tarot and the meanng of number-libre

8/10/2019 Tarot and the Meanng of Number-libre

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Introduction to Tarot

Structure of the Deck and The Meaning of Number

This lecture is based on the Rider Waite deck, but may be applied to other Tarot decksthat are based on Rider Waite or have a similar structure. Some may also fit CrowleysThoth deck, as this deck has similar Golden Dawn origins as the Rider Waite deck.It will not apply as much to older decks, such as Marseilles, but you may find some ofthis information helpful.

Structure of the Deck

(Please read over this section even if you know something about Tarot).

Historically, Tarot decks have 78 cards divided into two sections:

1. Major Arcana (or Trump cards)

2. Minor Arcana (or Pip cards)

The Major Arcanacontains 22 cards ranging from 0: The Fool to 21: The World.The sequence of the Major Arcana has been a standard sequence for centuries.However, you can find decks, especially older decks, which have a different sequence

of these cards or even have completely different cards for the Major Arcana.

The Minor Arcana has 56 cards organized into four suits. Each suit containsfourteen cardsten numbered cards (Ace through 10) and four Court cards(Page, Knight, Queen, King). The four suits in the Rider Waite deck are Wands, Cups,Swords, and Pentacles. The Minor Arcana cards have similar origins to standardplaying cards, and the suit symbols reflect the Italian origins of Tarot. You can also findother terms for some of these suits. Wands can also be called Batons, Staves, or Staffs,and Pentacles can also be called Coins, Disks, or Discs. The original Italian terms areBastoni (Wands), Coppe (Cups), Spade (Swords), and Denari (Coins or Pentacles).A Pentacle is a coin or disk containing a five-pointed star in the middle.

Cartomancy is the term for divination through cards. This term is usually reserved fordivination with standard playing cards. This discussion only covers divination with Tarotand only briefly touches on the historical connection between standard playing cardsand Tarot decks.

Some French Tarot decks use the same symbols of Clubs, Hearts, Spades, andDiamonds that you find in standard playing-card decks. Clubs correspond to Wands(Bastoni), Hearts correspond to Cups (Coppe), Spades correspond toSwords (Spade), and Diamonds correspond to Pentacles/Coins (Denari). The Englishterm Spades derives from the Italian term Spade, which means Swords.

Most Tarot decks display the numbers on the cards as Roman numerals,

although some recent decks display the numbers as standard Arabic numerals.The face cards in a standard playing-card deck correspond to the Court cards in aTarot deck, with the Page and Knight merged into the single card called Jack.Some believe that there may be a connection between Fool in the Major Arcana and theJoker in a standard playing-card deck.

The suit symbols in a playing-card deck are termed Pips and you can see this termalso used for Tarot decks. Tarot decks, such as the historical Visconti-Sforza Tarot orthe Marseilles Tarot, are sometimes called pip-only decks, as the cards in theMinor Arcana (outside of the Court cards) contain no illustrations beyond the number ofsuit symbols designated by the number on the card.


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The reference to Major Arcana cards as Trump cards also derives fromplaying-card terminology. This relates to the historical use, first in 15th century Italyand then in other European countries, of Tarot cards for card games that are calledtrick-taking games. In Italy this game is called Tarocchi, which is the plural of Tarocco,the Italian term for Tarot cards.

The English term trump or trumps derives from the Italian term Trionfi, as thesecards score higher than even the highest-scoring pip cards. Contemporary card games,

such as gin rummy, bridge, spades, or hearts are trick-taking games and have similarorigins to the card games played with Tarot decks. Certain areas of Europe,especially Italy, still use Tarot decks for playing card games.

15th century Italy had separate decks of cards, also referred to as Trionfi,that displayed allegorical scenes and scenes of medieval Italian life. Tarocchi decksmerged this deck with a four-suit deck more related to standard playing cards.This merging is the origin of the 78-card Tarot deck.

Tarot itself is a French term. In Austria and Germany, it is called Tarock. You canfind some Tarock decks that have less than 78 cards. This relates to certain cardgames in Austria and Germany that dont use the full contingent of 78 cards. Some of

these French and German decks display allegorical or historical scenes relating to life inmedieval France, Germany, and Austria rather than the standard Major Arcana cards.The same may be true of decks from Spain, but Ive never seen a Spanish Tarot deck.

The use of playing cards, including Tarot cards, for divination has probably been aroundas long as playing cards have been with us. One later development, especially in 18th-and 19th-century France, was to connect Tarot to pre-existing esoteric andoccult systems. Men such as Antoine Court de Gbelin (ca. 1719-1784)and Etteilla (nee Jean-Baptiste Alliette, 1738-1791) began to interpret Tarot from thepoint of view of such systems as alchemy, Kabbalah (Qabalah), Hermeticism,Free Masonry and Rosicrucianism.

In late 19th century England, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn utilized thisesoteric version of Tarot in its rituals. A. E. Waite and illustrator Pamela Colman Smith,both associated with the Golden Dawn, published the Rider Waite deck in 1911 andWaite wrote his Pictorial Key to the Tarot also in 1911. This book also introduced theCeltic Cross tarot layout. This is the origin of modern Tarot. The Golden Dawn is alsothe origin of Aleister Crowleys Thoth deck, illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris.

Even though the Golden Dawn did not last beyond the early 20th century, the influenceof this organization has lasted well into the 21st century. The Rider Waite deck is stillthe most popular deck in the United States and many later decks have been patternedafter this deck or are so close to almost be a clone of Rider Waite.

You can sometimes find contemporary Tarot decks that have more than 78 cards.Deck creators and publishers have sometimes added a few extra cards to the deck.However, you will not find a Tarot deck that has less than 78 cards or has anotherstructure other than a deck that has four suits of fourteen cards each and is combinedwith the cards termed the Major Arcana or Trumps.

Even though you can find divination/oracle decks with a different structure or a lot less(or more) than 78 cards, these decks are not technically Tarot decksregardless of theterm Tarot being applied to these decks. These other decks would be more properlycalled oracle decks rather than Tarot decks.


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In the second section below, I am only discussing Tarot decks especially those decksthat derive from the Rider Waite deck.

The Meaning of Number

What do I mean by the meaning of number? In some way or another, most of us havebeen dealing with the concept of number for most of our lives. We cant live without it.

Most of the time, though, we deal with the concept of number from the perspective of

numeration or counting. Seven days make up a week; twenty-four hours make up a day;if I have one pencil and buy five more, I now have six pencils.

Adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, balancing a checkbook, calculating interest all of these actions deal with number from the concept of numeration. When we say thatseventy-eight cards make up a Tarot deck or that the Minor Arcana has four suits,we are using the concept of numeration to describe the deck.

Another meaning of number is the concept of sequence. The number two comes beforethree and after one. The number five comes before six, but after four. In this discussion,I am not considering negative numbers, only positive numbers.

The most common sequence is to start with the number one, unless you start with zero,

making one the second number in the sequence. You obtain subsequent numbers byadding one to the current number, making the sequence never-ending unless youdetermine an ending number. When I was younger, my brother and I decided to countto one million by taking turns writing a sequence of numbers on paper. If my motherhadnt made us stop, we probably would still be counting.

You can start your sequence at any number you choose and use any number todetermine the pattern of the sequence. Some other common sequences are to count byodd and even numbers (1,3,5,7 2,4,6,8 ), count by fives (5,10,15,20 ), count bytens (10,20,30,40 ) or to count by hundreds (100,200,300 ).

In metaphysics, the concept of number relates to the discipline of numerology.

In numerology, the individual numbers have meanings that are beyond their numericalor sequential properties. These meanings can be spiritual, psychological, esoteric,or symbolic. Many modern systems of numerology derive from Pythagoras, a Greekphilosopher from the 6th century BC. He believed that everything could be expressed innumerical terms because all things are ultimately reducible to numbers.

Im not a numerologist, but have read up on the topic since becoming a Tarot reader.You can find many different attributions for the meaning of numbers according tomodern systems of numerology. Some numerologists are also Tarot card readers anduse their understanding of numerology when interpreting the cards.

Heres my own basic Pythagorean understanding of the numbers One through Ten:

1. Beginning/Unity

2. Duality/Partnership

3. Creativity/Growth

4. Stability/Structure

5. Instability/Change


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6. Harmony/Cooperation

7. Spirituality/Wisdom

8. Infinity/Rebirth/Regeneration

9. Completion/Attainment

10. Final manifestation/New beginning

While it is true that you can use modern interpretations of Pythagoras to understand themeaning of number in Tarot, you can find places where the system just doesnt quite fit.The reason for this is that the numerology of Tarot doesnt derive from Pythagoras,but from the hermetic version of Kabbalah (sometimes spelled Qabalah). As noted inthe first section above, both the Rider Waite deck and the Thoth deck connect to theircreators understanding of Kabbalah along with other esoteric systems.

Due to the structure of the Tree of Life, it is the numbers 1 through 10 that hold theprimary meaning in Kabbalistic numerology. Kabbalah contains 32 paths, and thenumbers 1 through 10 are the first 10 paths, corresponding to the 10 Sephiroth on theTree of Life. Paths 11 through 32 are the 22 lines that connect these 10 positions,and also connect to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The attributions connected tothese paths derive from the esoteric/spiritual attributes of these Hebrew letters.


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The Tree of Life is meant to illustrate the Kabbalistic understanding of the creation ofour physical reality. In the beginning would correspond to the number 1 and thenumber 10 corresponds to this physical reality we live in now. In addition, the numbers4, 10 and 22 carry further meaning in Kabbalah.

The number 4 corresponds to the four-letter name for God in Hebrew, read from rightto left, called the Tetragrammaton:

This is one reason why in Kabbalah you dont just have one Tree of Life, but four,corresponding to what is called the four Kabbalistic worlds. Each of these worldscorresponds to a letter that also corresponds to one of the magical elements ofFire (Yod), Water (Heh), Air (Vav) and Earth (second Heh). These four Kabbalisticworlds are Atziluth (Emanation/Fire), Briah (Creation/Water), Yetzirah (Formation/Air),and Assiah (Manifestation/Earth).


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Another way of looking at these four worlds is called Jacobs Ladder and shows howthese four worlds intersect:


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This is another way to see the intersecting of the four worlds:

In Tarot, these four worlds connect to the suits of the Minor Arcana:


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The number 10 corresponds to the ten positions on the Tree of Life and in Tarot theseten positions correspond to the Ace through 10 in each suit of the Minor Arcana andalso correspond to Court Cards in each suit (by way of numbers 2,3, 6 and 10). As youthen have four separate Trees of Life, one for each of the four elements, this gives youa connection to all 56 cards in the Minor Arcana.

The number 22 corresponds to the 22 paths that connect the 10 positions on theTree of Life. Each of these paths connects to one of the 22 Hebrew letters and also to

the 22 cards in the Major Arcana. I am not going to spend a lot of time discussing theMajor Arcana in this lesson, as the use of number in the Major Arcana does notsystematically connect to the meanings of the ten numbers that I will be covering here.

Sometimes, Kabbalah will talk about 32 paths. This is because the first 10 numbers thatcorrespond to the 10 positions (or sephiroth) on the Tree of Life are also called paths.However, usually when you use the term paths in Tarot you refer to the paths thatconnect the 10 positions. These paths are numbered 11 to 32 and are the 22 paths thatconnect to the Major Arcana in Tarot.

Above, I had mentioned the uses of numbers as sequence. In the Major Arcana,the connection to number is that of sequence, not of numerology. The Lovers is number

6 because it falls between The Hierophant, number 5, and The Chariot, number 7,not because it corresponds to the meaning of the number 6 (Tiphereth/Beauty) on theTree of Life in the same way as the Sixes in the Minor Arcana.

This is true of the use of number in all of the Major Arcana, although it is possible tonon-systematically connect all Major Arcana cards to the numbers 1 through 10 bynumerological reduction. I sometimes do this in readings.

Number 1 cards: The Magician (1), Wheel of Fortune (10), Sun (19)

Number 2 cards: The High Priestess (2), Justice (11), Judgement (20)

Number 3 cards: The Empress (3), The Hanged Man (12), The World (21)

Number 4 cards: The Emperor (4), Death (13)Number 5 cards: The Hierophant (5), Temperance (14)

Number 6 cards: The Lovers (6), The Devil (15)

Number 7 cards: The Chariot (7), The Tower (16)

Number 8 cards: Strength (8), Star (17)

Number 9 cards: Hermit (9), Moon (18)

Number 10 cards: Wheel of Fortune (10), Sun (19)

The Fool (0) is a kind of wild card that connects to nothing and everything. If you knowsomething about Tarot birth cards, you might note that the above list looks a bit like thelist of birth card pairings. The Sun and The Wheel of Fortune appear in multiple placesbecause of the numerological connection of the numbers 19 and 10 to the number 1.


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The chart below shows how you can fit all 78 cards of Tarot into Kabbalah.Remember that you actually have four Trees of Life, one for each of the four elements.It is the Minor Arcana that changes from one Tree of Life to another. The Major Arcanaconnecting to the paths is the same for each of the four Trees of Life. You can havevarying attributions for how the Court Cards connect to the Tree of Life. However, Kingsand Knights connect to numbers 2 and 6, and Queens and Pages connect to numbers3 and 10. Beyond showing this, Im not spending time on Court Cards.

I will spend the rest of this lesson discussing the meaning of the 10 numbers inKabbalah and what these mean for Tarot.


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We show these 10 numbers as 10 separate positions on the Tree of Life and oftenspeak of the process of moving from the number 1 in the beginning to the number 10 atthe end. Yet, in Kabbalah, these 10 sephiroth are looked upon as having been createdalmost simultaneously, in one single movementalmost like a flash of lightning.This is sometimes referred to as the Path of the Lightning Sword.

Kabbalah also has other ways of grouping the 10 sephiroth in order to present certainunderstandings about the creation of our physical reality.


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You can group the 10 positions into three pillars. The right-hand pillar is Masculine andcorresponds to the element of Fire. The left-hand pillar is Feminine and corresponds tothe element of Water. The central (or middle) pillar is the synthesis of Masculine andFeminine, and corresponds to the element of Air. The only exception is the number 10.Even though it is part of the central pillar, the number 10 corresponds to the elementof Earth, as the element of Earth is derived by the combining of Fire, Water, and Air.

The right-hand Masculine pillar is also called the Pillar of Mercy and the left-handFeminine pillar is also called the Pillar of Severity. These designations come from thenames of the center sephiroth on each of these pillars.


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You can also group the 10 positions into three triads. Note that the uppermost triadpoints upward and the two lower triads point downward. If you consider the Hermeticstatement, As above, so below, the uppermost triad is the above and the two lowertriads are the below. It is interesting to note that in Kabbalah below has twodifferent levels. The term supernal in the Supernal Triad means from above.

In addition, the number 10 sits separate and is not part of any of the triads. This isbecause 10 represents this physical reality and it takes all of the numbers from 1 to 9 toput the physical world in place. In some ways, the only thing that exists on this physicalplane is represented by the number 10. Everything above it, from our point of view,is hidden. The lower the number is the higher up it is on the Tree, and the more hiddenand abstract what it represents becomes.

This means, for example, that the number 9 and what it represents may be hidden,but is actually very close to the physical world of the number 10; but the number 1 is sodistant and abstract that you cant get there from here. Kabbalah has a meditationalpractice called pathworking.


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Some say that you cant get any higher than the number 6 through your own humanefforts. The number 6 is sometimes referred to as the spiritual center of the Tree andis also its structural center. Note that in the earlier chart that displays all of the paths onthe Tree of Life that most positions have three or four paths that connect to them.Position 6 has eights paths that connect to it and this emphasizes the centralimportance of this number.

This is only the most basic understanding of the immensity that is Kabbalah and

Kabbalistic numerology. Even though it may seem abstract and unnecessary to theunderstanding of Tarot, if you come to understand the basics of Kabbalah you will havea better understanding of the structure of Tarot. This is especially true of decks such asthe Rider Waite that are specifically designed to illustrate this information.

Someone once asked me why the Fives in the Minor Arcana look so negative.This connection to Kabbalah and the meaning of the number 5 (Gevurah/Severity)on the Tree of Life is the reason for this negative look of these cards. In some ways,all of the Fives in the Minor Arcana offer the same meaningat least the meaning,in Kabbalah, of the number 5. This basic meaning is then translated by the elementsof the four suits in order to get to the specific meaning of each of the Fives.

For example, the meaning of the 5 of Wands filters the meaning of the number 5through the element of Fire and the 5 of Swords filters that same meaning through theelement of Air. This is true of the Ace through Ten in each suit of the Minor Arcana.

When you look in the Rider Waite deck at the four Aces from the Minor Arcana,its hard not to notice the structural similarity of these cardsall show a white handemerging from a cloud offering the symbol of one of the four suits. This similarity makesit a bit more obvious that these cards, in some way, all point in the same direction.That similarity comes from the meaning of the number 1. The fact that the number 1 isso close to the beginning of things is why that similarity is more apparent.

Yet, this same similarity of meaning is true of all forty cards in the Minor Arcana that

connect to the numbers 1 through 10. It is also true that the further away you get fromthe source in the number 1, the less obvious that similarity becomes. Note the realdifference in tone between the 10 of Cups and 10 of Pentacles on the one hand and the10 of Wands and 10 of Swords on the other.

A basic understanding of the meaning of the numbers in the Minor Arcana will only helpyou become a better reader. This is especially true when the same number comes upmultiple times in the same reading.

For example, if you have the 3 of Pentacles in a reading, your usual way of interpretingthat card may suffice; but if you also have the 3 of Cups and the 3 of Wands in thatsame reading, the overall meaning of the number 3 may be just as important as thespecific meaning of each of these cards.

If, in addition, you also have the Empress in that same reading, even if this card doesntconnect to the meaning of the number 3 in the same way, its presence may furtheremphasize the meaning of the number 3.

The more you can analyze the meaning of the numbers that show up in a reading,the more information you can obtain in that reading. I also like to ask a client to choosea number from 1 to 10 before I start the reading. Not only does this give me moreinformation about the clients state of mind, it also makes it significant when this numberalso shows up in the reading.


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Here is a list of the basic meanings of the numbers 1 through 10 in Tarot as thesemeanings come from Kabbalistic numerology:

1 (Aces): Unity, Origin, Potential (beginnings, seeds, possibilities)2 (Twos): Expansion, Duality, Life Force3 (Threes): Form, Container, Fertility4 (Fours): Stability, Kindness, Grace5 (Fives): Discipline, Clarification, Might (sources of stress or anxiety)

6 (Sixes): Harmony, Pleasure, Perfection (ideals, the beautiful)7 (Sevens): Passion, Karma, Instinct (what gets you up in the morning)8 (Eights): Intellect, Progress, Science (the genius of your own mind)9 (Nines): Fruition, Cycles, Results10 (Tens): Sensations, Completion, Consequences

From Leisa ReFalos Tarot of Color, used with permission. Additions in parenthesesadded by me. Tarot of Color is copyrighted 2005-2007 to Leisa ReFalo.

You can also get a lot of information by using the names of these 10 positions in

combination with the general meaning of the element. Ive also added the Golden Dawnesoteric titles as an added point of interpretation

Ace of Wands: The potential of the will.(The Root of the Power of Fire)

Two of Wands: The wisdom of the will.(The Lord of Dominion)

Three of Wands: The understanding of the will.(The Lord of Established Strength)

Four of Wands: The mercy/grace of the will.(The Lord of Perfected Works)

Five of Wands: The severity of the will.(The Lord of Strife)

Six of Wands: The beauty of the will.(The Lord of Victory)

Seven of Wands: The victory of the will.(The Lord of Valor)

Eight of Wands: The splendor of the will.

(The Lord of Swiftness)Nine of Wands: The foundation of the will.

(The Lord of Great Strength)

Ten of Wands: The kingdom/manifestation of the will.(The Lord of Oppression)


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Ace of Cups: The potential of the heart.(The Root of the Power of Water)

Two of Cups: The wisdom of the heart.(The Lord of Love)

Three of Cups: The understanding of the heart.(The Lord of Abundance)

Four of Cups: The mercy/grace of the heart.(The Lord of Blended Pleasure)

Five of Cups: The severity of the heart.(The Lord of Loss in Pleasure)

Six of Cups: The beauty of the heart.(The Lord of Pleasure)

Seven of Cups: The victory of the heart.(The Lord of Illusionary Success)

Eight of Cups: The splendor of the heart.

(The Lord of Abandoned Success)Nine of Cups: The foundation of the heart.

(The Lord of Material Happiness)

Ten of Cups: The kingdom/manifestation of the heart.(The Lord of Perfected Success)

Ace of Swords: The potential of the mind.(The Root of the Power of Air)

Two of Swords: The wisdom of the mind.

(The Lord of Peace Restored)Three of Swords: The understanding of the mind.

(The Lord of Sorrow)

Four of Swords The mercy/grace of the mind.(The Lord of Rest from Strife)

Five of Swords The severity of the mind.(The Lord of Defeat)

Six of Swords The beauty of the mind.(The Lord of Earned Success)

Seven of Swords The victory of the mind.(The Lord of Unstable Effort)

Eight of Swords The splendor of the mind.

(The Lord of Shortened Force)

Nine of Swords The foundation of the mind.

(The Lord of Despair and Cruelty)

Ten of Swords The kingdom/manifestation of the mind.

(The Lord of Ruin)


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Ace of Pentacles The potential of manifestation.(The Root of the Power of Earth)

Two of Pentacles The wisdom of manifestation.(The Lord of Harmonious Change)

Three of Pentacles The understanding of manifestation.(The Lord of Material Works.)

Four of Pentacles The mercy/grace of manifestation.(The Lord of Earthly Power)

Five of Pentacles The severity of manifestation.(The Lord of Material Trouble)

Six of Pentacles The beauty of manifestation(The Lord of Material Success)

Seven of Pentacles The victory of manifestation(The Lord of Success Unfulfilled)

Eight of Pentacles The splendor of manifestation.

(The Lord of Prudence)Nine of Pentacles The foundation of manifestation.

(The Lord of Material Gain)

Ten of Pentacles The kingdom/manifestation of manifestation.(The Lord of Wealth)

In my opinion, Tarot is first and foremost an energy system and that is what makes itflexible and able to connect to so many different types of situations. The primary source

of that energy is in the four elements, but that energy is translated and modified in manyplaces by the meaning of the numbers, which also have their own energies. I hope thatthis brief overview has helped you understand a little more about the meaning ofnumber in Tarot and why it is important.

This has only been a brief overview of a complex subject. Yet, even a simpleunderstanding of Kabbalistic numerology can add so much to your kitbag ofinterpretive techniques, especially in the Minor Arcana. I hope that this information willhelp you to gain your own understanding of the meaning of number in Tarot.

tarot and the meanng of number-libre

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