Discussion in French about the Arithmological Tarot on :
http://www.traditiontarot.com/viewtopic ... 619#p12619
The Forum was created by Laurent EDOUARD (Translator in French of the TarotL History Fact sheet circa 2006), it is dedicated to the memory of Jean Claude FLORNOY.
Of interest for those who understand French ...
Recreative Aparte :
From dices to Tarot
I expose my speculative take about Moakley's remark that cards replaced dices.
"Why are there fifty-six suit cards, and why are there twenty-one trumps? The answer is found when we remember that cards, as a game of chance, replaced dice almost completely. In the dice games which use three dice, there are fifty-six possible throws, and with two dice twenty-one.”
I. The 21 throws of 2 dices (with 6 faces 1,2,3,4,5,6) and the 21 Triomphes + 1 as Nulla = 22
I suggest that the 22nd is an invalid throw or Nulla [0].
I present the 21+1 invalid throw [0]) throws in the generation of the pentagonal Number 22 as 22 Triomphes :
22 = 1+4+7+10
Resume of my proposal applied to Order C as example but it is correct also for whatever list has 21 or 22...
Moakley 's proposition within the Pentagonal Number 22 applied to 22 Triomphes :
(to understand : remember each throw with 2 dices each with 6 faces from 1 to 6 - so one face among 6 on each dice at each time)
First enclosure :
1+1 Bateleur
Second enclosure :
1+2 Impératrice
1+3 Empereur
1+4 Papesse
1+5 Pape
Third enclosure :
1+6 Amoureux
2+2 Tempérance
2+3 Chariot
2+4 Force
2+5 Roue
2+6 Ermite
3+3 Pendu
Fourth enclosure :
3+4 Mort
3+5 Diable
3+6 Tour
4+4 Etoiles
4+5 Lune
4+6 Soleil
5+5 Jugement
5+6 Justice
6+6 Monde
0+0 Math
Remark : Independently of the arithmological sequence in 1+4+7+10 , the pure succession of the 22 combinaisons is not impossible to remember for a normal person and unically memorizing the order of the Triomphes, the signification is immediatey given. No? Finally knowing the Bagat as first as 1+1 and the World as 6+6 and the Math as NULLA, therz are only four Triomphes to remember :
Temperance who initiates the Twos
The hanged Man who initiates the Threes
The Star who initiate the Fours
The Judment who initiates the Fives
Well at least, now you can use 3 dices if you haven't yur deck at hand!
Changes if your deck belongs to Order A or B ...
Could be useful in case of urgency
1+1
Bateleur
1+2 Impératrice
1+3 Empereur
1+4 Papesse
1+5 Pape
1+6 Amoureux
2+2
Tempérance
2+3 Chariot
2+4 Force
2+5 Roue
2+6 Ermite
3+3
Pendu
3+4 Mort
3+5 Diable
3+6 Tour
4+4
Etoiles
4+5 Lune
4+6 Soleil
5+5
Jugement
5+6 Justice
6+6
Monde
0+0
Math
II. The 56 throws with 3 dices and the 56 suit cards (correct in English?)
The correspondences are at work because they still need to be grounded, from an arithmological point of view, on a clear relation of Enseignes (cards) : emblems (tarots) with the 4 Elements in the following order : Earth / Water / Air / Fire ...
So, as it is in my mind...
Yet, if the 22 combinations with two dices are easily memorized, it seems quite complicate to memorize the 56 combinations of 3 dices ; Wibold's lists or Ovid's grouping in singles, pairs and threes? See final Note ...
The 56 throws of 3 dices (6 faces each) corresponding to the 56 suit cards
(remember 4 Tetractys of 4 Elements = 40 Numerals + 4 Squares of 4 Elements = 16 honours)
So :
-vertical column 14 = 10 numerals + 4 honours
-horizontal column : 4 elements
(remember each throw has 3 dices with one number from 1 to 6 : see Final Note
[easier seems to me pseudo Ovid' grouping in singles, pairs and threes ]
Example : the As of "Earth" should be [1+1+1] while the King of "Fire" as {6+6+6]
-- Earth / Water / Air / Fire
1 1+1+1 / ... / ... / .... /
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
J
C
Q
K ... / ... / ... / 6+6+6
Note about the 56 throws of 3 dices with 6 faces :
The 56 distinguishable occurences were associated with practise of Virtues for monacal reasons by Wibold of Cambrai circa 1000 AD.
He enumerated 56 virtues - one corresponding to each of the ways 3 dices could be thrown irrespective of order
The use of dices for the purpose of choosing among a number of possibilities is much older than Wibold.
The earliest approch to the counting of the numebrs of ways in which 3 dices can fall appears to occur in a latin poem "De vetula"; this remarquable work was regarded as Ovide's for some time, and is included in some of the medieval editions of his poems. It is however suppositious and several candadates have been proposed for authorship. The relevant passage may be briefly and freely construed as follows :
If all three numbers are alike, there are 6 possibilities.
if two are alike and the other different, there are 30 cases because the pair can be choosen in 6 ways
and if all three are different, there are 20 ways because 30 x 4 = 120, but each possibilities arises in 6 ways [120 : 6 = 20]
Cf :
https://books.google.fr/books?id=LLEZQC ... es&f=false
Nota bene
The number 56 in classical antiquity realated to "divination" :
Two kinds of dice were used in classical antiquity: dice proper (kuboi, tessarae), which are virtually identical to six-sided modern dice, and knucklebones (astragali, tali), which have four sides (Halliday 205-15, esp. 213-15; David 1-7; Ore 193). For divination, five astragali were rolled, and the resulting combination was looked up on a four-sided pillar, many examples of which survive in more or less fragmentary form (e.g., Sterrett "Epig.", "Wolfe"; Kaibel). It so happens that the number of possible five-astragali throws is 56, exactly the number of Minor Arcana, and that the throws were listed on the tablets in four "suits" (two of 15 throws, two of 13; see Halliday 213n3).
(
http://wisdomofhypatia.com/OM/BA/PT/Mintro.html)
END of the Aparte upon Dices and Tarot
