Major Arcana

The cards of Major Arcana relate first to the twenty-nine paths of the tree of void emanation and secondly to their position on the icosahedron. The tree of void emanation and its folding into the icosahedron are described here and here. The Emanation Number of each card is the order in which the sphere appears in the process of emanation. The Fool’s number of each card is the order the path is traversed in the Fool’s Journey.

The icosahedral formation reveals harmonies among the paths as each of the thirty edges correspond to the twenty-nine paths with 15 Devil 16 being split into twin aspect 29 Devil 31. This echoes the splitting of the path of Unveiling from Sun. As Sun corresponds to day Unveiling is to the night sky. So it is fitting that Devil sits opposite divided between associations of earthly passions and rebellion against established order.

The icosahedral formation also defines the court cards in its twenty sides. Of each of the four suits there are Queen, King, Knight, Prince, and Princess. As each path is an edge each is associated with two court cards. The exception is Devil, which which is associated with three court cards due to its twin nature.

Each of the Major Arcana is described below along with its associated spheres, numbering, pronunciation, opposite path, and court cards.

0 🞂 0 Fool 0

Spheres: sphere 00 01sphere 01 02
Fool’s Number: 0x00 (0)
Emanation Number: 0x00 (0)
Pronunciation: nĕsh-nĭn-hēzh /nɛʃ.nɪn.hiʒ/
Opposite Path: 18 Moon 18
Court Cards: Queen of Cups, King of Disks

The Fool is the first step on the path. It is the blind choice to be without knowledge of what will be.

1 🞂 1 Magus 2

Spheres: sphere 01 02sphere 02 03
Fool’s Number: 0x01 (1)
Emanation Number: 0x02 (2)
Pronunciation: hēzh-hēzh-ēs /hiʒ.hiʒ.is/
Opposite Path: 17 Star 15
Court Cards: Knight of Cups, Knight of Disks

The Magus is mastery. It may seem odd that this comes immediately after the Fool, but it is a simple and direct sort of mastery. When walking into a room we may flip a light switch to turn on the lights. If the electricity is working and the wiring laid out in a reasonable manner then we know how to control the lights without being told. This is the key. The Magus knows how things should be and how to work with what they have available.

2 🞂 2 Priestess 1

Spheres: sphere 02 03sphere 00 01
Fool’s Number: 0x02 (2)
Emanation Number: 0x01 (1)
Pronunciation: ēn-ēsh-ŭsh /in.iʃ.ʌʃ/
Opposite Path: 16 Tower 17
Court Cards: Queen of Swords, King of Swords

3 🞂 3 Empress 8

Spheres: sphere 00 01sphere 05 11
Fool’s Number: 0x03 (3)
Emanation Number: 0x08 (8)
Pronunciation: no͞om-ŭl-hĕr /num.ʌl.hɛɹ/
Opposite Path: 22 Lust 24
Court Cards: Queen of Swords, Queen of Cups

4 🞂 4 Emperor 3

Spheres: sphere 05 11sphere 03 05
Fool’s Number: 0x04 (4)
Emanation Number: 0x03 (3)
Pronunciation: o͞os-ăs-fo͞om /us.as.fum/
Opposite Path: 28 Daimon 28
Court Cards: Queen of Wands, King of Cups

5 🞂 5 Hierophant 4

Spheres: sphere 03 05sphere 01 02
Fool’s Number: 0x05 (5)
Emanation Number: 0x04 (4)
Pronunciation: ŭsh-o͞oz-o͞ozh /ʌʃ.uz.uʒ/
Opposite Path: 24 Art 21
Court Cards: King of Cups, Knight of Cups

6 🞂 6 Lovers 9

Spheres: sphere 01 02sphere 05 11
Fool’s Number: 0x06 (6)
Emanation Number: 0x09 (9)
Pronunciation: ho͞om-jĕp-ēr /hum.d͡ʒɛp.iɹ/
Opposite Path: 25 Aeon 26
Court Cards: Queen of Cups, King of Cups

7 🞂 7 Chariot 6

Spheres: sphere 05 11sphere 04 07
Fool’s Number: 0x07 (7)
Emanation Number: 0x06 (6)
Pronunciation: o͞oz-choi-fou /uz.t͡ʃɔɪ.faʊ̯/
Opposite Path: 26 Shadow 27
Court Cards: Queen of Wands, King of Wands

8 🞂 8 Justice 5

Spheres: sphere 04 07sphere 02 03
Fool’s Number: 0x08 (8)
Emanation Number: 0x04 (5)
Pronunciation: ăzh-äm-chŭs /aʒ.ɑm.t͡ʃʌs/
Opposite Path: 20 Judgement 20
Court Cards: King of Wands, Knight of Wands

9 🞂 9 Hermit 10

Spheres: sphere 02 03sphere 05 11
Fool’s Number: 0x09 (9)
Emanation Number: 0x0a (10)
Pronunciation: ēm-ĕb-ŭr /im.ɛb.ʌɹ/
Opposite Path: 21 World 25
Court Cards: Queen of Swords, King of Wands

10 🞂 10 Fortune 11

Spheres: sphere 05 11sphere 06 13
Fool’s Number: 0x0a (10)
Emanation Number: 0x0b (11)
Pronunciation: o͞oi-vĕr-fŏth /uɪ.vɛɹ.fɑθ/
Opposite Path: 13 Death 13
Court Cards: King of Disks, Knight of Disks

11 🞂 11 Strength 12

Spheres: sphere 06 13sphere 03 05
Fool’s Number: 0x0b (11)
Emanation Number: 0x0c (12)
Pronunciation: jŭs-fôṙ-to͞om /d͡ʒʌs.foɾ.tum/
Opposite Path: 14 Temperance 14
Court Cards: Knight of Cups, Prince of Cups

12 🞂 12 Hanged One 07

Spheres: sphere 03 05sphere 04 07
Fool’s Number: 0x0c (12)
Emanation Number: 0x07 (7)
Pronunciation: ŭz-dou-o͞ow /ʌz.daʊ̯.uʊ̯/
Opposite Path: 27 Headless One 26
Court Cards: Queen of Wands, Princess of Wands

13 🞂 13 Death 13

Spheres: sphere 04 07sphere 07 17
Fool’s Number: 0x0d (13)
Emanation Number: 0x0d (13)
Pronunciation: ăou-tŏth-chō /aʊ̯.tɑθ.t͡ʃoʊ/
Opposite Path: 10 Fortune 11
Court Cards: Knight of Wands, Prince of Wands

14 🞂 14 Temperance 14

Spheres: sphere 07 17sphere 05 11
Fool’s Number: 0x0e (14)
Emanation Number: 0x0e (14)
Pronunciation: cho͞om-ā𝑡ℎ-kĕr /t͡ʃum.eɪð.kɛɹ/
Opposite Path: 11 Strength 12
Court Cards: King of Swords, Knight of Swords

15 🞂 15 Devil 16

Spheres: sphere 05 11sphere 08 19
Fool’s Number: 0x0f (15)
Emanation Number: 0x10 (16)
Pronunciation: o͞ol-ōg-fĕt /ul.oʊg.fɛt/
Opposite Paths: 19 Sun 19, 23 Unveiling 22
Court Cards: Prince of Wands, Prince of Cups, Princess of Wands

16 🞂 16 Tower 17

Spheres: sphere 08 19sphere 06 13
Fool’s Number: 0x10 (16)
Emanation Number: 0x11 (17)
Pronunciation: äi-gō-thŏth /ɑɪ.goʊ.θɑθ/
Opposite Path: 2 Priestess 1
Court Cards: Prince of Cups, Princess of Cups

Having entered into desire through the Devil we now encounter desire in its immediacy. It hits us like a lightning strike. Pain is not an abstract desire to avoid; the hurt is real, immediate. Likewise desire and want hits us and moves us in spite of ourselves, whether it be experienced as pleasure or pain.

In the sequence we start with the fool at zero, so even without the emergent number of seventeen there is a sense that this is the seventeenth path in the lunar cycle and associated with the beginning of the waning of the moon.

The tower is associated with the number sixteen in the Fool’s Journey. In binary sixteen, 10000, is a mark of completion, echoing zero. It the cycle of pronunciation it is the turning point backwards.

Tower is also seventeen, the breaking of the perfection of sixteen to produce the next prime. Its position on the tree also echos the Fool, but where the fool is innocent and above consequence the Tower is entirely about consequence.

Regarding these numbers, Plutarch wrote in Isis and Osiris:

The Egyptians have a legend that the end of Osiris’s life came on the seventeenth of the month, on which day it is quite evident to the eye that the period of the full moon is over. Because of this the Pythagoreans call this day "the Barrier," and utterly abominate this number. For the number seventeen, coming in between the square sixteen and the oblong rectangle eighteen, which, as it happens, are the only plane figures that have their perimeters equal their areas, bars them off from each other and disjoins them, and breaks up the ratio of eight to eight and an eighth by its division into unequal intervals.
— Plutarch
Isis and Osiris, 42

17 🞂 17 Star 15

Spheres: sphere 06 13sphere 07 17
Fool’s Number: 0x11 (17)
Emanation Number: 0x0f (15)
Pronunciation: jou-kōk-tō /d͡ʒaʊ̯.koʊk.toʊ/
Opposite Path: 1 Magus 2
Court Cards: Knight of Wands, Knight of Swords

18 🞂 18 Moon 18

Spheres: sphere 07 17sphere 08 19
Fool’s Number: 0x12 (18)
Emanation Number: 0x12 (18)
Pronunciation: chäl-𝑡ℎā-kĕt /t͡ʃɑl.ðeɪ.kɛt/
Opposite Path: 0 Fool 0
Court Cards: Prince of Wands, Princess of Swords

19 🞂 19 Sun 19

Spheres: sphere 08 19sphere 09 23
Fool’s Number: 0x13 (19)
Emanation Number: 0x13 (19)
Pronunciation: äp-thĕt-thĕ /ɑp.θɛt.θɛ/
Opposite Path: 15 Devil 16
Court Cards: Queen of Disks, King of Disks

20 🞂 20 Judgement 20

Spheres: sphere 09 23sphere 06 13
Fool’s Number: 0x14 (20)
Emanation Number: 0x14 (20)
Pronunciation: ĕi-ṙăd-pŏth /ɛɪ.ɾæd.pɑθ/
Opposite Path: 8 Justice 5
Court Cards: Knight of Disks, Prince of Disks

21 🞂 21 World 25

Spheres: sphere 06 13sphere 11 31
Fool’s Number: 0x15 (21)
Emanation Number: 0x19 (25)
Pronunciation: jĕr-rĭch-tĕh /d͡ʒɛɹ.ɹɪt͡ʃ.tɛh/
Opposite Path: 9 Hermit 10
Court Cards: Prince of Disks, Princess of Cups

22 🞂 22 Lust 24

Spheres: sphere 11 31sphere 08 19
Fool’s Number: 0x16 (22)
Emanation Number: 0x18 (24)
Pronunciation: fäl-bä-shĕt /fɑl.bɑ.ʃɛt/
Opposite Path: 3 Empress 8
Court Cards: Princess of Swords, Princess of Cups

23 🞂 23 Unveiling 22

Spheres: sphere 08 19sphere 10 29
Fool’s Number: 0x17 (23)
Emanation Number: 0x16 (22)
Pronunciation: äb-pĕv-thŭ /ɑb.pɛv.θʌ/
Opposite Path: 29 Devil 31
Court Cards: Queen of Disks, King of Swords

24 🞂 24 Art 21

Spheres: sphere 10 29sphere 07 17
Fool’s Number: 0x18 (24)
Emanation Number: 0x15 (21)
Pronunciation: vou-lĭf-sō /vaʊ̯.lɪf.soʊ/
Opposite Path: 5 Hierophant 4
Court Cards: Knight of Swords, Prince of Swords

25 🞂 25 Aeon 26

Spheres: sphere 07 17sphere 11 31
Fool’s Number: 0x19 (25)
Emanation Number: 0x1a (26)
Pronunciation: chĕr-wōj-kĕh /t͡ʃɛɹ.woʊd͡ʒ.kɛh/
Opposite Path: 6 Lovers 9
Court Cards: Prince of Swords, Princess of Swords

26 🞂 26 Shadow 27

Spheres: sphere 11 31sphere 09 23
Fool’s Number: 0x1a (26)
Emanation Number: 0x1b (27)
Pronunciation: fĕp-yo͞o-shĕ /fɛp.ju.ʃɛ/
Opposite Path: 7 Chariot 6
Court Cards: Prince of Disks, Princess of Disks

Shadow is the undefined within and beyond every manifest phenomena. It is non-determinism and superposition. It is the void from which manifestation arises and collapses back into in the flow of time. It is the world soul.

27 🞂 27 Headless One 26

Spheres: sphere 09 23sphere 10 29
Fool’s Number: 0x1b (27)
Emanation Number: 0x17 (23)
Pronunciation: ĕb-mĕ-pŭ /ɛb.mɛ.pʌ/
Opposite Path: 12 Hanged One 07
Court Cards: Queen of Disks, Princess of Disks

28 🞂 28 Daimon 28

Spheres: sphere 10 29sphere 11 31
Fool’s Number: 0x1c (28)
Emanation Number: 0x1c (28)
Pronunciation: vĕr-ză-sĕh /vɛɹ.za.sɛh/
Opposite Path: 4 Emperor 3
Court Cards: Prince of Swords, Princess of Disks