Court Card associations with the Four Qabbalistic Olam / Worlds / Realms

[Shaira]

Hi everyone, Sarah here, new to the forums and still finding my way round! Apologies if this topic has been discussed before - I haven't yet found where!

 

I'm doing a lot of work on the court cards at the moment, and have got hung up on their associations with the four qabbalistic olam / worlds. Up until recently, I always accepted the traditional attributions without question. However, I was recently reading Isabel Radow Kliegman's "Tarot and the Tree of Life", where she proposes a completely different set of attributions which seem nevertheless to make great sense. I was wondering if you had any guidance, advice, or explanations to help me grok this difference and maybe decide upon which one can or should work for me. 

 

So, just to summarise, there are four qabbalistic worlds or realms by which reality comes into existence. Four stages of creation. From top to bottom:

 

ATZILUTH - THE ARCHETYPAL WORLD: The world of ideas and inspiration, the wellspring of creative force. Associated with the sephira Kether. 

BRIAH - THE CREATIVE WORLD: Where the idea or abstract concept of Atziluth develops into a latent, emerging form. Associated with Chokmah and Binah.

YETZIRAH - THE FORMATIVE WORLD: Where the emerging archetypal construct takes on detail and moves closer to its ultimate manifested form. Associated with Geburah, Chesed, Tiphareth, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod. 

ASSIAH - THE ACTIVE WORLD: The world of physicality, substance, completion, where existence is finally fulfilled and manifested. Associated with Malkuth. 

 

[Shaira]

(Part 2 of 3 of the post)

 

Now the GD "traditionally" associates the four court cards with these four worlds in a descending hierarchy, as follows:

 

ATZILUTH the Archetypal World is associated with KINGS.

BRIAH the Creative World is associated with QUEENS.

YETZIRAH the Formative World is associated with KNIGHTS.

ASSIAH the Active World is associated with PAGES. 

 

I'm guessing the conceptual structure here is that as you progress through the court cards, starting with the n00bie Page in Malkuth, you get gradually more refined, spiritual, enlightened, what-have-you, and finally end up as a King in Kether in the archetypal realm of Atziluth. So, it's an upward path of "advancement", for want of a better word. 

 

Now, in her "Tarot and the Tree of Life", Kliegman up-ends this structure, and I must admit I find her argument compelling. She starts with the fact that the Aces are traditionally associated with Kether and with Atziluth, the realm of emanation, where the powers of each suit / element begin. Then she supports this with the fact that the downward "lightning strike" of the Tree of Life moves through the ten sephiroth from Atziluth down to Assiah, finally achieving completion and fulfilment in Malkuth, the Kingdom. She contends that development moves *down* the tree, not *up*, as traditionally indicated in the attributions above. So, her four world associations for the court cards are:

 

ATZILUTH the Archetypal World is associated with PAGES.

BRIAH the Creative World is associated with KNIGHTS.

YETZIRAH the Formative World is associated with QUEENS. 

ASSIAH the Active World is associated with KINGS.

 

Edited August 7, 2024 by Shaira

[Shaira]

(Part 3 of 3 of the post)

 

As Kliegman says, what better place for the Pages than with the Aces (whose Thrones they are) up in Kether in Atziluth? And what better place for Kings than in the culmination of the whole process of creation than down in Creation itself, in Assiah, and in Malkuth - the Kingdom?

 

Given that the whole Tree of Life associations of the court cards is a major axis in interpreting the meanings of the court cards, whether for pathworking or for spread reading or divination, it seems to me that, while esoteric, this isn't a small point! And right now I'm kinda unable to make up my mind, whether to stick with the trad GD explanation, or to go with Kliegman's rather compelling, but highly radical, reformulation. My gut seems to be pointing me to the latter, but as a *lot* of tarot literature is predicated on the former, I really want to think it through!

 

I'd be very grateful if anyone could shed any light on this. I seem to see relatively little online discussion about this (in my mind, crucial) point, but maybe I just haven't found it yet. 

 

Thank you in advance! And blessed be ❤️

 

Sarah 

 

(Apologies for the three-part posting, I hadn't realised there was a word limit on posting. I hope it's okay to do it this way! Thank you!)

 

 

[DanielJUK]

It's fine @Shaira, you are free of the word limit now, there are limits in posting until someone is over 5 posts 🙂 

[Shaira]

14 minutes ago, DanielJUK said:

It's fine @Shaira, you are free of the word limit now, there are limits in posting until someone is over 5 posts 🙂 

 

Thank you, Daniel! Much obliged! 🙂

[dancing_moon]

I think it depends on whether you see the material world as the "highest" or the "lowest" point of the creation.

 

The way I see it, the creation happens in two parts: first, it goes down the Tree to manifest in the material world, but then it has to go up the Tree again, back to the Divine, for the final enlightenment and full realization of the truth. Obviously, for Tarot purposes you have to choose just one part, and any arrangement of the Courts would be missing out on half of the process. My personal choice is with the GD, though: I find it a bit odd to view the material world as the ultimate goal of the creation, so for me King = the Divine/the pinnacle, Page = the material/the newbie. But that's just me 🙂

[Shaira]

Thank you, Dancing Moon! I'm currently deep-reading the GD method as it's what I've always (if mostly unknowingly) used until recently coming up against Kliegman's alternative. In particular, I'm analysing trad definitions of the courts to see which approach better supports those definitions.

 

Two things in particular support Kliegman IMHO. The first is that the Aces are in Kether, which seems obvious. But the Pages are the Thrones of the Aces, and have a strongly innocent, emanatory vibe, except in Crowley et al where he underlines that they have a powerful, badass manifestatory energy and are very much the active children of the Kings and Queens. But however I look at the Pages, and in spite of Crowley et al, they still seem to have a fresh, new, emanatory feel, and several writers seem to over-reach by trying to explain that away as "Atziluthic energy in Assiah" , which feels a little forced.

 

The second point Kliegman makes is semantic. Malkuth in Assiah is the Kingdom. Surely the King belongs there, in the realm of the material, of substance and manifestation? And the innocent, just-starting-out Pages belong conversely in the realm of emanation?

 

A possible way round this is to really dig into the GD approach and see Malkuth as filled with the wide-eyed and excitedly innocent freshness of "Day One" of the beginning of the world, which the Page is then taking possession of? And in that case the King is a largely passive shepherd (and of course master) of the energies of Ain Soph Aur through Atziluth?

 

It feels like I'm reaching, and you're right, it's maybe a question of directionality. I can't help seeing Atziluth as the very first step in the path of creation, the first emanation of the lightning flash, and it's kinda funky to find the King there. It's easier to justify in terms of the Serpent Path, which is maybe more sephiroth-based than olam-based.

 

Hmm. Well, I'll do my analysis of the specific court card meanings and see if that helps!

 

Thanks again for your post!

Edited August 8, 2024 by Shaira

[Shaira]

So I dove into a deep deep rabbit hole following yesterday's post! 😄 I started by analysing whether the traditional court card meanings and explanations corresponded with their traditional attributions to the Four Worlds, or whether Kliegman's proposal made more sense. And, rapidly, I realised that I was actually approaching, from a completely unexpected direction, the whole question of why the Golden Dawn had redefined the court cards in the first place. 

 

In retrospect, I should have seen it coming, of course. So, working from the assumption that A.E. Waite wasn't at total liberty in his RWS tarot deck to reveal what were then initiatory secrets of the Golden Dawn, I've taken as evident the following:

• That Waite kept the traditional nomenclature and order of the court cards, namely King, Queen, Knight, Page (in descending order of the traditional, yet philosophically opaque, hierarchy).
• That Waite nevertheless used the initiated Golden Dawn "new way" theory as the basis for his descriptions and definitions. In other words, Knight, Queen, Prince (originally King), Princess (originally Page), again in descending hierarchy. 

So, basically that means that, while presenting the RWS King first or topmost in the court cards, hermetically the RWS King is actually third, coming between the Queen and the Page. To be concrete, assuming that the court card suits correspond hermetically to

• Aziluth / Yod / Fire
• Beriah / He / Water
• Yetzirah / Vau / Air
• Assiyah / He / Earth

the correspondences Waite is actually using for his court card definitions is

• Aziluth / Yod / Fire = Knights
• Beriah / He / Water = Queens
• Yetzirah / Vau / Air = Kings
• Assiyah / He / Earth = Pages

IE the order innovated by the Golden Dawn and now found in GD and Thoth decks as Knight / Queen / Prince / Princess. And Waite didn't explicitly explain this because, well, he wasn't allowed to because of GD secrecy, etc. 

 

I've been through my most respected tarot books, and checked the various elemental, qabalistic, and astrological correspondences, and of course it all holds water. Unfortunately, some tarot books seem to fall prey to Waite's misdirection, and work from the starting point that Yod / Fire = Kings and He / Air = Knights, which is always going to lead to "conflicts" with the more respected / academic sources with reference to the Four Worlds (or unfortunately sometimes just nonsensical definitions).

 

Still, it is what it is, and I'm glad I've sorted it out in my own head, at least! I'm sure this is something qabalistic tarot folks sorted out long ago, but putting it all together myself was a bit of a personal revelation! What it means for me is that I'm now, in my head and in my notebooks, reordering the RWS court cards in the descending hierarchy Knights, Queens, Kings, Pages, ie mirroring the Golden Dawn theory and the GD and Thoth deck practices. It makes a heckuva lot more sense from both qabalistic and astrological stand points, and should allow those "creative moments" when reading tarot freely to be a lot more coherent. 

 

And, finally, it's worth mentioning that this whole process resolved the problem I was having with Kliegman's attribution of the Page to Atziluth rather than Assiyah, as her structure was one of those working from the Waite "double-blind".   

 

Now, on to whatever the next discovery might be! 

 

Blessed be, 

 

Sarah