Beth Tarot Tree of Life Correspondences: The Popess & The Magician

In this comparative Tarot study, I’m exploring Beth Tarot Tree of Life correspondences through two different Tarot traditions: the Rider–Waite–Smith (RWS) system most English-speaking readers encounter first, and the Tarot de Marseille (TdM). As with the Aleph post, the spellings Cabalistic (Christian), Qabalistic (Hermetic), and Kabbalistic (Jewish) are used according to historical and disciplinary context.

This article forms part of an ongoing 22-part series examining how each Hebrew letter corresponds to the Tarot Major Arcana. The aim is not to collapse these systems into a single authoritative map, but to place them side by side and observe how different assumptions about the Tree of Life shape the meaning of the cards themselves.

Beth in Jewish Kabbalistic Thought

Beth (ב) is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and its primary meaning is house. In Jewish Kabbalistic thought, this is not a metaphor but a structural principle. Beth signifies containment, interiority, and the conditions that allow life and meaning to endure.

Significantly, the Torah itself begins not with Aleph but with Beth: Bereshit. Creation opens with a house, not a breath. This places containment before expression and continuity before movement.

Beth is also the first letter of Beracha — blessing — in both Hebrew and its transliteration into English. A blessing does not create something new; it allows what already exists to settle, align, and unfold in a viable way. This distinction becomes essential when Beth is considered alongside the Tarot.

Why RWS and TdM Diverge

Most modern Tarot teaching relies on Golden Dawn–derived correspondences, which largely determine how Hebrew letters and the Major Arcana are mapped onto the Tree of Life. In this system, Beth corresponds to The Magician and is fixed to a specific path on a standardised Qabalistic Tree.

The Tarot de Marseille, read through a Sephardic Kabbalistic lens, takes another approach. Although the cards still occupy defined paths, interpretation does not rely on inherited Golden Dawn correspondence tables.

The Tarot de Marseille approach used in this series draws inspiration from contemporary work that reads the Tree through a Sephardic Kabbalistic lens, most notably The Tree of Life of Mary Magdalene by Michel Pérez Rizzi. While this series remains focused on Tarot rather than on Magdalene teachings themselves, his work was instrumental in demonstrating how a TdM-centred engagement with the Tree can move beyond abstract correspondence tables and become immediately intelligible in practice. Rizzi uses the Bahir Tree of Life model below in his teachings.

Beth in Hermetic Qabalah (RWS)

Within Golden Dawn–style Hermetic Qabalah, Beth corresponds to The Magician and is placed on the path connecting Kether and Binah.

Here, Beth functions as a formative container for divine force. The Magician channels creation directly from the source, shaping potential into intelligible form. The “house” implied by Beth is cosmic and architectural: a structure through which creative intelligence descends into manifestation.

This Beth emphasises logos, articulation, and formative power. The Magician builds. He names. He brings abstract force into structured expression. Beth, in this system, is the house in which creation takes shape.

Beth, The Popess, and a TdM Way of Reading the Tree

In the Sephardic-informed TdM framework used here, Beth corresponds to the Popess (aka the High Priestess), traversing the path between Chokmah and Chesed.

This placement shifts the emphasis from formation to containment and continuity. Chokmah represents living, unbounded wisdom. Chesed represents benevolence, coherence, and the conditions that allow wisdom to endure over time. Beth, as the path between them, does not generate wisdom; it receives and blesses it into continuity.

Here, the connection with Beracha becomes explicit. The Popess blesses wisdom not by revealing it, but by containing it and protectively veiling it. Wisdom transmitted before the student is ready overwhelms. Wisdom that is blessed and transmitted at the right moment becomes inhabitable. Veiling ensures that insight is neither diluted nor exposed prematurely, preserving it from both misunderstanding and persecution.

The house aspect of Beth seems to fit the Popess more naturally than it does the Magician. Her throne is firmly planted on the ground, echoing the grounded base of the letter Beth itself. She does not hover between realms or rely on temporary supports; she sits. She contains.

By contrast, the Magician stands. His three-legged table functions as a working surface rather than a dwelling. It supports action and transmission. With the Popess, transmission is protected from prying eyes.

What Changes When Beth Changes

When Beth is read as the Magician, the house is a site of construction. When Beth is read as the Popess, the house becomes a site of custodianship.

The two approaches answer different questions. One asks how understanding is formed. The other asks how wisdom can be preserved without distortion.