Combinations of cards

Have you noticed how sometimes groups of cards seem to crop up constantly. I found a piece in a book that tells you about these groupings having special interpretations of their own; I would like to know what everyone here thinks about these interpretations.

ACES
Four aces – a time of beginnings. Lots of energy and potential
Three aces- good news is on its way.
Two aces – partnership. A new home or love affair.

TWOS
Four twos- gathering of people.
Three twos – many changes.

THREES
Four threes – creativity, determination.
Three threes – deceit, changeable circumstances.

FOURS
Four fours – contentment, security.
Three fours – hard work ahead.

FIVES
Four fives – competition, discord.
Three fives – routine activities, stability.

SIXES
Four sixes – good fellowship and harmony.
Three sixes – achievements.

SEVENS
Four sevens – intrigue, lies and theft.
Three sevens – good fortune.
Two sevens – true love.

EIGHTS
Four eights – journeys and news.
Three eights – good news about relationships.
Two eights – surprises.

NINES
Four nines – high achievements and rewards.
Three nines – good health and prosperity.
Two nines – legal documents and contracts.

TENS
Four tens – remarkable triumph (if any are reversed then obstacles to overcome).
Three tens – legal problems.
Two tens – new employment and good luck.

PAGES
Four pages – schools, colleges, universities, groups of young people.
Three pages – good social life, fun, lively parties.
Two pages – quarrels between friends.

KNIGHTS
Four knights – speedy action.
Three knights – small gathering of men.
Two knights – reunions with old friends.

QUEENS
Four queens – small gatherings of women (if cards reversed, may be spoiled).
Three queens – helpful female friends.
Two queens – gossip, rivalry and back-stabbing.

KINGS
Four kings – high achievements. Important affairs. Recognition by peers.
Three kings – powerful and influential men.
Two kings – business partnership, co-operation.

Has anyone else come across these interpretations or any others? It truly fascinates me how I can go through phases of various groups of cards repeatedly appearing. ie. Today I have been plagued by sevens, within a 3 card spread the chariot and the seven of cups, then later again 3 card spread seven cups and seven swords. Last week it was fives!!!

Love
Allybrooke
Xxx

Started this thread earlier today, but hopefully there are more people on the site now, has anyone got any opinions on this list.

Many thanks

Allybrooke
xxx

I've seen various iterations of that list in various books and on various websites. As with most things tarot, you'll need to determine which of those items you agree with and which you don't, which you can accept as is and which you need to tweak to be applicable for you.

For example, if I got the Chariot, the 7 Wands and the 7 Swords all in one reading, good fortune wouldn't even cross my mind. And if I got any two of those cards, I certainly wouldn't think about true love. I'd be more inclined to see true love if I got the 7 Cups and 7 Pentacles, but even then it would be a stretch. The same would be true of most of the other combinations you listed.

I can see the interpretations for four Aces, four Fives, two Eights, but that's about it. I'm sure that meanings for different cards will ring true with other people.

Rodney

Thank you Rodney,

I wonder if the combinations are aimed more at numerology than the actual suits. ie. 2 threes or 3 twos, rather than 2 of swords and 2 of cups etc.

This is the only book that I have seen it in, do you know of any other literature that I could use to compare meanings.

love
Allybrooke
xxx

Allybrooke,

I'll have to look when I get home. If it is numerologically-based, I don't understand how the Courts fit in. Yeah, the Pages could be considered to be 11, which is a number that's important to numerology. But then the rest of the Courts would be 12-14, which AFAIK would be reduced to single digits.

Rodney

Which book was that? The only one I have seen with a system is Tarot Decoded.

Like Rodney, those 'meanings' just don't click for me. Sounds suspiciously like something to memorize rather than a system with any juice to it.

One version is found in Aleister Crowley's booklet Tarot Divination. The meanings found there differ from the ones Allybrooke typed out. For example, for the sevens (since I've already touched on them) he writes that four 7s means disappointment and three 7s means treaties and compacts. Quite different from the source that Allybrooke found.

The Crowley meanings seem to be Golden Dawn based since I found the same meanings in the Cicero's companion book for the New Golden Dawn Ritual Tarot and Wang's companion book for the Golden Dawn Tarot.

I'm sure I have other books that have variations on the list (and maybe even the exact list) posted by Allybrooke, but don't have time to go through the 300+ books in my collection....

Rodney

I agree with Marion.

How can i see 3 fives as stability if for me five is the nunber of instability?

I think each reader should know to himself what groups of cards of the same number represent in reading, and not simply memorize meanings for them.

Thank you everyone for your responses.

The book is one that my children bought for me, it is not one that I would have particularly chosen myself. It's called Tarot by Jonathan Dee.

It was whilst flicking through the book that I came across the combinations of cards and it made me realise how often this "grouping" happens to me. I understand that it must mean something, but being a relative newbie to tarot I have not figured out what, yet!!

I am not saying that I think this book it right or wrong in its interpretations, but up to now this is the first and only explanation of groupings that I have come across.

If anyone knows of any other explanation, I would love to be able to compare.

I do believe that everything happens for a reason, there must be a reason for this strange phenomena, and I would be interested to know if this happens regularly to other readers, and if so, how they interperate it.

love
Allybrooke
xxx

AllyBrooke said:

It was whilst flicking through the book that I came across the combinations of cards and it made me realise how often this "grouping" happens to me. I understand that it must mean something, but being a relative newbie to tarot I have not figured out what, yet!!

Click to expand...

When I lay down a spread, after I've done my specific interpretation of the cards, if there are enough cards in the spread, I will often look at the cards from a numerology standpoint to see if there's either a clustering of numbers or a predominance of a single number. I usually don't take note of the same number appearing across spreads (cause I don't regularly lay out spreads). But what I would take note of though is particular cards that seem to be repeating.

A month or so ago I did three spreads in one day (on 3 different issues) for a friend. IIRC two of the spreads had 9 cards and one had 19 cards. Three or four cards appeared in two or more of the readings. That stood out for me. The numbers of the cards never even crossed my mind.

So in your particular case, it wouldn't have made any difference to me that there were lots of sevens (or fives) appearing. But I would've noted and paid attention to the fact that the 7 Cups kept appearing and that I needed to pay attention to the message the 7 Cups was trying to bring me. YMMV and that's perfectly fine.

Rodney