The Tarot of Malkuth
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I have some points on the Malkuth Tarot that I'm hoping we can discuss.
The four Ten's are assigned as the Tarot of Malkuth. I have not yet figured out why four of them, but what about the Ten card itself? What does the Ten mean that represents what Malkuth is? I'm assuming that there are four of them assigned because of the Four Planes? I don't think it's an arbitrary decision, just because there are four, to assign all four. Or is it something to do with each Element signifying something different about Malkuth, ie The Ten of Swords means what about Malkuth, the Ten of Wands, etc.
I also know that Malkuth is assigned the final He'h of the Tetragrammaton, and that it itself is assigned the Four princess cards. Since I'm starting this thread about the Tarot of Malkuth, I feel we can save this point for another discussion about the Tetragrammaton specifically.
The Path of Tav that descends from Yesod to Malkuth is governmed by the Major Tarot card XXI - The World. Why? I know there are obviously two other connecting paths descending to Malkuth, but for now I was hoping to focus on the Path of Tav. Lets discuss these questions as we move towards or mastery of the Sephirah Malkuth.
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@h3fall3n777 said
"The four Ten's are assigned as the Tarot of Malkuth. I have not yet figured out why four of them"
There are 4 suits, representative of the 4 Elements (or, to say it another way, of one expression of the 4 letters of YHVH).
Sometimes these are viewed "horizontally" - 4 Elements seen as on the same plane, such that 10 of Swords is "Malkuth idea expressed in terms of Air," 10 of Cups is "Malkuth idea expressed in terms of Water," etc. - and sometimes "vertically," as the Four Worlds, e.g., 10 of Swords is Malkuth in Yetzirah, 10 of Cups is Malkuth in Briah, etc. - Either idea is valid, and usually changes with context of the reading and the individual.
"but what about the Ten card itself? What does the Ten mean that represents what Malkuth is?"
By "the Ten card itself," do you mean Trump/Atu X, The Wheel of Fortune? Yes, there are some people who read the 10 symbolism that way. I don't usually because the 10 among the 22 trumps represents one numeric idea in a 0-through-22 series, which means something different that the same number in a 1-to-10 series. There are definitely some places of overlap - the Jupiter idea is expressed among the Sephiroth as 4 and among the Trumps as 10, and 1+2+3+4=10, which is also a critical idea in understanding Malkuth properlty (hence the relationship of Heh-final to Malkuth) - but mostly they are different frameworks.
"I'm assuming that there are four of them assigned because of the Four Planes?"
Four Worlds vertically, or Four Elements horizontally, yes.
"I don't think it's an arbitrary decision, just because there are four, to assign all four."
BTW, you have this backwards. It isn't that, "Oh, here is the Tarot and it has four 10s, so how shall we assign them?" Rather, Tarot was created intentionally from the Qabalistic model. It was in the form of, "Oh, we have 10 Sephiroth in 4 Worlds, so we should have 4 sets of 10 things."
"Or is it something to do with each Element signifying something different about Malkuth, ie The Ten of Swords means what about Malkuth, the Ten of Wands, etc. "
That too. See above. (See, you've figured out both main layers of the mystery.)
"The Path of Tav that descends from Yesod to Malkuth is governmed by the Major Tarot card XXI - The World. Why?"
Which question are you asking? I could write 20 pages on this and miss what you are actually asking - please clarify.
"I know there are obviously two other connecting paths descending to Malkuth, but for now I was hoping to focus on the Path of Tav. Lets discuss these questions as we move towards or mastery of the Sephirah Malkuth."
I don't understand the question about Tav etc. Please clarify the question.
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"The Path of Tav that descends from Yesod to Malkuth is governmed by the Major Tarot card XXI - The World. Why?"
Well, I suppose the question I was asking was to see what about the Path of Tav represents the Tarot "The World?" I could study further on my own if the answer would be monumental...
I was worried that I Had it backwards, but you've clarified for me. By backwards, I thought that the tarot doesn't explain malkuth... it's vice versa, the quality of 10 is taken from malkuth... the material. each 10 in the tarot represents something material.
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not entirely on topic--but try lining up the tarot with the malkuth of each suit representing the tiphareth of the suit "above" it (so, making the tree of life with each suit but with the malkuth of one being lined up next to the tiphareth of the next). it all starts to make a lot of sense (new visual represetntaions of the four worlds).
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@h3fall3n777 said
"Well, I suppose the question I was asking was to see what about the Path of Tav represents the Tarot "The World?" I could study further on my own if the answer would be monumental..."
Well, it is... in the sense that every smallest detail about that card comes from the Path of Tav in the first place.
Tav is Saturn in particular, and elemental Earth secondarily - among many other attributions. See it (going in one direction) as the final act of materialization as the pre-physical in Yesod becomes physical, manifest, sensory, etc. See it (going the other direction) as the experience of being in the field of the senses, standing in the center of the world of the Four Elements, and opening yourself upward and inward to the astral levels of experience in Yesod.
Just f'rinstance...