the Tarot of Philosophers: an insomniac's thoughts

As I was trying to go to sleep last night, I tried to imagine the Major Arcana of the Tarot as represented by philosophers and their key ideas. I went through most of them before I fell asleep (beats counting sheep!), and finished off the train of thought this morning.

This is what I have come up with. I can see their heads with collage - abstract or figurative - representing their ideas. It's still very incomplete!


I - The Magician - Socrates, and his dialogues

II - The High Priestess - Simone Weil - the lady so full of mystery and promise, ascetic and erotic all at the same time

III - The Empress - Mary Wollstonecraft: because she is every modern woman's mother

IV - The Emperor - Marcus Aurelius Caesar...who else?

V - The Hierophant - Thomas Aquinas, the good doctor.

VI - The Lovers - Plato, because of the Symposium and his whole discussion on love and lovers

VII - The Chariot - Aristotle - he still seems to drive the show

VIII - Justice - Montesquieu, for the Spirit of the Laws

IX - The Hermit - Descartes. I think therefore I am

X - The Wheel of Fortune - Spinoza - for his determinism that critiques traditional free will, because we are all part of the one substance - God or Nature.

XI - Strength - Jesus of Nazareth - for his teaching that love is the real strength.

XII - The Hanged Man - Gautama Siddharta Buddha - reaching illumination and a completely different perspective

XIII - Death - Heraclitus - because everything changes, nothing ever stays the same, things and people die or are transformed...

XIV - Temperance - Raymond Lull, alchemist and philosopher, who tried to blend 3 cultures in one

XV - The Devil - Nietzche, for the Superman and for "everything that doesn't kill me makes me stronger"

XVI - The Tower - Rousseau - because he wanted to bring the whole enterprise of culture and government down and bring about a new man and a new civilisation.

XVII - The Star - Karl Marx - because he brought hope to so many...a hope that remained as distant as a star, generally.

XVIII- The Moon - Kierkergaard, and his strange mystical writings, and his depression

XIX - The Sun - Montaigne - solar and optimistic, but very lucid about himself and the world too

XX - Judgement - Hannah Arendt - because of the Human Condition, and "the banality of evil" at Eichmann's trial.

XXI - The World - Lao Tsu - because the Tao is Everything and Nothing

The Fool - Henri Bergson, for his élan vital


Any other ideas? How about the Minor Arcana?

Wow, Sophie, what a fabulous idea. Think I'll print this out and shove it in the inside cover of my RS folder.


I really like how you attribute them.

Loving Aquinas as the Hierophant, fit's in as well the rigid structure and the whole Pope thing.


And Nietzche as the Devil, classic. After all, "God is dead"




I see Richard Dawkins as very Knight of Swords, or perhaps King. Very intellectual, but somewhat rigid and uncompromising in his ideas. Like the Knight, he rushes in with complete conviction of his righteousness, while seemingly not taking anyone elses' beliefs or thoughts into consideration.


Trying to place Bertrand Russel is difficult. With his analytic ideas, definitely swords. Perhaps the Page, with his whole 'if you can't prove it, it's meaningless to talk about it, so lets move on'. Like the Page just taking himself away and appearing quite aloof.


I get the impression of Hume as a pentacle card with his empathis on empirical evidence, perhaps the King. Slightly disbelieving on all that which he can't prove.


Freud...the Ace of Wands, that phallus ey

Five of Cups

When I look at the Five of Cups (Waite-Smith) I think of Carl Jung and his dark insights and concepts about how we think, feel and act. Dave

Dadsnook, I can see what you say about the 5 of Cups and I like that idea.

However, I would also suggest that to me, personally, I can see elements of Satre's Existentialism in that, he focuses on what we don't have, no God, no inate morals etc, and this leaves quite a depressing world view. He appears to not note the positive, love and light that remain in the world.


Also perhaps Macheiavelli's work, the Prince, reminds me very much of the King of Wands, or again perhaps the Knight. The idea that power, war, control, and that this is the qualities a Prince should have. (By the way, I'm not that knowlegable on Machievlli, so correct me if I'm wrong.)

any place for...

Berossus taught the modern world, which we naively now regard
as "ancient" ~the secrets of the Chaldean alphabet and astrology.

Nice list, Helvetica!

I would only change, on first reading, the following two:

XI - Strength: Mencius - for his view of human nature

XXI - World: Jesus Christ - "I am the way, the truth, and the life"

A rethink on Macheivalli, perhaps the 5 of Swords. His ideas have a lot to do with power and control over others, seems very 5 of Swordsy to me.

Great idea Helvetica!

Reflects well I think the relationship of the trumps to medieval type Summa that themselves follow a neo-platonic model. In making such associations myself I would probably follow the model of Ficino in his Platonic Theology, for example in general terms the level of human nature [bottom rank of cards in a 3x7 structure], the sphere of the corpuscule, begin with the pre-socratic materialistic philosophers (although the popesse and pope may demand a digression or diversion), for example starting perhaps with Democritus and Le Bateleur;

Bagatto is 'trifle', meaning 'a small thing'. Bateleur is 'one who uses a baton'. It is a symbol of leadership, the man who leads the march, the conductor of the orchestra. The one who unifies the 'many' small things into 'one'. Why is he a trickster. Because the 'one' is an 'illusion' based upon the apparent unification of the many 'small things'. What is the illusion? Our perception of reality as a 'whole', which in fact is but the eternal dance of many small things called atoms.

Obviously he is the laughing philosopher Democritus, who laughed at the folly and superstition of man, founder of 'atomism', inspirer of the sophists, whose title was rendered a derogatory term forever through Plato's denunciation of them as verbal 'tricksters'. Strange irony that the concept born of a man opposed to all human superstition should live on through mystical concepts of letter symbolism. In Greek the word for letter and element were the same, and as all things are named through the combination of letters, so all things are created through the combination of the 'small things', the indivisable elements he called atoms, and the mystic made analogy with the letters/elements. Thus the atomist became the Baal Shem, the Master of the Name, Magician [and Scientist]. Holding in his hand the baton, with which he unifies the many small things, in his other the acorn, symbol of the potential in 'small things'.

In the middle angelic realm or level of the soul and virtues with the stoics; the higher level of the divine ending perhaps with Plato.

In terms of the fool Socrates liked to portray himself as the ignorant fool, and we may note in this relation his addendum to the dictum 'Know Thyself' that the first step was to realize that you 'Know Nothing'.

Kwaw