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8/12/2019 The Tree of Return in the Light of Liber AL I:57
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An exegesis of Liber AL vel Legis chapter 1 verse 57, by R. L. Gillis
The Tree of Life is the most prominent diagram of the Holy Kabbalah, and has been
found in a number of variant forms. Two of these forms are known as the Tree of Emanation and
the Tree of Return. The Tree of Emanation has come down to us in a form that appeared in thework of Athanasius Kircher in his book Oedipus Aegyptiacus. This form was taken up by the
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and is the most common form found today in qabalistic
studies. Less well known is the Tree of Return, which was used by the followers of the ARI,
Rabbi Isaac Luria, and the Safed School of kabbalism that he founded.
The Tree of Return, as formulated by the followers of Lurianic Kabbalah, contains 10
spheres and 22 paths. The 22 Hebrew letters are attributed to these paths based on a structural
isomorphism; there are 3 mother letters, 7 single letters, and 12 double letters in the Hebrew
Alef-bet. These terms derive from the phonetic characteristics of the letters, i.e., the single
letters have only one pronunciation, while the double letters have two. These letters are placedon the 3 horizontal, 7 vertical, and 12 diagonal paths of the Tree, respectively.
The Tree of Return will become the basis for a new formulation of the Tree of Life that
exemplifies the principles of Thelema, as revealed in the seminal text of that philosophy, The
Book of the Law. This sacred text was revealed to Aleister Crowley in Cairo, Egypt on April 8, 9,
and 10, 1904, being dictated to him by a discarnate entity known as Aiwass. Much of the text can
be understood only in terms of qabalistic symbolism, and one verse in particular has vexed many
a qabalist seeking to understand its meaning:
57. Invoke me under my stars! Love is the law, love under will. Nor let the fools mistakelove; for there are love and love. There is the dove, and there is the serpent. Choose ye
well! He, my prophet, hath chosen, knowing the law of the fortress, and the great mystery
of the House of God. All these old letters of my Book are aright; but [Tzaddi] is not the
Star. This also is secret: my prophet shall reveal it to the wise.
Throughout this verse, there are a number of references to the Tarot. In the Western
Hermetic tradition, the Tarot had become incorporated into the symbol system as an important
expression of certain doctrines. In fact, the Golden Dawn had taught the secret attributions of
the Tarot to its members, of which Aleister Crowley was one. These attributions consisted of
lining up the 22 Hebrew letters with the 22 Trumps of the Tarot de Marseilles, and making a one-
to-one correspondence between them. Each of the Hebrew letters has a number and a category
attributed to it. The number value is the basis of gematria, while the categories derive from the
Sefer Yetzirah, a kabbalistic document dating from probably the first century of the modern era.
When this verse is properly deciphered, it will validate the use of a revised Tree of
Return, as well as an integration of the Tarot Trumps with the 22 paths.
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A chart of the Golden Dawn tarot attributions follows. Notice that the sequence of the
letters Lamed and Tet are switched. This was done in order to line up the letter of the zodiac sign
Leo with the card depicting a Lion (Strength or Lust), and the letter of the sign Libra to line up
with the card depicting the Scales (Justice or Adjustment).
Trump Hebrew Attribute Value
Fool Alef Air 1
Magus Bet Mercury 2
Priestess Gimel Moon 3
Empress Dalet Venus 4
Emperor Heh Aries 5
Hierophant Vav Taurus 6
Lovers Zayin Gemini 7
Chariot Chet Cancer 8
Justice Lamed Libra 30
Hermit Yod Virgo 10
Fortune Kaph Jupiter 20
Strength Tet Leo 9
Hanged Man Mem Water 40
Death Nun Scorpio 50
Temperance Samek Sagittarius 60
Devil Devil Capricorn 70
Tower Peh Mars 80
Star Tzaddi Aquarius 90Moon Qoph Pisces 100
Sun Resh Sun 200
Judgement Shin Fire 300
Universe Tau Saturn 400
In the Golden Dawn set of attributions, the elemental and zodiacal correspondences are
those found in the Sefer Yetzirah. However, the planets linked with the double letters have been
changed from their Sefer Yetzirahcategories, so as to more closely fit with the iconography of
the Tarot cards. These were the correspondences taught to Crowley, which he later used in his
Thoth Tarot. They are also the correspondences referred to in verse I:57 of The Book of the Law.
Let us now take a look at the verse in question. It begins with the goddess Nuit saying
Invoke me under my stars. It is important to note that earlier in the text she had claimed to be
infinite space and the infinite stars thereof. Nuit is, in essence, a star-goddess. She is not one
particular star, but all the stars. And she urges humanity to invoke her under those stars. This is
done from the standpoint of the Earth.
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The next sentence is Love is the law, love under will. Here it is important to note the
Greek equivalents of these words. Love in Greek is Agape, and Will is Thelema. Both of these
words have the enumeration of 93by Greek gematria. The verse continues: Nor let the fools
mistake love; for there are love and love. There is the dove, and there is the serpent. Choose ye
well! Here we are introduced to two kinds of love, symbolized by a dove and a serpent, and weare enjoined to choose between them. The two types of love can be roughly categorized as
feminine and masculine.
Traditionally, the dove represents peace, but is also sacred to Aphrodite, the Greek
goddess of love, whose Roman counterpart is Venus. Note that the value of the name Aphrodite
is 993 by normal Greek gematria (counting the letters from 1 to 800), and 93by serial gematria
(counting the letters from 1 to 24). In the Tarot, Venus is linked with the trump of the Empress.
The serpent has many symbolical associations, including the power of life, as well as the
ability to transform, through the shedding of its skin. In The Book of the Law, the god Haditclaims to be the secret serpent of the kundalini, coiled in the spine. And in Hebrew, the letter-
name of Tet means a serpent. This letter is attributed to the trump called Strength. Note that
both doves and serpents move forward by either flapping their wings or undulating their bodies
at a 90 degree angle to the direction of motion.
The verse continues: He, my prophet, hath chosen, knowing the law of the fortress, and
the great mystery of the House of God. The prophet is Crowley, (as indicated elsewhere in The
Book of the Law), and he has already made a choice between the two types of love. What his
personal choice was does not concern us, but the remainder of the sentence is a reference to two
different Tarot trumps. In some of the Tarot de Marseilles type, Trump XVI, usually called theBlasted Tower or a variant thereof, is known as le Maison Dieu, i.e., the House of God.
Crowley also indicates in his commentaries on this verse that Trump XVI is indicated by this
phrase. But the reference to the fortress has never been clearly explained.
In the earliest Italian tarot decks, trump XI was called la fortezza. This words means
fortress, and it is surprising that it would be used as the name of this card, which is considered
to be a depiction of one of the moral Virtues, namely Fortitude. In Latin, this would be the word
Fortitudo, and why this was not used as the name of the card remains a mystery. But the fact is, it
was not called fortitude, or even forza, meaning strength. Rather, it was called fortezza,
meaning fortress.
In the system of correspondences taught to Crowley, trump XVI, the Tower or House of
God, was attributed to the letter Peh, and the planet Mars, while the trump of Fortitude or
Strength was attributed to the letter Tet, and the zodiac sign Leo (recall that this latter was due to
a swapping of the letter sequence by the originators of the Golden Dawns tarot manuscript).
This being the case, the verse is indicating that the prophet knew the law of the Fortitude/
Strength card, and the great mystery of the Tower card.
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Earlier in the verse we are told that love is the law; so we are justified in presuming that
the law of the fortress is in fact the love of the fortress, and in particular, that it is one of the
two types of love already mentioned. Since the Fortress/Fortitude/Strength card is attributed to
the letter Tet, which means a serpent, it is a simple matter to conclude that this type of love is
the love of the serpent. The meaning of the great mystery of the House of God will be
explained below.
So at this point, we have a reference to three different tarot trumps: the Empress,
personification of the love of the dove; Strength, personification of the love of the serpent; and
the Tower, in its guise of the House of God.
Having heard these references to the Tarot trumps, the prophet Crowley, acting as the
scribe of The Book of the Law, questioned internally whether the attributions taught to him by the
Golden Dawn were accurate. The response from Nuit was this: All these old letters of my Book
are aright; but [Tz] is not the Star. This also is secret: my prophet shall reveal it to the wise. This
is the verse that has caused so much controversy, and so much spilled ink, from the attempts ofmany a cabalist, starting with Crowley himself, to ascertain exactly what it means.
As Crowley puts it in his Book of Thoth:
..when (8th April, 1904 e.v.) he was writing down the Book of the Law from thedictation of the messenger of the Secret Chiefs, he seems to have put a mentalquestion, suggested by the words in Chapter I, verse 57: "the law of the Fortress, andthe great mystery of the House of God" ("The House of God" is one name of the TarotTrump numbered XVI) to this effect: "Have I got these attributions right?" For therecame an interpolated answer, "All these old letters of my book are aright; but Tz is notthe Star. This also is secret; my prophet shall reveal it to the wise". This wasexceedingly annoying. If Tzaddi was not "the Star", what was? And what was Tzaddi?
The beginning of the controversial phrase states in no uncertain terms that ALL these
old letters of my Book are aright. This is to be understood to mean that the letter-attributions to
the cards are correct. But Nuit has a caveat - that the letter Tzaddi is not the Star. This certainly
puzzled Crowley, and he spent many years working out a solution to this problem. What he came
up with is the famous Heh-Tzaddi switch, which he justified by the equally famous double
loop argument.
The double loop will be dealt with in due course, but in brief, this switching of letters wasnot justified by, or called for, in the text. In fact, the much simpler answer to Crowleys
puzzlement is that Tzaddi is not the Star, because Tzaddi is something else, i.e., the nameof the
Star card must be changed. It is the contention of this work that the name of the card must be
changed to The Earth. The justifications for this will follow.
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If one looks at the iconography of the Star card as it appears in the Thoth Tarot painted by
Lady Frieda Harris, one will see a large planet behind the figure of a woman. This is the Earth.
The import of Nuits injunction is that Tzaddi is not the Star, Tzaddi is the Earth, for we
are no longer reliant upon a single star to guide us; Nuit is ALL the stars. Many Tarot scholars
believe that the original design of the Star card indicated the star of Advent, i.e., the star shining
above Bethlehem at the birth of Jesus. The implications of this will be further explained below.
So far in this verse, there has been reference to three trumps; the Empress, Strength
(Lust), and the Tower. In the diagram of the Tree of Life published by Kircher, taught by theGolden Dawn and used by Crowley throughout his life, the position of these three cards on the
paths of the Tree is interesting; they are the three horizontal paths. and the value of their Hebrew
letters is Dalet = 4, Tet = 9, Peh = 80, for a total of 93. Note that 93 is also the value of Agape
and Thelema, referenced earlier in the verse as Love and Will. 93 is also the serial gematria of
the name Aphrodite, who is the goddess of love. Indeed, all these correspondences revolve
around the idea that Love is the Law.
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Paths of the Golden Dawn Tree of Life - the Tarot trumps and their Hebrew letters
The purpose of the horizontal paths is to balance the two sides of the Tree. But there is
another step that must be taken in order to reveal the great mystery of the House of God. We
must translate the trumps onto the Tree of Return used by the followers of the Lurianic kabbalah.
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The original Tree of Return, from the kabbalah of the ARI, Isaac Luria
This tree shows the elegant simplicity of putting the three mother letters on the three
horizontal paths, the 7 planetary letters on the 7 vertical paths, and the 12 single letters on the 12
diagonal paths. Thus we have the Elements as the binding force of the two pillars of the Tree; the
Planets as the forces used to rise up the Tree, and the Zodiac as the third spatial dimension
connecting the other two.
However, for the purposes of this new revelation from Liber AL verse I:57, the original
Tree of Return must be modified. The horizontals and the verticals remain with the same letters,
but the diagonals are simply enumerated in Hebrew letter order, (and thus zodiacal order), from
the top right to the bottom left, starting with the letter Heh and the sign Aries in the upper right,
on the first path to emanate from the Crown of the Tree, (as also indicated by Luria on his Tree).
This algorithm places all the masculine signs, those of Fire and Air, on the right side of the
Tree, while all the feminine signs, those of Water and Earth, are on the left side of the Tree.
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The revised Tree of Return, with diagonal paths in zodiacal order
Using this re-arrangement of the Tree of Return, it will be noticed that the three paths
indicated by AL I:57 are now arranged thus: in the center top descending from Kether for Dalet,
in the upper right descending diagonally from Chokmah for Tet, and in the lower left descending
from Gevurah for Peh. This is not a very symmetrical arrangement, not at all balanced as it wason the Golden Dawn Tree. In order to redress this balance, we must activate symmetrically
placed paths on this Tree. For the first path of Dalet, nothing need be done, as it is already on the
middle pillar. The path of Tet will be balanced by the path of Yod on the upper left, descending
from Binah. This is the letter of Virgo, and thus related to the Hermit card. To balance the path of
Peh, we must activate the path of Kaph on the lower right, descending from Chesed. This is the
letter of Jupiter, and thus related to the Fortune card.
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We now have five paths activated on this Tree of Return, namely:
Dalet - 4 -Venus - Empress
Tet - 9 - Leo - Strength Peh - 80 - Mars - Tower
Yod - 10 - Virgo - Hermit
Kaph - 20 - Jupiter - Fortune
The value of these 5 letters is 123, which is also the sum of the three main names of god
in the Hebrew kabbalah: IAH, IHVH, and ALHIM. According to Crowleys own gematria
dictionary Sepher Sephiroth, these names are supposed to imply Kether, Chokmah and Binah,
and indeed, three of our paths ascend to connect to these three spheres. This indicates that one of
the purposes of this arrangement is to connect the lower spheres with the Supernal Triad.
But the deeper revelation is discovered when one spells the letter-names of these five
paths in full. Spelling in full means that each letter is spelled out according to all of the letters
in its name. So for example, the letter Dalet is spelled Dalet-Lamed-Tav, and thus has a total
value of 434. Tet spelled in full is 419, Peh is 85, Yod is 20 and Kaph is 100. Thus the total value
of all five letters spelled in full is 434 + 419 + 85 + 20 + 100 = 1058. Examining the entry for
this number in Crowleys Sepher Sephiroth we find:
1058 = The House of God = BIT ALHIM
Thus our five letters sum to the phrase found in verse I:57; the House of God. Thus is revealed
the great mystery of this phrase. Now recall that the Hebrew name for the House of God is
more familiar to us as Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, above whose position on the Earth the
Advent star was poised, leading the astrologers from the East to find the spot of the virgin birth.
The only other equivalent to 1058 in Sepher Sephiroth is the term the sapphire stone:
1058 = The Sapphire stone = BN HSPIR
This term is taken from the Book of Exodus, and refers to one of the twelve stones on the
breastplate, or ephod, of the High Priest, (in Hebrew, high priest is Kohen Gadhol, whose nameis another equivalent of 123, for which see above). The 12 stones of this ephod are associated
with the twelve tribes of Israel, and also the twelve signs of the zodiac. The sapphire indicated
the sign Virgo. Thus we connect the virgin with the place of the virgin birth, but even more
importantly, we have a direct reference to Virgo, whose tarot trump is the Hermit, whose card
and path have been added to our set to balance out the path of Tet that is mentioned in the text of
verse I:57. Thus one of the additions is justified by the gematria derived from the letter names.
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The other trump that was added is the Wheel of Fortune, which the Thoth Tarot calls
simply Fortune. This card is attributed to Jupiter and the letter Kaph. It is important to note that
the letter-name of Kaph means palm of the hand, while the letter-name Yod (representing the
Hermit card), means hand. Thus the two cards, Fortune and the Hermit are the palm of the hand
and the hand, making a very neat symbolic connection.
In Crowleys Liber 231, which includes a verse about each of the tarot trumps, this is the
verse related to the Fortune card:
Now then the Father of all issued as a mighty wheel;
the Sphinx, and the dog-headed god, and Typhon, were bound on his circumference.
The main image of the Fortune card is of course the Wheel, and this wheel has 10 spokes
in the Thoth tarot image, representing the 10 spheres of the Tree of Life. This wheel also
symbolizes the wheel of the earths equator, which, extended out into space as the plane of the
ecliptic, contains all of the zodiac constellations. Along this plane we find the stations of theequinoxes and solstices. The point of the March equinox is conventionally called the first degree
of the sign Aries, but in fact occurs in the constellation of Pisces. This point slowly moves
backward on the ecliptic, due to the phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes. As such, it
will eventually enter the tail end of the sign of Aquarius, which event will herald a new age.
The precession of the equinoxes was first brought to the attention of western astronomy
by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus. It may well have been known earlier by the Babylonians
and Egyptians. What is interesting for our purposes is that Hipparchus worked from astronomical
data collected over a century before his time, and by sighting the star Spica, he noticed that it no
longer occupied the position it formerly had in the sky. This was a revelation - that the stars arenot fixed at all, which caused a revolution in astronomical thought at that time.
Spica is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, so it could be said that Spicas
position on the ecliptic, symbolically the position of Virgo on the Wheel, is what manifested the
phenomenon of precession to western consciousness. Again we find a correlation with the two
cards we have added to the three mentioned in verse I:57. The Hermit and the Wheel are once
again connected in this manner.
By recognizing precession, astronomers realized that the axis of the earth does not
constantly point to a single star in the heavens. The position of the pole star changes over time,
so that centuries ago this position was held by the star Draco; presently it is held by Polaris, and
eventually it will be held by Thuban. But the real secret is that there is no pole star. The exact
zenith above the axis mundi is not occupied by any star at all! This is part of the revelation given
by Nuit in verse I:57. As Frater Achad, one of Crowleys followers, suggested, tzaddi is NOT,
the Star, i.e., Tzaddi represents the star called NOT. He very nearly hit the mark, for in fact, the
star isnot; there is no pole star! In light of this, it is also interesting that the chapter of Crowleys
Book of Lies that correlates with the letter Tzaddi, (the 28th path), is called The Pole Star.
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The realization that the stars are not fixed, and no star is more than an approximation of
the pole of the Earth, forces the conclusion that what was once considered a fixed star on trump
XVII, is no longer fixed. Whether it is the star of Bethlehem or the Pole star, the place of this
fixed point is truly vacant. Thus we understand that the true pole is not in the stars, but on the
Earth itself. For it is the axis of the Earth that is fixed, not the axis of the stars. Therefore, theStar card is re-named as the Earth, to indicate that the true anchor point is within, not without.
In this regard it is worth noting that the Star card has often been associated with the virtue
of Hope, whose main allegorical symbol is the anchor. And the letter of this card is Tzaddi,
whose letter-name means a fish-hook. This fish-hook reappears in the Universe card of
Crowleys Thoth tarot, as if connected to the eye of God that opens out onto the universe. It
hangs from this eye, which symbolizes the axis of the universe, and manifests the axis of the
Earth. Thus is the anchor point of the world tree changed from the starry heavens to the pole of
the Earth itself.
In Crowleys Liber 231, this is the verse related to the Star card:
Transformed, the holy virgin appeared as a fluidic fire, making her beauty into a thunderbolt.
Crowley here indicates that the female figure on the Star card is a transformed virgin. We
note again the connection with the Hermit card and its sign of Virgo. This virgin has been
transformed from its role as the Hermit, to its role as a conduit of universal forces on the Star
card. She holds in her two hands a pair of water vessels. Here we find a secret connection shown
by the Greek gematria, for the Greek name of the constellation Virgo is Parthenos, which means
virgin; this name has a value of 515, (and 93 by serial gematria). The word Udria, meaning a
water-vessel, also has the value of 515. So we can say that symbolically this virgin bears a vesselof water. The vessels that she bears in the Thoth Tarot are of gold and silver; these are the metals
of the Sun and Moon. In this regard, note the position of this card on the revised Tree of Return.
The three lowest paths that feed into Malkut are the paths of the Moon, the Sun, and the Earth.
This is the triad that results when the name of the Star card is changed to The Earth.
While considering the Greek name of the constellation Virgo, we might also look at the
Hebrew name - Betulah. This has a value of 443. We find only one other equivalent in Sepher
Sephiroth: 443 is also the value of the name Beth-El, which means, the House of God! This is
another part of the great mystery of the House of God; that Virgo is secretly implied. One
version of the House of God - Beth Elohim - equals 1058, which enumerates the 5 paths revealed
by verse I:57. Another version of the name, Beth-El, enumerates the name of the constellationVirgo, whose card was added to the group of paths necessary to achieve symmetry on the Tree.
The preceding should provide considerable evidence for both the changing of the name of
the Star to Earth, as well as the identification of the female on the card as Virgo, bearing the
water vessels. This female figure is in fact the axis of the Earth, as the true fixed point from
which the heavens may be understood. It was a star in her constellation that revealed this to
Hipparchus, after temples in Egypt that were aligned with Spica went out of sync over time.
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As the verse above indicates, the virgin made her beauty into a thunderbolt. This is
enlightening when the card is considered in sequence. Immediately prior to it is the Tower,
sometimes known as the Blasted or Lightning-struck Tower. One may speculate that this tower
was an astronomical observatory, where the idea of a fixed axis of the universe was destroyed by
the knowledge hidden within the main star in the constellation of the Virgin. The Tower is split,and the figures within fall to the ground, back to the Earth, whose axis is the true pivot point of
the night sky.
Note that the imagery of Virgo is traditionally of a maiden holding something in each
hand; not water vessels, but a twig pointing upward in one, representing nascent life, and a sheaf
of wheat or ear of corn in the other (Spica itself), representing the vegetation to be harvested.
These objects are replaced by water vessels when transferred to the Earth card.
In this regard, it is noteworthy that the sums of the five letter-names given above, 1058, is
equal to 2 x 529. And 529 is the value of the Hebrew phrase NUThN ChIA, the giver of life.
This is appropos since 529 = 23 x 23, and can thus symbolize the 23 chromosomes provided byeach parent to the newly fertilized zygote. These 23 chromosomes from each parent are in turn
represented by the twin vessels of gold and silver, male and female, held by the virgin on the Star
card. The concept is further sealed by the fact that the Hebrew word for life, ChIA, equals 23.
Returning to the idea of Tzaddi switching places with another letter in the Tarot - first
generated by verse I:57 - we note that Crowleys supposed solution relied heavily for its
justification on the fact that there had alreadybeen two letters swapped in the sequence of the
tarot, namely Tet and Lamed, and thus their zodiac signs, Leo and Libra, had rotated around the
pivot point of Virgo. Crowley is at pains to show that a similar rotation occurred with Tzaddi and
Heh around the pivot of Pisces, the sign opposite of Virgo. He even mentions the mobius strip in
this regard, apparently failing to note that the mobius band only requires onehalf-twist in orderto create the illusion of a single-sided object. And that half-twist has already occurred on the
pivot of Virgo, according to his own admission. There is not really a need for another pivot point,
nor did he actually use Pisces in this fashion. In fact, the most notable feature of the actual pivot,
which is Virgo, is the star Spica, which was never the pole star of course, but was instrumental in
proving that the pole star was not fixed after all.
We have been able to demonstrate not only the references to the Tarot in verse I:57, both
overt and covert, but also the efficacy of using the revised Tree of Return to manifest the energies
mentioned in this verse, especially the two types of love. The three paths on this Tree that
connect to the supernal triad are those of the Hermit, the Empress and Lust. One is tempted to
think of these in terms of the three grades of Thelemites - the Hermit, the Lover, and the Man ofEarth. But if the conclusion is correct that the Star card must be renamed Earth, then this man of
Earth might well be the man depicted as the water-bearer among the four kerubic signs, the
man who is the symbol of Aquarius. Then we would have the Hermit as the Hermit = Yod;
Empress as the Lover = Dalet; Star as the man of Earth = Tzaddi. And these three letters go to
spell the letter-name TzDI, or Tzaddi.
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Recall that the beginning of verse I:57 urges us to invoke me under my stars. Elsewhere
Nuit says that we should invoke her under the night stars in the desert. The meaning of the
word Hermit, or Eremites, is out of the desert. In this desert the Hermit invokes Nuit, and in his
hand (the Yod) on the Hermit card is shown the lamp, the star which reappears on the Star card.
Thus the Hermit is connected to the man of Earth.
In summary, this solution to the enigma of Liber AL verse I:57 does not require the
swapping of the letters of the cards the Emperor and the Star. It simply requires renaming the
Star as The Earth. The letter of Tzaddi remains with this card, as does the sign Aquarius. Then,
using these attributions on the revised Tree of Return, we have the sole path of Tau = Saturn
emerging from the lowest sphere of Malkut, and then the tree branches out into three paths, from
left to right they are Qoph, Resh & Tzaddi, whose Trumps are the Moon, the Sun, & the Earth.
Below is a Tree of Return with the 5 activated paths discussed above marked in magenta,
and the trump images of the Moon, Sun and Earth paced on the three lowest paths.
The Tree of Return in the Light of Liber AL vel Legis I:57