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Sabio Tarot · Decks and systems

By Sabio Tarot

Justice and Strength: why their numbers change from deck to deck

You open a book at “Major Arcanum VIII” and find Justice, but the VIII card in your deck is called Strength. You have not necessarily lost a card or found a printing error: two numbering conventions coexist in well-known decks. The mistake would be to carry on as though the number named the same image in both.

In many Marseille-style tarots, Justice is VIII and Strength is XI. Under the Rider–Waite–Smith convention, Strength is VIII and Justice is XI. The V&A holds examples from both traditions, and the BnF shows the historical variety of Marseille tarots. The practical rule is to check your own edition; a modern deck may make a different choice.

What exactly changes?

Two positions change places within the sequence of trumps. The cards still show distinguishable themes and images: a figure associated with balance or judgement in Justice; another showing a relationship of strength or control in Strength. Swapping their numbers does not turn one card into the other or justify merging their meanings.

Nor should we imagine that fifteenth-century tarot came with a universal catalogue of titles and numbers identical to the one in your present-day manual. The early decks described by the Metropolitan Museum of Art show structural variation. Modern numbering can help you study an edition; without context, it cannot unlock the structure of every early game.

Why does the swap appear?

The Rider–Waite–Smith deck was developed within a modern esoteric framework different from that of Marseille editions. The V&A documents Arthur Edward Waite's involvement in designing the trumps and his connection with the British occult tradition. It is prudent to say that the numbering belongs to this editorial and symbolic construction. To attribute an exact intention to each artist or a single cause for the swap would require a specific contemporary text; repeating an explanation from later manuals is not enough.

You do not need to settle the whole history of esoteric correspondences to study the issue. First, look at two actual cards and a book's contents page. If their numbers differ, you already know why the chapter on VIII may look “wrong”.

The two-minute check

Take out Justice and Strength. Make a two-row table showing each printed title and number. Then open the contents page of the manual you intend to use and note what it calls them. If the book omits titles and says only VIII and XI, translate those references before studying. You might add a note: “VIII in this book = Justice; VIII in my deck = Strength”. Do not write on the cards or change their numbers.

Repeat the check with a modern deck advertised as “based on Marseille”. If it adopts Rider numbering, that is no reason to reject it; it tells you about a mixture you need to recognise. An honest description of the deck might be “Marseille-style Minor Arcana, Rider-style numbering”.

An example reading without confusion

Suppose Justice appears in the “criteria” position of a spread about a decision. Before drawing a conclusion, note “Justice” and the number on your card. Ask which criteria you are comparing and what information is missing. A book based on another system may offer a useful idea, but look it up by name and image, not by an isolated ordinal.

If Strength appears as a “resource”, observe the relationship between its figures in your edition and explain what capacity it suggests in relation to the question. Avoid saying that a change from VIII to XI, by itself, alters the person's destiny. Position, question and image offer more than a number detached from its deck.

Choosing a tarot book

Look for a book that names its system: “Justice VIII in Marseille / XI in Rider–Waite–Smith”. If it says only “Major Arcanum VIII: Justice”, check which deck it uses before applying the explanation to yours. The card's name and image are more reliable clues than its number alone.

Continue the comparison in Marseille versus Rider–Waite–Smith and use how to identify your deck before choosing a manual.

Not every disagreement between manuals is philosophical

Imagine two pages headed “VIII”. One describes scales; the other describes a figure interacting with an animal. If you compare only the number, the authors will seem to disagree radically about the same card. They are actually describing different cards according to their decks' numbering. The first step in investigating meanings is to match title and image. Only then can you compare interpretations.

This matters if you use manuals in several languages. An English title “Strength VIII” does not become “La Fuerza XI” simply because you translate the name: VIII belongs to the edition shown in that manual. In your notes, keep the name, number and system of each source. Then you can compare the two families without giving them a shared numbering they do not have.

Numbering also affects a study sequence. If you keep a journal in the order I, II, III and so on, do not move from VIII to IX with a Rider guide and then to X and XI with a Marseille guide without noticing the change. Keep an index by card names and a column for each deck's numbers. You can then compare your journey through the cards without pretending the two sequences are identical.

An exercise in comparative reading

Take Justice and Strength from two identified editions. Make four rows: Marseille Justice, Marseille Strength, Rider Justice and Rider Strength. For each, record the number, three visible details and the image's source. Then ask the same question—“What criterion do I need before acting?”—and place each card in turn in the “resource” position. Which concrete observation supports each hypothesis?

If all four answers end up as the same sentence, you are probably reading memorised words instead of cards. If an answer depends only on the numeral VIII, check immediately whether you have switched images. The aim is not to produce four different predictions; it is to check that your explanation keeps edition, image and question connected.

You can add esoteric correspondences if your method uses them, but attribute them to the system that proposes them. A museum record shows what was printed in an edition; it does not, on its own, validate a later table of meanings. Separating material evidence from interpretation avoids presenting a choice by Waite or a modern reader as a universal property of every Justice card.

Sources consulted