In this episode of Tarot for Fools, we take a deep dive into one of the most important — and often overlooked — influences on the tarot: Kabbalah.

The Rider–Waite–Smith tarot deck didn’t just appear out of thin air. Its creators drew on the symbolic system of Hermetic Kabbalah, fusing Jewish mysticism with Western occult traditions, astrology, numerology, and the magical philosophy of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

At the heart of this system is the Tree of Life — ten spheres (the Sephirot) connected by 22 paths. Each Sephira represents a stage of energy, from divine spark to material manifestation, and in tarot, these are mirrored in the numbered cards of the Minor Arcana.

In this episode, we cover:

• What Kabbalah is, and how Hermetic Kabbalah differs from Jewish Kabbalah.

• The Tree of Life and how its ten Sephirot map onto the numbered cards in tarot.

• How the Aces through Tens of each suit embody the energy of the Sephirot in different ways.

• Why the cards are neither strictly positive nor negative — and how A.E. Waite’s own perspective influenced some of the Rider–Waite–Smith imagery.

• The concept of the Four Worlds of Kabbalah (Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah, Assiah) and how they connect to the four suits of the tarot.

• A deeper reflection on how tarot works: how the physical cards act as symbols in our world (Assiah), bridging into archetypes (Briah) and universal meaning.

If you’ve ever wondered what’s the link between tarot and Kabbalah, or how to move beyond keyword-style tarot readings into something more layered, this episode will give you a foundation for exploring the esoteric roots of the numbered cards in tarot.