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More tarot questions...

Boy in a Suitcase

06:21 / 31.07.02

Do the reversed minor arcana correspond to the Sentinels of the Tunnels of Set? I.e., is "The Magician" when right-side up equal to Path 12 of the Sephiroth, and equal to Kala 12 of the Qlippoth when reversed?

12:35 / 31.07.02

What I read of the Qlippoth is that the word means "shell", and that they are the husks and empty containers left behind after the divine energy has passed through each sepheroth. Basicly, if the sepheroth is the energy, the Qlippoth is the shell or "body" the energy was contained within. The gross byproduct of the pure. As such, they do not so much extend below Malchuth as a mirror of additional sepheroth, but surround each on the tree itself.

So, if you extend paths between them, these mirror the original paths, existing as the containers or gross aspects of the original paths. Thus, while the Magician represents skill, knowledge, and mental health, his inversion is gullibility, lack of control over his own powers, and madness. That seems to work with this system.

Note that I'm pulling this out of my arse, I don't have a reference for it all, so take as you will.

07:02 / 01.08.02

Well, I am somewhat confused by your question since you ask about the minor arcana, but then give an example which employs a card from the major arcana...

So, if you are asking whether or not the major arcana when reversed correspond to the Tunnels of Set (as Kenneth Grant calls the lines that run between the shells), then I think the answer is no. The Nightside of the Tree has its own guardians of the tunnels and it is these "demons" which correspond to the major arcana of the tarot. For example, Baratchial is the distortion of the Magician and matches the same path on the Nightside tree that the Magician occupies on the Tree of Life.

The reversed meanings of the cards, it seems to me, are for divination purposes only, but the card itself is invested with the reconciliation of its own upright and reversed meaning. This is to say that both the dignified and ill-dignified meanings of a card in divination work towards the greater symbolism and meaning contained within any specific card. So the archetype of the Magician is, in part, not only "skill, knowledge, and mental health," as cusm relates, but is also "gullibility, lack of [discipline], and madness." The archetypes that the cards represent, I feel, are paradoxical and contain their own opposites.

14:33 / 01.08.02

Aah, interesting. Found a nice resource on the topic, with a summary of each path/tunnel. I haven't had a chance to study these yet.

You know, many of these descriptions seem elements I normally include to some extent in the tarot anyway. They map the path to the instinctive and lunar energies to generate a "dark aspect" of the same energies. They're not reversals at all, so much as a type of application. The magickian, for example, uses the same process, only with the tools of ethenogenic plants and shamanic techniques rather than the more structured discipline of the Magus. Willed exploration of the unconscious rather than development of the conscious. But with the same purpose, its still the same energy, only approached from a different direction than standardly read. One is still developing the strength of the psyche through wilfull exercise.

I find it most interesting that the interpretations are elements that I normally include to some degree anyway in the "day side" tarot, sometimes coming out more in inverted cards but mostly appearing when dictated by circumstance or other cards in the spread. The paths described are energies I have thoroughly explored myself already, so I do not find this suprising. When it comes to Crowley's works, I seem to encounter them after I've already come to understand those principles on my own, which also makes a certain sense in a syncronic manner.

"Here, you're ready to read this now."

"Thanks, but now I don't actually need it anymore. Oh well. Guess I'm still on the right track..."

Feh.

At any rate, using this system, the minor arcana would be generated the same way: Map the dark sepheroth from the Tree of Night to the appropriate element as is done in the "Day side" minor arcana to generate their meaning.