Talking just about Numerals.

-I ve been thinking that we surely barely all have a basic to more deep information about numbers and its meanings here.
-I mean on ours Occidental Culture we were infused with many cultures specially in that topic with Arab culture.
-But for not go to far we have Neoplatonism which surely was present at the time when Tarot de Marseille was born. (1500 century / Cary Sheet )
-For me the common connection was the time of Alexandria School so since I to III century in Egypt an Helenized Egypt btw...
-So here I purpose for a few moments leave aside ours respected "conclusions" and just WATCH the cards...
-As usual I go from General to Particular.

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-A premise just for an ahead start point...
To number somewhat or someone is to give or recognize a place related to others.He is physically "here" // So something unnumbered simply isn t here... (but could exists itself of course).

1-We have four Suits.
2-One unnumbered (DENIERS) and rest three numbered.
3-Aces aren t numbered
4-Aces aren t a zero nor a One.
5-So we jump from an Ace to two
6-The sequence is:
Ace-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
7-An Ace unnumbered and 9 cards numbered.
8-It s curious because 10 could suggest a return to zero so then to 1 as a new cycle but not seems as it...
9-We haven t a zero nor a One here.
10-So the sequence begin at 2 .
Two: Duality born from an archetypical world.
So isn t yet a "material world card" it s an idea yet.( passive card)
Three: The Agent /The Verb-(active card)
Four: 2 +3 = 4 // The Matter
Five: The Human Being (2+3+4 = 9 )
Six : God Presence ( 3 + 3 = 6 ) The first triangle pointing abovethe second below to the Universe his body.
The sacred interrelation betwen them.
Seven: The Divine on the Matter ( 3+4 )
Eight: The begin of the Sacred Divine Opus Alchemicum Work do by God to return the Matter from below to fit the Archetypical "Four Form" to the one above.
Nine: Once the " connection was done the fire (9 ) from the tail arise to reach the 0 of the nine number and then work was already done.
Ten: As a result God "fill " the entirely Universe with his "Sacred gift" of KNOWLEDGE.


eugim

Hi Eugim.

I prefer to look at patterns on the pips and see what they're doing. I sometimes even visualize the pips on playing cards, as well. They are very similar and this can lend some depth to my readings.

For instance, with the two's, there seems to be an activity in terms of two things interdependent on on another, a pair of something. Kidneys, halves of a refrigerator, a two way street (i.e., starting down a "new road", as it were)...

2's are a pair of hands, beginning something new
3's are a pair of hands and a head, growth or output
4's are two hands and two feet, a plan or course of action
5's are two hands, two feet, and a head---the number of man, results
(here we depart from merely "the physical")
6's are pathways to be taken
7's are magical, and signify the tools we pick up along the way
8's are our goals and destinations, though not final
9's are material means by which we complete the cycle---things
10's are completion

Squigglybeans wrote:Hi Eugim.

I prefer to look at patterns on the pips and see what they're doing. I sometimes even visualize the pips on playing cards, as well. They are very similar and this can lend some depth to my readings.

For instance, with the two's, there seems to be an activity in terms of two things interdependent on on another, a pair of something. Kidneys, halves of a refrigerator, a two way street (i.e., starting down a "new road", as it were)...

That's pretty much how I do it too. I look at the actual card, and see where that leads me. I tend not to have too many specific meanings for the numbers, but will use number associations based on the suit and the imagery.

Perhaps the greatest discovery of all time was the realization that "Things are Numbers."
In fact, one might say that civilization itself began at that moment.
Counting is what made pretty much everything else possible.

A deck of cards is a counting machine.

Now make your connections...

OnePotato wrote:Perhaps the greatest discovery of all time was the realization that "Things are Numbers."
In fact, one might say that civilization itself began at that moment.
Counting is what made pretty much everything else possible.

A deck of cards is a counting machine.

Now make your connections...

Very cool way of putting it.

I have a close personal friend who teaches high school Math and understands that tarot works. He can't wrap his mind around the "how" and therefore it frightens him. My explanation: "It's all Math; everything is Math".

So,very similar, if not identical to your motto, "Things Are Numbers", OP...

1-Ace are unnumbered as DENIERS also
2-Just for me something or someone numbered has a place related to others.
3-As LE MAT also btw .

.


I've had a lot of success with this model when dealing with numbers. 8-)







Cheers,

RaH

R.A. Hendley wrote:.


I've had a lot of success with this model when dealing with numbers. 8-)

Cheers,

RaH

Lucy, you got some 'splaining to do!

Sorry 'The Artist Formerly Known as Le Pendu". I guess it is a tad cyptic.

I'll spare the long winded "whys" and stick to the "whats". ("Whys" supplied on request. )

The elemental symbols (the little triangles) represent the numbers themselves starting with 1 at the top, 4 at the lower left, 7 at the lower right, and back up to 10 at the top again. Numbers, like everything else in creation, may be seen as having the characteristics of the four basic ways energy can manifest - FIRE, AIR, WATER, EARTH. (Not to be confused of course with actual fire, air, water, or earth.)

• 1 is Fire
• 2 is Water
• 3 is Air
• 4 is Earth
• 5 is Air
• 6 is Water
• 7 is Fire
• 8 is Water
• 9 is Air
• 10 is Earth

We start at the unity of the 1, which is like the divine source. 1 through 4 show how the divine descends into matter - impulse, separation, completion, consolidation. Here the energies are expansive, and practically we can draw useful parallels to evolution, and to the transpersonal.

7 through 10 show us how matter ascends into the divine, from a higher impulse (7) to a higher consolidation (10). Here the energies are contractive, and can represent involution, and the personal.

4 through 7 shows us the harmony and balancing of the two, containing the 'marriage numbers' 5 and 6. We can say it represents aspects that mix the transpersonal and the personal natures, and balance expansion and contraction.

I chose the triangle shape to emphasis these three separate aspects of the decad, and the importance and interrelation of the 1, 4, 7, and 10 within the decad.

The symbol at the top is SULPHUR, which is the Soul. The symbol on the lower left is SALT, which is the Body, and the symbol on the lower right is MERCURY, which is the Spirit.

The left maintains the general symbolism of the lunar/feminine, and the right maintains the symbolism of solar/masculine.

Whether or not one wishes to apply this model to the use and understanding of tarot is of course another matter, though I believe it is revealing of the properties of the first ten numbers, which are themselves revealing of the nature of all numbers, which are indeed revealing (so they say) of the very pattern of the whole universe as it exists in the divine mind, and other such mumbo-jumbo. ;)


Tally-ho,

RaH

Very interesting subject these numbers.
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?
I look at cards and see counting, not symbols except in the basic way.
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.
I look at numbers as useful. Thumb and pointer makes to hold a needle for threading; cotton in the other thumb and pointer, now you have four didgits in use and you can now thread your needle in a stable way. Two fingers and thumb can pick up food- which you cannot do with three fingers and thumb. By the time you are using four fingers you have turned your hand over to cup something in the palm. Five -one hand to slap or shake another. Very basic.
Thats how I see numbers- counting cards. They cannot be all one number, you would not have a Game.
~Lorredan~