Here is Du Bartas on the number 7:
Seven are the seasons, which we call ages--child, boy, adolescent, youth, man, elder, old man. One is a child up to the shedding of teeth, until seven years; a boy up to puberty, until twice 7; an adolescent up to the growth of the beard, until three times 7; a youth during the general growth of the body, until four times 7; a man up to one short of fifty years, until seven times seven; an elder up to 56 years, until seven times 8; from then on one is an old man. (Theology of Arithmetic p. 87f. See also Martianus Capella, Marriage of Mercury and Philology p. 283, Macrobius Dream of Scipio pp. 114-115.)Having described these seven sevens, the Theology goes on to describe other critical times numbered in sevens. There are seven channels for the transmission of food and breath. It is possible to go 7 days without food. And the 7th day for all types of fever is the most critical, as tending toward sickness or health. The Theology concludes: They called it [the heptomad, i.e. seven] "critical time" because it encompasses, in a short span of time, activities when they are in crisis and are tending to health or sickness, or to generation or destruction. All of these periods of seven are enumerated by Agrippa, and before him by others, but I do not see the term "critical" used. But these periods of 7 as indicating "crisis" was known as such, using terms derivative from the Greek kairos, the opportune or critical time, and perhaps that is enough. This word "critical" - critique, in French - will be seen to play a role in Etteilla's 7s.
The number 7 in the Theology is associated with the rational soul (p. 73), which again relates to Athena, who sprang full-grown from the head of Jove and was the goddess of wisdom. In relation to the 7th trump of the Marseille tarot, the Chariot, we might recall the charioteer in Plato's Phaedrus,
looking with awe at a beautiful human form, reminding him of the perfect Beauty he had seen in heaven before birth. Below is the famous Conver 1760 version of the Marseille card, his eyes seemingly dazzled by what is before him. Some of its predecessors to its right. Even in the Cary Sheet, of around 1500, one of the horses is glancing at the other, corresponding in Plato's myth to the lustful horse's following the lead, after suitable training, of its more restrained and noble partner. One horse is even painted red in the colored versions (I give Flornoy's restoration as well as the original of Noblet, c. 1650, whose colors have faded). That an old man is in the Catelin Geoffoy version conveys the idea of the rational part of the soul being in charge. And while for Plato, as in the "Marseille" versions, no reins are needed, because the noble horse understands his master's words, the Catelin Geoffoy more realistically has a groom next to that horse.
DISSENSION —War, Dispute, Noise. Troubles, Insurrection, Sedition, Faction, Rebellion, Defection, Riots, Unrest. Battle, Fight, Combat. Arrogance, Haughtiness, Vanity, False Glory, Pomp, Ostentation, Audacity, Temerity.—Violence, Disorder, Anger, Injury, Abuse, Presumptuousness, Vengeance. REVERSED: DISSENSION. Noise, Din, Quarrel, Differences, Disagreement, Lawsuit, Harassment, Argumentation, Debate.
These words, like the keyword "Dissension" itself, suggest to me that in one tradition before Etteilla, the Chariot card had the sense of people fighting for supremacy. Such an interpretation is suggested by the two horses looking in opposite directions. In that case, the charioteer just looks helplessly on.
This interpretation is not Etteilla's own invention; it is also in de Mellet's essay on the Tarot, which de Gebelin printed with his own in Monde Primitif vol. 8, p. 399. De Mellet says (https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1087220/f498.item):
Septieme, le CHARIOT de GUERRE, dans lequel est un Roi cuirassé, armé avec un javelot, esprime les dissensions, les meurtres, les combats du siècle d'airain, & annonce les crimes du siècle de fer.
(Seventh, the WAR CHARIOT, in which is an armored King, armed with a javelin, expresses the dissensions, the murders, the combats of the age of bronze, & announces the crimes of the age of iron.)
This is in contrast to de Gebelin himself, who calls the card "Osiris Triumphant," and an allegory of the coming of spring after a difficult winter.
D'Odoucet strains to get the meaning of the card from the numbers 1 and 2: 1 is man, 2 is vegetation, but now somehow reproduction as well. Man's reproduction of results in dissension over the means of subsistence among the offspring.
In the early tarot of Florence and Bologna, the card after Love, numbered VII in the Rosenwald sheet, was Temperance. I have no idea how to relate Seven to Temperance; but then I do not think that Pythagoreanism was applied to that order, as opposed to the French.
The tarot variant known as Minchiate, however, omits the Popess and so is one number less. In that case 7 is Fortitude, a number that perhaps describes the virtue needed to get from one stage out of 7 to the next. 8 is then Justice, as in the Milanese order. 6 is Temperance, which makes sense as a number of perfection and harmony. 5 for Love makes sense as its male number. And Justice is 8, the same as in the French order. It remains to be sees whether the rest of the numbers fit the Pythagorean system.
THE SB SEVENS
Here are the Sola-Busca Sevens, from http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sola-Busca_gallery:
What could possibly make these cards reflections of the number Seven,
apart from there being seven of the suit number on each card? I think
that they are modifications of the "seven ages of man," as expressed in the
Theology (p. 87-88, quoted in the previous section) and elsewhere. That these
"seven ages" were well-known is evident from a famous marble tile in
the pavement of Siena Cathedral, c. 1480. Here is a reproduction (not a
good one but it is all I have). The ages go clockwise from the bottom
left:
The figure labeled iuventus even has a similar bird as the figure on the SB Seven of Coins.
What I hypothesize is that the four SB figures represent four of the seven
ages, with the moping young man with the bird one of them: not
"iuventus" but rather the one before, "adolescencia." The bird would
fit either of these "ages," but I think that with another example, we
will see that "juventus" fits the man in the SB Seven of Swords.
Another example of the seven ages is the poem by the melancholy Jaques in Shakespeare's As You Like It, 2.7.139ff:
JAQUES. All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players,
They have their exits and entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then, the whining schoolboy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice
In fair round belly, with good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws, and modern instances,
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side,
His youthful hose well sav'd, a world too wide,
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again towards childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
The seven ages also correlate with the seven planets, from the Moon to Saturn, as is evident in Jaques' speech.
The Sola-Busca could not use all seven of these ages for its four
suits. So it picked four of them, representing the whole. There were
said sometimes, e.g. in discussions of the Tetrad, to be only four
stages of life: childhood, youth, maturity, and old age.
Childhood is the second age, the puer.
For that one, of Mercury, Shakespeare has a schoolboy with his "shining
morning face." There is just such a bright-eyed, alert, eager boy on
the SB Seven of Cups, standing confidently on his cup. Admittedly, when
looked at closely, his face is not as shining as one would hope. That
may be due to the painter, as opposed to the engraver, not grasping the
point. In any case, we are dealing with a metaphor, for an attitude
associated with late childhood that can occur at any age; and the same
is true for the other "ages" depicted. The pose is reminiscent of
Brunelleschi's David (http://www.wga.hu/art/v/verocchi/sculptur/y_david.jpg), later adapted by Michelangelo.
Shakespeare's image for adolescencia,
the third age, of Venus, is different from the card's--he has a lover
writing sonnets to his beloved--but there is the same "woeful" look
on the boy in the 7 of Coins. He applies himself to his task half-heartedly, like he'd rather be with his girlfriend, or more likely his falcon.
Di Vincenzo in her Sola Busca Tarot makes some observations about this card that connect it to alchemy. She
says that the rod on which the falcon is perched controls ventilation
into a circular store, which heats the coins that are above it. What
the young man is doing is purifying the metals of their defects,
corresponding to "the passions, the instinctive elements of the
personality, the base thoughts generated by the struggle to assert
one's external ego" (p. 76). That explains the red wings around them:
they represent the uplifting heat, serving as wings to make them take
flight as they are purified.
So he is also purifying himself as he goes through the "ages" in his
own life. If successful, it will culminate in what Di Vincenzo says is
the alchemical rubedo,
represented by the highest disc, around which there is a red ribbon. In
the seven ages, I would add, that one corresponds to lead or Saturn,
which now instead of being "sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans
everything," as Shakespeare's Jaques would have it, is a purification
transcending all the senses. In the Theology of Arithmetic, however, this state is not reached until the Eights and Nines. The Sevens are the realm of the "rational soul" (p. 73).
For the fourth age, juventas
and Mars, we have just such a soldier as Shakespeare describes,
"seeking the bubble reputation even in the cannon's mouth": the SB card
has a young man running, with four swords on his back and three more in
his hands. I would guess that he is either about to attack or is
leaving quickly with his booty after a raid.
(On the card, the letters he is running over, SPQR, stand for "Senatus
Populusque Romanus, "Senate and People of Rome,' an abbreviation
associated with the Roman Republic [see Wikipedia]. These letters are
not part of the engraving before it was painted; I think they are meant
for the painter's patron, probably a citizen of the Republic of Venice.
As Zucker [Illustrated Bartsch, Vol. 24 Part 3, p. 66] points out, Trump XV has SPQV on Metelo's shield, the same abbreviation except referring to Venice.)
Our fourth SB card, the man bending double under his load, corresponds to the senex, Shakespeare's sixth age, of the "shrunk shank" and a voice "turning now to childish treble"; he is not the man he used to be.
The "ages" omitted are the first, last, and the
long one from age 28 to 49. (That one might be on the Chariot card.) The four that are present could also do service as suggesting the four temperaments: a sanguine boy, a
phlegmatic adolescent, a choleric youth, and a melancholy elder. And
they are not literal stages, but metaphorical ones, at any time of
life: aspirations, frustration and delay, realization, and knowing when
to take it easier.
Then there are the Ette
illa School's word-lists. Perhaps he knew the "seven ages" and found them relevant to the tarot. But do they retain the
sense of the Sola-Busca cards as I am seeing them?
For Cups, we have:
43. 7 OF CUPS, UPRIGHT: THOUGHT, Soul, Mind, Intelligence, Idea, Memory, Imagination, Understanding, Conception, Meditation, Contemplation, Reflection, Deliberation, View, Opinion, Sentiment. REVERSED: PROJECTS. 3rd Cahier: Plan. Lists: Design, Intention, Desire, Will, Resolution, Determination, Premeditation.
Especially in the Reversed, many of these words have to do with a life, or part of a life, not yet realized, just as the second "age of man" in fact is. On the other hand, the words are so various and general that they could apply to other SB images, including the SB Seven of Coins next to it (but not, I think, to the other two).
D'Odoucet relates this card's meaning to its numbers, 4 and 3. 4 is the universe, 3 is generation. Universal generation requires thought, which bring forth projects.
For Coins, the Etteilla has:
71. 7 OF COINS, UPRIGHT: MONEY. Wealth, Sum, Silver. Silverware. Whiteness, Purity, Candor, Innocence, Ingenuousness [ingénuité]. Moon.—Purgation, Purification. REVERSED: ANXIETY. Mental Torment, Impatience, Affliction, Chagrin, Worry, Solicitude. Care, Attention, Diligence, Application.—Apprehension, Fear, Distrust, Mistrust, Suspicion.
The third group of words in the uprights, after whiteness, fits the SB's adolescent
with the falcon and coins well--or, for that matter, the boy on the
cup; the Reversed meanings, however, fit the adolescent alone. (You might think ingénuité might have meant "ingenuity," but it actually means "ingenuousness.") Coincidentally or not, these meanings do fit the assignment of Saturn to the cards: the melancholy temperament, with concerns about being taken in by new scams causing one to lose money.
For d'Odoucet it is Man, 1, chasing after Life, 7, in the material way of this suit. and fearing its loss. It is not easy to gain a fortune, with many pitfalls along the way. Next, Swords:
These words could fit any of the four. In fact, some are already in the list for Cups. But many--"Desire" "Fantasy," "Design," "Wish"--could apply to a daring venture, such as the raid that the SB card seems to imply. In the reverseds, one is usefully warned and even admonished for having such ideas - or perhaps it is the adviser's wise counsel to undertake such a venture.7 OF SWORDS, UPRIGHT: HOPE OR EXPECTATION. Waiting for, Hope, Aim Toward, Institute, Trust in, Build a Basis, Design, Will, Desire, Wish, Longing, Craving, Taste, Fantasy. REVERSED: WISE ADVICE. Good Counsel, Salutory Warning, Instruction, Lesson. Observation, Reflection, Remark, Careful Observation of, Thought. Reprimand, Slander. News, Announcement, Public Notice. Consultation, Admonition.
And finally, Batons. The change from "Prattle" first to the neutral "words" and then "Negotiations" is striking. At first glance, there is not much similarity with the SB card.
But if the sixth age is construed in a positive sense, as a time for talking and negotiating rather than fighting, these words fit, something done by those more experienced in the ways of the world. I am reminded of a line at the end of the film Lawrence of Arabia, where Alec Guinness, playing Prince Faisal, tells Peter O'Toole, playing Major Lawrence:29. 7 OF BATONS, UPRIGHT: NEGOTIATIONS. 3rd Cahier: Prattle (Caquets), changed to "Words" in the 4th Cahier Supplement, p. 147, neither positive or negative. Lists: Discourse, Interview, Conference, Colloquium, Conversation, Dissertation, Deliberation, Discussion. Word, Pronunciation, Grammar, Dictionary, Language, Idiom, Dialect [Patois]. Negotiation, Market, Exchange, Measure, Commerce, Traffic, Correspondence. Speak, Say, Declare, Confer, Gossip, Chat, Sow Division, Prattle, Chatter. REVERSED: INDECISION. Irresolution, Uncertainty, Perplexity, Fickleness, Flightiness, Variation, Variety, Diversity. Hesitate, Hesitation. Waver, Vacillate, Changeability.
Young men make wars, and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage, and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution.
The Prince's characterization of "young men" fits the scene
in Swords. In Batons, we are with the "old men." The Uprights express
negotiation in a positive way - or cynically, perhaps, in the 3rd Cahier - while the Reverseds indicate the hazards
to be avoided.
D'Odoucet interprets "Pourparler" as simply "talk" of a vague sort, as signified somehow by the 9, profusion, and 2, vegetation. Such vagueness results in indecision, he says (translation p. 144).
WAITE-SMITH SEVENS
For comparison purposes, I repeat the SB cards, and now below them put the corresponding cards of the Waite-Smith.
As you can see, Swords is similar to the SB's, except for looking backwards instead of facing forward. Perhaps he has some worries about his daring move, which seems to have been that of stealing swords from the enemy's camp. Here is Waite:
Divinatory Meanings: Design, attempt, wish, hope, confidence; also quarrelling, a plan that may fail, annoyance. The design is uncertain in its import, because the significations are widely at variance with each other. Reversed: Good advice, counsel, instruction, slander, babbling.These are much like Etteilla's, except for "a plan that may fail" (hence the backward look) and "annoyance" in the Uprights and "babbling" in the Reverseds.
I think Pentacles also reflects the SB Coins, in that it shows six plus one coins and a young man who might be moping, thinking he deserves more respect and responsibility, or that he should properly spending his time in more interesting ways.
The Waite-Smith Cups card has much the same spirit as its SB equivalent: we see a young man with visions of possibilities, rather like the proud, optimistic David-like boy on the SB card.However Waite is more negative about his chances: "Strange chalices of vision, but the images are more especially those of the fantastic spirit" and "some attainment in these degrees, but nothing permanent or substantial is suggested." This discouragement is lacking from both the SB and the Etteilla school.
In the Waite-Smith Batons, a man is outnumbered by his opponents, in danger of succumbing. The SB had an old man, bent over from his load, also in danger of succumbing: it is the similar idea of maybe "biting off more than one can chew." However Waite says that the man's position is not as bad as it looks, since he holds the high ground. That heroic sentiment is not the message of the sixth "age of man". It is hard to get any sense of the "seven ages of man" or any other exemplification of the Pythagorean "seven" from these images.
CONCLUSION
It would seem that Smith corresponds to the Sola-Busca here in 3 out of 4 cases, or 75%. But even for the SB image that doesn't fit Smith, she does use it later, in the 9 of Batons. We will have to count it when we get there.
Etteilla's lists correspond to the SB in every case except Swords. A man bent over from the weight of 9 swords may suggest a bent-over elder, but it is a stretch to get from that to "prattle", much less "negotiations". Since it is half right, I give the correspondence 87%
As far as Waite's lists corresponding to Etteilla's, the two are fairly close, 90% or so, in Swords and Cups. For Batons, here is Waite:
It is a card of valour, for, on the surface, six are attacking one, who has, however, the vantage position. On the intellectual plane, it signifies discussion, wordy strife; in business--negotiations, war of trade, barter, competition. It is further a card of success, for the combatant is on the top and his enemies may be unable to reach him. Reversed: Perplexity, embarrassments, anxiety. It is also a caution against indecision.Valor (the basis for Smith's image) is not part of Etteilla's meaning, but otherwise this is close to Etteilla. So 85%.
In Coins Waite says:
in the main, it is a card of money, business, barter; but one reading gives altercation, quarrels--and another innocence, ingenuity, purgation. Reversed: Cause for anxiety regarding money which it may be proposed to lend.
Except for the mistranslation of the French "ingenuite" as "ingenuity" rather than the correct "ingenuousness," these meanings are quite close to Etteilla's, 95%. So overall, 90% correspondence.
Oddly enough, it seems to me that Waite as well as Etteilla and the Sola-Busca reflect 4 stages of life. However they are different stages. In the SB and Etteilla, it is childhood, adolescence, young adult, and elder. In Waite it is childhood, adolescence, young adult and prime of life.
The Sevens in the French esoteric tradition
For Levi, the Chariot was a symbol of victory, presumably over the vice in the Lover card. He notes that of the two sphinxes pulling the chariot, the black one looks in the direction opposite the way he is pulling. He does not explain the meaning: presumably the idea is that evil and good work to the same end, liberation and the realization of good.
Christian (p. 101 of trans.) has it as the domination of mind or spirit over matter. That both sphinxes look the same way means that the forces of both good and of evil are under the domination of the Magus.
For Papus, the Chariot's key concepts are "Realization" and "Man performing the function of God the Creator." He links the Chariot with both the Bateleur and the World: so presumably the realization of the choice made in the Lover card. His account of the 7s is too abstract to make much of, except that Swords relates to the third and sixth arcana, Batons to the 1st and 4th, Cups to the 2nd and 5th, and Coins to the 7th.
Picard applies the concept of the conqueror to the themes of the four suits as he characterizes them.
Batons (p. 82) express the idea, from the Chariot, of spirit dominating matter, in this case in relation to enterprises, which for Picard is the theme of Batons:
C'est le symbole de tC'est le symbole de toute victoire sur les difficultés matérielles qui peuvent surgir contre les enterprises. La lumière qui domine le monde matériel indique la suprématie de l'esprit sur les éléments. Signification: invention.
It is the symbol of every victory over material difficulties that may arise against enterprises. The light that dominates the material world indicates the supremacy of the spirit over the elements.Signification: invention.
On the card, matter is represented by symbols of the four elements -an eagle for air and signs of the zodiac for the other three. Had Smith's image shown the 3 of Spirit (the Trinity) against the 4 of matter (the elements), it would have been similar. As it is, her card is simply about the power of valor. The SB relates to Picard's interpretation only if the man bent under the load is matter and the seven batons spirit, not something that would come readily to mind.
In Cups (above right), the theme is spirit as love over matter, so (p. 138):
Cette lame signifie la victoire dans les questions d'amour, remportée sur les difficultes matérielles. Signification: Solution heureuse de questions matérielles entravant des projets d'union.
This card means victory in matters of love, won over material difficulties. Signification: Happy solution of material questions hindering projects of union.
It is not clear to me how this interpretation would relate to either the Sola-Busca's or Waite's image. "Projects" reflects the Etteilla keyword, but they would seem not to be amenable to union.
Since Swords are for Picard an evil suit, it represents the victory of evil - albeit temporary (p. 166):
La froide Lune, maitrêsse des nuits, darde ses rayons sur le Soleil, qui s'enfonce dans la profondeur des eaux. C'est la suprématie des tenèbres sur la lumière. Cette arcade s'applique aux oeuvres maléfiques, au succes temporaire des méchants, aux enterprises louches. Signification: Vol a main armée. Traitrise.
The cold Moon, mistress of the nights, shoots its rays onto the Sun, which is enclosed in the depths of the waters. It is the supremacy of darkness over light. This barrage of rays applies to evil works, to the temporary success of the wicked, to shady undertakings. Signification: Armed robbery. Treachery.
That idea readily applies to the Sola-Busca and Waite images in Swords. The card does not quite correspond to the description. It looks as though the rays emanate from a point at the bottom middle, on the floor of the sea, rather than from the moon. Since the Sun has a calm expression on its face, the rays could be taken as bringing the calmness of enlightenment to the troubled partial awareness symbolized by the Moon.
In Coins, the shoots emerging from the ground upward are now a tree, represented by three coins above ground whose roots are four coins below, to which a cross is affixed. Picard says (p. 110):
Cette lame represente la force morale que procure l'argent et son emploi raisonée. Signification: bienfaisance.This card represents the moral force that procures money and its reasoned employment. Signification: beneficence.
It is beneficence based on morality and the right use of reason, he says (p. 110). On this interpretation of the SB or Waite, the young man on the card is simply resting to appreciate the fruits of his labor.
Jodorowsky's theme in the 7s of "action in the world and upon the self" (p. 296) is inspired in part by his take on the Chariot card. Whereas the 6s were focused on activities that one enjoys, the 7s take that activity to others.
This last idea, "insemination of the world," seems particularly apt as an interpretation of Picard's card, which shows the energy of the sun superimposed on the four elements surrounded by black. It is the energy of the suit invigorating matter and overcoming its inertia.
As with other cards in Swords, it is nice to see a
positive take on the card without denying the negative that Picard finds
there. Yet there is a certain consonance between the idea of the sword in prison and that of the sun underwater. From this perspective, the Moon with its rays not only keeps the Sun down, but the Sun, with its rays (themselves emanating from a deeper place), dispels the darkness of the Moon.
Cups and Coins exhibit the 3 + 4 configuration used by others before him.
Despite the difference in how the upper three discs are configured, Jodorowsky's and Picard's seem to express a similar idea: spirit in matter and the result multiplying itself in the world. Jodorowsky's "gestating" disc is in Picard the globe surmounted by a cross, signifying what is happening to all four of the lower discs. The upper three are then the happy result, Picard's "beneficence."
In Cup
s, Jodorowsky sees the division between the three and the four in a different way, the four as the cups in the corners and the three as the vertical row through the center. Again the activity is suggested by the plant that emerges from the bottom center cup, "the branches and leaves climbing from it, like an aspiration for the celestial world" (p. 298). The second cup, embraced by the branches, is "in gestation," while the highest cup "opens toward the cosmos," spreading love to " the edges of the universe." He adds in the next section that this is the manifestation of love in the
world, as expressed in the motto "Nothing for me that is not for others"
(p. 316). What must be guarded against, however, is "a compulsive tendency
to help people who have not asked us for anything."
Again, even though Picard's configuration is different from that of this traditional Marseille card, the ideas imposed on the two cards are similar: love, the theme of this suit, spread outward and upward.
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