Septenaries of the Major Arcana

[JackofWands]

I'd be curious to hear about the way people use (or don't use) the division of the Major Arcana into three septenaries: the Magician through the Chariot, Strength through Temperance, and the Devil through the World.

As I recall from some long-ago reading (I may have picked this idea up from Mary K. Greer first, if memory serves, although the idea might be older), each run of seven cards is meant to present a complete or near-complete arc of development. Thus, the greater Fool's journey of the Tarot can be broken down into three smaller journeys, each born from the culmination of the former.

In this sense, the three septenaries can also be overlaid: the first cards in each grouping are meant to have something in common with each other, as are all the second cards, and so on. Thus, we get groups of three for each stage of the seven-step journey, as follows:

Magician-Strength-Devil
High Priestess-Hermit-Tower
Empress-Wheel of Fortune-Star
Emperor-Justice-Moon
Hierophant-Hanged Man-Sun
Lovers-Death-Judgment
Chariot-Temperance-World

There are a couple of different visions floating around about how the three journeys differ from each other. The way I initially learned it was that the first seven cards (the Magician's septenary) reperesent personal, psychological truths; the second set (Strength's septenary) represents societal truths; and the final set (the Devil's septenary) represents universal human truths.

I'm interested to know how other people work with this framework, or if some ATers abandon it completely. If you do use the three septenaries, do you use the same categorization (personal/social/universal) or something different? And what qualities do you think the connected triples (e.g. Magician-Strength-Devil) have in common? If you don't use the septenaries, why? What about them do you find unhelpful or counterproductive?

 

[Barleywine]

I first encountered this in Rachel Pollock's Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom. I thought it was an interesting suggestion but not particularly useful in practice. To the extent that I use any intregrated conceptual framework for the Major Arcana, it's the "paths on the Tree of Life" model. Generally, I've seen the Fool's Journey as a continuous narrative with a number of experiential "gates" along the way. The septenary approach makes a tidy picture but the "stops" don't seem especially intuitive, although just about anything can be rationalized. My favorite rendering of the evolution of consciousness via undertaking the lessons of the Major Arcana is in Paul Foster Case's The Tarot, A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages, as well as in the BOTA course material. It's not especially lyrical or imaginative, but it seems eminently well-reasoned. Case's Book of Tokens, Tarot Meditations, on the other hand, is more mystical and inspirational in tone. Both adhere to the qabalistic viewpoint.

 

[rwcarter]

JoW,

There are many ways to layout the Majors. A number of them are detailed in Layouts for Studying Major Arcana. I don't necessarily directly use any of the layouts when doing readings, but when studying a particular deck I will look at those interactions to get a better feel for the Majors of that particular deck.

Rodney

 

[Ruby Jewel]

I'd be curious to hear about the way people use (or don't use) the division of the Major Arcana into three septenaries: the Magician through the Chariot, Strength through Temperance, and the Devil through the World.

As I recall from some long-ago reading (I may have picked this idea up from Mary K. Greer first, if memory serves, although the idea might be older), each run of seven cards is meant to present a complete or near-complete arc of development. Thus, the greater Fool's journey of the Tarot can be broken down into three smaller journeys, each born from the culmination of the former.

In this sense, the three septenaries can also be overlaid: the first cards in each grouping are meant to have something in common with each other, as are all the second cards, and so on. Thus, we get groups of three for each stage of the seven-step journey, as follows:

Magician-Strength-Devil
High Priestess-Hermit-Tower
Empress-Wheel of Fortune-Star
Emperor-Justice-Moon
Hierophant-Hanged Man-Sun
Lovers-Death-Judgment
Chariot-Temperance-World

There are a couple of different visions floating around about how the three journeys differ from each other. The way I initially learned it was that the first seven cards (the Magician's septenary) reperesent personal, psychological truths; the second set (Strength's septenary) represents societal truths; and the final set (the Devil's septenary) represents universal human truths.

I'm interested to know how other people work with this framework, or if some ATers abandon it completely. If you do use the three septenaries, do you use the same categorization (personal/social/universal) or something different? And what qualities do you think the connected triples (e.g. Magician-Strength-Devil) have in common? If you don't use the septenaries, why? What about them do you find unhelpful or counterproductive?

If you want to understand the septenaries and ternaries, then go to the source: "Tarot of the Bohemians" by Papus....and get ready to lay the entire deck out on a piece of plywood because it is a fascinating journey he will take you on. In the first place, you have to understand how 1, 4, 7, 10 are all ones or yods and so on for yod, he, vau, 2nd he, aka "trining the square". Each trine positive septenary has a negative septenary and a positive and a negative make up a ternary....and there are 3 ternaries with a final septenary made up of cards 19, 20, and 21...once you see it laid out, an amazing story unfolds. I studied it for over a year....totally fascinated. I explained this once, about a year ago in one of these threads....maybe look for it if they keep them that long...search Ruby Jewel. Once you understand the layout and sequence, I will be more than happy to discuss it with you....if you wish to do so.

Paul Foster Case changed it to 3 tiers of 7 cards.....and I think Mary Greer and most modern explanations are based on Case's version. I tried it myself and found it lacking compared to the one by Papus. But, it was a lot simpler to lay out. Once you get the Papus' version laid out, you will always remember it.....I find it opens up the secret to the tarot for me.

 

[Lucas Prince of Cats]

Well, I personally don't agree with this system I do believe that the major arcana is divided into three paths of seven stations. The sven stations are in the four suits too, but differently. The fool represents the person no matter what path, and the three paths are based on what kind of people you are. The suits paths are active anmd passive evrsions of taking on teh focus of the suit. Veryone is somehwere ine ach one, each suit, and the major arcana (for instance, I'm hermit, 5 of pents, 4 of cups, 7 of swords, and 9 of wands).

......1..4..7..10..13..16..19..
..0..2..5..8..11..14..17..20..
......3..6..9..12..15..18..21..

..P..1..3..5..7..9..Q..
..K..2..4..6..8..10..K..

 

[kwaw]

The division of the Tarot into septenaries is an old one -- at least among occult writers.

Gebelin/Mellet divided the three septenaries of the Trumps into three 'ages' :

The Age of Gold = 21 - 15, aleph to zayin
The Age of Silver = 14 - 8 cheth to nun
The Age of Iron = 7 - 1 samech to shin
Outside of the Septenaries 0 - Fool Tau

The division of the of the hebrew letters into three septenaries is also an old kabbalistic one. According to Moses Cordovero Aleph is the source of all the other letters, the remaining 21 then form three septenaries under the rule of:

Love = beth - cheth
Grace = teth - samech
Judgement = ayin to tau

 

[Samweiss]

I am slowly working through Paul Foster Case's book, Tarot Card Meanings: Interpretations, and large chunk of the book is dedicated to this system of septenaries (he calls it "spiritual unfoldment"). In PFC's system the first row means dominant mental states or principles, the second row is intermediary activities, and the bottom row is the result when the the principle of the first row is expressed through the second. For example, the first triplet Magician, Strength and Devil means that through act of concentration (Magician) one gains control of the Life-force (Strength) and is able to overcome the illusion of materiality (Devil).

What also is of note, is that the total sum of each opposite pairing is 11. You can think of Justice as kind of equilibrating factor, or pivot point, between other cards. Justice is also in the middle of the whole tableau.

 

[Richard]

I use modulo 7 (octal base) as well as modulo 9 (decimal base).

Mod 7: add or subtract 7 successively to determine related cards. Example: Devil (15) is related to Strength (8 = 15 - 7) and Magician (1 = 8 - 7). These are the septenary correlations.

Mod 9: add or subtract 9 successively to determine related cards. Example: Death (13) is related to Emperor (4 = 13 - 9). This is equivalent to the usual numerological reduction by adding the Arabic numeral digits (13 ~ 1 + 3 = 4).

I also use theosophical extensions and the Tree of Life to determine related cards.

I do not follow a strict procedure. If a numerically related card seems relevant, I use it; otherwise I ignore it. The same goes for Hebrew gematria and other numerological procedures.

 

[JackofWands]

Thanks to everyone for the replies. I tried reading through the Tarot of the Bohemians at one point in the not-too-distant past, but found it rather obtuse and ended up abandoning the project. Perhaps now would be a good time to return to it.

Thanks also to Rodney Lucas, and Richard for pointing out other ways of grouping the Major Arcana. The "seven stations" model is a bit less my taste, but I appreciate seeing the variety of ways that the Arcana can be meaningfully restructured.

 

[Ruby Jewel]

Well, I personally don't agree with this system I do believe that the major arcana is divided into three paths of seven stations. The sven stations are in the four suits too, but differently. The fool represents the person no matter what path, and the three paths are based on what kind of people you are. The suits paths are active anmd passive evrsions of taking on teh focus of the suit. Veryone is somehwere ine ach one, each suit, and the major arcana (for instance, I'm hermit, 5 of pents, 4 of cups, 7 of swords, and 9 of wands).

......1..4..7..10..13..16..19..
..0..2..5..8..11..14..17..20..
......3..6..9..12..15..18..21..

..P..1..3..5..7..9..Q..
..K..2..4..6..8..10..K..

It's okay to disagree if you know what you are disagreeing with. Do you know the Papus layout I'm referring to?