TAROT AND THE GATES OF LIGHT
“Mark Horn’s brilliant new book opened up a new world for me. I was familiar with both fields of tarot and Kabbalah, but I had never viewed them through the larger lens Mark provides. This unique synergy offers rich psycho-spiritual insights and provides practical processes anyone can apply. May it change the lives of millions of readers.”
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR GAY HENDRICKS, PH.D., AUTHOR OF THE BIG LEAP
“Mark Horn has distilled decades of study and practice into a journey of archetypes and images that is powerful, healing, and transformative. Tarot and the Gates of Light is a road map for anyone of any background to follow. So sit, read, study, and follow this step-by-step path from bondage to liberation, and you will find yourself growing into the wise, embodied soul you really are.”
ANDREW RAMER, AUTHOR OF FRAGMENTS OF THE BROOKLYN TALMUD AND COAUTHOR OF ASK YOUR ANGELS
“Perfect for those who want to follow a spiritual practice that combines tarot, Hebrew Kabbalah, and personal meditation. It is also a great way to explore the deeper meanings of the Minor Arcana.”
MARY K. GREER, AUTHOR OF TAROT FOR YOUR SELF AND 21 WAYS TO READ A TAROT CARD
“Spiritual disciplines are like prisms, refracting the ineffable light into radiant diversities of human imagination. This makes Tarot and the Gates of Light a prism within a prism, glittering with Mark Horn’s insights, histories, wit, and wisdom.”
RABBI JAY MICHAELSON, AUTHOR OF GOD VS. GAY? AND THE GATE OF TEARS
“By using a traditional Jewish devotional system, the 49-day spiritual exercise known as Counting the Omer, and then matching each day with the appropriate tarot images, Mark Horn gives tarot readers a way into both Jewish Kabbalah and the contemporary Jewish Renewal movement and gives concrete form to some of the more abstract ideas about the Tree of Life. This book is rich in both information and practice. A valuable and innovative contribution.”
RACHEL POLLACK, AUTHOR OF SEVENTY-EIGHT DEGREES OF WISDOM AND TAROT WISDOM
“Mark has given a profound gift and ‘technology’ to the serious seeker: an erudite, yet highly accessible and engaging, compendium of knowledge and wisdom teachings and, most importantly, a dedicated path of transformation—one self, one soul, one day at a time.”
PROFESSOR KATHERINE KURS, M.DIV., PH.D., EDITOR OF SEARCHING FOR YOUR SOUL
“Offers a spiritual practice for self-transformation, based on the tarot and the mystical practice of counting the 49 days prior to the revelation holiday of Shavuot/Pentecost. For each of the 49 days, Horn offers a combination of tarot cards as a meditative opening to growth and self-knowledge. Horn’s work displays a deep appreciation of tarot as a language for the soul and applies that language to a mystical technology for daily transformation. His book will appeal to diviners and spiritual seekers, Kabbalists and New Age practitioners. The practice laid out in this book is openhearted and challenging, ecumenical and ethically astute. It has the potential to set us on the path to enlightenment.”
RABBI JILL HAMMER, PH.D., AUTHOR OF THE JEWISH BOOK OF DAYS AND OMER CALENDAR OF BIBLICAL WOMEN
“Mark Horn courageously provides an autobiographical approach to teaching the Kabbalistic practice of Counting the Omer. Tarot and the Gates of Light gives Jews and Christians alike a powerful, accessible tool for advancing personal spiritual growth and development.”
RABBI GOLDIE MILGRAM, AUTHOR OF RECLAIMING JUDAISM AS A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
“Horn has shattered the old saying ‘there’s nothing new under the sun’ with this unorthodox and ambitious work. Tarot and the Gates of Light presents the rare opportunity to find liberation through a serious and meaningful ancient practice refined over the centuries. Tarot and Kabbalah are wedded together as never before—in perfect harmony and beauty.”
ANGELO NASIOS, AUTHOR OF TAROT: UNLOCKING THE ARCANA
Acknowledgments
IF THE PRACTICE OF COUNTING THE OMER has taught me anything, it’s that humility and gratitude are foundation practices. And if writing the book has taught me anything, it’s that it would never have been possible without the learning, inspiration, and support I received from a community of extraordinary people.
I wish to thank my teacher and friend Eileen Allman, Ph.D., who encouraged me to take the study of tarot as seriously as the Renaissance texts we studied together. Mrs. Marilyn Tribus, who found me wandering lost in the hallways of Canarsie High School and who made a place for me in a class I wasn’t registered for, saving my life in the process. And Joan Glaser, who saw, knew, and held a place in her heart.
Over the years, there have been many members of my hevra—fellow seekers, companions who have joined me on different parts of the journey and whose love, support, and fearless, insightful truth telling are gifts beyond the measure of recognition in a list. The limits of my words cannot express my debt of gratitude to these, my friends and family-of-choice: Sherry Kohn, Marion Solomon, Timothy David Cassidy, Anne Hoff, Steven Sashen, Susan Mayginnes, Deirdre Boyle, Cantor Caitlin Bromberg, Rafi Bromberg, Julie Otsuka, Dylan Leiner, Wayne Cato, Robert Dvorkin, Katherine Kurs, Andrea Schwartz, Irene Weisberg, William Swann, Jeff French Segall, Ricki Lulov Segall, Philip Baisely, Roberta Kiss, Louise Santelices, George Perlov, Mark Segal, Jon Jensen, Alejandro Morales, Neil Patrick Connelly, Judy Kamilhor, Robert Chang, Jordan Stein, Gregg and Martha Fox, Steven Lemoncello, Stan Magnan, John Chiafalo, Christopher Yohmei Blasdel, Mika Kimula, Andrew Ramer, Laura Simms, Perry Brass, Danyal Lawson, Masayuki Ozawa, Eric Gabriel Lehman, Ian Young, Maic Asti, Annie Schmidt, Jim Fouratt, Michael Knowles, Alan Gomberg, Daniel Neudell, Ronald Sternberg, Mari Makinami, Hiroshi and Wakiko Komazawa, Andrew Achsen, Nara Sangster Fuchs, Dr. Neil Theise, Jackie Haught, Jackie Rudin, Kiyoshi Eguchi, Steven Pascal, Josh Baran, Ilene Malakoff, Colin Glaum, Scott Ryan, Larry Durst, Rachel Marie Morillo, Ben Ellentuck.
My rabbis: Rabbi Marcelo Bronstein, Rabbi Rolando Matalon, Rabbi Felicia Sol, Rabbi Jay Michaelson, Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, Rabbi Tamar Crystal, Rabbi David Ingber, Rabbi Dianne Cohler-Esses, Rabbi Judd Kruger Levingston, Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer, z’’l, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, z’’l.
My guides: Maxson McDowell, Joenine Roberts, Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks, Jason Shulman.
My tarot hevra: Ferol Humphrey, Abraham Bae, Stacy Creamer, Timothy Liu, Joe Schippa, Scott Martin, Susan Lynx, Angelo Nasios, Sasha Graham, Heather Mendel, Benebell Wen, Ruth and Wald Amberstone, and the crew at the Tarot School, The OTTERS and the many friends I’ve made at The Readers Studio.
Special thanks to Rachel Pollack, Mary K. Greer, Rabbi Jill Hammer, and Alyssa Gluf, all of whom gave generously of their time to read early drafts of this book and shared their insights and corrections. Any mistakes that remain here are all mine.
My family: Joseph and Hannah Horn, Irving and Frances Horn, Frances Watson, Robert Horn, Richard and Mary Horn, Megan Horn, Hattie Rosenthal Roth Wexler, Helene Figman, Barbara Zemel, and Alfred, Siegfried, and Harriet Horn.
The men I have loved, whose learning informs me every day and whose memory lives in my heart: William David Agress, Stanley Obey, Glenn Denis, Felix Lindicy, Gary Payne, Gilbert Mark Sprague, Louis Rispoli. And the incomparable and inimitable Hiroshi Aoki.
For pushing me to do it, Jacob Dannett.
My courageous brothers and sisters of the Gay Liberation Front, Gay Youth, the Gay Activist Alliance, Identity House and NewFest.
Last, thanks to my lawyer, Sheila Levine, and of course, Jon Graham, Jeanie Levitan, Jennie Marx, and Jeffrey Robert Lindholm, along with the whole team at Inner Traditions, who believed in this project and helped me bring it to fruition.
Contents
Cover Image
Title Page
Epigraph
Acknowledgments
A Personal Introduction
Kabbalah, Tarot Cards, and Counting the Omer—What’s This All About? THE FORTY-NINE STEPS OF SPIRITUAL REFINEMENT
HOW A BIBLICAL COMMANDMENT TURNED INTO A KABBALISTIC MEDITATION
THE ADOPTION AND ADAPTATION OF PENTECOST BY THE EARLY CHRISTIANS
THE TIKKUN PRAYER VIGIL
KABBALAH, CABALA, AND QABALAH
The Tree of Life THE SEPHIROT
THE FOUR WORLDS
THE TAROT CONNECTION
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
How to Follow the Daily Practice THE RITUAL
USING THE CARDS
HOW TO USE THE KEY WORDS TO HELP INTERPRET THE CARDS
THE MEDITATION
THE BLESSING: A NONTRADITIONAL VERSION
THE PRAYER: A NONTRADITIONAL VERSION
LOOKING AHEAD TO THE 50TH DAY
Week 1. Chesed Day 1: Chesed of Chesed
Day 2: Gevurah of Chesed
Day 3: Tiferet of Chesed
Day 4: Netzach of Chesed
Day 5: Hod of Chesed
Day 6: Yesod of Chesed
Day 7: Malchut of Chesed
Week 2. Gevurah Day 8: Chesed of Gevurah
Day 9: Gevurah of Gevurah
Day 10: Tiferet of Gevurah
Day 11: Netzach of Gevurah
Day 12: Hod of Gevurah
Day 13: Yesod of Gevurah
Day 14: Malchut of Gevurah
Week 3. Tiferet Day 15: Chesed of Tiferet
Day 16: Gevurah of Tiferet
Day 18: Netzach of Tiferet
Day 19: Hod of Tiferet
Day 20: Yesod of Tiferet
Day 21: Malchut of Tiferet
Week 4. Netzach Day 22: Chesed of Netzach
Day 23: Gevurah of Netzach
Day 24: Tiferet of Netzach
Day 25: Netzach of Netzach
Day 26: Hod of Netzach
Day 27: Yesod of Netzach
Day 28: Malchut of Netzach
Week 5. Hod Day 29: Chesed of Hod
Day 30: Gevurah of Hod
Day 31: Tiferet of Hod
Day 32: Netzach of Hod
Day 33: Hod of Hod
Day 34: Yesod of Hod
Day 35: Malchut of Hod
Week 6. Yesod Day 36: Chesed of Yesod
Day 37: Gevurah of Yesod
Day 38: Tiferet of Yesod
Day 39: Netzach of Yesod
Day 40: Hod of Yesod
Day 41: Yesod of Yesod
Day 42: Malchut of Yesod
Week 7. Malchut Day 43: Chesed of Malchut
Day 44: Gevurah of Malchut
Day 45: Tiferet of Malchut
Day 46: Netzach of Malchut
Day 47: Hod of Malchut
Day 48: Yesod of Malchut
Day 49: Malchut of Malchut
Pentecost Day 50: The Gates Are Always Open
INTERPRETATION AS REVELATION
UNDER THE WINGS OF THE SHEKINAH, ON WINGS OF SONG
THE FIRE AND THE ROSE ARE ONE: CREATING A BEAUTIFUL SPACE
THE BREEZES AT DAWN HAVE SECRETS TO TELL YOU
Meditation Instructions
Glossary
A Note about God Language
Footnotes
Endnotes
Bibliography
About the Author
About Inner Traditions • Bear & Company
Books of Related Interest
Copyright & Permissions
Index
When you begin the practice of focusing your mind to hear the voice of God in everything, you soon come up against the issue of the human intellect. The intellect conceals the Divine by imagining it is separate from God; believing itself to be the source of imagination. But it is by developing a rigorous practice of deep listening for the voice of God in everything, including in the intellect, that God’s voice is also revealed within the intellect. Then it is precisely in your mind that you will encounter true Divine revelation.
RAV ABRAHAM ISAAC KOOK
The first and most essential service of a mythology is this one, of opening the mind and heart to the utter wonder of all being.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL
Teach us to count our days rightly, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
PSALMS 90:12
You shall count seven full weeks . . . count fifty days to the day after the seventh full week.
LEVITICUS 23:15–16
A Personal Introduction
And you may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here?”
FROM “ONCE IN A LIFETIME,” LYRICS BY DAVID BYRNE
I WALKED AWAY FROM JUDAISM on October 3, 1965. It was the day after my bar mitzvah, and I was done with all organized religion. I wasn’t going back to a synagogue (or any house of worship) ever again. So how did I end up writing a book about Kabbalah, Jewish meditation, and tarot?
Even though I was just thirteen years old, I knew I was gay. I knew what Judaism (and Christianity) had to say about homosexuality, and I wasn’t buying it. But even though I was out the door (if not entirely out of the closet), I had a deep spiritual hunger. I believed my (yet to be experienced) love could be an expression of my spirituality. In many ways, I was walking a very traditional Jewish path—that of exile. So I became a seeker in and out of many traditions, looking for a community that shared my sense of the sacred and a path that enabled me to be my authentic self and experience a connection to the Divine.
I first encountered tarot cards when I was sixteen years old. At the time, I was a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism—you know, that group of folks who hold medieval tournaments in period clothing. One of the group’s founders, author Marion Zimmer Bradley, gave me a tarot reading just before I borrowed her tent to go up to the Woodstock festival. Based on that reading, she recommended I get my own deck and give readings myself. She could see that the images and symbols on the cards called to me, and indeed, I followed her advice. I have been studying the tarot ever since. I still have and use the first deck I bought in 1969.
At that point, I’d heard of Kabbalah. The second book I read about the cards (way too advanced for me at the time) was Paul Foster Case’s The Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages. It was filled with Kabbalah stuff that seemed abstract and convoluted to me, so for many years, I just ignored the whole Kabbalah thing. After all, I’d pretty much cut Judaism out of my life anyway.
For a lower-middle-class kid from Brooklyn, I was following some pretty exotic paths. Because my heart longed for a spiritual community, I searched for one in all the options that seemed to pop up in the sixties. I read Ram Dass, dropped acid, crashed with a commune that was squatting in a tenement in the East Village, backpacked across Europe (my cards always with me), tried astral projection, and chanted with Guru Maharaj Ji cultists, all the while participating in the early gay activist movement. Meanwhile, I got my B.A. in English, writing papers that almost always included references to tarot.
Eventually, I made my way to Japan, where I first encountered Vipassana meditation. Practicing this meditation was one of the most profound experiences of my life. In those first ten days of deep work in rural Japan, I faced a lot of inner demons. And I experienced the joy and light that’s the underpinning of all reality.
The Vipassana people don’t push the Buddhist origin of the meditation. They emphasize that the practice is nonsectarian, that it’s simply breath and observation and that this is shared by all humans regardless of religion. So when I first tried to learn more about the Buddhist background from them, they put me off. The teachers’ position was: if this practice works for you, use it to be a better person, whatever your religion. But I was persistent, and eventually I got in so deep that I was going to retreats where students would learn Pali so we could read sutras in the original language of the Buddha. I loved it, but I had to laugh. I had balked at learning Biblical Hebrew as a child, and now I was learnin
g another “dead” language. Then something strange happened. The deeper my meditation went, the more I felt a longing to reconnect with Judaism—that deep down in my soul (which of course the Buddhists don’t believe in), my Judaism was important.
When I returned home to the United States, I shared this experience with an old friend of mine. She asked me what I had learned and received from Buddhism. When I explained, she pulled down Jewish texts from her shelf to show me analogous teachings—including texts that I recognized as meditation instruction. I was stunned. Of course, I wouldn’t have understood these texts as a child, but I’d never met a rabbi or Jewish teacher who ever spoke about meditation. I didn’t think such rabbis existed. My friend, who lived in North Carolina, said that if she could find a teacher there, then there certainly had to be rabbis in New York who taught with this understanding. So my spiritual search sent me back to the tradition I’d left years ago.
Just as I had grown, so had Judaism: I found a synagogue that was LGBTQ-positive and dived in to learn teachings I was never taught as a child. Soon I was going to Jewish spiritual retreat centers such as Elat Chayyim, where I studied Kabbalistic texts with Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, z”l, and chanting meditations with Rabbi Shefa Gold. I took classes in the Zohar taught by Professor Eliot Wolfson at New York University. Before I knew it, I was invited to teach a class in Jewish storytelling at the Prozdor program of the Jewish Theological Seminary. This was kind of dizzying to me; after all those years away, I found myself deeply involved in Jewish life. I wrote a liturgy for a Queer Pride Seder, which became an annual event at my synagogue for a decade and was adapted by other synagogues around the world. And I learned about a Kabbalistic meditation tied to an obscure Jewish custom I’d never learned about in my youth that would be the next step in my spiritual journey: Counting the Omer.