Introducing basic Numerology

[attilablaga]

The basic and most frequently used Numerology technique is called “theosophical addition” or “esoteric reduction” and consist in reducing to a single digit number any date or number. For instance, 2019 is three. 2+0+1+9=12 12=1+2=3
Tarot readers usually associate the numbers with the twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana and subsequently with the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Number three is attributed to The Empress.

However, we should bear in mind that in the oldest Tarot deck we know, the Cary-Yale Visconti deck, the Major Arcana cards were not numbered.
Another classic Italian Tarot deck, the Sola-Busca Tarot deck from 1584 has an entirely different numbering of the trumps. Numbering the cards of the Major Arcana seem to be something developed as a necessity of ranking and pointing the cards in order to play the Tarot card game, rather than a secret code of esoteric substance.
In the beginning, the numbering of the Major Arcana cards varies according to regions and time. The current, considered traditional numbering of the trumps is based on the pattern of the Tarot of Marseille, and most probably it is also strictly game related while the Tarot was at that time and it is still a highly popular card game in France – rather than an esoteric instrument of fortunetelling and divination.

Did you ever add up your birth numbers? Of course, you did! Let’s chose a random date, 28 February 1982, for instance. 2+8=10=1+0=1. February=2. 1+9+8+2=20=2+0=2. 1+2+2=5. In Numerology, this is called the “life path number.”
Traditionally, The Hierophant, also known as The High Priest, is numbered five (respectively V with the Roman number) in the Tarot deck. Accordingly, some may say, that would be your Tarot card. It is pretty entertaining, isn’t it? However, it is entirely irrelevant. Every universal (Astronomical, Astrological, Numerological, ‘esoteric’ or ‘spiritual’ if you do not mind) year begins with the Spring Equinox about March 19, 20 or 21 in the Northern Hemisphere. The first day of the year coincides with the first day of Aries. If you consider yourself a spiritual person and want to wish someone Happy New Year, you should wait until March. January 1st is just an ordinary day at the end of the first decan of Capricorn. 28 February (2 – being the second month of the calendar year) is approximately the 8th day of Pisces (12 – being the twelve sign and subsequently the twelve months of the universal year). It is not 28+2=3, but 8+12=2. Someone can exactly calculate the number of the day by checking the dates of equinoxes and solstices in that particular year, respectively by checking the astrological chart.
We suppose we are in the Age of Pisces, but some claims we are already in the Age of Aquarius. Unfortunately, we do not know for sure. We only know that an astrological age is a product of the Earth’s slow precessional rotation and lasts for about 2160 years. We do not know what year is this. 2019 being the year 2019 of the Age of the Pisces is possible but highly unlikely. However, without knowing the exact year, calculating the life path it is not possible. Many numerological formulas require the year of birth which practically makes these formulas useless.
We currently use the Gregorian calendar which is a so-called civil and administrative calendar, nothing but a convention. Proper to pay your bills and taxes, but inappropriate for esoteric operations such as Numerology. So, don’t bother, 28 February 1982, from esoteric and Numerology perspective means absolutely nothing.
You can ride a bicycle, but don’t expect to get you to the Moon.

[Joan Marie]

So Attila, am I understanding your post here correctly? It seems you are saying that the "Life Path Number" is impossible to determine because of changes to the calendar that have rendered it useless in calculating anything based on dates.

Mine comes out to 8 by the way.

[Tarot_scholar]

I am so here for this controversial opinion!!





But on a more serious note, I'll raise some other points. Because I have a really hard time getting into numerology for its own sake, and only begrudgingly accept it within Tarot.

My beef with numerology is that it's predicated on a base ten system. There is no universal law that says everything should run on base ten -- it tends to dominate here on Earth for reasons of convenience (the vast majority of us being born with ten fingers) and probably cultural imperialism somewhere down the line as well. It's just pure happenstance, in other words. Attila already pointed to how arbitrary our Western Gregorian calendar is -- add our base ten tomfoolery on top of that and the result is an arbitrary value in an arbitrary system.

Like, take pi (3.14159...). The relationship between a circle's radius and its circumference will never change -- the proportion will be constant (though at least within Euclid!) -- but you can represent it differently in different systems.

Here's base 5, for example:

3.03232...

Or, for those of you into coding and image manipulation, hexadecimal:

3.243F6 A888....

Of course, we've done powerful things with our arbitrary numbers. We've created nuclear bombs and sent people to the moon. That's the power of an arbitrary approximation! But with numerology, this arbitrary approximation stops being the signpost or the tool and starts being the end goal -- a fetish object, almost. Kind of like Dumbo's feather.

The extent to which I apply numerology to Tarot is to accept that across the Minor Arcana, all of the pips from the Aces to 10s represent a similar "stage" within the element. If a deck creator is explicit in their application of numerology to a deck, I'll work within that system or at least be aware of those intended connections and meanings when I read. It's worth nothing when a bunch of 7s or 3s turn up in a reading, after all.

Of course, now that I've typed this up, I realize that's another thing that separates the Minors from the Majors. The Minors are presented from 1 to 10, in the basic numeral system we use for everyday daily affairs, while the 22 Majors have transcended those everyday issues and, thus, the base 10 system. In which case I think if I were going to design a deck, I'd leave the Majors unnumbered or perhaps reorder them according to my own liking. (Jack of Wands has an interesting numerology take where he uses base 22 when calculating a personal year/life path number -- if you combined a base 22 system with measuring degrees from 0* Aries that might yield something really interesting!)

Most of what's within this post is a little half baked I'll admit but tl;dr I can't get into numerology and I believe I have very good reasons for why

[jaq]

Ha! Numerology! Hand me the popcorn!

I am also a begrudging and sparing user of numerology.

The only thing that makes sense for me is to go by what seem to be some relatively generally accepted ideas about numbers. E.g., 1 is the first, the singular, the lonely, the beginning, etc. 2 makes us think of couples, of the first more-than-one, the opposites, etc. I find the Kabbalah somewhat useful for the lower numbers. The higher the number goes, though, the fuzzier it gets. This is probably partly due to the fact that humans can't really hold more than 7 items in their heads at the same time; in fact, I doubt that we're that good with anything past 5 (oh, look, that's the number of fingers on one hand!)

I tend to see numbers as just another phenomenon in a spread. I will notice them the way I notice, say, a recurring blue outfit in the cards, or when there's a seven-card spread without a Major in it (which is not terribly likely, statistically speaking.) E.g. it's interesting when cards show up in number sequence (e.g. 9 of pents, 10 of cups, page of swords) or when the spread is supported by a particular mathematical operation, for instance, when the 3 of swords shows up, after it the Devil, and then the Moon (3+15=18).

The base 10 doesn’t bother me so much. Base 10 is a cultural construct, the Tarot (in my mind) is a cultural construct, so we’re fine. The same with the fact that early Tarot decks weren’t numbered. We’re not using those unnumbered cards, and we don’t live in the Renaissance anymore.

I guess much of where you come down in this discussion depends on whether you believe that Tarot holds universal truths that can be applied directly to individual situations. As you might imagine by now, I don’t believe that.

In Mary Greer’s fabulous “21 Ways To Read A Tarot Card”, there is a great exercise where you’re encouraged to come up with all your ideas about a number. I really enjoyed that.

What this post really helped me with is question my penchant for looking for quint cards (where you add up the number of all the cards, reduce that number to a number 22 or lower, then see what Major that is and take it to be the quintessence of the spread). If I don’t believe in numerology, why am I doing this? What am I basing this practice on?

[Joan Marie]

I've shifted this discussion to Misc. Tarot Topics.
It was in the "Tips for Beginner"s forum but I think it's a bit intense for that place. I don't want to scare anybody.

[Charlie Brown]

I am also a begrudging and sparing user of numerology. The only thing that makes sense for me is to go by what seem to be some relatively generally accepted ideas about numbers.

I would agree with this, but I want to quibble that, at least as I understand the terms, what you/we are using/advocating is better described as number symbolism rather than numerology, which, iiuc, is more about getting secret or divinitory knowledge from the structure of numbers. Alleging the date 04/10/83 somehow determines a life path is a lot different than saying that 6 symbolizes harmony within a cartomantic system.

I have some things to say about the quintessence and, hopefully, I'll have the time to come back and say them.

[jaq]

I would agree with this, but I want to quibble that, at least as I understand the terms, what you/we are using/advocating is better described as number symbolism rather than numerology, which, iiuc, is more about getting secret or divinitory knowledge from the structure of numbers. Alleging the date 04/10/83 somehow determines a life path is a lot different than saying that 6 symbolizes harmony within a cartomantic system.

Yes, thanks for quibbling. Mostly, then I avail myself of number symbolism, with an occasional glance at the Kabbalah but I'd say more for information than for secret knowledge. (I have an aversion to secrets ...)

I have some things to say about the quintessence and, hopefully, I'll have the time to come back and say them.

Please do!

[Tarot_scholar]

The base 10 doesn’t bother me so much. Base 10 is a cultural construct, the Tarot (in my mind) is a cultural construct, so we’re fine. The same with the fact that early Tarot decks weren’t numbered. We’re not using those unnumbered cards, and we don’t live in the Renaissance anymore.

Yes true! But I think pure numerology (which, Charlie Brown is right to point out, is different than number symbology within a cartomancy system) fails the test for me because it attempts to say something about the world (there are only 9 different paths, plus that weird higher vibrational stuff with 11 and 22 and maybe more???) and it's a thing that's dictated by arbitrary external(ish) circumstances. A Tarot deck -- as we practice and use it today -- is partially dictated by similar external circumstances (why four suits? why not three, as in mah jongg?) but it's also married with what is arguably an actual universal, or at least universal across humans, constant: emotions (at least with Waite-Smith based decks; the Thoth and its Qabalistic aspects blurs that line a bit but I've always leaned harder on the astrology aspects in that deck sooooo, and I don't think I'll ever be comfortable with TdM lol). I mean, I guess we've set an arbitrary limit on the number of cards there are to convey those emotions and therefore on the specificity of those emotions, but the root is in the pictures you can see right in front of your face, and if cultural meanings of things shift over time then the meanings of the cards can shift as well and remain relevant. Not something like, "oh in this calendar my life path number is 1 but in this other calendar it's 4" sort of thing. Does that even make any sense?

That said, number symbology within a cartomancy system -- I'll roll with it.

And apologies numerology practitioners! I'm not trying to shit all over your system. Maybe someone's addressed this in a book somewhere and I just haven't read it yet.