The Arithmological Tarot

BOUGEAREL

For information

Le Tarot arithmologique
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5Hg6jopEFmbazVySHRRbzduUWc/view?usp=sharing

PS
Even if you don't speak French, you can understand the visual diagrams ...

Nota
Already translated in English

Tarot and Neo-Pythagoreanism (rewording in the following months)
The numerogical structure of the Tarots
http://www.associazioneletarot.it/page.aspx?id=83&lng=ENG

The arithmological tarot
(article in English updated in the following weeks. Cf updates on the French version)
ENGLISH
The arithmological sequence of the pentagonal number 22 = 1 + 4 + 7 + 10
translated from French by Michael S HOWARD
http://www.associazioneletarot.it/page.aspx?id=603
FRENCH (updated)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5Hg6jopEFmbLURYcXdUYVV3UUU/view

Review by Michael S HOWARD
In Appreciation of Alain Bougearel's "1+4+7+10=22"
http://tarotarithmologique.blogspot.fr/2016/08/an-appreciation-of-alains-proposal-by.html
 

Philippe

Hello and welcome to AT

Much has been written about the ordering of the tarot...not always as decisive as we might have expected.

Your approach certainly deserves an attentive reading. Thank you for providing us the opportunity to take notice :) I will look into it
 

BOUGEAREL

Philippe ... Much has been written about the ordering of the tarot...not always as decisive as we might have expected. Your approach certainly deserves an attentive reading. Thank you for providing us the opportunity to take notice :) I will look into it[/QUOTE said:
Hi Philippe

Smile

The text is in French, but this is a visual presentation

Le Tarot arithmologique
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5Hg6jopEFmbazVySHRRbzduUWc/view
 

BOUGEAREL

Two updates

The newly revised version in French of my essay.
Le Tarot Arithmologique
La séquence arithmologique du nombre pentagonal 22 = 1+4+7+10
Download PDF link for paper version :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5Hg6jopEFmbYmJfd0RFSG5UbUk/view

Nota bene : M. HOWARD has also published on Andrea VITALI's site a Review in English :
In Appreciation of Alain Bougearel's "1+4+7+10=22"
http://letarot.it/page.aspx?id=608

My Essai has now two additions (one phrase in the Introduction and a much longer additif in the Conclusion) to what has already been presented on Andrea VITALI 's site.
(in French) http://letarot.it/page.aspx?id=603&lng=ITA
(in English) http://www.associazioneletarot.it/page.aspx?id=603 (translation M. HOWARD)

Translation of the 2 additifs in English by M. HOWARD :

Introduction
Additif :
At one point in history, probably at the latest before the end of the last quarter of the fifteenth century, the number of cards finally settled at 78, i.e. 56 + 22.

Conclusion: significance of the Math at the Omega of the arithmological sequence
Additif :
In the scholastic thought of the Church, the number 22 makes sense.
(Cf: Steve Morgan on THF : http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1102&start=340#p17660 )

Thus Origen, one of the Fathers of the Church, was first, before being ordained a priest, a student of Ammonius Saccas, the teacher of Plotinus - the founder of Roman Neoplatonism, whose writings in their entirety were published by his disciple Porphyry of Tyre under the name of Enneads.
Origen, historically regarded as the Father of Biblical exegesis, defined the Number 22 in these terms:

In the order of the numbers, each individual number contains some strength and power over things. The Creator of the Universe has made use of this power and strength, either for the constitution of the universe itself or to express the nature of each thing as it appears. It follows, according to the Scriptures, that we must observe and calculate these aspects which belong to the numbers themselves. And in truth, the books of the Bible itself, such as the Jews have transmitted them, are [in number] twenty-two, equal to the number of Hebrew letters, and this is not without reason. Indeed, twenty-two letters [that] seem to be the introduction to God's wisdom and the knowledge of the world.
Select in Ps I - PG 12, 1084)
(Cf : A. Quacquarelli, s.v. Numeri, in DPAC, pages 2447-2448)

The members of the Neoplatonic academy in Florence (1459-1521) could not ignore it, whether Marsilio Ficino, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, [his friend] Giralomo Benivieni or others ...
(See: http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewt...90&hilit=Giovanni+Pico+della+Mirandola#p17190)

The 22 pictorial allegories and the 21 tarots + the Math:

Many lists of tarots consider the Math not to be part of the 21 tarots, even if positioning it in the 0 position before the Bagat, with an ordinal progression of:
0 and 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20, 21
Hence a count of:
0 [Math] + XXI Tarots

The "Sermones ...", the oldest list of tarots, positions the Math - while calling it NULLA -on the twenty-second line, after the World and before the Bagat:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,1 2, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 0
Hence a count of:
XXI Tarots + NULLA

The 1637 Rules, the oldest in France, count XXII Triumphs:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,1 2, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22
Hence a count of:
XXII Triumphs = XXI tarots + 1 (The Excuse)

These ordinal progressions in no way conflict with the arithmological generation of the Pentagonal Number 22 of 1 + 4 + 7 + 10.
Beyond knowing whether there are 21 or 22 Triumphs, the ordinal progressions are justly subject to perceiving the 22 pictorial allegories as arranged in a circle depicting an Ouroboros.


One can legitimately count:
- from the 1st Allegory to the 22nd: the Bagat is the first Triumph and the Math is the 22nd, after the 21st, the World
or indeed:
- from 0 to the 21st allegory: the Math is the 0th Triumph; the Bagat is the first, and the World, twenty-first.

In summary:
- the Math is the 22nd in ordinal position in a count of 1 to 22
or
- the Math is 0th in ordinal position in a count from 0-21
 

MikeH

I of course recommend Alain's essay highly, and he says the translation I did is accurate.

I want to make it clear that this is not about the "original tarot" or the principles behind it, but rather about a way of seeing it that is in accord with the times, i.e. 15th-17th centuries, which saw a couple of explicitly Pythagorean analyses of both the tarot and ordinary decks and had been a way of seeing the cosmos and humanity since ancient. It very much makes sense, in terms of dividing the 22 cards into 4 distinct groups, one very close but not identical to the three groups that tarot historians have already seen, or thought they have seen, in the sequence. Alain's thesis is both original and well reasoned, yet in tune with the times in which the 22 subjects of the tarot developed.. Whether such a number-theoretical formulation actually played a part in that development is unknown, but it fits so well that it tempting to imagine so.

The difference between the English versions on my blog and those on the site LeTarot, at least currently, is that the ones on my blog incorporate the latest revisions in both essays. The version of his in French on my blog does so as well. I expect that this difference will disappear in the near future.

Again: http://tarotarithmologique.blogspot.fr/2016/11/introduction_78.html
 

BOUGEAREL

The arithmological sequence of the pentagonal number 22

Le Tarot News

Andrea VITALI has published on line the revised versions

1. In English

The arithmological Tarot
The arithmological sequence of the pentagonal number 22 = 1 + 4 + 7 + 10

By Alain Bougearel. Translation from French by Michael S. Howard

http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=603&lng=ENG


2. In French
Le Tarot Arithmologique
La séquence arithmologique du nombre pentagonal 22 = 1+4+7+10

http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=603


Propriété intellectuelle :
Alain Bougearel, Member of the Scientific Committee of the Association “Le Tarot”

Noa bene
He also writes that a translation in Italian will be published in some time :
"Al momento siamo in grado di offrire questo importante saggio di Alain Bougearel, Maître ès -Lettrese della Société des Gens de Lettres de France oltre che nostro partner, in lingua originale. E' comunque prevista nel tempo una sua traduzione in Italiano."