Tarot, Kabbalah, Personal Development and You Part 1

             This is a post that has been clawing it's way through my mind for over twenty years.  In studying the traditions connected to the tarot I've come to see it less as a tool for divination then of personal discovery. That being said, knowing how the cards relate to the system they represent does make that use possible.  So to start this off lets take a look at how the deck is constructed, how this relates to the Tree of Life model of creation, as well as how this can be used to bring a greater clarity and understanding of self.
           

             This image shows the layout of the major arcana on the Tree of Life image.  I show this now to show the first division in the deck. For the purpose of this musing I have pulled out my Rider-Waite tarot deck. This is the standard for English speaking western mystics. I won't go into the history of the organization behind the deck, as the Golden Dawn would be an article on their own. Nor is this even the deck I use most often, truth be told I hardly ever use a tarot deck, or do very many readings.  So lets take our 72 card deck, and pull the 22 major arcana out. For those of you who like the master numbers there is your 2nd 11.  For now lets take a closer look at what these cards represent.  The Tree of Life is a diagram or map showing creation going from the 3 gradations of nothing to the world we see manifest.  Understand this is a micro/macro approach, so when looking at this scale everyone and thing you have known have all physically taken place in the number 10 on the tree, known as Malkuth.  So the major arcana are very much like Jung's archetypes.  These are the main paths that lead between the many mansions in judeo/christian conception of an afterlife.  As such these are generally speaking not personified in our life, they are more akin to aspects of consciousness.  So while you may see aspects of them in the people around you, or yourself, these are concepts that are larger then an individual life. At this point we've gone from a whole deck of 72 which represents the magic of duality, into the duality of 22, and 50 which represents the balance of our own dual natures combined with the strife of the mystery.  Next I'd like ya to take the suit cards, and sort out all the court cards, you should be left with ace through 10 of the four suits. While your holding 40 cards, it actually represents 44 cards as the aces start and finish the numbered cards. there goes the 11, 33, and 44 if you look for them.  The numbered cards like the major arcana are generally not going to be people, these can be likened to natural processes of the elements.  Where Swords is air, and mental, Wands is fire, passion or creativity, Cups is water,  and emotions, Pentacles are earth, and physical.   Once you have that down, and understand what the numbers represent these cards become easy to spot.  The definitions for the numbers are almost everywhere, most people know them even if they don't realize it.  The third part of the deck is of course the court cards, These are the people around you. The other cards are actions, and archetypes being played out through the court cards.  These are known as the 16 hidden paths, they are hidden because they are people in your life.  People are the magic, and the court cards are always who the stories are about. The court cards represent one element behaving as another element, even if that element is itself.
       As always this is my own insane views on my own unique absorption of information. And frankly while I do sometimes throw some cards, I don't really ask questions, just look for guidance.  These ideas are micro/macro kinda of ideas, that tie into a larger pattern of creation of which the tree is a subset. So while these can be applied externally, they may also be applied internally, upside, downside, any which way.