Kabalah synthesis

The magical synthesis that was created in the sixteenth century included Kabalah, Hermeticism, magic, and alchemy. The next chapter looks at what alchemists were doing during the centuries that led up to this period. 

During this period, however, occultism did not die out. Instead, a great synthesis occurred in which magic, alchemy, Hermeticism, and Kabalah were united into one occult system. This synthesis often attempted to include science in the mix as well. At this time occultists tended to gather in secretive societies where members could rise in rank as they learned more about their system. 

Levi, like de Gebelin, considered the Tarot to be The Book ofThoth but he believed that the Tarot was also based on the Hebrew Kabalah, an idea only hinted at by de Gebelin. For the minor suits, Levi made a correlation between the four letters of the Tetragrammaton and the four suits. The central component of Levi s synthesis, however, was his correlation between the 22 cards in the fifth suit, which he called keys, and the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In the Kabalah, all of the Hebrew letters are correlated with parts of human anatomy ... 

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