The pointed cubic stone and the Tarot

In an article on the tetraktys and the square of four, René Guénon points out that these two figures together comprise a total of 26 points, which is the value of the Tetragrammaton (yodh he vav he = 10 + 5 + 6 + 5). The 10 point of the tetraktys correspond to the letter yodh, and the 16 points of the square represent the rest of the Name. He illustrates this idea with the following figure.

It occurred to me that the figure looked a bit strange. We would normally think of the nine non-central points of the tetraktys not as being inside a triangle but as forming the edges of one; and the same is true of the 12 exterior points of the square of four. Since in the above diagram, the triangle and the square share an edge, that would be a total of 22 points, not 26, since 4 of the points belong both to the triangle and to the square. That's not the value of the Tetragrammaton, but it is a significant number in its own right, being the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet and the number of Major Arcana in the Tarot.

At the end of his article, Guénon briefly mentions the three-dimensional analogue of his figure.

Finally, if we consider the solid forms in three dimensional geometry that correspond to the plane figures in question here, the cube corresponds to the square, and the figure that corresponds to the triangle is the quadrangular pyramid with the upper face of the cube as its base. The whole forms what Masonic symbolism designates as the 'pointed cubic stone' and which, in the Hermetic interpretation, is considered to be a figure of the 'philosopher's stone'.

This is the Masonic symbol Guénon is referring to.

The fourth cubic number is 64, and the fourth square-pyramidal number is 30. If we combine these in the same way that Guénon combined the square and the triangle, the total value is 94, a number of no obvious significance. If we combine them my way, though, keeping in mind that the cube and the pyramid share between them a plane of 16 points, the number represented by the pointed ashlar is 94 - 16 = 78.

By my reckoning, then, the plane figure has 22 points, and its solid counterpart has 78. This corresponds perfectly to the Tarot deck, which has 22 Major Arcana and a total of 78 cards in all.