The psychological framework of the Enlightenment Tarot is based on the Tree of Life.
Oversimplified, the Tree of Life is a glyph for the external and internal world, the macrocosm, and the microcosm.
The Tree of Life comprises thirty-two so-called paths of wisdom. These include ten spheres of activity — the Sephiroth — and twenty-two paths connecting the Sephiroth.
The forty minor arcana stand for the Sephiroth. The aces represent the first Sephirah, the 2’s the second, the 3’s the third, and so on.
According to the four suits, we have four Trees of Life: the Spiritual Tree, the Creative Tree, the Intellectual Tree, and the Bodily Tree:
The court cards, pip cards, or face cards correlate to the Tree of Life as follows:
- The kings represent Chokmah in the four worlds – the 2’s
- The queens represent Binah in the four worlds – the 3’s
- The knights represent Tiphareth in the four worlds – the 6’s
- The pages or princesses represent Malkuth in the four worlds – the 10’s
As you can see, there is an overlap between the kings and twos, the queens and threes, the knights and sixes, and the page and tens. They are almost identical and differ only in their astrological associations. For this reason, the Enlightenment Tarot ignores their position on the Tree of Life and assumes that court cards represent actual persons that play a role in the querent’s challenge.
To avoid complications, we limited the meanings of court cards to the character traits of actual people. For instance, the Queen of Wands stands for a willful woman: generous or stubborn, resolute or revengeful, intense or tyrannical, magnetic or dangerous.
The twenty-two major arcana personify the paths that connect the Sephiroth. They remain the same on the four levels.
The Enlightenment Tarot takes the position of the major and minor arcana on the Tree of Life into consideration and thereby unlocks the original meanings of the Tarot cards. For that reason, all major arcana of the Enlightenment Tarot have an indicator that shows from which Sephirah they proceed. For example, the Emperor has a gray halo because its path originates in Chokmah.
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Highlights:
- A modern rendering of the original Tree of Life framework with meanings that detail 398 aspects of the human self
- Thorough interpretations of the major and minor arcana and their five core meanings
- Psychological profiles for all court cards
- A guideline on how to perform psychological Tarot readings
- Practical advice on how to reframe thoughts, use Tarot cards for shadow work, and perform tiny therapies
- Beautiful illustrations of the Tree of Life and the Enlightenment Tarot cards