas, the mind put to
constructive use. Self-confidence and belief in oneself. Practical knowledge as opposed to theory. The
ability to organize people, time, events, to plan things in a way that is of benefit to all concerned. Skill in the
spheres of business and
97

commerce. [...] The first decisive step along the road of progress.”
The card teaches, in the end, discipline and understanding. Great plans are only to be attained with
patience and perseverance. Passions, desires, vices can be converted through the sheer force will and vice
versa for the completion of the Magnum Opus. The Temple of Humanity is built out of countless bricks, but
we feel that the Ego is the cement that binds them in place, if it is mixed well and used with the utmost
noble intentions.

4. Alchemy in the Tarot

One of the goals we want to fulfill in our study is to not overlook any of the symbols present in the
allegory of the card.
As we have concluded, the origins of the Tarot cannot be pin-pointed to a specific period of time or
culture. We have however agreed that it has spread through numerous ancient traditions, in most of them
their true meaning being kept unaltered and intact.
The objects that are placed in front of the Mage are powerful archetypal symbols by design: The Pentacle,
Cup, Sword and Club. These represent the tools of his trade with which

Dawn Rothwell, Insight Tarot, Published by Lulu.com, 2007, p. 115.

Clive Barrett, The Ancient Egyptian Tarot, Thorsons, San Francisco, 1994, p. 21.
 will complete his work. He is the Alchemist and those are the four elements that comprise the foundation of
the material world, fire, air water and earth.
Because these elements were considered in ancient times the ingredients of the whole material
world, we will try to lay down first, in short, the meaning and purpose of the Art of Alchemy and what it
deals with, afterwards expanding on the interpretations of the Minor Arcana symbols found in the card.
The origins of Alchemy are, as those of the Tarot, shrouded in the mist of Time and are diverse in
speculation. We can say that in ancient times, when civilizations in the Middle- East began rising, they
supported the various craftsmen that brought progress to their cultures. Such craftsmen were metallurgists,
carpenters, weavers. Beauty, expressed through the use of various colors was highly regarded. The art of
making dyes and pigments was valued, the process of attaining certain tones of color involving chemical
operations. The art of writing had been invented, early accounts going back to ancient Mesopotamia around
the year 3600 B.C. according to clay tablets. Along with this art, naturally, spirituality began to rise, temples
were being built and abstract thought had to be somehow materialized in various forms of art. A multitude
of gems had been found in the earth, glass-making was established and different properties of minerals had
been discovered.
Religion was closely tied to craftsmanship. In ancient times, these two were not separated like
science is separated from religion in our modem times; on the contrary, they were closely intertwined. The
miners, metallurgists were supposed to have an intimate relation with the Gods, the mountain being the link
between the physical world and the spiritual world, the crossing bridge. Meteors falling from the sky,
bringing ore on the Earth were also linked with the Divine in ancient cultures: “The operations of the
craftsmen were carried out to the accompaniment of religious or magical practices, and supposed
connexions were seen between metals, minerals, plants, planets, the Sun and the Moon, and gods. Thus in
Babylonia gold was connected with the Sun and with the god Enlil, and silver with the Moon and the god
Anu.”21
The process of refining metals and separating them from impurities was highly regarded in ancient
times, for all metals, but especially for the noble ones, such as silver and gold: “The metallurgists knew how
to extract such metals as copper and iron form their ores, and were thoroughly familiar with methods of
assaying gold and silver with fair accuracy. Cupellation was one of the methods employed. Here the impure
precious metal is mixed with lead and the metals are fused together in a porous crucible or cupel, often
made of bone-ash. On blowing air over the melted mass, the lead and other base metals are oxidized, and
the molten lead oxide or litharge, which contains all the base-mteal oxides, is partly blown off by the blast,
and partly absorbed by the walls of the cupel. Left in the crucible is a button of refined gold, or, if silver was
originally present as well as gold, a button of gold-silver alloy.”22
Middle-Eastern cultures, especially the Babylonian culture, kept in high regard the Moon (silver)
and its cycles, this being evident from their accurate calendars. Unlike them, the Greek culture had an
affinity for the Sun (gold). After Alexander the Great conquered the

E. J. Holmyard, Alchemy, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1990, p. 20.

Ibidem, p. 43.
Persian empire and much of the surrounding areas, these including Egypt and the Northern parts of India,
Alchemical thought was beginning to gain more and more ground through the combined cultures, of the
Greeks and the Persians, birthing new systems of mystic thought that would be passed on, from generation
to generation, until the Middle Ages, through various scholars, adepts and mystic esoteric systems.
Alexander the Greats mentor, the philosopher Aristotle, has put in his writing much of the background that
is known in exoteric Alchemy: “According to Aristotle, then, the basis of the material world was a prime or
primitive matter, which had, however, only a potential existence until impressed by ‘form’. By form he did
not mean shape only, but all that conferred upon a body its specific properties. In its simplest manifestation,
form gave rise to the ‘four elements’, fire, air, water and earth, which are distinguished from one another by
their ‘qualities’. The four primary qualities are the fluid (or moist), the dry, the hot, and the cold, and each
element possessed two of them.”23
Many Alchemical studies arose from the famed city of Alexandria and it’s Library. The Platonists,
Pythagoreans and Hermetists had dedicated much of their study times to this ancient art, like all the great
scientific minds of the world.
Like in the system of Freemasonry, we consider Alchemy as being operative and speculative or
spiritual. From operative Alchemy and its practices with the different elements of the periodical table,
modem Chemistry has evolved. In modem times, and in our current study of the Tarot, we will be focusing
on the speculative part of Alchemy, this being called Spiritual Alchemy. Franz Hartmann, the esoteric writer
and researcher, states that: “Alchemy and Astrology are sciences which are at the present time very little
understood, because they deal with spiritual things, which cannot be known to persons who are not in the
possession of spirituality. Chemistry deals with physical matter; alchemy deals with their astral principles.
Astronomy deals with the physical aspect of the bodies of planets and stars; astrology deals with the
omnipresent psychic influences which their souls exert upon each other, and upon the Microcosm of man.”24
The purposes, the goals that were to be achieved through this science were the manufacturing of
the Philosophers Stone and the Elixir of Life. All the processes involved in the manufacturing of the above
consisted in working with the Magnum opus or Prima Materia through various processes known as the
Great Work of Alchemy. The stages through which the Magnum Opus had to pass are nigredo, albedo,
citrinitas and rubedo with their corresponding colors being black, white, yellow and red.25
The Philosopher knows that the use of metals in Alchemy is merely symbolic. Gold and silver, if
referred as the riches of this world, is vulgar and meaningless. The gold and silver are in the heart, and
through this understanding Eternal Life is achieved. This is also the goal of the Magician, as we learned
earlier.

Ibidem, pp. 21-22.

24 Franz Hartmann, M.D., Paracelsus and the substance of his teachings, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged, Kegan
Paul, Trench, Trubner & CO. Ltd., London, 1896, p. 238.
25 We can clearly see that these are the colors that are present, predominantly, in the Rider-Waite studied Tarot Arcana.

We speculate that this was intentional from the designers to express correspondences between these processes and
the Tarot character.
 Throughout the Ages, many adepts have come into this world bearing gifts of knowledge in the Art
of Alchemy. To name a few of them, we found a great joy in the works of the German alchemists
Paracelsus, Basil Valentine and the English George Ripley. The last author mentioned, George Ripley,
provides in his majestic work The Compound of Alchemy, published in 1591, the steps to creating the
Philosophers Stone, which we feel are worth mentioning: Calcination, Dissolution, Separation,
Conjunction, Putrefaction,
Congelation, Cibation, Sublimation, Fermentation, Exaltation, Multiplication and Projection. As you may
have noticed, these are twelve in number. We see here a number present in many myths, legends and
practices, to name a few, such as the Twelve Step Ladder the initiate must climb in order to attain the
Higher Truths, the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac through which the Sun passes the Twelve Apostles of Jesus
Christ in Christian symbolism or the Twelve Nidanas of the Bhavacakra, the Tibetan Buddhists’ Wheel of
Life.
To undergo Alchemical transformations, to transmute the material, the Alchemist must first have
the tools, acknowledging their purpose and power for the better good of the Great Work. “The Magician
represents the personal will in union with the Divine will, which gives him the power and the knowledge to
create with the tools before him.”
The 56 Minor Arcanas are grouped into four series or colors. The colors can be attributed different
hermeneutic meanings, from different systems of esoteric philosophical thought. We learn from Eden Gray
that “these elements also were believed to have a relationship to the four stationary or fixed signs of the
Zodiac - Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius - and they in turn correspond to the bull, the lion, the eagle and
the angel mentioned in the Bible (Ezekiel 1:10, Revelation 4:7), which decorate the four corners of two of the
Major Arcana - the Wheel of Fortune and the World. There are four seasons also, and four points of the
compass.”26 27
The Table on which the Elements are laid has profound significance. Occultist Paul Foster Case
writes that: “The table before the Magician represents the «field of attention» in modem psychology. The
word «table» has also affinities in language with the word «measurement,» in as much as to classify and
arrange is to tabulate. Note that the comers of the table had to be squared, and that the cylindrical legs,
which have capitals like Ionic columns, required the use of compasses, and, by their capitals, suggested the
«orders» of architecture.”28
In nearly all initiation rites and ritualistic magic practices we find the presence of a dagger, sword,
or spade. It implies daring, action. For the Swords, the element of Air is attributed and it evokes:
“Aggression, force ambition, courage, strife, misfortune. [...] Swords represent the world of action, both
constructive and destructive.”29
The symbol of the Sword is seen on the medieval gothic cathedrals, pointed down, recreating the
symbol of the Cross, we find it in Roland’s Song and in The Legend of King Arthur with supernatural
attributes.

Eden Gray, Mastering the Tarot, Penguin Group, New York, 1971, p. 99.
27 Ibidem, p. 21.
28Paul Foster Case, The Tarot: A key to the Wisdom of the Ages, Builders of the Adytum, Los Angeles, U.S.A., 1990, p. 43.

29 Ibidem, p. 22.
 Attributed to the element of Fire are the Clubs. This symbol calls out for willpower, work, progress
and evolution. “They are sometimes used as a club in fighting or as a staff to carry a victor’s crown. [...] Wands
are associated with the world of ideas and with creation and agriculture.”30 31 32
The Cups are under the subordination of the element Water, and are linked with emotions,
pleasure, luck, joy. It implies knowing, drinking from the Cup of Life, the Holy Grail of the Templar.
“Cups, which appear in all the cards of this suit, are associated with water, a symbol of the subconscious
mind and the instincts, as opposed to the conscious mind
Q Q

and reason.”
Linked with the element Earth are the Pentacles, symbolizing the material, prosperity, possessions,
money. “The coinlike disks are pentacles, here inscribed with pentagrams - five pointed stars that are time-
honored symbols of Man. In ancient days, people wore pentacles
OQ

decorated with magic symbols as a protection from the evils of life.” The Pentacle teaches silence and
secrecy, it is the burning star of the Mages and Adepts of the Mystery Schools, the intellect raised over
matter.
Using all of the elements above with their corresponding traits, the spiritual Alchemist, the Adept,
may attempt to undergo the never ending Work and continue his journey in the Tarot, this representing the
gateway that the Magician is regarded as being. The base material for his craft has been laid in front of him;
he can now sculpt the world around him using his will, his intent.

5. The Hebrew letter 2 (Beth)

The ancient Hebrews devised a secret manual of the Universe, Man and God which is named
Qaballa, Cabbalah or Kabbalah. According to the Encylcopedia of Judaism, written by Sara Karesh and
Mitchell M. Hurvitz, the “Kabbalah is the mystical tradition within NORMATIVE JUDAISM. It relies on
the sacred Jewish scriptures, like all of Judaism, but it uses an interpretive approach that treats the Torah
more as a symbolic text than as a historical narrative or a legal treatise.
Mystical thought can be traced back to the TANAKH, the Hebrew Bible. Ezekiel’s discussion of the
divine chariot and God’s throne, for example, provided a rich source of mystical insights for many
generations. Mystical thought and speculation developed alongside mainstream Judaism throughout the
rabbinic period. Several of the RABBIS whose legal rulings are considered the most authoritative were
devout mystics as well.”33
Like many traditions, its origins are also shrouded in the mist of time. Some say that the tradition
was orally given by God Himself to Adam when He cast him out of Eden, as a manual to reunite with Him
one day, in the Garden, and so the tradition was verbally passed

Idem.
Idem.
Idem.
Sara Karesh & Mitchell M. Hurvitz, Encyclopedia of Judaism, Facts on File, New York, 2006, p. 261.
 from one race to another throughout time. Others, like the French writer Fabre d’Olivet, are of the opinion
that it was handed to Moses on Mount Sinai, when he also received the Ten Commandments. Some
researchers completely ignore any origins or traces of the tradition coming from antiquity or from some
antediluvian past, and are of the opinion that it was created (the Zohar in particular) in the 13th century by a
Jewish mystic bearing the name of Moses of Lion. Moshe Idel states that the Kabbalah, “unlike philosophy,
it was studied within families and limited groups, making no attempt to disseminate its tenets to larger
audiences. Although there were some exceptions that were criticized by the Kabbalists themselves, this
mystical lore only gradually surfaced, a process that facilitated its broader recognition a century after the
composition of the first historical Kabbalistic documents.”34 We will not continue with a history of the
Kabbalah in this paper, due to the fact that this is not our goal, and second because we would have to
dedicate an independent volume (or maybe more) for it, due to the sheer size of research it would have
within it.
We will, however, dedicate this final point on the letter 1 (Beth), thus trying to shed some light, in
our remaining pages, on its correspondence with the Magician Tarot Arcana and its interpretation based on
Kabbalistic tradition.
The Sacred Jewish texts can be split into two parts: the first part dealing with the social relations
(the Law) between the members of Jewish society, and the second, dealing with the esoteric thought, the
occult practices which the members of the Tribe of Israel would undergo to obtain a better understanding of
Divinity, themselves, the world around them and the Universe.
The Kabbalah (in its written foundation) is composed of two books: the Sepher Yetsirah and the
Zohar. Sepher Yetsirah teaches about Creation and its mysterious laws that govern it (this teaching is called
Bereschit in the Jewish tradition) and the Zohar, which teaches about the Divine Essence that exist in The
All and its various forms of manifestation; this text is more metaphysical and its teachings are named
Merkabah, meaning the Celestial Chariot or Chariot of Fire. Practical Kabbalah is handed down only by a
verbal, oral tradition, its practice being scarcely written in some texts found in various private collections.
In the Jewish tradition of Kabbalah the study consisted, above all else, in knowing the Hebrew
letters and applying the corresponding permutations through three operations, known by the initiates as
Themuria, Gematria and Notaria. This is the most exoteric practice of them all, but it is the basis for the
esoteric teachings that the initiate will later come to know.
Knowing how to combine the letters means knowing how to channel divine forces through one of
the most sacred gifts handed down from Divinity, one of the gifts which define the human race - articulated
language. “The mystical content is drawn from the metaphysical realms into the human world, which is
itself conceived of as a linguistic matrix of letters. Through the permutation technique, the kabbalist can
create ‘channels’ of power that allow the multiphase content to descend from the linguistic divine down to a
reality that is constituted of and governed by letters. The aim of this practice is twofold. First, this mystical
technique is a way to transform the human mind and unite it with the linguistic godhead. Second, the
permutation of letters draws emanation form the higher alphabet through the lower alphabets and,
ultimately, down to man. This emanation, as stated, can be

Moshe Idel, Kobboloh: New Perspectives, Yale University Press, 1988, p. 251.
34
experienced as a mystical revelation of linguistic content, light, or speech. Alternatively, mystical content
may be drawn into the mundane realm as a ‘magical’ instrument used to change history and affect physical
reality.”35
As the letters of the Jewish alphabet guide the kabbalist through the secrets of the world with their
corresponding moves, such are the Tarot cards for the adept. As we have earlier stated in our paper, there
are 22 Major Arcanas in the Tarot Temple, each card corresponding to a Hebrew letter.
The letters have triple meaning: they express a graphic symbol, each one of them has a specific
numerical value, and each one expresses a certain idea. Thus, to work with the letters, means to work with
numbers and ideas, to combine them and obtain the knowledge asked and to receive it, as being handed
down by Divinity. Here we can see the identical principles that also work in the Tarot system. As each Tarot
card expresses a drawn character and express a well defined idea, such are the letters of the Hebrew letters,
each one of them being imbued with powers that are more or less linked with the manifesting forces of the
Universe. We can say that the Kabbalah is the science of letters and language, of the universal language.
Franz Bardon, the Czech occultist and hermetist explains that: “Each word consists of letters and each letter,
from the esoteric point of view, expresses an idea and thus some kind of power, quality etc., which,
however, may not only be expressed by the letter alone, but also by the number analogous to the universal
law. Thus legality is made clear by numbers, and ideas come to light by letters. The meaning of each letter
is analogous to the three worlds known to us. Since the quabbalist is able to express the sense of an idea by
means of letters, and since he knows very well each number standing for the relevant idea, the letters have
quite a different meaning for him than they have in the intellectual language. Thus, under the universal laws,
the letter gains a quabbalistic significance. This knowledge of the universal laws renders it possible for the
quabbalist to express several trains of thoughts by the letters, and thus by the numbers analogous to them. A
word that has reference to the absolute laws and that is composed in analogy to and by means of the relevant
letters and numbers is a quabbalistic word; [...] To be able to form a quabbalistic word, one must precisely
know the complete analogy of letters and numbers.”36
The Magician, even though it has assigned the number I, has been attributed the letter Beth which
is in fact the second letter of the alphabet, the first being Aleph. We find this aspect interesting and we will
shortly delve upon Aleph before examining Beth.
This letter also is the first number, out of which all creation emanated; it is the monad, the
beginning of Creation.37 “Whenever the Deity was to be identified, this was done by number one. Some
systems, especially the quabbalistic system, also mention the zero, the so- called Ain-Soph, but this is
incomprehensible, unimaginable for man and only serves as a hint that apart from the one nothing else and
nothing higher can exist that would be

Adam Afterman, Letter Permutation Techniques, Kavannah and Prayer in Jewish Mysticism, Journal for the Study of
Religions and Ideologies, 6,18 (Winter 2007), p. 65.
36 Franz Bardon, The Key to the True Quabbalah, Dieter Ruggeberg, Wuppertal, 1986, p. 13.

37 The first Arcana - The Fool - represents the beginning of the Tarot. The Foul is regarded as the first essence, which forever

wanders through time and space, ignoring the obstacles, forever carrying the baggage of knowledge, forever optimist (the
drawn character's chin raised implying he has no fear). This card has the corresponding letter Aleph attributed.
 comprehensible to a man’s spirit.”38 Man cannot comprehend the nothingness; he must only become one with
it to be able to decipher its mysteries.
Aleph is one of the three Mother letters, alongside with Mem (ft) and Shin (IZ7). The 22 letters are
divided into three groups: the one above, Double letters and Simple letters, all letters being derived from
one original single character - Iod (,)39. These groups correspond to three elements, seven planets and the
twelve Zodiac signs.
Aleph, translated, means “ox”. It is an interesting fact to know that, in many linguistic systems
around the world, the first letter of the alphabet is related, more or less, to cattle. Terrence McKenna, the
famed American mycologist and philosopher, proposed in his controversial work Food of the Gods, the
Stoned Ape Theory, which states that psilocybin mushrooms contributed to the evolution of the modern
human, these being ingested by our ancestors Homo erectus and, being implemented in their diet, creating
new neural highways in the brain that led to the transitioning to our next evolutionary phase Homo sapiens.
Thus, the creation of language and the first systemized linguistic and cultural interactions began emerging.
He notes that in Eastern traditions, Hindu especially, we have a sacred triad forming between the cattle,
mushrooms and Divinity because the psychoactive mycelium is found growing in cattle dung. Homo erectus
is believed to have been following massive herds of cattle in their search for new food sources and land.
This is speculative and controversial, but it is known as a fact and from a recent study conducted in the year
2013 by the University of South Florida that psilocybin does in fact increase memory capacity and overall
brain functions, even “healing the brain”40 41, this being just one example of the recent ongoing researches
made on psychedelic compounds. John Michael Greer writes that: “It’s an odd fact of linguistic history that in
most of the world’s alphabets, the first letter has some relationship to cattle; this is true of our own letter A,
which descends from a Phoenician copy of the Egyptian hieroglyph for ‘ox’; it is also the case even for such
distant relatives of the Old Norse runic script. Some writers have suggested that this ties back to old
astrological symbolism, from the days when Taurus rather than Aries was counted as the first sign of the
Zodiac, or to related mythologies that place cosmic bulls or cows at the beginning of a great many creation
myths.”
Beth translated means house. As we have previously found out, The Magician represents the
entrance into the Tarot temple. The temple is a building, represented archetypal in the human psyche. This
represents the foundation of many occult circles, the Pythagorean sect, Rosicrucian Order and original
Freemasonry, along with its derived rites. We mention again Hermes Trismegistus known throughout the
ages as Thoth or Hiram Abiff for the freemasons, the first alchemist and his image reflected in The
Magician. Paul Foster Case, the Kabbalah researcher and freemason, due to his background, is of the same
Hermetic conception. Relating to the letter Beth, he writes that: “The first thing about a house is its

38 Ibidem, p. 51.
39 The letter Iod has been attributed the numerical value of 10. As we know, the Pythagoreans considered that the number 10
is the perfect number, being the sum of the first four numbers (1, 2, 3, 4) representing the four elements that build the physical
world.
40Web link: http://reset.me/study/study-psilocybin-mushrooms-stimulate-growth-of-new-brain-cells/

41 John Michael Greer, Paths of Wisdom: The Magical Cabala in the Western Tradition, Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul

Minnesota, USA, 1996, p. 308.

location, determined by survey, an application of geometry. In its building, architecture, geometry,
adaptation of materials, and many other practical applications of science are involved. Time was when the
whole art of building was called a «mystery,» and was under the direction of the priests of Thoth-Nebo-
Hermes-Mercury. House-building is part of Hermetic science, and survivals of this idea are preserved in the
rituals of Freemasonry.”42
To The Magician it is known the fact that in his hands he wields both the force of creation and of
destruction. Beth is one of the seven double-letters of the Hebrew alphabet having “both a hard and a soft
pronunciation. To every double letter is assigned a pair of opposites. To Beth and Mercury, because the
letter and planet designate an aspect of consciousness which destroys as easily as it creates, the pair
assigned is Life and Death ”43
The corresponding trait of The Magician and the letter Beth is Intelligence. The god attributed to
this letter and Arcana is Mercury, the part of universal consciousness that resonates with our trait at hand.
Mercury is anthropomorphized to understand the abstract of intelligence in lore and myth. “Mercury is the
astrological attribution to Beth. It represents both the planet and the «god». Understand by «god» an aspect
of universal consciousness, personified. [...] Mercury or Hermes was the great magician and transformer,
bearing the caduceus, or wand of miracles, which survives to this day as a symbol of the healing art. He
was, nevertheless, only the messenger of a divinity higher than himself - merely the transmitter, not the
originator, the channel rather than the source.”44
The letter Beth expresses the powers of the mental, intelligence, the self- consciousness that allows
us to shape the world around us. Everything that has ever existed exists or will exist or, better yet said,
mirrored in the material realm have their origins in a mental construct. To make a short example, let’s say
that an architect sees a patch of land and imagines a nice villa. He creates the mental construct, outlines the
design in his mental palace, and then uses tools to cast it into the material. He draws his sketches, using his
knowledge of geometry and artistic spirit and then passes them over to engineers and builders, carpenters,
masons and shapes his initial, physically inexistent concept into this dimension. For the undergoing of the
task above, the architect needs thorough preparations to build up his creative forces, to draw them in this
realm of existence, to give life to his work as the Rabbis did with their golems. “These powers are directed
primarily to the control of forces and things below the sub-conscious level. The energy utilized comes from
above, from superconsciousness. It is fixed and modified by acts of attention. Concentration is the great
secret of the magical art. True concentration is perfect transparency, in which personality becomes a free,
unobstructed channel for the passage downward and out-ward of the superconscious radiant energy. Herein
is the secret of true volition, and Eliphas Levi tells us, «A11 magic is in the will.»”45

42 Case, op. cit., p. 39.

43 Idem, p. 39-40.
44 Idem, p. 39.
45 Idem, p. 46.
 Conclusions

The Tarot philosophy reflects the inner workings of man and the material cosmos he is thrown
into, providing in its illustrations an ever changing mechanism in form but not in spirit or essence.
We have tried to trace this system from antediluvian, ancient times to out more recent history, the
Renaissance, Illuminist period and Modem times Europe. Ancient Egypt has known the touch of the Tarot
drawings in their rich temple artworks with Thoth as their patron, authors like Antoine Court de Gebelin
being convinced in his writings that the banks of the river Nile were the initial birthplace of the cards. Other
authors like Papus claim that the gypsies were the keepers of this sacred art, passed on from generation to
generation.
In Europe the Tarot cards started gaining popularity during the 15th century in France, Switzerland
and Germany as social games, had its period of downfall after, due to the influence of the church and the
Inquisition, and was later reborn in the 17th and 18th centuries. Their popularity, now toward their hidden
message and occult philosophy, was gained by the aristocratic class of that time, the author Antoine Court
de Gebellin representing one of the avid researchers of that time on this subject.
The culminating period of research done in this field was in the 19th and 20thcenturies, with authors
like Eliphas Levi, Dr. Gerard Anaclet Vincent Encausse (Papus) and A. E. Waite, Paul Foster Case etc.
Now, in our contemporary times, a great number of Tarot card decks are available for the general
public and those who wish to decode them according to tradition. Over the course of our paper we have
worked on the The Magician Arcana, extracted from the Rider-Waite card pack, designed by the above
mentioned occultist A. E. Waite and her fellow companion Pamela Colman Smith. Compared to the Tarot
de Marseille pack, the Rider-Waite pack, as we found out, has some additional features, which range from
chromatics to added symbolism, maybe due to the fact that their designers were both members of the same
esoteric society, The Order of the Golden Dawn. It is a blend of symbolism from different occult teachings,
such as Rosicrucianism, astrology, the Kabbalah, freemasonry, numerology.
The Magician, as we concluded in our paper, represents the entrance in the Tarot temple. It is the
initiatory card in the secrets of transmutation, for carrying on the work that will later show on his path. This
Arcana expresses the individual, the Ego, that lets us manifest in this plane of existence, it is power-
oriented, it is The Magus of Power. It burns with the fire of creation, a longing to express itself and achieve
the ineffable state of being at the end of its road. Sadly, for most of our fellow brethren the Pure Ego is
tainted with the shadow of ignorance but, Creation has left tools and technologies in nature to remind us and
them of its cosmic bliss. Such tools are found in religious rituals and esoteric societies around the globe, in
most of these just as a symbol, its original use forgotten (the Acacia symbol in Freemasonry).
The Magician walks in this realm with the purpose of channeling energy. He, like Hermes, is the
channel of the source. He has the proper methods to create and destroy and with his mental acuity,
concentration, he has the potential to work the surrounding fields.
This Arcana has the corresponding attribute of intellect, out of which all emerged, the mental universe.
He is the alchemist, the one who brings balance, who sows the broken veil, who from sorrow
brews joy and from fear forges courage. From the elements that are laid in front of him, on the table which
represents his field of attention, we have concluded that he uses his mental discipline to combine the
symbols of the The Pentacle, Cup, Sword and Club, analog to fire, air water and earth. The ancients were
fond of the art of Alchemy and hold high esteem over craftsmen and artisans who refined jewels and metals.
Our studied Arcana speaks of spiritual alchemy, the transmutation of led into gold, this being the
goal to be achieved with the Philosophers Stone. Like we have said above, the alchemist, The Magician, can
work on his mental states, emotions and transform them with the use of his will. The authors of the Rider-
Waite pack have given this card a distinct golden chromatic which alludes to its corresponding element, Air,
as well as a blend of other colors, such as black, white, yellow and red, all of these corresponding to the four
stages the Great Alchemical Work or Magnum Opus needs to pass through, being nigredo, albedo, citrinitas
and rubedo.
Like Eliphas Levi, we too, like other authors, have linked the Tarot card system with the Hebrew
alphabet. The Tarot temple, as we have seen, is comprised of 22 unique drawings, named Arcanas. The
Magician is linked to the letter 3 (Beth), the second letter in the Hebrew alphabet.
We have found out that the Kabbalah represents the Hebrew hidden tradition of meditation of the
secrets of Man, the Universe and God. This alphabet is one of the oldest in the history of civilization which
is still being used. By knowing the letters, understanding them and applying the correct permutations the
student can gain insight about himself, the world around him and the divine planes of creation. This exact
set of rules is reflected in the Tarot system. Like the Jewish religion has Middle-Eastern influences
(including Egyptian) so to these cards have the same ancient archetypal knowledge embedded in each one
of them.
The letter 3 (Beth) is one of the seven double letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This is an important
aspect, because the card itself, the character portrayed expresses a bipolar idea, the double headed staff,
creation and destruction, one hand pointing to the Heavens with the rod the other to Earth.
Our card expresses, in the end, the reflection of the Creator, the Architect, the Builder. The letter,
as we previously noted, is translated house. To build a house you need a certain degree of geometrical
knowledge, imagination. In our case the building is mental, a personality which by meditating on this card,
acknowledging the symbols rooted in our subconscious mind, can carry us to a more mindful state about our
inner nature and divine spark.
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http://reset.me/study/study-psilocybin-mushrooms-stimulate-growth-of-new-brain-cells/
 ANNEX 1

The Magician Tarot Arcana from the Rider-Waite deck

 ANNEX 2

Le Bateleur Tarot Arcana from the Tarot de Marseille deck.