smleite
I am looking for people patient enough to read a large text, with little basis other than my own convictions, and my incessant wonder before how large tarot is. Please, I would love to hear some comments on this.
I know very little bout numerology, but still can play with numbers. One of this days I was “getting fun” adding card’s numbers, and was amazed at how much number 4 seems to be fundamental to Tarot.
If we add both digits in number 22, regarding the major arcane, we find number 4; the minors are 56, that is, 14 x 4, or, better yet, 4 x 10 (40 pip cards) and 4 x 4 (16 court cards). We can even go a bit further, and add the majors without including two cards that are somewhat different of the rest, that is, the unnumbered arcane and the unnamed arcane; we are then left with 20 cards, or 5 x 4 cards! Plus, the two cards “removed” are cards number XIII (13 = 1+3 = 4) and XXII (as Le Mat is generally referred to: 22 = 2+2 = 4).
The add of the first and the last numbered cards, Le Bateleur and Le Monde, is (obviously) 22 again; but it is very interesting to find number four depicted in those cards in such a symbolic way! In card XXI, we find the four Living Creatures, symbolizing the four elements, the four directions, etc – the totality of the Cosmos; in card I, we find a three-legged table, an image that clearly evokes the missing leg – tables are four-legged. The square tabletop is also incomplete, and a square is again a symbol of the quaternary.
Looking for number 4 in the cards takes us to card IV (a number presented in the crossed emperor’s legs, as many authors point), card VIII (2x4, or 4+4, a formula that reminds me of equilibrium and visually evokes the two plates in the scale – I use a Marseilles deck), card XII (again the crossed legs, but reversed), card XVI (a truly square number, 4x4, or materiality in its most achieved form – the earthly Jerusalem, as opposed to the Heavenly city), card XX (where the souls escape from square coffins, or from the ultimate prison of materiality). We can also consider card XIII, as already pointed, since 13 ads 4; in card XIII materiality is perfectly depicted as material death and the return to earth.
All of these cards share something else: the end of a system. In card 4 (L’empereur), the control of material aspects of live is achieved – card V (Le Pape) already establishes a bridge with divinity, pointing a new direction to the man that was born and grew from I to IV. Card VIII (La Justice) has got to symbolize the end of a cycle, since in card VIIII (L’Hermite) we are told to look back and integrate all past lessons, in order to continue (towards change, or card X). Card XII is, due to its number, certainly related to the end of a material cycle. 12 is an astrological number, pointing to totality; in card XIII a door is opened, and a new spiritual cycle begins, into which we are guided by an angel… Card XVI is the graphic expression of another end, the end of all pre-established systems and all preconceptions. In card XVI, all that is rotten comes down, so a new start can be made. It also opens a cycle in which heavenly phenomena appear; and, as the pope received those ending the first cycle (I-IV), as a monk illuminated the steps of those finishing the second cycle (V-VIII), as death (followed by an angel) guided in the underworld those finishing the third cycle (VIIII-XII), so the star receives those coming from the fourth (4x4) cycle. In card XX, liberation comes: what those finishing the fifth cycle (XVII-XX) will find, I cannot say… But for those interested in Kabala, it could be something compared to the description of Kether.
Here, I must say that my thoughts about the importance of number four in Tarot are related to something I’ve already posted in another thread: as I see it, the most important correlations between Tarot and Kabala are not to be found in the first ten major Arcana, but in the last ten. Every time I look at the 22 major cards I see the first 12 as a depiction of a kind of “astrological” system, and the last ten as representative of the ten Sefirot, this latter system being hierarchically “superior” to the first. Card number XXII is to me a vivid picture of the characteristics of Kether: Kether is the uppermost aspect of the Sefirot that can be contemplated by humans. It means the birth of a new system, a new sequence, a new world, or the refreshment of an old world or system. The angels of Kether are the Holy Living Creatures, the four Seraphim, and also the four elements or the four fixed signs: Bull (Taurus), lion (Leo), eagle (Scorpio), man (Aquarius). In Kether, God is actively creating our universe. Regarded as a level of consciousness, Kether represents union with God, the Completion of the Great Work, the end and aim of any mystical experience.
If we accept that Le Monde can be compared to Kether, or The Crown, then card number XIII is related to Malkhuth or Shekhinah, Foundation or The Kingdom. Again, in card XIII we can find number 4, or the number of physical matter, a great symbol of The Kingdom. Malkhuth is the king's consort, the earth, or the world in its broader sense of the universal manifestation perceived by the senses. No better card to symbolize it than the unnamed arcane, presenting the earth, the material world, death and the promise of “rebirth”, the beginning of another circle, the work of Mother Nature.
Tarot appears to me as a system of base four, that is, a system that essentially reflects man’s path in this material world – an obvious assertion, of course. Card number XIII is the door to the upper spiritual aspect of this path.
I know very little bout numerology, but still can play with numbers. One of this days I was “getting fun” adding card’s numbers, and was amazed at how much number 4 seems to be fundamental to Tarot.
If we add both digits in number 22, regarding the major arcane, we find number 4; the minors are 56, that is, 14 x 4, or, better yet, 4 x 10 (40 pip cards) and 4 x 4 (16 court cards). We can even go a bit further, and add the majors without including two cards that are somewhat different of the rest, that is, the unnumbered arcane and the unnamed arcane; we are then left with 20 cards, or 5 x 4 cards! Plus, the two cards “removed” are cards number XIII (13 = 1+3 = 4) and XXII (as Le Mat is generally referred to: 22 = 2+2 = 4).
The add of the first and the last numbered cards, Le Bateleur and Le Monde, is (obviously) 22 again; but it is very interesting to find number four depicted in those cards in such a symbolic way! In card XXI, we find the four Living Creatures, symbolizing the four elements, the four directions, etc – the totality of the Cosmos; in card I, we find a three-legged table, an image that clearly evokes the missing leg – tables are four-legged. The square tabletop is also incomplete, and a square is again a symbol of the quaternary.
Looking for number 4 in the cards takes us to card IV (a number presented in the crossed emperor’s legs, as many authors point), card VIII (2x4, or 4+4, a formula that reminds me of equilibrium and visually evokes the two plates in the scale – I use a Marseilles deck), card XII (again the crossed legs, but reversed), card XVI (a truly square number, 4x4, or materiality in its most achieved form – the earthly Jerusalem, as opposed to the Heavenly city), card XX (where the souls escape from square coffins, or from the ultimate prison of materiality). We can also consider card XIII, as already pointed, since 13 ads 4; in card XIII materiality is perfectly depicted as material death and the return to earth.
All of these cards share something else: the end of a system. In card 4 (L’empereur), the control of material aspects of live is achieved – card V (Le Pape) already establishes a bridge with divinity, pointing a new direction to the man that was born and grew from I to IV. Card VIII (La Justice) has got to symbolize the end of a cycle, since in card VIIII (L’Hermite) we are told to look back and integrate all past lessons, in order to continue (towards change, or card X). Card XII is, due to its number, certainly related to the end of a material cycle. 12 is an astrological number, pointing to totality; in card XIII a door is opened, and a new spiritual cycle begins, into which we are guided by an angel… Card XVI is the graphic expression of another end, the end of all pre-established systems and all preconceptions. In card XVI, all that is rotten comes down, so a new start can be made. It also opens a cycle in which heavenly phenomena appear; and, as the pope received those ending the first cycle (I-IV), as a monk illuminated the steps of those finishing the second cycle (V-VIII), as death (followed by an angel) guided in the underworld those finishing the third cycle (VIIII-XII), so the star receives those coming from the fourth (4x4) cycle. In card XX, liberation comes: what those finishing the fifth cycle (XVII-XX) will find, I cannot say… But for those interested in Kabala, it could be something compared to the description of Kether.
Here, I must say that my thoughts about the importance of number four in Tarot are related to something I’ve already posted in another thread: as I see it, the most important correlations between Tarot and Kabala are not to be found in the first ten major Arcana, but in the last ten. Every time I look at the 22 major cards I see the first 12 as a depiction of a kind of “astrological” system, and the last ten as representative of the ten Sefirot, this latter system being hierarchically “superior” to the first. Card number XXII is to me a vivid picture of the characteristics of Kether: Kether is the uppermost aspect of the Sefirot that can be contemplated by humans. It means the birth of a new system, a new sequence, a new world, or the refreshment of an old world or system. The angels of Kether are the Holy Living Creatures, the four Seraphim, and also the four elements or the four fixed signs: Bull (Taurus), lion (Leo), eagle (Scorpio), man (Aquarius). In Kether, God is actively creating our universe. Regarded as a level of consciousness, Kether represents union with God, the Completion of the Great Work, the end and aim of any mystical experience.
If we accept that Le Monde can be compared to Kether, or The Crown, then card number XIII is related to Malkhuth or Shekhinah, Foundation or The Kingdom. Again, in card XIII we can find number 4, or the number of physical matter, a great symbol of The Kingdom. Malkhuth is the king's consort, the earth, or the world in its broader sense of the universal manifestation perceived by the senses. No better card to symbolize it than the unnamed arcane, presenting the earth, the material world, death and the promise of “rebirth”, the beginning of another circle, the work of Mother Nature.
Tarot appears to me as a system of base four, that is, a system that essentially reflects man’s path in this material world – an obvious assertion, of course. Card number XIII is the door to the upper spiritual aspect of this path.