kapoore
the number 21
Hi Ross,
I followed the historical argument for quite a few posts, then lost track. Whew.. I want to comment, though, on the use of the number 21. First of all, I agree completely that the dice idea makes sense. Without doubt cards were formed from dice and took over the function of dice. They were known by the Mongolians as "sheet dice" and the Germans might have come in contact with these cards early in the 13th Century since the Hanseatic League was trading with the Mongolians after the conquest of Russia--that was before the fall of Baghdad. Anyway, I want to also comment on the use of 21 in the Lullian trees where virtues and vices are represented as leaves on trees. For example, The Tree of the Divine Virtues with 11 branches on one side of the tree and 10 branches on the other--each with a divine attribute.
But for me the most intriguing use of the number 21 is found in the Catholic Concordance of Nicholas of Cusa written around 1433 and the Council of Basil. In this book Cusa outlines his political theory that gave birth to the idea of separation of Church and State, representative government, and separate hierarchies for the Pope and Emperor based on the hierarchical ordering of Dionysius the Areopagite. Here is the quote of 21--used almost randomly but perhaps not. Chapter VII of the Catholic Concordance. I quote only parts for the purposes of brevity. He describes the 9 choirs. "Just as there are three orders in the angelic hierarchy, so also in the first order again are three choirs...I now wish to show that a continuous ordered relationship of concordance is found throughout the whole hierarchy.... (I skip) "On this basis, let us imagine that the first order has 21 degrees of spiritual illumination which act there and are more than are necessary for the first choir. The first choir attempts to share these with the second choir but cannot wholly do so. Thus the second choir receives only 20. And that choir cannot communicate the totality of what it has received, and hence it communicates 19. And because the order consists of three degrees of light, the lowest choir in that rank cannot communicate them further and therefore it remains purely passive as far as that order is concerned. Hence the 18 degrees which it can communicate pass down to the next lower order and thus successively down to the last choir of the third order which will have twelve."
Now, I am not mathematician but there is a way of coming out with the numbers of the "standard" Tarot with this scheme. Add instead of subtract. 12 added up makes up 78--obviously. If you add all 21 degrees including the 78 first degrees you get 231 or the total sum of 21, which happens to be a triangular number. If you add just the way he subtracts, that is from 20 down to 13--13+14+15+16+17+18+19+20 you get 132 or the mirror image of 231. If you add 21 to 132 you get 153, and as you probably know this is the number of fish in the famous gospel passage from John 21:11. If you take the sum of 21 or 231 and subtract 153, you get 78. Ironically enough there you have a number 21 with Biblical significance. Plus 21x 11=231. Just a coincidence or a deeper level of gaming. And all of this in the context of the 9 angelic choirs of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, the so called 5th Century Christian Platonist that has such a profound and widespread tradition within the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and is often linked with Tarot.
Hi Ross,
I followed the historical argument for quite a few posts, then lost track. Whew.. I want to comment, though, on the use of the number 21. First of all, I agree completely that the dice idea makes sense. Without doubt cards were formed from dice and took over the function of dice. They were known by the Mongolians as "sheet dice" and the Germans might have come in contact with these cards early in the 13th Century since the Hanseatic League was trading with the Mongolians after the conquest of Russia--that was before the fall of Baghdad. Anyway, I want to also comment on the use of 21 in the Lullian trees where virtues and vices are represented as leaves on trees. For example, The Tree of the Divine Virtues with 11 branches on one side of the tree and 10 branches on the other--each with a divine attribute.
But for me the most intriguing use of the number 21 is found in the Catholic Concordance of Nicholas of Cusa written around 1433 and the Council of Basil. In this book Cusa outlines his political theory that gave birth to the idea of separation of Church and State, representative government, and separate hierarchies for the Pope and Emperor based on the hierarchical ordering of Dionysius the Areopagite. Here is the quote of 21--used almost randomly but perhaps not. Chapter VII of the Catholic Concordance. I quote only parts for the purposes of brevity. He describes the 9 choirs. "Just as there are three orders in the angelic hierarchy, so also in the first order again are three choirs...I now wish to show that a continuous ordered relationship of concordance is found throughout the whole hierarchy.... (I skip) "On this basis, let us imagine that the first order has 21 degrees of spiritual illumination which act there and are more than are necessary for the first choir. The first choir attempts to share these with the second choir but cannot wholly do so. Thus the second choir receives only 20. And that choir cannot communicate the totality of what it has received, and hence it communicates 19. And because the order consists of three degrees of light, the lowest choir in that rank cannot communicate them further and therefore it remains purely passive as far as that order is concerned. Hence the 18 degrees which it can communicate pass down to the next lower order and thus successively down to the last choir of the third order which will have twelve."
Now, I am not mathematician but there is a way of coming out with the numbers of the "standard" Tarot with this scheme. Add instead of subtract. 12 added up makes up 78--obviously. If you add all 21 degrees including the 78 first degrees you get 231 or the total sum of 21, which happens to be a triangular number. If you add just the way he subtracts, that is from 20 down to 13--13+14+15+16+17+18+19+20 you get 132 or the mirror image of 231. If you add 21 to 132 you get 153, and as you probably know this is the number of fish in the famous gospel passage from John 21:11. If you take the sum of 21 or 231 and subtract 153, you get 78. Ironically enough there you have a number 21 with Biblical significance. Plus 21x 11=231. Just a coincidence or a deeper level of gaming. And all of this in the context of the 9 angelic choirs of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, the so called 5th Century Christian Platonist that has such a profound and widespread tradition within the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and is often linked with Tarot.
