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The Tarot as a Hermetic System (Pre-Kabbalistic Core)

The Tarot’s structure reflects three fundamental Hermetic doctrines:

A. The Principle of Correspondence ("As above, so below")

• Major Arcana: A microcosm of the soul’s journey through cosmic laws.

  • The Magician (I): The divine will manifest in matter.

  • The World (XXI): The soul reintegrated with the One.

• Minor Arcana: The four elements (Wands/Fire, Cups/Water, Swords/Air, Pentacles/Earth) mirroring the material world.

B. The Principle of Mentalism ("All is mind")

• The High Priestess (II) as the veil of Isis—the divide between divine wisdom (nous) and human perception.

• The Moon (XVIII) as the realm of illusions (Hermetic phantasmata).

C. The Principle of Vibration ("Nothing rests; everything moves")

• The Wheel of Fortune (X) as the cycles of fate (Heraclitean flux).

• Death (XIII) as solve et coagula—dissolution and rebirth.

The Enclosed System: Where Kabbalah Does Not Belong

The Tarot’s Hermetic framework needs no Kabbalistic grafting because it already contains:

• Its own cosmology: The Fool’s journey as the soul’s descent and return (Neoplatonic emanation).

• Its own elemental logic: Suits as the fourfold structure of nature (Agrippa’s Occult Philosophy, Book I).

• Its own initiatory path: The Major Arcana as stages of gnosis (Hermetic revelation).

Why Kabbalah Breaks the System

• The Tree of Life imposes a foreign structure (10 sephirot + 22 paths) onto Tarot’s native 22 Majors + 56 Minors.

• The Hebrew letters overwrite Tarot’s own elemental/planetary correspondences (e.g., Mars in The Tower, not "Peh").

Reconstructing the Purely Hermetic Tarot

To strip away Kabbalistic corruption and return to the original Hermetic Tarot, focus on:

A. The Pre-Occultist Decks

• Visconti-Sforza (1450s): The Sun as Apollo, Temperance as harmonia.

• Marseille (1600s): The Lovers as sacred union (hieros gamos), Judgment as palingenesis (spiritual rebirth).

B. The Hermetic Texts That Actually Influenced Tarot

• Corpus Hermeticum (1st–3rd cent. CE):

  • The Magician as the Poimandres vision (mind over matter).

  • The Star (XVII) as the Anthropos bathing in the waters of creation.

• Ficino’s Three Books on Life (1489):

  • The Sun (XIX) as the lux divina (solar magic of the spiritus mundi).

C. Alchemy’s Visual Language

• The Empress (III) as alchemical earth (prima materia nourished by heaven).

• The Tower (XVI) as the nigredo phase (destruction before renewal).

The Final Answer

The Tarot is and always was a Hermetic system. Its symbols are complete unto themselves, rooted in:

1. Neoplatonic emanation (descent/return of the soul).

2. Elemental harmony (Agrippa’s fourfold world).

3. Alchemical transformation (solve et coagula).

Kabbalah is not just unnecessary—it’s a violent imposition onto a system that already had its own logic.