Numerology and the Qabalah

Sauwelios

Does anybody know why the Qabalistic correspondences of the planets are

1. Pluto*
2. Neptune*
3. Saturn
4. Jupiter
5. Mars
6. Sun
7. Venus
8. Mercury
9. Moon,

whereas the numerological correspondences are

1. Sun
2. Moon
3. Jupiter
4. Uranus
5. Mercury
6. Venus
7. Neptune
8. Saturn
9. Mars?

It is not as if the two tables have nothing to do with each other - provided that the Qabalah and the Tarot do indeed have something to do with each other: for the Tarot follows the numerological table of correspondences:

1. Magician
2. High Priestess
3. Empress
4. Emperor
5. Hierophant
6. Lovers
7. Chariot
8. Justice
9. Hermit.

The key to my own explanation is the number 3: by virtue of the hard work of Saturn, the number 3 is radiant with positive energy: the era of the Titans in Greek mythology, who were ruled by Kronos [Saturn], was a Golden Age of Man due to their efforts.

Likewise, the number 5 has a Mercurial outlook because of the wardance of Shiva [who also pertains to Geburah] - the Martial fire of war.

*[following Crowley]
 

jmd

In your first list, the allocations are those which are often made to the emanations of the Tree of Life (except for Neptune and Pluto, which I will exclude in the following discussion, but for which the same 'rules' apply).

The 'simple' reason for their order is that this is the order as given by their relative movement against the fixed stars of the zodiac, with Saturn being the slowest to complete a cycle (a Saturn return being approximately 28 years), the Sun in the middle (one year), and the Moon the quickest (approximately 29 days).

With Malkut (the tenth emanation/Sefirah) being considered either the Earth or the 'matrix' out of which the Earth manifests (ie, the four elements), the planets are placed in proximate order to it according to the same order (usually referred to as the ptolemaic order, Ptolemy being the person who, through his Tetrabiblos, provided and summarised the extant astronomical knowledge of the times).

We thus have (in order of emanation):
  • [*]Keter
    [*]Hockmah
    [*]Binah
    → Saturn (the visually slowest moving from Earth)
    [*]Hesed/Gedulah
    → Jupiter
    [*]Geburah/Pahad
    → Mars
    [*]Tifaret
    → Sun (taking a year to move through the zodiac from our point of observation)
    [*]Netzah
    → Venus
    [*]Hod
    → Mercury
    [*]Yesod
    → Moon
With regards to the last list you give (of the Atouts/Major Arcana), these are the ordering as found in the deck, and, whether or not they have Kabalistic correlations, need not be as per either sefirotic order nor planetary one (whether ptolemaic or heliocentric). After all, if the Atouts/Major Arcana have, for example, an alphabetic correlation (to the Hebrew alphabet), then their planetary attributions may correspond, at most, to the double letters and their possible planetary connections (non-Kabalistic planetary correlations could also be of course made, even with an Hebrew alphabetic correlation assumed).

With regards to your second list or numerological correlations, I'm not certain on where, what or why this correlation is made, so do not here comment.
 

Sauwelios

The second list are the conventional numerological correlations; note that this thread has been relocated here from the Divination forum [as "you should find more people able to answer your question there." - zorya].

As to your explanation of the first list, I had noticed that if one switches the Sun and the Earth [making the Sun, not the Earth, the center of the Solar System], the list simply sums up the planets from center to circumference; but that wouldn't explain for the location of the Moon. Thank you for that.
 

jmd

I went back to the 1934 introduction of Manly P. Hall's to the re-printing of Thomas Taylor's 1816 Theoretic Arithmetic as this was the earliest direct link I had to the numerological-planetary link you present.

In it, he simply says that 'It appears that this system is built up, at least in part, from the writings of Agrippa whose opinions in magical matters have colored metaphysics since 1533'.

What is interesting is that if one looks at the 'older' numerological-planetary correlation (and still used, I believe, in Hindu numero-astrology), then the trans-Saturnian planets seem to be replacements of the ascending and descending lunar nodes respectively. The list would therefore be:
  • 1 → Sun
  • 2 → Moon
  • 3 → Jupiter
  • 4 → ascending node
  • 5 → Mercury
  • 6 → Venus
  • 7 → descending node
  • 8 → Saturn
  • 9 → Mars
According to Agrippa, however, and despite the fact that he says various things of various numbers in chapters dedicated to each in the early parts of Book II of his Three Books of Occult Philosophy, he states in chapter XX (of that same book, p312 of the Llewellyn 1998 edition) that
  • But if thou desirest to know the ruling star of anyone that is born, compute his name, and of both his parents, through each letter according to the number above written, and divide the sum of the whole being gathered together by nine, subtracting it as often as thou canst [repeated subtractions and divisions are mathematically the same]; and if there remain a unity, or four, both signify the Sun; if two or seven, both signify the Moon; but three, Jupiter; five Mercury; six, Venus; eight, Saturn; nine, Mars; and the reasons thereof are shown elsewhere.
I must admit that the 'reasons being shown elsewhere' escapes my immediate attention, though these could be within the preceding chapters which touch upon the various numbers and their various correlations (though there appears no immediate and unequivocal reasons from a reading some years back, and casual glancing as I write this).

Agrippa's list would therefore be:
  • 1 → Sun
  • 2 → Moon
  • 3 → Jupiter
  • 4 → Sun (again)
  • 5 → Mercury
  • 6 → Venus
  • 7 → Moon (again)
  • 8 → Saturn
  • 9 → Mars
Still, the correlations, especially with the nodes (which are, after all, abstracted points of intersection of projected Sun's and Moon's 'paths'), do make some sense to reflection:

If one looks at the order, what is quite striking is that the nodes divide the list into three parts - the first set (Sun, Moon, Jupiter) being the three or largess and important rulership; the second set (Mercury and Venus) being the only two which may place themselves between the Sun and the Earth (in addition to the otherwise far more excessively important Moon, which may otherwise have been placed in this list); and the third set (Saturn and Mars) the malefics.

Also, if one draws their symbols/sigils in a circular form, placing the Sun at the top and moving clockwise, a meaningful symmetry results.

I am not stating that these are the reasons behind the correlations given, by the way, but rather that these two do make some sense of the patterning.

As to the additional desire for correlation based on number to either Atouts or Sefirot, there need not be a straighforward one - though some will of course seek or postulate the same (as does, for example, Wirth with a correlation of the first ten Atouts with the ten Sefirot).
 

crystal dawn

This is very intersting question, i have seen plantery corrospondances given to the sephiroth in one of my books (the complete guide to the kabballah by will parfitt) i will have a look and get back to you, youve got me interested in this subject now, so far what everone has said makes perfect sense.
blessings

crystal dawn