Daily Note: 12.19.2022

Starting point . . . .

For the first Daily Note of this series—focusing on Kabbalah and Tarot—I’ll reprint exactly what I said on this topic many years ago, in The Tarot: History, Mystery, and Lore:

Also like Court de Gebelin, Levi let himself be carried away from the heart of the matter by a wave of romantic enthusiasm. It’s apparent that the Kabbalah and the Tarot resemble one another in certain respects, but there is no evidence at all to suggest that the Kabbalah and the Tarot were ever linked in any intentional or dependent way. The similarities between the two systems are important not because they indicate a common source, but because they reveal certain basic esoteric concepts embodied in both.

Once one begins to pick up the threads that run between the Kabbalah and the Tarot, it’s possible to follow these threads in many different directions— to alchemy, to astrology, to Native American religion. The Greek mystery religions, Hawaiian Kahuna magic, Chinese Taoism, Tibetan Buddhism—all of these systems of thought (and many more) have elements in common with those of the Tarot.

It is exactly this wealth of possible associations which encouraged the idea that the Tarot was part of an ancient complex of esoteric knowledge. And as various commentators, each with his own special bit of knowledge, “discovered” new correlations, the mythography of Tarot was expanded.

Have I changed my mind since then? Yes—and no . . .

More to come, I promise. But for today’s Note, I want close with a new, Tarot-relevant recommendation. I watched the video documentary A Fanatic Heart: Geldof On Yeats twice in a row (rarely happens!), and afterwards understood Yeats and his poetry in a different—or perhaps, expanded—way.

As a Nobel laureate (1923) and one of the world’s most widely admired poets, William Butler Yeats is really the only “serious” person associated with modern Tarot. Here’s a refresher on Yeats’s role in Tarot history. But producer/narrator Bob Geldof is first of all Irish—then, equal parts musician and political/social activist. So A Fanatic Heart is focused mainly on Yeats’s connection with Irish nationalism.

It’s much more than just a factual account, however. Visually mesmerizing, the film features an array of Irish actors reading from Yeats’s poetry, along with details of that bring his character to life. And the narrative traces his lifelong attunement to other realities—from myth and folklore to magical practice.

If you want to watch A Fanatic Heart, there are several streaming options:

Til tomorrow! C