Tree of Life

The Tree of Life is a diagram from the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah: ten spheres, the sephiroth, joined by 22 paths. Christian occultists later tied it to tarot. Éliphas Lévi linked the 22 trumps to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet in the 1850s, and the Golden Dawn in the late 19th century set each trump on one of the paths and the Aces to Tens on the ten spheres, a scheme the Waite and Crowley decks inherit. It is an esoteric overlay, not part of tarot's origins as a card game, and Kabbalists outside the occult tradition do not use the cards. See tarot and Kabbalah.