Using Number to Find Meaning in the Cards
Last week we were talking about the ten building blocks of tarot card interpretation. This week we’ll drill down into the first building block: number. We’ll explore five different ways to interpret number in the tarot as a way of finding meaning in the cards.
When we think of number, we’re talking about the numbered cards from Ace through Ten, the ranks of the court cards, as well as the sequence of the Major Arcana.
Here are five ways to interpret number in the tarot pip cards:
- As a sequence, in which the Aces are the start and the Tens are the conclusion.
- As an inverted sequence, from Ten back to Ace. This works especially well in the Suits of Wands and Swords.
- The ten sephiroth of the qabalistic Tree of Life offer an array of correspondences that work well with the numbered cards Ace through Ten.
- The standard symbolism of Pythagorean numerology can give context to the cards numbered Ace through Nine. In this system, Tens are understood as a return to One.
- You can correlate the small card to the Major of the same number for deeper insight.
I also offer two bonuses: how to interpret numbers in the Majors as well as how to understand the Court Card ranks as a sequence.
Interpreting Number as a Sequence
That leads us into the first way to read numbers, as a sequence. The card number first and foremost indicates a sequence. Ace is low and Ten is high. We start at the beginning and travel through to the end. Low numbers are earlier in the cycle, high numbers indicate the final stages and conclusion.
The Inverted Sequence
But why can’t the story go backward? In fact, I wrote a blog post arguing that the Cups and Pentacles work best going forward through the suit, while the Wands and Swords tell their story from Ten to Ace (read more about this in Backwards and Forwards). That said, there’s a story in any suit read from the Ten back to the Ace.
Qabalistic Numerology
Some of the major influences on the development of card interpretations worked with the correspondences of the qabalistic Tree of Life, which shows ten steps from Perfect Unity down to Infinite Diversity. These ten steps naturally match the Ace through Ten sequence of the pip cards. You can learn more from my video, Tarot and the Ten Sephiroth.
If we get fancy, we can arrange all forty pip cards from the Ace of Wands through the Ten of Pentacles. See my video Forty Step Manifestation Process for more info.
Pythagorean Numerology
There are other formal systems of numerology. For example, many tarot readers rely on Pythagorean numerology as well as the modern reinterpretation of that system that is common in the New Age community. And of course any other system of numerology you are familiar with can be used as well.
Correlate the Small Cards to the Major with the Same Number
One last way of understanding the numbered Minor Arcana cards is to see them as expressions of the Major with the same number. So Aces fall under the auspices of the Magician, Twos are governed by the High Priestess, Threes by the Empress and so forth. Many readers find deep revelations in contemplating these correlations.
Bonus 1: How to Interpret Number in the Major Arcana
The sequence of the Major Arcana would need its own post, but there are two primary ways of understanding number in the Majors. The first method is commonly referred to as the Fool’s Journey and understands the Majors as a sequence, with the Fool moving through the series and meeting each Major card in order. However, there are many alternatives to and interpretations of the Fool’s Journey. Consider my Life-Death-Resurrection sequence as one way to meditate on the Major Arcana sequence.
The second is theosophical reduction, in which the digits of a number greater than 9 are added together to reduce that number to a digit from 1 to 9. This allows the larger numbered cards to gain context from the single digit cards.
Bonus 2: Understanding Court Cards as a Sequence
The rank of the court cards is also a sequence.
- The Pages are just starting something. They are inexperienced, eager, and perhaps vulnerable or overwhelmed.
- The Knights are growing and changing, testing their abilities and exploring what’s out there.
- The Queens and Kings are equal in rank, but offer different skill sets. They represent accomplishment, achievement, and authority. I base the following interpretations in part on astrological symbolism, which we’ll cover under the category “hidden symbols.”
- Generally, I associate the Queens with actively getting things done or solving problems with a confident expectation of success (unlike the Knight).
- Meanwhile, the Kings represent the state of having finished or completed a task, or the planning stage of a new task.
So, in terms of a task, the Page is starting without knowledge of how to do the task. Then the Knight is testing the options. The Queen knows which option will produce the desired result. Finally, the King has completed the task.
Learn more About Number as a Building Block of Interpretation
If you’d like to learn more about how to interpret number in the tarot, my new Mythology and the Minor Arcana program is my best offer for how I can help you use the building blocks for tarot interpretation and better understand the philosophies that give meaning to the cards.
