My Dove, my simple one.

10) In Rabbinic tradition the number of canonical books is twenty-four, five in the Torah, eight in the Nevi’im and eleven in the Kethuvim. From the initials of this three-fold division of the canon comes the Hebrew word for the Bible, Tanakh. In another tradition however, the canon is composed of 22 books divided into four categories, Torah, Histories, Wisdom and Prophets. In the Septaguint Ruth follows Judges and Lamentations follows Jeremiah, and the two smaller books in some traditions are considered as appendices to those they follow, giving 22 books. The four part twenty-two book arrangement has been called the Alexandrian canon. The Jewish historian Josephus, 1st century c.e., refers to 22 biblical books in ‘Against Apion’ 1.42. It is also refered to by several early church fathers and is reflected in the arrangement of the earliest complete Septaguint manuscripts c.4th century c.e. ["The Jewish Study Bible", Oxford University Press 1985].

The canon of 22 books corresponds to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet and early on the rule of number symbolism that seeks to find correspondences between groups of equal parts can be seen in action. St. Jerome [c.347-420] in ‘On the books of Samuel and Malachi’ wrote, "As there are twenty-two letters through which, in Hebrew, we write whatever we have to say, and the range of the human voice is defined by their intrinsic sounds, so too there are reckoned 22 books by whose words and principles the still weak and dependent infancy of the righteous man is nourished by the teachings of God." In 1531 Cornelius Agrippa in his ‘Occult Philosophy’ wrote "Twenty-two signifies the fullness of wisdom, and so many are the characters of the Hebrew alphabet, and so many books does the Old Testament contain." [Decker, R. "Art and Arcana" 2004]

In medieval number symbolism twenty-two through its association with the bible and the Hebrew alphabet was a number symbolising completion and the sum knowledge of wisdom, especially in regard to holy teachings. Account of such played a part in Augustine’s division of the City of God into twenty-two chapters, and probably played a part to in the late Christian division of St. John’s revelations.

The eventual stabilisation of the number of tarot figures to twenty-two probably rests upon the symbolic significance as a number of completion, in which the sum of all wisdom and knowledge is contained. Itself related to the correspondence of twenty-two to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and tradition of twenty-two canonical books. Given the syncretic tendencies of the period in which Tarot arose it is surprising we have to wait until the 18th century and the publication of ‘Monde Primitif’ by Court de Gebelin for the suggestion of a 1:1 correspondence between the tarot figures, the Hebrew letters and cabala to first appear.

The difficulty in making such a 1:1 correspondence lies in the placement of the un-numbered or zero card the Fool. Court de Gebelin and de Mellet in ‘Monde Primitif’ put it at the front, before the Bateleur. The fool illustrated in de Gebelin is numbered ‘0’, as it was in some Italian and Swiss packs, though in the Tarot de Marseille pattern it is generally left unnumbered [with a couple of exceptions that number it zero] Comte de Mellet described it as ‘the zero of magic computation’s. They suggested a 1:1 correspondence between letters and trumps in descending order, so Alef the first letter corresponds with XXI the World, and Tau the last letter with the Fool [or ‘Madness’].

Also in the 19th century Kenneth Mackenzie produced a set of correspondences based upon ascending order, while retaining the same position of the Fool as de Gebelin and de Mellet, but transposing the positions of Justice and Strength. This became the basis of the Golden Dawn and the ‘English’ tradition.

For myself I have rejected the 21st letter Shin position. As to the question of first and last, consider it can be both, 22/0. As to a Hebrew letter that can symbolise both and thus claim a correspondence with the Fool, there is I think only one, and that is the letter Alef.

However there is no evidence that the 21 trumps and the fool were created with a one-one correspondence intended; and the various attributions of such since the C.de Mellet and C.de Gebelin first suggested the relationship highlight the multivalencyof the symbolism and the arbitrary nature of such attributions.

Variety of correspondences is not only a matter of differences between 'English' and 'Continental' Hermetic attributions. Differences can also be found within Jewish Kabbalistic tradition also. Do not seek an 'authority' for a particular set of correspondences, but rather an example of a 'method', a 'process' of interpretation and discovery of meaning.

References:

Decker, R. "Art and Arcana" (2004)

"The Jewish Study Bible" Oxford University Press 1985