Tarot and Kabbalah quiz: letters, paths and the Tree of Life
A quiz on how tarot met Kabbalah: who matched the trumps to Hebrew letters, what the Tree of Life is and how the court cards fit in. 5 of 12 questions.
- 5 questions
- ≈ 2 min
- +5 bronze keys for a flawless run
How are tarot and Kabbalah connected?
Kabbalah is a mystical tradition rooted in Judaism; tarot is a deck invented in fifteenth-century Italy for playing a card game. This quiz checks how the two met in the nineteenth century and what came of it: Hebrew letters on the Major Arcana, the Tree of Life, and the four letters of the divine name hidden in the court cards.
One honest note first: the people who made the earliest decks were not thinking about Kabbalah. Occultists added the link later and used it as a key for interpretation. It is not a historical origin, but as a symbol system it has been hugely influential, and nearly every popular twentieth-century deck was built with it in mind.
Who first matched the cards to Hebrew letters?
Court de Gébelin floated the idea in the eighteenth century, but the Frenchman Eliphas Lévi turned it into a system in the mid-1800s. There are 22 trumps and 22 Hebrew letters, so Lévi lined them up. In his version aleph, the first letter, went to the Magician, and the Fool landed near the end of the row.
The Golden Dawn in England rebuilt the scheme at the end of the century: the Fool came first and took aleph, the Magician took beth, and the letters ran on in order from there. Rider-Waite-Smith and Thoth inherited this version, and so did most decks after them.
The Tree of Life and the four-letter name
The Tree of Life is a diagram of ten spheres, the sephiroth, joined by twenty-two paths. In the Western tradition the numbered cards from Ace to Ten match the spheres: the Aces sit at the crown, Kether, and the Tens at the base, Malkuth, the Kingdom. The Major Arcana are laid along the paths.
The court cards are tied to the four letters of the divine name, Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, and through them to the elements: Yod is Fire, the first Heh is Water, Vav is Air and the final Heh is Earth. You do not need any of this to read cards. But next time a book mentions "the Fool's path between Kether and Chokmah", you will know what it means.
All questions and answers
Open after you play: the full question set with right answers and explanations.
1. Why were the Major Arcana matched to the Hebrew alphabet?
Right answer: It has 22 letters, like the trumps
The shared number 22 is what gave occultists the idea. The early Italian cards carried no letters at all.
2. The first Italian decks were designed around Kabbalah.
Right answer: Myth
The early decks were made for a game. The Kabbalah link came from occultists in the 1700s and 1800s.
3. Which trump did Eliphas Lévi give aleph, the first letter?
Right answer: The Magician
Lévi started the row with the Magician and placed the Fool near the end. The Golden Dawn later changed that.
4. Who turned the tarot-Kabbalah link into a system in the 1800s?
Right answer: Eliphas Lévi
In the mid-1800s Eliphas Lévi paired the 22 trumps with the 22 letters and made Kabbalah a key to tarot.
5. Which trump gets aleph in the Golden Dawn system?
Right answer: The Fool
The Golden Dawn put card zero first: the Fool is aleph and the Magician is beth, as in most modern decks.
6. How many spheres are on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life?
Right answer: Ten
The Tree has ten spheres, the sephiroth. Twenty-two is the number of paths between them, one per trump.
7. What on the Tree of Life matches the Major Arcana?
Right answer: The twenty-two paths
The trumps sit on the paths that link the spheres. The spheres themselves go to the numbered cards.
8. Which numbered card sits at the top of the Tree, in Kether?
Right answer: Ace of Cups
The Aces belong to Kether, the Crown, the first sphere. Each Ace is the pure root of its element.
9. What does Malkuth, the sphere of the Tens, stand for?
Right answer: The Kingdom, the material world
Malkuth means Kingdom, the lowest sphere of the Tree, which is why the Tens speak of what has fully landed.
10. Which element goes with the letter Yod in the court cards?
Right answer: Fire
Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh gives Fire, Water, Air and Earth in turn. Yod comes first and is the fiery one.
11. You have to know Kabbalah to read tarot.
Right answer: Myth
Kabbalah is just one layer of interpretation. A spread reads fine without it, through images, positions and the question.
12. A book says "the Fool's path between Kether and Chokmah". What is that?
Right answer: The Kabbalistic Tree of Life
Kether and Chokmah are the top two spheres of the Tree. The Golden Dawn gave the path between them to the Fool.