{The Invisible Cards}[9th July 1987]

[Redbook4:28-29][19870709:2358]{The Invisible Cards}[9^th July 1987]

[19870709].2358

One great and inexplicable anomaly or lacuna in the adaptation of the Tarot Pack to the Circles is the lack of 'special' cards for East and West – M~ and G~. It follows almost inevitably from the fact that there are only 22 Greater Trumps, of which 2 sets of 8 are used for the Circles themselves. The first 6 seem clearly of a different Order from the rest; and of them, the first two seem equally clearly differentiated from the next 4. But in the original system of Principles, as in most other patterns, the horizontal polarity is (to coin a phrase again) crucial. Can it really be absent from the Tarot Pack? I am quite prepared to admit that my adaptation is 'wrong', in the sense – without precedent; but I cannot think how the anomaly could be resolved.

There is another and entirely speculative way of looking at it. If there once were (or could be) 2 more cards representing the horizontal Cardinal points, i.e. M~ and G~, the number of Greater Trumps would become 24 – a more satisfying number in many ways than 22; and the total number of cards would be, not 78, but 80 – a number more perfect* (and therefore plausible?) by far. There is so far as I know no historical evidence for this whatsoever; in fact indications (e.g. the number of spokes in the Wheel of Fortune, TX) tend against it. But that does not make the suggestion incorrect.

*[In a non-mathematical sense, as evidenced by the use of the comparative qualification 'more'; a better description might have been 'more elegant'. Although elegance is also used to describe mathematical work (e.g. a theorem, an algorithm), its use is less precise and overlaps more with non-mathematical uses of the word than is the case with perfection. <201606/07>]

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