Common Sense and the Ranking of Trumps

venicebard

File this under ‘Alphabets’ (relates to Qabbalah, though, also).

Here I propose stripping the ranking order of the trumps (their numbering) down to its barest essence. To grasp how trump-numbering must ultimately have originated, it is necessary to consider the sort of straightforward reasoning prehistoric bards (poet-priests) of ‘preliterate’ oral tradition (such as druidism, which rejected writing as memory-stifling) used: symbolic reasoning uncluttered by nihilistic ‘nuance’, source, no doubt, of most of what is of value today (do you like my double entendre, hinging on the meaning of value and one’s tone of voice when saying ‘today’?). We seek the same basic kind of reasoning (with different emphasis) as formed the basis of the lost deeper teachings of Qabbalah... whose secret is apparently safe today due to opaque overlay of primitive theology on the one hand and nihilistic moral relativism on the other—past which virtually no-one today takes the trouble to see.

I have stated that Hebrew numbering is ordinal, bardic numbering cardinal, since the former stems from alef-bet order and the latter directly from number-symbolism. Yet ultimately this is a mere matter of emphasis, since each implieth the other. So here consider also the ordinal aspects of the bardic number-concepts—vitally important to us, since ranking of trumps is evidently based on them, which is logical since they run no-thing to twenty-one (albeit the last five secret), rather than 1-9 by ones, 10-90 by tens, and 100-400 (or -900) by hundreds. In other words, take numbers’ inherent symbolic meanings to form the basis, yet these arise partly from their order: as steps or lessons in a process of increasing complexity, each depends on its predecessors yet outranks them, as a lesson or value added.

To erect number’s structure, first take 10, the number of digits on our two hands, to represent an individual’s manifestation in the material world. And take 1, the number of individuals said digits belong to, as individuality itself: one unit of one whole, made one by there being only one whole and one you (one you at a time, anyway). An individual’s manifestation, 10, equates with desire, for 10 digits present us the choice of what to grasp with them.

The corresponding trumps are I LeBateleur (mountebank), who gets an individual’s attention (multiplied by the size of the crowd, if he’s good), thus defining the individual AS that attention or awareness (as distinct from the body or senses through which it is attentive or aware), and X LaRoue deFortune, the very image of desire, of our power over fate (as opposed to mere fatalism), as seen in the handle proffered us with which to crank or turn it.

If 10 is desire, 9 is that out of which desire springs, namely feeling: the feeling an object (whether thing or goal) arouses in us to make it desirable to have or not have. In other words, what desire takes hold of must first take hold of us, usually by sensory impress on feeling. When desire is for a birth into this world, it goes through 9 months’ gestation before being held in someone’s 10 digits. From this last especially we see that 9 is the concentrated essence of a thing, the thing ‘contained in a nutshell’ (mental summary from percepts). And when that thing is man, its concentrated essence is VIIII L’Hermite, gathered in his cloak, concentrating on what his lamp reveals of the path ahead. Indeed, one is truly a hermit while in the womb: there is just you and ‘mother nature’ (unless you’re twins).

Now if 10 is one ten-fingered, 20 must be two: two competing desires (a second, competing desire having been added). Within one individual it can be seen to take the form of 10 fingers versus 10 toes, conflict ’twixt what to grasp and what to tread underfoot. Now to minds for which the heroic is what is considered upright, not the nihilistic or fearful, conflict represents resolution through honest struggle—in the field where the conflict lies, whether legal, political, or military. Now struggle or combat is honorable if each party to the struggle has equal opportunity to defend its claim, that is, is on an even playing field with its opponent. Hence to withhold one hand of one of the two antagonists symbolizes treachery. It can mean having one hand tied behind one’s back, or worse, having it turned against one, making the struggle artificially uneven or DIS-honorable, or it can mean one hand being concealed by its owner in order to spring a trick, a surprise. Either ‘treachery’ is represented by XV LeDiable—the dishonorable devil or the devil that’s ‘in the details’—for its number means the withholding of one hand (or foot) of 5 digits from the 20 proper to honorable struggle. Honorable struggle itself is XX LeJugement. And at Armageddon, the ultimate struggle is the heroic or upright versus the satiric or ‘barbed’ in oneselfwhat’s to be grasped versus what’s to be trodden underfoot (good versus evil).

Conversely (in a sense), the hand of 5 digits—when returned intact, or when counted at birth—signifies a blessing: treachery undone, or 'a full complement of fingers'. After all, if there is to be a hand, let it be one that blesses, not curses (express preference for the positive). Just so, V LePape is blessing the twin gods of the year presented him by their mother’s arm (entering picture from right).

The one thing added to 20 digits of honorable struggle must mean its prize: XXI LeMonde... the world enclosed in a wreath of victory. But the one thing added to the 10 digits representing one side in that struggle had better be that with which it seeks to win: the spear wielded by the individual warrior and the discipline whereby it augments its power (cohesive action with other spears). This is what the card XI LaForce signifies: power through discipline, through control of the lion’s roar... like the force generated when one pinches the nozzle of a hose under pressure. Finally, what logically follow upon treachery’s 15 and blessing’s 5, respectively, are the shock of upheaval, and well-being’s connectedness: XVI LaMaisonDieu, and VI L’Amoureux.

This leaves gaps to be filled: 2-4, 7-8, 12-14, 17-19, and 0. IIII L’Empereur is obviously intended to represent rulership over the (4) elements. Indeed until this is accomplished, one cannot give or receive blessing (5): how would one go about it without nature’s elements present? Duality and triplicity appear expressed as the chaste versus the child-bearing: cloistered II LaPapesse limits the sexes to 2, male and female, while III L’Imperatrice—whose duty is to bear heirs, not study books—adds a third, namely ‘yet to be determined’ (sex of future offspring). This gives some insight, methinks, into the natures of the 2nd and 3rd elements (air and water), just as the mountebank ‘getting one’s attention’ does for the 1st element (fire, or the spark of self-awareness).

VII and VIII are closely related bardically (P and F). VII LeChariot represents what issues forth from well-being’s connectedness (6), namely a triumphant, elevated, or initiated state (of mind). It conveys that there are 7 stages of process (7 steps in alchemy, for example): the 7 signs to be traversed on the bottom or visible portion of any round (5 remaining unmanifested or hidden, like a blessing) constitute its ‘manifested glory’. It is the number of (visible) celestial lights that move about on their own, at variance with the celestial sphere. VIII LaJustice is a balancing of two elementary objects in its balance scale, each object consisting of the four elements. This shows that 7’s ‘manifested glory’ is due to one of the two competing objects being held back at only 3 elements, not yet expressed in earth’s physicality, thus leaving the field wholly to the one that is. When both are expressed physically, as in 8, they must compete for justice. But when only one is and it manages to hold the other to 3 (adding to 7), that one then manifest in all its glory. And feeling does indeed arise out of, or follow, the attempt to do justice (8) to what one is trying to feel (9).

What follows XI Force would be that which is upset by it: XII LePendu. The cohesion of the phalanx (discipline of brigands?) overcomes the hero, who, thus sacrificed, is placed among the stars... 12 being the number of signs or houses by which we divide these (‘lay them out’). What follows upon all twelve signs, then, is return to the first, but now with the hero a mere memory: XIII (Death). And this forces one to learn to cope (with the new situation): the soul’s tempering process, XIIII Temperance. What follows upon learning, then, is treachery: one only learns honorable things from one’s druid teachers, so treachery must be learned on one’s own, after school.

What remains to be explained is the space between XVI’s upheaval and XX’s fair contest. It appears that the upheaval caused by the treachery has succeeded in weakening or hollowing out part of the second 10, no doubt the part that was depending on the hero for its defense (instead of itself being heroic): that hero is now slain. So the second 5 of the second 10 has been removed by treachery, XV, its removal being the upheaval pictured in XVI. This leaves an actual space to be filled before one can achieve fair contest (XX). It is the space that was occupied by the part of the second 10 that is now gone, namely the heart (middle 3) of its second 5. And the types of heavenly bodies occupying this space are star, moon, and sun, in that order, since in thought space is filled with stars (closest to space, symbolically), moon (seen with stars when seen), and sun (never seen with stars). And it is only out of this third heavenly body, the sun or alchemical gold, that honorable combat or struggle can then arise: the honorable is that which does not fear, nay arises out of, the light of day. (Duels are fought at sunrise.) And only out of honorable struggle is the greatest prize, the world, bestowed, thereby giving victory and world superbly ‘nuanced’ definition, since a battle is only ‘won’ when the druid-poets of both sides, up on their hill watching the battle (and composing its poem), say it is.

Right in the middle of the three heavenly lights filling space ‘to overflowing’ is a number, 18, which is both plus-or-minus-zero numerologically (i.e. adds or subtracts nothing from the final reduction of a digital sum)* and the first such number to be even, like zero itself (being one away from odd). Thus the space containing the three lights is symbolized by that quality at its core, 18, that 18 numerically best expresses: zero, or no-thing itself—LeMat. LeMat, of course, traverses space. (In fact, in the Waite deck he is about to do so literally, if I’m not mistaken.)

Th-th-th-that is all, for now (criticism welcomed).

*Counterpart to digital summation in Roman numerals would be to count Xs or ten-fingereds as Is or 1s, and so on.

Postscript

Trumps’ tree-letter number-matches support the above methodology:

H-0-hawthorn, a hedge, that which separates things (space).
A-1-fir strives upwards, like flame (fire), and sparks awareness.
E-2-aspen quivers at the slightest breeze (the sensitive type).
I-3-yew represents winter’s age (water is ‘cold and wet’).
O-4-furze is spring or campaign season, earth’s springing-forth.
B-5-birch is infancy, blessing (white bark, small stature).
M-6-vine is interconnectedness, its fruit sweetness.
P-7-dwarf-elder is P-peh, mouth or rune-cup of prophecy
prophecy meaning manifestation of the divine.
F-8-alder is earth’s ‘multiplication’ (more than one 4)
—what does justice to every seed sown (uprightness).
K-9-hazel means concentrated sustenance.
G-10-ivy wanders, like desire, seeking something
—legend has it become a tree on finding ideal light/moisture.
T-11-holly is lots of little points making a big point.
D-12-oak of doors is thunder’s tree, from which heroes hang.
N-13-ash is the wood of handles and spear-shafts
—where man himself grasps the world.
L-14-rowan shelters or ‘teaches’ other species’ young
—wands of it tame bewitched horses.
R-15-elder: “To burn it brings the devil in the house.”
S-16-willow represents weaving of enchantment and doom.
[U-17-heather is for trysts (mixing of fluids) under starlight...]
[Kk (Q)-18-apple, like the moon, has bites taken out of it...]
[Ii-19-mistletoe is the Golden Bough (the sun in winter)...]
[Ss-20-blackthorn is strife (straif), ‘mother of the wood’...]
[Aa-21-palm is the world’s far-off reaches (‘on holiday’)...]
 

venicebard

'Lesson 2'

Lesson 2 will be a brief addendum on Lesson 1 (Lesson 3 will probably be announcement of my retirement... or do I have tenure?)

Symbolic connexion linking 14 to ‘learning or schooling’ (rowan) is that it is comparison of two ‘manifested glories’ or processes: 14 directly expresses the scientific method—not ‘peer-review’, but empiricism itself—as like manifestations, something’s repeatability.

Symbolic connexions linking 17-19 to their respective tarot images are a bit more tedious. The 19-sun link has to do with resolution of solar and lunar time every 19 years (details of which I’m sketchy on). The 18-moon link has to do with 18’s tree, the apple (orb) out of which bites are taken, being symbolically the fruit of the womb: 18 (9 each) is the number of months spent there by twins, the twin gods of the year we see pictured in the next trump (19), and dressed-ta-go-ta-meetin’ in V LePape. This leaves 17 as star, to introduce the ‘hollow’ of space in the heart of the last 5 (meaning its middle 3).

Now this last creates superficial conflict in that 17-ura-heather-vav is a breast pouring forth milk in Phoenician, representing luna’s fullness (ura or U, vowel of summer and full moon). But I would argue that the thing that distinguishes the moon’s full phase from its other phases—all of which are letter-trumps—is that it conforms to the same time frame as stars, namely night (that which summer keeps warm for us): XVII The Star appropriately pictures Urania (an ogham name for ura-the-heather derived from the Boibel Loth alphabet), the Queen of Heaven.

Thus none of the vowels representing seasons of both moon and sun are called LaLune: this is reserved for the fruit such seasons produce, namely the twin gods of the year—the apple and its ‘worm’, or fruit and what feeds on it (producers and looters), the twins who battle it out for the world. Our reasoning is confirmed by the fact that XVIIII LeSoleil (Ii) is the mistletoe or loranthus of winter’s solstice and luna’s disappearance: it is that lunar phase at which moon dissolves into sun and that solar phase at which the sun itself is reborn (transition from shortening to lengthening of days). The lunar/solar phases are: A-1, O-4, U-17/5th-from-the-end, Aa-21/1st-from-the-end, E-2, I-3, and Ii-19/3rd-from-the-end, this last not a phase of the moon in that it is when the moon disappears (hence its name, 'LeSoleil').

(Now if they’d only at least throw tomatoes...)
 

venicebard

Dead-horse kicking.

Jeeze, that last post of mine herein reads tedious even to me!

Oh well, if no-one will argue with me, I'll argue with myself.

I don't think your characterization of XI Force, venice ‘bard’, is adequate in conveying the main idea. Symbol-dictionaries will point out that 11 stands for that which transgresses beyond the holy 10. But even this slightly misses the point.

What 11 signifies, ultimately, is honor—11-tinne-the-holly’s rune is called ‘divine honor’ and is an arrow pointing up, which is also a spear—and therefore conscience: that which gives the ethical ‘thumbs down’ to whatever does extend beyond the ten digits but is not honorable. The spear-discipline that is the duty of spearmen in the phalanx (in order for it to be formidable) depends—notwithstanding what pacifists who have not had to live through tribal wars may say—on conscience.

Bows all around.
 

Fulgour

Green Tomatoes

venicebard said:
19-sun link has to do with resolution of solar and lunar time every 19 years (details of which I’m sketchy on).
Golden Number: a number indicating the position of a year in a 19-year cycle. If Y is the year the golden number GN is calculated by GN = 1 + (Y mod 19). The golden number was used to determine the date of Easter.

Metonic Cycle: 19-year cycle employed in bound lunar calendars that has 235 lunations in 19 Julian years. In fact, 19 tropical years have 19 · 365.242199 days = 6939.601781 days, and 235 synodic months have 235 · 29.530589 days = 6939,688443 days. The difference is only about 2 hours. The 19-year cycle consists of 12 common years and 7 leap years with 12 and 13 months each respectively. A lunisolar calendar based on the Metonic cycle was in use for the cyclic calculation of the moon to compute the date of Easter until the Gregorian reform in 1582.

http://www.ortelius.de/kalender/gloss_en.php
© Holger Oertel
 

venicebard

Thanx, Fulgour

Interesting. One of the main technical points of contention between Rome and the British Keltic church had to do with the calculation of Easter. I should study the details of this, as it might yield an important clue to what was going on underneath.