abraxial

The Card Calendar

Playing Cards

The standard playing card deck may have originated as an ancient calendar: 4 suits for 4 seasons, and 52 suited cards for 52 weeks. This accounts for 364 days, leaving the two jokers to represent the two remaining "extra-seasonal" days: the black (low) joker for the 365th day of each year, and the red (high) joker for the 366th day of leap years.

The result is that each week of the year, and each of the two remaining extra-seasonal "holidays", has its own playing card.

Suits

Suits can be associated with seasons by matching the classical element of each suit to the classical element of each season:

  1. Spring ☞ Air ☞ Spades
  2. Summer ☞ Fire ☞ Clubs
  3. Autumn ☞ Earth ☞ Diamonds
  4. Winter ☞ Water ☞ Hearts

Tarot Cards

It turns out that tarot cards—of equally ancient and mysterious provenance—also have a role to play in the calendar.

The Abraxial Card Deck is produced by combining the 54-card standard playing card deck (52 suited cards, plus black and red jokers) with 4 standard 78-card tarot decks, each assigned one of the playing card suits. The cards in each suit are grouped by arcana into the major arcanum, the minor arcana, and the Naught arcanum, the latter containing the playing cards and the Fool (typically numbered naught) of the suit.

The astute reader will note that this deck remarkably contains 366 cards, the number of days in a leap year.

Spells

To assign each day a card in the Abraxial Card Deck, each season in the Abraxial year is divided into Spells (a name chosen for both its temporal and magical connotations) as follows:

  1. The Suit spell comprises weeks Ace and 2 and is assigned the naught arcanum cards, starting with the playing cards ordered Ace to 10, Jack, Queen, and King, and ending with The Fool, the zeroth tarot card.
  2. A 2-week spell for each of the minor arcana is assigned cards from the arcanum ordered Ace to 10, Knight, Queen, King, and Page. This ordering parallels that of the naught arcanum, with Knight and Page in the place of Jack and Fool, respectively. (The humility of the Page trumps the power of the King.)
  3. The Court spell comprises weeks Jack, Queen, and King, and is assigned the major arcanum cards, ordered from 1 (The Magician) to 21 (The World).

The Wheel Of Abraxas

The "Abraxial" in the Abraxial Card Calendar refers to the Wheel Of Abraxas, or the Abraxial (Abraxas + axial), a Gnostic cosmological mandala that further contributes to the calendar.

The mandala depicts the creation account given by Irenaeus:

"The Unbegotten Father" is the progenitor of Nous "Discerning Mind"; Nous produced Logos "Word, Reason"; Logos produced Phronesis "Mindfulness"; Phronesis produced Sophia "Wisdom" and Dynamis "Potentiality"; Sophia and Dynamis produced the principalities, powers, and angels, the last of whom create "the first heaven". They, in turn, originate a second series, who create a second heaven. The process continues in like manner until 365 heavens are in existence, the angels of the last or visible heaven being the authors of our world. "The ruler"… of the 365 heavens "is Abraxas, and for this reason he contains within himself 365 numbers".

Abraxas

In the center of the mandala is a mysterious figure that appears throughout world mythologies: Abraxas, the "Unbegotten Father" and supreme unknown whose name has intentional, and relevant, numerological properties:

  • The 7 letters of "Abraxas" match the number of classical planets.
  • The isopsephic sum of the Greek letters is 365, matching the number of days in a non-leap year.

Nous

The mandala is vertically bisected by a line whose top is labelled Nous, son of Abraxas. This top point defines the start and end of the circle.

Logos, Phronesis, Sophia, and Dynamis

The mandala is horizontally bisected by another line, creating 4 quadrants each labeled with the next four archons responsible for producing the "principalities, powers, and angels" by which the first of the 365 heavens are created. Proceeding clockwise from Nous, in reverse birth order:

  1. Dynamis
  2. Sophia
  3. Phronesis
  4. Logos

Constellations

Each quadrant is divided into 13 sections, labelled near the center of the circle with the 13 zodiacal constellations (including Ophiuchus), listed clockwise in the order of passage through the ecliptic as they would have appeared in antiquity, starting from the northern equinox:

  1. Aries
  2. Taurus
  3. Gemini
  4. Cancer
  5. Leo
  6. Virgo
  7. Libra
  8. Scorpio
  9. Ophiuchus
  10. Sagittarius
  11. Capricorn
  12. Aquarius
  13. Pisces

This results in 52 constellations around the inner circle, grouped into 4 quadrants of 13.

Planets

Each constellationary section is further subdivided into 7 segments at the circumference of the circle, labelled clockwise with the 7 classical planets in the original Babylonian ordering:

  1. Mars (Nergal)
  2. Mercury (Nabu)
  3. Saturn (Ninurta, the "night sun")
  4. Moon (Sin)
  5. Sun (Shamash)
  6. Venus (Ishtar, completing the Anunnaki astral triad with the moon and sun)
  7. Jupiter (Marduk, the chief god of Babylon)

This results in 364 planets around the outer circle, grouped into 52 constellations of 7.

The Abraxial Calendar

Within the Wheel Of Abraxas is a perfect solar calendar.

Consider the wheel as a clock with a long hand that points to the outer ring of planets. Each planet now represents a day, each constellation a week, and each quadrant a season, ordered clockwise in increasing purview from Dynamis to Logos until the Nous point at the top is reached, representing the "extra seasonal" (Black Joker) holiday and placing it at the end of the year.

Adding a short hand, pointing to the inner ring of constellations, brings months to the year: here, each constellation is a month and each quadrant is a year, ordered clockwise and ending with the top point representing the "leap day" (Red Joker) holiday, placing it at the end of the 4-year cycle. Given that the months start with Aries, the start of the year is placed at the Northern Equinox, the time at which the constellation would have appeared to the early Gnostics.

Seasons are now assigned as follows, with respect to the northern hemisphere:

  1. Dynamis ☞ Spring ☞ Spades
  2. Sophia ☞ Summer ☞ Clubs
  3. Phronesis ☞ Autumn ☞ Diamonds
  4. Logos ☞ Winter ☞ Hearts

Because each minor arcanum has a corresponding suit, spells within each season can be ordered to match the suit ordering:

  1. Swords ☞ Spades
  2. Wands ☞ Clubs
  3. Pentacles ☞ Diamonds
  4. Cups ☞ Hearts

Placing the first day of the year at March 20 of the Gregorian calendar achieves alignment with the Wheel of the Year, whereby each equinox and solstice occurs in the Ace week of its season. The only exception is a rare early northern equinox, which falls on a joker day. Because the jokers are on or just before the Northern Equinox, their days are called the Hilaria for the so-named ancient Roman Spring Equinox festival.

Assigning the year of the start date to that of the preceding Gregorian calendar year allows the Gregorian leap year algorithm to be applied to the Abraxial year. Note that not every 4-year period is ended by a Red Joker, which sometimes ends an 8-year period according to the leap year rules.

The Compleat Abraxial Card Calendar

Years

Each Abraxial year starts on March 20 of the preceding Gregorian year and contains, in order:

  1. 364 days alternatively subdivided into 4 seasons and 13 months.
  2. 1-2 days of Hilaria:
    1. Black Joker (Nous Day).
    2. Red Joker (Abraxas Day; during leap years only, using the Gregorian leap year formula).

Seasons

A year contains 4 seasons:

  1. Spades (Dynamis): northern spring.
  2. Clubs (Sophia): northern summer.
  3. Diamonds (Phronesis): northern autumn.
  4. Hearts (Logos): northern winter.

Each season contains 91 days alternatively subdivided into:

  • 13 weeks (Ace to King).
  • 6 spells:
    1. Suit: 2 weeks (the naught arcanum, from Ace to Fool).
    2. Swords: 2 weeks (the Swords minor arcanum, from Ace to Page).
    3. Wands: 2 weeks (the Wands minor arcanum, from Ace to Page).
    4. Pentacles: 2 weeks (the Pentacles minor arcanum, from Ace to Page).
    5. Cups: 2 weeks (the Cups minor arcanum, from Ace to Page).
    6. Court: 3 weeks (the major arcanum, from 1 to 21).

Months

A year contains 13 months:

  1. Aries.
  2. Taurus.
  3. Gemini.
  4. Cancer.
  5. Leo.
  6. Virgo.
  7. Libra.
  8. Scorpio.
  9. Ophiuchus.
  10. Sagittarius.
  11. Capricorn.
  12. Aquarius.
  13. Pisces.

Each month contains 28 numbered days (4 weeks).

Weeks

Each week contains 7 days:

  1. Mars.
  2. Mercury.
  3. Saturn.
  4. Moon.
  5. Sun.
  6. Venus.
  7. Jupiter.

Pleasing Aspects

The Abraxial Card Calendar possesses several pleasing aspects in addition to the above.

Uniformity

The Abraxial Calendar is uniform:

  • It is a perennial calendar: every year is identical (excluding Abraxas Day at the end of each leap year).
  • All seasons have the same length (91 days).
  • All months have the same length (28 days).
  • All weeks have the same length (7 days).

Special Playing Cards

Every playing card that is special in some way has significance in the calendar.

As the only specially-named pip card, the Ace playing card is significant as:

  • The first day and week of each season, the latter containing the equinox or solstice marking the Wheel of the Year quarter holidays (excepting the rare case that the northern equinox falls on the preceding joker, which is also a special playing card).
  • The first day and week of the year as the Ace of Spades, a special ace typically decorated distinctly from other aces. In Gnostic tradition, the lowest of the 365 spheres is the material realm.

As the only pip card whose content is not arranged in a horizontally-symmetrical fashion, the 7 playing card is significant as:

  • The last day of the first Suit spell week. The last day of the other Suit spell week is the Fool, the only other horizontally-asymmetric card in the spell.
  • The middle week of the season, containing the Wheel of the Year cross-quarter holiday.

The court playing cards (Jack, Queen, and King) name weeks that remarkably fall in the Court spell of the season, containing the cards of the major arcanum.

To cap it off, the jokers fall within an ancient Roman Spring Equinox festival named Hilaria.

Spell Alignments

One can find additionally pleasant ordering and alignment within the spells:

  • Each spell starts with a 1 card, allowing for a consistent one-based numbering.
  • Minor arcana spells have consistent day ordering with the Suit spell, with Jack and Fool corresponding to Knight and Page, respectively.
  • Striking alignments can be found between date cards and week days, notably "The Moon" and "The Sun" cards occurring on Moon and Sun days, respectively.

Cycles Of Ascension

The progression through the Abraxial Calendar can be seen to symbolize a cyclic ascent to enlightenment. The Abraxial Cards for the dates throughout the year can be seen as a stepping stones on this path.

Spells

The spell cycles within a season ascend from the manifest through the arcane:

  1. The naught arcanum of the Suit spell advances through the manifest plane of the regular playing cards, from birth (Ace) to maturity (King), and concludes with the Fool, the first tarot card, signifying readiness to begin the fool's journey into the arcane.
  2. The minor arcanum spells follow, each proceeding from Ace to King and culminating in the Page, mirroring the Fool in signifying the humility of the beginner's mind required to advance to the next spell and learn its lessons.
  3. The major arcanum of the Court spell proceeds through three stages, each expanding in scope. The final card is The World, denoting wholeness, completion, and expansion beyond self.

Seasons

The spell cycles are repeated for each of the four seasons, each associated with a major phase of growth.

Years

Ending the annual cycles—and parallelling the spell-ending Fool and Page—is the Joker:

  1. The Black Joker ends the year, signifying Nous Day and the ability to discern what is true or real, beyond the ego.
  2. The Red Joker ends the cycle of four (or eight) years. This is Abraxas Day.