Here is my step 5. I hope to do step 6 this evening! Let me know what you think!
5:1 The Emperor is number 4 of the majors. 4 means stability and squareness (as in traditional, not hip!) and morality (right angles and four-square!).
5:2
1. 3s = Integration (Robin Wood)
3 Wands—Integrating his desires with reality
3 Cups—Integrating community
3 Swords—Integrate loss into your life. Give it meaning.
3 Coins—Integrating ideas and energy with physical objects, like wands
Empress—Integrating effort into raw materials
Hanged Man—Integrating silence, stillness into life
World—Integrating 4 elements, integrating spirit into matter
2. 2s = Choice (Thoth)
2 Wands—Choice how to direct energy
2 Cups—Choose self or other, self or relationship
2 Swords—Decision, choose peace or war
2 Coins—Choose an element
Priestess—Choose to enter, choose to be open to spirit
Adjustment—Don’t’ choose! Stay balanced!
Aeon—Choose new life like baptism
3. 2s = Balance (Thoth)
2 Wands—Balance of power, escalation
2 Cups—Balanced emotions, equal relationships
2 Swords—Balance of thoughts, decision, pros and cons equal
2 Coins—Balance of stuff, balanced diet, budget
Priestess—Between pillars, holds of veil
Adjustment—Balance!
Aeon—Balance of old and new
5:3 I got a bit excessive and made a table of my number keywords and symbols on the cards. This will probably do for most of step 6, too. My number keywords are mostly based on the sephiroth (with some variation), and I have associated court ranks with numbers: Knights with 2; queens with 3; princes with 6; and princesses with 10.
I have done number + suit exercises throughout my tarot studying career, and always come up with something a little different each time I do it! So this is the latest. I haven’t done it with the majors before, though. I think I have learned something there! So, if you are interested, take a look at the attached table.
5:4 Sequences
Doing these with non-scenic minors was a bit of a challenge. So I went back into fairytale mode. They mostly turned out to be journeys to reclaim the perfection of the Ace.
Wands
Once upon a time, there was a great log. A master craftsman decided to make it into an amazing torch (Ace). The amazing torch burned so hot that the craftsman was able to forge 2 ceremonial knives in the heat. As it cooled, he was able to make 3 glass flowers. As it cooled to a campfire, magical doves and rams came to grant him magical powers (4). With his magical powers, he made 4 magic wands and mighty caduceus (5). Then, just for balance, he made another caduceus for a total of 2 flower wands, 2 ibis wands, and 2 caduceus (6).
Along came an evil magician who threw his own powerful wand, in the form of a rough cudgel, over the beautiful wands to steal their power (7). There was a great explosion followed by a rainbow (8). When the smoke cleared, the wands had been transformed into mystical moon arrows and the cudgel into a pole joining the sun and the moon (9)! But, alas, it was just an illusion. As the craftsman began to climb to the sun, the evil magician clapped his hands, and the wands turned into sharp sticks, and the craftsman was imprisoned behind bars bearing a cruel resemblance to the ceremonial knives he made before he had his magical powers.
Cups
Once upon a time, a sculptor dreamed of a beautiful holy cup in the sky. It received white light from heaven and reflected all the colors of the rainbow all around it. She seemed to remember a lotus blossom was involved somewhere.
When she awoke, she vowed to sculpt the perfect fountain to recall the beauty of her dream. First, she made a fountain with 2 cups, 2 lotuses, and 2 dolphins, resting on the surface of the water. She realized there were no animals in the dream, so she tried again. More lotuses and one more cup might do it (3), but no.
Next, she got the shape of the cups right, but they began sinking into the sea (4)! She got completely discouraged, gave up on the good cup design, and her lotuses almost died (5). Maybe the cups should angle a little like the waves of light? With one lotus per cup (6)? It seemed like nature was against her. First, the water became vilely contaminated with algae (7), then there was a drought so she hardly had any water at all (8).
Then she figured it out! The fountain had to be in the sky, not on the surface of the water! She quickly arranged a square of amethyst cups with their lotuses in the sky, and the water flowed with great force (9)! She then made a final adjustment—the lotus should also be ethereal, not earthly! Returning to the proper cup shape, she arranged 10 cups over a stylized lotus, and the water flowed, and thus her vision was fulfilled.
Swords
(I hope the religious content of this story does not offend. It just turned out this way!)
Once upon a time, a great swordsman pointed his sword to the sky, and the light shone on it like a crown. The court magician explained that if he could pierce a flower with his sword without harming the flower, the crown would be his! The magician showed him a picture in an ancient manuscript of a blue flower pierced by 2 swords.
The swordsman immediately went out and stabbed the first flower he saw, obviously destroying it (3). He realized it would be more difficult than the thought! He thought maybe it would work with a very large flower. So he laid one on the ground and laid 4 sword points on it, but when he drove the points in, the petals scattered into the shape of an inverted star (5). Not a good omen.
He sought the advice of a priest, who said the rose is a symbol for the heart. Christ’s heart was wounded to save us (6). The swordsman gave up his quest, wanting to have nothing to do with religion. He went on to be a mercenary. He was captured, and when in prison (8), he had a vision of blood (9). He realized the flower he had to pierce was his own heart. So he broke his swords (10), renounced violence, and submitted his will to God, and he gained the crown of salvation.
Coins
Once upon a time, there was a King of Snakes who found 2 wishing coins. First, he wished for “big money,” so he got a dollar bill that covered an acre (1)! Then he wished for a big diamond, but it was so big, no one could move it or chip pieces off of it (3). So he wished for a castle to put it in (4) and a machine to drag it to the castle (5), but nothing worked.
Then a la King Midas, he wished everything he touched would turn into coins (6). He then realized he needed plants to eat, so he wished for plants (7). Then he had to wish for live plants (8). Then he got greedy again and wished for 3 times MORE coins (9) than he already had. Last, he wished for as many coins as his castle would hold, and he was buried and crushed beneath them.