Gender/Number associations - Pips

In recent weeks, I have been carefully looking at the pip cards in my Marseilles decks, with a view to gaining a better understanding of their meaning.

Today, with the help of Gareth Knight and 'The magical world of the Tarot' (p95), I have laid out the tetractys with the Batons as so:

xxxxAxxxx
xxx3x2xxx
xx5x6x4xx
x9x7x8x10

In Knights scenario, which takes place on an imaginative stage, the Queen stands to the left and the King stands to the right.

I don't know if anyone else has ever done this but I have found, the laying out of these cards and reflecting on their meaning in the light of the surrounding cards somewhat enlightening.

I particularly like the central positioning of the Six, which, from my own personal reflections, I have to come to believe holds quite a special place in the tarot.

Another interesting observation is that the positions of all of the odd numbers is on the left hand side and the even numbers on the right hand side. Now, some of you may remember a thread I started a few days ago about the 'missing flowers', this becomes more evident when the cards are laid out like this. We have leaves on the left, but no flowers!

In the light of the left side representing feminine, passive, receptive, unconscious, and the right side being masculine, action, consciousness, I can now make more sense of the fact that some cards have no flowers. If the left side represents the feminine, there is probably more inner work going on, more reflection and introspection. There is no movement/action! It is in the even numbers.

So my question is - Is there a gender placed on number? If so, does it make sense to have it in this order? After all if the Le Bateleur represents the one, the self, the ego, should the number two be a female number?

Actually, I really hope some of you follow what I am trying to say here. I am finding it hard to explain myself. Any thoughts any-one???

Please???

Number and gender allocations have a long tradition.

Usually, the 'active' numbers are considered to be the odd numbers, and the 'receptive' numbers the even ones.

There is a sense in which the odd numbers have a particular inner tension which is more harmonised in the even ones.

It is especially interesting to place the Sword suit as you have the Bastons.

With the Marseilles, you will note that (exclude the ten for now) all the even swords form not only implicit 'almonds' or vesica piscis, but in fact by being adjacent each other they form full circles. The 'odd' single swords is therein positioned as a straight penetrating implement.

Hope this adds a little to the reflections

Fixed (Central) Decanates: 3 - 6 - 9 Cards

Jewel-ry said:

I particularly like the central positioning of the Six, which, from my own personal reflections, I have to come to believe holds quite a special place in the tarot.

Click to expand...

If you use a decanate system, all the Sixes are in the central, or Fixed decanate
of the Fixed signs. For Cardinal signs, it is Three, and for Mutable signs card Nine.

• Cardinal -Fixed- Mutable
  
  Aries_______Taurus_____Gemini
  2-3-4.....5-6-7.....8-9-10
  
  Cancer_______Leo_______Virgo
  2-3-4.....5-6-7.....8-9-10
  
  Libra_______Scorpio____Sagittarius
  2-3-4.....5-6-7.....8-9-10
  
  Capricorn___Aquarius____Pisces
  2-3-4.....5-6-7.....8-9-10

and as jmd has presented elsewhere so beautifully:

• Cardinal -Fixed- Mutable
  
  Aries________Leo_____Sagittarius
  2-3-4.....5-6-7.....8-9-10
  
  Cancer_____Scorpio_____Pisces
  2-3-4.....5-6-7.....8-9-10
  
  Libra______Aquarius_____Gemini
  2-3-4.....5-6-7.....8-9-10
  
  Capricorn___Taurus______Virgo
  2-3-4.....5-6-7.....8-9-10

hi jmd

jmd said:

It is especially interesting to place the Sword suit as you have the Bastons.

With the Marseilles, you will note that (exclude the ten for now) all the even swords form not only implicit 'almonds' or vesica piscis, but in fact by being adjacent each other they form full circles. The 'odd' single swords is therein positioned as a straight penetrating implement.

Click to expand...

I've been laying out my Epees & Espadas but haven't got it yet...
Any visual aids, or a further descriptive suggestion?

Attached is, as an example, the 2 and 3 of Swords from the Hadar deck.

I have added a circular red band to show that the circle in fact just touches the edges of the parts of the outer swords.

Perhaps here is the essence of sacred geometry and the secret to understanding life's causality. The three sacred roots are produced by the act of the division of circle and square. The square root of two divides the square. The square root of three divides the cube. The square root of five divides the two squares.

This golden proportion perhaps shows the way to progression,
self-generation, and the transcendence of the number phi.

VESICA

jmd said:

Number and gender allocations have a long tradition.

Usually, the 'active' numbers are considered to be the odd numbers, and the 'receptive' numbers the even ones.

There is a sense in which the odd numbers have a particular inner tension which is more harmonised in the even ones.

It is especially interesting to place the Sword suit as you have the Bastons.

Click to expand...

It is interesting jmd, because the abundance of upright swords on the left is quite stark. Yes, I can see the more active/masculine side on the left now, with the odd numbers. Again, all of the flowers are on the right hand side, the even numbered side.

With the Marseilles, you will note that (exclude the ten for now) all the even swords form not only implicit 'almonds' or vesica piscis, but in fact by being adjacent each other they form full circles. The 'odd' single swords is therein positioned as a straight penetrating implement.

Hope this adds a little to the reflections

Click to expand...

I have done this and I can see the circles but am still a little confused. Are you implying that the vesica piscis represents the feminine and the even number, the sword represents, as you say, the 'penetrating implement', the masculine, and the odd number and together they fit within the circle, which represents completeness, wholeness? Union?

Much to ponder on.

There are a number of ways one may organise the individual cards in the tetractic form.

As it has also been the custom to arrange the right-hand side as active, and the left-hand side as the receptive, perhaps an alternative arrangement to the one Jewel-ry gives in the opening post is:

• xxxxAxxxx
  xxx2x3xxx
  xx4xXx5xx
  x6x8x9x7x

In the above pattern, I have also taken the ten (where 'X' stands for '10' & the two inner swords) as central - for the sake of showing alternatives.

If one plays around with just this patterning, various inter-relations emerge.

And as a small side comment, it is interesting to note that the plant depicted within the Sword suit by Hadar on his superb deck does not exhibit the five-foldness one would expect of a rose.

With regards the difference between the circle and the vesica piscis, I personally and generally tend to consider the circle to represent more the divine or spiritual, the square more the material manifesting place, the line/sword the active/masculine aspect, and the vesica piscis/cup the receptive/feminine aspect.

Of course, I also tend not to favour fixating meaning upon symbols which may have various connotations in various contexts.

In the case of the sword suit, what is particularly interesting is that one find all of the above when looked at in pairs: a (quadruple) square borders the two cards; a circle is therein formed; two vesica piscis are shown - one in the act, the other either still 'flowered' (ie, not de-flowered) or within which is the small growth of a future birth; and the sword on the first in the combined unifying act, except in the pre-phase of the Ace and...

...errr... with this line of thinking, I shall not comment on the ten in case it gets me into trouble