"Twenty-two is the crown"

I encountered this magnificent tarot deck when I was excavating the many layers of Sons of Perdition's third album "Trinity", read more here (opens in a new window). It's called the Rider-Waite tarot deck. The amazing cards were drawn by illustrator Pamela Colman Smith from the instructions of A. E. Waite and published by the Rider Company, read more here (opens in a new window). The tarot deck was originally published in 1910. It wasn't really surprising to find a reference to tarot on Trinity. There are numbers and symbols everywhere on the album. In the physical release of Trinity an exclusive tarot card was included, "The Fool" by artist, illustrator, cartoonist and letterer Christoph Mueller. The Mueller card differs from the frivolous and unconcerned fool in the Rider-Waite deck (who is just about to step over a cliff). The Muller fool is frantic and uncontrollable, check it out here (opens in a new window). It can easily be explained. "Trinity tells the story of a fool’s hellish journey through the blood-soaked deserts of the American Southwest through religious, occult, and alchemical allusions". There are 78 cards in a tarot deck and 22 of them constitutes the so-called Major Arcana (picture cards that serve as a permanent trumps). The Major Arcana begins with "The Fool" (no. 0) and ends with "The World" (no. 21). Well, it doesn't really end. It begins again like an ouroboros. The 22 cards in the Major Arcana are displayed one by one in the image carousel to the left. To mention a few of the highlights in the Rider-Waite deck: "The Fool" (no. 0), "The Empress" (no. 3), "The Lovers" (no. 6), "The Hermit" (no. 9), "The Hanged Man" (no. 12), "Death" (no. 13), "The Tower" (no. 16), "The Sun" (no. 19) and "Judgement" (no. 20). My personal favorite is "The Magician" (no. 1). Tarot iconography has The Magician’s right hand pointing toward the heavens while his left points to the earth, showing his ability to connect the two. In numerology, every number is significant, yet there are three numbers which have special characteristics: 11, 22 and 33. These are the "master numbers". Twenty-two represents the ultimate capacity to make dreams into reality. There are references to 22 on Trinity. In the opening song, "Fallout", there's a line "Twenty-two is the crown". Tarot divination says nothing to me about my life. For my part, I only appreciate the aestetic qualities. Still, twenty-two is the crown. No doubt about it.