Tarot pairs

Something I love to do is to find patterns in the tarot cards. In particular, the Major Arcana are rich in patterns - you can divide them into three rows of 7 with The Fool separate; you can divide them into four rows of 5 with The Fool and The World separate. Or, you can divide them neatly into 2 rows and compare the pairs.

Recently I wanted to see what pairs would result if I "mirrored" the Majors - that is, if I laid out one row of trumps from The Fool to the half way point, The Wheel, and then made the next row turn back on itself, so that the Fool is paired with The World. This is the same technique as the Atbash cipher, once beloved of cabalists in the Renaissance and later periods.

What I found was the pairings that result are very rich in meaning and symbolism - especially using the Rider-Waite-Smith cards of the Universal Waite Tarot, which were designed to reflect each other and be interlinked in their symbolism.

I want to do a series of blog posts about these wonderful pairings, starting with The Wheel of Fortune/Justice. More on that very soon, so do check back for an exploration of the wonderful world of tarot symbolism!

Blessed be
Anthony