Arieli's Three of Candles

Month: Nisan (Days of Sun)

Numerology: The number three indicates a flowering, something created from the energy of the suit. It is the synthesis of the one’s thesis and the two’s antithesis. In Pythagorean philosophy, the number three (triad) represents energy and unity restored. According to Joanna Powell Colbert, threes means harmony, flow, and abundance. The third sefirah on the Tree of Life is Binah, Understanding.

Arieli’s card: Three small boys sit under at table while holding burning candles. The table is partly covered by a small tablecloth and several items, including a magnifying glass, are on the table. The boys have found a small loaf of bread that they can put it into one of the empty shoeboxes on the floor near them. This image represents the ritual of Bedikat Chametz, which is performed after dark on the 14th of Nisan. The ritual and its blessing are described in most haggadot. While using a candle, one final check of the home is made for chametz after a month of cleaning; a feather is used to sweep any remaining chametz into bags. A few pieces of chametz have been placed around the home to be found, so that the blessing said before the ritual will not be said in vain.

Arieli assigns these meanings to the Three of Candles:
Upright: examination, careful search, taking inventory, children, group activities, games
Reversed: finding something we do not want or were afraid to find

Arieli’s description of the card: "Unleavened bread shall be eaten throughout the seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee, in all thy borders," (Shemot, Exodus 13: 7).

Under a table, little boys hold candles while searching for chametz (leavening). This ritual takes place on the eve [before the] first night of Pesach, when we must remove all leavening from our homes and eat only matzah, unleavened bread. The responsibility for cleaning lies with the adults, but ritual pieces of bread are left for children to find and dispose of. We search for chametz by candlelight so we can see all the hidden places.

The RWS Three of Wands: A man looks away from us, over a cliff, toward ships in the harbor. His stately cloak covers armor and he reaches out to hold one of the three staves that are planted in the ground around him.

Traditionally, this card signifies: Progress, enterprise, well-established strength, waiting for a return on your investments, trade and commerce, knowing how to protect yourself, end of struggles, looking to the future, putting the past behind you, commitment to a new goal. Reversed, it may suggest: Lack of foresight, not seeing big picture, the possibility of war.

Comparison between the cards: Both cards suggest taking stock and looking to the future.

Relationship with Major Arcana: The third sefirah on the Tree of Life is Binah, Understanding. It is the place of receptivity and resistance. It is associated with the left temple of the head, which, if balanced with Chokhmah, the right temple, can bring insight. “Understand with wisdom. Be wise with understanding.” (Sefer Yetzirah 1:4)

Arieli’s connects the third sefirah to HaShekhinah, his High Priestess card. The Lurianic partzufim (faces) of the third sefirah are Imma and Tevunah, Mother and Comprehension.

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 three:

3=3 Arieli’s Shekhinah (RWS Empress)
12=1+2=3 Arieli’s Justice (RWS Hanged Man)
13=13-10=3 Arieli’s Hanged Man (RWS Death)
21=2+1=3 Arieli’s Judgment Day (RWS World)

Both Arieli’s Three of Candles and his High Priestess card are about hidden things that we’d like to discover and explore. The Hanged Man might parallel the pause between your home being free of chametz and the time the festivities of Passover begin. Bedikat Chametz is a moment of judgment: have we successfully cleaned out the old?

The RWS Empress and the Three of Wands both suggest abundance. The Hanged Man represents the pause in which the figure in the Three of Wands waits for his ships to return. Death also wears armor, but unlike the Three of Wands, a cloak does not conceal it. The figure in the Three of Wands seems to have the world before him.

Magical uses according to Tyson: to establish authority over others; to solidify a dominant position.