4.2 – Roman Numerals and Main Symbols

In my day we learnt Roman numerals as part of our schooling, but I don’t think it has been taught in general, for quite a while. While some packs may have normal numbers, the Major Arcana in most packs still have roman numerals. Anyhow I will list them so you can have an idea of the Roman Numerals converted to our English system numbers if you need it.

0 – Zero,

1 – One,

11 – Two,

111 – Three,

1V – Four,

V – Five,

V1 – Six,

V11 – Seven,

V111 – Eight,

IX – Nine,

X – Ten,

X1 – Eleven,

X11 – Twelve,

X111 – Thirteen,

X1V – Fourteen,

XV – Fifteen,

XV1 – Sixteen,

XV11 – Seventeen,

XV111 – Eighteen,

X1X – Nineteen,

XX – Twenty,

XX1 – Twenty-One.

The number of main symbols in the base cards or Minor Arcana, represent the number of the card.

A fact to remember is the number of objects – Swords, Cups, Wands or Pentacles in the Minor Arcana cards will be the same as the number of the card. For example the 4 of Cups above has 4 Cups in the image. The 10 Swords below has 10 swords in the image.