Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Pope and fives

Now for Du Bartas on the Five:
The Hermaphrodite Five, never multiplied
By itself, or Odd, but there is still described
His proper face: for, three times Five
Unto Fifteen; Five Fives to Twenty-Five.

That is self-explanatory. 2x5, 4x5, etc. are even, hence not part of the rule. "Hermaphrodite" is rather strong: presumably the meaning is that it combines 3, masculine, with 2, feminine.

Martianus Capella says of five:

The pentad comes next, the number assigned to the universe. This identification is reasonable, for after the four elements, the universe is a fifth body of a different nature. 
The translator comments that "After the four Empodoclean elements (earth, air, fire and water), Aristotle added a fifth, confined to the celestial regions." This fifth element was usually called "ether", as the stuff between the individual stars, added because Aristotle could not believe that a vacuum could have a stable existence, since in his experience even partial vacuums were always immediately filled from outside ("nature abhors a vacuum"); nor could he believe that motion could be given to something acting at a distance, with nothing intermediate to give it a push or pull. Nowadays instead of ether, physicists simply speak of "the fabric of space-time".  The alchemists also had their "quintessence", an apparently celestial substance within matter.

Macrobius adds (p. 104):
The possession of unusual powers came to the number five because it alone embraces all that are and seem to be. (We speak of things intelligible as "being" and of things material as "seeming to be," whether they have a divine or immortal body.) Consequently, this number designates at once all thing in the higher and lower realms.
Likewise the Pope is superior to the Emperor in that his domain is both on earth, in the Church and in the properties the Church rules, and the eternal things of Heaven; moreover, even the Emperor must not contravene the ordinances of Heaven as perceived by the Pope. Thus in the tarot the number 5 is suitable to the Pope, and the number 4 to the Emperor. In fact, in some tarot sequences the Emperor is even lower, taking the number of matter, 2, or of form in matter, 3; but the Pope is in all the early sequences 5.

In the Theology of Arithmetic, 5 is the number of the vegetative soul, i.e. the part of the soul that is born, grows, reproduces, withers, and dies, in common with plants. (Could this be the "ethereal" part of living things, as opposed to minerals?) The Theology says:
Since in the realm of embodiment there are, according to natural scientists, three life-engendering things--vegetative, animal, and rational--and since the rational is subsumed under the hebdomad and the animal under the hexad, then the vegetative necessarily falls under the pentad, with the result that the pentad is the minimal extreme of life. (pp. 72-73).
After the vegetative soul will come the animal, rational, the latter of which can ascend even higher. This idea is expressed in a well-known image associated with Raimon Llull, the stairway to heaven (at right), except that for the Pythagoreans minerals, existing in three dimensions, would be on the fourth step rather than the first, followed by the animal soul rather than fire.

The vegetative soul is defined by plant life, that which plants have in common with other forms of life: "addition and increase," (p. 73) both individually and through and propagation of the species. Like the plant that comes from a new seed, the five has the property of always containing itself when squared:
When it is squared, it always encompasses itself, for 5x5=25, and when it is multiplied again, it both encompasses the square as a whole and terminates at itself, for 5x25=125.
As related to increase--and, I think, decrease, for plants also wither--there is a connection with justice and injustice, which has to do with unfair increase and its rectification. The Pentad, situated halfway between 1 and 9, is a mean between extremes and has a position like the fulcrum of a balance.
It is the midpoint of the decad.
says the first paragraph of the chapter (p. 65). And:
So, you see, the pentad is another thing which as neither excess nor defectiveness in it, and it will turn out to provide this property for the rest of the numbers, so that it is a kind of justice, on the analogy of a weighing instrument. (p. 70)
The Theology compares those who have gained from wrongdoing to the four numbers above 5, situated on one side of the beam, and those who have been wronged to the four below 5, on the other side. By subtracting from one and adding that to the other, equality is achieved (pp. 71-72). Thus the Pentad is associated with Nemesis, goddess of divine retribution or distribution (p. 73). For the association between Nemesis and distribution, the translator says that 'Nemein' (distribute) is the root of 'Nemesis' (p. 73)

5 was taken by Irenaeus as a fit symbol for the True Faith (Against Heresies II, 24, 4). Christ blessed 5 loaves and fed 5000 people. There were 5 extremities of the cross, if the mid-point is included, 5 wise virgins, 5 books of Moses. The number of letters in Soter, Pater, and Agape (Savior, Father, Dispassonate Love) was 5. Irenaeus did not consider these as due to the inherent holiness of the number 5; but they help to make the number 5 a fitting one for a card depicting the pope.

Regarding the vegetative soul, Jesus is often called, e.g. by Frazier in The Golden Bough, a "vegetation god," as his death and resurrection parallels the plowing under of the soil in the spring and the sprouting of new plants once the seed is sown. Other vegetation gods were Attis and Osiris. The Pope is head of the institution that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus and sees to the resurrection of the vegetative part of humans (the body as opposed to the soul) at the Last Judgment.

The Pope is also a kind of instrument of God in the execution of justice. His particular enemy is those who put themselves above the authority of the Church because of the sin of Pride. He is their Nemesis.

In the Bible, the fifth day of creation is when God said "Let the waters bring forth the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven" (Gen. 1:20). He had already created plants on the third day. A Pythagorean creation story would probably have had just minerals on the third day and plants on the fifth, as representing the vegetative soul. Living things that move themselves, we will see, are appropriate to the Pythagorean sixth day.

Etteilla says in the Third Cahier (p. 5, note, in Gallica) that what corresponds to the Pope in his system is his card number 1. In the deck he developed a few years latger, it shows a white space in the middle of some clouds. It represents the situation at the beginning of creation, when God said, "Let there be light" and a light shined in the darkness. Already there is something to correlate with the Pope: just as the light shone in the darkness, to bring order to the chaos, so the Pope represents the light of the world. Jesus, in the darkness of that world. 

For this card I go first (near right) to the reproduction in Decker, Dummett, and Depaulis's Wicked Pack of Cards. The most popular version of this card (on the right) derives from a little later, but probably from before 1810. At the far right is a scan of a very old version that I get from Andrea Vitali; he estimates it as from the beginning of 19th century (I think it is later than that, but still 19th century). It puts a blazing sun-like object in the middle of the white space. Genesis tells us that the sun was created on the fourth day, so it is not supposed to be the sun, just a light. Putting it there is not necessarily inappropriate; it is just not Etteilla's original design. It is first seen in volume 2 of D'Odoucet's Science des Signes, of around 1806. 

While saying that the card represents the male querent, Etteilla gave it two keywords, "Etteilla" and "Questionnant." In that way, if it replaces the Pope card, it is as though the card-reader replaced the priest in Etteilla's world, who has access to the divine world and to whom the enquirer comes to get advice. As the head card-reader, Etteilla himself would seem to take the place of the pope. He does not state this in so many words, however. 

The "synonyms and related meanings" emphasize what is pictured on the card: the separation between heaven and earth, as in the first verse of the Bible: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form." That it is without form is depicted by the clouds.) I have already cited the word-lists in relation to the card of "Chaos," Etteilla's card number 1, the Male Questioner/Inquirer. However, Etteilla is using them as a substitute for the Pope, so I give them again.

UPRIGHT: ETTEILLA [d'Odoucet: Consultant]. God, Supreme Being, Most High, the Chaos.  Meditation, Reflection. All-powerful, the Unitrine,  Spirit of God, Central Spirit, Glory, Immortal Man, the Male Querent. Thought, Meditation, Contemplation, Reflection, Contention of Spirit [or Mind: d'esprit can mean either], Spiritual [or Spiritual] Search. REVERSED: THE QUERENT [MALE]. Philosopher, Philosophic, Philosophically, Sage, Sagacity, Sagely.  The Universe. The Physical Man or the Male, the Male Querent.

The lists somewhat confuse the two aspects of the card: "The Chaos," "the Male Querent," "Mental [or Spiritual] Contention," and "Mental [or Spiritual] Search" apply to the Questionnant, while "Philosopher, Sage" belong to the keyword Etteilla. D'Odoucet covers himself by simply having "Consultant" as both upright and reversed. After all, the card represents the consultant in a reading.

Some people identify the Marseille Pope card with the Etteilla trump that shows a bishop marrying two young people, with the keyword as mariage (see the beginning of next chapter for the image). Etteilla himself identifies that card with the Marseille "Lover." Yet as the card with the male number of marriage, 5, an association with marriage and married man is not inappropriate.

In Etteilla's own interpretations of the various numbers, he identified 5 with "the sacred," as the sum of "God" as 1 with 4 as "the universe" (Premier Cahier, p. 19, put online by Wellcome Institute, in the same volume as the Second Cahier). In this he reflects the tradition represented by Macrobius and Irenaeus, which fits nicely with the conventional tarot's placement of the Pope card as fifth. In his own work, however, I cannot find any particular use of this association. His card 5 is his version of the World, which could potentially have to do with the sacred, but he does not make it, and its keywords are "Voyage" and "Earth." 

His disciple d'Odoucet does give lip-service to Etteilla's interpretation of 5. For him 5 is the number of the "animating spirit" (esprit animateur) and as such describes the creator's action of giving movement to the beings in the world, such as those in the corners of Etteilla's card 5. These beings, of course, were already present in the earlier World card, normally the highest card, which drew on the previous use of these creatures to symbolize the four evangelists.

The Fives

In the Sola-Busca 5 of Batons we see a man carrying a gourd and five large lances. Sofia Di Vincenzo, in her book Sola-Busca Tarot (p. 100), calls the gourd a "symbol of human stupidity," since it is "dried up." But perhaps it conceals something inside. We might ask, what did gourds mean in Renaissance art? A cursory look on the Web shows a few possibilities. At http://academic.evergreen.edu/curricula ... r%2009.pdf, p. 7, we find it identified in Durer's Jerome in his Study as a symbol of divine favor, referring back to a gourd that God provides Jonah for shade and then destroys in the night, an act that makes Jonah upset and perplexed. God uses the gourd as an explanation for why he spared Nineveh, after it repented of its sins: it is for him to decide who he will favor and not. According to Ferguson (Signs and Symbols in Christian Art, with Illustrations from the Paintings of the Renaissance, p. 31, in Google Books), its association with the story in Jonah made the gourd a symbol of the Resurrection. In a Crivelli Madonna and Child, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/food/hd_food.htm), it has the meaning of salvation. That is especially clear if it is pictured with an apple, the fruit of death to which the gourd is the antidote. Ferguson also mentions that pilgrims carried water in gourds (p. 31); it was particularly associated with the pilgrimage to Compostela (p. 124). When shown with a fig, however, a gourd could be a phallic symbol (http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/mcj025/). Moreover, Levenson (Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration, p. 294, in Google Books) says that the gourd, especially if shown with a skull, as in Durer's engraving, might also have been seen as a symbol of transience, because in the Jonah episode God destroys the gourd overnight. Similarly, Parshall (Art Bulletin Vol. 53 No. 3, online in jstor), refers to its use as a symbol of vain pride.

As usual, we have an ambiguous image. Drawing from the above, I would say that the SB's man is either a thief who has stolen something of only passing (transient) worth, or a pilgrim seeking salvation while warily walking a path where danger lurks. A relevant detail might be that the batons are divided into a group of three and a group of two (forming an X), suggesting the unification of male (as in the man and his gourd) and female that produces new fruit, i.e. rebirth.

In Batons, the "Etteilla" word-list reads like a reflection on wealth and its possibly unjust or unjustly envied acquisition:
5 OF BATONS: GOLD, Riches, Opulence, Splendor, Sumptuousness, Brilliance, Luxury, Abundance, Fortune. Physical, Philosophical, and/or Moral Sun. REVERSED: TRIAL. Litigation, Differences, Quarrels, Contestations, Disputes, Contrarieties, Discussions, Exhortation, Instruction, Proceedings, Chicanery, Annoyance, Contradiction, Inconsistency.

One should not assume that only material gold, etc., is indicated by this list, at least in earlier centuries, given such riddles as those, for example, in the tale of the three caskets in The Merchant of Venice. That tale, typical of the genre, derived from Italian sources, including Boccaccio's Decameron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_of_Venice).

The Etteilla School's Reverseds fit in well with the idea of rectifying unjust distribution, as the Theology suggests in its passages about justice and Nemesis. In that case, the thief might be taking back what is rightfully, or at least appropriately, his--or someone else's, to whom he will give it (as Christ did. Or he might properly be a subject for retribution himself.

D'Odoucet, on the other hand, sees litigation, etc., as a result of jealousy and envy by those who have less against those who have more. He interprets the card in terms of the 3 of animal reproduction combining with the 1 of man (in his interpretations of these numbers), imparting the lesson that more children means more hands to work the fields and consequently more wealth.

The Waite-Smith 5 of Batons has what looks like a robbery in progress, or at least an unfair fight, 3 against 2. It doesn't owe much to the SB version, although the SB figure, if a thief laden down with booty, could be seen as a result. If you will recall, the Etteilla school had "riches" in the uprights and "fights" etc. in the reversed. The Waite card focuses on fights, both in play and in earnest.  For interpretations,

Divinatory Meanings: Imitation, as, for example, sham fight, but also the strenuous competition and struggle of the search after riches and fortune. In this sense it connects with the battle of life. Hence some attributions say that it is a card of gold, gain, opulence. Reversed: Litigation, disputes, trickery, contradiction.
So here we have some role-modeling: the battle of life is not a fair fight.

In Swords, the "Etteilla" list suggest the loss of such riches.
5 OF SWORDS: LOSS, Deterioration, Waste, Attrition, Decline, Destruction, Detriment, Diminution,  Damages, Damaged, Prejudice, Disadvantage, Defeat, Reversal, Ruin, Rout, Wrong, Devastation, Dilapidation, Dissipation, Misfortune, Afflictions, Reversals of Fortune, Debauchery, Shame, Defamation, Dishonor, Infamy, Affront, Ignominy, Ugliness, Deformity, Humiliation. Theft, Larceny, Abduction, Plagiarism, Kidnapping: Stealing. Hideous, Horrible. Opprobrium, Corruption, Misbehavior, Seduction, Licentiousness. REVERSED: MOURNING, Regret, Desolation, Affliction, Sadness, Chagrin, Ailment, Grief, Calamity, Misfortune, Mental Suffering, Funeral Rites, Interment, Obsequies, Funerals, Inhumation, Sepulcher.

 The Etteilla word-lists seem to get visual expression in Waite's version of the card, an impression supported by what he says of its divinatory meanings:

Divinatory Meanings: Degradation, destruction, revocation, infamy, dishonour, loss, with the variants and analogues of these. Reversed: The same; burial and obsequies.

D'Odoucet stretches Etteilla's meaning to take on global significance, since for him the 9 of card 59 signifies the effusion of something around the globe, resulting in disaster. In this case, 5, the animating principle, chooses not to intervene, leaving man to perish until things rectify themselves.

Here the Sola-Busca 5 of Swords seems to say something rather different. It shows swords tied to one another in two groups, of 3 and of 2, and kept in an urn with a hole at the bottom. It is hard to say what the meaning could be: restraint, perhaps, or peace, since the swords are both wrapped and confined in a container. One possibility, suggested by the masculine number 3 with the feminine number 2, is that of a marriage sealing the securing of peace between two families or realms.

Quite oddly, there are three small spheres on the ground under the swords. It seems to me that the significance is that it allows the card to illustrate all the numbers up to five: one vessel, two handles, three spheres on the ground, four legs, and five swords. I can see no other symbolic meaning.

Both upright and reversed come directly from the Etteilla school. But unlike the SB, with its melting swords, Smith's image does not relate well to the  theme of "burial and obsequies." She should have had a few dead bodies lying about!

Turning to Cups, here is the Etteilla School's list, with the card:

5 OF CUPS: INHERITANCE. Succession, Legacy, Gift, Donation, Dowry, Jointure, Legitimate, Patrimony, Transmission, Testament. Tradition, Revelation, Revolution, Cabal. REVERSED: RELATIVE. 3rd Cahier: Flawed Plans, changed to Parent (i.e. Relative) in the 4th Cahier Supplement, p. 148. Lists: Consanguinity, Blood, Family, Forbears, Ancestors, Father, Mother, Brother, Sister, Uncle, Aunt, Cousin. Adam & Eve. Filiation, Extraction, Race, Lineage, Alliance. Affinity, Acquaintance, Rapport, Liaison.

It seems to me that this list relates to marriage in the practical sense of blood relationships, progeny, and property claims. Marriage was not just about love! The Theology emphasizes the theme of progeny. The 5 and the 6--the other marriage number--are the only numbers in the decade for which it is true that if multiplied by itself or a power of itself, the result always ends in the same number. So we have 5 x 5 = 25, 5 x25 = 235, and so on. The child is like its parent, the Theology says. D'Odoucet's "Revolution" fits with "Tradition" and "Cabal" (the French Tradition and Cabale) in a negative sense, while de la Salette's "Revelation" also fits, if "Revelation" and "Cabal" are taken positively. All three are rather curious additions to the list.

I would interpret the Sola-Busca 5 of Cups (near right) along similar lines. I imagine this young man as on a search for family: either his parents or other relative, or else a wife, as fairy tales frequently begin. It is perhaps in a nod to Pythagoreanism that the cups he carries are 3 behind, 2 in front, the male and female numbers. His need is suggested by his similarity to the image of Poverty in the so-called "Tarot of Mantegna" (far right) with its dog, bare legs, and stick, although now closer to what will be the most familiar image of the tarot Fool.

The Waite-Smith Five of Cups (right), suggests another way of seeing the SB card. Looking up, he may be praying to God for a way out of his impoverished state. Similarly, the figure's bowed head might also suggest prayer after loss. The castle across the river might then suggest the answer to that prayer, in this world or the next. There is also a bridge to that castle, reminiscent of the original meaning of "pontiff," from ponte, Latin for "bridge."

Waite's divinatory meanings, although mostly taken from the Etteilla school, include one feature not in the Etteilla lists, "loss" - precisely the concept suggested by the Sola-Busca's disheveled figure. Waite says:

Divinatory Meanings: It is a card of loss, but something remains over; three have been taken, but two are left; it is a card of inheritance, patrimony, transmission, but not corresponding to expectations; with some interpreters it is a card of marriage, but not without bitterness or frustration. Reversed: News, alliances, affinity, consanguinity, ancestry, return, false projects.

The idea is that death or a failed marriage is a loss that cannot be justly compensated for, but an inheritance (and perhaps child support) is at least something favorable that may result. Both Etteilla and Waite include the Neopythagorean idea of five as a marriage number, with Etteilla focusing on the property relationships. Marriage is what legitimizes inheritance for the offspring, spouse, and other relations. Thus if the young wanderer is depicted as poor now, if he persists in his journey despite dogs and dishevelment, borrowed from 15th century images of impovershiment, there will be a change in fortunes to come.

D'Odoucet's commentary on the card is similar, even if his application of the numbers 4 and 5 (for card number 45) seems strained. The animating spirit (5) transmits the general action of the universe (4), through destruction, while providing inheritance of what has come from the past.

The remaining suit to be examined is Coins. Here are the Etteilla school's "synonyms":

5 OF COINS, UPRIGHT: LOVER, MALE OR FEMALE. 3rd Cahier: Lover or Mistress. Lists: Person In Love, Chivalrous Man [Galant], Refined Woman [Galante], Husband, Wife, Spouse, Friend. Lover, Mistress. Love (or Like), Cherish, Adore.—Selection, Accord, Respectability, Rapport, Presentable, Propriety. REVERSED: LACK OF ORDER. Disordered, Counter-order, Misconduct. Disorder, Trouble, Confusion, Chaos. Damage, Ravage, Ruin.—Dissipation, Consumption (Tuberculosis). Dissoluteness, Licentiousness. Discord, Disharmony, Discordance.
This list seems to me to reflect both the positive and negative sides of love, especially love outside of marriage. But what does that have to do with Five? It has to do with a part of the Theology's account that I haven't brought in yet, that 5 was the sum of 2 and 3, the first female number and the first male number. It is a number of love and marriage:
The pentad is the first number to encompass the specific identity of all number, since it encompasses 2, the first even number, and 3, the first odd number. Hence it is called 'marriage,' since it is formed of male and female. (Theology p. 65)
So the word-list covers all the kinds and emotions of love. Strictly speaking, it is the male number of marriage, because it itself is odd, hence masculine. 6, which is the product of 2 and 3 rather than the sum, is the Theology's "feminine number of marriage."

Perhaps surprisingly, some Pythagoreans, including the Theology, consider 2 to be, like the Monad, neither even nor odd, but merely the source of even numbers. That results in some arithmetical gyrations, such as Plutarch's explanation for why 5 is the number of marriage: 5 is the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle with 3 and 4, the first male number and the first female number, as its sides. The point is the same; Plutarch's way is even slightly more Pythagorean, since it invokes the "Pythagorean Theorem" for its interpretation.

In the Sola-Busca card, we have a man-sized bird (or man in a bird costume) holding a shield and with a leg and probably also an additional foot sticking out. What does this have to do with love or marriage? It is in relation to the specifically male aspect of the card in relation to marriage. There is a phallus-like shaft and associated testicle-sac painted on the shield being held by the man in the SB card.

Birds were phallic symbols, as a drawing from approximately the same time and place should make clear.In reproducing this image, Zucker (The Illustrated Bartsch, vol. 24 part 3 p. 199) comments:
Hind quite rightly noted that the "representation of the penis in the form of a bird dates from antiquity," and that accello is still used idiomatically for "penis" in Italian...
The animal being depicted here may actually be an odd-shaped griffin, since it has a lion's haunches, but the point remains. On the other side of this engraving are depicted "various occupations," as the title given to it says; but all of the depictions contain allusions to the penis, even drawing an actual one dangling from its owner in one instance.

This card may also relate to the conventions of courtly love poetry. Sometimes the male lover was likened to a falcon flying to its beloved, as in the tapestry fragment at left (Michael Camille, The Medieval Art of Love, p. 99). In a similar vein, the troubadours frequently compared themselves to nightingales, singers of the night (as in Romeo's argument with Juliet over whether the bird they hear is a nightingale or a lark); in such a metaphor, they sang of their love for women who were already married. In one song (I can't find the reference at the moment, but it is only one illustration of the general pattern), he sings outside his lady's balcony at night when the husband is asleep. One night, the husband wakes up and thinks he hears something outside. The lady says that it was just a nightingale. The husband goes outside and shortly after sets a dead nightingale before her, with its neck wrung. The implication, of course, is that this is what he will do to the lover - or perhaps has already accomplished.

One odd feature of the SB card is that the man seems to be beating on the disc with his stick. It is perhaps the ringing of the bells to indicate the dawn and the end of the time of love. It ironically defeats the lovers' purpose. I think that Marco on Tarot History Forum (http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=733&start=0) is probably right in relating the design here to Greek writings on the "oracle at Dodona." The stick on the disc would  in this context be be a stick with strings on it to which pits of  bone are attached, held by the statue of a man. The strings would strike a gong at the oracle, as described by Strabo:
The proverbial phrase, "the copper vessel in Dodona," originated thus: In the temple was a copper vessel with a statue of a man situated above it and holding a copper scourge, dedicated by the Korkyraians; the scourge was three-fold and wrought in chain fashion, with bones strung from it; and these bones, striking the copper vessel continuously when they were swung by the winds, would produce tones so long that anyone who measured the time from the beginning of the tone to the end could count to four hundred. Whence, also, the origin of the proverbial term, "the scourge of the Korkyraians.'
The pieces of bone then are the little bits of things tied to the strings between the other discs, thereby comprising the "scourge". And it happens that particular birds, pigeons, were associated with that shrine. This association gave rise to a phrase "alkos Dodus," - brass of Dodona - meaning "a babbler, or one who talks an infinite deal of nothing." Another probable reference to the oracle is the flame-like sandal at the bottom left of the card, which corresponds to the belief that extinguished torches would become re-lit when immersed in the water at the oracle.

The penis-like shaft on the shield is not part of the oracle. Marco thinks it was painted after the original design was engraved. It is that part which is especially related to the interpretation I am giving, along with other associations to the bird and the number five. The context of the oracle serves additionally to suggest a use of the cards for divinatory purpose, which some would consider babbling. "Babbling" also might apply to a troubadour's songs, to someone who felt threatened by the one who sang them. The image is sufficiently dissimilar from the oracle to admit of a diversity of interpretations. 

It is possible to interpret the Waite-Smith Five of Coins along the same lines as the SB card and the Etteilla word-list, which Waite pretty much copies. It perhaps shows two lovers, after they have been discovered loving too well outside the bounds set by the Church. But Waite simply says it portrays "two mendicants"--i.e. beggars--"in a snowstorm" who "pass a lighted casement". Then he finds that part of the traditional interpretation (i.e. of the Etteilla school) have little applicability:
Divinatory Meanings: The card foretells material trouble above all, whether in the form illustrated--that is, destitution--or otherwise. For some cartomancists, it is a card of love and lovers - wife, husband, friend, mistress; also concordance, affinities. These alternatives cannot be harmonized. Reversed: Disorder, chaos, ruin, discord, profligacy.

However the two unfortunates are a man and a woman. If - as in the typical troubadour relationship - their love was outside the the bounds set by the Church, whose warm interior is closed to them, then perhaps that is what reduced them to penury, and the meanings can be harmonized after all. A wounded leg or foot was a conventional substitute for sexual indiscretion (the Fisher King in the Parsifal story, for example, or Oedipus, "Swollen Foot").

In that case, Smith's design for the "pentacles" unfortunately loses the 2 + 3 symbolism of the SB, that of the male number of marriage, which can cause trouble outside of that institution.

For d'Odoucet, the card is the combination of 7 and 3. Love of life (7) is conducive to generation (3), but too much ardor brings disorder. The result is along the same lines as the other three, but a rather strained conclusion from those two numbers.

Conclusion so far

In sum,  we see the Neopythagorean Pentad coming into the suit cards in a variety of ways: as the number of vegetative birth, death, and rebirth; as a number of justice and injustice, in the sense of a sudden redistribution of wealth; and as one of two numbers of love and marriage. In marriage the Pope plays another role, in that he or his priest is the one to sanctify marriage and thus make it legal before God. 

Of the Waite-Smith designs, only the one in Swords, a seems visually derived from an SB card (Batons - see at right), although all of the SBs,  and all of Waite's except Pentacles, have the 3/2 division of the 5, the union between male and female in the male number of marriage. So maybe 30% here.  

For correlations between Etteilla and the SB, it seems to me that the Etteilla meanings have proven to fit the SB 75% of the time, excluding only the SB Swords. Of course the ambiguity of the SB images helps..

In the divinatory meanings, Waite in Batons changes "riches" to "competition for riches" and adds "imitation", but otherwise is similar to Etteilla: so 75%. In Swords, Waite ignores Etteilla's reversed keyword "mourning" and primary associated feeling-words to focus on "burial, obsequies." So 85%. In Coins, Waite emphasizes the Reverseds but otherwise is similar to Etteilla, so 90%. In Cups, Waite adds "loss", as in the death of someone close, but otherwise is true to Etteilla, so 80%. The average is 82%.

In relation to Pythagoreanism, it seems to me that all of the SB 5s illustrate some aspect of that philosophy. Etteilla's Cups and Coins relate to Pythagoreanism easily, having to do with marriage and, especially in Coins, the vegetative soul: the "family tree" is aptly named, even if the connection is blood rather than sap, and children rather than acorns.Batons and Swords fit the number as well, if the melting down of swords represents a destruction of a subject's power or property; it is the negative side of the vegetative soul. But the connection is a bit obscure, so let us say 75%. Waite's introduction of "destitution" in Coins is not very Pythagorean, although he does allow "love" as well, in a secondary sense, as does Smith's illustration. Batons and Swords focus on death and destruction, something that makes sense in the sphere of the vegetative soul. However I cannot see that Smith's illustrations for those suits have anything to do with Pythagoreanism, except for the division into 3 and 2 in all but Pentacles. So around 75% for Waite but at most 50% for Smith's designs. This is not to criticize them, of course. I am only studying the influence of Pythagorean numerology.

 The 5s after Etteilla and his school

Eliphas Levi restored the Pope to the esoteric tarot and also put it back in its position as the fifth major arcanum. What is mainly of interest in his interpretation is how he sees the number 5 in the card: there are five main elements, the two columns above, the two acolytes below, and the pope in the middle. He interprets the two above as "necessity, the law" and the two below as "liberty, free will," that is, the choice of whether to obey the dictates of divine law or not. If diagonal lines are drawn between the columns and the acolytes, the pope will be in the center. He would thus seem to be the vehicle of transmission. For the 5s, he makes the association to Gevurah, which he characterizes as "The Rigor necessitated by Wisdom" and good by not suffering from evil: "Four times four crimes Severity reproves."

 Levi's follower Paul Christian (trans. online, p. 99) says that the fifth major arcanum is about "occult inspiration." The column on the right represents divine law and the one on the left freedom of choice. The three bars are the emblems of the three worlds - divine, intellectual, physical - in which the card signifies universal law, religion, and the inspiration that tests man's liberty. The Pope puts his fingers on his breast to charge the passions to be silent, so that the voice of conscience may be heard. The two acolytes are the spirits (genii) of light and darkness, good and evil, "both of whom obey the Master of the Arcana."  One must listen to the three voices and by meditation know what to

Papus, while generally agreeing with Christian, goes a little further. He sees the Hierophant card as the second member of the second triad; as such, it negates, or is the reflex of, the Emperor, thereby returning to some of the characteristics of the High Priestress, but on a higher level: In the divine world, it is Intelligence, which like the High Priestess is characteristic of the Son, in Christianity the Wisdom of God. In the human world it is authority, characteristic of Woman, like the High Priestess. In the physical world, it is the reflex of the soul of the world, like the High Priestess natura naturata - nature natured - rather than natura naturans, nature naturing, thus receptive rather than active. 

His application of this approach to the number cards is even more abstract. It is again a series of triads. Unlike the 2s, which pertain to the divine world, the 5s pertain to the human world. The 5s are distinguished among themselves in that Scepters and Cups are positive, Swords and Pentacles negative, while Scepters and Swords relate to the Hermit and Cups and Coins to the Hanged Man. What all this means in practice is hard to say.

The fourth theorist that I am considering, Eules Picard in 1909, is again of interest for what he does with the number cards On the Pope card, he simply recapitulates his predecessors, chiefly Christian, but for the number cards gives practical interpretations.

The Pope is not blessing, but giving "the sign of esotericism," a phrase from Papus. An association with Mercury makes sense, in that Mercury brought down messages from the divine world to ours. Papus had associated the card with Aries, for no discernible reason except that in the Sefer Yetzirah it corresponded to the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Papus also, interestingly enough, had associated the card with Pached, Fear, one of the names for Gevurah, the fifth sefira. Picard's interpretations are simply applications of the Pope card as conscience coming from the divine world, continuing Levi's emphasis on the 5s as expressions of Gevurah, Severity.

Thus for the 5 of Scepters, he gives a pentagram with flames shooting out of it in all directions, with what looks to me like the figure of the pope at the top vertex. I cannot make out any of the fire signs of the zodiac. The interpretation is that of "excessive moral [or spiritual] activity," but including also the more disreputable activities of intrigue and alcohol. Certain members of the Roman Catholic Church were known for their plotting to restore the Church's old absolute supremacy.

In Cups the moral activity is more worthy, as well as being consonant with prudence, signified by Athena's owl of wisdom in the center. The card advises discernment in one's choice of friends and especially to renounce "les liaisons dangereuses," probably referring to illicit love affairs (as in the famous novel of that name). It is the voice of conscience coming from above, as indicated by where the birds look at the top of the card. The owl again is present, staring straight at the viewer in an accusatory manner.

Swords is more of the same. Instead of the owl, there is a giant eye of God staring down at the swords below. Since the swords are symbols of evil, the message is that of remorse and chastisement for the evil acts one has committed.

Finally, the suit of Coins shows plants thriving upwards from their roots in the earth. But the message is not one of enjoying the abundance, but rather that of exercising economy - without, however, the vice of avarice, that of extreme desire for riches, especially when it leads to the commission of other sins.

My final theorist is Alejandro Jodorowsky, who finds the meanings he values in the 17th-18th century Tarot of Marseille. For the fives, his cards are simply brighter versions of the Conver of 1760, but with the light blue favored by Conver sometimes replaced by the heavier blue sometimes used by other card makers. '

What unites and distinguishes the fives, relative to what came before, is an orientation toward an ideal. "It introduces an ideal that unbalances the stability of the four in order to go beyond it. It is a bridge. It is the gesture of the sage pointing at the moon" (p. 60). At the same time, this ideal is also what he terms a "temptation": that is to say, in practice the ideal is not all that it seems to be to the one embracing it. In this regard he is using a term that usually applies to the Devil's wiles, which for Jodorowsky is another example of the 5s of the tarot.

In Batons, for him the suit of sexual and creative activities, he sees the routine of the fours, which was becoming enervating, replaced by deeper explorations into sexuality and creative expression. These include "sthe sublimation of sexual force by means of meditation techniques, "opening the door of spiritual illumination," but also "a more profound exploration of the path of desire that does not neglect investigation of any impulse." On the negative side, there is the danger that excessive mysticism could lead to sexual impotence, or that the sexual exploration could "will wear us out with depravity." It seems to me that the introduction of ideals also includes moral ideals: what is the effect of my sexuality or creativity on others? Not an idealized Other, but others met in daily life. His fives are still without any discovery of the other in his or her right. 

He also does not say what in the visual layout of the card illustrates his interpretation. Perhaps it is in the Wand that has been added to the fours, in the middle up and down: going up from the center might be the road of sublimation, while going down is the road of sexual exploration. Here there is some relationship to Picard, who also cautioned against excessive moral/spiritual activity, although probably in a different way, that of being too exacting toward oneself or others.

It is in Jodorowsky's analysis of Cups that we see the excesses of which Picard warns of in Scepters, at least in regard to others. The acceptance of a new ideal can open the heart to "a solution that may be good for humanity" (p. 315). Yet "The idealized Other cannot correspond to the plans made in his or her regard." Who is this "Other" with a capital "O"? It seems to include not only the divine but someone who seems to have special access to the divine, or at least great wisdom. It is not a downgrading of others, as an excessively spiritual person might do, but of putting them on a pedestal. Yet it also applies to the one who accepts such idealizations: identification with them leads to an unconsciousness of those traits in oneself that do not accord with them. The danger of over-idealization also applies to the idealization of God: one is in for a rude surprise when God allows what one perceives as evil to persist unchecked. 

On the card, he points to the elaborate upward-pointing floral arrangement, like a temple or pagoda. "For the first time," he says, "we see the enthusiasm of faith, or rather, of fanatic love. . . . We think we have found the definitive direction that our heart and that of humanity should take." He points to the heart-shaped pattern "formed at the foot of the central cup by the branches of the bottom-most plant, which has flowered." This heart is "acting on the material plane. ,. . . We turn our hearts to God, yet without scorning human affections" (p. 292). He gives as an example a girl who returns pregnant from visiting her guru. 

In Swords, Jodorowsky observes that the sword pushes through the interlacing swords, to what is beyond the four that otherwise encloses it. "This is the first time in the process of the series of the Swords, symbol of intellectual activity, that the mind accepts union with the Other and attempts to cast its gaze outside itself, outside its little world. An idea appears that can be transformed into an ideal, a path to follow." In a later section he gives examples: a new perspective, recognizing the limitations of the rational system embraced in the 4; taking the new idea and becoming a kind of expert in it, letting it transform one's daily life (p. 312).

We might recall that the same red central sword also pierced the barrier formed by the other swords to each side in the case of the 3 of Swords. There, too, Jodorowsky analyzed the phenomenon as idealization, the kind that does not know the distinction between knowing and believing. That is the same danger now, that of "crazy and overly idealist ideas that carry a promise of huge disappointment." What is the difference between the two cards? Jodorowsky says that the thoughts go deeper than before, more transformative of our daily life (p. 312). We might notice that the sword in the middle of the 5 lacks the branches to each side that the sword in the 3 has. Moreover, the sword is thicker, thus penetrating more and also harder to wield. There is less commitment to one path in the 3 than in the 5, less actual work in the physical world around us, and less reward from accomplishment.

In Pentacles, the investment reflected in the fours is enriched by innovations spurred by ideals: supermarkets establish organic food sections, a person who has not got results from establishment medicine turns to shamans or folk practitioners; a stable married couple decides to have a child, or turn savings into investments that "multiply their capital" - I suppose, ones that fits certain ideals. The danger is in investing in pipe-dreams. 

And again, there is Picard's idea of exercising economy, both to increase one's capital for investment and to protect against disaster if one loses it. Jodorowsky does not say how his interpretation is reflected in the card. But one can see that the disc in the middle is surrounded by vegetation connected to the other four. It is an ideal, yet also rooted in material reality.

Our different theorists offer a variety of interpretations for the fives. Waite's cards can be seen in the terms of Jodorowsky's word "temptation" the temptation to win, when one has the numbers (Wands) or the skill (Swords), as well as the temptation to escape present sorrow by crossing to a more promising land (cups), and to receive aid from a church from which one is estranged (coins). It is similar for Etteilla and some of the Sola-Busca: the temptation to steal, which is met by a trial (batons); the temptation to love, met by disorder (coins); the temptation to accept the bounty of one's family (cups). Both Waite and Etteilla's 5's all have to do with loss. For Picard, applying Christian on the Pope, they are the call of conscience in a world of good and evil. For Jodorowsky, it is the call of ideals, in a material framework where the reality inevitably does not match up with what one thinks, feels, and hopes, yet the effort sends one to another state of being, met in the 6s.

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