True. Both of these factors have played an essential role in many aspects of number symbolism. There is a third type of symbolism however, that played an even more important role in the Classical tradition, and it's later offshoots. That is the mathematical 'behavior' of number. So much of European number symbolism is based around the arithmetical nature of number, the geometric nature of number, harmonic proportions, and so on. Circular numbers, perfect numbers, odds, evens, cube numbers, plane numbers, linear numbers, prime numbers and incomposite numbers, triangular numbers, spherical numbers, the musical ratios, and so on... For me, this is where the symbolism of number really shines, bringing, in many cases, as much rapture and profound apprehension to the modern, as it did to our ancestors in ancient times. Anyone needing proof of the sheer beauty of these ideas, go put on some Johann Sebastian B. and delight in number.Lorredan wrote:Thinking of numbers as symbols that represent meanings other than counting items involves mostly two kinds of ideas of number.
One idea is that the sequential nature of numbers and how the growth from 1 to a larger number might be related to creation of some sort, for many creation myths use numbers to represent various stages of a creation story. My example is 1. Adam 2. Adam and Eve. etc etc.
The second idea is that numbers may be arrived at by observing the way numbers seem to recur in various aspects of the world. For example, many cultures observed that there was 12 to 13 moon cycles in a year. Astrology has to be counted neh?
The four elements are symbols. Let's call them 'code words'. Just as Death is often shown as a walkin', dancin', talkin' skeleton, and no one takes the image literally. The terms Fire, Water, Air and Earth are convenient allegories for the general characteristics of the four basic ways energy can manifest. These of course are NOT actual fire, air, water, or earth, but descriptive allegories for types of behaviors (expanding, contracting, rising, falling, short, long, fast, slow, separating, binding, etc.). They shouldn't be taken literally. I've found the elemental symbols quite useful in all manners of things. Many aspects of this classical quaternary are still useful today, as evident in the Myers-Briggs typology, or modern physics' four states of matter - solid, liquid, gas and plasma.Lorredan wrote:Lets say Batons are air.(not that I do) by the time you have got to ten you have a gale which would be a big burden.
Obviously, the historic facts of tarot as game, and the speculative activities based around giving this set of symbols a different level of interpretation for use as a divinatory or contemplative tool, are for the most part, separate. This may beg the question, whether or not the commandeering of cards, dice, or even dominos, for esoteric purposes is proper, but putting that issue momentarily aside, I'm sure most of us here are aware that card games like tarot were not designed to be used as divinatory mediums. This gives us a certain leeway in how much of the actual gaming rule and custom to incorporate into our re-interpretations of the deck, if we choose to reinterpret the cards at all.Lorredan wrote:Thats how I see numbers- counting cards. They cannot be all one number, you would not have a Game.
RaH
