Esoteric Titles

The Ten of Wands means more than "completion": in the Golden Dawn system it has a formal name, the Lord of Oppression. Every one of the forty minor number cards has a title like this.

What the system is

Book T, the core teaching text of the Golden Dawn, gives each of the forty number cards of the Minor Arcana (Ace to Ten, ten cards in each of the four suits) a formal title, known as its esoteric title. When MacGregor Mathers rebuilt the Kabbalistic order of the tarot, he put these forty titles into one fixed format, "Lord of …": the Ten of Wands is the Lord of Oppression, and the Two of Cups is the Lord of Love. These titles are not decorative nicknames. Within the system they are the most condensed official statement of what each number card is, and in many cases they were settled before the images were. When Waite designed the minor cards, he composed the pictures according to these titles. The Wands suit follows them most closely; in the later suits Waite mixed in more of his own choices, to varying degrees, and even drew on another source (Mathers's own earlier and looser booklet, The Tarot), so on a few cards the picture and the title do not match.

The four Aces also have esoteric titles, in a slightly different format: "Root of the Powers of …". The Ace of Wands is the Root of the Powers of Fire, and the Ace of Cups is the Root of the Powers of Water. This needs a separate note. Both Numbers in Tarot and Astrological Correspondences stress that the Aces take no part in the decan scheme. That still holds: in the Golden Dawn system each Ace governs a quarter of the heavens around the north celestial pole, a division of space, and not a particular ten-day stretch. But having no decan does not mean having no esoteric title. The Aces still have their titles; these speak of the suit's element in its most undivided form, and are not tied to specific degrees of a sign the way the titles of the Twos through Tens are. The court cards are not part of this system of titles and are not discussed on this page.

How the titles are derived

Most titles can be understood in two layers:

• The number stage: which stage the card occupies in Numbers in Tarot. Two is relationship, Five is conflict, Ten is completion, and so on. This layer sets the skeleton of the title: whether its emotional tone is positive or negative.
• The decan combination: which decan of which sign the card falls in, which planet rules that decan, and whether that planet is in its domicile (at home, with its energy flowing freely), its exaltation (strengthened, with its energy amplified), or its detriment or fall (restricted, with its energy weakened). This layer refines the title, so that the same number stage can read with a completely different emotion under a different decan. Both the Ten of Wands and the Ten of Cups, for example, sit at the completion stage of Ten. The Ten of Wands meets Saturn in Sagittarius, and completion reads as "oppression"; the Ten of Cups is Mars in Pisces, and completion reads as "perfected success".

The logic does not fit every card perfectly. The further along the suits go, the more strained the match between the titles and the details of the Waite images becomes, and on some cards the qualities of the decan's planet leave almost no trace in the picture. It is fair to admit these are gaps left by the history of the material passing through several hands (Book T → Mathers's booklet → Waite's images), and there is no need to force an explanation ^uncertain.

How the titles help in practice

The greatest value of the esoteric titles is that they give a number card, which is easy to read too shallowly, a more precise focus. Many people see only "setting out, leaving" in the Three of Wands, but its title, the Lord of Established Strength, points out that the card is really about having found one's footing and choosing the next step from a position of strength; it is not about drifting from scratch. Many see only nostalgia in the Six of Cups, but the title, the Lord of Pleasure, shows that the card's tone is positive throughout. When the picture is ambiguous, or when you want to check that you have caught the core emotion of a card, the esoteric title is an easier route than memorizing keyword lists line by line.

How to use the titles in a reading

Rather than remembering the decan reasoning behind each title (that is mostly for people who want to dig deep into the system), the more practical approach in everyday readings is to use the esoteric title directly as a one-line keynote for the card, and then work out the details of the picture from that keynote:

• When the Six of Wands comes up, its title is the Lord of Victory, so the reader can tell the querent directly that the matter will most likely succeed. To answer the follow-up question of how it succeeds, go back to the picture for clues. The early disagreements and friction of the Five of Wands, for example, were a necessary part of the road to this victory, and the red ribbon that is not tied tightly on the wreath is a reminder that victory is not permanent; it takes continued effort to keep.
• When the Six of Swords comes up, its title is the Lord of Earned Success. This is a reminder that the card is not about luck that falls into one's lap, but about success that has to be earned and maintained through one's own effort. In a love question, it reminds the querent that the relationship needs both people to tend it; one-sided giving will not make it last.
• A reversal can start from the title too. For the Three of Swords reversed, the title, the Lord of Sorrow, is already negative in tone. The reversal does not mean the sorrow has gone. Starting from that tone, use the blocked/overdone/turned inward framework of Reading Reversals to narrow down which particular state it is.

The esoteric title works here like a reference pitch for the reading. The details of the picture, the meaning of the position and the combination with surrounding cards are all specific developments on top of that pitch; they are not sources of contradictory information.

Table of all forty cards

Related pages

• Numbers in Tarot
• Astrological Correspondences
• The Minor Arcana
• The Suit of Wands
• The Suit of Cups
• The Suit of Swords
• The Suit of Pentacles
• Reading Reversals
• Seven of Cups
• Six of Cups
• Three of Cups
• Four of Cups