Tarot Cards And The Kabbalah
The origins of the Tarot deck and its associated interpretive meanings may never be known with empirical certainty. However, one school of thought subscribed to by Kabbalistic occultists is that the Tarot deck stems from Jewish mysticism.
Some occultists even go as far as to say it was an abstract code developed by Kabbalah masters to embody their thoughts and ideas, in an allegorical format. But before we delve into the nuances of the relationship between tarot cards and Jewish mysticism we must first answer a fundamental question. What exactly is the Kabballah?
Jewish mysticism and the Kabbalah have roots that date back to the third to sixth century A.D. during this period a book called the “Book of Creation” was written, in anonymity, and contained meditations based on the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This book is believed to be the foundation of modern day Jewish mysticism and the Kabbalah. However, it would be many centuries before this seedling of ideas would grow into the tree of life we know today as the Kabbalah.
In fact it would not be until the twelfth and thirteenth centuries A.D. that the ideas and concepts, in this book, would be expanded and built upon significantly.
During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries A.D. the writing and publication of the Zohar or “Book of Splendor” contributed greatly to the ideas and concepts of the modern Kabbalah. One of the major underlying principles of the Kabbalah was that the universe consisted of four worlds. These four worlds were created in order the highest world belonging to God and the lowest world belonging to man.
In addition these four worlds consisted of