Sunday, June 29, 2014

Ace of Cups from the Israel-Wang Golden Dawn Tarot

The Hebrew Letter of CHET crowns this card.  It rhymes with mate so it is pronounced CHATE and is a guttural letter like Aleph, Hey,Ayin & Resh.

A guttural sound is defined as one which comes from the throat, or is articulated with the back of the tongue near or touching the palate. One English language guttural is "guttural".  An example of guttural in use is:  He gave a low guttural cry from the pain when he was shot.

All Hebrew words have a gematric value which simply means that  a word or group of words is associated with a numeric value.   CHET's gematric value is 8 because it is the eighth letter of the Hebrew Alphabet.  Physically, CHET  is constructed from the two preceding letters VAV and ZAYIN and so it makes a fence between it and them.   Remember the Hebrew alphabet is read left to right unlike the English which is right to left.

CHET is considered the letter of life, La'Chayim,  for true living  is full of life (letter Zayin number 7) and love (letter Vav number 6).  The "fence" happens because it unites both letters yet separates them.

Here in the Golden Dawn tarot by Israel Regardie, the then president of the esoteric organisation, and illustrated by Robert Wang, a disciple,  the letter shows the meaning of CHET very well as it crowns the water before it separates it into two streams (Zayin and Vav).

The big blue cup is symbolic of  mythical holy grail, which shows up in the stories of King Arthur and Round Table in the stories  of Chrestien de Troyes and his troubadours who amongst themselves  created a a vast poetic compilation of some 60,000 verses between 1180 and 1240 AD, as well as in a Middle High German epic poem "Parzival" of Wolfram von Eschenbach, written between 1205 and 1215 AD, which itself was based, according to Wolfram himself, on  the French poem of a Kyot (Guiot) of Provence.  No trace of Kyot though has been found and many think it is a German corruption of Guiot de Provins, a Cistercian monk who turned troubadour and became famous for the poem "La Bible".

Since the grail is part of Courtly Love, it is typically the symbol of bliss and love of a romantic secular and not particularly Christian love, i.e. the loving cup of marriage. The lotus blossoms floating on the water near each other but not touching symbolize the hidden beauty of life with its ups (green and growing) and downs (orange like falling leaves)  that  are not appreciated until there is the fence of time between them and us.

Many though disagree with a totally secular view of the Grail, and instead attribute it to the Cup from which Jesus Christ drank at the Last Supper (Matthew 26:27) .  Regardie who did not particularly care for "Xtianisers" of course tried to de-emphasize that view/

27 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying,“Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the[a] covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” 
30 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. (Gethsemane)


Astrologically, the Ace of Cups is associated  with Cancer and so represents the opportunity of embracing something or someone with love & devotion,  and so separating oneself from the despair and nothingness of existence, and in turn love as well as wisdom.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Man of Poetry (Wands)

The Man of Poetry...."To justify the ways of God to Man". Shedding of protections and pretenses. He is the one who clears away...