Arieli's Two of Coins

Month: Tevet (Days of Rain)

Numerology: The number two indicates choice, duality, and the attempt to find balance. In Pythagorean philosophy, the number two (dyad) is the principle of separation and creation. Twos suggest dialogue, communication, and the potential to create something. According to Joanna Powell Colbert, twos mean balance, receptivity, attraction, or a test of choice. The second sefirah on the Tree of Life is Chokhmah, Wisdom.

Arieli’s Two of Coins: Arieli’s Two of Coins shows two medallions floating in a sky of stylized clouds over a Jerusalem neighborhood. One of the coins seems to be hanging from a necklace. Both coins are engraved with images of a couple. A landmark shown in the image suggests the vision of Moses Montefiore, not of the actual Jerusalem neighborhood of Yemin Moshe. In 1857, Montefiore built a windmill and apartments outside the walls of the Old City in the hopes of drawing Jews out of the Jewish Quarter, which was overcrowded and unhealthy because of polluted cisterns. However, the city’s Jews were unwilling to leave because Bedouins raided outside the walls. The few Jews who accepted Montefiore’s offer of new apartments returned to the Old City each night for safety. Only after a cholera epidemic in 1865 did more of the city’s Jews see the benefit of moving out of the Old City to the settlement Montefiore had named Mishkenot Sha’ananim (“Habitation of Tranquility”).

Arieli assigns these meanings to the Two of Coins:
Upright: the continuity of generations, a warm relationship between parents and children, traditions lovingly passed on, teaching the next generation with the wisdom of experience, providing a strong base from which future generations can grow
Reversed: abandoning the values of past generations, poor examples of parenting and adulthood, lack of values in the home, a contradiction between the values taught and the examples set, tension or conflict between the generations

Arieli’s description of the card: Two sides of a coin are shown. One side depicts an elderly couple and the other side depicts a young couple. The pair of images implies that the work of an earlier generation benefits a later generation; once material resources are secure, new generations can focus on less practical but loftier pursuits. The side showing the earlier generation is near the ground because it is the generation that worked and built a home; the side showing the recent generation is rising to heaven using the base prepared for it to realize its dream. Alternatively, the two images may suggest that earlier generations were more virtuous, closer to heaven, and that successive generations descended to baser lives. [Arieli cites tractate Bava Kamma 2, but I have been unable to find mention of ‘the coin of Abraham’ or of these concepts on those pages of Talmud.]

The RWS Two of Pentacles shows: an oddly dressed youth stumbling while holding two pentacles that are joined by a ribbon in the shape of a figure eight. He appears to be on a stage. Behind him, two ships ride the crests of tall waves. Water and land do not meet in the card. The figure eight also appears in the RWS Magician, but in that card, it is firm and taut. The youth in this card in interfering with the natural flow of life, trying to make things proceed as he wishes they would.

Traditionally, the Two of Pentacles signifies: a failure to chose between two sets of responsibilities or to balance them. It also indicates unclear goals, uncertainty, ambivalence, disorganization, distraction, or debt. A. E. Waite wrote that the card could indicate “news and messages in writing.” Reversed, it may suggest: adaptability, grace under pressure, the ability to balance resources, or “simulated enjoyment.”

Comparison between the cards: The Arieli Two of Coins feels more grounded and stable than RWS Two of Pentacles. Arieli’s card suggests knowing where to turn for values and guidance. The figure in the RWS is lost and alone.

Hebrew Letter Correspondence: The numeral 2 is the letter בּ, which the Sefer Yetzirah connects to the moon and wisdom.

Relationship with Major Arcana: The Two of Coins is related to the second sefirah on the Tree of Life, Chokhmah, wisdom. Wisdom is the bride of God and she was present when heavens and earth were created. She is a female figure in Jewish literature.

16th century Lurianic Kabbalah, linked Chokhmah with Father and Binah with Mother. Arieli assigns his Two of Coins and his Magician to Chokmah. Visually, there seems to be little connection between the landscape of the Two of Coins and the skillful Magician, depicted by Arieli as King Solomon (Shlomo HaMelekh).

Tarot has a couple of bizarre twists on mathematics. In one system, you add the digits of a card to reduce it to a single number. In the other system, you reduce a card’s number by ten. Thus, each of the following cards has a value of two:

2=2 Arieli’s Magician (RWS High Priestess)
11=1+1=2 Arieli’s Wheel (RWS Justice)
20=2+0=2 Arieli’s Sun (RWS Judgment)
12=12-10=2 Arieli’s Justice (RWS Hanged Man)
22=22-10=12-10=2 Arieli’s World (no RWS card)

Visually, Arieli’s Sun and World seem most connected to the Two of Coins.

While all of the RWS assignments work well in the Robin Wood deck, I think The Hanged Man resonates most closely with Robin Wood’s Two of Pentacles. Both figures are “up in the air,” one walking on a tightrope, the other hanging from a tree. While they are not doing anything productive, they are in a position to see things from a different perspective. Both figures need to have faith that circumstances will change.

Magical uses according to Tyson: to cause a pleasant change of place or experience; to induce others to visit you.