The Fool as Wandering Jew

by Jean-Michel David During Mediæval times, the legend of the wandering Jew gained popular recognition. I have previously (around 2003 on Aeclectic’s TarotForum) written some comments that indicates possible connections between the Fool and the Wandering Jew – what we shall be briefly looking at here are not only some of those references, but also [...]

Tarot as Christian Art

by Jean-Michel David No doubt simply due to that I recently had to summarise and review the first 460 pages of Meditations on the Tarot in completing the monthly studies that have taken us through the first sixteen trumps, I found myself reflecting on not only some fundamental principles taken for granted in the book, [...]

Boethius, Fortuna, the Ass and the Monkey

The Wheel of Fortune by Jean-Michel David There are a few cards in the sequence that were especially influential in sending me scurrying through historical connections and developments. This is one of those, the other two being XVI and XXI. Not that other cards lack such aspect, of course. The Wheel has numerous details worthy [...]

The Fool’s Journey

The History, Art, & Symbolism of the Tarot A new book by Robert M. Place Jean-Michel asked me to include an excerpt from my new book, The Fool’s Journey: The History, Art, & Symbolism of the Tarot, in this, the September issue of the ATS Newsletter, but first I would like to explain the focus [...]

Rudolf Steiner and Tarot

by Jean-Michel David Given my personal and professional interests, I am at various times asked whether Rudolf Steiner talked about tarot in either his books or his lectures – or was at least aware of tarot. It should be brought to mind that amongst the thousands of recorded lectures he gave between 1900 and 1925, [...]

Meditation on the Nineteenth Major Arcanum of the Tarot

extract from the book Meditations on the Tarot THE SUN – LE SOLEIL The preceding Arcanum—"The Moon"—confronted us with the task of human intelligence to liberate itself from the magical enchantment which separates it from spontaneous wisdom, and to unite itself with the latter, i.e. to arrive at intuition. The nineteenth Arcanum—"The Sun"— is that [...]

Tarot Trumps and Hebrew Letters:
variety and divergence

Jean-Michel David www.fourhares.com In looking through various decks and reading across a reasonably broad variety of books on tarot, divergent claims are made for trumps and various correlations. One of the most persistent is the claim that somehow trump cards and letters of the alphabet have correlations. If the earliest extent tarot cards have any [...]

Tree of Life on the Tarot in the Four Worlds

Mary Greer First published on Mary’s blog: marygreer.wordpress.com I am delighted to provide this previously unpublished text, which is from a hand-copied manuscript of Sub Spe [John Brodie Innes] I apologize to those who will find many of the references difficult, but the information can help greatly in understanding the Golden Dawn approach to the [...]

Tarot Trumps & the Tree of Life

a personal perspective by Jean-Michel David In two previous Newsletters, I have discussed some aspects relevant here. The first of these was for issue 22, titled ‘Kabalah and Tarot‘, in which I looked more at the Tree of Life in its various forms – though also mentioned the Hebrew alphabet; the second was for issue [...]

Kabbalistic Tarot
Hebraic Wisdom in the Major and Minor Arcana

by Dovid Krafchow …being an introduction to the ancient kabbalistic origins and meanings of the tarot __________ Newsletter foreword by Jean-Michel David When I first came across Dovid Krafchow’s book, its description intringued me, not so much because here was another title that was going to present some kind of relation between Tarot and Kabbalah, [...]