Do minor arcana have numbers?

[rwcarter]

Ok, call me dumb or annoying... but what's the meaning of D, C and so on?

On my rider-wite deck I have pentacles, wands, cups and swords... Does A (aces) correspond to pentacles, and C to cups? What about D's?

susy,

With the additional info you've given us, it now becomes a puzzle that needs to be figured out. Riccardo was guessing at how the cards could be grouped. Cards 1-22 are most likely the Magician (#1) through the World (21) with the Fool at 22.

The first suit (which Riccardo was labeling A since we don't really know what suit the authors chose) would contain numbers 23-36. The next suit (B) would contain #s 37-50, the next would contain #s 51 to 64 and the last would contain #s 65-78.

"A" could be pentacles, cups, wands or swords. We don't know at this point. Until one is able to figure out what number range corresponds to a particular suit, any of the minor suits could correspond to any of the number ranges.

In brand new out of the deck boxes, I've seen various arrangements of the cards. I've seen:

• Majors (Fool - World) then the Minors in every order possible
• Majors (Magician - World, then Fool) then the Minors in every order possible
• Minors in every order possible then Majors (Fool - World)
• Minors in every order possible then Majors (Magician - World, then Fool)

And to further complicate matters, within a given Minor suit I've seen the cards arranged:

• Ace - 10, Page, Knight, Queen, King
• Ace - 10, King, Queen, Knight, Page
• King, Queen, Knight, Page, Ace - 10
• King, Queen, Knight, Page, 10 - Ace
• 2 - 10, Ace, King, Queen, Knight, Page

I've probably seen other arrangements that I'm just not remembering right now.

It seems to me that at best the authors haven't provided enough information for one to be able to correspond their system to a "standard" Tarot deck. The only other thing that comes to mind is that maybe they're discussing a 78 card oracle deck.

Either way I would suggest that you not try to correspond the information in that book to your RWS deck. Unless you like really hard puzzles.

Rodney

 

[susy]

Thank you so much for the help!!! What i've been trying to guess it what minor arcana on rider-waite means for example Arrival, or Loss, or Union. probably it would be easier.

I'm gonna try to e-mail the author or the book's editor, to seek for help!

Meanwhile, if anyone else in here has some kind of idea...

 

[Haegtessa]

I have one deck that has the numbers on all the cards 0-78, I think it's the Merryday. I'm not sure of the point of it except for numerology.

 

[susy]

^^^^ I checked it on google, and it doesn't correspond to the book!! But hey, thanks so much for the info, it's a BEAUTIFUL deck, I'm so looking forward to buy it now!!

 

[rwcarter]

Thank you so much for the help!!! What i've been trying to guess it what minor arcana on rider-waite means for example Arrival, or Loss, or Union. probably it would be easier.

susy, the problem with keywords is that there isn't just one card that means a particular thing. 8 Cups and 5 Swords could both be considered to be Loss. 2 Cups and Lovers could both be considered to be Union.

If you really want to use keywords with your deck, you'd be better off to come up with your own instead of trying to force the fit with this particular book. (You'd actually be better off to avoid keywords altogether cause they can be limiting.)

Rodney

 

[Aladdin]

Minor numbers.

Greetings Suzy,
When i studied the tarot at an evening class in the year 2000 we were all presented with what could be described as a workshop manual which was very nicely presented in a large plastic folder file.
The Ace of cups was given the number 23, through to the King of cups, 36.
The Ace of Wands, no. 37, King of wands, no. 50.
The Ace of swords, no. 51, King of swords, no.64.
The Ace of pentacles, no. 65 and so on to King of pentacles, no. 78.
Quite where Pam the lady who took the class got all this from regrettably i don't know.

 

[firecatpickles]

This book is at a used book store down the street from where I live. I will need to go look to see what it is called.

Be back in a few.

 

[firecatpickles]

The book is no longer there. As I recall it was an older, orange (?) hardcover book.

There used to be three shelves of tarot books and now there is only one

They periodically clean out books that aren't moving and arbitrarily place some in the dumpster and hose them down to prevent dumpster-diving.

 

[MareSaturni]

Oh, i know this deck! I don't own it but i've seen it for sale and almost bought it! Looks like the author gave each Minor Aracan a 'keyword' but didn't put numbers so you could relate it to the tradition Minor Arcana =/

I hate when they do that. And they do that a lot here in Brazil...just make up a deck and call it tarot, even if it has no relation to Tarot whatsoever! Grrrrrr. Not saying that's the case with your deck, but i wouldn't be surprised if it was so.

There are some decks here that are closer to the tradition and are great, also in Portuguese. The 'Atalla Tarot', for instance.

Oh dear! Hope you figure out your deck. Now i want to get it just to see what the author had in mind!

Marina

 

[susy]

Greetings Suzy,
When i studied the tarot at an evening class in the year 2000 we were all presented with what could be described as a workshop manual which was very nicely presented in a large plastic folder file.
The Ace of cups was given the number 23, through to the King of cups, 36.
The Ace of Wands, no. 37, King of wands, no. 50.
The Ace of swords, no. 51, King of swords, no.64.
The Ace of pentacles, no. 65 and so on to King of pentacles, no. 78.
Quite where Pam the lady who took the class got all this from regrettably i don't know.

Thanks for the help people!!

Alladin, I'm going to try to see if it corresponds!