Jewish tarot decks: two cards and some thoughts.
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Two cards today, one from the Lilien deck from Jewitches, and one from the Jewish Tarot by Arieli. Both cards are the same suit, and both these decks replace wands with candles. I like that a lot given the ritual importance of candles in Kabbalistic practice.
So, a side note before discussing the cards. Because they both brought to mind a folktale found in many collections edited by Howard Schwartz, I want to share this deeply mystical story. I will do my best to briefly outline it.
The Cottage of Candles
There was a young man who felt that he was called, destined in fact, to find justice in the world. He studied and became a lawyer. But he found no justice there. He became a judge. But he found no justice there. He left to enter the world of business. Still, he found no justice there. Despairing, he joined a gang of thieves. And they abandoned him in the forest with only the clothes on his back. There was no justice there either.
In a clearing in the distance, he saw lights, so he walked towards the source of these lights until he was at the door of a cottage. The door was open, so he called out if anyone was there. No one answered. He entered and saw hallways extending far beyond the size of the cottage, with shelves from floor to ceiling, all with oil candles burning on them.
When he turned there was an old man standing behind him. He asked the man, “what is this place?” The old man replied “this is the treasury of souls. Each candle here is the life of one person. When it goes out, that person’s life comes to an end.”
The young man asked, “will you show me my candle?”
The elder raised his arm and pointed to a low shelf where there was a battered tin cup, it’s oil almost gone and the flame from the wick was sputtering. Next to it was a candle with its wick burning bright in a tall cup filled with oil. The young man was afraid. When he turned the old man was gone.
He looked at his candle and saw that he only had seconds before the oil ran out and his life would end. He looked for the old man but didn’t see him in any direction. He reached out to take the candle next to his to pour some oil from it into his own candle when a hand shot out and grabbed his arm with a strength beyond that of any ordinary old man so that he closed his eyes, wincing in pain. He heard the voice of the old man ask, “Is this the justice you were seeking?”
Then the hand released his arm. The young man opened his eyes and saw that he was alone in a clearing in the forest. The cottage was gone. And he heard the wind through the trees whispering his fate.
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You can see why this story came to mind. Because the 2 of Wands is a Chokhmah card, and connected to the Sephira of Wisdom, the image of the old man studying feels right. In the 7 of Wands card from Arieli’s Jewish Tarot, we have a man in a library, which feels connected as well, since every year during the Days of Awe we pray to be inscribed in the Book of Life. The metaphor of each soul as a candle for me also works as each soul is a book. And because the 7 of Wands is a Netzach card, for Perseverance, the image of the person searching for knowledge also feels appropriate.
In fact, in both cards, books are central. And this makes sense for the “people of the book.”.
One of the reasons I love this story, and have told it at many gatherings, is because the end doesn’t tell you what the man’s fate is. Sometimes people ask me, but my response is always to ask them what they think. The discussions that happen between audience members is always rich and deep. What do you think the young man’s fate is?
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