Listening to the Soul

About the Book

Listening to the Soul: a Cabalistic Guide to the Torat is a unique exegesis of an ancient knowledge. Long acknowledged by practitioners of the Tarot, Cabala, the esoteric secrets of the Jewish people, is inexorably connected to the Tarot Cards. The nature of that connection and how the knowledge of the Cabala illuminates the meaning of the cards is the purpose of this book.

PREFACE

Intention is the key to life. It connects freedom of choice, which is the essence of our spiritual being, to the human body. When we act consciously we choose our path in life.

The Tarot cards uncover intent. In this book about the Tarot cards, I intend to reveal the hidden knowledge. The Tarot knows everything but predicts nothing.

Where traditional fortune-telling methods such as palmistry, astrology and crystal gazing may outline some possible version of what may happen in the future, a successful Tarot card reading connects the soul to the body, and reveals the spiritual dimension abiding in the present and physical world.

There are innumerable Tarot decks. Their designs range from the inane to the esoteric. Among them all, the Rider-Waite deck has the greatest currency, and is readily available. It communicates directly to the reader through the simplicity of its renderings. The pictures on the cards referred to in the following chapters are from the Rider-Waite Tarot. However, it’s the configuration of the cards rather than the pictures on them that guide the Cabalistic reading. So any deck of Tarot cards which possesses the full complement of four suits and the Major Arcana. The word Arcana is rooted in the word arcane or ancient secret.

About the Author

DOVID KRAFCHOW was born and grew up in San Francisco. After a four-year stint in the navy, he traveled widely, spending ten years in Israel. He has studied Cabala and practiced the Tarot for over thirty years. As a traveling teacher he took up the practice of the Tarot as a way to import the esoteric teachings in a personal way that is accessible to the uninitiated. Dovid makes his home in Woodstock, New York,, where on a fair day he can be seen giving Tarot readings on the Village Green.