regrouping the Tarot

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 22 Oct 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Ravenswing	22 Oct 2002
I consider the Fool to be, in a sense, outside of the Tarot. I see him as the ultimate identity principle, his dance through the deck giving meaning to the other cards. I do not restrict his wanderings to the Majors; the Spirit that he is breathes life into the entirety of Tarot. From this viewpoint, I thought of the deck as composed of two parts: the Fool and a collection of 77 cards. The number 77 can be expressed as 7 x 11. I am not going to go into the significance and meanings of 7—they will surely spring to the fore in everyone’s mind. But as to 11… Three quick observations about this number: It is a prime number consisting solely of the number 1; it is considered by Crowley to be the number of magick; and it is reminiscent of the High Priestess’ two pillars. We have seen the Major Arcana sans Fool divide into three. This is an accepted ‘natural’ division. This is 3 x 7. Therefore the Minors are 8 x 7. I could not help but wonder if there was also some ‘natural’ division of the Minors. I tried for the longest time to partition them into groups of 7, but to no avail. Then it occurred to me to look at them as 7 groups of 8. After all, 7 is a ‘holy’ number; associations with the number 8 are earthier. The first group I saw was the ace and ten of each suit. This group was both an expression of the maxim: “As above, so below.” and the Kabalistic idea that Malkuth and Kether are intimately connected. The next four groups were the numbers two through nine of the four suits. I see these cards as representing the development and expression of elemental qualities. A note here: I see the court cards as King, Queen, Prince and Bride. This follows more closely the Kabala, and will perpetuate itself. Prince marries Bride, they become King and Queen who sire Prince, Prince marries Bride… The seventh group then would be the King and Prince. These are the Greater and Lesser Countenance of the Kabala. The final group is the Queen and Bride. Binah—the great mother—and the Sheckinah who sits upon the Mother’s throne. any thoughts? ravenswing

jmd	22 Oct 2002
For myself, I consider the Fool to very much be integrally part of the sequence, without which its full 78 would not be. In terms of 78, let us also remember that this number is a triangular number of base 12 (ie, 12 + 11 + 10 + ... + 3 + 2 + 1 = 78). As a full 78, this is also 13 X 6 (or if you wish to work with primes, 2 X 3 X 13). Outside of those considerations, there is, to my mind the more brilliant separation of: 4 x 10 = 40; plus 4 x 04 = 16; plus 1 x 22 = 22; making ------> 78 The four suits each have a total of 55 objects (10 + 9 + ... + 1 = 55), giving a total of 220. If we add the 16 court cards, this gives a total of 236, which is itself a triangular number of base 16 (ie, 16 + 15 + &c.). For the minor arcana, then, the number of items depicted equals both the theosophic extension of the number of court cards, as well as the courts added to 4 theosophic extensions of the pips (one for each suit). As for the Major Arcana, these, as is also Kabbalistically said of the letters, form 231 gates. If we add to these the theosophic extension of the 12 months of the year (78), and all the minor Arcana, we end up with 365. So here, we see that only a full deck yields these results. But what to make of it!?

HOLMES	22 Oct 2002
the tarot is an illusion in the sense that numerologiclay there is 21 plus 40 making 61, as the court courts has no numbers and neither does the fool. and you add the elemental dignities of the court card givin you 77 right,, and theoritcally there is no fool, yet we see it with our own eyes :O). (in my own thinkin there is 79 cards, the fool at the beginning and the end of the major arcna, so while we get 21 cards and a 0, and physically we got 22, in spirit we got 23,) it is a blind really, an illusion (pay no attetion to the man behind the cutian) that in truth the fool is in all aspects of the tarot the court cards, the minors, the majors, yet in truth all life is connected. (hear obi one say to the gungian, you and the naboo form a symboite circe you must realize this) without the devil there can be no tarot, or the page of pentacles. since all is one these forces are in fact interacting with each other. the fool is essential spirit manifested on earth and lives in each of us. to say the tarot is out of the tarot is like saying we are apart of the universe. we understand so much and so little eheh.

The regrouping the Tarot thread was originally posted on 22 Oct 2002 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.