Barleywine
I'm well-versed in so-called "esoteric number theory" - both geometric (Pythagorean) and qabalistic as practiced by Aleister Crowley and other Golden Dawn alumni - and apply it extensively in Minor Arcana interpretation. There are some interesting dichotomies between the qabalistic Tree of Life model and some of the more "mystical" approaches to number. For example, Crowley considered the 7s and 8s to be unbalanced and relatively corrupted since they reside in sephiroth that are off the Middle Pillar and far down the Tree, although the putrification was a necessary precursor to the rejuvenation of the 9s. This is where the ideas of "Debauch" and "Indolence" in the Thoth deck came from. On the other hand, the more "mystical" traditions consider the 7 to be a highly spiritual and pure number.
I was wondering whether anyone has seen more recent books on the subject that attempt to reconcile the dramatic differences between the "magickal" and the spiritual schools of numeration as used in tarot interpretation. I'm partial to the qabalistic model because of its underlying logical structure and scratch my head at some of the non-linear viewpoints that seem to jump randomly all over the place. I would like to make my peace with the latter and learn more about the reasoning behind them.
I was wondering whether anyone has seen more recent books on the subject that attempt to reconcile the dramatic differences between the "magickal" and the spiritual schools of numeration as used in tarot interpretation. I'm partial to the qabalistic model because of its underlying logical structure and scratch my head at some of the non-linear viewpoints that seem to jump randomly all over the place. I would like to make my peace with the latter and learn more about the reasoning behind them.