Although the Gnostics would give the world the first Tarot deck in the middle of the 15th century, four hundred years would pass before French occultist Eliphas Levi would observe that the twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana, or trump suit, correspond with the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet and thereby with the twenty-two paths of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. This would be followed, near the end of the 19th century, by the scholarship of S. L. MacGregor Mathers and A. E. Waite, two members of the influential English occult group "The Golden Dawn," who would determine that this Kabbalistic connection would apply not only to the trump suit, but to the entire 78 card deck. With this understanding, the powerful secrets of the deck would begin to become revealed.
What Is The Kabbalah
In plain language, the Kabbalah is ten spheres and twenty-two paths; a deceptively simple diagram that explains the beginning of creation. From a triple negative, the goddess, springs forth all that exists. Here is the big bang theory, as well as what was before that event and all that has come after. It has been said that the Kabbalah is a map of the individual human being and of the entire universe in which s/he lives. The Tree of Life has been likened to the master key to all of creation, a key that will unlock the mysteries behind all doors, from the secrets of the physical universe and on to mental and spiritual planes as well. Over the centuries, mystics on a wide variety of spiritual paths have found the Tree to be a useful tool in their search for enlightenment.
Even in modern times, as the empirical scientific process has dominated our cultural reality, this "superstition" that was given to us by the ancient Jews has continued to prove its worth as an instrument of truth. Scientific facts that would've been unknown to the ancients are included within the structure of the Tree, from nuclear spin theory to the structure and role of DNA. The "big bang" theory of creation is explained on the Tree in minute detail, as are more modern theories like quantum physics.
Although the Kabbalah is intrinsically Hebrew and an integral part of Jewish philosophy, it began to be adapted to fit new spiritual realities soon after the death of Christ. As already noted, the Gnostics found it's scope to be universal and easily adapted it to their own knowledge. The alchemists, who followed them, also used the Kabbalah in their work and both groups believed that this body of knowledge predated the Hebrews from whom it had come.
Before the Gnostics, however, the Kabbalah seems to have been the exclusive property of Judaism and remains today an important part of the esoteric and mystical aspects of that religion. In Hebrew, the word Kabbalah (QBL) means "an oral tradition" and there appears to have been no written texts on the subject until approximately 100 C.E. with the appearance of "Sefir Jezirah" or "The Book of Creation." Because of this, the origins of the Kabbalah are lost to antiquity, but it's believed to have a history dating back to at least the time of Moses. Although there is no definitive historical proof, many modern occultists believe that the knowledge originally came from the Egyptians, part of a body of knowledge that was brought out by Moses, who had been privy to the knowledge of the Egyptian priesthood.
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