Symbolic numbers of the Hebrew Alphabets

Lady Iron Side

I own the Labyrinth Tarot - how ever I don't understand the importance of the symbolic numbers. Would any one here please explain and give me a meaning if there is one to the numbers?

In this deck it follows the ancient Hebrew letters, maybe (Levi's) it is not the Golden dawn attributes of the Hebrew letters as you will see.

Magician ( Aleph ) =1
Priestess ( Beth ) = 2
Empress ( Gimel ) = 3
Emperor ( Dalet ) = 4
Priest ( He ) = 5
Lovers ( Vav ) = 6
Chariot ( Zain ) = 7
Justice ( Jeth ) or Chet = 8
Hermit ( Teth ) = 9
Wheel ( Yod ) = 10
Strength ( Kaph ) = 20
The Hanged Man ( Lamed ) = 30 " ACAV " 1 + 8 + 1 + 6 = 16
Death ( Mem ) = 40
Temperance ( Nun ) = 50
The Devil ( Samej ) (Samech) = 60
Tower ( Ain ) (Ayin) = 70
Star ( Peh ) (Pey) = 80
Moon ( Tzadek ) (Tsad / Tsade) = 90
Sun ( Kuf ) (Quph) = 100
Judgement ( Resh ) = 200
The Fool ( Shin ) = 300
World ( Tav ) (Taw) = 400

Luis Royo STRESSES that he uses " the Tarot is philosophical too to astrology , Cabala, alchemy and magic. In each image, as as in the accompanying text, appear the astrological sign, its equivalent in the Hebrew alphabet and corresponding number. Their meanings derived from each of them must be sought in the different related sources, whose sheer extent makes them impossible to go through here." He also brings to attention about the "Sumerian" beliefs, genetic code, DNA, Sciences,secrets to the universe mysteries of mankind. "Wisdom from all cardinal points" then he states this " However, my aim has been to create a Tarot for the present day, which continues to contain the most Primitive Hermetic codes and is not a personal interpretation"
 

crazy raven

Lady Iron Side said:
I own the Labyrinth Tarot - how ever I don't understand the importance of the symbolic numbers. Would any one here please explain and give me a meaning if there is one to the numbers?

Hi LIS,

I'm no expert but I'll share what I know until the experts get here :)

Hebrew Letters are read from right to left and for a very special reason.....God began creation by His own reflection. In a reflection right and left are reversed, as can be seen in a mirror. It was important to the Hebrews to show this reversa......by writing right to left they were going toward the source of life, toward God.

Their letter name is the mystical name of their number and very Hebrew word, when examined letter by letter, number by number, reveals a hidden meaning, for their letters and numbers are completely interchangeable. The entire Bible was composed of various combinations of those letter-numerals giving important clues to deeper meanings.

Hebrew is a very difficult language to translate because the vowels are omitted, the wrods not separated for clarity, and there are no past, present and future verb tenses. The original writers of the Bible used every trick they knew to conceal the mysteries....this is why its translation was such a major job.

Numbers in the Bible have an astrological meaning as well.

Hope that helps a bit.

:)
 

Lady Iron Side

crazy raven said:
Hi LIS,

I'm no expert but I'll share what I know until the experts get here :)

Hebrew Letters are read from right to left and for a very special reason.....God began creation by His own reflection. In a reflection right and left are reversed, as can be seen in a mirror. It was important to the Hebrews to show this reversa......by writing right to left they were going toward the source of life, toward God.

Their letter name is the mystical name of their number and very Hebrew word, when examined letter by letter, number by number, reveals a hidden meaning, for their letters and numbers are completely interchangeable. The entire Bible was composed of various combinations of those letter-numerals giving important clues to deeper meanings.

Hebrew is a very difficult language to translate because the vowels are omitted, the wrods not separated for clarity, and there are no past, present and future verb tenses. The original writers of the Bible used every trick they knew to conceal the mysteries....this is why its translation was such a major job.

Numbers in the Bible have an astrological meaning as well.

Hope that helps a bit.

:)


Thanks that did help, through your help I did a Google search, after knowing what it was I needed to look for.

Here is a link should any one else wants to know the Numerical equivalence to the Hebrew alphabet.

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_Eight/Hebrew_Gematria/hebrew_gematria.htm
 

brightcrazystar

these are not symbolic meanings. they are the actual way you write numbers in hebrew. you write them with "letters" just as you would roman numerals.

I = 1
II = 2
V = 5
XX= 20.

you get the idea.

The idea that hebrew was written right to left is not consistent, until well after the redaction of hebrew. many old copies of ancient samples run from left to right, or top to bottom. For one it is most likely that that simply writing with the right hand in right to left fashion was most effective with mattock ad chisel - when I learned masonry, (brick masonry was in my family, I don't mean old men who can't build anything anymore), I learned to chisel, chalk, shiv, plane bricks and spread mortar right to left to help keep it level.

The right arm is generally more strong even in left handed people (such as me) and the source of level you get working toward the right tends to be easier on the arm. If you try to work left to right with the right hand, you grind the joint more, specifically the rotator cuff of the right arm, and to accomodate your body hunches a bit, which tends to make the left arm holding the chisel coem down with angular pressure, imblancing the perspective plane of what you are carving.

but i am sure somewhere down the way some person who knew nothing of brickwork was asked and he said "reflection, yada yada." The problem with that is TRUE reflection is Averse, not a vertical flip or horizontal flip which is a symmetrical compliment. Look at the eye and the mechanism for sight to see more about this. or just go stand by a pool of water and look down at it.
 

uri_raz

Two commends

brightcrazystar said:
these are not symbolic meanings. they are the actual way you write numbers in hebrew. you write them with "letters" just as you would roman numerals.

I = 1
II = 2
V = 5
XX= 20.

you get the idea.

There was (maybe still is, I don't know) a shop owner near my school, who did all his calculations with letters, my guess because that's what he was taught in school.

As for direction, as far as I know the reason for direction of writing is mundane.

Letters which were used when the writing material was stone were written right to left because a tool was put against the stone and then hit on with a hammer, which is held in the right hand.

Letters which were used later, when the writing material was ink on paper, were written left to right in order to prevent the hand holding the pen - again the right one - from passing over the wet ink and smudging it.
 

venicebard

brightcrazystar said:
these are not symbolic meanings. they are the actual way you write numbers in hebrew. you write them with "letters" just as you would roman numerals.

I = 1
II = 2
V = 5
XX= 20.

you get the idea.
In my opinion, this has it right. I have made an intense study of ancient alphabets, of their interrelatedness and the symbolism of the individual letters, and it is clear to me that the Canaanite ordering of letters was a rearrangement from an earlier ordering that has survived in the order of the tree-letters of the Irish bethluisnion. There, the names of letters are symbolically important trees, and it is a tradition demonstrably akin to the Hebrew-Canaanite (placement of the three 'mother letters' coincides, for instance).

There (in the bethluisnion) the numbers attached to letters by medieval Irish bards DID have symbolic meaning, and the trumps of the Tarot of Marseilles derived from these (as is clear from the uncharacteristic ease with which they fit their tarot images by this method). Two examples:

5 refers to B, beith the birch, because it is the first tree-month (begins at winter solstice), hence the birth of the year, and first thing we do with a newborn (after determination of sex, of course) is count digits on hands and feet. (The twins in V LePape are the twin gods of the year, waxing and waning year, and their mother's arm enters the card from the right, presenting them to be blessed, the state of blessedness being part of the symbolism of birth, that is, a 'clean slate'.)

8 refers to F, fearn the alder, because it is the month that encompasses aries the head or straight up, which thus represents balance, and 8 is a balancing of two 4s, that is, of two earthly things (4 being the number of elements involved in the production of solid objects, earth being the 4th element). Hence the scales in VIII Justice. (By the way, 8 is also the atomic number of oxygen, the one atom-type without which there IS no straight up for us, so you can see the symbolism here runs deeper than what we normally ascribe to the ancients in terms of their knowledge of nature.)

And so on.

I take the Hebrew numbering as of less directly symbolic character, albeit there is method as to how they were reordered in Canaanite. The bethluisnion calendar-alphabet does not have numbers assigned in numerical order, by the way, but according to a deeper symbolism (one that can readily be shown to take into account a deep understanding of atomic numbers and a grasp of elementary particles deeper even than ours, in that it correlates the four particle-types with the four elements, elements not even recognized as valid by today's misguided scientists). But the prevalent idea that trumps are based on Hebrew numbering should be recognizable as bogus just from the fact that the two main schools of thought on the matter differ as to whether to start with alef = 0 or alef = 1, yet both seem satisfied with their results (showing a shameful lack of rigor on both their parts).