In numerous locations around this site, various analogies have been put forth to describe the many ways that we are to view the influence of a number line, as it represents a spherical model, designed to describe the essence of being (see the Patterns and Structure sections of the More on Tarot section of this site). In the essay The Accordionistic Dovetail Joint, we see how the idea of existence and non-existence are inexorably linked in an interdependence of form, where the increase of one means the decrease of the other. This was conveyed in number line fashion with the use of alternately inverted triangles. In the essay What is an Archetype?, we describe different methods that people use to confirm, in their mind, that they have made a significant connection to archetypal influence. The path between archetypal influence and human expression, or human "knowing" was seen as a two way street of inherited influence or emotional affinity. In the essay Numerical Etymology, we saw how the two way street of archetypal connectivity can be deliberately traversed, using methods like Focused Imagination or Guided Flexible Association.
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The Analysis of Meaning
Numerical Etymology is an important concept to bring to the world of tarot. Not only can it be used, deliberately, to brainstorm possible meanings for the archetypal patterns of the theoretical model of existence being put forth on this site, but it can also be used after-the-fact, to connect any significant result derived from any method of determining meaning, back to archetypal patterns rooted in a theoretical model of existence. Numerical Etymology is a tool to use in The Analysis of Meaning. Some people, though, don't want analysis of any kind applied to the results of their imaginative wanderings and therapeutic musings... ever... they just want to imagine possibilities, perceive the significance of the results to their own private self, and then share those experiences with no analysis whatsoever. The Numerical Tarot and the All Things Are Numbers approach exists as an alternative to that approach, for people who think that additional insight might be gained by looking deeper, and linking our experiences to primal, archetypal sources of motivation.
In the essay Numerical Etymology, two methods of analysis were suggested: 1) Focused Imagination along the suggested path of archetypal "knowing" outlined in the essay What is an Archetype? and... 2) taking a multivalent symbol and sorting the many meanings it can have across the length of a number line, according how each meaning expresses the essence of each number... as derived through the deliberate, or "guided" Flexible Association of meaning or "knowing" back, through believable associations, to an archetypal essence.
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Lots of things can mean lots of things when divorced from any established context. The Etymological Traverse attempts to give any thing an archetypal context. No matter where things come from in the world of signs and symbols, words and notes, icons and types, they all have roots in archetypal essence - like it or not!
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In the essay Content + Context = Meaning, and the essay A Daisy Chain of Meaning, we learned about the importance of context to the establishment of meaning, and a little about the methods and resulting patterns of some Flexible Association techniques. Lots of things can mean lots of different things, when, through imaginative techniques like Flexible Association, they are divorced from any established context. Lots of people find very personal forms of meaning through this technique, without ever having to define any context to anyone... including themselves. The Etymological Traverse attempts to give things that are being discussed outside the self, an archetypal context. No matter where things come from in the world of signs and symbols, words and notes, icons and types, they all have roots in archetypal essence. It doesn't matter how someone gets to the meaning they do, using whatever personal or paranoid techniques of Flexible Association or whatever... if they make the results public... more can be learned, if we look to Numerical Etymology to determine what archetypal influence those results express.
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The World of The Ten Thousand Things
At the end of the essay on Numerical Etymology, the path of etymology was compared to a tree in a forest. If we think of each number along our number line as an archetypal seed that births a bifurcating tree of possibilities, then the number line itself becomes a metaphorical forest, of archetypally rooted trees all in a row.
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Nine Brothers for Nine Sisters
When this idea of trees in a row is combined with the Accordionistic Dovetail Joint idea, we can see how actual trees, reflected in a lake, mimic the idea of Tangible Model vs. Intangible Non-Model as described in the essay The Accordionistic Dovetail Joint. The idea of model and non-model was then directly associated to the Minor suits of the Numerical Tarot deck. The suit of Addition/Coins/Diamonds, was analogous to the tangible model, and the suit of Multiplication/Cups/Hearts was analogous to the intangible non-model. The same pattern was then to be repeated for the suit of Subtraction/Staves/Clubs and the suit of Division/Swords/Spades. In this way, the suits of the Minors were seen as related... like Brothers and Sisters, with corresponding parents in the Majors! As minor players in a tarot drama, the suits are but one of many sudivisions of fundamental opposites. In the essay Numbers in Space, this model to non-model association is summed up with the words Quantitative vs. Qualitative, but you could just as easily apply any stereotypical male to female identity to these suits and understand them just as well - they are brother and sister.
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Like archetypally rooted trees in a forest, the canopy of leaves can hide all knowledge of branches and roots below. At the canopy level, it is hard to differentiate one thing from another. But with Analysis of Meaning (i.e. figuring out which metaphorical "tree" a metaphorical "leaf of meaning" came from) we can descend down the branches and trunk to meet archetypal roots that are specific to a certain type of tree. In this way, this system allows for (and endorses) complete freedom of intuition and psychic insight, or any other method a person might use for finding meaning: make stuff up, follow a primrose path, jump from context to context, ignore authored meanings, ignore social reality, listen to your dreams, follow your muse, let the end justify the means, use a tarot card, use an ink blot - it doesn't matter. What matters is where you land on this number line forest of possibilities, i.e. what "tree" your "leaf of meaning" comes from. The theory is, that you will land somewhere along this number line of possibilities, the question is where. If you never share your results, then it doesn't matter. If you do share your results, those familiar with this system of archetypal analysis will very likely want to know... to what archetypal seed your imagined results are rooted.
Wanting to know to what archetypal seeds a sign, symbol, or choice of word, or iconic representation is rooted is especially important if we are listening to someone at length, describing things like recurring dreams and recurring themes. In the Verbose Instructions that can be found linked to The Amazing Name Numerology Calculator, an analogy is made between possible meanings for any one number and a wardrobe closet full of clothes. In many ways, that analogy is isomorphic to the idea of leaves on a tree. There are many many possible associations, which, on the surface (i.e. the canopy level, or the opened closet level) might seem indistinguishable in any archetypal way (beyond unsharable "knowing"). But by descending down branches and trunk, we are able to make vital connections to archetypal sources, and thereby share in the understanding of archetypal influence. In the same way, name numerology points out how difficult it can be to determine the archetypal essence of human behavior and expressions, given the many ways a person might "clothe" themself, both literally and figuratively, from a wardrobe closet of possibilities. Each archetypal essence is like a wardrobe closet full of clothes, or a tree with many leaves. Together, as a forest, leaves of meaning make up the world of "The Ten Thousand Things" as the Taoists would say.
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The Hero with 1,000 Faces
In a world of "Ten Thousand Things" a hero does indeed have 1,000 faces - or more. But what, if anything, do all those faces have in common? The system of analysis being presented on this site proposes that all those 1,000 faces can be reduced to 1, if we follow each or any one of them through the Etymological Traverse being presented here. Likewise in the opposite direction; by starting with the archetypal essence of a hero, we can pass through the same Etymological Traverse, to create 1,000 faces. Likewise again, we can start with any of the other archetypal seeds in this forest and grow a tree of 1,000 faces that would be similar in many ways to any of the anthropomorphized icons of any tarot deck, or... take any of the anthropomorphized icons of tarot, and, through the same Etymological Traverse, come to "know" their archetypal roots.
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Numerical Etymology is a tool to use in The Analysis of Meaning. If someone doesn't want to analyze the results of their intuitive or psychic explorations; their dreams and notions of "knowing," then by all means, they should ignore everything on this site. However, if someone does have a curiosity as to what kind of archetypal roots a particular notion of "knowing" might have, then they should know that there are techniques one can use to make those determinations...
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Six Degrees of Archetypal Essence - Archetypal Patterns as a Touchstone
For those interested in the possibility of connecting to archetypal essence in ways beyond just "knowing," we can invent a game for determining influence. In the essay A Daisy Chain of Meaning we learned about a game called Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. The explanation of this game was used as an analogy to point out how Flexible Association works, and how seemingly unlikely connections can be imagined, simply by ignoring context. However... there was one vital difference pointed out that made the Kevin Bacon game a little different from the kinds of Flexible Association techniques that many use to determine significant connections in the private world of their own mind. In the private world of our own mind, three important restrictions, found within the Kevin Bacon game, don't exist: 1) reaching a specific destintion - Kevin Bacon 2) Using only six steps and 3) Using only actors in movies to jump from one context to the next. If these types of restrictions were applied to the type of Flexible Association techniques that many people use with tarot today, most would probably feel like a straight jacket had been applied to their mind, and that the freedom of Flexible Association had been completely destroyed. That is most likely true... in situations where interpretation is only for the self...
In determining meaning for YOURSELF alone - in our own private minds - techniques like Flexible Association must remain completely free. But... in the process of determining the archetypal essence of our results, restrictions similar to those of the Kevin Bacon game, can actually help in guiding us down the correct "tree" in our metaphorical "forest" of archetypal possibilities - They can help Focus our Imagination.
So... if we were to invent a game for determining archetypal essence we might want to include the three restrictions of the Kevin Bacon game, modified for our use... meaning: 1) our goal is archetypal essence, not meandering off to find private meanings 2) we don't have to get there in six steps, but just to be fun, let's say we do 3) we have to stick to one "tree" of archetypal essence as we jump from context to context. In other words, don't meander this way and that, the way we do with Flexible Association techniques, but instead use a form of guided Flexible Association - or Focused Imagination - that asks that every out-of-context "leap" that we make be relevant to the archetypal essence we are heading for, just as we are asked to not stray from the relevance of actors in movies when executing the Kevin Bacon game. Thus... the only difference between this game and the Kevin Bacon game, is that we have 9 "Kevin Beacons" to choose from as our ultimate goal (i.e. a number line of 9 metaphorical "trees"). So, our job in this game, is to: 1) guess which archetypal essence our intuitive results are linked to, 2) etymologically descend that metaphorical "tree" of meaning, and 3) "show our work" to demonstrate a believable connection between one of The Ten Thousand Things and a true archetypal essence... as describe by the many ideas being used on this site... that attempt to define a theoretical model of existence... rooted in fundamental, transcendental, archetypal patterns.
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Of one tree you will pick. To one tree you will stick.
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Can it be done? Can you do it? If you are good at the Kevin Bacon game, you might be good at this game. If you need help try consulting the many, many pages of Key Words and possible interpretations found elsewhere on this site. Have fun! :-)
For further instructions on how to play this game of determining archetypal essence, continue on the the essay Shake the Trees!
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The Cloud and Canopy Mandala
Here is a mandala you can use to meditate on this idea of a forest of trees with a canopy of leaves that represent TheTen Thousand Things of everyday life, that hide a world of archetypal patterns within.
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In this mandala, a cloud of probability lies at the center, waiting to be turned into a particle of certainty by the perceptions of humans creating signs, symbols, words, notes, icons and types. Between the cloud and the symbols lie pathways of etymology that lead us through the canopy toward the archetypal essence of each icon.
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In this mandala, a cloud of probability lies at the center, waiting to be turned into a particle of certainty by the perceptions of humans creating signs, symbols, words, notes, icons and types. Between the cloud and the symbols lie pathways of etymology that lead us through the canopy toward the archetypal essence of each icon. In this particular mandala, there are two icons for each of nine numbers... and zero; ten thousand things reduce to nine... nine things reduce to four... and a point.
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Upstream Downstream
Lots of people write books about tarot where they demonstrate an impressive background and knowledge of The Ten Thousand Things of every day existence and how those Ten Thousand Things can be attached, through analogy and comparison, to the 22 trumps of a tarot deck. But what about the archetypes? What about the primordial patterns that transcend The Ten Thousand Things? This study tries to address both these concerns. This study tries to encourage us to look UP-stream, toward the SOURCE of the transcendental patterns, as much as we look DOWN-stream toward The Ten Thousand Things.
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The All Things Are Numbers approach can be used to compile a comparative relatable mythos out of a derivative cross-cultural schema of sophisticated complexity, diversity and variety just as surely as any other approach to tarot. It can also be useful for those interested in distilling to a definitive abstract essence using a formative trans-cultural model of straightforward simplicity, purity and unity.
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The All Things Are Numbers approach can be used to compile a comparative relatable mythos out of a derivative cross-cultural schema of sophisticated complexity, diversity and variety just as surely as any other approach to tarot. It can also be useful for those interested in distilling to a definitive abstract essence using a formative trans-cultural model of straightforward simplicity, purity and unity. The degree to which any of us follows either path results from choice and preference. For more on this notion of choice or preference in our approach to tarot, read the essay entitled Cross-cultural vs. TRANS-cultural elsewhere on this site.
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Why?
Why indeed. Some like to experience, feel, imagine and "know" without ever sharing, or with sharing being a one way process of putting thoughts and feelings out there with the expectation of nothing other than support for whatever meaning and importance is perceived by those sharing. Others like to think critically about ideas that are presented, the way they are presented, and what those ideas can tell us about each other as a collection of minds building a social reality that effects us all (see the essay Imagine a Reason to Believe elsewhere on this site). There are portions of this site where I share my experiences, feelings, imagination and "knowing" with hope of support for whatever meaning and importance these ideas have for me. There are also portions of this site where I attempt to think critically about ideas of mine and others in an attempt to understand what these ideas can tell us about a collection of minds building a social reality that effects us all. Take your pick as to which of these interest you. For more on why each of these points of view do what they do, consult the Name Numerology section of this site, in particular the Personality Type Analysis essay.
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