How are the cards numbered?

mrpants

How are the cards numbered exactly ?... I know that the numbers 1-78 refer to individual cards, but which card is which ? Knowing that could make the cards themselves almost irrelevant.

Well as we can see from this thread alone, there are several ways to go about numbering each individual card. Etteila and other Occult tarot creators have actually printed numbers (1-78) right on their cards. I think the important thing is that if you are going to employ this method, pick one system and stick with it. Do whatever feels correct to you and be consistent.

As far as the cards themselves are concerned, I disagree that any numbering system would ever make a deck irrelevant. The artwork, at least for me, is the key to the reading. I rely less on what is considered the "correct" meaning for any given card, and also to a similar degree the meaning of the individual spread position (e.g., this position is what other people think about you, etc), and more on the image itself, and how the images interact in a spread. Even among certain tarot "schools," the imagery from one deck to the next can vary widely, thus altering meanings subtly, so assigning a hard and fast meaning to a particular card name is as fruitless as assigning a particular 1-78 number, outside of creating a system to aid in long distance readings for the purpose of selecting the cards.
 

SaskMick

It has occurred to me that it could be a useful way to predict future events without it being known how it is done..... Some people shy away from tarot cards, everyone is used to numbers.
 

mrpants

SaskMick, I'm not sure I follow. Can you tell me a little more about this idea?
 

SaskMick

SaskMick, I'm not sure I follow. Can you tell me a little more about this idea?

It could be a way to read peoples cards without them knowing they are having a tarot reading. Just a thought :)
 

SaskMick

I can easily understand how some people feel they can "connect " with some of the old tarot card designs, and that they might give them a nice warm feeling, but I have reservations about them..

From my limited knowledge of tarot I have come to the conclusion it is a relatively new thing, far newer than some of the pictures would suggest.



PS. I think the force has been around for a long time if not for ever, and the cards are a new way to tap into it. I feel that we should revere the force itself, not so much the cards.
 

nisaba

Your reader may have shuffled his deck, then got you to call numbers. If your first card was - say - 11, he would have counted eleven from the top and pulled that one. Then if your next was thirty-two, he would have counted 32 from the top and pulled that one. And so forth. Why don't you ask the reader?

When people have internet readings with me I don't bother getting them to choose the cards. I simply give my hands over to them for a moment, and shuffle and cut, myself. The cards always fall in a way that's relevant to the client.
 

Sulis

I can easily understand how some people feel they can "connect " with some of the old tarot card designs, and that they might give them a nice warm feeling, but I have reservations about them..

From my limited knowledge of tarot I have come to the conclusion it is a relatively new thing, far newer than some of the pictures would suggest.



PS. I think the force has been around for a long time if not for ever, and the cards are a new way to tap into it. I feel that we should revere the force itself, not so much the cards.

Tarot cards are not 'a new thing', you should take some time to read through the Tarot History Forum: Tarot History & Development

The system most popular in the US today originated around the start of the 20th Century but tarot cards go back much further than that.
 

Onaorkal

I agree with people saying that the imagery on the cards might hold some importance in a reading, but at the same time my first tarot deck was one of those cheap anime fan decks sold on the streets in Asia with generic random images.
But there are 78 cards and they are numbered and named correctly. And they do work! When I started with tarot and only had this deck, I used it several times for myself and friends and it would generally give a meaninful reading even for the beginner I was.

In the end, we already know it's possible to use whatever support we prefer for divination work, shadow work or any kind of counseling in general. So why not the richness of the tarot put into words even if no picture is there to support it?

As for the numbering, as many said, one would have to choose a system and ideally stick to it since it can vary greatly from deck to deck!
 

SaskMick

Tarot cards are not 'a new thing', you should take some time to read through the Tarot History Forum: Tarot History & Development

The system most popular in the US today originated around the start of the 20th Century but tarot cards go back much further than that.

From research I have done it seems tarot cards were just playing cards put to another use, and in the scheme of things that was only done fairly recently. Try as I may I can find no old historical records of tarot reading, that tells me there are none.
 

gregory

How "old" would it have to be to count for you ?