This free online course is a thorough exploration of the universal principles contained in the twenty-two arcana of the Tarot, the Hebrew letters, and the Kabbalah.

The Tree of Life is the spinal medulla. This Tree of Wisdom is also the ten Sephiroth, the twenty-two creative Major Arcana, letters, sounds, and numbers, with which the Logos (God) created the Universe. - Samael Aun Weor

This course is accompanied by a great deal of written material, including lecture transcriptions: see the full course at The Twenty-two Arcana.

The term ‘Arcana’ is plural. The singular aspect of this term is ‘Arcanum.’ ‘Arcanum’ refers to a type of knowledge, which is for the initiated, or a kind of knowledge that is mysterious for the average person. It is a science or understanding that one has to be introduced to. When we study the twenty-two Arcana, we are studying twenty-two laws, or twenty-two mysteries, that we have to be initiated into experientially in order to understand them.

The twenty-two Arcana of the Kabbalah are twenty-two laws. We know in the Judeo-Christian tradition that we he have ten primary laws, or Ten Commandments, that are discussed very commonly. But there are twelve more. These twenty-two laws, or twenty-two Arcana, contain the entire process of religion, or in other words religare, which is Latin for “union.”

The twenty-two Arcana are steps, or clues, which illuminate religion itself, or this process of union. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, and of course in the Gnostic tradition, these twenty-two laws have been symbolized in various ways. We have already mentioned the Ten Commandments, which are the first and most obvious representation of these twenty-two steps. But there is another less commonly recognized aspect, or symbol, of these twenty-two Arcana: the Book of the Tarot.

The Tarot cards, or the images of the Tarot, form a book of twenty-two images. These twenty-two images symbolize and represent twenty-two Arcana, steps, laws, mysteries, which the initiate needs to understand and know in order to understand and know the Path to self-realization of the Being.

These twenty-two Arcana are also symbolized and represented in the twenty-two characters of the Hebrew alphabet. Each character of this alphabet symbolizes and represents different laws and aspects of the Path to the self-realization of the Being.

For those who aspire to comprehend and understand that Path, to enter that Path, to make it manifest within us, it is vital that we understand the nature of these twenty-two laws. Within them is the Path itself.

More than that, the foundation upon which we work in Gnosis is direct experience. The term ‘Gnosis’ itself indicates that. Gnosis is not a mere belief or a theory; it is a science of direct experiences, or a scientific method which leads to one’s own direct experience of the Truth. The Truth is represented in the twenty-two Arcana, so to experience directly the nature of Truth, we study these twenty-two Arcana in order to help us organize our own experiences, to understand them. - From the lecture about Arcanum One