The sign of infinity
The figure eight on its side floats over the Magician and over Strength. Mathematicians use it for infinity; Waite calls it the sign of life, like an endless cord.
In the tradition
As a written sign, ∞ is young. The English mathematician John Wallis first printed it for infinity in 1655, and the curve itself, the lemniscate, was named in the 1690s. Older decks have no such sign: on the Marseille Magician, the wide brim of a hat makes the same shape.
In the Rider-Waite-Smith deck the shape floats free over the head. In The Pictorial Key Waite calls it the sign of the Holy Spirit and the sign of life, and on Strength he says it is the same symbol of life.
In the cards
The Two of Pentacles carries it too, as the green band that loops around the two coins.
Sources
- A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910). Waite's own guide to the deck he designed with Pamela Colman Smith, with each card's divinatory meanings.
- John Wallis, De sectionibus conicis (1655). The first printed use of ∞ as the sign for infinity.
Updated October 9, 2026.
See it in your own profile
Caelumia reads your whole birth chart and your numbers together, and shows where they agree. Your profile is free to start, and your first results appear while you answer.