Meaning
Tzaddi, the fish-hook, runs from the sphere of feeling into the Foundation. With the Star, trump XVII, and Aquarius, the Golden Dawn made it the path of hope and renewal. In our own words, it is hope after difficulty: renewal that comes from trusting a distant, steady light, as the card's figure pours water under a sky of stars.
The letter
Tzaddi is the eighteenth letter, worth 90. Its traditional gloss is a fish-hook; scholars of the early alphabet are unsure of the name, perhaps a plant, perhaps a word for hunting. The Sefer Yetzirah counts it among the twelve simple letters and gives it Aquarius in every version we read. Lévi put the Moon on Tzaddi. Westcott's translation of 1893 leaves out this path's title; 777 gives it as "the Natural Intelligence", and we quote it from there.
"Tzaddi is not the Star"
In Cairo in April 1904 Crowley wrote down a book he said was dictated to him, The Book of the Law; one verse reads "Tzaddi is not the Star". Forty years later, in the Thoth deck painted by Lady Frieda Harris, he took the Star off this letter and put the Emperor here, sending the Star to Heh, path 15. He kept the signs with the cards, so on his tree this path carries the Emperor with Aries. Some calculators mix his placing into the Golden Dawn's and give the Emperor to path 28 under the order's name, which is not its table. We keep the Golden Dawn's, and give Crowley's as a variant: a claim of revelation, not a correction.
On the Tree
On Kircher's tree the path runs diagonally from Netzach, on the viewer's right, to Yesod on the Middle Pillar. On the Gra and Ari trees of Jewish Kabbalah the simple letters lie on the diagonals too, though not in this order, and there is no tarot. A person whose personality or soul card is the Star has this path marked, by our own combination of Greer's cards and the Golden Dawn's paths.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Sign
- Aquarius: the same in every version of the Sefer Yetzirah we read, kept by the Golden Dawn sourced
- Thoth variant (Crowley, 1944)
- In Crowley's Thoth deck the Emperor takes this letter and path, and the Star moves to Heh, path 15, keeping Aquarius disputed
- Scholars' reading of the name
- Uncertain (perhaps a plant, or "to hunt") disputed
- On the Jewish trees
- The Gra and Ari trees put the simple letters on the diagonal paths, so Tzaddi need not be here sourced
- Birth card on this path
- Marked when a person's personality or soul card is the Star (Greer's method on the Golden Dawn's table) our construction
- Our keywords
- Hope, renewal, quiet guidance our construction
How the schools read it
- Sefer Yetzirah (2nd to 9th century)
- One of the twelve simple letters, with the sign Aquarius.
- Lévi and the French school (1854 to 1856)
- XVIII The Moon on Tzaddi.
- The Golden Dawn (1888; *777*, 1909)
- XVII The Star, with the sign Aquarius.
- Crowley's Thoth deck (1944)
- The Emperor, by his reading of the Book of the Law; the Star goes to path 15.
- EsoTerrier
- Hope after difficulty: renewal that comes from trusting a distant, steady light.
Claims about it
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Path 28 and the attributions on this page are Kabbalah.
falseWhat the record shows: The Tree comes from Kabbalah, a Jewish mystical tradition, which has no tarot and its own ways of drawing and reading it. The tables here are the Hermetic Qabalah's, compiled by Agrippa, Mathers and the Golden Dawn.
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A birth card on Path 28 is the path a person is walking, or is tasked with, for life.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: No tradition gives anyone a path. Placing Greer's birth cards on the Golden Dawn's paths is our own combination, and the page reads the path, nothing more.
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By the Golden Dawn's attributions the Emperor sits on path 28 and the Star on path 15.
falseWhat the record shows: That is Crowley's Thoth placement. The Golden Dawn gives Heh and path 15 to the Emperor and Tzaddi and path 28 to the Star, and so do we.
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Crowley's swap of the Emperor and the Star is the correct attribution.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: A claim of revelation, after a verse of the Book of the Law. We keep the Golden Dawn's table and give the swap as a variant.
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The traditional gloss of Path 28's letter is what its name originally meant.
disputedWhat the record shows: The glosses are the ones the Hermetic tradition works with, and we show them. Scholars of the early alphabet read several names differently.
