Hebrew Letters and the Major Arcana: A Complete Guide
There are 22 Major Arcana in a tarot deck. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. This is not a coincidence. It is the foundational encoding of the entire Western esoteric tradition — a system formalized by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the 1880s and embedded into every major tarot deck created since.
Each Hebrew letter is not merely a phonetic symbol. In the Qabalistic tradition, each letter is a living force — a container of meaning that includes a name, a pictographic origin, a numerical value, and an attribution to either an element, a planet, or a zodiac sign. When the Golden Dawn mapped these 22 letters onto the 22 Major Arcana, they gave the tarot a spine of symbolic logic that transforms card reading from intuitive guesswork into precise, layered interpretation.
This guide walks through every single attribution. By the end, you will understand not just which letter goes with which card, but why — and how that knowledge makes you a dramatically better reader.
The Three Classes of Hebrew Letters
The 22 Hebrew letters are divided into three classes, each mapped to a different category of cosmic force. This classification comes from the Sepher Yetzirah (Book of Formation), one of the oldest Qabalistic texts:
Three Mother Letters — The Elements
The three Mother letters represent the primordial elements from which all else is born:
Aleph(Air) — The FoolMem(Water) — The Hanged ManShin(Fire) — Judgement
These three cards stand apart from the rest of the Major Arcana. They are not planetary or zodiacal — they are elemental, representing the most fundamental forces of creation. Air is the breath of life, Water is the medium of reflection and surrender, and Fire is the transformative blaze that purifies and renews.
Seven Double Letters — The Planets
The seven Double letters (so called because each has two pronunciations in Hebrew, one hard and one soft) correspond to the seven classical planets:
Beth(Mercury) — The MagicianGimel(Moon) — The High PriestessDaleth(Venus) — The EmpressKaph(Jupiter) — Wheel of FortunePe(Mars) — The TowerResh(Sun) — The SunTav(Saturn) — The World
These seven cards carry the weight of planetary influence — the great celestial forces that govern cycles of time, personality, and fate in astrological tradition.
Twelve Simple Letters — The Zodiac
The remaining twelve letters each correspond to a sign of the zodiac:
Heh(Aries) — The EmperorVav(Taurus) — The HierophantZayin(Gemini) — The LoversCheth(Cancer) — The ChariotTeth(Leo) — StrengthYod(Virgo) — The HermitLamed(Libra) — JusticeNun(Scorpio) — DeathSamekh(Sagittarius) — TemperanceAyin(Capricorn) — The DevilTzaddi(Aquarius) — The StarQoph(Pisces) — The Moon
This tripartite structure — 3 elements, 7 planets, 12 zodiac signs — mirrors the structure of the cosmos as understood in ancient and medieval astrology. The Major Arcana is, in a very real sense, a portable model of the heavens.
The Hebrew alphabet is not a human invention for recording speech. In Qabalistic tradition, it is the set of divine instruments through which God spoke creation into being. Each letter is a creative force. Each Major Arcana card is a window into that force.
The Complete Guide: All 22 Attributions
What follows is every Major Arcana card with its Hebrew letter, the meaning of that letter's name, and its elemental, planetary, or zodiacal attribution. Pay close attention to the letter meanings — they reveal hidden dimensions of each card that the imagery alone cannot convey.
0 — The Fool
Hebrew letter: Aleph — Meaning: Ox — Attribution: Air (Mother letter)
The Ox is the beast of burden, the primal animal force — yet Aleph is also the letter of breath, of spirit, of the invisible wind. The Fool carries the raw power of the Ox combined with the weightlessness of Air. He is unformed potential, the breath before the first word of creation. As a Mother letter, the Fool is elemental — not bound to any planet or sign, but to the principle of Air itself: movement, freedom, the space between things.
I — The Magician
Hebrew letter: Beth — Meaning: House — Attribution: Mercury
Beth is the first letter of the Torah (Bereshith — "In the beginning") and means "house." The Magician builds the house of creation, channeling formless energy into structured manifestation. Mercury, his planet, is the messenger, the communicator, the intelligence that translates divine will into practical action. Every act of magic is an act of housing the infinite within the finite.
II — The High Priestess
Hebrew letter: Gimel — Meaning: Camel — Attribution: Moon
The Camel is the animal that crosses the desert — the vast, barren expanse between oases. Gimel represents the journey across the Abyss on the Tree of Life, the longest and most perilous path. The High Priestess, under the Moon, guards the threshold between the conscious and unconscious mind. She is the camel that carries you across the wasteland of unknowing to the hidden waters on the other side.
III — The Empress
Hebrew letter: Daleth — Meaning: Door — Attribution: Venus
Daleth is a door, and the Empress is the great gateway of fertility and creation. Ruled by Venus, she embodies love, beauty, sensory pleasure, and the generative power of nature. Every birth is a passage through a door. Every creative act opens a Daleth between the imagined and the real.
IV — The Emperor
Hebrew letter: Heh — Meaning: Window — Attribution: Aries
A window is an opening that allows sight — the Emperor sees, surveys, and commands his domain through the clarity of vision. Aries, the ram, charges forward with martial authority. Heh as a window also suggests that the Emperor's power is not a sealed fortress but a structure with openings — authority that can see out and be seen into. True rulership requires transparency.
V — The Hierophant
Hebrew letter: Vav — Meaning: Nail — Attribution: Taurus
A nail joins things together. The Hierophant is the bridge between heaven and earth, the teacher who fastens spiritual truth to earthly understanding. Taurus, the bull, is fixed earth — stubborn, enduring, devoted to tradition. The Vav-nail holds the temple together, ensuring that sacred knowledge persists across generations.
VI — The Lovers
Hebrew letter: Zayin — Meaning: Sword — Attribution: Gemini
A sword cuts and divides — and the Lovers is fundamentally a card of choice, the blade that separates one path from another. Gemini, the twins, embodies duality: two options, two selves, two possible futures. The letter Zayin reminds us that love is not passive union but an active decision, a cut that severs all other possibilities in favor of the one chosen.
VII — The Chariot
Hebrew letter: Cheth — Meaning: Fence — Attribution: Cancer
A fence encloses and protects. The Chariot is the armored vehicle of the will, the hard shell (like the Crab of Cancer) that protects the soft interior while moving through hostile territory. Cheth suggests that victory requires boundaries — the discipline to contain and direct one's forces rather than letting them scatter.
VIII — Strength
Hebrew letter: Teth — Meaning: Serpent — Attribution: Leo
The Serpent is kundalini, the coiled life-force energy that dwells at the base of the spine. Strength is the card of mastering this primal power — not through force, but through the warm, patient courage of Leo. The woman gently closing the lion's mouth in the Rider-Waite image is enacting the Teth principle: the serpent is not killed but tamed, its venom transformed into medicine.
IX — The Hermit
Hebrew letter: Yod — Meaning: Hand — Attribution: Virgo
Yod is the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, yet it is the seed from which all other letters are formed. The Hand of the Hermit holds the lantern — a tiny point of light in vast darkness. Virgo, the sign of discernment and service, works in humble detail. The Hermit teaches that wisdom begins with a single, small, precise act of attention. Yod is the hand that reaches into the dark and finds the thread.
X — Wheel of Fortune
Hebrew letter: Kaph — Meaning: Palm (of the hand) — Attribution: Jupiter
The open palm receives what fortune bestows. Jupiter, the great benefic, expands and amplifies whatever it touches. Kaph as "palm" also evokes the turning of the hand — palm up in receiving, palm down in releasing. The Wheel turns precisely this way: what was held is released, what was lost returns. The palm is always open, always turning.
XI — Justice
Hebrew letter: Lamed — Meaning: Ox-goad — Attribution: Libra
An ox-goad drives the beast forward on the correct path. Justice, under Libra's scales, is the force that corrects deviation and restores balance. Lamed is the tallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet — it rises above the line, just as justice must rise above personal interest to see clearly. The goad is not cruel; it is the necessary prod that keeps life moving in alignment with truth.
XII — The Hanged Man
Hebrew letter: Mem — Meaning: Water — Attribution: Water (Mother letter)
Mem is Water itself — the second Mother letter, the element of surrender, reflection, and the unconscious depths. The Hanged Man suspends himself voluntarily, allowing gravity and the flow of water to reverse his perspective. This is not punishment but baptism. In water, the ego dissolves, and what remains is a clearer, purer vision of truth.
XIII — Death
Hebrew letter: Nun — Meaning: Fish — Attribution: Scorpio
The Fish moves through the depths, invisible from the surface. Death, under Scorpio's transformative power, is the change that happens below conscious awareness — the slow, silent, necessary dissolution that precedes rebirth. A fish does not resist the current; it moves with the deep flow. Nun teaches that transformation is not something you do. It is something you allow, surrendering to currents you cannot see but must trust.
Death is Nun is Fish — transformation swimming through the unseen depths. The surface may look unchanged, but below, everything is already different.
XIV — Temperance
Hebrew letter: Samekh — Meaning: Prop or Support — Attribution: Sagittarius
A prop holds something up. Temperance is the structural support that allows opposing forces — fire and water, conscious and unconscious, self and other — to coexist without collapsing. Sagittarius, the archer, aims at a distant target with steady confidence. Samekh is the tent-pole of the soul, the inner support that makes the long journey possible.
XV — The Devil
Hebrew letter: Ayin — Meaning: Eye — Attribution: Capricorn
The Eye sees only surfaces. The Devil, under Capricorn's cold materialism, is the card of bondage to appearances — mistaking the visible, tangible world for the whole of reality. Ayin as "eye" reveals the Devil's true nature: he is not evil but limited perception. The chains around the figures' necks are loose enough to remove. They stay bound because they see only what the Eye of Ayin shows them, not what lies beyond.
XVI — The Tower
Hebrew letter: Pe — Meaning: Mouth — Attribution: Mars
The Mouth speaks, and in speaking, can shatter. Mars is the planet of war, aggression, and decisive force. Pe is the lightning-bolt utterance — the word of truth that demolishes the tower of comfortable lies. Every Tower moment is a revelation in the original sense: something spoken aloud that cannot be unheard. The mouth opens, and the structure falls.
XVII — The Star
Hebrew letter: Tzaddi — Meaning: Fish-hook — Attribution: Aquarius
A fish-hook reaches into the water to draw something up from the depths. After the Tower's destruction, the Star is the quiet act of fishing in the rubble — retrieving hope, meaning, and renewal from the unconscious. Aquarius pours water upon the earth and upon the pool: the Star replenishes what was depleted. The Tzaddi-hook catches what Nun-fish carries — the treasure hidden in transformation.
XVIII — The Moon
Hebrew letter: Qoph — Meaning: Back of the Head — Attribution: Pisces
The back of the head is what you cannot see — the blind spot, the unconscious, the place where dreams and fears live beyond the reach of rational thought. The Moon card, under Pisces' dissolving influence, plunges us into this territory of illusion, imagination, and primal instinct. Qoph is the path walked in darkness, guided only by the dim, deceptive light of the Moon. It is terrifying and necessary.
XIX — The Sun
Hebrew letter: Resh — Meaning: Head — Attribution: Sun
Where Qoph was the back of the head, Resh is the front — the face turned toward the light, the conscious mind fully illuminated. The Sun, attributed to the Sun, is pure clarity: everything visible, nothing hidden, total warmth. Resh is the head held high, the face that shines. After the darkness of the Moon, the Sun is the return to joyful, radiant consciousness.
XX — Judgement
Hebrew letter: Shin — Meaning: Tooth — Attribution: Fire (Mother letter)
The Tooth bites, chews, and breaks down. Shin is the third Mother letter, the element of Fire — the consuming, purifying, resurrecting flame. Judgement is the final fire that burns away everything false, leaving only the essential self to rise from the ashes. The three prongs of the letter Shin mirror the three figures rising from their coffins in the Rider-Waite image: the trinity of body, mind, and spirit reunited by the angelic trumpet's call.
XXI — The World
Hebrew letter: Tav — Meaning: Cross or Mark — Attribution: Saturn
Tav is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet — the mark of completion, the signature at the end of the document. Saturn, the planet of time, limitation, and ultimate structure, governs the World card: the final crystallization of all experience into wholeness. The dancing figure within the wreath has integrated every lesson of the 21 preceding cards. Tav is the cross that marks the spot where the journey ends — and, since the cycle is a circle, where it begins again.
From Aleph to Tav, from the Fool to the World, from Ox to Cross — the Major Arcana spells out the complete journey of the soul in Hebrew letters. It is an alphabet of transformation.
Practical Application: Reading with the Letters
Knowing the Hebrew letter attribution transforms a reading from a conversation about pictures into a conversation about forces. Here are several ways to put this knowledge to work:
Use the letter meaning as a keyword. When the Tower appears, remember: Pe = Mouth. Ask yourself: what truth is being spoken? What has been said that cannot be unsaid? What word would shatter the situation? The letter meaning cuts through vague interpretation and gives you a precise angle of inquiry.
Notice the class of letter. If a reading is dominated by cards with Simple letter attributions (zodiacal), the situation is being shaped by astrological timing and personality dynamics. If Mother letters appear, elemental forces are at work — something primal and non-negotiable. If Double letters (planetary) dominate, look to the planets involved for timing and thematic guidance.
Connect letter meanings across a spread. If you draw the Hermit (Yod = Hand) and the Star (Tzaddi = Fish-hook), you see a Hand reaching out and a Hook drawing something up from the depths. The narrative writes itself: careful, deliberate effort (the hand) applied to inner exploration (the hook in the water) will yield what you need.
Let the letter reveal the shadow. The Devil is Ayin = Eye. The shadow of sight is blindness — or worse, the illusion that what you see is all there is. Every Hebrew letter contains its own inversion, and that inversion is the card's shadow meaning.
A note on variant traditions: Aleister Crowley, in The Book of the Law, swapped the attributions of The Star and The Emperor (Tzaddi and Heh). This guide follows the traditional Golden Dawn attributions used in the Rider-Waite-Smith system. Both systems have internal consistency; what matters most is choosing one and learning it deeply.
Every Card, Every Letter, in Entropic Tarot
Every Major Arcana card in Entropic Tarot displays its Hebrew letter, letter meaning, and astrological or elemental attribution directly in the card's detail view. When you draw the Hermit, you see Yod — Hand — Virgo. When Death appears, you see Nun — Fish — Scorpio. These are not decorative footnotes. They are the structural DNA of the card, the key that unlocks its deepest layers.
Combined with readings drawn from true physical entropy, Entropic Tarot gives you a tool where ancient symbolic precision meets genuine randomness sourced from the physical world. The Hebrew letters provide the grammar. Entropy provides the speech. Together, they create readings of uncommon depth and clarity.
The 22 letters have been waiting to speak to you. Draw a card and listen.