This is a post about the numerical cycles and number relationships in traditional/classic Tarot de Marseille (TdM). Might be first of a series, not sure. [Please note I am not going to be talking about the western Kabbalah that is incorporated into Waite-Smith Tarot.]
I started out studying numerology in relation to Tarot, just as my early Tarot teachers did. Numerology books describe the qualities of individual numbers. Numbers are reduced to a single digit, except master numbers 11, 22 and 33 (albeit we don’t go to 33 in Tarot), often in terms of human personality traits. One of my teachers, Angeles Arrien would have us figure out our life path card and card for the year, based on our birthdate. It can be insightful but also limiting. I’ve had to unlearn a few things…
Ideally, one should study the literature, then forget about it. Too much rigid this=that can actually hinder your inner understanding of the cards. Remember they are mnemonic devices, so let the image demonstrate how it illustrates the number, rather than trying to apply concepts to the image and make it fit. Play with the numbers, think also about the geometry generated by the number (3= triangle, 4=square, 5 = pentagram etc).
Note that the cards use Roman numerals, though they seem to illustrate Arabic numerical ‘concepts’ . For example The Hermit, VIIII, resonates with 9, the spiralling number that always returns to itself…as it is with people who have a 9 life path, according to numerology. 4 looks so much like the symbol for Jupiter, that the Emperor is often equated with him.
Look at the multiples and different combinations…
For example, Empress (3), Hanged Man (1+2) and World (2+1). What is going on in this triplicity that stems from the Empress?
What minor arcana cards resonate with major arcana cards of the same numerical value? In what suit does the 5 resonate best with the Pope card? Which 7 with the Chariot?
The visual manifestation of the individual number is only one aspect, but the cards are not really independent of one another. They have various partners and opposites, higher and lower ‘octaves’, etc, their relationships to each other helps to define them, just as it is in life. But keeping in mind the Roman numerals, XV (Devil) is the ‘higher octave’ or other face of V (Pope), not XVI (Lover), as it would be if we employed Arabic numerals (1+5 reduces to 6).
A simple example is that the numbered cards (in TdM the Fool is not numbered) contain 7 cycles of 3 (like a waltz), where every next ‘1’ card is also a ‘4’ (the death and rebirth of the cycle).
This is also known as Pythagorean Cosmology:
‘One becomes Two, Two becomes Three,
and out of the Third comes the One as the Fourth.’
So, the Empress completes the first creative cycle of 1-2-3, but the 4th card, her partner, the Emperor, signifies the death of that cycle, AND the beginning of the next. You will find that all the cards in the ‘1/4’ placement have something in common, as will all the cards in the ‘2’ placement and the ‘3’ placement. From there you can build on this foundation.
All written content ©Roxanna Bikadoroff and may not be reposted without permission. Please share via LINK only. Thank you.