There are some points about the tarot passage in d'Oncieu's book that have not been addressed. They may or may not affect the translation. I want to look at why the passage is in the book in the first place, namely, that d'Oncieutries to show how Tarot exemplifies the numerical structure of the universe and human beings' place in it, a theme stemming from Pythagorean philosophy. The whole structure of the book (Guillaume d'Oncieu,
Numeralium locorum decas: in omni fere scientiarum genere mysticis referta propositionibus,
http://books.google.fr/books?id=aFr_Mx6 ... ca&f=false) in which the passage is situated is that of a Pythagorean treatise on the numbers between One and Ten. Like them, it enumerates a seemingly endless list of exemplifications of each number. Numbers were principles that exerted their influence throughout the cosmos. To enumerate their exemplifications was the use of the inductive method to grasp the principles underlying them.
The tarot passage occurs in the section of the book on the number 4. So naturally he starts with that number. It quickly leads to the numbers 3, 56, 21, and 1. These are followed by 5, 78, then 26 (78 divided by 3), then 7, and 28, and a 39 that might be 19. This is followed by a meditation on luck vs. skill and the need to balance the two, and another on life and the equality of our lots in the face of death. Then we are back to numbers: now 71, now 189 (9x21) and finally 6 and 1. At the same time the prose goes from murky to opaque, or so it seems.
It starts out simply enough. Luck is exemplified in the solid with square sides called dice. Cards are the same, exemplifying the quaternity not only in their shape (four sided) but also in their number of suits. Moreover, in the game of Primera, what counts is 4 of the same (the word "para" here does not mean "even"; what is meant is the same suit, as Zorli points out), 4 of the different (again, not "odd" but "different"), and 4 in sequence. Now we have a ternary, 3 types of foursomes. But tarot does even better. There is a foursome in the number of suits, and also the cards as a whole are triune: 56 suit cards, 21 triumphs. and 1 Fool. Not only that, but there are four ways in which groups of three matter: there are three players, the cards are given out three at a time to each, three cards are discarded at the end of the deal, and the deck divides into the three parts already mentioned. Then the author throws in the number 5, but before we look at that, what is the mystical significance of the three and the four?
I will start with Augustine as an example of how Christian authorities thought in terms of number symbolism. According to Hopper,
Medieval Number Symbolism p. 78) it was Augustine who gave the stamp of approval to number symbolism.
City of God Book 20, discussing the twelve thrones of the judges in the Book of Revelation, says:
..by the number twelve is signified the completeness of the multitude of those who shall judge. For the two parts of the number seven (which commonly symbolizes totality), that is to say four and three, multiplied into one another, give twelve. For four times three, or three times four, are twelve.
About 12, his point is that in saying "12", John meant a complete set, not 12 judges exactly. The same is true for the number 7, which is 3 + 4. So we have seven sacraments, seven planets, etc.
Also, he says that 3 is the first odd number and 4 the first even number (
On Christian Doctrine II, 16, 25, Dodds trans. IX, 74, quoted in Hopper, p. 79). Together as 7 they are "perfect completeness". This is, I think, because even numbers are female and odd numbers male.
Three is the Trinity, God in Three Persons. It was one of numerous triplicities in the spiritual world: Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven; Jesus rises on the third day (Hopper p. 8181). History divides into three parts: before Moses, before Jesus , before the Last Judgment (p. 83). Hugh of St. Victor talked about the 3 theological virtues, pertaining to the sacred, and the four cardinal virtues. But as the Universe--the pack--is in three, so, too, is God in the universe, as symbolized by the deck.
On the three and the four together, Hopper says (pp. 83-84):
The principal Christian innovation in number science was the identification of this spiritual-temporal duality with the archetypal numbers, 3 and 4. Four, by the known analogues of the 4 winds, the 4 elements, the 4 seasons, and the 4 rivers, is specifically the number of the mundane sphere; and as the first 3 days of creation foreshadow the Trinity, so the fourth is the "type of man". (56) Mystically, the fact that man is a tetrad is evidenced in the name, Adam, whose letters are the 4 winds. (57) For this reason, knowledge of divine things is disseminated throughout the world by the 4 gospels, evangelists, or beasts, emblemized by the 4 extremities of the cross," (58) that 4-fold division of Christ's clothing, and the 4 virtues, or forms of love, as Augustine names them. "It is not possible, says Irenaeus, "that the gospels can be either more or fewer than they are." (60)
From the triune principle of God and the quadruple principle of man are produced the universal symbols, 7 and 12. The addition of 3 and 4, spiritual and temporal, produces 6, which is therefore the first number which implies totality. (61) It is the number of the universe and of man, signifying the creation as opposed to the Creator. (62)
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56. Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus; AN III, 83; also Ambrose De fido, II, Introduction; Augustine, On John, IX, 14.
57. Augustine, On John, IX, 14.
58. The cross was conceived to have 4 or 5 points--5 if the intersection was included. As the image of 4, it encompassed man and the universe. As an emblem of 5, it coincided with the 5 wounds in providing the salvation of man, with his 5 senses, or of those living under the Old Dispensation of the Pentateuch.
59. Of the Morals of the Catholic Church, , XV, 25.
60. Against Heresies, III, 11, 8.
61. Augustine, Civ. Dei, XX, 5.
62. Augustine, On the Sermon on the Mount, II, 20, 36; Letter LV, 15, 28.
No wonder the author of our treatise calls the tarot pack the "Universe"!
Four is the number of the material world of the senses. In this way, it seems to me, the four suits pertain to the material circumstances of life: kings, queens, knights, knaves, then commoners at the bottom, but with distinctions among them, too. The universe is mirrored in the division into three. If it is arranged on a pyramid, the material world of 56 cards is the base, the celestial world of the trumps--the archetypes--the middle, and the One on top must somehow be God. The various ways in which the three is in the four shows how God is in the world in all sorts of ways. There are paradoxes: God is everywhere in the game, yet just one place in the pyramid, on top.
Then comes the 5. Each player has received 25 cards, 5x5. That is because he got 26 (26 times 3 is the 78 cards in the deck), and discarded 1. A quintessence has been given to the Ternary and the quaternary! This is the famous "fifth essence" of the alchemists, hidden in everyday matter. It is also the result of the squaring the ternary and adding it to the squared quaternity, the famous Pythagorean Theorem, of the right-angled triangle with 3 and 4 as the base and 5 as the hypotenuse. It is the sacred Pentad of the Pythagoreans, now the 5 loaves that fed 5000 of Christ. Soter (savior) has 5 letters, and so does Pater (p. 74, from Tertullian). It is the 5 extremities of the cross, the 5 wounds of Christ, redeeming man of 5 senses of the flesh (p. 84n58: some numbers have both negative and positive connotations).
Now for higher numbers. 21 is of course 3 x 7, the totality made sacred. One more would add God as a unity.
I don't know of any standard interpretation of 39. Added to itself as a whole, it is 40. 40 is the days and nights in the ark, the number of "trials and privation" that the Hebrews got from the Babylonians, Hopper says (p. 25). Also, "stripes must not exceed 40 (Deut. 27:3), there are "40 years in the wilderness", etc. (p. 26). 39 is also 3x13, two generally favorable numbers (see below paragraph for 13).
I do not know of any standard associations for 19, the other numeral for which 39 might be a misprint, although it would be easy to make one up: 10, the number of perfection, with 9, the number of angels in the "Celestial Hierarchy" of pseudo-Dionysius. It is also one less than a multiple of 10, and so slightly defective.
13 is the number of days between the birth of Christ and Epiphany (p. 130). It is the leader of the 12 apostles, Christ. It is also 10, the number of completion, and 3 the number of the Trinity (p. 103). 28 is the second perfect number (after 6), also the sum of the first seven numbers (44).
I can find no special significance to 26 or 71. One could easily be manufactured, 26 as the sacred 5 squared added to the One. 71 is the sacred 1, 10, and 7. Any number has significance, and both positive and negative!
For our author, tarot is just one thing grouped with other things with the same number, primarily 4 but also the others. So you can see what else is assigned to those numbers.
It the hidden symbolism of the universe manifesting itself in a game of cards.
Similar number symbolism is in Etteilla, which suggests to me a tradition of sorts behind the scene. He identifies the suits with humanity and the first 12 trumps with the Eternal. 11 is the number of transgression. The One is identified with his first card, the Sun. Like our author, he divides the pack into groups, but he has seven ways of doing it starting with one group and going to seven. Seven is of course one of the numbers of totality, as Augustine says.
For anyone who wants to read the comparable passages in Etteilla, about the 78 cards in his deck as a "book", here are some links.
1. As a book in four parts (three of them discussed):
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... tcount=116.
2. As a book in one, two, three, and four parts:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... tcount=130.
This second passage is the closest to d'Oncieu's language. Etteilla speaks of the deck as one book which he calls "the Universe." Then as two books, it is the "divine order"--the 21 trumps--and "human sense-related [Fr.
sensible] power and false order". As three books, it is "God speaking to man" (seven days of creation plus cardinal virtues), then "human weakness" (rest of the 22 trumps) and finally "all the Sciences and all the Arts". As four books, he divides the "human weakness" trumps into two parts, each of five cards. The Fool is always considered as the 22nd card, despite its number (0 and 78) and the fact that the card after it is no. 22.
3. As a book in five and six parts:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... tcount=131
For five parts: God at rest plus the 4 virtues is one part; he notes that the numbers of the cards after the first add up to 50, the number of the name of God in Hebrew. Etteilla is using gematria here, a word of Jewish origin first appearing in 200 a.d. (Hopper p. 62). It is of course a Greek and Christian practice, too, deriving from the time when numbers were represented by combinations of letters in the alphabet: the first 10 letters for 1-10, then the 10th letter plus the 1-9 letter for 11-19, and so on (
http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/numbers/greek/#count). I don't know what name of God adds up to 50.
Then the second part is "the works of God" (i.e. the 6 days of creation); then the works of man by divine permission (which are somehow "the 10 of the multiplied 5 and the 12 of the assemblage of the vulgar numbers"), then "the weakness of man seen as weakness" (the remaining 5 trumps) and finally the other 56 as "the weakness of man seen as pride".
For six parts, he counts God at rest as one part (1st and 8th cards), the six days of creation as another, then "harmony in sense related nature" (4 cardinal virtues), then "physical nature" (next 5 trumps), then "apparent defect" (last 5 trumps) and finally "the eight times seven roads to false happiness".
4. As a book in seven parts,
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... tcount=132.
Here it the same as before, except that card 1, before creation, and 8, god at rest on the 7th day, count as two parts. What is interesting here is his numerology:
[p. 140] L'unité au centre. (1,) Dieu lui-même. (8,) mou-[p. 141]vement & repos (1), ou la perfection, qui n'est qu'en Dieu. (9, 10, 11, 12,) tout ce qui est Dieu, lui-même, Justice, Tempérance, Force & Prudence (2). (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,) préscience divine de l'Éternité se communiquant par ses oeuvres, qui mis à leur vrai nombre 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, = 21 = 12 = 3, ensemble 36, elle s'étend sur les Hommes par 1 + 6, 2 + 5, 3 + 4, qui [p. 142] donne des nombres infiniment juste. 16, 25, 34 = 75, 3 au-dessus des intelligences 75, (1 vient 37, nombre par lequel dans cet esprit les Cabalistes n'osent nombrer, voyant ce nombre ainsi 1 entier + 37 + 8, & soustrayant 1 de 8, reste 45 & 3 + 7 = 10. (13, 14, 15, 16, 17,) vertus de l"Homme par 31, 41, 51, 61, 71, en tant que corps, vie & ame. (18, 19, 20, 20, 0,) innocence troublée, pas incertains, inquiétude. (22 jusqu'à 77,) Nature remédiant perpétuellement & en tous lieux à l'ignorance de l'Homme, & ensevelissant tout dans le tems.
[Note en bas de p. 141](1) En l'Homme fut le repos, ensuite la mouvement, & enfin le repos.
(2) Aucuns Philosophes n'ont atteint le but sans avoir l'interprétation de ces quatre hiéroglyphes en tout leur sens, qui sont chacun 7.
(Unity at the center. (1,) God himself, alone, by himself and in himself. (8,), move-[p. 141]ment and rest (1), or the perfection, which is only in God. (9, 10, 11, 12) all which is God himself, Justice, Temperance, Strength and Prudence (2). (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,) divine prescience of Eternity communicating itself by its works, which put in their true number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, = 21 = 12 = 3, together 36, it extends over Men by 1 + 6, 2 + 5, 3 + 4, which [p. 142] gives infinitely correct numbers. 16, 25, 34 = 75, 3 over the intelligences, 75 (2 next to 37, number by which in this spirit the Cabalists do not dare to count, seeing this number thus 1 integer + 37 + 8, and subtracting 1 from the 8, leaves 45 and 3 + 7 = 10. (13, 14, 15, 16, 17,) virtues of Man by 31, 41, 51, 61, 71, as body, life and soul. (18, 19, 20, 20, 0,) disturbed innocence, uncertain steps, anxiety. (22 to 77,) Nature remedying perpetually and everywhere the ignorance of Man, and burying everything in time.
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(1) In man was repose, then movement, and finally repose.
(2) No philosophers have reached the goal without the interpretation of the four hieroglyphics in all their meaning, which are each 7.)
The number of the "intelligences" is of course 72, the number of angels. He then subtracts 2 and reverses the digits, giving him 37, which is 2 less than 39. The number beyond which Cabalists do not dare to count, I think, is 40, the maximum time of "trial and privation", as Hopper calls it. It all sounds very mysterious. He has learned the medieval style of numerology well.
In vol. 1 of the Cahiers,
La Manière de se récréer avec le jeu de cartes nommées Tarots, Etteilla has more extensive number symbolism, but less relationship to his actual cards.
On p. 30 (
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6 ... r=etteilla) he gives very standard Pythagorean interpretations for the first 10 numbers (except the one for 8, which I don't know), to which he adds two more, which, as will become apparent, derive from Christianity, and another from popular superstition. Alongside them I put the keywords for the corresponding 1789 Etteilla tarot card:
One is God..............Keywords: ...................Etteilla/Questionnant (Male Querent)
Two is male and female....................Eclaircissement (Enlightenment), Feu (Fire)
Three is the three principle, Mercury, Salt and Sulphur...Propos (design)/Eau (Water)
Four is the four elements, or better, the Universe...Depouillement (Privation)/Air
Five is the sacred.............................Voyage/Terre (Earth)
Six is the first perfect number............Nuit (Night)/Jour (Day)
Seven is Science and Human Wisdom...Appui (Support)/Protection
Eight is multiplication, extension....... Etteilla/Questionnante (Female Querent)
Nine is the perfection of the simple man, following nature, or knowing results....Justice/Legiste (Jurist)
Ten is the divine circle. .....................Temperance/Le Pretre (Priest)
Eleven is discord, defectiveness.........Force (Strength), Souverain (Sovereign)
Twelve is Call (Appel) and reunion......Prudence/Le Peuple (The People)
On p. 41 he has a reformulation of 10-12: 10 is not only the number of the circle of divinity, but the creator; 11 is the number weakness (foiblesse), and 12 is the creature, the human circle (
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6 ... r=etteilla).
On p. 57 (
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6 ... r=etteilla) he adds that St. Augustine says rightly that 11 is the sign of sin. He notes that 11 is 5 + 6, and 56 is the number of cards devoted to the life of the sinner.
Perhaps it is a return to the creator in 12 that gives it the interpretation, "call" and "reunion".
Etteilla says in the First Cahier, conventionally, that 13 is the number of Destruction and Death (pp. 41 and 43,
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6 ... r=etteilla ff), yet his Death card is not 13 but 17.
In the Second Cahier (p. 28), however, Eteilla says that 17 is the number of death (quoted on p. 31 of Jacques Holbronn's
Recherches sur L'Histoire d'Astrologie et du Tarot, found there and translated by Ross Caldwell at
http://ludustriumphorum.blogspot.com/20 ... -card.html):
The false savants have said that the number or sign of death was 13, and in consequence they assigned Death 13. But this Book takes man in his creation, and it is recognized that Adam was in no way subject to death at the number 13 but at that of 17.
Eteilla adds (left out by Holbronn) "comme j'explique d'ailleurs" (as I explain elsewhere), but that is all. I have no idea where "ailleurs" ("elsewhere") is. Interestingly, 17 was considered unlucky in Italy, as Ross points out in the above link. Etteilla makes no reference to Italy. Is it possible that this meaning is something he got from his alleged teacher, who he said was the grandson of the famous Italian writer (who actually existed in the 16th century) Alexis Piemontese?
Seven, being the key to all the sciences, the number of wisdom, is such that if the first seven numbers are added together, the result is 28, the second perfect number (p. 33, at
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6 ... r=etteilla).
But none of this has anything to do with his keywords.
The Fool has the number 0 because he is the absence of all knowledge. The Hebrews call it the Nothing, (Le Neant), the Chaldeans (i.e. Babylonians) "void of form". For this card the keywords is appropriate: Folie (Folly)/Folie.