beanu
I'll offer my system here, without any attempt at historical justification.
All I can say is that it seems to match the RWS images for the pip cards,
maps to astrology, and seems to maybe correspond to the decans, although whose versions I don't know.
The suits match the elements, which leads to the signs, as normal:-
Wands = Fire - Aries, Leo, Sagi
Swords = Air - Libra, Aquarius, Gemini
Cups = Water - Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
Pentacles = Earth - Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo.
Forget about the aces - they just refer to the elements.
That leaves 9 cards in each of 4 suits, consisting of 3 cardinalities (cardinal, fixed, mutable) by three decans (or at least, three cards for each sign)
The sneaky bit seems to be that you have to work from the 10's back to the twos.
10=Cardinal
9 =Fixed
8 =Mutable
7 =Cardinal
6 =Fixed
5 =Mutable
4 =Cardinal
3 =Fixed
2 =Mutable
( I won't try to assign to decans - haven't worked out which way they run yet).
So, Libra = Air, Sword, and 10, 7 and 4
4 of swords = Crusades - the chapel left at home awaiting the dead body of the knight, while he is off crusading. Librans are prone to being "crusaders" (I am one)
7 of swords - deceipt - Librans can be liars, cheats and thieves if they become dissilusioned.
10 of swords - backstabbing. Librans can be political animals, weilding the despicable tools of politics like knives in the back.
I'd one Libra because its me.
Here are a couple of fairly strong correspondences, to support the theory.
8 of Wands = Sagi - a flight of arrows, from the sagittarian archer
3 of swords = Aquarius - dispassionate. The swords of mind cut the heart of the emotions
4 of cups = Cancer - suspicion prevents the acceptance of a gift.
etc.
Personally, I think the pip cards were probably just playing cards.
Is it true that Waite was the first to design scenes for the minors?
So, we can assign what we like for reading purposes.
I just think that this scheme matches well with Waits images, and may be what he based his design on.
All I can say is that it seems to match the RWS images for the pip cards,
maps to astrology, and seems to maybe correspond to the decans, although whose versions I don't know.
The suits match the elements, which leads to the signs, as normal:-
Wands = Fire - Aries, Leo, Sagi
Swords = Air - Libra, Aquarius, Gemini
Cups = Water - Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
Pentacles = Earth - Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo.
Forget about the aces - they just refer to the elements.
That leaves 9 cards in each of 4 suits, consisting of 3 cardinalities (cardinal, fixed, mutable) by three decans (or at least, three cards for each sign)
The sneaky bit seems to be that you have to work from the 10's back to the twos.
10=Cardinal
9 =Fixed
8 =Mutable
7 =Cardinal
6 =Fixed
5 =Mutable
4 =Cardinal
3 =Fixed
2 =Mutable
( I won't try to assign to decans - haven't worked out which way they run yet).
So, Libra = Air, Sword, and 10, 7 and 4
4 of swords = Crusades - the chapel left at home awaiting the dead body of the knight, while he is off crusading. Librans are prone to being "crusaders" (I am one)
7 of swords - deceipt - Librans can be liars, cheats and thieves if they become dissilusioned.
10 of swords - backstabbing. Librans can be political animals, weilding the despicable tools of politics like knives in the back.
I'd one Libra because its me.
Here are a couple of fairly strong correspondences, to support the theory.
8 of Wands = Sagi - a flight of arrows, from the sagittarian archer
3 of swords = Aquarius - dispassionate. The swords of mind cut the heart of the emotions
4 of cups = Cancer - suspicion prevents the acceptance of a gift.
etc.
Personally, I think the pip cards were probably just playing cards.
Is it true that Waite was the first to design scenes for the minors?
So, we can assign what we like for reading purposes.
I just think that this scheme matches well with Waits images, and may be what he based his design on.