What is the correct order of the Major Arcana? It is a subject that upsets a lot of people. I have views about it too, but now is the time to re-assess what the order is about.

Does the Fool belong at the beginning or the end of the sequence? Should The World be at the beginning and not the end? Does it matter where the Fool goes? Should the Fool be numbered Zero?

I have to admit I lost the desire to look at all the heat and very little light generated by this argument years ago, for it is a lot to do with one’s views on life, and nothing to do with the Tarot. In this series of posts I am considering what the benefits of the absence of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life would be.

For a start the order of the Major Arcana is fundamentally based upon the Sepher Yetsirah and its attributions to the Hebrew letters. By definition we maintain the order of the Hebrew alphabet, so it is up to us to place attributions, and the problem is that there are many different versions of the astrological attributions which all contradict themselves. Trying to create meaning  from the sequence is a pointless exercise.  If we ignore the Tree of Life we do not have a problem, for the sequence is essential to maintaining the hierarchy of Masonic and quasi-Masonic Orders, such as the infinite varieties of the True Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and proliferation into the O.T.O. et al.

I am not bothered by whether the Fool is zero or not, for the argument only arose when the Indian concept of zero arrived into Europe via the Arabs.

The only attributions worth keeping are astrological – the 12 signs of the zodiac and the seven planets, and this brings out the inherent limitations of the Hebrew alphabet, for there are only three cards left for the four elements. In truth it would be better if the lunar nodes were included.

There is no point in reinventing the wheel by having the Fool as Aries, then The Magician as Taurus and so on, and then the 13th card would be one of the planets, with the final three attributed to Air, Water and Fire, not necessarily in that order.

My order of the Major Arcana

My primary concern is with the astrological attributions, and not the Tree of Life, so for example, I could not care less that the High Priestess connects Kether to Tipareth through Daath on the Tree of Life. However, I know it is very important to some people, so I always maintain awareness of those views but I attach no significance to them. The attribution I keep for the High Priestess is of course the Moon.