Notes on How to Read the Magician



Here are links that bring up more information about specific things that Ellen Goldberg mentions.


 * "the number One, who's name in numbers {numerology} is Initiation"


 * Mercury = the Greco-Roman God Mercury and the planet Mercury in Astrology


 * Hermes the Thrice Great aka Hermes Trismegistus is a revered mythical figure in Western occultism.


 * The Hebrew letter Bet(h); why Bet means "house".

The Sepher Yetzirah talks about each of the 22 letters having a lot of distinct and often inter-related attributions including elements of astrology and alchemy. This is the old, non-Christian and pre-Tarot KBL.
 * Kabbalah is an Jewish tradition of mystical interpretation of the Torah and other sacred writings.

It was in the 1780s that esoteric tarot was born from the work of scholar/occultists (aka magicians like the figure on the card itself) linked all these things to the tarot and the new eclectic and inclusive tradition of Qabalah (QBL) was born.


 * "As Above, So Below"


 * "self-realization"


 * Finger of Jupiter