This episode of Rootlock Radio delves into the numerical progression of the Minor Arcana, explaining how the numbers 1 through 10 correspond to stages of development and experience, mirroring the archetypal journey of the Major Arcana. It then applies this framework to an in-depth analysis of the Suit of Wands, illustrating how fire energy evolves through these numerical stages.
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you're listening to rootlock radio [Music]
[Music]
hello and welcome to rootlock radio a
podcast for uncloaking
learning and exploring the tarot cards
my name is weston i live in new york
city and i
am your host real lock radio is designed
to be a course in
learning the tarot cards so if you
haven't listened before
you might want to start at episode 1.
each episode builds on the lessons in
the previous episodes
last time we looked at how the major
arcana cards help us to unlock the meaning
meaning
of the four suits of the minor arcana
cards and we also look at the particular elements
elements
and the symbols representing those
elements as different ways to conceive
of the energy of those four suits in
today's episode we'll turn to the numbers
numbers
1 through 10 and see how the major
arcana cards
help us to understand how the numbers
play out in these minor cards
and then we'll move on to the suit of
wands and we'll look at the cards ace
through 10 in the suit of wands in depth
i'd like to say briefly
that i've had people reach out to me
about having one-on-one tarot lessons
and this is something i'm very excited
to do helping aspiring tara readers is
where my interest lies most
in my tarot services because of this
i've added a lessons section to the
rootlock tarot website where you can
easily book a lesson with me
either in person or online using a video
chat to check that out
visit reloctero.com lessons
thank you so much for listening and i
previously we identified the minor
arcana cards
as representing slice of life moments
and people often wonder if the minor
arcana cards represent things that
are smaller in time than those
on the major cards so i want to say
something about that real quick
before we move into these numbers the experiences
experiences
and moments represented on these minor cards
cards
can be quite big or quite small
so they have the ability to sort of morph
morph
and stretch into big moments
or condense into little moments so any
of the
moments depicted on the minor arcana
cards could be
just something you feel fleetingly or
experience very fleetingly in a matter
of a few seconds
or it could be something that defines an
era or epoch of
your life so while the major cards show
us these sort of big
archetypal experiences the minor cards
are more flexible and sometimes they
represent something that's just very
small and fleeting
and sometimes they represent something a
little bit bigger
and more lasting and this makes them
useful tools in the tarot
because we have this flexibility of
experiencing things on both a micro
and a macro level within these minor cards
cards
in the previous episode we introduced
the concept of the minor arcana cards representing
representing
a grid of daily experiences that you can
create a visual of by laying out the
cards in a ten
by four card rectangle the four rows
are the suits and the ten columns are
the numbers ace through ten
in that episode we covered the four
suits in various ways and looked at how
the first four cards of the major arcana
the element
itself as well as the symbol
representing the element on those cards
can help us understand
those four suits the other side of the matrix
matrix
is the numbers one through ten and
numerology can help us to
understand what those 10 numbers
represent because if you'll remember each
each
card within the minor arcana is an
intersection between
the suit or the elemental energy and the
number on the card
if you're thinking to yourself oh man
numerology how am i ever going to learn that
that
the thing is that you already have a
little bit in our
journey with the fool so we introduced
some ideas about the numbers 1 through 10
10
in those episodes so what i'm going to
do now
is connect the numbers 1 through 10 to the
the
corresponding major arcana cards
and talk about how those card meanings
that we've already
established translates into this minor
arcana grid the way of conceiving of the
fool's journey was to think of a
human being going through a journey of
archetypal experiences of life
but in the minor arcana card the
character that we're following
is not a human it's actually the energy itself
itself
so in the first ace cards the energy manifests
manifests
and then in the following nine cards we
see how that energy
evolves and transforms over time based
on the number on the card
so as you go through the minor cards
think less about a human character
and more about how a particular elemental
elemental
energy is changing into different
expressions of that
energy and the ways that might look in
somebody's day-to-day life
this helps us to understand that in our
daily life
each of the four elemental energies show up
up
in different ways and in different
combinations and by studying these
40 cards we begin to understand the
different ways that those
elemental energies can show up for us so
let's look at those numbers
the number one which appears as the ace cards
cards
in the minor arcana is linked to the
major arcana card of the magician
and if you'll remember from our
discussion of the fool's journey
in the journey the magician represents
the moment of conception where the sperm
meets the egg it's that magical moment
where something begins to exist
out of nowhere and if you look at those
ace cards you see a hand from the clouds
holding the symbol of the suit and what
this represents is
the energy of that suit manifesting
seemingly out of nowhere we'll talk
about this a little bit more when we get
into the individual suits but this is a
helpful starting point to understand
when looking at the numbers 1 through 10
in each suit the beginning of the
journey of that energy comes from it manifesting
manifesting
sort of out of nowhere in a magical
conception moment
not dissimilar to the magician moment of
the fool's journey
the number two card in the major arcana
is the high priestess
and if you'll remember she represents
the time of gestation
so you want to link the number two in
your mind with this idea of gestation
and we'll see how that plays out in
those minor arcana cards
the number three card in the major
arcana is the empress
and if you'll remember the empress is
the great mother card
but what's happening to the fool during
this moment of
mothering is development and that's the
same thing that's happening to the
elemental energy
in the three cards you see this development
development
the number four card is the emperor and
he's the father figure
and what he does is provide structure
for the fool
and the same way we see a structuring
happening to the energy
of each element in the four cards on the
minor arcana
the numbers one through four in the
minor arcana
represent the most simple expressions of
the particular energy of that suit well
the numbers
six through nine represent a more complex
complex
expression of that energy so the number
five is this transition time
between simple and complex and
if you'll remember the number five card
in the major arcana was the hirophant
and this was the moment where the fool
left behind the simple experiences of
early childhood
and moved into the more complex ones of
later childhood where he's indoctrinated by
by
school and church and the experience of
this transition wasn't necessarily
easy for him so what we see in the
number five cards
of the minor arcana is a similar
transition to this more complex expression
expression
but it's not an easy transition it's got
that feeling of growing pain to it
and a little bit of loss around the loss
of innocence of the more
simple expression in the earlier cards
and this is a direct
echo of what we see in the major arcana
at this moment the number six card of
the major arcana
is the lovers and what you really want
to take away from the lovers card in
relation to the number six cards
the minor arcana is that it's this
rebalancing moment
after the transition of number five
so as we move into these more complex expressions
expressions
there's that transition moment in number
five and then in the number six
a new balance is achieved in this higher
expression of the energy
and the way we see that in the lovers
card is that
the beauty of life and individual choice
is restored
in the lovers card after the indoctrination
indoctrination
that we see in the hierophant card which
really kind of strips away
that freedom of early childhood the
number seven
card in the major arcana was the chariot
and this is where we see an individual
having their own
agency over their lives and it's sort of this
this
raw power that an adolescent has as they
move towards their adult life
there's a lot of possibility here so the
number seven
cards in the minor arcana reflect this
raw power feeling
so as we're moving into these more
complex expressions and maturing
in the minor arcana the number seven is
sort of this moment where that
more mature and complex energy of the element
element
is a power that we can use in some way
we have a choice about it
just as the chariot card represents sort
of this moment of
individual agency where you get to
decide where to go forward you have the
reins in your hands
so you might want to think of that image
with the number seven in the minor arcana
arcana
is you're holding the reins the number eight
eight
card in the major arcana is strength and
if you'll remember this is where
the fool takes that individual agency
and channels it into a coming out moment
where he decides to embrace something
about himself
or a passion that he has he's energized by
by
the power that he has and the direction
that he's finding in his life
so the number eight cards in the minor
arcana represent this energized moment
where the raw power
is channeling through this energized moment
moment
and transforming into something even
more complex there's a lot of movement
forward in these number eight cards and
then the number nine in the major arcana
is affiliated with the card the hermit and
and
if you remember the hermit is a turning inward
inward
moment so as we're reaching the end of
the minor arcana suits the number nine
is showing us that we've sort of
accomplished something we have an
attainment moment
but there's also a moment of kind of
turning in on yourself and reflecting
over where you stand as you approach the completion
completion
of this energy cycle and then the number 10
10
we remember from the major arcana is the
wheel of fortune and this is the moment
where we reckon with the forces of the universe
universe
so in the minor arcana we have a similar
thing in number nine we've attained a goal
goal
within the energy of this suit and then
in the number 10
the universe shows up and lets us know
if it supports or opposes
where we stand and when you look at
those number 10 cards you really
see this they span from the absolute elatedness
elatedness
of the number 10 with the suit of cups
to the
complete and utter defeat represented in
the number 10 in the suit of swords and
of course we'll get into
the details of these cards and why those
cards depict what they do
but for now just think of the number 10
in the minor arcana is sort of being
where our accomplishments are weighed up
against the universe
so again going through those numbers the
number one
is conception the number two is gestation
gestation
in number three we have that growth of
the energy and the development
in the number four we have the
structuring of the energy
and then in the number five we have the
transition into the more complex
expressions in the number six we have a rebalancing
rebalancing
after this transition in the number
seven we have this
raw power of the energy in the number eight
eight
we have that energy being energized in
the number nine
we have a attainment with a bit of
inward reflection
happening and then in the number 10 is
the completion where we
reckon with the universe over the
completion of that energy cycle
so what we're seeing in the minor arcana
are these four
narratives about how energy develops and evolves
evolves
as we now turn to the suit of wands what
we're going to do is go through the
cards ace through
10 and look at how the fire
energy interacts with the numbers 1
through 10
to create and dictate the meaning of
each of these cards
so as we go through i'll remind you of
what the numbers mean
and this is the same way that we'll go
through all four of the suits
in the coming episodes so the first card
is the ace of wands and like all aces
what we see on this card
is a hand from the clouds holding out
a single version of the symbol of the suit
suit
and if you remember the number one is
that moment of conception
so we have this magical spark where the
energy of the suit manifests
seemingly out of nowhere all four of the
ace cards
share this moment of manifestation
of the energy of the suit and when you
look at that hand from the clouds
on the card it's sort of like the
universe is
gifting you the energy of that suit in
this case the universe is handing you a wand
wand
which kind of symbolizes a dose of fresh
fire energy
coming out of nowhere it's sort of a
bolt from the blue of that energy
if you look at the way that the hand
holds the wand this is another place
where we can kind of see
the energy of the fire suit represented
the hand looks very confident and optimistic
optimistic
which are very fiery characteristics
you even see a bit of a thumbs up
happening with that hand so
that can kind of remind you of that
optimistic energy a very fiery energy
thinks that it can do anything and when
you look at the landscape on
the card it looks inviting it looks very
nice and pleasant
and kind of balanced and we have this
castle on a hill
which symbolizes the striving for a goal that
that
is something that permeates all wand experiences
experiences
we always have this drive that burns in
us and makes us strive for something
so if you pull the ace of wands in a
tarot reading
it's a fresh fire or wand
opportunity a dose of fresh fire energy
shows up
and it's up to you to figure out how
you're gonna act on it if at all so it's
a very
undefined version of the fire energy
it's unformed and you
get to choose if and how you're going to
utilize it
the number two we'll remember is the gestation
gestation
period so this is where this fresh dose
of fire energy
is gestated we're sort of simmering on
it for a while and this is where you
figure out
what to do with the energy so on the
card we see this
figure standing up in a castle it could
be that same castle from the ace card
you see that he has nice clothes on so
he's got resources right
he appears to be in a pretty good position
position
standing up in this castle with nice
clothes on
and also he's holding the world in his hands
hands
which is of course a symbol of having
endless opportunity right when someone
has the world in their hands
they have a very good advantage so in
the story
of the wands cards this is where the energy
energy
is recognized and we're trying to figure
out what to do about it and fire energy
mixes well with the number two the
number of gestation
because fire energy likes to be
contained it doesn't do well when it
gets out of control as we'll see in
later cards
it does well to have that balance of pausing
pausing
and thinking and curbing the impulse and
figuring out what to do next
so in a small way here we're seeing that balance
balance
of the masculine action-oriented
energy with a feminine
meditation-oriented energy
that is so important in the story of the
major arcana
so if you draw the two of wands in a
tarot reading it's urging you to
contemplate your next steps
it's saying that you have the resources
and you have the energy to do something
and asking how are you gonna do it it's
urging you to stop and reflect
and plan around something that you feel
passionate about
and to curb your impulses and to execute
it in a very smart
way now the number three is the number
of development
so this is where we see the energy
developing beyond
just the gestation and on this card we see
see
a figure on a hill looking down at a bay
and it could be the same bay that we see
in card two but this figure is no longer
in the castle they're now on a hill
so it could be the same figure as well
it could be the same person
that we see in card two and he's looking
down on these ships going out to sea
so there's very much a launching energy
here of
finally enacting something so if in car
2 he's sort of contemplating how to do
it in card 3 he's
figured it out and he's executing that
we see the growth of the fire energy
here there's definitely more fiery
energy permeating this card
because the bay is drenched in this very
fiery color
and the sky is orange and the figure is
also dressed a little more
wildly and he's in a very wild landscape
so fire energy has a wildness to it so
we're seeing that grow
in this car beyond what we saw before
he's no longer in that castle he's now
in a more wild landscape
so if you pull the three of wands in a
tarot reading
this is a moment of sending your ships
out to sea
putting something out there or launching
an idea into action
there's also a bit of this idea that
it's no longer
in your hands it's sort of out of your
hands right he's not on the ships he's
sending them out without him
so this is very much a different idea
than the figure holding the whole world
in his hands in number two
so now it's sort of like the idea is
getting put out there
and the world will react to it however
it chooses
you're no longer in full control you've
launched it out there
and you have to deal with however it's
going to be received
now the number four is where we see that energy
energy
structuring right we think of the
emperor card with the structuring
and in the four of wands what we see on
the card
is those four wands are forming a sort
of celebratory
canopy something like you might see at a
wedding and there are two figures
welcoming you
holding up these bouquets and there are
even more people in the background so
it's very much an
air of sort of celebration community
coming together
the sky is a bright happy yellow and
that castle
is very close right so we're kind of
coming back to the castle
and society now is recognizing us this
is the first place where we see
other figures in the card it's not so
isolated and
the perspective that the card is drawn
in really makes it feel like they're welcoming
welcoming
you the person who's looking at the card
and again
fire energy likes to be contained so the
structuring of the number four
combined with the energy of fire in this
one's card gives us a very pleasant
and celebratory energy so if you pull
this card into tarot reading
it can be sort of an invitation or
welcoming atmosphere
or a celebration of your accomplishments
right the card 3
we've sent something out and this card 4 is
is
suggesting that whatever we sent out was
received well
because we're getting this very happy
invitational energy
this is often also called the wedding
card because of
the wedding-like imagery on it but that
goes deeper too right because
here we see a structuring of fire energy
and a wedding is very much a
structuring of the passion of a romantic relationship
relationship
so there is something to that beyond
just the imagery of the cards so in
numbers one through
four what's happened is we've seen the
energy received and then deciding how to
use it
and then implementing the plan and
letting it go out of your hands
and then success and the accomplishes
recognized by society and as we move
into cards
five and then cards six through 10 we see
see
how a more complicated expression
starts to emerge so let's move forward
into that so again number five
is a number of transition and
it often brings about the anxiety and
growing pains that come with transition
and on this cardigan we see a very wild
terrain below the feet of the figures
it looks very unsteady and kind of hard
to stand on
and then we see five figures each
holding a wand
and what's happening is very disorderly
the wands are not
lined up with one another and it's all
just sort of chaotic
everything's going every which way and
the same is true of their outfits right
this isn't an
army of orderliness these people are all
wearing very different outfits
and overall there's sort of a disorder
and chaos
and a bit of a frustration with this
card so if you draw this card
in a tarot reading it means something of disorder
disorder
or entanglement a lack of cohesion
collaboration or cooperation is leading
to the inability to get organized
and what we're starting to see here is
the narcissism of the fire energy
so fire energy tends to have a bit of a
my way or the highway
attitude to it and in this card
what's happening is everyone has their
own idea
about how to do something right and no
one's in agreement and the resulting
lack of cooperation is leading to an
inability to accomplish anything
now the number six is where we see a rebalancing
rebalancing
of the energy and so if you look at this
six card
things look a lot better all the wands
are now pointing
upward we're having a much more of an alignment
alignment
and one of the figures is now up on a
horse and
adorned with a wreath on his head and on
his wand
so we have a person taking a leadership
role and this is overcoming the chaos
that we saw on the five card so if you
draw this
six card in a tarot reading it can mean
something like a promotion
or taking charge in some way a recognition
recognition
of your role and rising above in order to
to
command other people and it can also be
just a
card of victory of overcoming the chaos
that you see in the five card
and accomplishing something but it's
very much a status
upgrade in this card so this is a nice
card if you draw it it's sort of saying
you will be recognized
for your role and what you've been doing
and then when we move into the seven
card seven is a number of raw power
remember the chariot card where you're
holding the reigns and you get to decide
what to do but it's a very
individual command as well you're on
your own but you have control
and so on this card we see a solo figure
standing up on a hill which represents
the idea that he has an advantage right
he's at higher ground
than everyone below him and he's got a
very defensive stance
against the wands below right he's
standing with his legs wide apart and
he's holding his wand up as a defensive
weapon and he looks very much ready to
fight to defend his status so the status
upgrade that we saw in number six
is now turning into a battle and he's
again standing on some very
unsteady looking ground and we have that wildness
wildness
of the wand suit so what's happening
really is this guy is
fighting to keep that upper hand and
he's very ready to fight
so if you pull this card in a tarot reading
reading
what you're seeing is is an advantage or
an upper hand
but one that you have to fight to retain
so it's kind of a card of defending what
is yours or defending your status
or in some way your status being
threatened but you
have the advantage and ability to
keep it if you fight for it so the
number eight is a very
energized number if you remember eight is
is
associated with the card's strength
where we have that energy
to do something and on this card we have
a very strange image that confuses
a lot of people there's a lot of
disagreement about what this card could mean
mean
there's no human figure there's these
eight wands just sort of
flying through the sky or coming down to
the ground it's hard to tell which
direction they're going in
and we see perhaps the castle on the
hill but it looks very
far away now which to me says something
that we've strayed a little too far
and when we think again about that
narcissism of
the fire energy that can be very
isolating right people don't really want
to be around
someone who's overly narcissistic it can
push people away
and there's something sort of ironic
about that right and
thinking that you're right you actually
end up
losing everyone that's close to you the
one thing that really
comes to mind for me whenever i see this
card is the idea of an
air raid right if you were standing on
the ground there you'd basically have a
bunch of sticks flying at you
sticks falling from the sky and that
would be a very
unpleasant experience so i think when fire
fire
meets the energized eight things get
out of control and it's not the like disordered
disordered
out of control feeling that we had in
number five in that card we had
an inability to get anything done in
this card
the problem is more about swiftness
things are moving too fast and we're having
having
to try to really fight to keep up so
when you draw this eight card in a tarot reading
reading
i think of it as being you're in over
your head
there's too much going on things are
moving too fast
and you're having to keep your head
above water there are bombs dropping all
around you that feeling when you're just
you've got so much going on that you
can't keep track of it all and there's
no one there to help
right there's not even a single human on
this card so it's a very
out of control energy when the eight of
wands comes up in a tarot reading
there's a little too much going on
things are happening too fast
and bombs are dropping all around you
now the number nine
is a number of attainment and reflection
right we think of that hermit card
where he goes off and turns inward on
his own
and when we look at this card we're back
on steady ground
it actually looks like stone like a stone
stone
floor so maybe this figure's back in the
castle the figure now possesses all the wands
wands
he's holding them all behind him uh so
this says that
through all of this this figure has won
the battle he's
survived and made it through he does
have a bandage
on his head which says something like
his psyche is wounded
and again when when we're thinking about
the isolating nature
of what's happened over the last few
cards maybe he can't trust anyone or he
doesn't trust anyone now
and so he's got this sort of paranoid solo
solo
status to him that his narcissism has
led him
to being so paranoid that he can't trust
anyone at
all so we have this isolated accomplishment
accomplishment
you've fought everyone back and you have won
won
and you've accomplished what you set out
to do but now
what now you're by yourself and you have
all these sticks but you don't have
anyone to
share them with and you're paranoid and wounded
wounded
so if you draw this card in a tarot
reading i see it as
that isolated accomplishment like maybe
you fought everyone back
and you've gotten where you want to go
but now you're on your own and maybe it
can urge you
to reflect on the way that your battles
have wounded you
and try to heal from that right any sort
of negative card you want to take as
an urge to reflect and it can also be a
a warning if you are in a state where
you are
really fighting for what you want relentlessly
relentlessly
it can be a little bit of a warning to
not isolate yourself through that to
keep some allies
so card 10 is where the universe steps
in and we have a reckoning or a judgment
around the situation if you'll remember
the 10 card is the wheel of fortune in
the major arcana where
we reckon with the forces of the
universe so on this card we see
a figure who has all the wands but it's
a burden right it doesn't look very fun
to have to carry those
and it seems like maybe he's been cast
out of the castle now because he's
walking on what appears to be a road
by himself so this is sort of the ultimate
ultimate
result of the narcissism of the wands is
that you
isolate yourself and then you may have
it all
and you may have accomplished what you
want to accomplish
but now you find yourself cast out and
more than anything
what you've accomplished becomes a burden
burden
if you draw this card in a reading it
can be a little bit of
of the burden of taking on too much especially
especially
if you have that my way or the highway
attitude it's not going to get done right
right
if i don't do it myself the consequence
of that is that you end up being
responsible for way too much
and you isolate yourself and push other
people away
and if you try to return to society
after your accomplishments if this is
the way that you've acted
as you've gained these accomplishments
you'll find yourself
rejected and pushed away by them so the
ten of wand cards can kind of be a
warning about
that or kind of reveal to you
that that's what you've done and this is
where you are and
then you get to think about what you
want to do about that because the minor cards
cards
are cyclical right so when you reach the
end of card
10 it's not saying okay now you're stuck
here forever the cycle's resetting
what do you want to do next so as i said
before the cards one through
four were that simple expression of the
wands right and those were a much more pleasant
pleasant
expression overall and then card five
was the transition
and then cards six through nine is the
more complex
expression of the wan's energy and then
ten is where we reckon with the universe
so we can think about this in the terms of
of
a hypothetical situation so say
ace of wands you come up with an idea a
creative idea that you want to
execute and two of wands you take some
time to think about how you're going to do
do
it you want to create maybe a creative
business of some kind
and then three of wands you launch your
business and four of wands
your business is well received so you
decide okay
i'm gonna transition my business and
grow it so
you decide to take other people in maybe
you get investors
business partner and this is where
things start to get complicated right
because in the five of wands not
everyone has the same idea
about how things are going to work so
maybe there's kind of a tough transition
of a lot of disagreement and disorder
and then
six of wands you rise above and you
become the commander
of the creative endeavor this business
that you've created but then
that goes to your head and in the seven
of wands you start
fighting everyone back because you don't
want your status to be threatened
and you don't want anyone to tell you
what to do and then eight of wands
things start to get out of control
because you don't have anyone to help
you you fought everyone back
and there's just too much going on it
for one person
and nine of wands you survive the air
raid of the eight you managed to
get through everything but now you've
accomplished your goal
but you don't trust anyone and you're
all alone and
in the ten of wands you find that even
if you try to turn
back to the people around you you
are rejected and cast out and
you are left with just a feeling of
being burdened by
all that you've accomplished so overall the
the
early cards in the suit of wands teach us
us
a good way to utilize that fire energy
there's more of a contemplative and societally
societally
oriented usage of the fire energy and
there seems to be a humbleness
in these cards whereas in the later
numbers we see the
narcissism of the fire energy emerging
and we see how that sort of my way or
the highway
attitude can isolate us from all of the
people that we have in our lives [Music]
rootlock radio is a podcast for
uncloaking learning and exploring the
tarot cards
it's written and produced by me westin
music for today's show was provided by
shenandoah davis
as well as jarray whose song suit of
wands you're hearing now
you can listen to the lyric version on
jurae's soundcloud account the link is
in the show notes
as i mentioned at the beginning of the
show i've added tarot lessons to the
rootlock tarot website as a rootlock
radio listener you can get a 20
discount on in-person or online tarot lessons
lessons
enter the promo code rlr007
at checkout if you have any questions
comments or things you'd like me to talk
about on the show
please reach out to me you can reach me
at reallocktaro gmail.com
thank you so much for listening and i
hope you'll join me next time
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