tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56770449188766190542024-02-07T22:00:55.014-08:00Neopythagoreanism in the Tarot: Sola-Busca, Etteilla, WaiteMichael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677044918876619054.post-36960975704591103462012-05-15T22:20:00.016-07:002023-04-21T02:51:19.163-07:00Introduction<p><b>THIS BLOG IS DESIGNED TO BE READ LIKE A BOOK, FROM THE TOP TO THE BOTTOM. SO WHEN YOU GET TO THE BOTTOM, CLICK " OLDER POST" FOR THE NEXT SECTION. THE SECTIONS ARE ALSO AT THE SIDE HERE, AGAIN GOING FROM THE TOP DOWN.</b><br />
<br />
<b>THE ESSAY WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN AS A SERIES OF POSTS ON TAROT HISTORY FORUM IN 2010 (<a href="http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=160976">http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=160976</a>). IT WAS REVISED FOR THIS BLOG IN JUNE 2012. </b><br />
<br />
<b>IT WAS AGAIN EXTENSIVELY REVISED IN APRIL 2017, WITH MUCH NEW MATERIAL ADDED FROM ANCIENT SOURCES, AND AGAIN IN FEBRUARY 2022, THIS TIME ADDING MORE ON THE TAROT OF MARSEILLE.</b><br />
<br />
<b>(Added 2017: Here are links to other blog-essays of mine relating to Etteilla:</b><br />
<b><b><b><a href="http://etteillastrumps.blogspot.com/">http://etteillastrumps.blogspot.com/</a>, transcribing and translate Etteilla's comments on the trump cards of his deck in his<i> 2nd Cahier</i> and its <i>Supplement</i>. </b></b></b><b><b><b> </b></b></b></p><p><b><b><b><a href="http://thirdcahier.blogspot.com/">http://thirdcahier.blogspot.com/</a>, transcribing and translate Etteilla's list in his <i>3rd Cahier</i> of his upright and reversed meanings for all 78 cards, including also others' translations and keywords in various editions his cards, plus his corrections in the <i>3rd Cahier</i> and <i>4th Cahier Supplements</i>.</b></b></b></p><p><b><b><b> </b></b></b><b><a href="http://templeinmemphis.blogspot.com/">http://templeinmemphis.blogspot.com/</a> discussing a diagram that is the frontispiece to Etteilla's <i>Leçons Théoreque et Pratique du Livre de Thot</i> in terms of an essay by his follower Hugand, of which I translate the relevant portion. </b></p><p><b> </b><b><b><a href="http://etteillasangelology.blogspot.com/">http://etteillasangelology.blogspot.com/</a> translating and discussing the portion of Etteilla's book <i>Philosophie des Hautes Sciences </i>dealing with the "72 angels of God".)</b><i><br /></i> </b><br />
<br />
In this essay I am going to look at the historical tarot in terms of Pythagorean and Neopythagorean philosophy from ancient Greece and Rome as known during the Renaissance.</p><p> </p><p> The decks I of my main focus are the Sola-Busca of c. 1491, the Tarot of Marseille in various versions, Etteilla's of 1789 together with the Etteilla School's word-lists associated with the cards, and the Waite-Smith of 1909.<br /></p><p>Waite and Smith had seen an exhibition of the Sola-Busca in London just before she painted her cards, and the influence is noticeable throughout her number cards, which are the first since the early 16th century to use scenes from life, as opposed to having the suit-objects arranged in various ways with flowers and vines filling up the spaces in between (as we see in the Marseille cards). I don't think it is realized how much Smith got from the Sola-Busca. To show how extensive the borrowing was, I will be making comparisons between the two decks, the Waite-Smith and the Sola-Busca.<br />
<br />
Waite, in his lists of divinatory meanings in<i> Pictorial Key to the Tarot,</i> (<a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/index.htm">http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/index.htm</a>), borrowed heavily from the Etteilla School's word lists in his interpretations of the cards. That he did so is not new: James Revak demonstrate it many years ago, even if his arguments, on the Web in 2010, are no longer there. How such disparate works, separated by 300 years (1491 for the SB, 1785 for Etteilla), match up so well can be explained if they all have a common source, namely ancient Neopythagoreaniam. If there are no documents before Etteilla relating the cards to occult number theory, its absence needs no explanation, because such numerology was omnipresent in the literary world of the medieval and early modern period. It does not have to have been invented by Etteilla himself, because of the pervasiveness of that thinking. </p><p>Etteilla and his followers did have an explicit numerology, first seen in two of Etteilla's works published around 1786, developed further in 1790 and in more detail by d'Odoucet in his Science of Signs. All of this comes after his presentation of his system in 1785 in his Third Cahier (published before either the first or Second Cahier). To what extent this numerology explains Etteilla's choices will be examined later; it is quite different from anything that came before it.</p><p>After Etteilla others presented numerology-based systems, at first just for the 22 "major arcana." Their main principle seems to be to provide a narrative of sorts for the unfolding of a process in various aspects of life, and then assigning numbers to the distinct parts. What connection they have to traditional meanings relevant to the tarot is a topic for examination, which I will attempt a little later.<br /></p><p>Applied to the four regular suits, the general idea is to combine numerology with a theory about what the four suits represented. By that I mean a classification of suits according to some generic quality capable of having many species. The most popular today is to assign thinking to Swords, emotion and feeling to Cups, material concerns to Coins (sometimes called Pentacles), and either intuition or desire to Batons. There is also the assignment of one of the four elements to each: air to Swords, water to Cups, earth to Coins, and fire to Batons. Then it is a matter of interpreting each of the number and court cards in terms of the characteristics of the number as applied to each of the four qualities or groups of qualities associated with the suit. A well-known and explicitly numerological approach in these terms is that by Alejandro Jodorowsky in 1998.<br /></p><p>While I am open to such developments, I will try to proceed historically, both in relation to the how the suits were characterized in general and in relation to how the cards in each suit were actually interpreted, that is, proceeding inductively, going from the interpretations of the individual cards to the suit as a whole. </p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Pythagoreanism and Neopythagoreanism</span></b><br />
<br />
Fragments of Pythagorean philosophy found in Aristotle and many other
ancient writers had exerted an influence on Christian writers since
Clement of Alexandria. In the section on the Aces, we will see one example from the School of Chartres. 13th century.<br />
<br />
There were two sorts of ancient Pythagoreans.
First, those referred to by Plato and Aristotle,
followers of Pythagoras who according to legend founded a school in
Italy in the 6th century, b.c.e.. Then there was a revival of Pythagoreanism
called Neopythagoreanism, starting in the first century b.c. and
continuing through the Neoplatonists Macrobius, Porphyry, and Iamblicus, also popularized in Latin by Martianus Capella and others. <br />
<br />
Neopythagorean
number theory focused on the numbers one through ten. Its chief representative was a mathematician named Nichomachus. Some of his mathematical works were preserved, but none of his philosophical ones, as such. He is known through quotes, most extensively from a work called the <i>Theologumena Arithmeticae</i> written in Greek and now lost. But this book became the basis for a later <i>Theologumena Arithmeticae </i>which contains, scholar say, many selections from Nichomachus's work. It was not translated into any foreign language from the original Greek until the 1988 English version <br />
<br />
The <i>Theologumena</i> came to the West from Constantinople in the middle of the 15th century as part of the
collection of Bessarion, the Greek prelate turned Roman Catholic
Cardinal. After Bessarion's 1469 death, his collection became the
nucleus of the Biblioteca Marciana of the Republic of Venice, available
for borrowing by qualified citizens. Copies of Bessarion's
manuscript found their way to Florence and Naples. The one in Florence reportedly
contains marginal notations in the handwriting of the Florentine
scholar Poliziano. It may have been he who introduced
Neopythagoreanism into the tarot, perhaps with with his friend
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Poliziano and Pico traveled together to
the various libraries of Italy in the late 1480s. They both had
homoerotic leanings--a tendency quite noticeable in the Sola-Busca
deck--and were killed together in 1494 Florence, by arsenic
poisoning; whether this was intentional or the result of their taking it as medicine is unknown.. <br />
<br />
The <span style="font-style: italic;">Theologumena</span> then reappeared in Paris through being reprinted there in 1547. It wasn't reprinted again until the early 19th century. After that, other editions appeared and a critical edition, still in Greek only, in 1922. It is from the introduction to that edition that I get my information about preceding versions.<br />
<br />
During the Renaissance, there were also extant writings in Latin that presented Neopythagorean number philosophy, notably Macrobius's <span style="font-style: italic;">Commentary on the Dream of Scipio </span>and Martinus Capella's <span style="font-style: italic;">Marriage between Mercury and Philology</span>,
both continuously available in manuscript and in print starting in the late
15th century. There were also Pythagorean-inspired passages in Augustine, Origen, and their medieval followers, such as Robert Grosseteste. In the 16th century, there was a section on the mystical properties of the first ten numbers in
Agrippa's <span style="font-style: italic;">Three Books of Occult Philosophy</span>, 1533. In that century and the next there was a vast outpouring of applications of the theory in literature and elsewhere (see in this regard the Christopher Butler, <i>Number Symbolism</i>, 1970, and S. K. Heninger, <i>Touches of Sweet Harmony,</i> both in archive.org).<br />
<br />
Briefly, Neopythagoreanism is a way of philosophizing in terms of number. With number as its organizing principle, it introduces not only the tenets attributed to Pythagoras but also a philosophical analysis of myths about the gods and medical beliefs about humanity, presented in a developmental way of ten steps. Centered first in Greater Greece (including its colonies), then Egypt and the Near East, it no doubt influenced Kabbalah as well as other religious and philosophical systems of the day. </p><p>In the Renaissance, there was Pythagorean architecture, Pythagorean music theory, and so-called "Pythagorean" fortune-telling. While the tarot had 22 trump cards, called triumphs, they can easily be seen as two sets of 10 flanked with two special cards at the beginning and end, plus four sets of 10 number cards, plus a number of court cards, as few as one (only kings are mentioned in an account of a "game of the gods" of ca. 1420 Milan) or as many as six (in the case of the Cary-Yale Tarot of c. 1445 Milan). </p><p>Pythagoreanism applied to the cards: the 16th century <br /></p><p></p><p>Not much was written in Pythagorean terms about the tarot, or even the regular suits that the triumphs were added to, before Etteilla in the 1780s. Yet such theorizing was not non-existent. Piscina in c. 1565 used the idea, from Plato's Timaeus, that there were distinct spheres for the four elements because of the need for two means between earth, the lowest, and the celestial bodies, the highest. One mean is air</p><p>Another Pythagorean notion in Piscina is that the suits are four because that number is "more perfect than all the others," referring again to the Timaeus. For Piscina the suits divide into two groups of two: Swords and Batons are for war, while Cups and Coins are for enjoying the peace. In this regard Swords are the weapons of defense of the realm, while Batons (Italian bastoni, sticks) are for lighter punishments. For enjoying the peace, Cups are for wine, "which makes men merry", while Coins are for the fulfillment of all our desires and so a symbol of contentment. <br /></p><p class="testo" style="text-align: justify;">In 1582 a French writer named Jean Gosselin wrote a treatise applying
Pythagoreanism to ordinary playing cards. Gosselin observes (pp.
33-34, 35) that no card, including the court cards, exceeds in points
the number 10, which is 1+2+3+4. This relationship between 4, the
number of suits, and 10 is the famous Pythagorean Tetratkys. </p><p class="titoletto"><i style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Pythagoras" height="240" src="http://www.letarot.it/cgi-bin/pages/saggi/pythagorasgosselin.jpg" width="320" /></i>There is also his reasoning regarding the symbolism of the four suits, in terms of the four elements (p. 31). That there are four
elements is an assumption of Pythagorean and most other ancient
philosophies. As for how these elements could be seen in the French suit-symbols, it is an application of the Pythagorean methodology of looking for relationships and
commonalities between the members of different natural groups. An oft-repeated story about Pythagoras was that in
listening to blacksmiths’ hammers, he noted that the tones varied
according to the weights of hammers producing them, and that the same
tones produced by strings varied according to the same ratios in weights
applying tension to those strings (Nichomachus, <i>Manual of Harmonics</i>, Ch. 6; Iamblichus, <i>Life of Pythagoras</i>, Ch. 26; Macrobius, <i>Commentary on the Dream of Scipio</i>,
II.1.8-12). Accordingly, Pythagoras was depicted listening to hammers,
e.g. by Luca della Robbia, 1437-1439, on the campanile of Florence
cathedral (author’s photo above right, taken at the Museo del Duomo, with the
museum’s placard). Identifying which ratios were harmonious was part of
Pythagorean musical theory. In general, Pythagoreans saw number as the
key to understanding numerous phenomena.<b><b><br /></b></b></p>
<p class="testo" style="text-align: center;"><i style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></i></p>
<p class="testo" style="text-align: justify;">So between the French suit of Tiles (<i>Carreaux</i>, Diamonds in English) and Earth there is the commonality of supporting heavy things. Between Pikes (<i>Piques</i>, Spades in English) and Fire there is the commonality of penetrating and being the most penetrating of its group. Hearts (<i>Coeurs</i>), in our bodies are in a relationship of dependence on Air. Clover (<i>Tr</i>è<i>fle</i>,
Clubs in English) is in a relationship of dependence on much Water.
(pp. 31-32.) (This is a process of analogy between one thing and another
familiar in medieval allegory. For example, snakes were a sign of
Prudence because Jesus said, as the Vulgate rendered Matthew 10:16,
“estote ergo prudentes sicut serpentes (“therefore be as prudent as
serpents”). The analogy is facilitated by the commonality of “four”
between suits and elements. Moreover, the four suits in card games play a
similar role to the four elements in ancient physics: just as
particular things were combinations of elements in different
proportions, so the hands dealt the players contained the suits in
different proportions, as Gosselin explains on pp. 38-40.</p><p class="testo" style="text-align: left;">Other applications of Pythagoreanism by Gosselin have to do with a specific game called "Trene et un," i.e. 31. He observes that this number corresponds to the sum of four octaves in music, each of which is in the relation of 1 to 2 to the one below. So we get 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 = 31. "Four" is the number of the elements and the suits. This is a type of reasoning that Etteilla later applied to the tarot, most notably, pointing out that 78 is a "pyramidal" number of base 12, meaning it is the sum of the first 12 numbers (Cours Theorique et Pratique, p. 21, at <a href="https://archive.org/details/1790courstheoriqueetpratique/page/n19/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/1790courstheoriqueetpratique/page/n19/mode/2up</a>). </p><p class="testo" style="text-align: left;">That the number of triumphs in tarot might also have had a numerological basis, although from the Judeo-Christian basis. Andrea Vitali has pointed out that <br /></p><p> From around the same time as Gosselin is another writer, Guillaume D'Oncieu, who looks at the tarot deck in terms that echo Pythagoreanism, now with regard to the groups that make up the deck: a quaternity of
suits plus a triplicity of heptads (sevens), constituting finally another
triplicity of suits + triumphs + the Fool, which in turn is a triplicity
of three equal parts of 26 cards each. So far this is just arithmetic
in Greek. However, as Andrea Vitali points out in his essay on this
passage (<a href="http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=293&lng=ENG">http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=293&lng=ENG</a>),
these numbers that make up the tarot are loaded with higher
significance by association: the four of the elements, three of the Holy
Trinity, seven of the seven sacraments, etc. There is even a
"quintessence," D'Oncieu points out: in the deal, the cards are
distributed five at a time.</p><p>Although not said in so many words, some illustrations of the four temperaments seem to relate them not only to the the four elements but also to the four suit-objects. Such
assignments are suggested in a 15th century illustration of the four
(on top), but another set of assignments in a 16th century one (on the bottom). In
the top set, coins are associated with earth and a melancholic, fearful
of not having enough; on the bottom coins are with water and a
phlegmatic who will presumably spend them frivolously. In the top
set, the wooden stick is in the hand of the sanguine; on the bottom, there is a small one in the hand of the sanguine, but a larger one held by the melancholic. Probably the sanguine is meant as air, as in the top set, but now with no clear suit association. In both sets, there is no depiction of any cups. In the top set, what is left is the figure with the rosary beads; as such, he is readily associated with a communion cup. Likewise in the bottom set, cups are readily associated with the good cheer of the sanguine type, even if not depicted. Fire in both is associated
with a sword.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLU4Hv2_N_CunN00sBjAasL-HqHnJNax9bKGJDZyRDucNyiWT2tlLjTDaX9Hk0U_Leui4l5Yr2y3G0k9aCuYW3zyZ3DJ_ytXOzobUll-BUHiCW_Xgt4Sor04Wd2KuGdW6fbpfq1rN1TlV6Y36sTZmB_wUHcoIiXZ2685FzOeR4mSacXFbdG-1av3g5SA/s760/humors2sets2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="760" data-original-width="727" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLU4Hv2_N_CunN00sBjAasL-HqHnJNax9bKGJDZyRDucNyiWT2tlLjTDaX9Hk0U_Leui4l5Yr2y3G0k9aCuYW3zyZ3DJ_ytXOzobUll-BUHiCW_Xgt4Sor04Wd2KuGdW6fbpfq1rN1TlV6Y36sTZmB_wUHcoIiXZ2685FzOeR4mSacXFbdG-1av3g5SA/w612-h640/humors2sets2.jpg" width="612" /></a></div>In French writings of the late 18th century onwards, suits are associated (by de Mellet, Etteilla,
and others, with classes of society: military for swords, clerics
for cups, agriculture for batons (often having green in them), and
merchants, bankers, and artists for coins. These might correlate roughly
to thinking (strategy as opposed to emotion), feeling (clerics, for God
and against the Devil), desire (agriculture seen in sexual terms), and
material concerns (merchants and artists, providing wares). We will see this way of interpreting the suits in Jodorowsky, who also associates a specific element with each of these modes of activity. Picard has yet another way of interpreting the four suits in terms of the four elements and four characteristic activities.<br /><p></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Early tarot decks and Pythagoreanism</span></b></p><p> The decks I of my main focus are the Sola-Busca of c. 1491, the
Tarot of Marseille in various versions, Etteilla's of 1789 together
with the Etteilla School's word-lists associated with the cards, the
Waite-Smith of 1909, and another deck of that same year that has not gotten much attention until recently, at least in the English-speaking world, that of Eules Picard.<br /></p><p>There is a direct connection between the Sola-Busca (SB) and the Waite-Smith. Waite and Smith had seen an exhibition
of the Sola-Busca in London just before she painted her cards, and the
influence is noticeable throughout her number cards, which are the first
since the early 16th century to use scenes from life, as opposed to
having the suit-objects arranged in various ways with flowers and vines
filling up the spaces in between (as we see in the Marseille cards). I
don't think it is realized how much Smith got from the Sola-Busca. To
show how extensive the borrowing was, I will be making comparisons
between the two decks, the Waite-Smith and the Sola-Busca.<br />
<br />
Waite, in his lists of divinatory meanings in<i> Pictorial Key to the Tarot,</i> (<a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/index.htm">http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/index.htm</a>),
borrowed heavily from the Etteilla School's word lists in his
interpretations of the cards. That he did so is not new: James Revak
demonstrate it many years ago, even if his arguments, on the Web in
2010, are no longer there. How such disparate works, separated by 300
years (1491 for the SB, 1785 for Etteilla), match up so well can be
explained if they all have a common source, namely ancient
Neopythagoreaniam. If there are no documents before Etteilla relating
the cards to occult number theory, its absence needs no explanation,
because such numerology was omnipresent in the literary world of the
medieval and early modern period. It does not have to have been invented
by Etteilla himself, because of the pervasiveness of that thinking. </p><p>Etteilla
and his followers did have an explicit numerology, first seen in two of
Etteilla's works published around 1786, developed further in 1790 and
in more detail by d'Odoucet in his <i>Science of Signs</i>. All of this is later than his presentation of his system in 1785 in his <i>Third Cahier</i>
(published before either the first or Second Cahier). To what extent
this numerology explains Etteilla's choices will be examined later; it
is somewhat different from anything that came before it.</p><p>After
Etteilla, others presented numerology-based systems, at first just for
the 22 "major arcana." Their main principle seems to be to provide a
narrative of sorts for the unfolding of a process in various aspects of
life, and then assigning numbers to the distinct parts. This is something hinted at in Eliphas Levi, done in a limited way by Papus, and more extensively by Picard and finally Jodorowsky.</p><p>Like the
Waite and the Golden Dawn of which he was an early member, Picard associated fire with Wands/Batons and earth to
Pentacles/Coins. But he assigned water to Swords and air to Cups,
probably
thinking of Swords as weapons of assault that produced tears. And after
all, we drink from Cups in the air, not underwater, under ground, or in a
fire. (the original is online at <a href="https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/32466484">https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/32466484</a>). The Golden Dawn had the reverse for this pair.</p><p></p><p>
I am going to use the Neopythagorean writings on the numbers one to ten to develop an explanation for the illustrations used for the Sola-Busca number cards and then see to what extent they fit the interpretations given by Etteilla and his followers for these cards, allowing for the intervention in the meantime of the "Marseille" order and images for the 22 "majors." </p><p>My running idea is that Pythagorean interpretations, as reflected in the Sola-Busca images, somehow in many cases got attached even to standard decks of cards in fortune-telling, because the words associated with the Etteilla number cards are susceptible to the same Neopythagorean interpretations as the visual imagery on the Sola-Busca cards - not always, but in a clear majority of cases. With such correlations, that both should be similar, in their own medium (words for Etteilla, pictures for the SB), to the Waite-Smith is not surprising. How a tradition could have been maintained without any known documents recording them is unclear. I am just reporting what I see. <br /><br />Since Greek and Roman numbering did not have a zero, except late in the Roman period for astronomical observations, I will have not have a separate Neopythagorean analysis of the Fool card (which in the Sola-Busca had the number zero). I begin with the Magician, which at the time of the Sola-Busca was called the Bagatella, and in Etteilla's time the Bateleur, and together with that card, the Aces. But it will turn out, from investigating the Bateleur, that there is in fact a Neopythagorean analysis of the Fool, as that which was before the Creation. </p>Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677044918876619054.post-72906342880872222372012-05-15T22:19:00.077-07:002023-05-22T04:26:14.123-07:00Magician and Aces<b>THE BATELEUR (MAGICIAN) IN RELATION TO NEOPYTHAGOREAN NUMEROLOGY</b><br /><p>In French from 1584 and the major languages of western Europe soon after, with many reprintings, Guillaume de Saluste du Bartas's <i>Sept Semaines</i> (Seven Weeks) includes a series of forty lines describing the first ten numbers. Of the number One the 1611 English translation by Josua Sylvester reads (<a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/a11395.0001.001/1:66?view=toc">https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/a11395.0001.001/1:66?view=toc</a>, section entitled "The Colvmnes," p. 361, with modernized spelling):<br /></p><div class="line"></div><blockquote><div class="line"><b>Mark here what Figure stands for <span class="rend-italic">One,</span> the right</b></div>
<div class="line"><b>Root of all Number; and of Infinite:</b></div>
<div class="line"><b>Love's happiness, the praise of Harmony,</b></div>
<div class="line"><b>Nursery of All, and end of <span class="rend-italic">Polymnie </span><span class="rend-italic">[Polyhymnia, muse of sacred poetry and hymns]</span><span class="rend-italic">:</span></b></div>
<div class="line"><b>No Number, but more then a Number yet;</b></div>
<div class="line"><b>Potentially in all, and all in it.</b></div></blockquote><div class="line"><span class="ptr"><a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A11395.0001.001?id=DLPS966;lvl=1;note=inline;rgn=div2;view=trgt;q1=eldest"></a></span></div><p></p><p>That One was not itself a number had been declared by the 5th century Roman writer Macrobius (I.VI.7-8, Stahl trans., pp. 100-101, in archive.org), who also said:<br />
</p><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><span>one is called <i>monas</i>, that is, Unity, and is both male and female, odd and even, itself not a number, but the source and origin of numbers. [8] This monad, the beginning and ending of all things, yet itself not knowing a beginning or ending, refers to the Supreme God, and separates our understanding of him (the One, without number) from the number of things and powers following; you would not be so rash as to look for it in a sphere lower than God. </span></b></blockquote>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Those who could read Greek could read something similar in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology of Arithmetic</span><span>, a compendium written in Greek in the 5th century, brought to Rome in around 1460 and then Venice in the 1470s (part of Cardinal Bessarion's donation to the city), published in Paris, 1539:</span></span><br />
<blockquote>
<b>sun-like and ruling, . . .
it resembles God, and especially because it has the power of making
things cohere and combine, even when they are composed of many
ingredients and are very different from one another.</b> (p. 36)</blockquote>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">
By
itself the Monad is unitary, but it creates all numbers out of itself,
and establishes the whole in harmony. As Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa said (<i>Three Books of Occult Philosophy</i>, ed. Tyson, originally 1533, p. 241, in archive.org): </span><br />
<blockquote>
<b>It
is therefore the one beginning, and end of all things, neither hath it
any beginning, or end itself: Nothing is before one, nothing is after
one, and beyond it is nothing, and all things which are, desire that
one, because all things proceeded from one, and that all things may be
the same, it is necessary that they partake of that one: And as all
things proceeded of one into many things, so all things endeavour to
return to that one, from which they proceeded; it is necessary that
they should put off multitude. One therefore is referred to the high
God, who seeing he is one, and innumerable, yet creates innumerable
things of himself, and contains them within himself. </b></blockquote>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">
What it creates first is the archetypal world, a world of pure form, everything permanent and unmoved, as the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span> continues: </span><br />
<blockquote>
<b>because
it maintains everything and forbids whatever it is present in to
change, it alone of all numbers resembles the Providence which
preserves everything, and is most particularly suited both to reflect
the principle of God and to be likened to him, in so far as it is
closest to him. . . . Just so, the Monad, which even if differentiated in the
different kinds of thing has conceptually encompassed everything within
itself, is as it were a creative principle and resembles God, and does
not alter from its own principle, and forbids anything else to alter,
but is truly unchanging.</b> (pp. 36, 38)</blockquote><p>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">
The Monad is unchanging yet the source of multiplicity, not only eternal things, but indirectly, in that it produces transient combinations of eternals, transient things as well:</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></p><blockquote><b><span>So, in short, they consider it to be the seed of all, and both male and female at once - . . . because it is taken to be father and mother, since it contains the principles of both matter and form, of craftsman and what is crafted, that is to say, when it is divided, it gives rise to the dyad.</span></b></blockquote><p><span style="font-weight: normal;">Among the gods of the ancients, Agrippa says that<b> "unity was ascribed to the Sun, which is the only king of the stars" </b>(p. 315). Christianity also made such an association, for example in Prudentius's well-known <i>Hymnus Matutinus, </i>Hymn to the Morning: </span></p><blockquote><b><span>Nox et tenebrae et nubila, / confusa mundi et turbida, / lux intrat, albescit polus: /
Christus venit, discedite. <br /><br />(Night, darkness, fog,
/ indistinct and confused things of the world,
/ the light penetrates, the sky clears: / Christ is coming: begone!)</span></b></blockquote><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Other examples are Hieronymus Bosch's placement of Christ in the central painting of his <i>Haywain</i> Triptych, in the sky above a collection of sinners with yellow rays behind him, and Durer's engraving <i>Sol Iusticia</i>, Sun of Justice. It is Christ who was the Logos of John 1:3, "through whom all things were made," so the crafter of the universe. </span></span></p><p>Coming now to Etteilla, there is also his own numerology, published somewhat later than his first assignment number to tarot cards in the <i>Troisieme Cahier.</i> In the Deuxieme Cahier, he says, "One is not a number." This is consistent with standard Pythagorean numerology. Then in the Premier Cahier, published in around 1785, he says that "1 is correlated to God" (p. 17) and "1. God" (n. on p. 30). In the <i>Cours Theorique et Pratique du Livre de Thot</i>, he says again, "God is 1" (p. 6) Likewise on p. 17: "1, unique number of the Deity." But on p. 6 he also says "1. Man the Magician," and on p. 7, "it is the figurative of the strong man." So there seems to be a connection between the number and both the Magician and God. </p><p></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;">As craftsman, in the context of Plato's <i>Timaeus </i>(named for the Pythagorean philosopher who is given the principal role in the dialog), the number One is like the Bateleur, who creates his many marvels out of a few simple ingredients. That he holds in his two hands a round object and, pointing at it, a long object, reminds us of female and male. If that were not enough, in the extended tarot game called minchiate, coins and cups were called the "round" suits and had female servants as the lowest court cards; swords and batons were the "long" suits and had the usual male servants. The Noblet Bateleur's wand (second from left below) seems to be a joke to this effect.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdytjF69nkbJYPIdnacZtkRmTGFa2HZguZRuzIsHYDzrva_-C3uK_IRziFAv9DHBI_KnOY46ab9EUmXHNkjqvIeR2-v0Osof54Ln_0rPtMgxfDaz1UO_HgP6xhZpOpuwXiD5I9Z0HMrlzrH1-7mQilcfi9Tu-ub9m49Nq8wRLmL7ddwTzm6Tbt_QtjQw/s1149/01sforzanobletchossonwaite.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="1149" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdytjF69nkbJYPIdnacZtkRmTGFa2HZguZRuzIsHYDzrva_-C3uK_IRziFAv9DHBI_KnOY46ab9EUmXHNkjqvIeR2-v0Osof54Ln_0rPtMgxfDaz1UO_HgP6xhZpOpuwXiD5I9Z0HMrlzrH1-7mQilcfi9Tu-ub9m49Nq8wRLmL7ddwTzm6Tbt_QtjQw/w640-h290/01sforzanobletchossonwaite.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><p></p><p></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;">The four suit objects are reminiscent of the four elements out of which, in Plato's <i>Timaeus, </i>the "craftsman" (<i>demiurgos</i>) created the world. For Plato, moreover, this
created world was a source of illusion, comparable to a conjurer's trick; so likewise the Bateleur creates
his illusions, shuffling his little round objects among the cups. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">The four suit-objects occur as early as the Sforza card of the 1450s (far left above). His little cloth covering something on the table compares him to a priest preparing the Eucharist, continuing a tradition said to have been initiated by Christ. Under the cloth is something mysterious in both cases. In the French cards, the cloth is replaced by a purse, in which only part of one object is visible, like a snake escaping from the snake-charmer's basket.</span><br />
</p><p>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Plato imagined two gods, one, unnamed, to create the
archetypes, and another, the Demiurge, to create the world. In Genesis, one god creates
everything. If in the Gospel of John, we have the Logos creating the world, that is still the one God, now Father, now Son.</span> At
the same time, in Christianity God is also three, the Trinity. This
number might be why there are so many a groups of three on the Noblet
card: three coin-like circles, three dice, three cups, a three-pointed
plant, three visible legs. The later Marseille cards do not maintain
this feature. The famous card of A. E. Waite (far right, above), of course, is not concerned with any of this numerology. God is simply what sends the Magician his power, which he transmits to objects in the material world. Likewise, he holds no round object in his hand; the nearest equivalent are the flowers at his feet.<br />
<br /> Etteilla, in his own late 18th century deck, used the theme of the seven days of creation for his first seven cards, perhaps following a numerological tradition initiated by Philo of Alexandria, of the first century b.c.e. Philo wrote an essay <i>On the Creation </i>associating each of the seven
numbers with one the seven days of
creation. In that case, the Bateleur might represent the
first day of creation, when God said "Let there be light." That scene had already been used in an expanded tarot-like deck known as the Minchiate Francese, based on an expanded Italian deck known as Minchiate. The card (below left) is quite similar to Etteilla's card one, minus the creator-figure (below c, a 1789 original from the book <i>Wicked Pack of Cards</i>, an 1838 version, and the original pre-1789 watercolor model for the card, which I get the online Public Domain Review).
There is no card corresponding to the Bateleur in the Minchiate
Francese (see here Wikipedia entry on Minchiate); the closest is its
"Momus," dressed in the costume of a professional Fool. In Greek
mythology, Momus was the god of mockery, especially of authority. But to have mockery, there must be some order or creation to mock. Momus is card 29 of the Minchiate Francese.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGoCNmQobR9rWn_363GVKbg30BS12clwgFiw1_jc_oxZS6bippllr87Hk19sjDxDOVzjAG3dZJLWxfssjG6SfHL4eLLaVEyDn-YkbevjF94XvZ_Qrj3yZkaWgw-MMrYDc9KLlHVRW93wsXrO9dSoysFXiSEIzxwZcK64M4accwF--Yn0os1K8Zv5gjFw/s2685/cardONe.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1128" data-original-width="2685" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGoCNmQobR9rWn_363GVKbg30BS12clwgFiw1_jc_oxZS6bippllr87Hk19sjDxDOVzjAG3dZJLWxfssjG6SfHL4eLLaVEyDn-YkbevjF94XvZ_Qrj3yZkaWgw-MMrYDc9KLlHVRW93wsXrO9dSoysFXiSEIzxwZcK64M4accwF--Yn0os1K8Zv5gjFw/w640-h268/cardONe.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>The parallel to the Tarot of Marseille is supported by the interpretations that Etteilla and his school give to his first card, which they summarized by means of a list of<span style="font-weight: normal;"> "synonyms and related meanings" to supplement the keyword printed on the card. One is by de la Salette in his <i>Dictionnaire Synonomique du Livre de Thot</i>, published in around 1791.</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Another is in d'Odoucet's <i>Science des Signes,</i> vol. 2, 1806 or after. T</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">here is also the1838</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> book<span style="font-style: italic;"> Art de Tirer Les Cartes</span>
by "Julia Orsini" (pseudonym of the publisher Simon Blocquel)</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">, which seems to draw from both lists.</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> The first two have had English translations, but not reliable ones. Those below are my own. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">I have put the keywords in all-caps, the cards appearing in de la Salette only in italics, and those appearing in d'Odoucet only in bold. For this card, the main difference between the two lists is in the Reverseds and, oddly given the Reversed keyword, where to put the male querent. Etteilla numbered his cards from 1 to 78.</span><br />
<p></p><blockquote class="tr_bq">
No. 1. UPRIGHT: ETTEILLA.<b> </b>God, supreme being, <i>Most High,</i> <i>All-powerful. the Unitrine, spirit of God, </i>Central Spirit, Chaos, <i>Glory. Immortal Man, Male Querent. Thought,</i> Meditation, Reflection<b>,</b> Mental Concentration, <b>Affirmation [Fr. contention] of spirit. </b>REVERSED: THE QUERENT [MALE]. <i>Philosopher, Philosophic, Philosophically, Sage, Sagacity, Sagely<b>. </b></i><b>The Universe. The Physical man or the male. Male querent. </b></blockquote><p>With the keywords Etteilla and <i>Questionnant</i>, the card represents both himself, standing in for the Most High, and the male querent, who will be wise to listen to Etteilla. Here it is worth keeping in mind another characterization of the number One, this time by Etteilla's disciple d'Odoucet in <i>Science of Signs,</i> that 1 is for "man in general."This is a formulation that Etteilla himself seems to deny in the <i>Premier Cahier </i>(p. 15), saying that man is inherently composite, hence not Unitary. However, Etteilla does say that the chaos of first day is like the chaos in the querent's mind, and that is what the clouds represent on his card 1. For his part, d'Odoucet affirms of Etteilla's card that "it implies God in the center of the universe, the spirit of God above the waters, but also the chaos with its number and epithets" (<a href="https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/12/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/12/mode/2up</a>). As God is to the chaos, so the adept is to the mental chaos of the querent. At the same time, since "It [one] is also the emblem and number of all that is mover or subject, and [thus] of man generally speaking" (<a href="https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/8/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/8/mode/2up</a>) <br /></p><p>There is a visual relationship between Etteilla's card that of the Minchiate Francese, both of which bear a symbolic similarity to card one of the French Tarot, the Bateleur, as corresponding in the macrocosm to a world-creating power. It is possible, however, that the Chaos would be zero, as depicted on the Fool card, as a description of his state of mind. Most lists of the tarot's special cards put the Fool, even though unnumbered, before the Bateleur; a few put him at the end, and Court de Gebelin, writing a little before Etteilla, put him in both places. Another analogy would be to the dealer in a card game vs. the cards he holds. Shuffling the deck makes it chaotic in its order; distributing the cards to the players then creates a world which the hand plays out. </p><p>It is possible that as Etteilla and his followers developed their ideas they saw something more general in the number 1 than simply God or the mind of the adept. Etteilla does say that the soul of man is unitary, even if "composed of the
will, the emanation, and the gift of the Creator" (<i>Premier Cahier</i>, p. 15). It is also,
for d'Odoucet, the "mover" or "agent," so perhaps any driving force that produces
activity, something like what Paul Christian will later call "Will,"
expressed in three worlds, that of "the absolute Being," intellectually
as "Unity, the principle and synthesis of numbers," and physically as
the "principal of action," in particular that of man, "highest of all
living creatures" (<i>History and Practice of Magic</i>, p. 95 of Stahl et al trans., in archive.org).<br /></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG_1wRqq91Wt6JcvSBgy9TXujO18sv_CAWbYCwAmyP05FoULIG8Cs0ECPrizDhN8x_nSJbfgqIgyIgw_jjXEKKMwovw7oAz22tnmVb4SmguIwl1lw3NagiOuRqziPbmA-g3e6V91JDZ0Kn2oGvNp7i2Aacg990efXl17QHm6FpvHnIzwdq1wfzqCmGtg/s1702/EtteillaCard2.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1566" data-original-width="1702" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG_1wRqq91Wt6JcvSBgy9TXujO18sv_CAWbYCwAmyP05FoULIG8Cs0ECPrizDhN8x_nSJbfgqIgyIgw_jjXEKKMwovw7oAz22tnmVb4SmguIwl1lw3NagiOuRqziPbmA-g3e6V91JDZ0Kn2oGvNp7i2Aacg990efXl17QHm6FpvHnIzwdq1wfzqCmGtg/w320-h294/EtteillaCard2.jpg" width="320" /></a>A complication is that Etteilla's card for the first day of creation is his card 2, with the keyword "Enlightenment" and looking like the Tarot of Marseille Sun card, its two (not coincidentally) children facing each other. The synonyms are "light, explication, clarity, Heaven and Earth." In the reversed, they have to do with fire, the element Etteilla associates to this day of creation. </p><p>Another problem is that Etteilla has his own version of both the Bateleur (above) and the Fool (below, with his take on the Magician, in both an 1890 reproduction and the ca. 1788 watercolor model). His Fool is the very last, number 78, but with an O also on it, described as such by both Etteilla and d'Odoucet. The synonyms given are "madman, insane, drunkenness, rage, furor, frenzy, ignorance" etc. in the Uprights and "imbecility, imprudence, negligence, emptiness, vain" etc. in the Reverseds. That is the chaos which most querents keep under wraps. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx4zBESfdICyH21dzXA8Cw2fvPIUQFjZOvijXP_JILvab9adKZ624v7IIG5IMazxPuyTZa574edBRloIiRl4tKHLl9vQyQ52IIZoGL9Oi7fSGaowpyFVZ5iY_ng48NgSkqUBXsOkihGwFzJGhy8uha5Vix1uDnt9cdIdtytoOVWU73PsLylbOXNrmlIQ/s3353/Etteilla15&78_1890_1788.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1567" data-original-width="3353" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx4zBESfdICyH21dzXA8Cw2fvPIUQFjZOvijXP_JILvab9adKZ624v7IIG5IMazxPuyTZa574edBRloIiRl4tKHLl9vQyQ52IIZoGL9Oi7fSGaowpyFVZ5iY_ng48NgSkqUBXsOkihGwFzJGhy8uha5Vix1uDnt9cdIdtytoOVWU73PsLylbOXNrmlIQ/w640-h300/Etteilla15&78_1890_1788.jpg" width="640" /></a>In contrast, Etteilla's Magician is the 15th in his sequence, with keywords and synonyms relating (except "mage") only to illness (including mental illness) and health. That is one aspect of the Logos, the one by whom "all things were made," i.e. Jesus, the worker of healing miracles. Curing illness in ways the authorities did not approve was also the trade of the Renaissance mountebank (from<i> montambanco, </i>mount a bench)<i>, </i>who stood on a platform and got people to listen to his sales pitch by means of magic tricks and other entertainment; so an association with healing is very much connected with the Marseille card. Medical treatment was also a tool of a trained Pythagorean, using music and other means to achieve the right internal balance for healing. Shakespeare's <i>Pericles</i> has a scene with such treatment, by a priest of Apollo reviving a person who drowned.</p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">ONCE AGAIN ON SUITS<br /></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">It is important in looking at historical decks to do so with the eyes of the historical epoch. In particular, for the Marseille and Etteilla traditions, the suits were seen in terms of social units: agriculture and the countryside for Batons, nobility and military for Swords, the clergy and towns for Cups, and merchants, bankers, and artists for Coins. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">To this may be added some spillover from how people saw French suits. Paulmy d'Argenson (</span></span><i class="text-italics"><span class="text-strong">Mélanges Tirés d'une Grande Bibliothèque, </span></i><span class="text-italics"><span class="text-strong">Tome 2,</span></span><i class="text-italics"><span class="text-strong"> 1</span></i><span class="text-italics"><span class="text-strong">779,</span></span><i class="text-italics"><span class="text-strong"> </span></i><span class="text-italics"><span class="text-strong">p. 332</span></span><i class="text-italics"><span class="text-strong">, </span></i><span class="text-italics"><span class="text-strong">in Gallica (<a href="https://gallica.bnf.fr./ark:/12148/bp6tk10423710/">https://gallica.bnf.fr./ark:/12148/bp6tk10423710/</a>)</span></span> <span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">associated Hearts with love, Spades with war, Diamonds with money, and Clubs with ambition. If the money suit of Tarot was Coins, the war suit Swords, and the love suit Cups, that would leave Batons with ambitions. On the other hand, de Mellet, studying the parallels between fortune-telling with ordinary cards and with Tarot, came to the conclusion that Diamonds, known in France as Carreaux, Tiles, were associated with the countryside and Clubs, known in France as Trefles, Clover, with money. To the extent this confusion would have affected the interpretation of Batons and Coins, equally confused.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> In addition, starting with Etteilla, the writers on Tarot had their own numerological systems. Whether these reflected preceding practice or were developed ad hoc to justify their own systems is hard to say, but it appears to me more the latter.<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">THE ACES IN THE "MARSEILLE" AND ETTEILLA TRADITIONS.</span></span></span><br />
</p><div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-vi8omdH4Lv3Llu5jTte_pNjATZLIrnGjsHxCn4QEg0tBfkTfLzXTBl6-7ZLgJH28LnsPBjZKKHJ08tvF58qelNemzwUAoB9ukvSDWGHspdxWM-1D7aPV6BP8kdCBR-MVltH2uVeItNg/s1600/01scan0067smLGRSWBA.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606423684071523762" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-vi8omdH4Lv3Llu5jTte_pNjATZLIrnGjsHxCn4QEg0tBfkTfLzXTBl6-7ZLgJH28LnsPBjZKKHJ08tvF58qelNemzwUAoB9ukvSDWGHspdxWM-1D7aPV6BP8kdCBR-MVltH2uVeItNg/s400/01scan0067smLGRSWBA.jpg" style="height: 300px; width: 333px;" /></a><span style="font-weight: normal;">In the Marseille tarot, the Aces of Swords and Batons, by their outstretched hands in a nimbus and mysterious rays emanating from them, suggest the Judeo-Christian God</span>. <br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-vi8omdH4Lv3Llu5jTte_pNjATZLIrnGjsHxCn4QEg0tBfkTfLzXTBl6-7ZLgJH28LnsPBjZKKHJ08tvF58qelNemzwUAoB9ukvSDWGHspdxWM-1D7aPV6BP8kdCBR-MVltH2uVeItNg/s1600/01scan0067smLGRSWBA.jpg"> </a></div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">In
Batons, we have a hand reaching out from an unseen body, holding a
green stick. Green is the color of spring and life. It is God as the
source of life. The red at the cuts in the wood suggest the red blood
of life.<br /><br /></span>Etteilla's are similar, at least to the extent of showing a hand coming from outside the card. However, there is no nimbus and no rays. It would seem to be a desacrelizing of the image, also reflected in hia keywords and the word lists of his followers, even though they agreed that the number One was associated with God (Etteilla, <i>Cours Theorique et Pratique</i>, p. 17; d'Odoucet, <i>Science des Signes, tome 1</i>, p. 41, both in archive.org). In Batons the two lists are almost the same, except that de la Salette has for some reason made Etteilla's upright the reversed and vice versa. While the so-called "Etteilla I" style, starting with the first deck in 1789 and continuing intermittently therafter, had "Birth" as upright and "Fall" as reversed, de la Salette and two later versions of the deck, starting in 1838, had "Fall" as upright and "Birth" as reversed. So:<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXBbSthc5lbw4GJ3He-lCy6fnQhKqc8oo8M2DSmpJicG64xCP4QYTssd0Ao1s17N_lCSxRxy3JGMf7wh5Pr_6rHIu31bvB0i3Y5KBU7FzaM_1RBM8NvG6ouP4szijaQqrbNltHCoFvzP0AtSDe8tJufoZzMNcrBx2CSMbfU3W4FwmXv3UVKMrzXNMa5g/s1559/AceBatonsEtteillaI&II.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1384" data-original-width="1559" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXBbSthc5lbw4GJ3He-lCy6fnQhKqc8oo8M2DSmpJicG64xCP4QYTssd0Ao1s17N_lCSxRxy3JGMf7wh5Pr_6rHIu31bvB0i3Y5KBU7FzaM_1RBM8NvG6ouP4szijaQqrbNltHCoFvzP0AtSDe8tJufoZzMNcrBx2CSMbfU3W4FwmXv3UVKMrzXNMa5g/w320-h284/AceBatonsEtteillaI&II.jpg" width="320" /></a></span><span style="font-weight: normal;">No. 35. ACE OF BATONS <b>UPRIGHT</b> (IN ETTEILLA AND D'ODOUCET; IN DE LA SALETTE, <i>REVERSED</i>): BIRTH, Nativity, Origin,
Creation, Source, Beginning Principle, Primacy,<b> </b>New, [Primeur]<b>. </b>Extraction, Race, Family, <b>Condition</b>, House, Lineage, Posterity, Occasion, Cause, Reason, First, Presage.</span> <span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>REVERSED</b> (IN ETTEILLA AND D'ODOUCET; IN DE LA SALETTE, AND IN A VERSION PRODUCED STARTING IN 1838, <i>UPRIGHT</i>). (3rd Cahier, DISTRUST THE FIRST VICTORY.) FALL. Cascade, Decadence, Decline, Wasting Away, Weakening, Dissipation, Collapse, Bankruptcy, Ruin, Destruction, Demolition, Damage, Devastation. Mistake, Error, Misunderstanding, Despondency, Exhaustion, Discouragement. Perdition, Abyss, Chasm, Precipice. Perish<b>, </b>Fall<i> </i>[Tomber]<i>,</i><b><b> </b></b>Wane, Demean.—Depths. <b><b>
</b></b></span></blockquote><p>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">For Etteilla and his school, the Ace of Batons deals with the origins of things, which we see also in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>--although to be sure not only there. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Reversed "synonyms" are obviously just the opposite of the Uprights.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;">D'Odoucet adds another numerological point, relating this card to the number 35 (it is the 35th card of Etteilla's deck). 5 is the number of "universal spirit" (<a href="https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/80/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/80/mode/2up</a>). God, for him (even though he is a follower of Etteilla) is represented by the number 5, not 1, while 3 is the number of "generation." So it is God's power, or any driving force, in relation to that area of life.</span> It does not bother d'Odoucet that while all four of Etteilla's aces have hands and forearms ending in the suit-object, two of them lack the required 5 to indicate the hand of God! <span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Etteilla lists had much influence on Waite in his influential <i>Pictorial K</i></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRjlYqhdhR9ildAtSu37IznRPpqt8qq7HCLWQSkwHqveKBSfSrjhb6WZaR4yi8x0E0suFk6YiXLMM5mGAFn88M_dkS7YrQ4LwxTWVqtrrZbqoG7p9rVGdtp_laQBeR37g7j5I_eEkdDmN115SSK60IIAf28NnHgv5lPM0DEMJzUdyQo7TM4zr5gMV2HA/s523/waac.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="523" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRjlYqhdhR9ildAtSu37IznRPpqt8qq7HCLWQSkwHqveKBSfSrjhb6WZaR4yi8x0E0suFk6YiXLMM5mGAFn88M_dkS7YrQ4LwxTWVqtrrZbqoG7p9rVGdtp_laQBeR37g7j5I_eEkdDmN115SSK60IIAf28NnHgv5lPM0DEMJzUdyQo7TM4zr5gMV2HA/w184-h320/waac.jpg" width="184" /></a></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>ey to the Tarot</i>. Just compare the two accounts. For this card he has (<a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/pktwaac.htm">http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/pktwaac.htm</a>):</span><br />
</p><blockquote>
<b><i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: Creation, invention, enterprise, the powers
which result in these; principle, beginning, source; birth, family,
origin, and in a sense the virility which is behind them; the starting
point of enterprises; according to another account, money, fortune,
inheritance. <i>Reversed</i>: Fall, decadence, ruin, perdition, to perish, also a certain clouded joy.
</b></blockquote><p>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Waite's card itself is simply a variation on the Marseille versions (second above), continuing to emphasize the theme of vegetation. Waite has merely added the background, with its hills and the outline of a castle, no doubt indicating the goal of one's ambition. The addition of money matters to the uprights is probably due to what in the tarot corresponds to the suit of Clubs in regular cards. Clubs according to de Mellet corresponded to Coins, but for others, such as Paulmy d'Alencon, they were Batons. So Clubs as money transfer to Clubs as Batons. </span> </p><p>I turn to Swords. Its redness characteristic of all the swords in that suit; it would seem to be the instrument that cuts down the profusion of life, including the cuts seen on the Ace of Batons.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjASPVtVMPu5zm9K94qR_g4OUmiOgvbk6VkZObDlUq_DuNfKxaNQ9SNXRaqTPKT03P2TCUkhS_WmW-QAaknOWpNu91s2k0CN_YrLaVUplamAu7wA0AsCCY3B0g_QcS5Oe2XMkQZJ6Qv76KGDbT4XhhCoKdxrXcJO3nAZathamxb-_mvjZnFm2TbbcWMhg/s1379/Grand'Etteilla%20010a.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1379" data-original-width="783" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjASPVtVMPu5zm9K94qR_g4OUmiOgvbk6VkZObDlUq_DuNfKxaNQ9SNXRaqTPKT03P2TCUkhS_WmW-QAaknOWpNu91s2k0CN_YrLaVUplamAu7wA0AsCCY3B0g_QcS5Oe2XMkQZJ6Qv76KGDbT4XhhCoKdxrXcJO3nAZathamxb-_mvjZnFm2TbbcWMhg/s320/Grand'Etteilla%20010a.jpg" width="182" /></a></div>In the Etteilla School's Upright list for Swords, we can correspondingly see another facet of the Judeo-Christian God, while the Reverseds indicate another type of beginning: <br />
<p></p><blockquote>
No. 63. ACE OF SWORDS, UPRIGHT: 3rd Cahier: "CRAZY LOVE" [amour folle]. Lists: EXTREME, Big, Excessive.—Extravagant, Fierce [not
in c. 1838, which has Furious], Carried Away.—Exceedingly,
Passionately, Inordinately.—Vehemence, Animosity, Momentum,
Excessiveness, Anger [colère], Fury, Rage.—Extremity,
Bounds, Border, Limits.—Last, Last Breath, Utmost Extremity. Quarrel [Brouillerie]. REVERSED: PREGNANCY (GROSSESSE), Beginning, Seed, Sperm, Mold, Impregnating, Fathering, Conception, Fructification Labor, Childbirth.—Fertilization, Production, Composition, Growing, Expansion, Augmentation, Multiplication.
</blockquote><p>
The Upright epithets fit the God of the Old Testament at his most
angry and destructive, one who reappears in the Book of Revelation. It is also the experience of being "carried away," as the word-list states. The Reverseds are simply a different aspect of the Upright, that of the fertilizing power. The <i>Theology of Arithmetic</i> does something similar, ending its presentation by comparing the divine power to the beginning of pregnancy, before the embryo has developed to the point of acquiring distinctive genitalia. </p><p>You might wonder where Etteilla got the idea of "crazy love," which his successors quietly dropped. In his first work, on divination with the piquet deck, an ordinary deck with the 2s through 6s removed, he had given the card the meaning "Love." De Mellet, 11 years later, gave it the meaning of "peace through Victory," based on what, coming out of the crown on top of the card, he took to be a palm branch and an <br />olive branch. But is peace really secured through victory, as opposed to justice? Even for de Mellet, the suit in general had the meaning of "misfortune." For de Paulmy, it was "misfortune in love." Etteilla went with a variation on that one, love that is out of control. That fits the type of branches that the Visconti claimed it to be when they adopted the heraldic in the 14th century: palm and laurel, both symbols of victory. Since Etteilla had not yet designed his own cards when he wrote the <i>Third Cahier</i>, these symbols plus the crown would likely have struck him as excessive, especially by one opposed to the monarchy.</p><p>D'Odoucet attempted to justify Etteilla's card by means of its number, 63 (<a href="https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/136/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/136/mode/2up)</a>. Misery has gone to the limits of the globe, which for him is represented by 6 (as well as 0). However, the heights of misfortune bring a benign fructification, in other words the generation, 3, of new prosperity. In that way the Uprights and Reverseds are united. However, I cannot see either that the idea of the globe is conveyed by the number 6 or that the globe implies extremes; the concept is too general. <br /></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhudkg-4uydKjBGIM82K_R8cJ-DM57PMy981eoWBGTEwWHQiq-9-6lcjV57KgDL8Ek3yZ5ZjP6uwYDAemm4Zz54S6QUGbYdhUy1gt6O4RcNB7bh2yPJ122lYqJVKQm8UWH798so7zfh0LSO33VUjTgH5OsDkM7IAhzA4Mmw3ECDb-80SRUVtKaRsdnqiA/s526/Swords01.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhudkg-4uydKjBGIM82K_R8cJ-DM57PMy981eoWBGTEwWHQiq-9-6lcjV57KgDL8Ek3yZ5ZjP6uwYDAemm4Zz54S6QUGbYdhUy1gt6O4RcNB7bh2yPJ122lYqJVKQm8UWH798so7zfh0LSO33VUjTgH5OsDkM7IAhzA4Mmw3ECDb-80SRUVtKaRsdnqiA/w182-h320/Swords01.jpg" width="182" /></a>Again we can see where Waite (<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/pktswac.htm">http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/pktswac.htm</a>)</span> got his meanings, now for the Ace of Swords (while the card pictorially is based on the Marseille):</span><br />
</p><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: Triumph, the excessive degree in
everything, conquest, triumph of force. It is a card of great force, in
love as well as in hatred. The crown may carry a much higher
significance than comes usually within the sphere of fortune-telling. <i>Reversed</i>: The same, but the results are disastrous; another account says--conception, childbirth, augmentation, multiplicity.</b></blockquote><p><span style="font-weight: normal;">Here there is a certain relationship to another card with "1" in it, namely the Tarot of Marseille's number 11, Strength. A roaring lion on the loose is not dissimilar from a person whose rage is out of control. The lady on the card indicates what must be done: taming the lion with courage and care.</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji3BDvOoZyWrihyfLBSS4gfnBNpqPvZNn9p9ty16U8f41qT2qZ13hV7L3SFVHkZC_FXUMm7pxZP-odCK6UIZGNtNQz9bJNGD5ILSeZFOfO1WClbDidO4ZkO1ueP-ofL9N2m1ccwD3rZNBAMaV7y4YUM7irBTnTKLQW4-qm8WtZZJUmfSxIb4cmFtZ6MA/s1417/As-C.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1417" data-original-width="709" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji3BDvOoZyWrihyfLBSS4gfnBNpqPvZNn9p9ty16U8f41qT2qZ13hV7L3SFVHkZC_FXUMm7pxZP-odCK6UIZGNtNQz9bJNGD5ILSeZFOfO1WClbDidO4ZkO1ueP-ofL9N2m1ccwD3rZNBAMaV7y4YUM7irBTnTKLQW4-qm8WtZZJUmfSxIb4cmFtZ6MA/s320/As-C.jpg" width="160" /></a></span></p><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Marseille Ace of Cups is rather strange. On top of what appears to be a communion cup we see a structure with six walls and turrets. Jean-Michel David associates it with the New Jerusalem of Rev. 21:12: "The city had a great high wall with twelve gates." For the card, gates have become turrets and twelve are now six. The same was done on the World card of the Visconti-Sforza deck, there with six high turrets and two smaller ones, so six or eight gates. The water gushing out would then be from the "Water of Life" whose source is the Lamb, i.e. Christ. Alternatively, M. J. Hurst, in an "Ace of Cups" post on his "Pre-Gebelin Tarot" blog, points to resemblances between the Marseille image and monstrances of the time, presentation vehicles in the center of which were communion wafers. An example is one in the Victoria and Albert Museum dated at 1492. Of course the liquid gushing out on the card would not be in the originals. A source for that detail might be something like what is seen on the baptismal fonts, which could be similar.. Or more likely, since the water is rather gushing, a fountain. Hurst presents one with water and wine from two spigots and three joyous figures enjoying the liquid coming out of a spout at the bottom. It is the rejuvenating water of life, which also made its appearance in the more secular "fountain of youth." In the same tradition is the "fountain of love," a feature of courtly romances ever since the <i>Roman de la Rose</i> in the 13th century (far right, Harley ms. 4425, 112v). In the case of the card, it is divine love that is flowing. Given that the communion wafer was the body of Christ, that the water of life should flow from inside a sacred receptacle is not inappropriate. <br /></span><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRTfbT-6JZGPo6ZQh4V6ygNgl7gNGX9NbzmFip_abgfsRzW0NInA_vTk5-v3F4IuULHE-ItNYhosn0sG1_CW_P2lc0SLWfmW6v3WsbEGy3x0Qp3Ixr9sIX-mRenjm-s2zBW9SbOdteQdh8J-Hof3PptpPZHFqjlj_02KNToiTzT2337KRgzVWoEOQjCw/s3094/Sforza-WorldSpanishMonstrance1492EucharisticFountainLovePizan1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1417" data-original-width="3094" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRTfbT-6JZGPo6ZQh4V6ygNgl7gNGX9NbzmFip_abgfsRzW0NInA_vTk5-v3F4IuULHE-ItNYhosn0sG1_CW_P2lc0SLWfmW6v3WsbEGy3x0Qp3Ixr9sIX-mRenjm-s2zBW9SbOdteQdh8J-Hof3PptpPZHFqjlj_02KNToiTzT2337KRgzVWoEOQjCw/w640-h294/Sforza-WorldSpanishMonstrance1492EucharisticFountainLovePizan1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;">That the liquid spills out in three streams on the card would seem to be a reference to the Trinity. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">This doctrine, too, has Pythagorean underpinnings, at least for those who wished to find it there, for example Nicholas of Cusa, writing in the 1450s </span>(<a class="postlink" href="http://my.pclink.com/%7Eallchin/1814/retrial/cusa2.pdf">http://my.pclink.com/~allchin/1814/retrial/cusa2.pdf</a>, p. 13)<span style="font-weight: normal;">: </span><br />
<p></p><blockquote>
<b>But Pythagoras, a very famous man of undeniable authority in his own time, added that this Oneness is trine.</b></blockquote>
He continues: <br />
<blockquote>
<b>But
since oneness is eternal, equality eternal, and union also eternal,
oneness, equality, and union are one. And this is that trine Oneness
which Pythagoras, the first philosopher of all and the glory of Italy
and of Greece, affirmed to be worthy of worship.</b></blockquote>
Indeed, there is something like this account in an ancient source about
Pythagoras that was available in the Renaissance. Porphyry in his "Life
of Pythagoras," section 49 (from <span style="font-style: italic;">The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library</span>, p. 133, in Google Books) said:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>The Number One denoted to them the reason <span class="posthilit">of</span> Unity, Identity, Equality, the purpose <span class="posthilit">of</span> friendship. sympathy, and the conservation <span class="posthilit">of</span> the universe, which results in persistence in Sameness.</b></div>
</blockquote>This says nothing about Unity, Equality, and Sameness being worthy of
worship. For that, there is another source, from 12th century Chartres, which I will discuss a bit
later. <p><span style="font-weight: normal;">In the Etteilla school's meanings for the card, there is not much reference to the divine. Mostly it focuses on the very secular meaning of cups, as a container of food and drink, even if, for this card, it is of a notable kind, as suggested by "feast," "gala," "treat," and "regal." However, food was generally considered as by the grace of God, with a special thanks given at the beginning of a meal. In France, "table" had a special sense referring to a household's style of providing food for its members and guests:</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirEnssLmdurPj6PYApVIsCXObwlSQUpq6EvKT-H9pdrCptk7Iv_RziZn3uhWgap9LURUwiXJ1AhGUDkMcV_0qhLYVSTqR1_O6c09vWFJVKAIvXFriHSoHpubdtiKCf1AO0EXXByykRurmjCsoyHSfvIrypj8gN4uF4cZpYbX0ggYO1zcMHYGFeVTvWqQ/s1400/Grand'Etteilla%20009a.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="779" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirEnssLmdurPj6PYApVIsCXObwlSQUpq6EvKT-H9pdrCptk7Iv_RziZn3uhWgap9LURUwiXJ1AhGUDkMcV_0qhLYVSTqR1_O6c09vWFJVKAIvXFriHSoHpubdtiKCf1AO0EXXByykRurmjCsoyHSfvIrypj8gN4uF4cZpYbX0ggYO1zcMHYGFeVTvWqQ/s320/Grand'Etteilla%20009a.jpg" width="178" /></a></p><blockquote>No. 49. ACE OF CUPS, UPRIGHT: TABLE, Meal, Feast, Gala<i>s</i>, Regal<i>,</i> Nourishment, Food, Nutrition.— Convivial, Services.—Invitation, Prayer, Petition, Convocation, <i>Invocation</i>.—Host, Hotel, Hotel Trade, Inn, <i>Cabaret, Bistro, Tavern</i>. Abundance, Fertility, Production, Robustness, Stability, Steadiness, Constancy, Perseverance, Continuation, Permanency, Duration, Regularity, Persistence, Firmness, Courage. Picture, Painting, Image, Hieroglyph, Description. Tablets, Portfolio, Bureau, Writing-Desk. Table of Nature, Bronze Table, Marble Table, Law, Catalog, Table of Contents <i>of the book of Thoth</i>, Garden Table, Sound Table, Holy Table [Altar]. <br /></blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-weight: normal;">REVERSED. CHANGE, Mutation, Permutation, Transmutation, Alteration, Vicissitude, Variety, Variation, Inconstancy, Frivolity [or Casualness:</span><span dir="ltr"> légèreté</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">]. —Barter, Exchange, Purchase, Sale, Deal, Treaty, Convention—Metamorphosis, Diversity, Versatility, Reversal, Disruption, Upheaval, Revolution, Reversion.—Version, Translation, Interpretation. </span></blockquote><p>
The
Reverseds are in general the opposites of the Uprights: alteration, transmutation, variation, inconstancy, etc. The uprights are in that way reminiscent of the <i>Theology of Arithmetic's</i> emphasis on unchangeableness in what the One produces (i.e. eternal forms). In "Sainte-Table" there also remains some reference to the sacred. </p><p>D'Odoucet attempts to justify the keywords by reference to 4 and 9 (<a href="https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/108/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/108/mode/2up</a>). 4 for him is the number of the universe, and 9 the number of highest expansion. He says that this expansion is accomplished through talking and comes to us just when we are most indecisive, which could not be better. This seems to me rather strained, as there is nothing about the meanings of the card reflecting either "highest" or "talking."<br /></p><p>The 1838 book by "Julia Orsini" incorporating de la Salette's list seems to be aware of the downplaying of the sacred, because it says (p. 115)
<br />
</p><blockquote>
<b>Le sens primitif de ce tarot etait <i>loi </i>qu'on a truiduit par <i>table</i> ou<i> table de la loi</i>... </b></blockquote>
<blockquote><b>
(The first meaning of this card was <i>law,</i> which has been translated by <i>table</i> or <i>table of the law.</i>) </b></blockquote>
The first "table of the law," of course, was the law of God given to Moses in the form of the tablets of the law. a law written in stone, as if to emphasize its permanence. But the list mixes at least three ideas. Words like "Abundance,"
"Fertility," Production," might be more appropriate in Batons, as pertaining to life. "Courage" and "Firmness" would seem more appropriate for Swords.<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV1qumuwD-XhXkwQdg19oSmn0EqKCnStLfz7pue0rxyYrxrRuY3qlueCph3R7FGsdptf7BEZ5o4MqaC-aUjjWQelvjsgZpa4tjUBlDYF7PUrhp8pew_rUwAB0XyDHBfZ2nzEguOTu1gm4zyAq7zaNnYsFZzLfJJzSiVPAUBq9KZx-T9rF0KCKPW3BXOg/s537/cuac.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV1qumuwD-XhXkwQdg19oSmn0EqKCnStLfz7pue0rxyYrxrRuY3qlueCph3R7FGsdptf7BEZ5o4MqaC-aUjjWQelvjsgZpa4tjUBlDYF7PUrhp8pew_rUwAB0XyDHBfZ2nzEguOTu1gm4zyAq7zaNnYsFZzLfJJzSiVPAUBq9KZx-T9rF0KCKPW3BXOg/s320/cuac.jpg" width="179" /></a></div><br />Here is Waite:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: House of the true heart, joy, content, abode, nourishment, abundance, fertility; Holy Table, felicity hereof. <i>Reversed</i>: House of the false heart, mutation, instability, revolution.</b></blockquote><p>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Again, the list reflects much of what is in Etteilla, even literally so. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">"House
of the true heart" (Maison de bon coeur) and "house of the false heart" (Maison de faux coeur) are to be found in
the "Etteilla" section of <i>Le Bohemien,</i> a compendium on card-reading and
magic tricks, p. 56 of 1802 ed. (first ed. 1799), referring to upright and reversed meanings of the Ace of Hearts. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">"Holy table," <i>sainte-table</i>, meaning the altar where one receives communion</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (<a href="https://www.encyclopedie.fr/definition/sainte-table">https://www.encyclopedie.fr/definition/sainte-table</a>) is from the Etteilla followers' word-lists, already cited.</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> The image on Waite's card reflects that meaning, with a communion wafer above the cup and the dove of the Holy Spirit above that. In the text he says that there are four streams coming from the cup; on the card, we find five. If four, they would be the "four rivers" flowing out of Eden in Genesis 2:10, portrayed as such in numerous medieval illustrations. Five of course has many numerological associations. I know of none that pertain specifically to water, but the five wounds of Christ, four of blood and one of water, are close enough. Waite has merely spared us the gory details.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;">His inspiration was likely any or all of three historic cards in London at the time: the Victoria and Albert, Goldschmidt, and Guildhall (below, left to right) all estimated to be of the late 15th century or so, inasmuch as they seem to be variations on the Visconti-Sforza card of the 1450s. Remembering the various connotations of fountains: the "water of life" from Christ's sacrifice, fountains of youth, and fountains of love, the Visconti-Sforza, and the Marseille that followed, retain a nice ambiguity, especially since the same fountain is seen on the front of the male lover of that deck's Love card. .<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifUHq9Qwj5UVbUdvmY7A8_18X3AVX90iy-DNYbD3G0WSGwRj_i0n9pfAr8ZwYkV7g5hR6omM47Eztb3QeJVDA0rAwp794jzC_xYRof8qY6uD62ICR7v7smUIAB2AYguTE2U8-7hvTvRv7kpagFcyaw7_sSLeKPy6KJl-o64IC0x2UUNk5zbWpTUqNLPQ/s1155/V&AGoldschmidtGuildhallSforza.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="569" data-original-width="1155" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifUHq9Qwj5UVbUdvmY7A8_18X3AVX90iy-DNYbD3G0WSGwRj_i0n9pfAr8ZwYkV7g5hR6omM47Eztb3QeJVDA0rAwp794jzC_xYRof8qY6uD62ICR7v7smUIAB2AYguTE2U8-7hvTvRv7kpagFcyaw7_sSLeKPy6KJl-o64IC0x2UUNk5zbWpTUqNLPQ/w640-h316/V&AGoldschmidtGuildhallSforza.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div> <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsR5LnrQY2qNa8uJUi24fW1nsQF5eYKZHNmj0TIn55dchm18SKeunVyfbRbm2PSS9sE0rHdBisnkt42-qKiYtv18wuyW_5LuEzzOVqDC3NOoiQOZnTQfoIKtg3pYUZRzvPv_8EuTOWOK3KQclS-7avfOV9UCU2-VOqatsKBevj7APyj3R1OgWQMkkfZA/s1263/ChossonMonstrance.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1263" data-original-width="1248" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsR5LnrQY2qNa8uJUi24fW1nsQF5eYKZHNmj0TIn55dchm18SKeunVyfbRbm2PSS9sE0rHdBisnkt42-qKiYtv18wuyW_5LuEzzOVqDC3NOoiQOZnTQfoIKtg3pYUZRzvPv_8EuTOWOK3KQclS-7avfOV9UCU2-VOqatsKBevj7APyj3R1OgWQMkkfZA/s320/ChossonMonstrance.jpg" width="316" /></a></div><p><span style="font-weight: normal;">I turn to the Ace of Coins. The Marseille suit-object in color and shape, resembles a sun with red and yellow rays (Chosson at near right, ca. 1735). The vines emerging from it
remind us that
living things need its light and warmth.The concentric circles are also
reminiscent of the medieval view of the cosmos, with our world in the
middle, with its four elements and, between them, the four
qualities hot, cold, dry, wet. At the same time it is also an ordinary flower, of a type seen in countless Renaissance pictorial settings. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;">The image on the card also suggests, like that of the Ace of Cups, a monstrance, in another version of that liturgical receptacle (far left, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, from 1690). In that version, it shoots out rays, from its center, where the communion wafer is put. Moreover, its base sometimes takes the form of four or more half-circles around a hollow center, as can be seen from the example I showed for the Ace of Cups. In that case, we are seeing the monstrance from the bottom.</span><br /></p>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Etteilla's
card features the sun more explicitly, with its astrological symbol as
well as the sun behind its Apollo, the Olympian god associated with that
body. Here he is probably following his predecessor de Mellet, who had described the card as "consecrated to Phoebus" (in J. Karlin, <i>Rhapsodies of the Bizarre</i>, p. 55, p. 401 in de Gebelin, <i>Le Monde Primitif</i>, vol. 8). Etteilla and his school explain the meaning in their word-lists:</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCr80ShnGbpSXh6uQI33ABYGdMVcETGu2PV2piLAsorU3bJFm5IMRHdE36J3c5Pk5eMgB36Xtp7YMFenBLJzt1y7-M0rFYQi7XJa3UnyoDiS8JZkoWDIKYs9hHJBdFsnTacn1-ZBABKMEPSH_L4hYl366Tki84YZf9Lnk-MD9kyCBAN4wxmzxYWHqX8g/s1389/Grand'Etteilla%20012a.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1389" data-original-width="778" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCr80ShnGbpSXh6uQI33ABYGdMVcETGu2PV2piLAsorU3bJFm5IMRHdE36J3c5Pk5eMgB36Xtp7YMFenBLJzt1y7-M0rFYQi7XJa3UnyoDiS8JZkoWDIKYs9hHJBdFsnTacn1-ZBABKMEPSH_L4hYl366Tki84YZf9Lnk-MD9kyCBAN4wxmzxYWHqX8g/s320/Grand'Etteilla%20012a.jpg" width="179" /></a><br /><blockquote>No. 77. ACE
OF COINS, UPRIGHT: PERFECT CONTENTMENT,<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Felicity, Happiness, Rapture, Enchantment, Ecstasy, Marvel, Complete Satisfaction, Complete Joy,
Inexpressible Pleasure, Color Red, Perfect Medicine, Solar Medicine,
</span><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Pure, Accomplished, </span></b><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Stone Accomplished </span></i><span style="font-family: inherit;">[</span><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">P</span></i><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">ierre Accomplie -</span></i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: inherit;">referring to the Philosopher's Stone</span></span>].
REVERSED: PURSE (OR GRANT, BOURSE) OF MONEY, Sum, Capital,
Principal.—Treasure, Wealth, Opulence.—Exceptional, Dear, Precious,
Inestimable.</blockquote><p>
The Upright list suggests both the sun and
life spent dwelling in something like divine rapture, the result of
being pierced by a divine force. The reverseds give the material
equivalent. This is quite in tune with the Pythagorean emphasis for this number on the divinity.<br /></p><p>D'Odoucet again attempts justify the card in terms of its number, this time the two 7s, the symbol of life twice, which suggests to him "infinite sufficiency," that is to say, "the number one of the coin indicates a complete renumeration of all goods, which plunge us into the most perfect contentment" (<a href="https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/164/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/164/mode/2up</a>). This is not the meaning of 1 as he has early recounted it, man in general and as agent. It perhaps pertains more to the divinity within us, expressed by the dot in the circle, or God in the universe, but applied to the realm of material goods, as signified by the "gold" color, for d'Odoucet is a descent from its earlier "felicity," which did not have such a basis. <br />
<br />
Here is Waite:<br />
</p><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: Perfect contentment, felicity, ecstasy; also <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFVTc77_PJTFFQCV3Bqj_grDvcw16xPDYll6_H3Df9XpyuULAefKQX_CxiF97iV7hBX2LvgCViuEm9iIaHYVsOmm8O2hA2b628LvNpuLvBG84yozZ9mY63UC3rpZh3aFrVhbjS_OJOYLo9zCO7OAkXxx371o5Qng_hg4i-tuV3Se3Djd8JbOaF5HrC1g/s526/peac.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFVTc77_PJTFFQCV3Bqj_grDvcw16xPDYll6_H3Df9XpyuULAefKQX_CxiF97iV7hBX2LvgCViuEm9iIaHYVsOmm8O2hA2b628LvNpuLvBG84yozZ9mY63UC3rpZh3aFrVhbjS_OJOYLo9zCO7OAkXxx371o5Qng_hg4i-tuV3Se3Djd8JbOaF5HrC1g/w182-h320/peac.jpg" width="182" /></a>speedy intelligence; gold. <i>Reversed</i>:
The evil side of wealth, bad intelligence; also great riches. In any
case it shews prosperity, comfortable material conditions, but whether
these are of advantage to the possessor will depend on whether the card
is reversed or not.</b></blockquote>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Waite's
last thought, that whether material prosperity is of advantage to the
possessor, depends on whether the card is reversed or not is rather
paradoxical. His meaning seems to be that material prosperity is
associated with both the uprights and the reverseds, but if reversed
suggests that the happiness it promises is problematic. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Etteilla's "Reversed" list pertains more to the specific suit-object, that of money. </span><p>The Marseille motifs, at least for all except Cups, are quite early, as we can see from the
images in the 16th century Italian proofsheet below, now in the Budapest
Museum of Art. The rays emanating from the unseen figure holding the
sword and baton is particularly suggestive of the deity. In Cups, the
chalice is held by a hand; and there seems to be a dove on top (images from Kaplan, <i>Encyclopedia of Tarot</i>, vol. 2, p. ).<br /></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHkkJZJlXTtlJhoPlWdw5w2voFTxXOKddCdGKG41txaLVN2QTud5IzcPfvf7jrYsH-6bcrmBbjTBEINFJR6p_7mCNbBLK4SsmDkte3qtC-TYKtghBuCSV5vcwbfAHeDcebC5LBV6mx-3UBs_Bc0QNSqvN6P_W4hlxsjr1D6G3Rm8-7z5TKa4AN1QHheg/s620/01ItalianAces.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="306" data-original-width="620" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHkkJZJlXTtlJhoPlWdw5w2voFTxXOKddCdGKG41txaLVN2QTud5IzcPfvf7jrYsH-6bcrmBbjTBEINFJR6p_7mCNbBLK4SsmDkte3qtC-TYKtghBuCSV5vcwbfAHeDcebC5LBV6mx-3UBs_Bc0QNSqvN6P_W4hlxsjr1D6G3Rm8-7z5TKa4AN1QHheg/w640-h316/01ItalianAces.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha5KEvQ6W_S44mIG1IcOPeUDQDt8cIGz5pOIp7gn1IZqag_FQr7fzezzl9SIBjNvgT_oenHDkbXmT_-NmSn2GZnxjojbHVJ1VX4DCWU4-VFjU5hGzYVUP6CzdYx4YnCF2bRm05bpXLFpg/s1600/01ItalianAces.jpg"> </a>Comparing these early images with later ones in France, one might wonder whether certain numerological details had been added with specific reference to both Christian and Kabbalist symbolism. What are merely rays in the Budapest sheet, and droplets in the Noblet (Batons, far left below), become what we are accustomed, from the occultist versions of various cards, to call yods, the first letter of the Hebrew four letter word for God, yod-heh-vau-heh. In the Dodal version of the Ace of Batons (second from left), there are 32 of them, which would correspond to the "32 paths of wisdom" of the <i>Sefer Yetzirah</i> and the 10 sefiroth and 22 paths of the Kabbalists' Tree of Life. Since this number is not found otherwise (29 will be standard, as in the Chosson, far right), it may be accidental; on the other hand, its adoption in a tarot that also is one of the earliest with the yod shape gives us pause for thought. The otherwise extremely similar Rolichon tarot of about the same time, oddly has only 31 (third from left); but since this is an artist's rendition for a magazine, it is possible that the artist forgot one. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGYSEAwjLcX26yZT9JHFGBPgbpoIYS78zNlTpkVRLX-nJkyd9MuposXolHJ-S8GV1WPbdWo59pLZlobqR-oJHoJayujVVjCn9g48UDbJeWOOKy3hZRtcJQU7r2er2VTXtsAYfP6NNveFlfnDDGHkKMKXq-I-chs1nLVx704ORnZlqNNBwASw0EVvAklw/s3446/BatonsNobletDodalRolChoss.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1566" data-original-width="3446" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGYSEAwjLcX26yZT9JHFGBPgbpoIYS78zNlTpkVRLX-nJkyd9MuposXolHJ-S8GV1WPbdWo59pLZlobqR-oJHoJayujVVjCn9g48UDbJeWOOKy3hZRtcJQU7r2er2VTXtsAYfP6NNveFlfnDDGHkKMKXq-I-chs1nLVx704ORnZlqNNBwASw0EVvAklw/w640-h290/BatonsNobletDodalRolChoss.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p>Also of possible numerological significance are 32 "rays," or triangular shapes pointing outward, on all the TdM2 Aces of Coins (e.g. Tourcaty, 1730s, at left below - my thanks to Joe Walsh for pointing this out to me). The TdM1 - early style - has only 12 (Dodal, c. 1701, center below) or 15 (Noblet, ca. 1650, right). Moreover, the Dodal (a TdM1) and Tourcaty (a TDM2), show a certain number of "stamens," 10 or 12 or perhaps more. (In the Noblet and others, nothing can be seen.) These little dots, too, might have numerological significance. In the TdM2, each of the four petals has in it three lines, so 12 altogether. The petals themselves form the shape of a cross. There are numerous associations to these numbers, for those who wish to make them. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMizSzbMRnzgBX_eyO3wWGySS2cQp6of6wgE6Kbzt1wAP8TE24zKgl8cuVkFFnbBhtHjXK_Ri8eW6CzZC66EC9VXHN2id1o3hvO37fG2SZrK1EUFRso_C6dBySwDyi4H7yB2l7-pufGF8QBINNiLJn_iH37Mg7Cl7jh_lsdKAJeZeGuc1v8MrVGxbaXg/s2621/coinstourcatydodalnoblet.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="789" data-original-width="2621" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMizSzbMRnzgBX_eyO3wWGySS2cQp6of6wgE6Kbzt1wAP8TE24zKgl8cuVkFFnbBhtHjXK_Ri8eW6CzZC66EC9VXHN2id1o3hvO37fG2SZrK1EUFRso_C6dBySwDyi4H7yB2l7-pufGF8QBINNiLJn_iH37Mg7Cl7jh_lsdKAJeZeGuc1v8MrVGxbaXg/w640-h192/coinstourcatydodalnoblet.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p><br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">THE SOLA-BUSCA ACES OF BATONS AND SWORDS</span><br />
<br />
The earliest surviving tarot with scenes involving human figures is the Sola-Busca, probably a Venetian commision, probably finished in 1491; it is probably also the earliest surviving tarot with all 78 of its cards intact (but not to deny that it may be a later copy). Waite and Smith undoubtedly got some ideas for their own number cards from those of the SB, because there was an exhibition of photographic reproductions of the cards in London at the time they were preparing the deck. We will see in what follows how many of the SB's designs they used, more or less.</p><p>The SB Aces of Batons and Swords each have two figures, as opposed to Coins
and Cups, which have three (I will get to them later). That immediately raises the question, how can the Monad be expressed by two figures, much less three? Let us first look at the cards,<br />
<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisY7BymEtYBuOrX2qFfkM-HD34mrcWU6qbsJwEmRl-wHfOV_ogctN39tUjyc5u1uWCWTlECEadrr_Kg98pWh2dvytCXbfieVuq_QN4fGjMm_C-86-YOUvYo9zDgEMlmje7swETlN3RLUnJQgGz4ttyKFaeoVIZ8kQoXiY2aIll4mUH_I4Cvzy6WJtqqg/s320/01_Sola_BuscaSWBA.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="296" data-original-width="320" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisY7BymEtYBuOrX2qFfkM-HD34mrcWU6qbsJwEmRl-wHfOV_ogctN39tUjyc5u1uWCWTlECEadrr_Kg98pWh2dvytCXbfieVuq_QN4fGjMm_C-86-YOUvYo9zDgEMlmje7swETlN3RLUnJQgGz4ttyKFaeoVIZ8kQoXiY2aIll4mUH_I4Cvzy6WJtqqg/w320-h296/01_Sola_BuscaSWBA.jpg" width="320" /></a>In Batons, we see two identical cherubs facing each other and working together to
hold up a club much bigger than they are. (my source for these images
is (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sola-Busca_gallery">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sola-Busca_gallery</a>).
In Swords, it is two different-looking figures holding up one sword,
looking away from each other. Moreover, the figure on our right is
decidedly effeminate. If one didn't look closely, one would assume it
was a woman with a broad feathered hat. As it is, an arm and attached hand appearing out of nowhere (we can see the fingers) obscures the view, so we can't be sure. The figure's ample blouse
suggests breasts underneath. Even looking closely, I am not sure what
the feather-like thing on top is. . One might wonder whether the two letters "M" and "S" stood for two families united in marriage. More likely they are the initials of the person for whom the deck was done (the diarist Marino Sanuto has been suggested, about which more when I get to the Twos).<br /><br />
It seems to me that Batons, in one possible interpretation, represents the union of sames, and Swords the union of differents. In Plato's <span style="font-style: italic;">Timaeus</span> (see <a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timaeus_%28dialogue%29">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timaeus_(dialogue)</a>), "Same" and "different" are two out of three basic categories there (after the four elements); the third is "being." <br />
<br />
For the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>,
harmony is characterized as a combination of "same" and "different."
The components may all be musical tones (or whatever is in harmony);
but in music, harmony can be analyzed down to units in specific
proportions, e.g. 2:1 (the octave), 3:2 (the fifth) 4:3 (the fourth),
etc. (see "Interval" entry at Wikipedia). In these two Aces, we see an
emphasis on "same" in Batons and "different" in Swords; yet in each the
result is a unified design. For even though the cherubs of Batons are
essentially "the same," yet they are accidentally different, in that one is
on the right facing left, and the other on the left facing right. And
although the two figures in Swords are essentially different, yet they
also have attributes in common, in that both are human figures on
either side of a sword, facing away from the blade. Thus each Ace is in
microcosm a philosophical image of one aspect of God, as that in which
all opposites and sames are combined harmoniously.<br />
<br />
There is another way in which the Ace of Swords reflects a specific "unity of opposites" and humans as a microcosm of God: the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>
says that the Monad is "both male and female at once" (p. 38), because
it produces everything out of itself with no recourse to anything else. Thus there is the impression of male and
female for the two figures on the Ace of Swords. In the <i>3rd Cahier</i>, the descriptor "crazy love" would probably be understood as of a person for someone of the opposite gender. <br />
<br />
Another interpretation of both aces might be as the second and third persons of the Trinity. That is how three can illustrate the One. Nicholas of Cusa, let us recall, said in his <i>On Learned Ignorance</i>:<br />
</p><blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>But
since oneness is eternal, equality eternal, and union also eternal,
oneness, equality, and union are one. And this is that trine Oneness
which Pythagoras, the first philosopher of all and the glory of Italy
and of Greece, affirmed to be worthy of worship.</b></div>
</blockquote>
All that is
missing is the notion that the second and third persons "proceed" from
the first. That the One "generates" Equality is the subject of Cusa's
Chapter 8. That Union "proceeds" from Unity and Equality is the subject
of his Chapter 9. <br />
<br />
The <i>Theology of Arithmetic </i>declares that Equality is a property of the Dyad. "Union"--the combination the Monad and the Dyad--is a
property of the Triad, which Cusa appropriates for the third
person of the Trinity. What Cusa wants to show is that
since all three, Unity, Equality, and Union are are eternal, are all
descriptive of the one God, thus a proof of the Trinity derived from Pythagoras.<br />
<br />
According to Cusa's translator, footnote 39, his source is <span class="posthilit">John</span> <span class="posthilit">of</span> <span class="posthilit">Salisbury</span>'s <span style="font-style: italic;">De Septem Septenis</span>
VII (PL 199.961C). This text is in volume
5 <span class="posthilit">of</span> Joannis Saresberiensis, <span style="font-style: italic;">Opera Omnia</span>, p. 233.<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
Deus
est unitas: ab unitate gignitur unitatis aequalite procedit. Hinc
igitur Augustinus: Omne recte intuenti perspicuum est; quare a sanctae
scripturae docturibus patri assignatur unitas, Filius aequalitas,
Spiritui Sancto connexio; et licet ab unitate gignatur aequalitas, ab
utroque connexio procedat: unum tamen et idem sunt. Haec est illa trium
unitas: quam solam adorandam esse docuit Pythagoras. </div>
</blockquote>
Marco Ponzi, on Tarot History Forum (<a href="http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=530&p=9383&hilit=John+of+Salisbury#p9383">http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=530&p=9383</a>), provides a translation:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>God is unity: generated by unity he proceeds from the equality <span class="posthilit">of</span>
the unity. Therefore Augustine: everything is clear to he who examines
in the right way; for this reason those who have studied the holy
scripture attribute unity to the father, equality to the Son, union to
the Holy Spirit; it follows that equality is generated from unity, and
that union proceeds from both [unity and equality]: yet they are one
and the same. This is the unity <span class="posthilit">of</span> the three: which Pythagoras taught to be the only thing [deserving] to be adored.</b></blockquote>
We can see here that Cusa has taken his text directly from Salisbury.<br />
<br />
In
this case, I can see an alternative interpretation of the Ace of
Swords. That is, the two figures on each side of the sword, different
in appearance but doing the same thing on the same level, might
represent "the Equal," and so the second person of the Trinity, the one
who came not to bring peace, but the sword.<br />
<br />
The two identical putti on
the Ace of Batons, however, are still "the Same." In Chapter Nine (<a class="postlink" href="http://my.pclink.com/%7Eallchin/1814/retrial/cusa2.pdf">http://my.pclink.com/~allchin/1814/retrial/cusa2.pdf</a>, p. 15), Cusa goes on to identify "union" with "the same." <br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>And
although equality of oneness is begotten from oneness and although
union proceeds from both [of these], nevertheless oneness, equality of
oneness, and the union proceeding from both are one and the same
thing--as if we were to speak of [one and] the same thing as <span style="font-style: italic;">this, it, the same.</span>
The fact of our saying "it" is related to a first thing; but our saying
"the same" unites and conjoins the related thing to the first thing.
Assume, then, that from the pronoun "it" there were formed the word
"itness," so that we could speak of oneness, itness, and sameness:
itness would bear a relation to oneness, but sameness would designate
the union of itness and oneness.[In this case, the names "Oneness,"
"Itness," and "Sameness"] would nearly enough befit the Trinity.</b></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpd3UGk6ouNPG16yor8W8FT0tk4J2dDaBX-cWVR1y50KypcYyKfoKMNuMvTp7w1PEpOzr7_fquD_2-ZyeqFB6biHuTt4f8DU50fGdAyiNUn69FPOHKnsbdIXYBiG0GqF8mRK7ZjE4iQKO8uqYJuZJNB763D_z6iXJssYQPFyzwlegf3IcyFIrbix5PQA/s556/01abMinervaVenusSBbatons.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="556" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpd3UGk6ouNPG16yor8W8FT0tk4J2dDaBX-cWVR1y50KypcYyKfoKMNuMvTp7w1PEpOzr7_fquD_2-ZyeqFB6biHuTt4f8DU50fGdAyiNUn69FPOHKnsbdIXYBiG0GqF8mRK7ZjE4iQKO8uqYJuZJNB763D_z6iXJssYQPFyzwlegf3IcyFIrbix5PQA/s320/01abMinervaVenusSBbatons.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>With
"the Same" as the third person of the Trinity, the raising of the baton
over the empty cuirass and helmet then signify the overcoming of the
strife brought by Christ in the peace of the Holy Spirit. The SB Ace
of Batons in that way is similar to the "Venus Victrix" of Zoppo's <span style="font-style: italic;">Parchment Book</span>,
done somewhat earlier, probably in Venice, the vanquishing of Mars by
Venus, of war by love, as in the image on the right below, with the cuirass reduced to a prop or plaything (for a fuller discussion, see my post at <a class="postlink-local" href="http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=530&p=8743&hilit=Venus+Zoppo#p8743">viewtopic.php?f=12&t=530&p=8743&hilit=Venus+Zoppo#p8743</a>),<br /> <br />
Admittedly
this interpretation of the Ace of Swords, as "Equality" as well as
"Difference," and the Ace of Batons as "Union" and "Sameness" is rather obscure. But it might have been just the thing,
in a noble Venetian drawing room, to add the proper elevated tone to
what might have otherwise looked like a rather plebian game of cards. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">THE SOLA-BUSCA ACES OF CUPS AND COINS</span><br />
<br />
The
SB Ace of Cups and Coins, I think, also fit the Pythagorean idea of the Monad. Here Christianity again shows its influence, as it does in the Etteilla
Swords. This time both SB cards depict the Christian
Trinity as a whole, as opposed to the philosophical God of the Timaeus, or the second and third persons of the trinity, in SB Swords and
Batons.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8syxiAg4R7TMC4-NMoOkjjislVsKCkYXwkY4WcUeTUiPX9vcp11qyY78-f_BHeSkwA0cHfD5G9WpZui1S0J97kzr_si2p0sg5wAdkskamK4HPM-Z-D1gE8nJfZ0JGdczs1TC638q1R4Rmgie0Zqk0AsjtqGcX4dzTYOV6-R6952PgPCQ95Xi8VFZGmQ/s320/01_Sola_BuscaCOCU.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="296" data-original-width="320" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8syxiAg4R7TMC4-NMoOkjjislVsKCkYXwkY4WcUeTUiPX9vcp11qyY78-f_BHeSkwA0cHfD5G9WpZui1S0J97kzr_si2p0sg5wAdkskamK4HPM-Z-D1gE8nJfZ0JGdczs1TC638q1R4Rmgie0Zqk0AsjtqGcX4dzTYOV6-R6952PgPCQ95Xi8VFZGmQ/s1600/01_Sola_BuscaCOCU.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Cups (far right) has three cherubs on a cup: three on one,
so to speak. Why else three, except to signify the Trinity? They correlate well to the three streams we see coming out of the cup on the Marseille Ace of Cups, already discussed. One is even pouring out a vase of water. Admittedly,
using cherubs to represent the Trinity is a bit perverse or comical; but many of
the SB images are that way. <p></p><p>
There is also the motto "Trahor Fatis" painted on the
cup. I will talk about that motto in relation to the Ace of Coins,
where it also appears. In Cups, it has no particular function that I
can see, and the motto was not part of the original engravings; perhaps
it is a motto favored by the patron who commissioned the painted deck
(as Zucker,<span style="font-style: italic;"> Illustrated Bartsch</span> vol. 24 part 3, p. 81, suggests).</p><p>There are also three cherubs in Coins. Tarotpedia (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com./wiki/Ace_of_Coins_Sola-Busca">http://www.tarotpedia.com./wiki/Ace_of_Coins_Sola-Busca</a>, but now only on the Wayback Machine)
points out that the cherub on the left, holding his head in its hand,
is in a characteristic pose signifying melancholy (for example in
Durer's engraving with that title). and thus also the alchemical stage
of the nigredo, Latin for blackening. Above this cherub is a banner,
not part of the engraving but painted later; it reads, "Trahor Fatis" --
"I am drawn by Fate." Tarotpedia goes on to say that there is a comet
above this cherub, traditionally a bad omen. I don't think we can
conclude that it is a comet, because there is no tail, here or on the
other cards where this motto and the star-like image appears (Postumo,
Trump 2; Catone, trump 13). Zucker (pp. 66, 107) says it is simply a
star. The motto might just mean that the cherub is ruled by Fate,
whether good or ill, as opposed to its own will. There might be a
reference to the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology's</span> Atropos, mentioned in connection with the Monad; she is the Fate who chooses the time and manner of death.<br />
<br />
It
seems to me that this cherub also represents the Father of the Trinity,
in particular, the Jehovah of the Old Testament. Jehovah was identified
with Saturn, the god associated with lead, blackness, and melancholy.
Moreover, after Adam and Eve's sin, all humanity was condemned by God
to suffer death without a return to Paradise; "Sheol" was the soul's
destination, a dismal place like the Hades of the Greeks (although
there was also the "bosom of Abraham" as temporary quarters for the
righteous; see <a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheol">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheol</a>); such is the lot of those bound by Fate, until the advent of Jesus. <br />
<br />
The
center cherub triumphantly carries a coin that is bigger than it is.
Around the coin is painted the motto, "Servir. Chi persevera infin
otiene"--"To serve. If you persist you obtain [your goal] in the end."<b>
</b>Tarotpedia interprets the ox skull as connoting hard, persistent work,
thus relating to the motto. That is based on a similar ox skull where that meaning is given, in the book <i>Hypnerotomachia Poliphili</i> (Many-Loves' Strife of Love in a Dream), of 1499 Venice. The coin is probably golden, and hence
signifying the rubedo in alchemy, or else the yellow stage just before it.<br />
<br />
It seems to me that whatever the alchemical significance, this cherub signifies the Son of the Trinity. It is because of the crucifixion
that humanity can now, through faith and good works, rise above Fate
and return to Paradise. That is the main goal which persistence and
hard work attain. In alchemy, the rubedo was associated with the
Son. For example George Ripley's <span style="font-style: italic;">Cantilena</span> ends with the elevation of the "ruddy son" and his mother (Fabricius, <span style="font-style: italic;">Alchemy</span>, p. 134f, also Jung, <span style="font-style: italic;">Mysterium Coniunctionis</span>, p. 283). An English cleric, Ripley was in Italy 1457-1477, according to Wikipedia.</p><p>Moreover, his burden associates him with Hercules, who was seen as a precursor of Christ by the early Church. In temperament, he would be sanguine, that is, optimism and vigor. In his opposition to evil, he might also be characterized as choleric, that is, angry, his blood boiling.<br />
<br />
Tarotpedia
says that the cherub on the right probably represents the albedo in
alchemy, which occurs between the nigredo at he beginning and the
rubedo at the end. Since there is white space above this cherub and the
other two cherubs represent the two other major stages of the
alchemical work, this hypothesis is reasonable. <br />
<br />
It seems to me
that this cherub also represents the Holy Spirit. For one thing, it was
conventionally represented by a dove, which is white. For another,
Jesus was conventionally shown praying when he received the Holy Spirit
at his baptism, just as the cherub seems to be doing on the card. Its temperament would be phlegmatic, a state of calm.<br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT5qnePAT3rvB0ZDsobrc3BtEQugVjxaAez1PJn7p38q8QXqX_ksfgdsIlCVj-SS2HYTRkEr2q08dPHTUr8nvMT-gtWAxJuH52LTPPSDUBrVKwFqBrAr1AA-cBQ_fRGIdWksYFwlN5xFYAg7mcYb89eu9TWvwFiZ_NYDeiLrtP7c17PSDxxgTdrmSTVA/s400/ripley_scrowle_4SMBOTH.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="307" data-original-width="400" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT5qnePAT3rvB0ZDsobrc3BtEQugVjxaAez1PJn7p38q8QXqX_ksfgdsIlCVj-SS2HYTRkEr2q08dPHTUr8nvMT-gtWAxJuH52LTPPSDUBrVKwFqBrAr1AA-cBQ_fRGIdWksYFwlN5xFYAg7mcYb89eu9TWvwFiZ_NYDeiLrtP7c17PSDxxgTdrmSTVA/s320/ripley_scrowle_4SMBOTH.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Another
example that supports my hypothesis is the early-15th century "Ripley
Scrowle." Tarotpedia applies one version of the particular image I have
in mind to the Three of Swords (originally <a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Three_of_Swords_Sola-Busca">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Three_of ... Sola-Busca</a>, bu now only available on the "Wayback Machine").
I think it fits here as well. The image on Tarotpedia is in color, and
it says XVII century. I have not so far confirmed that dating; their
reference, to Adam MacLean's site (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.levity.com/alchemy/rscroll.html">http://www.levity.com/alchemy/rscroll.html</a>) is to an image that appears there in black and white and undated. A similar one in black and white is from 1715 (<a class="postlink" href="http://hdelboy.club.fr/gravures.html">http://hdelboy.club.fr/gravures.html</a>; search<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim6WySQAxl5c2bsDq2JqrMrGStWe1m2HS53UoC1Rw1R28b2gDNMKLPAqmIqaUlsTCt-ucLdPhEHiJ1HrWlWu44TYFk1fhYMSPftuTiPQ7XlZ8JqYhgIQuF7RSiBzAlvc782dnEqO5tp07jGreXnYc9H2mHugPUomoDQi3AxwFoQ0FJuuYa9vveSL4mYw/s400/ripley_scrowle_DETBOTH.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="165" data-original-width="400" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim6WySQAxl5c2bsDq2JqrMrGStWe1m2HS53UoC1Rw1R28b2gDNMKLPAqmIqaUlsTCt-ucLdPhEHiJ1HrWlWu44TYFk1fhYMSPftuTiPQ7XlZ8JqYhgIQuF7RSiBzAlvc782dnEqO5tp07jGreXnYc9H2mHugPUomoDQi3AxwFoQ0FJuuYa9vveSL4mYw/s320/ripley_scrowle_DETBOTH.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />"Ripley Scrowle;" the image is "IV" in the series). There is also a 15th century image (<a class="postlink" href="http://hdelboy.club.fr/gravures.html">http://hdelboy.club.fr/gravures.html</a>,
clicking on "IV" of the "Erskine Roll"), which is more primitive, shown
in green and white below, to the left of the other one. What interests
me is not the three circles at the bottom, which Tarotpedia focuses on
for the Threes, but the three at the top; I have reproduced these
details in the second pair of images below. In the 15th century image,
two of the circles are white, one black. By 1715 the two white ones are
further differentiated (as they are on MacLean's image); I suspect that
the meaning was the same in the 15th century: what we see is a black
circle for the Father, a white one for the Holy Spirit, and a third
circle (white in the version below, but light-colored on levity.com)
with a dot in it, the symbol of the sun, for the Son.<br />
<br />
And here is a section of Ripley's poem accompanying the illustration:<br />
<p></p><blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>Many a name he hath full sure<br />
And all is but one Nature<br />
Thou must part him in three<br />
And then knit him as the Trinity<br />
And make them all but one<br />
Lo here is the Philosophers Stone. </b><br />
(<a class="postlink" href="http://www.levity.com/alchemy/rscroll.html">http://www.levity.com/alchemy/rscroll.html</a>.)</div>
</blockquote><p>
I
think that Coins provides us with the most specific correspondence
between the "Etteilla" list and the corresponding SB card. Namely, the
large coin held by the center cherub, the one representing Jesus,
connotes the "sunny" (i.e. happy) attributes of the person whose life,
after death and some of the time on earth, is spent with Jesus.
Moreover, the "Etteilla" word "redness" might correspond to rubedo
stage of alchemy; and it certainly corresponds to Jesus as the rising
sun of the second coming. In that case the puzzling reference to the "accomplished stone" might be to the so-called "philosopher's stone," the object of the alchemist's quest.<br />
<br />
<b>CONCLUSION THIS FAR</b><br />
<br />Whether the Marseille Bataleur and Aces were conceived with Pythagorean numerology in mind cannot be determined; certainly no one wrote about them in these terms. Doing so was left to Etteilla and his school, where it is rather evident for the Aces and for the first two cards of his sequence. I have not found where Etteilla talks about the meanings of the numbers per se, but his pupil d'Odoucet certainly did (see <i>Science des Signes</i>, vol. 1, pp. 41-45). They also thought that this analysis fit the Marseille, even if the "majors" in that deck in their view were in the wrong order and had distorted the designs; Etteilla associated each of his cards to a Marseille equivalent in his Third Cahier. The "minors" were of course unaffected. What they say about the Aces fits the Marseille Aces well enough, while the actual Pythogoreanism of the time fits the Marseille even better, in that it illustrates the "theological" parts of Pythagorean teachings. <span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br /></p><p>In the case of the Aces' pictorial design, Waite borrows mostly from the Marseille cards as opposed to the SB; not only do his Aces of Swords and Batons duplicate much of what is in their Marseille counterparts: the greenery on the "Wand," the crown and branches on the Sword, but the hand coming out
of a cloud on all four, something consistent with a Pythagorean association of the One with God. </p><p>As far as the SB, there is not much relationship to either the Marseille designs or Waite. Only in the
Ace of Cups do I see a possible SB influence, in that all three persons of the Trinity
are represented: the hand of the Father, the cup and Omega of the Son,
and the dove of the Holy Spirit. However, the Trinity is so much a part of Christian depictions that it really cannot be attributed to any one preceding image, even involving the same tarot subject.</p><p>That all three are consistent with a Neopythagorean interpretation does not mean that they were designed with such considerations in mind. However, Pythagoras was extremely popular in 15th and 16th century Italy, going into the 17th and 18th centuries in France. That a cartomantic tradition using Pythagorean considerations is clear from Etteilla onwards. Whether there was one before then is less clear. Etteilla's earliest writings give different interpretations than the later ones. Different yet is the Bologna cartomancy document, fairly securely of the 18th century, even if there are many points of contact between the two. Unfortunately there are many factors influencing how someone would
interpret the cards, especially those shared by regular and
tarot decks. The games played were different, and in France the cards even
looked different - French rather than Italian suits, in France. However, we are just at the beginning of an inquiry that must take us through all 78 of the cards.</p><p><b>THE NEOPYTHAGOREAN ONE IN THE TAROT AFTER ETTEILLA</b><br /></p><p>The next tarot theorist of any significance after Etteilla was Eliphas Levi, who discarded the former's "restoration" of the tarot triumphs in favor of the usual Marseille order. But like Etteilla, he did not disdain changing what was depicted somewhat to depict what he wanted to be there. Neopythagoreanism is one of the influences, especially in the first seven. </p><p>Thus the Magus expresses the idea of the One in a sideways figure 8 above his head, "symbol of life and the universal mind." It was already, since the mid-17th century, the mathematical symbol of infinity, a property of the succession of 1s <i>ad infinitum</i>, as well as of the Christian God, possessed of a power and goodness than which none greater could be conceived. That it is above the head of a man reflects also what d'Odoucet said about the number 1, that it was the number of man, and of his unitary mind or spirit, mover of the body. Levi did not, so far as I know,<span style="font-size: small;"> comment on the number and court cards of the deck.</span></p><p>After Levi, Paul Christian gave a conception that expanded on his teacher: the number was that of Will in three worlds, the divine, intellectual, and physical (<i>History and Practice of Magic</i>, trans. of<i> L'Histoire de la Magie,</i> p. 95, in archive.org:</p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;"><b>A --1 expresses in the <i>divine world</i> the absolute
Being who contains and from whom flows the infinity of all possible things:
in the <i>intellectual world</i>, Unity, the principle and synthesis of
numbers; the Will, principle of action: in the <i>physical world</i>, Man,
the highest of all living creatures, called upon to raise himself, by a
perpetual expansion of his faculties, into the concentric spheres of the
Absolute. </b>
</span></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: small;">To Levi he added several numerological symbols: a snake eating its tail as the Magus's belt, symbolizing eternity. That one arm goes up and the other down, the posture imagined by Levi, he adds that it is man aspiring to reflect divine will in the imposition of his own will upon the physical world. Of course the Marseille image did not actually have one arm pointing up and the other pointing down, but rather each bent at the elbow, with forearm on one side pointing up and the other pointing at around a thirty degree angle below horizontal, so in a sense downward. Tarot decks following Levi's ideas, such as Waite's and Papus's, both published 1909, conformed to Levi and Christian's description. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Christian did discuss the cards of the four suits, but in an astrological way that did not have imitators.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Papus used Pythagorean numerology in a way of his own devising. The 21 triumphs (excluding the Fool) divided into three septenaries, each of which corresponded to his version of Christian's three worlds: the first seven were the divine world, the next seven the human, then the universe; he also called the three the spirit of God, the soul of God, and the body of God (1889 trans., p. 206). Then he divided each septenary into two trinities plus an enhancement of the sixth. The first, second and third members of each trinity were assigned the letters YHV of the divine name, with the seventh getting the final H. The same system applied to the suit cards, with each suit having two septenaries. But while he interprets the symbolism of the triumphs in terms of these trinities (or thesis-antithesis-synthesis), he does not do so for the suit cards, except to note that the four suits again express the YHVH again, in the order Etteilla put them in, Batons as Y, Cups first H, Swords V, and Coins/Pentacles fourth H. Giving no specific reason, he relates Scepters to Fire, Cups to Water, Swords to Earth, and Coins to Air.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">For Papus the Bateleur ("Juggler" in an archaic sense of one who moves his hands quickly: "prestidigitator" would be the modern equivalent) reflects Christian's three worlds by means of the sideways figure eight above (divine), the man in the middle (human), and the earth below (universe). He also unites active and passive, not only with his two arms but also with the objects on his table, with Scepters as active (God), Cups as passive (the Universe), Swords as the equilibrium between the two (Man).By their roundness Pentacles (i.e. Coins) represent Eternity, he says, uniting all three in one whole.'</span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Along with Papus and Waite, another deck of 1909 of some interest for its Neopythagorean aspects is that of Eules Picard (<a href="https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/32466484">https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/32466484</a>). For the Bateleur, he mostly repeats Christian and Papus, while the card is simply that of the Maseille. Picard's originality is in his conceptions of the number cards, starting with the Aces. Each seems to capture a different aspect of the Bataleur. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz7PSfAg7MoibORnlIloNd71g9n7gMwDPN_KgJkBSv44gIR5cUddVLQfoBFU9wGABecHwwGSkMIT5BnZl5bRrjrxl-9vsFyzSjfccCbE2OUvAZNo7WjxDdanGrZBJH_T4yAT04B88iw1Ef8PlBxIrn65FY7PO8-pgXvInllXgLs6HFFQC7lGTMSiXglA/s1963/PicardAcesBaCoSwCu.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1963" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz7PSfAg7MoibORnlIloNd71g9n7gMwDPN_KgJkBSv44gIR5cUddVLQfoBFU9wGABecHwwGSkMIT5BnZl5bRrjrxl-9vsFyzSjfccCbE2OUvAZNo7WjxDdanGrZBJH_T4yAT04B88iw1Ef8PlBxIrn65FY7PO8-pgXvInllXgLs6HFFQC7lGTMSiXglA/w640-h264/PicardAcesBaCoSwCu.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">Batons shows the customary forearm and Scepter, but with flames around it, to indicate the element of fire. He interprets the card as expressing the power to do something and the unity of that power with the resulting action. Coins, reciprocally, represents the material acted upon, matter, typified by the element of earth. He shows roots, as the potentiality of earth being transformed. Cups are the chaos of emotions, especially around the principle of love, but also the immortal soul emerging therefrom, represented by a butterfly. Swords represent the directedness of the will, especially in overcoming obstacles. He puts the sword in water because for him the element related to Swords is water. (A post on the internet says that Mary Greer has suggested that since swords are instruments of death, the water is that of tears.) </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Here Batons is a kind of thesis, Coins its antithesis before any action upon it, and Swords the mediation between them. Cups, with its soul hovering above and within the chaos, is reminiscent of Etteilla's and the Minchiate Francese's card 1. In addition, Picard incorporates in the designs symbols associated with the zodiacal signs assigned to each of the four elements, i.e. the fire-signs Aries, Leo, Sagitarius in Batons; Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn in Coins; etc.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">My final example is Jodorowsky' s <i>Way of Tarot</i>, originally in French as <i>La Voie du Tarot, </i>1997. He takes the Pythagorean principle of pure potentiality, unactualized in reality, expressed in the four areas represented by the suits, which for him are creativity and sexuality for Batons, emotions for Cups, thinking for Swords, and material concerns, including health, for Coins. So the potentiality for creativity and sex, for love relationships, for projects involving thoughts, and for making money or healing. It is that simple.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Jodorowsky also finds features in each of the four aces to support his interpretation. The tree limb of the Ace of Wands/Batons (Baton = Stick, in French) is phallic in shape, ending in a cut that resembles the female sex organ. The sword is comparable to intelligence, in that it is crafted rather than ready-made: <b>"Intelligence is not received ready-made, it is part of the self on which you must work to make it strong and flexible" </b>(p. 273). Its color red signifies that this crafting is through experience and emotional suffering." That it pierces a crown signifies that "<b>it does not remain imprisoned within the individual mind.</b> The two branches on either side signify space and time, both unending, in that way part of Cosmic Consciousness. And so on. Both signify activity, but in different ways.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">In contrast, Cups and Coins are passive. The Cup represents the Totality in potential; everything is possible." He observes, "<b>Emotional virginity is intact, and love ceaselessly renews itself, as if a material chalice housed a bottomless well that found its source in eternity"</b> (p. 275). Various details can be interpreted in terms of the interrelatedness of mind, soul, and spirit, or intellect, emotion, and sexuality.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">The Ace of Coins/Pentacles is circular with a flower in its center: <b>"divine, impersonal energy lies at the heart of matter,"</b> which includes ourselves as material beings. The various details again represent the Totality, this time of material life, in potentiality, in particular the union of spirit with matter in the cultivation of unselfish work that is also ecologically sound: <b>"Ecological consciousness works hand in hand with inner discovery"</b> (p. 278).<br /></span></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;">APPENDIX: D'ODOUCET'S AND ETTEILLA'S PRESENTATIONS OF THE NUMBERS AS SUCH </span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">First, here is my translation of pp. 7-11 of d'Odoucet's <i>Science of Signs</i>, book 2, with which he prefaces his discussion of the individual cards (starting at ht<a href="tps://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/n21/mode/2up">tps://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/n21/mode/2up</a>). Here I had difficulty understanding one clause, the one I have included in French afterwards, in case others with better grasp of French can figure it out. I think he means to say that the cards must be numbered from 1 to 77 plus 0, because after the first comes the second, etc. This is not a very good argument, since the suits themselves do not have to be in any particular order, and as far as I know nobody has followed Etteilla's numbering system since.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><i><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"></span></span></i></span></span></p><blockquote><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">EXPLICATION</span></span></span></span></b> <br /></p></blockquote><blockquote><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><i><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">of the Hieroglyphs and Inscriptions from each leaf </span></span></i></span></span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">[i.e. page, i.e. card]</span></span></span></span><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><i><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"> of the Book of Thoth, its related homonyms, synonyms and numbers.</span></span><span class="jCAhz"><span class="ryNqvb"> </span></span></i></span></span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">The leaves which compose this unique book must be considered under the various relations which their numbers have between them, the hieroglyphs which they present, and the inscriptions which they bear.</span></span></span></span></b> <br /></p></blockquote><blockquote><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">The configuration of the numbers </span></span></span></span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">[i.e. from 1 to 77 and 0] </span></span></span></span><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">of each lamina </span></span></span></span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">[i.e., inscribed metal plate]</span></span></span></span><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"> contributed, together with the numeral quantity </span></span></span></span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">[i.e., the number of suit-objects]</span></span></span></span><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">, to indicate the correspondence of the epithets between the number and the hieroglyph.</span></span></span></span></b> <br /></p></blockquote><blockquote><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">The numbers of each lamina are of absolute necessity by their progressive order, since they would </span></span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">exist by right when</span></span><span class="jCAhz"><span class="ryNqvb">
</span></span><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">they would not be exposed in fact, because then from the first blade comes the second, the third, etc. [ . . . </span></span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"> <i>puisqu’ils existeroient de droit quand ils n’y seroient pas exposés de fait, parce qu’ensuite de la première lame vient la seconde , la troisième, etc.</i>]</span></span></span></span></b> </p></blockquote><blockquote><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz"><span class="ryNqvb">
</span></span><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">But after the 9 first numbers, plus the zero, the numbers which follow are only (</span></span></span></span></b><span style="font-size: small;">start of</span><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"> 8) an assembly of the first ten characters: therefore these first ten characters must be key to the whole work, although they offer different meanings</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">because of the various combinations they have among them, combinations which are not of their positive essence, since a multiplied number can be reduced to its simple expression by which we find the renumerator character;</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">such for example the number 45 will be reduced by the cabalistic addition to 9;</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">because 4+5=9 etc.</span></span><span class="jCAhz"><span class="ryNqvb">
</span></span><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"> </span></span></span></span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">The most important, the most all-embracing </span></span></span></span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">[<i>embarasant</i>, meaning "awkward," but probably a misprint for <i>embrassant</i>]</span></span></span></span><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"> was to discover the true meaning of the first ten characters considered both</span></span><span class="jCAhz"><span class="ryNqvb">
</span></span><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">as a number and as a hieroglyph.</span></span><span class="jCAhz"><span class="ryNqvb">
</span></span><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"> </span></span></span></span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">1. Is not a number, but the principle, the beginning and the end of all numbers;</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">it expresses everything that bears the character of simplicity such as the soul, the universal spirit, etc.</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">it is to be noted that whatever is simple can only be intellectual;</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">that is, being able to manifest itself to our senses only through effects.</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">is also the symbol and the number of (</span></span></span></span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">start of</span></span></span></span><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"> 9) all that is motor or subject, and of man generally speaking.</span></span><span class="jCAhz"><span class="ryNqvb">
</span></span><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"> </span></span></span></span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">2. This number is the first number;</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">it is that of the human species (man and woman) and more particularly the emblem and the number of woman, or the physical and permanent principle of her </span></span></span></span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">[<i>son:</i> its?] </span></span></span></span><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">vegetative development.</span></span><span class="jCAhz"><span class="ryNqvb"> </span></span></span></span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz"><span class="ryNqvb"> </span></span><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">3. Is the second number, it determines all the triangles, it is indispensably that of the geometrical dimensions, length, width and depth.</span></span> It<span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"> is the emblem and the number of the reproduction or generation of the animal kingdom.</span></span><span class="jCAhz"><span class="ryNqvb">
</span></span><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"> </span></span></span></span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">4.</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">This number is the third</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">in general and the second even number;</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">it is composed of a point and a triangle;</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">it is that of the universe which is a compound of four elemental qualities, hot, cold, dry and humid;</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">these qualities, of which two are negative and two positive, are properly the basis of the integral parts of this same universe which offers us substantially only earth and water, the fixed and the volatile of the volatile, completing the square whose root (</span></span></span></span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">start of </span></span></span></span><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">10) is two, agent and patient inherent in the human species, abbreviated from this same universe under the name of microcosm.</span></span><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"></span></span></span></span></b></p></blockquote><p></p><blockquote><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">5. Is a number composed of the others which precede it, and the triangle and the line are seen there dominant, like the square and the unit, it is the number of the quintessence or unity of first matter, this number is proper to</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">universal medicine</span></span><span class="jCAhz"><span class="ryNqvb">
</span></span><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">which is a product of the concentration of the universal spirit, which is indivisibly the potential animator of the macrocosm and the microcosm.</span></span><span class="jCAhz"><span class="ryNqvb">
</span></span><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"> </span></span></span></span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">6. Is the first perfect number, it is the emblem of the globe, and particularly of the inserted earth of the vivifying, corporifying universal spirit, and of the atmospheric fluid which surrounds us.</span></span><span class="jCAhz"><span class="ryNqvb">
</span></span><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"> </span></span></span></span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">7. This number is the distance between the cube of unity and the cube of the first number;</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">it is the emblem of the mineral kingdom, namely four elements and three substances.</span></span><span class="jCAhz"><span class="ryNqvb">
</span></span><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"> </span></span></span></span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">8. Is the emblem of the progressive circulation of the generations or reproduction (</span></span></span></span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">start of </span></span></span></span><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">11), of all the mixtures, it is the number of the vegetable kingdom, namely a vegetable soul, four elements and three substances.</span></span><span class="jCAhz"><span class="ryNqvb">
</span></span><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"> </span></span></span></span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">9. Is the emblem of only vegetative reproductions;</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">that is to say, produced according to the terrestrial globe, it is the number</span></span><span class="jCAhz"><span class="ryNqvb">
</span></span><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">of the animal kingdom, a sensitive soul: a vegetable soul, four elements and three substances.</span></span><span class="jCAhz"><span class="ryNqvb">
</span></span><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"> </span></span></span></span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">0. Is the passive emblem of the globe, without proper number and fit for any value, by the additional effect of the universal principle, and sometimes by the efforts of art.</span></span><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"></span></span></span></span></b></p></blockquote><p></p><blockquote><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">Such are in general the distinctions which are the type of the configuration which it is advisable to establish of the ten numeric characters.</span></span></span></span></b></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">Much of this makes a kind of sense. However, it is none too clear what the difference is between the "vegetative development" related to women and the "generation of animals" of 3; perhaps the first has to do with the growth of an individual organism and the second with its reproduction. Also, he mostly ignores this characterization of 7 and 9, prefering to call 7 the number of "life." How the number of the mineral kingdom became the number of life he does not explain, and both are quite different from Etteilla's own interpretation of that number (see below). Also, he makes 8 another number of reproduction. As for 9, it becomes a number of expansion and effusion of reproduction. Without these modifications and others, he would have difficulty arriving at Etteilla's interpretations, which he seems to have made without the considerations that d'Odoucet advances, as we will see.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"> There are also various pronouncements about the numbers from 1 to 10 by Etteilla himself. The most complete is a footnote on p. 30 of his <i>Premier</i> [First] <i>Cahier</i>, 1783. He writes (<a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ux34pwxe/items?canvas=244">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ux34pwxe/items?canvas=244</a>:</span></span></span></span></p><p></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;"><b>1 = God<br />
2 = humanity, male and female<br />
3 = principles: sulphur, salt, mercury<br />
4 = elements<br />
5 = sacred<br />
6 = first perfect composition<br />
7 = science, human wisdom</b><b><br />
8 = multiplication, extension<br />
9 = perfection of simple humanity, following nature<br />
10 = divine seal</b></span></blockquote><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">In a few places he says other things that seem to supplement the above, for example, on </span></span></span>p. 17 of the same work, he says that 1 is the number of God, 2 that of humanity, male
and female, and 3 that of generation, whose aim is the child. Then on the next page, 4 is "necessarily" the Universe. In the footnote on p.
19 we find that 5 is sacred, the universe, 4, supported by God, 1. 5 is also
between the Universe, 4, and perfection, 6. In the footnote on p. 33, he reiterates that 7 is the number of wisdom, citing Isaiah, Revelation, and Augustine. He adds that for Cicero "Seven is the key to all the sciences."<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">The first seven of these interpretations have some historical justification, it seems to me. And 8, 9, and 10 are logical extensions of what came before and do not simply repeat in vaguer terms the previous interpretations. Even though 8 repeats the idea of generation, including reproduction, enunciated in 3, what is generated in 8 is the perfection reached in 6, once imbued with wisdom, 7. How much any of this applies to his interpretations of the cards is another matter.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">On the number 1, we see on p. 6 of <i>Cours Theorique et pratique,</i> 1790 (<a href="https://archive.org/details/1790courstheoriqueetpratique/page/n5/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/1790courstheoriqueetpratique/page/n5/mode/2up)</a>, that 1 applies to the "Magicien" (p. 6), and the strong person (p. 7). That is what enables him to say that one keyword for card 1 is "Etteilla," who obviously is the epitome of both. It also enables d'Odoucet to say that 1 is the number for man as agent. The number 2 is then that of the "weak person" (p. 7) - such as the two children on his second card.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Hopefully this will be enough to orient the reader in the posts that follow.<span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p></p>Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677044918876619054.post-65036562946477970732012-05-15T22:19:00.076-07:002023-05-22T04:17:29.066-07:00Popess and TwosDu Bartas, in the continuation of the quote I gave at the beginning of my posts on the Aces and Twos, goes on:<blockquote><b>Now, note Two's Character,<i> One's</i> heir apparent,<br />As his first-born; first Number, and the Parent
<br />Of Female Payrs.</b></blockquote><p>It is the "first number" because, as he had just said, One was not a number. Agrippa, in his discussion of the Two, notes that the Pythagoreans did not even consider Two a number, but rather <b>"a certain confusion of unities"</b> (<i>Three Books of Occult Philosophy</i>, ed. Tyson, p. 245, in archive.org). This is confirmed by the Neopythagorean Theology of Arithmetic (trans. Waterfield, p. 45, in archive.org). Agrippa himself maintains that Two is a number, but one <b>"compounded of unity.</b>" It is "the first branch of unity, and the first procreation." <br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKZM_DJVts_bDjhhjprOYp4XtFk_ogjUxjyo2DTTQ3EZcIXXGIthHHgZXkeKwYYWorAsQq56E7o1PMxXmpulEfoiV3UAwdjGjpIaYr-VAfKvMC79ayg9xPtoe6izohGF-vUZcFb5vIMlCQ7gdau7UhG7Bd3Nb9EZCI3rx82fJWp68pcRR9cWzM3hdPrw/s1566/%5BJeu_de_tarot_%C3%A0_enseignes_%5B...%5D_btv1b105109641.JPEG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1566" data-original-width="948" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKZM_DJVts_bDjhhjprOYp4XtFk_ogjUxjyo2DTTQ3EZcIXXGIthHHgZXkeKwYYWorAsQq56E7o1PMxXmpulEfoiV3UAwdjGjpIaYr-VAfKvMC79ayg9xPtoe6izohGF-vUZcFb5vIMlCQ7gdau7UhG7Bd3Nb9EZCI3rx82fJWp68pcRR9cWzM3hdPrw/s320/%5BJeu_de_tarot_%C3%A0_enseignes_%5B...%5D_btv1b105109641.JPEG" width="194" /></a></div>The Popess, in the majority of tarot orderings, has the number 2, thus corresponding to the Pythagorean Dyad (at right, the Noblet, ca. 1650 Paris). How is she the "heir apparent" or "first procreation" of the Bateleur? Macrobius, in his treatise focused mainly on astronomy, is none too clear (<i>On the Dream of Scipio</i>, I.VI.18, Stahl translation p. 103):<br />
<p></p><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="posthilit"><b>two, the dyad, because it is first after the monad, is the first number. It first departed from that single Omnipotence into the line of a perceptible body, and therefore refers to the errant spheres of the planets and the sun and moon</b></span></span></span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="posthilit">Macribius is said to have been a Christian; so part of what he says relates well to the Son of the Christian Trinity, God incarnate. But that the Dyad is "errant" nature conveys something else. That errancy is part of a tradition. In the Neopythagorean <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology of Arithmetic</span>, 2 is the first number that separates off from the Monad, an act of daring audacity (p. 42):</span></span></span></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">The dyad gets its name from passing through or asunder (translator’s explanation: <span style="font-style: italic;">Duas</span> [dyad] is here linked with <span style="font-style: italic;">dia</span>
[through or asunder]), for the dyad is the first to have separated
itself from the monad, whence also it is called ‘daring.’ For when the
monad manifests unification, the dyad steals in and manifests
separation.</span></b></span></span></blockquote><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="posthilit"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidB6yCIugwt8nIU2HrqP7_Ck-WIgIz1qgekMsI16zpILYw430hjKB3hf-ncbCaVmZl2eK2x9vkUmw83oho4iZqQQxaZjgYBYwmjwWcMC74BqN8Tw-66FUIuOhmUrwZKL3lEA4TTxfPYKhxuw1oHvfMCY7gOr8eYhY8bPQAW9p74N57e6n7kfidlOXN7Q/s322/papess1497web.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="322" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidB6yCIugwt8nIU2HrqP7_Ck-WIgIz1qgekMsI16zpILYw430hjKB3hf-ncbCaVmZl2eK2x9vkUmw83oho4iZqQQxaZjgYBYwmjwWcMC74BqN8Tw-66FUIuOhmUrwZKL3lEA4TTxfPYKhxuw1oHvfMCY7gOr8eYhY8bPQAW9p74N57e6n7kfidlOXN7Q/w200-h186/papess1497web.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="posthilit">It
is like Eve's act of disobedience in the Garden of Eden, a declaration of
independence. The Monad is androgynous, containing the Dyad within it
in essence, and the Dyad is female. Macrobius says that even numbers are all Mothers, and odd numbers Fathers. We may think also of the historical Manfreda Visconti, who in a vision saw herself designated Pope, as well as the legendary Pope Joan, who disguised herself as a man in order to attend university and then kept the disguise. It is with a 1497 illustration of Boccaccio's telling of the tale that we first see the cloth behind her, which would then be a fixture of her presentation, until with Waite it turns into a curtain protecting the sanctuary. The book here without writing perhaps is to suggest the vacuity of this pope's teaching.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="posthilit">In keeping with these interpretations is something that Agrippa adds to his report: <b>"This is also sometimes the number of discord, and confusion, of misfortune, and uncleanness, </b>citing St. "Hieromagainst Jovianus" (St. Jerome's <i>Contra Jovianus</i>). God did not speak of the second day of creation as good, <b>"because the number of two is evil"</b> (Agrippa, p. 245). </span></span></span></span><br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="posthilit"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ4F0kH8BtcHDwniwVAPtji0Nj1laG0gNb6swuS4FmKXqiOzb1_xLE3UsUxy-dsH0U2iL1HgvooiPg8GC-lVsU_SpeC_9WPOA2TXsD4gOX66oRFptezRrNf6L6nQBvK9kUCC6sAB4rgWjYfdC5k8j8CbLBzEZsiRzc580ogJKFeN0uxQ-m7Dmh8P17NA/s832/image-2.webp" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="832" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ4F0kH8BtcHDwniwVAPtji0Nj1laG0gNb6swuS4FmKXqiOzb1_xLE3UsUxy-dsH0U2iL1HgvooiPg8GC-lVsU_SpeC_9WPOA2TXsD4gOX66oRFptezRrNf6L6nQBvK9kUCC6sAB4rgWjYfdC5k8j8CbLBzEZsiRzc580ogJKFeN0uxQ-m7Dmh8P17NA/s320/image-2.webp" width="320" /></a></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="posthilit">Another branch of Neopythagoreanism, that reflected in Martianus Capella, adds a different dimension to the dyad, that of being the wife and sister of the Monad (Stahl and Johnson translation, p. 277, in archive.org):</span></span></span></span><br />
<p></p><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="posthilit"><b>Because between it [the dyad] and the monad the first union and partnership occurs, it is called Juno or Wife or Sister of the monad.</b> </span></span></span></span></blockquote><p>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="posthilit">The same is noted by Agrippa. It is perhaps with such passages in mind that the authorities in Strasbourg and elsewhere ordained that she and the Pope be replaced by Juno and Jupiter. Martianus in the paragraph before had identified the monad as Jupiter, "because it is head and father of the gods" (Ibid.). </span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZzemL2DFlaGZpYRLkqPh_UVPscDYx7LTXH93VbiwXUxpvpWceA88bJbZ3sh521POuNTE0c2dNOx7C1PmHv3rZ8gkYBXIiLs3lKz5k2iZJEzzTQGbMrTP3rcwwUus5BCwMovX9NKE-iXT71r90mi0-pgD26ch5RHutZfi243L763HqTXN-VdaM-wNPsg/s996/SapientiaVS.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="855" data-original-width="996" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZzemL2DFlaGZpYRLkqPh_UVPscDYx7LTXH93VbiwXUxpvpWceA88bJbZ3sh521POuNTE0c2dNOx7C1PmHv3rZ8gkYBXIiLs3lKz5k2iZJEzzTQGbMrTP3rcwwUus5BCwMovX9NKE-iXT71r90mi0-pgD26ch5RHutZfi243L763HqTXN-VdaM-wNPsg/s320/SapientiaVS.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="posthilit">There is an Old Testament parallel here, in the "Wisdom" books, where Sophia is sai</span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="posthilit">d to be "with God from the beginning". Such a parallel would not have been lost on Renaissance thinking (even if I cannot find it explicitly spelled out); the Dyad/Popess would be assimilated to Wisdom or Sapientia, who was illustrated, like the early Popess, with cross-staff and book, as well as a crown (albeit not multi-leveled), in illuminated manuscripts of the time (e.g. that at left. from the 13th century<i> Bibia Magdalena</i>, f. 109, in the Laurentian Library of Florence).</span></span></span></span></p>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="posthilit">The <i>Theology of Arithmetic </i>adds another interpretation of the Dyad. In the dichotomy between Matter and
Form, the Dyad represents Matter. The <i>Theology</i> says (p. 44f):</span></span></span></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">It
is also called ‘deficiency and excess’ and ‘matter’ (for which, in fact
another term is the ‘indefinite dyad’) because it is in itself devoid
of shape and form and any limitation, but is capable of being limited
and made definite by reason and skill.</span></b></span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="posthilit">Having separated off, it nonetheless longs for a return to the Monad (p. 46). </span></span></span></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">Apart
from recklessness itself, they think that, because it is the very first
to have endured separation, it deserves to be called ‘anguish,’
‘endurance’ and ‘hardship.’ (Translator’s explanation: <span style="font-style: italic;">Duas</span> is here linked with <span style="font-style: italic;">due</span>
[anguish].)...The dyad, they say, is also called ‘Erato’; for having
attracted through love the advance of the monad as form, it generates
the rest of the results, starting with the triad and tetrad.
(Translator’s explanation: Erato is one of the Muses; her name is
cognate with the Greek for ‘love.’)</span></b></span></span></blockquote><p>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="posthilit"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj82jL1Z7eGq_LhL6OZTfsJ7xmJOdZaTSPEqHt_QNQUUFaIl-oQELAwdpFvWZMJR1bXTBSQDFd2wMpv5Tr4sDB-Hn2yV5OJd7Sm00HDpF9SekIjDvWYVWgn0q93I_W6xVkXMqjTuhu5Uw26KGImdfbHieVMZXcLNTWc2UIouaGXh6nzX7dO9MCFZrMa1g/s877/dodalannunc.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="877" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj82jL1Z7eGq_LhL6OZTfsJ7xmJOdZaTSPEqHt_QNQUUFaIl-oQELAwdpFvWZMJR1bXTBSQDFd2wMpv5Tr4sDB-Hn2yV5OJd7Sm00HDpF9SekIjDvWYVWgn0q93I_W6xVkXMqjTuhu5Uw26KGImdfbHieVMZXcLNTWc2UIouaGXh6nzX7dO9MCFZrMa1g/w400-h251/dodalannunc.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="posthilit"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: small;">It
will receive the Monad again, in a new unity or synthesis, as form
imprinted on matter. It is like the Virgin Mary in Christianity, who
yearns for the Messiah, and while pointing to the text in Isaiah
is told that God is imprinting his nature into her womb. The Dodal Popess card
was entitled "Pances," meaning "Belly," rather than "Popess," I think
precisely to emphasize the womblike nature of the Dyad, embodied by the
Virgin.<br /><br />In Genesis, the second day of the week is one of
separation, too: of the upper waters from the lower waters, and of the
firmament from what is below the firmament. There it is a process that
began on the first day with the separation of light from darkness, and
will continue on the third day, in separating the sea from dry land.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="posthilit"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: small;">Besides Juno, Agrippa identifies the Dyad with the "second great light," i.e. the Moon (p. 315). The Virgin was also associated with that celestial body, given that the Sun was associated with Christ. An example is Hieronymus Bosch's painting <i>St. John the Evangelist on Patmos</i>, ca. 1489 (viewable on many websites).<br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="posthilit"><span style="font-size: 130%;"></span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="posthilit"><span style="font-size: 130%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCOpDLZuvHq3r63kFwSKa892EaFp4HGSc78RamclxS5Ax5hKsxj09zpisVIS3RkMZtXtbIYXiOs3y4I6YVAshhiGKbxu_DNRYC-KzQ6TWfbGdq0KPjcEutjR4hUD9SXZCirGaotJccVDOqyDAuBADleizuI29ntmYILYmczuhDu1P9-9MZEeJZACmKgg/s438/EtteillaConsultante.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="242" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCOpDLZuvHq3r63kFwSKa892EaFp4HGSc78RamclxS5Ax5hKsxj09zpisVIS3RkMZtXtbIYXiOs3y4I6YVAshhiGKbxu_DNRYC-KzQ6TWfbGdq0KPjcEutjR4hUD9SXZCirGaotJccVDOqyDAuBADleizuI29ntmYILYmczuhDu1P9-9MZEeJZACmKgg/s320/EtteillaConsultante.jpeg" width="177" /></a></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>Etteilla
identified the Popess with his 8th card, that of the "female querent". He puts circles around her (8 of them). That would signify her
entrapment by the planetary and zodiacal powers, as Adam and Eve were by the serpent in Eden and humanity, in the first tractate of the <i>Corpus Hermeticum</i>, is by physis, matter, in thrall to the seven planets and the sphere of the fixed stars. More positively, she is the solitary one, as
indicated by the word-list when the card comes in the normal Upright
position. As in the previous post, words appearing only in D'Odoucet's list are in bold, those only in de la Salette's in italics:</span></span><br />
<p></p><blockquote>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">No. 8. ETTEILLA [or the female Querent].<b> The Woman Who Most Interests the Querent, if
Male, and the female Querent herself.</b><b> </b>Nature, Rest, Tranquility, Retreat, A Withdrawn Life, A Solitary Life, Retired Life,</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i> Life of a hermit</i><i> [or hermetic: vie d’hermite],</i></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> <i>Religious life,
Orphic life</i>. Repose of Old Age. Temple of Ardor, Silence.<b> </b></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Taciternity<b>.</b> <b> </b>REVERSED. FEMALE QUERENT. Imitation, Garden
of Eden, Effervescence, Bubbling, Fermentation, Ferment, Leaven,
Acidity.</span></span></blockquote><p>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
As I say, it is only the upright keywords that
apply to the Popess, as the embodiment of the solitary religious woman,
on the model of the Virgin Mary after Jesus's death, Mary Magdalene or their mythological predecessors, such as Isis in search of Osiris.
The Reverseds apply to the female Querent, as the Dyad in a less elevated state, that of Eve after eating from the Tree of Knowledge, dominated by material concerns that keep her in ferment yet longing to return to Eden. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Etteilla's cards and meanings seem derivative from the Marseille cards and the symbolic meaning attached to them by some tradition antedating him, reflecting the Roman numeral II on the card. That place in the order in turn is derivative from practice in Italy, where in at least some places the Popess had that same place in the order. But unlike the Fool, which was unnumbered or had the Arabic number 0 (for which there is no Roman equivalent), the Popess in one region where tarot cards were produced, namely Ferrara and Venice, was given the number 4, in other words, the number that other regions gave the Emperor. As for what Ferrara did give for the number 2, both the Empress and the Emperor are found. I cannot see how to interpret the Popess as reflective of the Pythagorean Tetrad, or the Emperor or Empress as reflective of the Dyad. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">This is not the only variation in number assignment in the early orders as given in written lists and as written on the cards. Starting immediately after the Pope, which is always the fifth card, there is a large variability of number assignments, in Florence and Bologna as well as Ferrara and Venice. Perhaps a few </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">meaningful Pythagorean interpretations of these different assignments can be made, but by no means all. It seems to me that it may have been precisely the amenability of the Lombard order to a Pythagorean </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyfvc93yINP8LQCtbj5NY23rRAxW2OMOzltLtuTbPJSicezeBcM2eQ5TgB57SmQ4lIoIZrqHCBohlvumiXaV6RzexKqQAnZP2TocZlGVU6cp1OMA9Web8Mf1uWQIYNUUxJMrWq3V0AEv3qCle0O7qVnNdULX-v61rbe1QIGOUuQmTiSc1SMnZGhx_Y4w/s1566/%5BJeu_de_tarot_divinatoire_Etteilla_Feu.JPEG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1566" data-original-width="871" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyfvc93yINP8LQCtbj5NY23rRAxW2OMOzltLtuTbPJSicezeBcM2eQ5TgB57SmQ4lIoIZrqHCBohlvumiXaV6RzexKqQAnZP2TocZlGVU6cp1OMA9Web8Mf1uWQIYNUUxJMrWq3V0AEv3qCle0O7qVnNdULX-v61rbe1QIGOUuQmTiSc1SMnZGhx_Y4w/s320/%5BJeu_de_tarot_divinatoire_Etteilla_Feu.JPEG" width="178" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">account of the meanings of the figures that, among other things, made that order appealing in France. The Lombard order, as reported by Alciato in 1544 and Susio a bit earlier or later, had the Hermit 11th and Strength 9th. By the time of Catelin Geoffroy's tarot of 1558 Lyon, it was the other way around. I will discuss what difference that change makes, if any, when I get to those cards. </span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">On
the other hand, the number 2 also applies to Etteilla's second card,
that with the two children on it and a fiery star above. In d'Odoucet's system, 2 is the number of stable, permanent vegetation, which he says is driven by "a central and permanent fire" (<a href="https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/14/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/14/mode/2up</a>), which as the source of light also makes the keyword "enlightenment" appropriate. Neither of these pronouncements have any relationship to the historical numerology of that number, that I can find. 2 is also the number of man and woman as active and passive; hence the 2 children on the card. This one is closer to the number's Neopythagorean meaning, at least in so far as 2 is matter (passive) to 1's form (active). But the two figures on the Etteilla card, taken from the Marseille Sun card, look to me quite identical.</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>The Twos </b></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipxuCXTbdpykpKFZpSUxH7S-wFo0wAlNMXH-E_vc6Q5_SUq9h5pyA65oO1GRwUvgrGSNUDKIxHq4vgMO3k4VuyuZdwPd9Qm4F2N1gXcIsaeo-Ewes-Q1DjAHundLzYIYfbB8mqqcJ9_r4/s1600/02scan0064.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606684950205147122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipxuCXTbdpykpKFZpSUxH7S-wFo0wAlNMXH-E_vc6Q5_SUq9h5pyA65oO1GRwUvgrGSNUDKIxHq4vgMO3k4VuyuZdwPd9Qm4F2N1gXcIsaeo-Ewes-Q1DjAHundLzYIYfbB8mqqcJ9_r4/s1600/02scan0064.jpg" /></a><br />Looking
at the Marseille-style Twos, not much stands out. We could perhaps get a sense of a fruitful bond
between two people in Coins, in Swords a flowering friendship. In Cups the two dolphins at the top are "smelling the flowers," which perhaps could represent looking shyly at the opposite sex. From the number, it is something near the beginning of such a relationship. something germinating. In Batons it is popping out all over. Otherwise, it could project a lot of things onto these cards.<br /><br />However it seems to me that the interpretations articulated by the Etteilla School do fit the Neopythagoreanism of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology of Arithmetic</span> and other Neopythagorean accounts. They in turn, as I hope to show immediately after, fit the Sola-Busca pictorial versions of the cards, sometimes better than Waite's own meanings (taken from the Etteilla school) fit Pamela Smith's designs. Since the Marseille designs developed in between, perhaps they developed their meanings out of what the SB reflects, which Etteilla drew on.<br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS1lq50hDujyYZoPtwyaQl5pleK0Xo4aWWaQ9miHxmD8IYYd82e9QCza6gJM3kSxvnRDKryUXOReP0cSkDhZTI1MmfAFZgZthsZjYdwRuEuqGfBA2YgTyUV7k0F90CIGJJ9d54jeMTLMgGZS9q-JbHvrA5JdbEp7AOWciA803fnmFZRCfs_qqVSSuzAw/s1382/Grand'Etteilla%20008a.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1382" data-original-width="771" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS1lq50hDujyYZoPtwyaQl5pleK0Xo4aWWaQ9miHxmD8IYYd82e9QCza6gJM3kSxvnRDKryUXOReP0cSkDhZTI1MmfAFZgZthsZjYdwRuEuqGfBA2YgTyUV7k0F90CIGJJ9d54jeMTLMgGZS9q-JbHvrA5JdbEp7AOWciA803fnmFZRCfs_qqVSSuzAw/s320/Grand'Etteilla%20008a.jpg" width="179" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I will start with the Etteilla school's word-list for Batons.</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> I am drawing on two lists, D'Odoucet only in bold, de la Salette only in italics. </span></span><br />
<p></p><blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">No. 34. TWO
OF BATONS: CHAGRIN, Sadness, Melancholy, <i>Affliction,</i> Displeasure,
Distress, Grief, Mortification, Ill Humor, Quarrel, Vapors, Gloomy
Ideas.--<b>Bitterness, Anger, Spite. </b>REVERSED: SURPRISE<b>, Enchantment</b><b>, </b><i>Deceit, Trickery, Cheating</i>,<b> Shock, </b>Trouble, <b>Unforeseen Event, Unexpected Occurrence, </b>Fright<b>, </b>Emotion, Fear, Dread,
Terror<b>.--</b>Dismay,<b> </b>Consternation, Astonishment,<b> </b>Admiration, Rapture<b>,
</b>Alarms.---Marvel, Phenomenon, Miracle.</span></span></div>
</blockquote>D'Odoucet<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> says in the introduction to his list that the card has 4, his number for the universe, submitting to 3,
his number of animal generation (<a href="https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/78/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/78/mode/2up</a>). We may be pleasantly surprised or
chagrined, he adds, thereby including the keywords. </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">This, it seems to me, may be said of any combination of numbers. However, many of the Uprights might have been inspired by the Dyad as expressed in The <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span> (p. 46): </span></span><br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Apart from recklessness itself, they think that, because it is the very
first to have endured separation, it deserves to be called ‘anguish,’
‘endurance’ and ‘hardship.’ (Translator’s explanation: <span style="font-style: italic;">Duas</span> is here linked with <span style="font-style: italic;">due</span> [anguish].)</b></span></span>
</div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUwdUATcmz6YfAfgHM5sQIRvs77TQsLi3cDQJfRVQ4GhKz6vbRGuLGK_bLfE_Qdhj6yx578igaslf6FBOK5VkcwUBFIR9dOixfVEPXRueqwqF-5_Edha_yQJploOHF8NWg9tE6jXmkW5d8/s1600/Wands02.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUwdUATcmz6YfAfgHM5sQIRvs77TQsLi3cDQJfRVQ4GhKz6vbRGuLGK_bLfE_Qdhj6yx578igaslf6FBOK5VkcwUBFIR9dOixfVEPXRueqwqF-5_Edha_yQJploOHF8NWg9tE6jXmkW5d8/s320/Wands02.jpg" width="184" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">According
to the <i>Theology</i>, the Dyad separates from the One in an act of bold
audacity. It is like Eve in the Garden of Eden, recklessly disobeying
God's instruction not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. The
result is an experience of anguish and hardship, on its own away from
the womb-like security of the Monad.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">For the contemporary relevance of this material, one might look at Waite's "divinatory meanings" for the same card: for the uprights,<b> </b></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">"</span></span></b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>physical suffering, disease, chagrin, sadness, mortification"</b> and <b>"</b></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Surprise, wonder, enchantment, emotion, trouble, fear"</b> in the reverseds. These are almost direct quotes from the Etteilla school. The only thing Waite adds is, I assume from another tradition,<b> "</b></span></span></span></span><b>riches, fortune, magnificence,"</b> in the uprights, which fits the globe his man holds in his hand (at left), signifying that riches and conquests can be, for someone drawing this card, an empty satisfaction.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span>The usual Italian twos, of a style similar to the "Marseille", of course do not illustrate these meanings. But I seem to see them in the</span> </span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicRUyV3n1ncUkGRqwES9KEZVm53L2Hc8xjr6JwoJH-Z0saFyQbnLQAPjr04H0X7uISYSzbezg9U3jQb5521sYtRWBbzkOIT_k4IQvSTw9v1u3YPk1E4sdwEb931pjysXtdbkHeIkEpFeoS/s1600/02BaCu02_Sola_Busca.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicRUyV3n1ncUkGRqwES9KEZVm53L2Hc8xjr6JwoJH-Z0saFyQbnLQAPjr04H0X7uISYSzbezg9U3jQb5521sYtRWBbzkOIT_k4IQvSTw9v1u3YPk1E4sdwEb931pjysXtdbkHeIkEpFeoS/s1600/02BaCu02_Sola_Busca.jpg" /></a></span>Sola-Busca, with its nude, corpulent man looking off into the distance. His batons
form an X, a typical formation of batons in the Twos; but they
also act as a barrier to keep him from going further. He has separated
from the One, the ideal, and feels the anguish of that separation, from
which he cannot by his own efforts return. His corpulence reflects the
Neopythagorean conception of the Two as matter separated off from form.</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Some have suggested a likeness between this man and Cosimo <i>Il Vecchio</i> di Medici. If so, it might depict him in exile, which he spent in Padua and Venice.<br /><br />The
same fit between SB, the Etteilla School, and the <i>Theology</i> works for
Cups. In the SB we see a love-</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">possessed putto playing the violin to his
beloved. The theme of love had already been proclaimed in the earlier Visconti-Sforza (or Pierpont-Morgan-Bergamo) 2 of Cups, with a banner in the middle saying "Amore Mio," My Love. In the same vein, here </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">is the Etteilla school's word list, with Etteilla's card near right:</span><br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizsAZVjSrKUsn9rOX6ft_BNEOVa4w8DDqZxJq0T8uLyfOBVXuTqYLQZYG_nBpNauGZc5fYNWTSMj--I-E-Mf6wPRYnnFflClMly6_piuPmEGtSR-h5lknXvf0OiJvaT_Is5rET7PFhVrLGTvnDFmYiEy4pU74duhvg18kn6vsCNIU4-XPWG_316TpqLg/s1538/02Cu_Etteilla_Waite.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1379" data-original-width="1538" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizsAZVjSrKUsn9rOX6ft_BNEOVa4w8DDqZxJq0T8uLyfOBVXuTqYLQZYG_nBpNauGZc5fYNWTSMj--I-E-Mf6wPRYnnFflClMly6_piuPmEGtSR-h5lknXvf0OiJvaT_Is5rET7PFhVrLGTvnDFmYiEy4pU74duhvg18kn6vsCNIU4-XPWG_316TpqLg/s320/02Cu_Etteilla_Waite.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>No. 48. 2 <span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">OF CUPS: LOVE. Passion, Inclination, Sympathy, Appeal, Proclivity,
Friendship, Kindness, Affection, Attachment, Liking, Liaison, Gallantry,
Attraction, Affinity.<b> </b>REVERSED: DESIRE. Wish, Vow, Will,
Envy, Covetousness, Cupidity, Concupiscence, Jealousy, Passion, Illusion. Appetite.</span></span></div>
</blockquote><p>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">These are simply
the positive and negative aspects of Desire, in particular the desire
of the soul for reunion with its God. </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Waite has for this card, <b>"</b></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Love, passion, friendship, affinity, union, concord, sympathy, the interrelation of the sexes,"</b> but without any Reverseds.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">D'Odoucet's comments about 8, the succession of generations, as pervading the universe, 4 (<a href="https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/106/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/106/mode/2up</a>), does not capture much of what the lists contain. There is a more straightforward approach, simply in terms of the number of suit-objects on the card, rather than trying to interpret Etteilla's card numbers. </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In terms of the <i>Theology</i>, the
Dyad wishes to attract the Monad to itself. The <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span> says (p. 46): </span></span><br />
</p><blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>T</b>h<b>e
dyad, they say, is also called ‘Erato’; for having attracted through
love the advance of the monad as form, it generates the rest of the
results, starting with the triad and tetrad. (Translator’s explanation:
Erato is one of the Muses; her name is cognate with the Greek for
‘love.’)</b></span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
The SB Cups' putto playing a violin while
looking upwards is reminiscent of the courting lover serenading his
beloved below her window. Their eventual union will result in enformed
matter, as expressed in the </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSzR-TDUBvOXIDJz5Z7h-9zxIPHTREZKrNXAl9Mp2OGjeuQxWefcYacqGn7CusB6-c5Wqy4fXuh9n8_-JRuc3FgmaDzcBJRnNsGHtum2LSheDWGah_CQLc0VAL1WX255psne-Hpv-VLbAL8vHiURj9HG2zEcYW5Uq1IVGDH-o1rBolUPY_4uIoYtxDKg/s1489/swordsSBEtteilla.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1372" data-original-width="1489" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSzR-TDUBvOXIDJz5Z7h-9zxIPHTREZKrNXAl9Mp2OGjeuQxWefcYacqGn7CusB6-c5Wqy4fXuh9n8_-JRuc3FgmaDzcBJRnNsGHtum2LSheDWGah_CQLc0VAL1WX255psne-Hpv-VLbAL8vHiURj9HG2zEcYW5Uq1IVGDH-o1rBolUPY_4uIoYtxDKg/s320/swordsSBEtteilla.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Triad onward.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Here is the Etteilla school's word-list in Swords.<b> </b></span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
No. 62. 2
OF SWORDS: FRIENDSHIP. Attachment, Tenderness, Kindness, Rapport,
Relationship, Identity, Intimacy, Convenience, Correspondence, Interest, Conformity, Sympathy, Affinity, Attraction.
REVERSED: 3rd Cahier: Unhelpful or False Friends, or Relatives of Little Help. Lists: FALSE. Falsehood, Lying, Imposture, Duplicity, Bad Faith, Trickery, Dissimulation, Deceit, Deception. Superficial, Superficiality,
Surface.</blockquote><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Etteilla's Uprights express a feeling of affection and support, much like that of the SB card. Two crossed swords might well be a sign of close connection. In the SB, t</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">he swords each is holding suggest a military context, with
the younger one looking to</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> the older for advice and
support, perhaps even not wanting to be left on his own. </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The separation
of the Dyad from the Monad is one attended by a certain
amount of justified trepidati</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">on.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">D'Odoucet attempts to justify the interpretation as reflecting spread of vegetation, as indicated by the nyumber 2, over the "the globe of the world," thus happy days for its inhabitants (<a href="https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/134/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/134/mode/2up</a>). These concepts have little to do with Etteilla's specific keywords, except for removing one obstacle to strife. <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Waite says forthis card: <b>"</b></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>courage, friendship, concord in a state of arms; another reading gives tenderness, affection, intimacy."</b></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b> </b>The latter are from Etteilla. </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Waite's primary meanings have to do with military virtues (and vices).</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Etteilla's list, on the other hand, seems to relate more to the Neopythagoreans' relationship between the Monad and the Dyad, or the Hebrew Bible's Yahweh and Sophia. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3pBT5X4xTfzXkCEtLXpbrEVnjwrfqSabwU2pWRsO9tOb5wSDkL6jzZvKtO9RNkKy0wXpgLinViAUfV_eDyYSt2-pVQMFcSx9VrVcFTD01R-ydQU-oVx9Mt33fWd7D2Lgg7kuZO7DGtSj_6RZZu3vnXlKIANgZWMMnur_4bOuWjO48ZBdPAY7uNdAh0A/s200/324px-S02_Sola_BuscaDET.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="178" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3pBT5X4xTfzXkCEtLXpbrEVnjwrfqSabwU2pWRsO9tOb5wSDkL6jzZvKtO9RNkKy0wXpgLinViAUfV_eDyYSt2-pVQMFcSx9VrVcFTD01R-ydQU-oVx9Mt33fWd7D2Lgg7kuZO7DGtSj_6RZZu3vnXlKIANgZWMMnur_4bOuWjO48ZBdPAY7uNdAh0A/s1600/324px-S02_Sola_BuscaDET.jpg" width="178" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Etteilla's reverseds could relate to Yahweh's feeling of betrayal after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">This advice could either be well-intended or duplicitous--like
that of the serpent in Eden-- </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">corresponding to the Etteilla Upright and
Reversed meanings.</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Waite's reverseds<b>, </b></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>"</b></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Imposture, falsehood, dupl</b></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>icity, disloyalty," </b></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">would seem to derive from Etteilla's</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">:</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> not the lady's betrayal, but her feeling betrayed by someone else.<br /><br />In the SB, the older man’s head is a curl that is most likely a horn but also suggests a lock of hair. In Renaissance symbolism forelocks represent opportunities to be seized (James Hall, <span style="font-style: italic;">Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art</span>, p. 229, in Google Books). <br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF3qkDY9esXlc-BYYK7_6rU6wzY2rz1MKKqudtzOnwgoCITSGTgNN6yjONw4GeCaOlirpe_BtdQ40TgboK4EW71e7mYHSyjsccsFgFvw355OVOPOLfYpgcZjUVlPHxQo3zWOemsWUWgElh/s1600/00.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF3qkDY9esXlc-BYYK7_6rU6wzY2rz1MKKqudtzOnwgoCITSGTgNN6yjONw4GeCaOlirpe_BtdQ40TgboK4EW71e7mYHSyjsccsFgFvw355OVOPOLfYpgcZjUVlPHxQo3zWOemsWUWgElh/s320/00.jpg" width="157" /></a></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Another detail that needs interpretation are the specks in the air
to the </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">right of the younger </span></span>man<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">. They are probably birds; their flight
encourages the young man to journey likewise. Alternatively, they c</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ould
be insects buzzing around him. In another deck done around this time
in a similar style, the so-called Leber (named after one of its
owners), the Fool card has just such insects, now drawn as 8s. They seem to be irritants. "If only someone would give me a net,"
the Latin on the bottom says (as translated by Marco and Ross at <a href="http://tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=1810685&postcount=7">http://tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=1810685&postcount=7</a>).</span></span></p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In
other contexts at that time, insects are a metaphor for "evil tongues."
Alberti, in “Rings,” a short work circulating in manuscript at this
time in Northern Italy, describes his 12th ring as follows: <b>“Behold a
helmet and mask engraved in emerald, and see the swarm of flies which
surrounds them!”</b> (<span style="font-style: italic;">Dinner-pieces</span>,
trans. Marsh, p. 213). The interpretation:</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Like flies, some men are born
only to bite and buzz. We must shield ourselves against such men, and
must assume either a mask of severity to drive them away, or a mask of
indifference to ignore them. Human follies must be swallowed whole
</b>(Marsh, p. 217).</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">There is also Alciato, in his <span style="font-style: italic;">Emblematum Liber</span>,
which appeared in numerous widely varying editions starting in 1531. In
a 1540 Spanish/Latin editionm Emblem 51, "Maledentia," Slander, offers
a similar interpretation of a swarm of <span class="posthilit">insects</span> as in Alberti's "Rings"; this time they are wasps. The verse reads</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Archilochi tumulo insculptas de marmore vespas<br />Esse ferunt, linguae certa sigilla malae.<br /><br />On the tomb of Archilochus wasps had been sculpted in marble;These, as it is said, provide dependable symbols for evil tongues.<br />(Alciato, <span style="font-style: italic;">A Book of Emblems: The Emblematum Liber in Latin and English</span>, trans. John F. Moffitt, p. 70).</b></span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJyXwD3N45dR0gLmaYNKc8JwPwoRCe_aVUs8RC5FEW2G0oBLkx8WNNDqYY9Z8_BIuBisBUBUe8emGUy5m_oVJc6HJ7BWEK_tuzxBki7UQ4KtgprVaV9IgEXO3OG5kJ-7dILSEwZrm79ooqOISlvNcBldSQzoVagAk9VWdRCoFYx-8dPaH_hZ0Hjqp20g/s1383/Grand'Etteilla%20012a.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1383" data-original-width="751" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJyXwD3N45dR0gLmaYNKc8JwPwoRCe_aVUs8RC5FEW2G0oBLkx8WNNDqYY9Z8_BIuBisBUBUe8emGUy5m_oVJc6HJ7BWEK_tuzxBki7UQ4KtgprVaV9IgEXO3OG5kJ-7dILSEwZrm79ooqOISlvNcBldSQzoVagAk9VWdRCoFYx-8dPaH_hZ0Hjqp20g/s320/Grand'Etteilla%20012a.jpg" width="174" /></a></b></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In the context of the SB image, the flying creatures, as flying <span class="posthilit">insects</span>,
thus could represent the slanderous biting and buzzing of evil or
"waspish" tongues, hindering one from doing what needs doing. The young
man must ignore them and seize opportunity by the forelock.<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b></b></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Coins is difficult to fit with the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>. Here is the Etteilla School's combined list, along with the card. Etteilla associates it with the god and planet Mercury, as the second celestial body starting from the center of the solar system. Since Mercury is the messenger of the gods, it fits with the reversed meaning of the card:</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">No. 76. 2
OF COINS: DIFFICULTIES. Obstacle, Blocking, Obstruction, <b>Hitch, Snag</b>. Trouble, Worry, Emotion,<b> Jumble, Mixup, Confusion, Difficulty, Unexpected Obstacle, Kink, Obscurity.--</b>Agitation, Anxiety, Perplexity, <b>Concern.
</b>REVERSED: LETTER (LETTRE), <b>Note or Ticket [Billet], Document, Writing,</b><i>,
Sacred Writing, Profane Writing</i>,<b> </b>Text, Literature, Doctrine, Erudition, Written Work,
Book, Production, Composition,<b> Dispatches, Epistle, Missives. Character. Literal Sense<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></span> A</b>lphabet, Elements, Principles, Bill of Exchange.</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSwjh-A2T2WpCFpNpYeNzBJVhXsRzuLsSI2NzIMMIwF5B5GWandbLTkCyEQqDo1JOKrtz-vRG9Dr_CdXRAVuKgExGHESwg7d8PUWSQzF2Qwzu3DofgseBF-mruwy6UMb7shtBUriwDsT75/s1600/Pents02.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSwjh-A2T2WpCFpNpYeNzBJVhXsRzuLsSI2NzIMMIwF5B5GWandbLTkCyEQqDo1JOKrtz-vRG9Dr_CdXRAVuKgExGHESwg7d8PUWSQzF2Qwzu3DofgseBF-mruwy6UMb7shtBUriwDsT75/s320/Pents02.jpg" width="184" /></a></div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Considering the suit's theme of money, that might suggest the production of a contract document, but some difficulties about both parties signing it. D'Odoucet attempts to derive these meanings from the 6 of "the sphere of the globe" and 7 representing "the sphere of life." resulting in "superabundance" (<a href="https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/162/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/162/mode/2up</a>). This seems too general. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Waite's divinatory meanings are in part simply what is suggested by his version of the card, a juggler holding a disc in each hand, and in part Etteilla's:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Gaiety, recreation and its connexions, which is the subject of the
design; but it is read also as news and messages in writing, as
obstacles, agitation, trouble, embroilment. <i>Reversed</i>: Enforced gaiety, simulated enjoyment, literal sense, handwriting, composition, letters of exchange.</b></blockquote><p>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Etteilla's "embarras" has somehow dropped out, but perhaps is covered by "obstacles," etc. , as suggested also by the man on the card juggling different items that are both related and tending to go their own ways.But how is that an "embarrassment"?<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;">The SB card has on it two medallions, one of a young noble, in the style of a Roman profile, and the other an older man in a typical Italian hat </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">of the </span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUFfOkb00TrFoKWoPAqrr1KilAXaA2bqA_5lDfeue998HkRUNi5bvQlegct-Z_SI-hjO6SvUFAHGybX7F8WHBAbvfySaIPVWtO5BAHyrkvuYGjArgDtS18NdkqTIv0HOvG1B8UFcc9aajrNqI6r7a-rQcamVJdZc_dm0tc6VhhOhB6d8R3jvg-P0nJew/s349/02Co_Sola_Busca.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="189" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUFfOkb00TrFoKWoPAqrr1KilAXaA2bqA_5lDfeue998HkRUNi5bvQlegct-Z_SI-hjO6SvUFAHGybX7F8WHBAbvfySaIPVWtO5BAHyrkvuYGjArgDtS18NdkqTIv0HOvG1B8UFcc9aajrNqI6r7a-rQcamVJdZc_dm0tc6VhhOhB6d8R3jvg-P0nJew/s320/02Co_Sola_Busca.jpg" width="173" /></a></span><span style="font-weight: normal;">time. It
seems to me that the two medallions express the idea of partnership
between the representatives of two classes of society. The top figure
wears a laurel wreath, representing Apollo and victory, hence
excellence derived from conformity to the eternal archetypes
physically, aesthetically, intellectually, and morally. The Italian
aristocracy saw its model in the philosopher-kings of Plato’s <i>Republic</i>.
Rulers are victorious and win the respect of their subjects by keeping
their ideas on the ideal.<span style="font-weight: normal;"> The other is lower down in the hierarchy. The
contrast is that between Form and Matter, as the <i>Theology</i> relates: </span></span><br />
</p><blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>The
dyad is also an element in the composition of all things, an element
which is opposed to the monad, and for this reason the dyad is
perpetually subordinate to the monad, as matter is to form.</b></span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
It
is the partnership of the ideal and the material. That can cause "troubles." But it is still not clear how the Etteilla School's "embarras" got in there.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The medallions have often been understood to represent two actual people, not Venetian but Ferarrese, Ercole d'Este and Girolamo Savonarola. Ercole d'Este was Duke of
Ferrara at the time the deck was made. Savonarola was originally from
Ferrara, where his father had been a close friend of the previous duke.
Savonarola himself was a Dominican preacher who attacked the excesses
of both the aristocracy and the clergy. He was so popular that in 1994 he
managed to unseat the son of Lorenzo di' Medici as ruler of Florence. Ercole had become very religious since the death of his
wife, and the two men had a warm correspondence. But then
Savonarola started attacking the reigning Pope himself. That was going
too far. Ercole had to publicly repudiate Savonarola to forestall the
papacy's coming after himself as well as Savonarola.<br /><br />In this
interpretation, the card expresses the friendship between the two men.
The Etteilla Reverseds express the means by which the friendship was
conducted, by letter, while the Uprights express the resulting
embarrassment to Ercole.<br /><br />This interpretation, however, is not likely part of
the card's original intent. There are two likely times when the
cards could have been done, 1491 and 1525 (based on an inscription on the cards of the year, reckoning from the founding of Venice). In the first case, the cards
would have been before the friendship between the two men occurred
(Ercole's wife died in 1493, and the correspondence started 1494); the
second date, after the friendship and his eventual repudiation of Savonarola due to his defying of the Borgia pope, would have been too embarrassing to
commemorate. Moreover, Savonarola is hardly a representative of matter as opposed to form; his interests were spiritual in the extreme, and he seems to have considered himself subordinate to no one but God.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In fact, the second man on the card has recently been identified not as Savonarola the Dominican preacher, but rather his grandfather Michele Savonarola (</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="headwordInfo">c.1385–<i>c</i>.1466)</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">, friend and physician to Ercole's predecessor dukes of Ferrara. This idea was put forward by art historian Paola Gnaccolini in "</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Il segreto dei I tarocchi Sola Busca e la cultura
ermetico-alchemico tra Marche e Veneto alla fine del Quattrocento" (<i>Il segreto dei segreti: I tarocchi Sola Busca e la cultura hermetico-alelchemica tra Marche e Veneto alla fino del Quattrocento</i>, Milano 2012, pp 15-59), p. 36. Below, after my translation. I include the footnotes; I had no idea so much was written about the man.</span></span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
Il carattere arcaico
dell'abbigliamento potrebbe far pensare a un tributo postumo a un grande
studioso e alchimista, che potrebbe allora forse essere, vista la
coincidenza con i tratti fisionomici tramandati da un ritratto miniato
(111), il medico padovano Michele Savonarola (112), nonno del più famoso'
Girolamo (113) che, dopo aver a lungo insegnato all'Università patavina,
si era trasferito nel 1450 a lavorare alla corte di Ferrara come medico
personale di Niccolò III d'Este (e dopo di lui di Leonello e Borso).<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Il carattere arcaico dell'abbigliamento potrebbe far pensare a un tributo postumo a un grande studioso e alchimista, che potrebbe allora forse essere, vista la coincidenza con i tratti fisionomici tramandati da un ritratto miniato 111, il medico padovano Michele Savonarola 112, nonno del più"></span></span></span></span></blockquote><p></p><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b><span><span><span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Il carattere arcaico dell'abbigliamento potrebbe far pensare a un tributo postumo a un grande studioso e alchimista, che potrebbe allora forse essere, vista la coincidenza con i tratti fisionomici tramandati da un ritratto miniato 111, il medico padovano Michele Savonarola 112, nonno del più">The archaic character of the clothing might suggest a posthumous tribute to a
great scholar and alchemist, who could then perhaps be seen, given the </span></span><span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Il carattere arcaico dell'abbigliamento potrebbe far pensare a un tributo postumo a un grande studioso e alchimista, che potrebbe allora forse essere, vista la coincidenza con i tratti fisionomici tramandati da un ritratto miniato 111, il medico padovano Michele Savonarola 112, nonno del più">coincidence of facial features of an </span></span><span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Il carattere arcaico dell'abbigliamento potrebbe far pensare a un tributo postumo a un grande studioso e alchimista, che potrebbe allora forse essere, vista la coincidenza con i tratti fisionomici tramandati da un ritratto miniato 111, il medico padovano Michele Savonarola 112, nonno del più">extant illuminated</span></span><span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Il carattere arcaico dell'abbigliamento potrebbe far pensare a un tributo postumo a un grande studioso e alchimista, che potrebbe allora forse essere, vista la coincidenza con i tratti fisionomici tramandati da un ritratto miniato 111, il medico padovano Michele Savonarola 112, nonno del più"> portrait (111), as the Paduan doctor Michele Savonarola (112), grandfather
of the more </span><span title="famoso' Girolamo 113 che, dopo aver a lungo insegnato all'Università patavina, si era trasferito nel 1450 a lavorare alla corte di Ferrara come medico personale di Niccolò III d'Este (e dopo di lui di Leonello e Borso).">famous Girolamo (113), who, after teaching a long time at the University of Padua, moved in
1450 to work at the court of Ferrara as the personal physician of Niccolo
III d'Este (and after him of Leonello and Borso).</span></span></span></span></b> <br /></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="famoso' Girolamo 113 che, dopo aver a lungo insegnato all'Università patavina, si era trasferito nel 1450 a lavorare alla corte di Ferrara come medico personale di Niccolò III d'Este (e dopo di lui di Leonello e Borso).">___________</span></span></span></span></blockquote><p></p><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="famoso' Girolamo 113 che, dopo aver a lungo insegnato all'Università patavina, si era trasferito nel 1450 a lavorare alla corte di Ferrara come medico personale di Niccolò III d'Este (e dopo di lui di Leonello e Borso)."><span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="111 Si veda nel codice bolognese del 1450 Bologna, Biblioteca dell'Archiginnasio, A,125: cfr.">111. See in </span></span></span><span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="111 Si veda nel codice bolognese del 1450 Bologna, Biblioteca dell'Archiginnasio, A,125: cfr.">Bologna</span></span></span><span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="111 Si veda nel codice bolognese del 1450 Bologna, Biblioteca dell'Archiginnasio, A,125: cfr."> Codex of 1450 Archiginnasio Library, </span></span></span><span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="111 Si veda nel codice bolognese del 1450 Bologna, Biblioteca dell'Archiginnasio, A,125: cfr."> Bologna, </span></span></span><span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="111 Si veda nel codice bolognese del 1450 Bologna, Biblioteca dell'Archiginnasio, A,125: cfr.">A, 125: see. </span><span title="Carbonelli 1925, p.">Carbonelli [<i>Sulle fonti storiche della chmica e dell'alchimia in Italia</i>, Roma] 1925, p. </span><span title="10 fig.">10 fig. </span><span title="5.">5.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="famoso' Girolamo 113 che, dopo aver a lungo insegnato all'Università patavina, si era trasferito nel 1450 a lavorare alla corte di Ferrara come medico personale di Niccolò III d'Este (e dopo di lui di Leonello e Borso)."><span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="112 Segarizzi 1900;"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> <br /></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="famoso' Girolamo 113 che, dopo aver a lungo insegnato all'Università patavina, si era trasferito nel 1450 a lavorare alla corte di Ferrara come medico personale di Niccolò III d'Este (e dopo di lui di Leonello e Borso)."><span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="112 Segarizzi 1900;">112. Segarizzi [<i>Delle vita e dele opera di Michele Savonarola, medico padovano del secolo XV</i>, Padova 1900; </span><span title="Carbonelli 1925, pp.">Carbonelli 1925, pp. </span><span title="10, 154-157;">10, 154-157; </span><span title="Samaritani 1976, pp.">Samaritani ["Michele Savonarola riformatore cattolico nella corte estense a meta del sec. XV", in <i>Atti e memoria nella deputazione provinciale ferrese di storia patria</i>, III, XXII,] 1976 pp. </span><span title="1-95 (in particolare la bibl. pp. 21-22 in nota 46);">1-95 (in particular bibl. pp. 21-22 in footnote 46); </span><span title="Jacquart 1993, pp.">Jacquart ["Medecine et alchimie chez Michel Savonarola (1385-1466)", in <i>Alchimia et Philosophie</i>] 1993, pp. </span><span title="109-122;">109-122; </span><span title="F. Tomolo, in La">F. Tomolo, in <i>La</i></span><span title="miniatura a Ferrara 1998, pp."><i> Miniature Ferrara</i> 1998, pp. </span><span title="99-101 cat.">99-101 cat. </span><span title="12;">12; </span><span title="Pereira 2001, p.">Pereira [<i>Arcana Sapienza: l'alchimia dall'origini a Jung</i>] 2001, p. </span><span title="171;">171; </span><span title="Crisciani 2005, pp.">Crisciani [Historia ed exempla; storia e storie in alcuni testi di Michele Savonarola", in<i> Il Principe e la storia</i>] 2005, pp. </span><span title="53-68;">53-68; </span><span title="Crisciani, Zuccolin 2011. Sul rapporto tra alchimia e medicina Crisciani, Pereira 1998, pp.">Crisciani, Zuccolini [eds., <i>Michele Savonarola, Medicina e cultura di corte</i>
(Micrologus Library, XXXVII] 2011. On the relationship between alchemy
and medicine Crisciani, Pereira ["Black Death and Golden Remedies: Some
remarks on Alchemy and the Plague", in <i>The Regulation of Evil: Social and Cultural Attitudes to Epidemics in the Late Middle Ages</i>, ed, by A. Paravicini Bagliani, F. Santi] 1998, pp. </span><span title="7-39;">7-39; </span><span title="Pereira 2003a, pp.">Pereira ["L'alchemista come medico perfetto nel 'Testamentum' pseudolulliano", in C. Crisciani, R. Paravicini Bagliani, eds., <i>Alchimia e medicina nel Mediaevo</i>, 2003], pp. </span><span title="77-108;">77-108; </span><span title="Crisciani 2003, pp.">Crisciani ["Il famaco d'oro: Alcuni testi tra e secoli XIV e XV", in Crisciani, Paravicini Bagliani 2003], pp. </span><span title="217-245.">217-245.</span><span title="113 Hind, 1938,1, p."></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="113 Hind, 1938,1, p."></span></span></span></blockquote><p></p><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="113 Hind, 1938,1, p.">113. </span></span></span><span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="113 Hind, 1938,1, p.">Hind, <i>[Early Italian Engraving: A critical Catalogue with Complete Reproductions of all the Prints Described</i>]1938.1, p. </span><span title="242 aveva proposto l'identificazione del ritrattato in Gerolamo Savonarola, pur consapevole dei problemi di questa ipotesi, anche per quanto concerneva">242, proposed the identification of the sitter as Girolamo Savonarola,
although aware of the problems of this hypothesis, even concerning the </span><span title="la cronologia.">chronology.</span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></blockquote><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">This identification fits with the Gnaccolini's proposal that the initials "MS" stand for Marino Sanudo. Sanudo's father represented Venice in Ferrara at the right time, 1457-59, to
have known this physician to d'Este</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">. </span></span><br /></p>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It occurs to me that perhaps Hind was not the first to identify the portrait, mistakenly, as that of Girolamo Savonarola, who did indeed turn out to be an embarrassment to Ercole (</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">For more of Gnoccolini's discussion see my blog-entry at <a href="http://newmaterialsolabusca.blogspot.com/2015/07/part-5.html">http://newmaterialsolabusca.blogspot.com/2015/07/part-5.html</a>.)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">As physician, Michele Savonarola was concerned primarily with the physical health of his ducal patients, a concern with their material well-being, in contrast to their own concern with administering the state in conformity with the ethical ideals of Christianity, i.e. Platonic ideals vs. the physical body. It is then about the congruity of the two. <br /><br />"Huck" on Tarot History Forum (<a href="http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=5308&p=9242">http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=530&p=9242</a>) has suggested that the card might represent the friendship between Ferrara and Venice at
that time. In that case, the upper figure on the card might have been intended to suggest Alfonso
d'Este, the heir-apparent in Ferrara, and the physician as representing Venice, since Padua had for a few centuries been the main city of Venice's holdings on the mainland. In favor of this
interpretation, the figure on the card is the right age and has a short
beard. Alfonso d'Este, unlike his father, was portrayed with a beard.
Also Alfonso did pay a visit to Venice at that time, one in which after
some strain (a war, in fact), the traditional ties between the two
cities were being renewed. In that sense the card represents the initiation or resumption of cordial relations of a business or diplomatic nature.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>CONCLUSION </b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br />So what we have in the
Twos, and the Popess as well, are various expressions of the
Neopythagorean Dyad: as daring separation, as anguish, as desire, and
as union, between the archetypal world of form and the physical
world of matter.</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMq-fqSlI-2Q8A_-93kjLAe2s89sLR_fyLXcveJF5hWsIm5K-wYEsttHaTzCMxffopAbkoOId_Js1A8z45FUDhnndPVDeBqpodYjAeJJh9muaUYm8GLkESBIsgqJN1VSDsTXaZwwl9Z3Mk/s1600/02sb2all.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMq-fqSlI-2Q8A_-93kjLAe2s89sLR_fyLXcveJF5hWsIm5K-wYEsttHaTzCMxffopAbkoOId_Js1A8z45FUDhnndPVDeBqpodYjAeJJh9muaUYm8GLkESBIsgqJN1VSDsTXaZwwl9Z3Mk/s1600/02sb2all.jpg" /></a></div><p>
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBCPqr3dzcctyDDW_cE8oJVTnrvFyiTuw8hVum4tpTDR3AoY6kEqrjLKCaYgrZUWW4acvtvp98TFz0VvtZUdjR32H9ZDdTkgcwWEOPKnJQOtYvExnXwizAYKQUgGgL1icubnxYIykPeWRF/s1600/2sWaite.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBCPqr3dzcctyDDW_cE8oJVTnrvFyiTuw8hVum4tpTDR3AoY6kEqrjLKCaYgrZUWW4acvtvp98TFz0VvtZUdjR32H9ZDdTkgcwWEOPKnJQOtYvExnXwizAYKQUgGgL1icubnxYIykPeWRF/s640/2sWaite.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I don't see that Waite and Smith borrowed much visually from the Sola-Busca in designing their Twos, In Batons there is the same looking off into the distance as in the SB,</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> and the same feeling of love (although in this case the love-object is present) as in the SB Cups. However the lady in Swords has a determination that the young man in the SB lacks, while she lacks the older friend for support. As for Coins, while two objects in the juggler's hands could be form and matter, or two friends, that is not a natural interpretation. So overall I'd say 25% for borrowing from SB to Smith.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">As far as Waite's word-lists in relation to Etteilla's, Waite has added <b>"riches, magnificence"</b> to Etteilla's upright Batons; the two lists correlate at about 75%. In Cups, the Uprights are the same, but Waite has no Reverseds. I do not know if we can count that lack as a lack of correlation. I will count it half, so again we have 75%. He has added only one word, <b>"courage,"</b> to Swords; other than that, they are the same. So 90% correlation. In Coins, he has aided <b>"gaiety"</b> and <b>"enforced gaiety"</b> to the uprights and reverseds. So 60% there. The average is 75%.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In relation to Pythagoreanism, the general theme of the Etteilla lists, in all the suits, is that of the rewards and difficulties of two friends who are separated, like the Dyad from the Monad. This is not a surprising result, because Etteilla characterized his method as <i>Cartonomancie</i>, that is, card-reading by numbers. For him the number One is characterized as God, and Two as "man and woman," a distinction that can symbolically fit other entities as well.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Sola-Busca seems to express the same idea (assuming the man in Batons has a friend in the land from which he is barred). The Pythagoreanism is less clear in the Waite-Smith imagery. It is possible that the lady in Swords feels grief for a dead brother, and I suppose getting vengeance is one way of reuniting. Coins' juggler might be seen metaphorically as a juggling act to maintain friendships with both of two friends who distrust each other (Venice and Ferrara), which would fit the reversed "letter, communication," too. In the Waite-Smith Cups, the affection is clear enough. For Waite's lists the correlation is closer; perhaps 70% would be a good estimate overall, </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">compared to at least 80% for the SB and Etteilla.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The abstract designs of the Marseille do not suggest any interpretations overtly; the most that I can say is how much they are consistent with Etteilla, the SB, and the number 2. The two dolphins in Cups seem to have an interest in the two flowers they are inspecting, which could suggest the beginning of a loving relationship. </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> That the two Swords touch suggests friendship, and the flower in the center suggests it is blossoming. </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The belt around the two Coins is not yet very firm, as in a contract of uncertain duration, but there is no suggestion of difficulties.The foliage on the 2 of Batons goes in all directions, suggesting an as yet not very focused plan to create something or express oneself, but that is not the same as chagrin. Coins and Batons do have a relationship with the number 2, if it is considered broadly as relating to the beginning of something, but now with the SB, Etteilla, or Waite. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOaNceAhsReqOU5krzkUAQfoDNIT0SWrAlV5n21bDGgsEDKdPDMZQ7ySYhsjDZ69frEhPcrj3w-7ZAX7oqG9doGTTkhpJn1bZrD4as14GFcE8GilzcGkqBDlNlsJagjrCPoVW3zIsB0E1galeVi__1JfQg6hm5ukaQWuLadKbDdT1RgMvNBAYU0re9TQ/s620/02scan0064.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="305" data-original-width="620" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOaNceAhsReqOU5krzkUAQfoDNIT0SWrAlV5n21bDGgsEDKdPDMZQ7ySYhsjDZ69frEhPcrj3w-7ZAX7oqG9doGTTkhpJn1bZrD4as14GFcE8GilzcGkqBDlNlsJagjrCPoVW3zIsB0E1galeVi__1JfQg6hm5ukaQWuLadKbDdT1RgMvNBAYU0re9TQ/w640-h314/02scan0064.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><p><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span><b><span><span>NEOPYTHAGOREAN CONSIDERATIONS IN THE TAROT AFTER ETTEILLA AND D'ODOUCET</span></span></b></p><p><span><span>As I have already mentioned, Levi<b> </b>simply</span></span><span><span> </span></span><span><span>restored the Marseille order and look to the cards. In regard to the number two, we find his declaration that the High Priestess - Gebelin's term now continued- is <b>"the binary, woman, mother."</b> She <b>"has all the attributes of Isis,"</b> who of course was the mother of Horus. For the "binary," he imagines two columns to her left and right. And the cloth behind her is no longer simply a wall-hanging, but a veil separating the revealed from the concealed. These will continue in the tarots that follow. There is also the combination of the Moon and the Sun, the moon is the crescent shaped by the horns of Isis's headress, while the Sun is represented by a solar cross on her breast.<br /></span></span></p><p><span><span>Christian reaffirms Levi on Isis, the two columns, the horns, and the solar cross. The columns are red, for <b>"purity of spirit,"</b> and black, for <b>"the night of chaos." </b>It is the duality of matter and spirit, with, in the middle, the fecundation of the first by the second. The veil now falls in front of her head: it is she who is the mystery, half-revealed: she "personifies occult science waiting for the initiate on the threshold of the sanctuary of Isis to communicate to him nature's secrets (<i>History and Practice of Magic</i>, p. 96). This science is represented by the half-hidden book, whose mysteries "reveal themselves in solitude only to the wise man who wraps himself in the cloak of silent meditation" (p. 97). Thus another duality is that of "the perception of visible and invisible things," and the arcanum's keyword "knowledge," the fruit of "will." arcanum one. Finally, there is the duality of matter and spirit, the fecundation of the first by the second.</span></span></p><p><span><span>Papus repeats the idea that she is Isis, now the <b>"reflex of Osiris,"</b> the latter being represented by the Bateleur. In Christianity she would be <b>"God the Son"</b> to the Bateleur's "God the Father." These are in the divine world; in the human world she is Eve and woman, and in the physical world the reflex of the <i>natura naturans</i> (nature naturing), the <i>natura naturata</i> (nature natured). The two columns, positive and negative, correspond to the two arms of the Bateleur, one up and one down. The tarot Papus sponsors, executed by Wirth, is a close approximation of Levi's description. It will be repeated, with only small variations, by other occultists.</span></span></p><p><span><span>Here again the designs of Eules Picard are of interest. In Batons, he seems to have taken D'Odoucet's keyword "vegetation" to heart, picturing blades of wheat emanating from the center and grapes hanging from their arbor on top. For him they illustrate <b>"the practical result of two forces associated toward one aim,"</b> the union being for an elevated and moral goal. It is not clear whether he means that vegetation must be fertilized to be productive, or that the two agricultural products are themselves the two forces. They perhaps symbolize body and spirit, in particular that of Christ, as in the Eucharist the body and blood of Christ take the form of unleavened bread and wine. At the bottom is a fire (the element corresponding to Batons), which he says turns moisture into vapor; it would seem to be an illustration of a process of elevation. The forecast is for "collaboration</span></span><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-dwikPYtspvm8hU_Gqs4nLRi2Fg9ief9GKskNYu5uFGvnFoflBnODvExc6P7Mh3SZDz5_LiAV4mzAIM2x65JCZ2FIJwcNpjhhoeOAiNjcPmKZvLEzfoVn8XeIGXLG8TnQMeozT4YVM5buA52wKCm2JuB6vOxSwLga5V0XqYVHHm4MSfEUKcvl8Qsctg/s1947/Picard2BaCoCuSw.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="803" data-original-width="1947" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-dwikPYtspvm8hU_Gqs4nLRi2Fg9ief9GKskNYu5uFGvnFoflBnODvExc6P7Mh3SZDz5_LiAV4mzAIM2x65JCZ2FIJwcNpjhhoeOAiNjcPmKZvLEzfoVn8XeIGXLG8TnQMeozT4YVM5buA52wKCm2JuB6vOxSwLga5V0XqYVHHm4MSfEUKcvl8Qsctg/w640-h264/Picard2BaCoCuSw.jpg" width="640" /></a></span><span><span>."</span></span></p><p><span><span></span></span></p><p><span><span>In Coins we see two discs, one above the surface inscribed with a sun and held by two eagles, the other below the surface, inscribed with the symbols of the earth (the circle surmounted by a cross) and the moon, held by two roots. He says it represents matter under two aspects, above ground and below. He says what is represented is their antagonism, and also the <b>"law of exchanges,"</b> the principle of absorption by gold and emancipation by gold. I do not know if this is an alchemical principle, a moral one, i.e. that wealth can enslave as well as liberate, or simply about money as the medium of exchange.. I cannot help but notice that in light of the Popess card the two opposites would be Osiris and Isis, or the sun and the moon, which are not exactly antagonistic. Nor is the prognostication, which he declares is <b>"business contract."</b></span></span></p><p><span></span></p>In Cups it is the sun and the moon again, now described as active and passive; this time they are side by side on the two cups, with a crown of roses, flower of Venus. It is the principle of love, the attraction of opposites. <b>"Engagement"</b> is the forecast, if surrounded by favorable cards.<p></p><p>In Swords it is the antagonism of two opposing forces, shown here as water and fire in their extreme forms of tempest and lightning. <b>"Rupture, Duel"</b> is the forecast.</p><p>Jodorowsky, basing himself on the tarot of Marseille, mainly the popular one, of Conver in 1761 (2nd above) but with some variations, takes the <i>Theology'</i>s declaration that 2 is not a number, but the basis of number, quite seriously. There is still no action, yet it is not simple potentiality: "It involves gathering one's strength, desires, ideas, and feelings in preparation for taking action" (p. 60). There is a passive receptivity, as shown in the Popess, who is cloistered, and the Hanged Man, who has his hands tied behind him. </p><p>The 2 of Wands shows the accumulation of desires, Jodorowsky says.
Three-petaled flowers growing at each side of the center add up to 6,
the number of <b>"pleasure and beauty,"</b> the goal of the quest in
Wands. Energy is received in the dark blue center and spreads out into
the red of action. He finds the number 7 as well, that of the petals at
the ends of the two vertical stems; to Jodorowsky these are the 7
chakras, the body's <b>"seven sacred nerve centers"</b> (p. 281) yet to be awakened. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEily51lgK3LTsTGUpQjELZBKtepgJpzTu4wAh2jEY65D7tPi9Z9Ilt-1E7a-XDmxEax4qDbFonQDqADrne3SrpjHKj7nD6kIS7fYHnxhU9hBcXsuFVMXOnDOkj7b3u1LwSNhfVEohnRe8v4bUjY2Fe8hwKqIO1qnPb0N4cmBpESfhCLDsPTTJLaTnM_bg/s3010/jodo2s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1422" data-original-width="3010" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEily51lgK3LTsTGUpQjELZBKtepgJpzTu4wAh2jEY65D7tPi9Z9Ilt-1E7a-XDmxEax4qDbFonQDqADrne3SrpjHKj7nD6kIS7fYHnxhU9hBcXsuFVMXOnDOkj7b3u1LwSNhfVEohnRe8v4bUjY2Fe8hwKqIO1qnPb0N4cmBpESfhCLDsPTTJLaTnM_bg/w640-h302/jodo2s.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p>The 2 of Cups exhibits the accumulation of feelings as the preparation for love. At this stage it is a narcissistic love, beginning with a fascination with oneself and the projection of of one's soul upon the beloved being. The two aquatic animals at the top represent this division in the ego; their licking (or nudging?) of that flower prepares it for the insemination to come. Jodorowsky has a 2 of Cups with a phoenix at the bottom (I have not yet found a historical example). This indicates to him the immolation of this immature, incestuous Oedipal love and its replacement in the 4s by the family.</p><p>In Swords, the mind is an accumulation of plans, myths, information,
and theories. Its center is red, echoed in the red of the horizontal
petals. "Before it has been crafted," he says, "thought appears in the
brain as chaos" (p. 280). The petals indeed do go in a variety of
directions, even though they also have a certain symmetry. He observes
the black in the center of the card and the "essentially black" blades
of the swords, both indicating the void: <b>"the purpose of the mind is to reach the void" </b>(p.
280). The light blue petals are receptive of light. In the central part
of the card there are 8 petals and 8 stems; this presence of 8
indicates <b>"a profound desire for perfection," </b>which for him is represented by that number.</p><p></p><p>He sees the two coins of the 2 of Coins as <b>"in the depths of the earth" </b>and then, when crafted, <b>"money for exchange."</b> The lower coin shows three crawling serpents, he imagines: the work leading to awareness begins with the acceptance of the matter that will subsequently become spiritualized, the pentacle transformed into a halo." <br /></p><p>In all this, I am impressed on how much Jodorowsky's conceptions have in common with those of Picard before him. The scene in Picard's Swords is one of chaos and mutual dissolution, fire with water, toward a void from which will emerge new being. Cups are preparation for love and a family. The Coins are above and below ground, just as Jodorowsky imagines, illustrating a "law of exchange." The vegetables of Picard's Batons card represent earthly pleasures (drinking and eating) as well as the accumulation of goods useful for higher purposes.</p><p></p>Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677044918876619054.post-60915514503717574892012-05-15T22:19:00.075-07:002023-04-24T03:26:36.183-07:00Empress and ThreesDu Bartas continues his account in verse of the numbers from one to ten: <blockquote><b>Here now observe the <span class="rend-italic">Three,</span> <br />Th' eldest of Odds, God's number properly,<br />
Wherein both Number and no-number enter:<br />
Heav'n's dearest Number, whose enclosed Center<br />
Doth equally from both extremes extend:<br />
The first that hath beginning, midst, and end.</b></blockquote><p>Three is God's number because of the Trinity, which is also Unitary and the "no number" that combines with "number," i.e. the Two, to make the Three. Agrippa adds that even for the ancient pagans, three was a holy number, "<b>because of which prayers and sacrifices are thrice repeated</b>" (<i>Three Books of Occult Philosophy</i>, ed. Tyson, p. 249, in archive.org). He also confirms that three is about "<b>beginning, middle, and end."</b> He seems to be repeating the <i>Theology of Arithmetic </i>in both instances. It says, <b>"Those who are requesting that their prayers be answered by God pour libations three times and perform sacrifices three times"</b> (Waterfield trans., p. 52, in archive.org), as well as <b>"it is also the very first which admits of end, middle and beginning"</b> (p. 51). <br /></p><p>Macrobius does not have much to say about the number three, merely that <b>"three is the first number to have a mean between two extremes to bind it together" </b>(I.VI.23, Stahl trans. p. 104). There is thus an attraction between the two extremes. He illustrates the point by noting that earth and water have an affinity (producing mud, I think he means. So do water and air (producing humidity), and air and fire (air feeds fire). <br />
</p><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Thus he [the creator] wove air and water into fire and earth, and thus a mutual attraction ran through the universe, linking together unlike elements by the similarities underlying their differences.</b> </blockquote>
Martianus Capella is similar (Stahl and Johnson trans. p. 178):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>It associates a central mean with the initial and final extremes, with equal intervals of separation.</b></blockquote>
Examples of Threeness are the three Fates (one for birth, one for the length of days, one for death, presumably) and <b>"a certain Virgin who, as they say, 'is the ruler of heaven and hell.'"</b> This would be triformed Hecate, whose mean, Diana the huntress, is between Selene, the Moon-goddess, and Persephone, the goddess of the underworld. This is repeated by Agrippa, who cites "the Pythagoreans" that <b>"Three fold is Hecate, three mouths Diana / The virgin hath..."</b>. The number "<b>is dedicated to this virgin whom they say to be powerful in heaven and in hell" </b>(Agrippa, p. 315). There are of course many other examples of famous threesomes. As far as having means between extremes, the three parts of the Platonic soul might count, with the heart (emotion), a mean between the head (intellect) and the lower organs (appetite).<br />
<br />Ancient Pythagoreanism also suggests another approach, in which it is possible to see du Bartas's paradoxical "<b>wherein number and no-number enter</b>":<br />
<blockquote><blockquote>
<b>The
monad is like a seed in containing in itself the unformed and also
unarticulated principle of every number; the dyad is a small advance
towards number, but is not number outright because it is like a source,
but the triad causes the potential of the monad to advance into
actuality and extension. </b>(<i>Theology of Arithmetic</i>, trans. Waterfield, p. 50; originally in Greek 5th c., ms. brought to Rome c, 1460, and then Venice, 1470s, print ed., Paris 1543.)</blockquote></blockquote>
The monad is no-number, now become number. For more on how the Unitary is also Trine, see my post on the Aces, in relation to the Sola-Busca. In the <i>Theology</i>, exactly what these "tertiary things" are, between the unformed and matter, is not clear. In a Renaissance source (1517), I think Reuchlin completes the thought. First he cites Timaeus Locri, “a distinguished
Pythagorean”:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Form has the nature of a male and a father, matter that
of a female and a mother. Tertiary things are the offspring of these.” (<i>The Kabbala</i>h p. 209)</b>.</blockquote>
The first principles, he says, citing
Plato, are three: “God, Idea, matter” (p. 208). For Pythagoras, these
same principles were “infinity, one, and two.” Infinity lay in the
“supersupreme” world, one in the intellectual world, and two, or
otherness, in the sensible world, “for matter is the mother of
otherness.” Then came the joining together of matter and form by means
of nature’s law. How that happens, Reuchlin finds expressed in the
Orphic hymns:<br />
<blockquote>
.<b>..after Jupiter, that is, form, whom he
calls “the beginning of all,” and after Juno, that is, matter, whom he
calls “Jupiter’s bedfellow, mother of all,” saying, as he calls matter
“Juno” as well, “without you has nothing known what life is; you share
in all, intermingled so chastely”—after Jupiter-form and Juno-matter,
then, Orpheus added, as the third basis of nature, law, that is,
distribution, and called it “what strengthens nature.” ...the law of
nature with one form impresses its seal on matter many times, as a
notary stamps many wax discs with one seal. Particular sealed areas of
matter are no longer called Ideas meaning “species,” but Ideas meaning
forms “impressed in the wax, as it were; inseparable from matter”
(Ammonius).</b></blockquote><p>
The Law of Nature <b>“gives to each thing what it
has a right to.”</b> It is the means by which form becomes materialized. I
am not sure that this explains anything, but it certainly provides
vivid images for what happens, first involving Jupiter and Juno and
then with the seal and the wax. The identification of the monad with Jupiter and the dyad with Juno was stated, as we have seen in my post on the Twos, by Martianus Capella<i>. </i><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipyZMiZYndM6PwsNPbSHF5aoSB6NzkE4lPH8fjXLBjWJ0gazALNmjiKdr1K423p4a2yugnS4Gv2ma-PCQREdYiI4MhngYR8MdYqUdMhaI2EKqsHjN1mnajc0LubE5D0yTusKWp32tdfthN-CARJmeDxTBAsHj_8DOAij8DiWgMu2Ru91x47AlIb-pe2w/s994/coinVSNoblet.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="994" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipyZMiZYndM6PwsNPbSHF5aoSB6NzkE4lPH8fjXLBjWJ0gazALNmjiKdr1K423p4a2yugnS4Gv2ma-PCQREdYiI4MhngYR8MdYqUdMhaI2EKqsHjN1mnajc0LubE5D0yTusKWp32tdfthN-CARJmeDxTBAsHj_8DOAij8DiWgMu2Ru91x47AlIb-pe2w/w400-h234/coinVSNoblet.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>In Christianity, what corresponds to the impression of a seal onto wax is
the birth and maturation of Jesus, God's heavenly form incarnated in
our world. This is illustrated by Plutarch's version of the Isis myth: Isis and Osiris are
said to have produced Horus while still in the womb of their own mother
the Moon. But Horus remains in the heavens until Isis gave birth to
him. Thereby Horus is a prefiguration of Jesus. On the Lombard and Marseille cards, the shield on the Empress's lap is a kind of equivalent, shown comically flexing its wing as though it were a young man's bicep.<br />
<br />
In Genesis, what
corresponds is the third day of creation. In <i>On the Creation, </i>Philo
of Alexandria says that on the third day God took the primal mud and
separated it into the sea and the dry land. He also created the whole
variety of plants. These are instances of forms becoming materially
realized out of formless mud, he says. In the Pythagorean schema of the <i>Theology</i>, however, plants are associated with the
number five. So they would not have been created on the third day. If the
Pythagoreans of the <i>Theology</i> had elaborated a creation myth, they probably would have
associated the creation of all manner of minerals and other non-living
things with the third day.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: medium; font-weight: bold;">The Empress in Etteilla</span><br />
<br />
Etteilla in his <i>2nd Cahier</i> tells us that the card of his deck that corresponds to the Empress is no. 6: <br />
<blockquote>
<b>No. 7, or the seventh sheet of the Book of Thoth, is also an Emperor, badly figured to the purpose, which was preceded by an Empress.</b></blockquote><p>
If the 7th is the Emperor, then the 6th is for the Empress, a card which Etteilla said represented the
4th day of creation. That is when<b> "God made two great lights.</b>" There
is a Moon and a Sun on the card, and a light half and a dark half.</p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj41nxXKRJVew1gDq3cX1YBRC8bdYSJTAubgukDjxZQndoau5VphxmKZ-tNxKwf1iQFCAf-4olobK7EUrIQMskUtRcOg5GtA6Z5rBKzSRaeQRsT-d3Op-tgbJ-jfo0kMwha3-g2UWZZGMMOnug-unfAHOZ64iF8jiL8KP62JAUfgp9n6ugnXC6u7y57rg/s565/06detI.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="345" data-original-width="565" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj41nxXKRJVew1gDq3cX1YBRC8bdYSJTAubgukDjxZQndoau5VphxmKZ-tNxKwf1iQFCAf-4olobK7EUrIQMskUtRcOg5GtA6Z5rBKzSRaeQRsT-d3Op-tgbJ-jfo0kMwha3-g2UWZZGMMOnug-unfAHOZ64iF8jiL8KP62JAUfgp9n6ugnXC6u7y57rg/w400-h244/06detI.jpg" width="400" /></a>God
also created the stars on that day, and so on the card there is "a
third number," as Etteilla calls it, a single bright star shining
through the sunlight. Actually, the card maker also put 5 smaller stars on
the card, to represent five lights that are lesser still, as can be seen in the detail
of a black and white version on the right above.. There were six known
planets (besides the earth) in 1789, the date of this deck, including Uranus, whose status
as a planet was formally agreed upon by scientists in 1783. There are
also two astrological signs, Aries and Libra, each standing in for half
the zodiac, of summer and winter. The keywords on the card were Night,
upright, and Day, reversed.<br />
<br />
But what is of chief interest here are the word-lists that the Etteilla School attached to the card. Below are Etteilla's keywords again plus the "synonyms and alternative significations" of de la Salette and D'Odoucet, those of the first alone in Italics, and of the second alone in bold:<br />
</p><blockquote>
No. 6. UPRIGHT: NIGHT. <i>3rd Cahier:</i> "From something bad comes good, or, what has damaged us will become useful to us."<b> </b>Lists<b>:</b> Darkness, Obscurity, <b>Lack of Light</b>, Nocturnal, Mystery, Secret, Mask, Hidden, Unknown, Clandestine,
Occult. <i>Eclipse</i><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span>—Veil, </b>Symbol, Figure, Image, Parable, Allegory,<b> Mystic Fire</b><b>.</b><i> Veiled Purpose, Mystical Meaning, Mysterious Words, Obscure Discourse</i><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">, </span></b>Occult Science<b>.—</b>Hidden Machinations, Mysterious Intervention, Clandestine Actions,<i> In secret,</i> Clandestinely,<i> Derision</i>.<b>—</b>Blindness, Confused, <i>Entangle</i>, Cover, Wrap, <i>Forget,</i><b><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></b><i>Forgotten</i><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">, </span>Difficulty, Doubt, Error, Ignorance.
</b>REVERSED, DAY. Clarity, Light, Brilliance, Splendor, Illumination, Manifestation,
Evidence, Truth. Clear, Visible, Luminous, Give Birth [or Light, Donner le
jour, lit. "give the day"], Bring to Light [Mettre au jour, lit. "Put to the day"], Print, Hatch.—Pierce, Emerge [Se faire jour; lit., “make oneself day"], <b>Clarify,</b> <i>Enlighten</i>, Acquire Knowledge.—<i>Public Joys, Fireworks</i>.—<b>Expedient, Ease.—Opening, Window, Gap (or Empty Space),</b> Zodiac.</blockquote>
Now
I will make a leap: The two lists correspond to two sides of the
Marseille-style Empress in an unknown cartomantic tradition. There is
her public side, full of splendor, and her private side, hidden from
public view. These two sides correspond very much to "Veiled Nature"
and "Nature Unveiled" as contrasted in the 17th century, nature before
and after human understanding has succeeded in wresting from it some of
its secrets. The occultists later would assign the hidden side to the
Popess, as "Isis Veiled", and the visible to the Empress, "Isis
Unveiled". The Etteilla school has applied both to the same figure, that of the Empress. This analysis does not quite fit Etteilla in the 3rd Cahier: there the sense is that God or nature acts in mysterious ways, "Night" being the mystery and "Day" when we understand the hidden purpose. <br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /><span style="font-size: medium; font-weight: bold;">The Threes</span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEdHpDxEsZpv1LYO73zKFUNWQfQHmvlcYtZZpAXFvvQxoEesWJY-3AO6nByvzRXcUY1PvqNs3uM8yAqFOhSmswvwzNWt5cGvgCV53UZ40KDzTcS5fu2wsLL1g5NQmy6ANGdXsY95nJlAE-lXnRknPrL1i4t8nzmY6FHS57CTgB4yi621oveMASmo2ilA/s1559/03Ba_Etteilla_SB.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1401" data-original-width="1559" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEdHpDxEsZpv1LYO73zKFUNWQfQHmvlcYtZZpAXFvvQxoEesWJY-3AO6nByvzRXcUY1PvqNs3uM8yAqFOhSmswvwzNWt5cGvgCV53UZ40KDzTcS5fu2wsLL1g5NQmy6ANGdXsY95nJlAE-lXnRknPrL1i4t8nzmY6FHS57CTgB4yi621oveMASmo2ilA/s320/03Ba_Etteilla_SB.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />For
both the Etteilla School word-lists and the Sola-Busca Threes, I think
that the designer of the cards has seized on the main principle of the
Triad as presented in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology of Arithmetic</span>,
that if the Monad is form, and the Dyad is matter, then the Triad
is matter that has been given form. In particular, the theme is the
life of Jesus; as the imprint of God’s form into matter, he is the
highest instantiation of the Triad. However the point has been generalized and
secularized so as to apply to the life of an ordinary human being.<br />
<br />
At right are Etteilla's card in Batons, as well as the Sola-Busca's. The design at the bottom of Etteilla's is from an early alphabet Etteilla imagined. The card does not convey a lot, but there are also the word lists:<br />
<blockquote>
No. 33. 3
OF BATONS: ENTERPRISES, Undertake, Begin. Usurp, Seize. Daring,
Brashness, Boldness, <b>Carelessness, Adventurous</b>, Impudence<i>, </i>Audacity, Audacious,<i> Temerity, </i>Bold,<i>
Foolhardy</i><b>, Rash.-- </b>Enterprising<b>. </b>Undertaken, Embarrassed, Disconcerted.-<b>-</b>[Crippled or]
Paralyzed,<b> Effort, Test, Attempt. </b>REVERSED: PAINS AT THEIR END (D'Odoucet: INTERRUPTION). Interruption in:
Misfortunes, Troubles, Pain, and Toil. End, Cessation,
Discontinuation, <b>Respite, Rest, Suspension, Intermission, Intermittence. </b></blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP2_gGA90GWC1hahovm3KFN6NG28x3UFYaOO4mwuqAvrHlfJXeZ7esZ41MKE5QNkSS4MvYWj83wmHL2ntykKabovgnKwxKSuOkj9g9TV7r3GI1okq-QceZrzKIuP6iVRv8ox403LQw5YGB/s1600/Wands03.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP2_gGA90GWC1hahovm3KFN6NG28x3UFYaOO4mwuqAvrHlfJXeZ7esZ41MKE5QNkSS4MvYWj83wmHL2ntykKabovgnKwxKSuOkj9g9TV7r3GI1okq-QceZrzKIuP6iVRv8ox403LQw5YGB/w181-h320/Wands03.jpg" width="181" /></a><p>D'Odoucet (<a href="https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/76/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/76/mode/2up</a>) sees this card, Etteilla's number 33, as 3, the number of generation, done twice. The resulting abundance provides ample incentive for starting new enterprises, he says. The reverseds remind us that even then, nothing valuable is attained without some trouble, however temporary.<br /></p><p>Compare here Waite: for the Uprights<b> "established strength, enterprise, effort, trade, commerce, discovery"</b> and Reverseds "<b>The end of troubles, suspension or cessation of adversity, toil and disappointment."</b> It is the same as Etteilla. On the card, it seems to be a merchant watching for his caravan (or ship, if the expanse were bluer) to arrive safely.<br />
<br />
In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, however, Three connotes first and foremost the Trinity. The Sola-Busca shows a child with wings impaled by batons. What we have, I
think, is Christ--representing the Trinity--from the perspective of the beginning of his mission,
full of daring, also Satan’s temptations and his own misgivings. The child's being pierced with arrows is reminiscent of the numerous Saint
Sebastians that graced Renaissance churches. It is Christ’s crucifixion
superimposed on an infancy scene. Such scenes actually were common in
the Renaissance, not with arrows but with sad expressions, as though
the people in them already knew how Christ would die. Examples are at <a href="http://www.canvas.com/gallery/15113.htm">http://www.canvaz.com/gallery/15113.htm</a> (Mantegna Madonna and Child) and <a class="postlink" href="http://www.earlham.edu/%7Evanbma/20th%20century/images/surveydaythirtytwo.htm">http://www.earlham.edu/~vanbma/20th%20c ... rtytwo.htm</a> (Bellini altarpiece).<br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhILqPDMp5_psMxMrOHfwhfhJMGmkOLNL4OS3hZa4m8qb3amBgVYrHqo3VSmb-PIAK3T456aHf24w4g2_5j1XdbwKQ8sTKGnoTygpClN1FwNSk8GJ2XOAnLfIWfvy7TDN4jm-fvi4jYZdyGOVZYyAmqvZEqGwUpTJBkgVYgxXvwNvpj8c3aDKaF1O6cSg/s1531/03CO_Etteilla_SB.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1395" data-original-width="1531" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhILqPDMp5_psMxMrOHfwhfhJMGmkOLNL4OS3hZa4m8qb3amBgVYrHqo3VSmb-PIAK3T456aHf24w4g2_5j1XdbwKQ8sTKGnoTygpClN1FwNSk8GJ2XOAnLfIWfvy7TDN4jm-fvi4jYZdyGOVZYyAmqvZEqGwUpTJBkgVYgxXvwNvpj8c3aDKaF1O6cSg/s320/03CO_Etteilla_SB.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Coins,
on the contrary, has the sanguine optimism of the Christ-child taking
on the most important of burdens with every prospect of success. On the Sola-Busca, notice
the ox-skull between the two lower coins, a symbol of the child's
labor, as we have seen from its use, deriving from Horapollo, in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Hypnerotomachia</span>. Etteilla has assigned the planet and goddess Venus to this card; whether he had any interpretive purpose is not clear in the word-lists; probably it is simply because Venus is the third celestial body from the center of the solar system, after the sun and Mercury. <br />
<blockquote>
No. 75. 3
OF COINS: NOBLE. Important, Consequential, Celebrated, Big, Great,
Extensive, Enormous, Magnificent, Renowned, Famous, Powerful, Lofty,
Illustrious.--Illustration, Esteem, Grandeur of Soul, Nobility of
Conduct, Acts of Generosity<b>, Magnificently, Splendidly</b><b>. </b>REVERSED: CHILD. Puerility, Childhood, Childishness, Frivolity,
Weakening, Debasing, Reduction,<b> Politeness</b><b>,
</b>Pettiness, Of Little Importance, Mediocrity, Insignificant, Trifle,<b> </b>Baseness,<b> </b>Cowardice, Timidity,<b> </b>Offspring, Little One<i><b> </b></i>[petite], Puerile, Puny, Low, Crawling, Vile, Abject,
Humble.-<b>-</b>Abjection, Humility, Humiliation.</blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJbemTS7WjV8JQOgGHlmSkfkGhYTvnpCaMILVqzo6cD845H34HnUNEWpJyWvj0k1gdNvn6QcrkQ6_iwDi0KI3zSln4yAm8CRBB0aZ6XPjjui214rxYpVx0iArgwOzyZZmuFeyp56SQrwLd/s1600/Pents03.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJbemTS7WjV8JQOgGHlmSkfkGhYTvnpCaMILVqzo6cD845H34HnUNEWpJyWvj0k1gdNvn6QcrkQ6_iwDi0KI3zSln4yAm8CRBB0aZ6XPjjui214rxYpVx0iArgwOzyZZmuFeyp56SQrwLd/s320/Pents03.jpg" width="183" /></a><p>For Etteilla it is the theme of success and nobility in the Uprights (the completion of his task, in the language of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology of Arithmetic</span>), and that of the child and its associated weakness in the Reverseds. They are also the two aspects of the child Jesus: both Magnificent and Humble.</p><p>For d'Odoucet (<a href="https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/160/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/160/mode/2up</a>), it is 5, the universal spirit, united to 7, life, resulting in new generation, the 3 of the card, of the most flattering sort, and a child who will respond with nobility to the riches that will be distributed to him.<br />
<br />
Again, the word lists are similar to Waite's:<b> "<i>Métier</i>, trade, skilled labour; usually, however, regarded as a card of nobility, aristocracy, renown, glory,"</b> and Reverseds, <b>"Mediocrity, in work and otherwise, puerility, pettiness, weakness."</b> Waite's idea for the card was to depict a sculptor carving a relief on a great cathedral, a task likewise both humble and magnificent and not far from SB's unskilled laborer doing the work of redemption. This theme is not so evident in Pamela Smith's rendition, in which the sculptor seems to be showing the couple an empty cup; but it is a hammer. Likewise, we might wonder if the two other figures were a married couple, the wife holding their baby. But it is actually two people supervising the work, holding the plans. It is the beginning of the actualization of these plans in reality. In that regard, Etteilla's "enfant" is the beginning of the actualization of a human being, as noble in origin as the sculptor's, and with the same weakness that can be exhibited by a craftsman, hence the need for supervision.<br />
<br />
The 3 of Cups
celebrates the happy outcome of God's love, not only the successful
mission of the Son but the continued presence of the Holy Spirit,</p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDXEPf9zx_Q2AYBrBQyDGizSqZdyd0vSipPaLf0KS0Nala9mNdBXGBPI-SZZ3UyNTk6Teyzz3C8jYpJgLg6DgMimjha7OkhVEztq2uwmumGliSl0Riui6_-kjyPPhBjV0d_RC04ib7KzyzsTPCX64nwIKQb8RFW9JCsXR-BHv-O7TLcIt3qfgZU6Q9tA/s1580/03Cu_Etteilla_Waite.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1389" data-original-width="1580" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDXEPf9zx_Q2AYBrBQyDGizSqZdyd0vSipPaLf0KS0Nala9mNdBXGBPI-SZZ3UyNTk6Teyzz3C8jYpJgLg6DgMimjha7OkhVEztq2uwmumGliSl0Riui6_-kjyPPhBjV0d_RC04ib7KzyzsTPCX64nwIKQb8RFW9JCsXR-BHv-O7TLcIt3qfgZU6Q9tA/s320/03Cu_Etteilla_Waite.jpg" width="320" /></a>the
Paraclete, after Christ's Ascension. The mood in these "Etteilla"
interpretations is sanguine rather than phlegmatic; the SB card, I
think, is calmer and more phlegmatic.<br />
<blockquote>
No. 47. 3 OF CUPS:
SUCCESS (REUSSITE)<b>, Science</b><b>, </b>Happy Outcome, Happy Issue,
Victory.-<b>-</b>Healing, Cure, Relief.--Perfection, Accomplishment, Perfection<b>.</b><b> </b>REVERSED: EXPEDITION (EXPEDITION) [c.
1838 and <i>3rd Cahier</i>: EXPEDITION D'AFFAIRES, i.e. EXPEDITION OF MATTERS]. <b>Dispatch,</b>
Execution, Achievement,<b> </b>End. Conclusion,
Termination,<b> Accomplishment</b><b>.</b></blockquote><p>D'Odoucet (<a href="https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/104/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/104/mode/2up</a>) relates this card to 7, the number of life in his system, and 4, signifying the universe. Life is action, he says, expanding through all parts of the universe by means of the activity signified by 3, that of generation. The result can only be success. <br /></p><p>Compare Waite: <b>"The conclusion of any matter in plenty, perfection and merriment; happy issue, victory, fulfillment, solace, healing, <i>Reversed</i>: Expedition, dispatch, achievement, end."</b> </p><p> In the Trinity, God is perfected.
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJRKzrGJ1BVgEDYxWJEEGySZgeVc1WNKbOJy-F-UZ67QtNhr5oTcBeNr4LAClCI4dVNCCnORtZ-9SKA8HL90_57YEs0ogZrHC1hShHswCBrW-UsQvV4ozi2Cf3WuV-m9Wg_8SFirrhtO-jSx34x-i1TrS_RGYcG5ICme30WP40hOd2wwiUe6DHZWWSMA/s1496/03Cu_SB_Sw_Etteilla.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1370" data-original-width="1496" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJRKzrGJ1BVgEDYxWJEEGySZgeVc1WNKbOJy-F-UZ67QtNhr5oTcBeNr4LAClCI4dVNCCnORtZ-9SKA8HL90_57YEs0ogZrHC1hShHswCBrW-UsQvV4ozi2Cf3WuV-m9Wg_8SFirrhtO-jSx34x-i1TrS_RGYcG5ICme30WP40hOd2wwiUe6DHZWWSMA/s320/03Cu_SB_Sw_Etteilla.jpg" width="320" /></a>Something like that is
expressed in the Sola-Busca 3 of Cups (near right). Two cups extend from one larger cup, like the Son and the Holy Spirit from the Father; or perhaps the reverse: the achievement of the Son coming from the Father and the Holy Spirit--or simply, embodied form from the union of form with matter.<br />
<br />
Etteilla's 3 of Swords (far right below) does not say much, except for its keywords. In the Etteilla word-lists it is a negative card of alienation and scorn, very much
reflecting the mood of Christ's persecutors, at least in the Uprights,
and also some of the feelings of the disciples during the Crucifixion.
The Reverseds perhaps reflects A then-common delusion in the mentally
ill of being Christ.<br />
</p><blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ4-2lJjN5vYkdXn2sEFG_jypRKacWx_VMPCM5xhLdWz4O0HqAYW5D4KjFPpEfvMdb6trcteSyeANIi2EXmJKWAWdN41pqV3kvPxx3yoZAifry-N-we99yLtz9EFIg3yKYsaqcI4pWYSLM/s1600/03Sw_Sola_BuscaWS.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ4-2lJjN5vYkdXn2sEFG_jypRKacWx_VMPCM5xhLdWz4O0HqAYW5D4KjFPpEfvMdb6trcteSyeANIi2EXmJKWAWdN41pqV3kvPxx3yoZAifry-N-we99yLtz9EFIg3yKYsaqcI4pWYSLM/s1600/03Sw_Sola_BuscaWS.jpg" /></a>No. 61. 3 OF SWORDS: REMOTENESS, Departure, Absence, Distance <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="cursor: url("https://cdn.reverso.net/lexi/v2000/static/img/CM.cur"), auto;"><span id="ID0EHEAC" style="cursor: url("https://cdn.reverso.net/lexi/v2000/static/img/CM.cur"), auto;">(écart</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">)</span></span></span></span>,
Dispersion, Remote, Delay. Disdain, Repugnance, Aversion, Hate,
Disgust, Horror. Incompatibility, Annoyance, Opposition,
Unsociableness, Misanthropy, Rudeness. Separation, Division, Rupture,
Antipathy. Section, Break. REVERSED: GETTING LOST, Insanity, Delirium, Alienation of Spirit (Derangement), Distraction, Crazy Behavior. Error, Miscalculation, Loss, Detour, Swerve (<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="cursor: url("https://cdn.reverso.net/lexi/v2000/static/img/CM.cur"), auto;"><span id="ID0EHEAC" style="cursor: url("https://cdn.reverso.net/lexi/v2000/static/img/CM.cur"), auto;">écart</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">)</span><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">,</span></b></span></span></span> Dispersion.</blockquote><p>D'Odoucet (<a href="https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/132/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/132/mode/2up</a>) relates the card to the number Etteilla gives it, 6 + 1. Man, signified by 1, must search the globe, signified by 6 (which is also movement), in search of the means of his subsistence. Will he got lost in this pursuit? It is a life and death battle to escape slavery.<br /></p><p>Waite is much like Etteilla: <b>"Removal, absence, delay, division, rupture, dispersion, and all that
the design signifies naturally, being too simple and obvious to call for
specific enumeration. <i>Reversed</i>: Mental alienation, error, loss, distraction, disorder, confusion."</b> Pamela Smith's design is the famous one of a heart pierced by three swords, far right, obviously inspired by the Sola-Busca.<br />
<br />
That image (the SB), near left, is both similar and different. What is different, of course, is the Sola-Busca's victory wreath underneath: it is the overcoming of pain in its most intense form, the crucifixion. Here it seems to me that Smith has lost some of the rich complexity that is in the SB. All Smith gives us is gloom and despair, without the "silver lining" to the storm card; the Sola-Busca is a "unity of
opposites", to use Cusa's (and Jung's) phrase: pain and joy. <br />
<br />
In
feeling-tone, these sword-stabs are like the wounds of Christ. But in
the crucifixion Christ was not wounded in the heart, and he had five
wounds, not three. I believe that the image may have been inspired by a
genre of religious painting sponsored by the Augustinian monks of
northern Italy, although it is not exactly like any of them. One
example is a Filippo Lippi painting, 1437-1438 Florence, showing St. Augustine being pierced in the
heart by the Trinity. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBNR3Ho3zNtouHrBekWFuOMhsMKrlMQ9sFxWx2SMPbwU2SSCH_DHqizyY6bwFjS9C20V2fub97-LXTB3XV80k8HpSpw-fbgSrrm7F57ybKA1xJuskVFcXOQZ1MYMu3hMK_ZGCRTw6VIdATjHUZih66FWMQMTqFaUnkBXT2XI92Mkt6vfm2tSRsXzjN8A/s1000/augustineVisionTrinityLippi.smal.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="452" data-original-width="1000" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBNR3Ho3zNtouHrBekWFuOMhsMKrlMQ9sFxWx2SMPbwU2SSCH_DHqizyY6bwFjS9C20V2fub97-LXTB3XV80k8HpSpw-fbgSrrm7F57ybKA1xJuskVFcXOQZ1MYMu3hMK_ZGCRTw6VIdATjHUZih66FWMQMTqFaUnkBXT2XI92Mkt6vfm2tSRsXzjN8A/w640-h290/augustineVisionTrinityLippi.smal.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
In
the Franciscan tradition, such rays were shown extending from a crucified Jesus to the corresponding parts on St. Francis's body, his "stigmata." Here,
however, it comes from the Trinity into the heart. It is thought likely to be based on Augustine's <i>Confessions</i>, IX, 2:3, "Thou hadst pierced our heart with thy
love, and we carried thy words, as it were, thrust through our vitals"; the word translated "pierced" is <i>sagittaveras</i>, either "you shot arrows" or "you shot <i>an</i> arrow." (<a href="https://www.christianiconography.info/Florence/Uffizi%20Gallery/augustineVisionTrinityLippi.html">https://www.christianiconography.info/Florence/Uffizi%20Gallery/augustineVisionTrinityLippi.html</a>).<br />
</p><p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzuvFcAXfHjfN7KGiGIGSMUmXc4VllcD2b0TbL-UM-BTdXerUSwkJzn6XptwVzcVbAPgk9QY-YPJ-Dt_zjaxu-2TgATtLYCWMClaTB4hWN-GCTnQ83QNELFtMEL6qgmhVGFv-mDb4BPd_Dkk9zr53P6ejYAal2OO_nBqOmSJo189rae9pH9uzQYbHSqQ/s325/Francesco+Di+Vannuccio-Crucifixion+With+Donor1.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="321" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzuvFcAXfHjfN7KGiGIGSMUmXc4VllcD2b0TbL-UM-BTdXerUSwkJzn6XptwVzcVbAPgk9QY-YPJ-Dt_zjaxu-2TgATtLYCWMClaTB4hWN-GCTnQ83QNELFtMEL6qgmhVGFv-mDb4BPd_Dkk9zr53P6ejYAal2OO_nBqOmSJo189rae9pH9uzQYbHSqQ/s320/Francesco+Di+Vannuccio-Crucifixion+With+Donor1.JPG" width="316" /></a></div>Another painting has Augustine contemplating the Crucifixion: Francesco di Vannuccio, <span style="font-style: italic;">Crucifixion with Virgin, St. John the Evangelist, St. Augustine and an Augustinian donor</span>,
Siena 1380. Blood
spurts from Jesus's heart along with something like rays extending down to
the saint. At the crucifixion, Jesus was pierced by nails and stabbed
by the spear of Longinus. A pictorial analogy to the stigmatization of St. Francis is evident.<br />
<br />
All
four of these cards thus amplify, in four different ways, the theme of
the incarnation, which is also one theme of the Empress, as that by
which form becomes embodied in the world. Etteilla, and after him Waite, have merely secularized the feelings involved. <p></p><p>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Conclusion</b></span> <br />
<br />
I have already discussed the 3 of Swords, where Smith's borrowing from the SB is obvious. I don't see that Smith used much from the Sola-Busca for her other Threes. There is the motif of one on top, two below, in Coins and Cups; but that much is in the Marseille's arrangement. There is a religious theme in Coins, as I saw in the SB's card, but the sense of victory after hard work, so evident there, is hardly apparent in Smith's design (although it might have been in Waite's instructions). So on the whole I give only a 25% correlation between the SB and Smith (namely, the pierced heart cards that I showed together above). <br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis6ayFXvX0kWrI31I30KLAGV31SJUd9hEJhJKmacD4B3pWxS3gFYkAmx9rkSurqdX6KN9vm0YcA_QWVqN2yG8nv5G11LwzsxhithtTvwiaZ6HJTepMVV8eLPsqr4oevh0omPSB8JDx3c_d/s1600/03sb3all3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis6ayFXvX0kWrI31I30KLAGV31SJUd9hEJhJKmacD4B3pWxS3gFYkAmx9rkSurqdX6KN9vm0YcA_QWVqN2yG8nv5G11LwzsxhithtTvwiaZ6HJTepMVV8eLPsqr4oevh0omPSB8JDx3c_d/s1600/03sb3all3.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_HE-0HO0pdGBShHUK4BwqTZ0h6YgVDWRn5a5xm7l9bH6_FWxDPR9uIMwZXVqdElAp4IjCcOHIzyceyH22nDDCo4eVMrlST0uW8XHnh6AH1s1yTSme7BBTFH1rmWF8kQCGgSpZZWXovXbjjZCYEWqlaKQqwpPMo-cr37FflLYc0C6qs60OYYK_7obkag/s1216/waite4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="1216" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_HE-0HO0pdGBShHUK4BwqTZ0h6YgVDWRn5a5xm7l9bH6_FWxDPR9uIMwZXVqdElAp4IjCcOHIzyceyH22nDDCo4eVMrlST0uW8XHnh6AH1s1yTSme7BBTFH1rmWF8kQCGgSpZZWXovXbjjZCYEWqlaKQqwpPMo-cr37FflLYc0C6qs60OYYK_7obkag/w640-h280/waite4.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>
In using Etteilla to interpret the SB, the procedure works for three of them well; Swords is a little off, so perhaps 50% for it, so overall 87% As far as the correlation between Waite and Etteilla, in Batons the two are quite similar. In Coins, Waite has added "skilled labor", but otherwise they are similar, so 90%. In Cups and Swords it is again 100%. In other words, at least 95% correspondence overall.<br />
<br />
In relation to Pythagoreanism, we have the Sola-Busca and Etteilla specifically in relation to the life and goals of Jesus descending into our world, like form, Logos, into matter. Then both make 100% sense in terms of Pythagorean teachings. I find very little of this in Smith's designs, perhaps only in Swords, but without the happy ending of Christ's crucifixion, and indirectly through Waite's interpretations. I might give Smith a 30% rating for Pythagoreanism; even that I have no doubt is quite accidental on her part. However, Waite's lists fit better, the same 95% correspondence as to Etteilla's list. </p><p>It is perhaps worth looking at the Marseille abstract designs to see whether the interpretations so far given fit any of them. Below are those of the famous 1760 Conver of Marseille.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8cmIBII747HAkET3HjwLY39G4nNBzQmomzxjTXXK4-BzuDsECxqSnpp3lQtDD1ej0coRVTLKuG6HPuyzeEOsZBz2zfstCSyUvma1DLIyrkuiDn9Y__IoFxO_kfZ1mK57nxtWLWdsDJN1llnK9KrO1tLPOaliro0se8CTrJ_BUxjgVYj72mXk-ecw9MA/s3288/Conver4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1566" data-original-width="3288" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8cmIBII747HAkET3HjwLY39G4nNBzQmomzxjTXXK4-BzuDsECxqSnpp3lQtDD1ej0coRVTLKuG6HPuyzeEOsZBz2zfstCSyUvma1DLIyrkuiDn9Y__IoFxO_kfZ1mK57nxtWLWdsDJN1llnK9KrO1tLPOaliro0se8CTrJ_BUxjgVYj72mXk-ecw9MA/w640-h304/Conver4.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>The flowering red swords to me fits the image of Christ's suffering for the redemption of humanity: the red, for his suffering, the flowers, for the redemption. The straightness of the sword indicates that a direction has been or will be chosen. In Batons, it is the same criss-crossing of the batons as in the SB 2 of Batons, to a similar effect: the two in front block the one in back; so the development is on the sides, and then up and down, as in the four evangelists in the corners of the World card - or the orientation both to heaven and to the world of Christ. Cups, with its flowers on both sides of the upper cup, suggests the loving parents or guardians of a newborn, whether of a child or a divine, idealistic love. Those closest to the upper cup seem to be talking to it. The three coins are similar, in this case the top one perhaps representing the return on an investment. The upper tendrils seem to bow to the one on top, in a worshipful manner. That the tendrils go beneath the two lower coins is an indication of the need for a firm foundation for the investment to yield its dividend. (In what follows, I will present two other interpretations of the Marseille images.)<br /></p><p><b>NEOPYTHAGOREANISM IN THE TAROT AFTER ETTEILLA AND D'ODOUCET</b></p><p>It is again Levi who suggests the design for the Empress card favored by later occultists, that of the woman of Revelation 12:1 with the moon at her feet and twelve stars around her head, as well as the Venus Urania of the Greeks and the Queen of Heaven, with the eagle as a sign of "the soul and of life." She is also fecundity, nature, and generation in the three worlds. This idea of generation follows the Etteilla school's conception of the 3. He does not elaborate on what the three worlds are.<br /></p><p>Christian says that in the divine world she is <b>"the supreme Power balanced by the eternally active Mind and absolute Wisdom."</b> These latter two are presumably the Bateleur and the High Priestess. He adds that "in the intellectual world she is the universal fecundity of the supreme Being." And in the physical world she is "nature in labor" as well as "the germination of the acts that spring from the Will." His keyword is <b>"action.</b>" It is the strength of the will acting upon matter, symbolized by the woman's domination over the crescent moon.</p><p>For Papus the card, besides being all that Levi maintained, is <b>"the equilibrium of the Father and of the Son"</b> - that is, the two cards before it - "<b>or, God the Holy Ghost, Horus, the universal vivifying force."</b> Likewise, in the human world it is the <b>"equilibrium of Adam-Eve,"</b> or Humanity, and the equilibrium of <i>Natura Naturans</i> and <i>Natura Naturata</i>, that is to say, "<b>the World conceived as a being."</b> After the creative principle and the receptive principle, it is the transforming principle. </p><p>It seems to me that this idea of synthesis could apply to some of the Marseille threes. To the extent that Swords is associated with thinking, the middle sword
could represent a synthesis brought about from the combining of the
previous two, where the second opposes the first and the third resolves the conflict on a higher level. If Cups represent feeling, then a new project based both on an earlier one and its critique. Or of course a fertilized egg that can grow into a new living being. In Coins, a new
renumerative endeavor can result from the merger of two competitors.</p><p>In Picard we can see yet another set of interpretations of the Threes, all outgrowths of what came before in the French tradition.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo7FJFF0QrKcCp9iZ-Op64T5nVR4O8p4-JeaGs5DQ4em80NJcZ0ZdRG16Aq2Cf8jsQURT6Gop4s8gFWFIhQ0up7kMiwHX6zdsnFw6GUUayen4nVsRdsY86JhX5y72GwcGsrjgbdkchosicsmyAckn-ij5kIaMlG5U-Bctps90gpr38hZLd97tM_cRC1w/s2612/PicardEudes3BaCuSwCo1909.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1385" data-original-width="2612" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo7FJFF0QrKcCp9iZ-Op64T5nVR4O8p4-JeaGs5DQ4em80NJcZ0ZdRG16Aq2Cf8jsQURT6Gop4s8gFWFIhQ0up7kMiwHX6zdsnFw6GUUayen4nVsRdsY86JhX5y72GwcGsrjgbdkchosicsmyAckn-ij5kIaMlG5U-Bctps90gpr38hZLd97tM_cRC1w/w640-h340/PicardEudes3BaCuSwCo1909.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>Scepters is again filled with vegetation, now proliferating in all directions. Picard also includes symbols of Mercury - the caduceus is obvious. One might wonder about the dog, but he insists that it is another symbol of that god. All I can think of is Cerberus, the dog that guarded the underworld. As the god of commerce, Mercury could just as well have appeared in Coins. The signification, he says, is the beginning of the success of enterprises. That of course fits Etteilla and Waite precisely.</p><p>Cups continues the theme of love begun in the twos, now very much following Etteilla's and d'Odoucet's meaning of "generation," or love on a physiological level: the forecast is "<b>pregnancy</b>." Accordingly, there is an egg within the enclosure made by the three cups, and flowers proliferate. Symbols connected with the air signs of the zodiac are woven into the cups.</p><p> In Coins, roots are coming up from underground; they, along with the
coins in that ground, seem to be pushing up but also protecting and supporting the coin that
is above ground, too. Picard says, <b>"The larva on the point of leaving the ground presages the transformation of matter into a determinate production. On the soil, the roots move so as to disengage the third disc from the terrestrial embrace." </b> It is as though the roots and coins were the
parents of a new life now urging it toward its own life. Symbols of the earth signs of the zodiac are
inside the three coins. </p><p>In Swords, an upturned fish, therefore dead, floats on the surface of a body of water, with lotus leaves descending toward the bottom, apparently cut from their stems by the swords. Picard has a negative view of this suit. However, the word he uses for "upturned" is<i> r<span dir="ltr">é</span>tourn<span dir="ltr">é</span>,</i> which also means "returned." Perhaps it has returned to the place of its birth so as to spawn and therefore generate many from the death of one, thereby not only continuing the theme of the other 3s but also connecting with the theme of Augustine's vision of the Trinity, including the death of the Son.</p><p>Jodorowsky calls the 3s <b>"a bursting apart and creative explosion without experience or any specific purpose"</b> (p. 60). He finds many of the images in later versions of the Empress already present in the Marseille. After noting that she holds the shaft of her scepter <b>"upon the area of her genitals," he observes that "beneath her hand a tiny green leaf can be seen sprouting"</b> (p. 139). With her legs apart, <b>"she could be viewed as in the position of giving birth"</b> (Ibid.). He even sees a crescent moon in the folds of her robe. <b>"It reminds us that we are not the original source of our sexual and creative power but that it is a divine or cosmic power that travels through us"</b> (p. 140).</p><p> In Batons, <b>"the three wands intersect, forming a center expressing their desire to invade the world, represented by the leaves growing out of them"</b> (p. 285). It <b>"explodes toward the outside like a conquerer."</b></p><p>In Swords, the red sword in the middle <b>"symbolizes active, enthusiastic, boundless, and idealistic intellect" </b>(p. 284) which in its idealism and lack of experience loses the distinction between knowing and believing. As for the flour flowers outside the curved swords, they "<b>give security to this impulse,"</b> as though situating it in a defined space: "<b>all thought is supported by a clearly oriented space."</b></p><p>In Cups, it is ideal romantic love. He says that the base of the top cup <b>"is resting on the inside of a heart" </b>(p. 286); and below that, a red spindle "<b>divided by three black lines with three orange petals as its base represents the androgynous deity. This ideal love is a projection of divine love."</b> Finally, the two lower cups are "<b>the male <i>animus</i> and female <i>anima </i>that join to create this dream." </b>This is presumably a reference to Jung's concept of a woman's unconscious masculine image projected on to her lover, and to the man's unconscious feminine image projected likewise. The general movement, here as in Swords, is upwards toward the ideal.<br /></p><p>In Coins, contrastingly, he says that the movement is downward: "<b>internalization, submersion in matter, and the obscurity of gestation. It is the assertion of a treasure buried in the world that we need to take possession of" </b>(p. 286). The Golden Fleece is his symbol of that treasure, which could be either material wealth or cosmic consciousness. In any case, it is another <b>"enthusiastic beginning"</b> with <b>"an uncertain investment."</b></p><p>So while Picard sees movement downward only in Swords (the leaves), the rest being generative of new life, Jodorowsky sees movement downward only in Coins, the rest moving toward an ideal. At the same time, Picard puts the newness in Cups on a physical basis, whereas for Jodorowsky it is on the level of the ideal.<br /></p>Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677044918876619054.post-88624961058633957542012-05-15T22:18:00.066-07:002023-08-07T19:02:53.635-07:00Emperor and FoursDu Bartas (on him, see beginning of my post on Aces) says of the Four: <blockquote><b>The (<span class="rend-italic"><i>Cube's</i></span>-Base) <span class="rend-italic">Four;</span> a full and perfect sum,<br />Whose added parts just unto Ten do come;<br />Number of God's great Name, Seasons, Complexions,<br />Winds, Elements, and Cardinal Perfections.</b></blockquote>How Four relates to God's name is explained in Agrippa's <i>Three Books of Occult Philosophy </i>(ed. Tyson, in archive.org):<blockquote><b>Hence that superexcellent and great name of the divine trinity of God is written with four letters, viz <i>Yod, He</i>, and <i>Vau</i>; ... for <i>He</i> being duplicate, terminates both syllables, and the whole name . . .</b></blockquote>This is in the course of Agrippa's attempt to deduce the fourness of God's name from the threeness of the Trinity, which may skip.<div class="line"><br /></div><div class="line">How the added parts equal ten is obvious enough: Agrippa even spells it out: "with one, two, three and four, constituting the number ten." <br /></div><div class="line"><br /></div><div class="line">Agrippa also explains one reason Du Bartas might have mentioned the cube: <b>"It doth also contain the whole of mathematics in four terms, viz. point, line superficies, and profundity"</b> (p. 255). Another reason, of course, is that each of the faces of the cube has four sides. He also elaborates on the seasons, "spring, summer, autumn, and winter"; the "complexions" i.e. temperaments or humors, "blood [for sanguine], phlegm, choler, melancholy"; the winds, "eastern, western, northern, and southern"; and cardinal virtues, "prudence justice, fortitude, temperance"; and a good many other foursomes, including "qualities," i.e. "cold, heat, dryness, and moistness," from which the four humors derive.</div><div class="line"><br /></div><div class="line">Martianus Capella, after enumerating the same, plus the four virtues, adds (p. 279 of <i>The Marriage of Mercury and Philology</i>). <b>"</b><b>Then, too, are there not four ages of man</b>." Infancy, youth, maturity, old age, I think he means.</div><div class="line"><p>
The Church Father Irenaeus used a Pythagorean argument
when he said, objecting to the many writings that were called
"gospels," that there could not be more than four gospels. (For the
relevant passage in Irenaeus, see "Irenaeus and the Four Gospels" at <a class="postlink" href="http://www.ntcanon.org/Irenaeus.shtml">http://www.ntcanon.org/Irenaeus.shtml</a>.) <br /></p></div><p>The point is made in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology of Arithmetic</span>, still in Greek up to our own day. After saying all of the above, it adds that four is the number of the full extent of a thing:<br />
</p><blockquote>
<b>Everything
in the universe turns out to be completed in the natural progression up
to the tetrad, in general and in particular, as does everything
numerical--in short, everything whatever its nature.</b><b> . . . The
fact that the decad. . . is consummated by the tetrad along with the
numbers which precede it</b><b>, is special and
particularly important for the harmony which completion brings; so is
the fact that it provides the limit of corporeality and
three-dimensionality.</b></blockquote><p>That is what Agrippa was thinking when he said that "the number four makes up all knowledge" and "also doth contain the whole of mathematics."</p><p> The other aspect of the number 4 is that it is the number that corresponds to the material universe. three dimensional objects,
as opposed to lines or two dimensional figures. Macrobius says (p. 106f): <br />
</p><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>To continue, all bodies are either mathematical, the creatures of
geometry, or such as are perceptible to sight or touch. The former
possess three stages of development: the line grows out of the point,
the surface out of the line, and the solid out of the surface. </b></blockquote><p>
It takes two points to
specify a line, three to specify a triangle, the simplest two
dimensional figure, and four to specify the simplest in three
dimensions, the tetrahedron or triangular-based pyramid. This point is
shown in the pages of an arithmetic textbook (in Heninger, <span style="font-style: italic;">Sweet Harmonies</span>, p. 72f, originally Joannes Martinus, <span style="font-style: italic;">Arithmetica</span>,
Paris 1526). In turn these diagrams come ultimately from Nichomachus,
who intended them as a foundation for such philosophizing as we see in
the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology of Arithmetic</span>.)<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijWeMWcR7GDVeCv7OUpX561DJIxOPe3pRgy_u3IRwCEcFHROBB06Di29iuNsVZj37vI2gajM3FpGGS80XXtUl78FTORnVeqy5iaK8HpUmq2Y4aJ_-4USDzJ_LwfSw70dZ4F3HLRPVfZnQ/s1600/05scan0085linplannumA.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606368446960168322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijWeMWcR7GDVeCv7OUpX561DJIxOPe3pRgy_u3IRwCEcFHROBB06Di29iuNsVZj37vI2gajM3FpGGS80XXtUl78FTORnVeqy5iaK8HpUmq2Y4aJ_-4USDzJ_LwfSw70dZ4F3HLRPVfZnQ/s400/05scan0085linplannumA.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 261px; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1uyebXDs5ezpZspz2ylu2p4APKox-38fiZxIBKPDVP81s3Ui3ouwgz_dmNx5RAfcOW1ynYTqcn1k6uptedIV8344r0Q1H-XOuU4bVCwpum7VyGrUg9PeHxRy4k-Xu1DH5AbqlmSt4J2s/s1600/05scan0085solidA.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606368454534745938" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1uyebXDs5ezpZspz2ylu2p4APKox-38fiZxIBKPDVP81s3Ui3ouwgz_dmNx5RAfcOW1ynYTqcn1k6uptedIV8344r0Q1H-XOuU4bVCwpum7VyGrUg9PeHxRy4k-Xu1DH5AbqlmSt4J2s/s400/05scan0085solidA.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 172px; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
And after three dimensions, there were no more. Three dimensions were the maximum, the whole.<br />
<br />
Thus
the number 4 is concerned with wholes, especially in three dimensions,
in other words the whole material universe, which itself is made of the
four elements, which, because of their "adhesive qualities,...
harmoniously grow together into firm bodily substances". Just as the
Emperor rules over the material lives of
people in all lands, as opposed to a particular kingdom, so does the
Tetrad rule over all the material universe. </p><p>We see that principle also
expressed in the fourth day of creation. It is the day when God, having
finished creating a vast variety of things on earth, created the Sun,
the Moon, and the Stars. Thus Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, 1489, in his <i>Heptaplus</i>, 7th Exposition, 4th Chapter (Jessie Brewer McGaw, translator, p. 98), says, speaking of the days of Creation: <br />
</p><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>And
to the fullness of time! For if the number four is the fullness of
numbers, in the world of numbers, will the fourth day not be the
fullness of days?</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>See then what the fourth day brings
us. On the second day the heavens were created, namely, the law, without
sun and moon and stars, certainly capable of future light, but for the
moment still dark and not illuminated by any remarkable light.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Then
came the fourth day on which the sun, lord of the firmament, namely,
Christ--Lord of the laws, and the lunar Church, Christ's consort and
wife, similar to the moon, and the apostolic doctors, who would educate
many to justice, as stars in the firmament--began to shine for eternity,
calling the world to eternal life. The sun did not destroy the
firmament, but fulfilled it, and Christ came not to destroy the law, but
to fulfill it.</b></blockquote><p>After 10, in the Greek way of writing
numbers (as in ours), the numbers repeat in the next column. The first ten
numerals are the first ten numbers of the Greek alphabet, e.g. 1 is
Alpha and 10 is Kappa. For 11, the Greeks wrote the letter Kappa and
next to it the letter Alpha. 12 was Kappa Beta
and so on, up through 19. Then 20 was written with the letter Lambda, 21 with Lamba plus Alpha, and so on. So the numbers were cyclical
around a base of 10.
The <i>Theology </i>says:
</p><blockquote>
<b>as regards 1, 2, 3, 4, the decad . . . is a
measure and a complete boundary of every number, and there is no longer
any natural number after it, but all subsequent numbers are produced by
participation in the decad, when the cycle is started a second time,
and then again and again on to infinity. </b>(p. 55)</blockquote><p>So 10
represents the whole in actuality, very much correlating to 1, which
represents the whole in potentiality. Potentiality becomes actuality by
a slow process, and then actuality returns to potentiality quickly. But already in the Tetrad the whole is achieved, by means of addition.
<br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">In Etteilla's sequence, the Emperor corresponds to the 7th card, as specified in the quote from his <i>Third Cahier</i> that I gave in connection with the Empress; it "corrects" the Marseille order of trumps.
</span></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: 100%;"><b>No. 7, or the seventh sheet of the Book of Thoth, is also an Emperor,
badly figured to the purpose, which was preceded by an Empress.</b></span></blockquote><span style="font-size: 100%;">
A few years later he had his own "corrected" version of the card. The scene is of the 5th day of creation, when God made the birds and the aquatic creatures.</span>
<span style="font-size: 100%;">I
see no particular correlation between that image and the Emperor: it
merely represents the Day of Creation following that of the Empres, which was the fourth. However, the keywords on Etteilla's
card, as well as the word lists that were developed by his immediate
disciples in the year or two afterwards, are more relevant (and less so to what Etteilla actually has on the card!). <i>Appui </i>and <i>Protection</i> mean "Support" and "Protection." These are both attributes
of a ruler's traditional role in relation to his people. And here are
the other words. As in previous posts, I put the words that appear in d'Odoucet's list alone (</span><i>Science des Signes</i>, vol. 2, ca. 1806) <span style="font-size: 100%;">in bold and those in de la Salette's alone (</span><i>Dictionaire Synonymique,</i>1791, both in archive.org) <span style="font-size: 100%;">in italics.</span><br />
<p></p><blockquote>
SUPPORT. Aid, Prop, <b>Flying
Buttress, </b>Column, Base, Basis, Foundation.—Principle, Reason, Cause,
Subject. Fixity. Assurance, Persuasion, Conviction, Surety,
Security, Confidence, Certainty.—Help<b>, </b>Assistance, <b>Protection. Relief, Consolation</b><span style="font-style: italic;">.</span><b> </b>REVERSED: PROTECTION. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Defense, </span><span><i>Assistance, Aid, Help</i></span>, Influence, Benevolence, Kindness, Charity, Humanity, Goodness, Commiseration, Pity, Compassion<b>, Credit. </b>Authorization.</blockquote><p>
The Emperor is the Foundation of the
realm, the Security of its stability, provider of its defense, ruling
with Compassion and Goodness. These words are further confirmation of
an existing meaning for the card pointing in a particular direction,
similar to that in the Marseille tradition.</p><p>D'Odoucet, in contrast, attempts to deduce the meaning of the card from its number, 7, signifying life in general. Life is the support of every animal species, he says (<a href="https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/24/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/24/mode/2up</a>).<br /></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;">Etteilla's own fourth card corresponds to the Tarot of Marseille's Star, and like that one has the lady pouring from two vases. The only innovation is that instead of seven stars surrounding one big one he has seven symbols for the seven traditional "planets" plus a five-pointed star in the upper right corner. Otherwise it concerns the 3rd element, air, and the 2nd day of creation, that in which the firmament was created, dividing the waters below from the waters above. D'Odoucet relates that card to the number 4 in its signification of Universe (even though "the heavens and the earth" were created on the 1st day).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 130%; font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;">The Fours</span></span><br />
<br />
Below are the "synonyms" and related meanings taken from the two lists for the 4 of Coins left by Etteilla's disciples. Next to them are Etteilla's card and that of the Sola-Busca:<br />
</p><blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3ioyZmWqgwMrGvZWZs3X0guS8dDgTesCOCRkFXGyVqP0EwdvHvJI1_dkt2rfmG3KN0eeWEEoh_aW804dRUpZu67VIx6gLtAtBnXB_2DjGHHqG5LmiUYP_PjYXvrysFNHJI22W7xrMrE0yX5kyIvsHZB1Wy09NifqYK6iF-AX58roi4Jy5rd1YqQlmIg/s1567/04Co_Etteilla_SB.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1399" data-original-width="1567" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3ioyZmWqgwMrGvZWZs3X0guS8dDgTesCOCRkFXGyVqP0EwdvHvJI1_dkt2rfmG3KN0eeWEEoh_aW804dRUpZu67VIx6gLtAtBnXB_2DjGHHqG5LmiUYP_PjYXvrysFNHJI22W7xrMrE0yX5kyIvsHZB1Wy09NifqYK6iF-AX58roi4Jy5rd1YqQlmIg/s320/04Co_Etteilla_SB.jpg" width="320" /></a>4
OF COINS: A PRESENT (d'Odoucet: Bien Fait, i.e. WELL DONE).<b> Charity</b>, Gift, Generosity,
Good Deed, Donation, <b>Liberality, Holiday Gift, Favor, Offering,</b><b> </b>Donation, Bonus, Assistance.—The Color White, Lunar Medicine,<b> </b>White Stone. REVERSED: FENCE or CLOSURE <b> </b>Enclosure, Circuit, Convallation [a steep, narrow valley?], Circumscription, Circumference, Circle, Circulation.—Intercept,
Obstruction, Blocking, Monopolizing. Cloister, Monastery, Convent.<b>
</b><i>Incarceration, Imprisonment,</i><i> Arrest.</i> Immobilized, Fixed, Determined, Definitive. Extremity, Borders,
Limits, Bounds, End, Barrier, Partition, High Wall, Hedge, Interior
Wall.—Obstacles, Hindrances, Difficulty, Suspension, Delay, Opposition.</blockquote><p>
The
first set of Upright meanings suggests the idea of abundance, i.e.
material fullness, so much that there is extra. To that extent it correlates with the material universe in three dimensions: even its empty spaces are defined by the bodies bounding it. The Reversed meanings fit the idea of fullness by indicating the
boundaries defining particular spaces within the whole; like many Reverseds, they are the negation of the Uprights, which are about going beyond the limits that have been set up.</p><p>D'Odoucet relates the card to the numbers 4 and 7: the universe 4, under the auspices of life, 7, dispenses its gifts. Also, 4 is the number of the cube: from the stability of that form, preventing movement, comes closure, or enclosure, and hence repose (<a href="https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/158/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/158/mode/2up</a>).<br /></p><p>It seems to me that
the Sola-Busca 4 of Coins can be taken in much the same sense as in the Etteilla word-list. A
very rotund woman, the image of Plenty, has a disc in her hand as
though offering it to the viewer, while the other three are enclosed in a basket.<br /></p><p>Etteilla's association of the card with Luna, the moon, is, in light of his other astrological identifications in Coins, simply because it is the fourth "planet" out from the center of the solar system, after the sun, Mercury, and Venus. Yet its capacity for fullness and its association with childbirth (the 28 day menstrual cycle and the goddess Diana, ruling over childbirth) also makes it appropriate.<br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The emphasis on material wealth seems to be a concern in A. E. Waite's
word-list for the Four of Coins (or Pentacles, as he calls them):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: The surety of possessions, cleaving to that which one has, gift, legacy, inheritance. <i>Reversed</i>: Suspense, delay, opposition.</b> </blockquote>
Smith's illustration borrows from the Sola-Busca while giving it
Waite's twist: it shows a man clutching a large coin, with the New York
skyline in the background: the Wall Street investor with his hands guarding his prize. Unlike the Etteilla School, Waite emphasizes the downside of wealth, that is, the tendency not to be generous. Instead of investing in their place in heaven through charity, as the Renaissance bankers did, the modern financier invests in more of the same; charity is irrelevant, at least until he has made all that he cares to make.<br />
<br />
Now let us look at Batons.<br />
<blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQTxw9wduFQDGZYBgAcYG6yHej83eHW_IfF6X89ZOaRBdgg4T4rlYN3Fvsbuhkr-vxQW_hDPgKoS4w9pLqCNbp5YJ4kcaIFNuIlW7jypbAzWrNS1JgWdnWpU9w8yWchYIqPoOe_dFYdbfga2qFoV757ixA5XOGMGlpWGUDXQ1hio-uIcbAdmA2yNoRpA/s1528/imgonline-com-ua-twotoone-wspngraxrdP.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1367" data-original-width="1528" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQTxw9wduFQDGZYBgAcYG6yHej83eHW_IfF6X89ZOaRBdgg4T4rlYN3Fvsbuhkr-vxQW_hDPgKoS4w9pLqCNbp5YJ4kcaIFNuIlW7jypbAzWrNS1JgWdnWpU9w8yWchYIqPoOe_dFYdbfga2qFoV757ixA5XOGMGlpWGUDXQ1hio-uIcbAdmA2yNoRpA/s320/imgonline-com-ua-twotoone-wspngraxrdP.jpg" width="320" /></a>4
OF BATONS, UPRIGHT: SOCIETY, Association, Assembly,
Connection, Federation, Alliance, Church<b>, Assemblage,</b><b> Meeting</b><b>, Circle, Community, Gathering</b><b>,</b> Crowd, Multitude, Mob, Throng, Group, Band,
Company, Cohort, Army.<b>—</b> Convocation<b>,
</b>Accompaniment, Blending, Mixing, Alloy, Amalgam.<b>—Contract, Convention,
Pact, Treaty</b><b>. </b>REVERSED: PROSPERITY. <i>3rd Cahier:</i> Flowering (Fleurissement)<b>. </b>Lists<b>: </b>Increase,
Growth, Advancement, Success, Attainment, Happiness,<b> Flourishing</b><b>, </b>Felicity. Beauty, Embellishment.</blockquote><p>
Here the
Reverseds convey the idea of growing abundance. In the Uprights, take the
words: "Federation, Union, Group, Company, Cohort, Army." The sense I
get, combining the two into one idea, is that people in groups, to prosper, need to be
well ordered in themselves and in relation to others, so that different
classes blend together, agreements are made that are binding on all,
and an armed force ("army") is provided to secure compliance as well as to protect it from outside enemies. The Reverseds then
indicate the attainment, to a significant degree, of that goal.</p><p>For D'Odoucet (<a href="https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/74/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/74/mode/2up</a>) this card combines 2, the number of vegatation, with 3, the number of generation, to produce abundance sufficient for the needs of the society involved. The "cubique" number 4 also suggests the stability and repose resulting from such satisfaction of needs. <br />
</p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-_Z_-tfVMlDV0IcLt0sB3JDlNeGZGNMoEnB1q9fYkiy45pYI88UcSNg74H62j239qPRrVak0YZdpW78qYBWfIA4HXcvQfSF-18UuH6Bt514rowhNacGL1sOEgHPj6gM-ou8flDPdS1GIk/s1600/Wands04.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-_Z_-tfVMlDV0IcLt0sB3JDlNeGZGNMoEnB1q9fYkiy45pYI88UcSNg74H62j239qPRrVak0YZdpW78qYBWfIA4HXcvQfSF-18UuH6Bt514rowhNacGL1sOEgHPj6gM-ou8flDPdS1GIk/s320/Wands04.jpg" width="180" /></a>In the SB 4 of Batons, what
I see is a member of the armed force entrusted with keeping the peace and protecting the nation.
His four weapons stand for the whole that he is protecting in all four directions of the compass. The
soldier does not act impulsively, because, with his shield, his helmet,
and his weapons, he and his society are well protected. The fanciful helmet perhaps suggests a snail with its protective shell. <br />
<br />
The Waite-Smith illustrates both ideas. In the foreground is the theme of the Etteilla school's Reverseds, namely Prosperity, with the addition, appropriate in Batons (and also "Wands"), the suit-sign made from trees, of de Mellet's "the countryside." In the background, the castle is an appropriate medieval symbol of protection, even if Waite does not call attention to that aspect of the image. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b> <i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: They are for once almost on the
surface--country life, haven of refuge, a species of domestic
harvest-home, repose, concord, harmony, prosperity, peace, and the
perfected work of these. <i>Reversed</i>: The meaning remains unaltered; it is prosperity, increase, felicity, beauty, embellishment.</b> </blockquote>
I turn now to the Etteilla School’s lists for Swords.<blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVHBbqez-OxCJ27MNCskYBJ_7IZxxCiaNEsiYFrLnFXDvK7jyMTl-6-fTrwMp0HdCf6LvAwyPgby97tho4BjNGN5ro9UUX2ZZFDxFIuig_wFKuEuSs1MNYKQoBKwRRj63rC-4Z6HRJ1I0a8arsLsa849lOMlZLLxDM_FAuiYMklFhi2rJQG_3Rw7JbfA/s1533/04Sw_Etteilla_SB.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1377" data-original-width="1533" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVHBbqez-OxCJ27MNCskYBJ_7IZxxCiaNEsiYFrLnFXDvK7jyMTl-6-fTrwMp0HdCf6LvAwyPgby97tho4BjNGN5ro9UUX2ZZFDxFIuig_wFKuEuSs1MNYKQoBKwRRj63rC-4Z6HRJ1I0a8arsLsa849lOMlZLLxDM_FAuiYMklFhi2rJQG_3Rw7JbfA/s320/04Sw_Etteilla_SB.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
4
of SWORDS, ETTEILLA, UPRIGHT: SOLITUDE, Desert, Retreat,
Hermitage. Exile, Banishment, Ostracism. Uninhabited, Remote,
Abandoned, Given Up. Tomb, Sepulcher, Coffin. REVERSED: ECONOMY, Good Conduct, Wise Administration. Foresight, Discretion<b>, </b>Household Management, Savings, Avarice, Stinginess. Order, Arrangement, Rapport,
Propriety, Agreement, Concert, Accord, Concordance, Harmony,
Music. Disposition, Testament. Reserve, Restriction,
Exception.<b> Circumspection, </b>Electoral District,<b> </b>Restraint, Wisdom, Symphony, Moderation, Precaution.</blockquote><p>
Here we seem to have conditions in austere conditions. The Uprights are about lacks: lack of people, lack of nourishment,
lack of support, lack of life, as a result of misfortune and a need to retreat into oneself. The Reverseds suggest how to live in such times: with economy, restraint, moderation, also stinginess and avarice.<br /></p><p>For d'Odoucet (<a href="https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/74/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/74/mode/2up</a>), the card is a product of 0 and 6, i.e. the globe and "animating spirit" (although elsewhere he says 6 is "movement"), thus (somehow) a withering away of our globe as expressed in its deserts and moors, in solitude, and with the need for economy due to scarce resources. 4 represents the universe; thus this is true universally, reducing man to defense, to secure his existence.<br />
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In the SB 4 of Swords (above far right), we see the same type of ox-skull as in the Ace and Three of Coins. As we have seen, it typically means labor. Tarotpedia (<a href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Ace_of_Coins_Sola-Busca">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Ace_of_Coins_Sola-Busca</a>)
shows us a 1574 medallion of an wreathed ox-skull with the motto
""VICTORIA EX LABORE HONESTA, ET UTILIS": The Victory you gain by your
work is honest and useful.<br />
<br />
Before that, there was the <span style="font-style: italic;">Hypnerotomachia</span> of 1499, where again the ox-skull represents labor (below right). The motto deciphering the "hieroglyphs" reads, in English, "From your labor to the god of Nature sacrifice freely." (The last word is "liberaliter". It continues,
"Gradually you will make your soul subject to God. He will hold the firm
guidance of your life, mercifully governing you, and will preserve you
unharmed.") From the
perspective of Neopythagoreanism, we might say for the SB image:
abundance is won by hard and useful work. That actually would be a good motto for the Waite Four of <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY7xzz5blQ2_ZEIl14bRwAA3G_L7amItPn-TU9DYB9Yf303MXCLybKs98SdAlhq4Fk1iwZ18lt48MTkvW2expXez9bu4HMLUdaA4-ZVO6fRRSJveUJwYSxUxrSWye69QT5nlQ-J_YD4co/s1600/Hypnerotomachia1a.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5598282120543898770" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY7xzz5blQ2_ZEIl14bRwAA3G_L7amItPn-TU9DYB9Yf303MXCLybKs98SdAlhq4Fk1iwZ18lt48MTkvW2expXez9bu4HMLUdaA4-ZVO6fRRSJveUJwYSxUxrSWye69QT5nlQ-J_YD4co/s400/Hypnerotomachia1a.jpg" style="height: 135px; width: 400px;" /></a>Wands
(Batons), which has something like the wreath and two side poles of the
ox-skull emblem. <br />
<br />
The ox-skull also suggests how deserts and death might have come to be part of
the Upright meaning of the card. A skull typically means death; an
ox-skull then means death of the ox. But why would an ox, which lives
on grass, come to die? Primarily if there were a drought, and the land
became a desert. So the skull can mean opposite things at once:
abundance through labor, and death through deprivation. Combining the two, there is also a third thing: the retreat to the desert, or solitude anywhere, to restore an equilibrium in one's life, like the four swords of the SB card, the four Jungian functions in balance and sustaining a victory within.<br />
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<br />
Waite's card captures some of these meanings, that of the skull representing death. Here is his card, together with his divinatory interpretations:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: Vigilance, retreat, solitude, hermit's repose, exile, tomb and coffin. It is these last that have suggested the design. <i>Reversed</i>: Wise administration, circumspection, economy, avarice, precaution, testament.</b></blockquote>
These of course are directly from the Etteilla school, only "tomb and coffin". fit the picture taken literally, one of the Sola-Busca ox skull's double meaning. However we may see the effigy on the tomb as a real person, engaged in solitude and prayer. So besides death also work, inner work,and instead of a victory wreath we see a stained glass window with some kind of supplication, perhaps to Jesus. There are also other types of work, captured by Waite's reversed meanings, which can lead to more materially oriented victory.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4nTs00Q3kQ5xVfCRA_gcSWwx02NkMrEegEyaeNQ-DORQqgE4ZiAYSHVSn9IrHrKmRZ2YehjGmootlmZpfNNWhIHFo0KsFOtxFtWzvZvqdMb1HgZtUNWUFT8d1-46pZzxFmZP3SIxZN5EmB3ytiiV8neTcah-FChvtfQCP6nYUxwA5Cr0BiqRtMGNDRA/s1557/04Cu_Etteilla_SB.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1395" data-original-width="1557" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4nTs00Q3kQ5xVfCRA_gcSWwx02NkMrEegEyaeNQ-DORQqgE4ZiAYSHVSn9IrHrKmRZ2YehjGmootlmZpfNNWhIHFo0KsFOtxFtWzvZvqdMb1HgZtUNWUFT8d1-46pZzxFmZP3SIxZN5EmB3ytiiV8neTcah-FChvtfQCP6nYUxwA5Cr0BiqRtMGNDRA/s320/04Cu_Etteilla_SB.jpg" width="320" /></a>The Sola-Busca Four of Cups has a man holding a cup above a sack, with
three on the shelf. Di Vincenzo sees the scene as him putting the cup
into the sack, and applies a Jungian concept to it (<i>Sola-Busca</i> p. 40): the cup being put in the sack is that aspect of our
personality, one out of the four functions, that we hide from view,
even from ourselves (Jung called it the "shadow"). <br />
<br />My first thought
was that such a perspective is again too modern to fit the card in its
historical context. And how would one hide one's temperament? But in one way, the Etteilla school's word-lists in a way support her:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
4
OF CUPS, UPRIGHT: BOREDOM. Displeasure, Discontentment, Disgust,
Aversion, Aversion, Enmity, Hate, Horror, Anxiety, Mental Suffering, Mild Dejection, Affliction, Trying,
Annoying, Unpleasant. Saddening, Troubling. REVERSED: NEW KNOWLEDGE<b> </b>New Instruction, <i>New Information</i>, New Light, <i>New Intelligence, New Clarification</i>. Sign, Indication, Conjecture. Omen,
Presage.<b> </b>Presentiment, Forecast, <i>Oracle, </i>Prediction,<b>
</b><i>Prophecy, Divination, </i>Novelty.</div>
</blockquote><p>
On the one hand, many of the words in the Uprights
describe things we wish to hide in ourselves: we are
disgusted by just those aspects of our personalities that we hide from
view. Bringing these aspects to light might very well help bring about the
results indicated by the words in the Reverseds. Jung says somewhere that the inferior function is the gateway to the self.<br />
<br />
Another possibility for the SB Four of Cups is suggested by Etteilla's upright meanings: it
could be that the man has taken out the fourth cup and the putto and he are looking into
the sack to see if there is anything more. He is bored with what he has received and wants something more. From this viewpoint, the Tetrad,
standing for the whole of material abundance, is not enough. Life is about more than that. What is
left out is soul, which in the <i>Theology of Arithmetic</i> is the subject of numbers five through eight. <br /></p><p>D'Odoucet derives Etteilla's keyword from the stability associated with 4: "The cubic position indicates a monotonous cessation of motion," for which the antidote is new knowledge. He also derives it from the numbers 4 and 6 on this card, 4 as the universe and 6 as the globe, both offering only their habitual manner of being, and no further exercise of the mind (<a href="https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/102/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/102/mode/2up</a>), without new information. <br /></p><p>In summary: all four suits and the
trumps relate to similar themes: material abundance through careful and
secure management of the whole, and to the opposites of these. That is the function of the Emperor, in
his capacity as a benevolent secular leader. But there can also be too much stability: soul has been left out, which thrives on new information.
<br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkotdojEJjjJlQuRQTTxdsfqjGuU6PtTuxffjYRC0qr5FtV8XNRJPs5ojpWlNl6hXjgqmNB7f9QtYHpN9JuKeY3BeTmO2KmCabUkNiUntd0Iz_bQp5j5MlTtUHe4lRoAodZfm5Jbo18t-y/s1600/04CupsWaite.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkotdojEJjjJlQuRQTTxdsfqjGuU6PtTuxffjYRC0qr5FtV8XNRJPs5ojpWlNl6hXjgqmNB7f9QtYHpN9JuKeY3BeTmO2KmCabUkNiUntd0Iz_bQp5j5MlTtUHe4lRoAodZfm5Jbo18t-y/s320/04CupsWaite.jpg" width="182" /></a></div>
Vincenzo's idea of a hidden cup standing for a suppressed aspect of one's
personality, may also fit the scene in the Waite-Smith Four
of Cups. Instead of going in a bag, the fourth cup is held by a hand
coming out of a cloud, while a boy broods next to it; Waite says, "A young man is seated under a tree and contemplates three cups set on
the grass before him; an arm issuing from a cloud offers him another
cup. His expression notwithstanding is one of discontent with his
environment." His divinatory meanings are then much like the Etteilla school's:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: Weariness, disgust, aversion, imaginary
vexations, as if the wine of this world had caused satiety only; another
wine, as if a fairy gift, is now offered the wastrel, but he sees no
consolation therein. This is also a card of blended pleasure. <i>Reversed</i>: Novelty, presage, new instruction, new relations.</b></blockquote><p>
It could also be that he is thinking that while his material needs are being met, his soul is not thriving. That is the idea of what is missing in the fours, which will be answered in the fives through eights.<br />
<br />
<b>CONCLUSION</b><br />
<br />
In summary: all four suits and the
trumps relate to similar themes: material abundance, or at least adequacy in times of scarcity, through careful and
secure management of the whole. That is the function of the Emperor, in
his capacity as a benevolent secular leader. All that is needed is soul.<br />
<br />
As far as the Etteilla keywords and word-lists' relation to the SB designs, there is a strong relationship in all four suits. Coins has Swords are connected only via the skull, with a secondary meaning made primary. In Batons it is a different thing that brings prosperity, laws vs agriculture. So perhaps we can assign a 60 per cent correlation as a whole.<br />
<br />
Waite in relation to Etteilla: Waite has a different twist on the Uprights, wealth in Coins, miserliness vs. Etteilla's generosity, only only part of Etteilla's Reverseds so only 50% similar. In Batons, Uprights are different but Reverseds the same, so another 50%. In Swords, Waite has again taken only one meaning out of at least two, so 50%. In Cups, finally, there is a good correspondence between the two, 100%. So on average 62%.<br />
<br />
In regard to Neopythagoreanism, it seems to that both Waite and Etteilla convey well the idea of the material world and its expansion in usefulness and shortcomings, in three of the suits. So do the SB and Smith designs, even if different in spirit. The problematic one is Swords in the Uprights, in all except the SB. In the Smith images, it is a bit worse, because it is only the Upright that is illustrated in Swords. However, the SB, with four swords with a wreath in the middle, has much the same message as in Batons: prosperity through the maintenance of order. So 50% for Smith's design, 75% for Etteilla's and Waite's, and at least the same, relative to Etteilla, for the SB.</p><p><b>NEOPYTHAGOREAN INFLUENCES ON THE TAROT AFTER ETTEILLA AND D'ODOUCET</b></p><p>Papus, besides restoring the Emperor to the tarot, also gave him the cubic stone as his seat, clearly related to its number: "initiation, power, the tetragrammaton, the quaternary, the cubic stone or its base," he declares. He also notes that his legs form a cross, another foursome, which together with the triangle of his body forms the alchemical sign for sulphur, "the Athanor of the philosophers," in his terms.</p><p>Christian adds that 4 marks the "realization" of the action initiated in the 3:
</p><blockquote><b>Human Will [I], illuminated by Knowledge [II] and manifested by Action [III,] creates Realization, [IV] of a power that it can use rightly or wrongly, according to its good or evil Inspiration [V], in the circle described for it by the laws of universal order. </b></blockquote><p>He adds that <span style="font-size: small;">"<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><b>The
cross described by the position of his limbs symbolizes the four elements and
the expansion of human power in every direction."</b></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><b> </b>Papus sees the Emperor as the first term of the second ternary, and so a "reflex" of the first term of the first ternary (the Bateleur), just as the second card is a "reflex" of the first. He has two formulations each of its definition in the three worlds. In the divine world, it is "the reflex of God the Father, Will," and specifically "realization of the divine Word in the creation." In the human world, it is the reflex of Adam, </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">the Power," and "the realization of the ideas of the creature shared by the quadruple work of the spirit: Affirmation, Negation, Discussion, Solution." In the physical world it is the reflex of the natura naturans, i.e. "the soul of the universe" and "realization of the actions conceived by the Will."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT-zBCA2PHtY-DA9gz6HftU-Ag8lcRpajyIloDYhKodPTP5iLbHXPgibVFBja7mpN9w5jMyzc5G_D_ZcvC0i7irRK_07jWQtFls_V8SBhvadu1ehMIqAhyB2uZFL-Pb7NbVaVve7D4sbbvRrE3A6jEALQHN21Gz93xgVebUICL6J8TQpYcxJa6sbUofw/s970/p30a.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="970" data-original-width="712" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT-zBCA2PHtY-DA9gz6HftU-Ag8lcRpajyIloDYhKodPTP5iLbHXPgibVFBja7mpN9w5jMyzc5G_D_ZcvC0i7irRK_07jWQtFls_V8SBhvadu1ehMIqAhyB2uZFL-Pb7NbVaVve7D4sbbvRrE3A6jEALQHN21Gz93xgVebUICL6J8TQpYcxJa6sbUofw/w294-h400/p30a.jpg" width="294" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Picard repeats Papus and Christian on the card's significance in the three worlds right). The formulations that follow are from Papus's second book, <i>Le Tarot Divinatoire</i>, 1909, and two others, Falconnier, 1896, and </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">J.-G. Bourgeat, 1906. Falconnier's "affirmation, negation, discussion, solution" was earlier in Papus, 1889, as we have seen.</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> The citations from Papus and Bourgat show the continuing influence of Etteilla, now applied to the standard tarot image instead of his innovation. The entry translates as follows:</span></span><p></p><blockquote><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Will, form, authority, protection, fire. (Pap.)</span></span> <br /></b></blockquote><blockquote><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Unity completed by the trinity and giving the perfect square: affirmation, negation, discussion, solution. (Falc.)</span></span> <br /></b></blockquote><blockquote><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Power, support, stability, a great person. (J. B.)</span></span></b></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">We recognize "protection" and "support" from the keywords on Etteilla's card. We will see "stability" again in Jodorowsky.<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> Now for Picard's versions of the fours, together with his explanations, which occur on the previous page.<br /></span></span></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnhX577ibKGoo-ATTPd6ulhgemrkqwkZlF2Rzcb3FIQ47s3winkHjAN7OjY7raAbcMBSqbWWoaSDyMyRR0wSRpmxlEZb3GrV9-uFVaeJqa6QM0hd2ItSGJnvXJfNejjAF7dLkCwEepbpyAZUAZ5YMhY4q_HF8OZANemMzhuGVKwJxXwndLiFXcunipQw/s1324/4BaCuCAP.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1324" data-original-width="1274" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnhX577ibKGoo-ATTPd6ulhgemrkqwkZlF2Rzcb3FIQ47s3winkHjAN7OjY7raAbcMBSqbWWoaSDyMyRR0wSRpmxlEZb3GrV9-uFVaeJqa6QM0hd2ItSGJnvXJfNejjAF7dLkCwEepbpyAZUAZ5YMhY4q_HF8OZANemMzhuGVKwJxXwndLiFXcunipQw/w385-h400/4BaCuCAP.jpg" width="385" /></a><span style="font-size: small;">Ba</span><span style="font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-size: small;">tons (near right) expresses some of the features of the Emperor: the lion represents "the force indispensable to realization. It sustains and protects" - just as the Emperor sustains and protects his domain. The wheat is a token of the fertility thereby achieved, the "realization" of that fertility.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Cups shows the fruit of love as a physical phenomenon, the birth of an infant, above all a male infant or that of an animal. The symbol for Gemini above, he says, signifies infancy. This is perhaps a result of Etteilla's reduction of the two young men of the Marseille versions to two small children. The eagle - perhaps taken from the Emperor's shield - breaking its shell has the same meaning, as do the ripe wheat and berries - again, the realization of the gestation seen in the threes. The butterfly is the new soul that has been realized on earth.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7blOwdZWlPK3wfBO5-aLDMr-xTR58bbM8Ard6HZsPZh3GZMVGu7lh3QYfj018wK0c0Fi_VrzSQELx_fGo-KtoDNSdDXIywKA6uJYYg8eA7PWbpysbORFzBRbazIxG_k3qvxpRk9Os-E6v_-CJ1g2DXEqhZSu6unOJ4Lb8KbHDl3q3819KIKJp7swug/s1269/Picard4SwCo+Comm.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1269" data-original-width="1208" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7blOwdZWlPK3wfBO5-aLDMr-xTR58bbM8Ard6HZsPZh3GZMVGu7lh3QYfj018wK0c0Fi_VrzSQELx_fGo-KtoDNSdDXIywKA6uJYYg8eA7PWbpysbORFzBRbazIxG_k3qvxpRk9Os-E6v_-CJ1g2DXEqhZSu6unOJ4Lb8KbHDl3q3819KIKJp7swug/w381-h400/Picard4SwCo+Comm.jpg" width="381" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">Swords again is negative. While death applied to the fish and the leaves of the 3, now it has infected the water itself. From the points of the four swords emanate the sign of Scorpio in four directions, producing a "malific water," the realization in the water itself of what had formerly been confined to a fish and some leaves. This evil is held in bounds only by the magic of the crescent moons, the planet associated with another water sign, that of Cancer, on the top.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Coins, as usual, has the symbols of the three zodiacal earth signs inside the discs, with a square in the fourth, with four units on a side. The meaning, predictably, is the realization of the fortune whose foundations began in card 3. He also associates it with the births of female infants and reptiles. Both historically were associated with earth, women as providing the matter of the developing foetus while sperm was thought (by Aristotle and his followers, but not Plato) to provide the form. Reptiles, of course, move low to the ground. They may also be grouped with women due to Eve's ill-favored venture with the serpent in Eden.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Picard calls the symbol in the middle the sign for the Earth. It is not the usual one, but Wikipedia does include a circle surmounted by a cross among the variations for earth as an element. It is similar to the knob at the end of the Emperor's scepter. The difference is that the scepter's knob is divided into three parts, for each of the three continents (Europe, Africa, Asia) known at the time the symbol became established. So it symbolizes the entirety of the world, except perhaps its oceans. On Picard's card, what we see is rather a schematic version of the earth as a globe, showing the equator and some longitude lines. The cross in both cases symbolizes the dominion of Christ over the world.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Jodorowsky, using the standard "Marseille" images of Conver 1760 but with a few more colors (below, Batons and Cups), continues the tradition of seeing the 4s as about realization, to which he adds, perhaps following Picard, stability. It is for him an unstable stability. The ecstasy of sex and creativity dulls with lack of novelty and so, to survive, must evolve into the five. He does not point to any specific aspect of the Marseille card to illustrate his point; but along with the rigid X of the four Wands are sprouts coming out in all four directions, like new exploratory shoots. His analysis is reminiscent of Etteilla and d'Odoucet's "ennui" and "new information" on the 4 of Cups: boredom unless there is new information.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRbXZGvwBiLL8dpysQpwexsXODYQu6OWgsh5fvIMyC3Fsh8hbk_f5coRaPLWwekrk9hlBC5Yw76EgEUiRRCI_7-K2hxX40tWUfKOlZmugSVOxpXcB7aPdKxq8ri4w0UZxQJCJRcIku2iMcS_UgVLlIe02r4lsH3M9pUb5TIOAzXOaT8VXBCrlZrBeOvA/s3301/4bacuJodoConver.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1566" data-original-width="3301" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRbXZGvwBiLL8dpysQpwexsXODYQu6OWgsh5fvIMyC3Fsh8hbk_f5coRaPLWwekrk9hlBC5Yw76EgEUiRRCI_7-K2hxX40tWUfKOlZmugSVOxpXcB7aPdKxq8ri4w0UZxQJCJRcIku2iMcS_UgVLlIe02r4lsH3M9pUb5TIOAzXOaT8VXBCrlZrBeOvA/w640-h304/4bacuJodoConver.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;">In Cups, the dominant upward movement of the plants signifies "an aspiration toward the heights" (p. 287). The cups on the top are held up by the two large leaves and the two cups at the bottom. The card also signifies the realization of the dreams of the Three, namely "a real love," and "a foundation, acceptance of the couple, or the plan to have a family," a step that "can occur only if we accept being loved with complete trust" (p. 288). But again there is a problem, that such acceptance can turn into a need for acceptance, at which the aspiration for "real love" is thereby sacrificed. Love of oneself goes with love of the other and by the other. Then love can evolve, which it must do to survive. <br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">There is a similar danger in Swords. Thinking is of great use, but without intuition, it becomes rigid and stultified, closed to new ideas and forms of expression.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdhvN5Eq4e2irrhUYKuRI3sNBzDkkLud9GvBVb6xKMktK0J9-Ma8ddZivy_mTBhBtHEwopy6rMM_X9XSpl7OSS-C_WPd4Pje8VjjhyQ6ti4WdC4RPNIuacCv_ZY6FiRfNVpw9g85Xnsj5gifjGG2FfVQumbHWibVq2aRU-KqS13vJK1qGbapUCBhAMAQ/s3298/4swcoJodoConver.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1566" data-original-width="3298" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdhvN5Eq4e2irrhUYKuRI3sNBzDkkLud9GvBVb6xKMktK0J9-Ma8ddZivy_mTBhBtHEwopy6rMM_X9XSpl7OSS-C_WPd4Pje8VjjhyQ6ti4WdC4RPNIuacCv_ZY6FiRfNVpw9g85Xnsj5gifjGG2FfVQumbHWibVq2aRU-KqS13vJK1qGbapUCBhAMAQ/w640-h304/4swcoJodoConver.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6WvENH1QmvG_oLal_5cK--IQbIIE16S_Rk7JX9U295-4GZmzRcXV66rUIvSr1PJvSDsk_rYdgxSY_tE5HbIX0d8Olk59Bkm8lRsF36yF87x0tfYo43LkOiSa27BvN6naszg5-pp3TUdatX0dK0-0q4USiOnyUg9Q2BH6jrNj_M5_hM8gluEj1tyyh_Q/s1566/TourcatyPhoenix.JPEG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1566" data-original-width="815" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6WvENH1QmvG_oLal_5cK--IQbIIE16S_Rk7JX9U295-4GZmzRcXV66rUIvSr1PJvSDsk_rYdgxSY_tE5HbIX0d8Olk59Bkm8lRsF36yF87x0tfYo43LkOiSa27BvN6naszg5-pp3TUdatX0dK0-0q4USiOnyUg9Q2BH6jrNj_M5_hM8gluEj1tyyh_Q/s320/TourcatyPhoenix.JPEG" width="167" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">In Coins, Jodorowsky does not take Conver's standard central design of a fleur-de-lys (far left above), and instead borrows from a version by Jean-Francois Tourcaty, also of Marseille, which has a phoenix there instead (source Bibliotheque Nationale Francaise, BnF: I thanks SteveM on Tarot History Forum for identifying this source). Flames leap up on either side of the platform, its nest. </span><span style="font-size: small;">Its presence shows, Jodoworsky says, the "ephemeral nature of all material goods," in particular one's health (he ignores that the bird was said to live 800 years). The phoenix is thus a reminder that "health requires constant care," just as unsold food in a market need to be replaced after its expiration date (I am not sure I understand the comparison). Likewise the card counsels investing one's money instead of letting it sit in a locked strongbox. Investing puts it into action, transforming what was put in into something new. But all material construction needs a sacred foundation, just as a cathedral needs the saying of mass, which will be the subject of the five. (I would have thought that the phoenix could take precisely that spiritual meaning, that of the sacrifice and rebirth of Christ and of the Christian soul.)</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Jodorowsky seems to be trying to put the French tradition first seen in Etteilla in today's terms, but reducing the "three worlds" of Christian and Papus to one for cards 1-4, called "earth," another for the cards 6-9, called "heaven," with 5 and 10 as transition cards, the 5 from "earth" to "heaven" and the 10 transitional to the "next" suit.<br /></span></p><p></p>Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677044918876619054.post-50101424017498746982012-05-15T22:18:00.065-07:002023-08-07T19:02:12.967-07:00Pope and fivesNow for Du Bartas on the Five:<blockquote><b>The Hermaphrodite <span class="rend-italic"><i>Five</i>,</span> never multiplied<br />By itself, or Odd, but there is still described<br />His proper face: for, three times <span class="rend-italic"><i>Five</i><br />Unto Fifteen; <span class="rend-italic"><i>Five Fives</i></span> to Twenty-<i>Five</i>.</span></b></blockquote><p>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.<br /></p><p>Martianus Capella says of five:<br />
</p><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><b>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.</b> </span></span></span></span></span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">Macrobius adds (p. 104):</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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.</span></span></span></span></span></span></b></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">In the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology of Arithmetic</span>,
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. </span></span></span>(Could this be the "ethereal" part of living things, as opposed to minerals?) The <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span> says:</span></span></span><br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>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. </b>(pp. 72-73).</div>
</blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzUrCMhP6HYWeUr7vGl4WuAY92fzVw70efQCsy2IzjBCPyF32Lx8kWjegoCwgcGkgZdtzHkwJEjxWwObl0Oo-_cqn4ik9GisvnDztnzQjPJUOcYfMvRpGGuk7o_SiNIqAzq-WoA0nMCz23/s1600/stairwayofAscent.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzUrCMhP6HYWeUr7vGl4WuAY92fzVw70efQCsy2IzjBCPyF32Lx8kWjegoCwgcGkgZdtzHkwJEjxWwObl0Oo-_cqn4ik9GisvnDztnzQjPJUOcYfMvRpGGuk7o_SiNIqAzq-WoA0nMCz23/s400/stairwayofAscent.jpg" width="273" /></a>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.<br />
<br />
The vegetative soul is defined by plant life, that which plants have in
common with other forms of life:<b> "addition and increase," </b>(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:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>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.</b></div>
</blockquote>
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. <br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>It is the midpoint of the decad.</b></div>
</blockquote>
says the first paragraph of the chapter (p. 65). And: <br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>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</b>. (p. 70)</div>
</blockquote>
The <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>
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 <span style="font-style: italic;">'Nemein'</span> (distribute) is the root of 'Nemesis' (p. 73)<br />
<br />
5 was taken by Irenaeus as a fit symbol for the True Faith (<i>Against Heresies</i> 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 <i>Soter, Pater,</i> and <i>Agape</i> (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.<br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">Regarding the vegetative soul, Jesus is often called, e.g. by
Frazier in <span style="font-style: italic;">The Golden Bough</span>,
a <b>"vegetation god,"</b> 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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />In the Bible,
the fifth day of creation is when God said "<b>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"</b> (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.</span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA92YiZSSPws32JiIBj5GJkOZVwJHKt9Of-GUHL_Ib6s5t2KkZpjuFJ87x8vTg4Cifv8lLbLwb00Z0uN7UxAhzn-5xXdVYB4uVcj9KaF5MlaN1e19JF-PmPCsRIOgNJP3JFZwaiBm9wAo9/s1600/05Etteilla1origandlater.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA92YiZSSPws32JiIBj5GJkOZVwJHKt9Of-GUHL_Ib6s5t2KkZpjuFJ87x8vTg4Cifv8lLbLwb00Z0uN7UxAhzn-5xXdVYB4uVcj9KaF5MlaN1e19JF-PmPCsRIOgNJP3JFZwaiBm9wAo9/s320/05Etteilla1origandlater.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">For this
card I go first (near right) to the reproduction in Decker, Dummett, and Depaulis's <span style="font-style: italic;">Wicked Pack of Cards</span>. 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. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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. <br /></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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.) </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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.</span></span></span><br />
</p><blockquote>UPRIGHT: ETTEILLA [d'Odoucet: Consultant]. God, Supreme Being, Most High, the Chaos. Meditation, Reflection.<b> </b><i>All-powerful, the Unitrine, Spirit of God, </i>Central Spirit, <i>Glory,</i> <i>Immortal Man, the Male Querent. Thought, </i>Meditation, <i>Contemplation</i>, Reflection, Contention of Spirit [or Mind: <i>d'esprit </i>can mean either],<b> </b><i>Spiritual </i>[or Spiritual] <i>Search.</i><b> </b>REVERSED: THE QUERENT [MALE]. <i>Philosopher, Philosophic, Philosophically, Sage, Sagacity, Sagely.</i><b> </b><b>The Universe. The Physical Man or the Male, the Male Querent. </b>
</blockquote><p>
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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 <i>Questionnant, </i>while "Philosopher, Sage" belong to the keyword <i>Etteilla. </i>D'Odoucet covers himself by simply having "<i>Consultant</i>" as both upright and reversed. After all, the card represents the consultant in a reading.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">Some people identify the Marseille Pope card with the Etteilla trump that shows a bishop marrying two young people, with the keyword as <i>mariage</i> (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.<br /></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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" (<i>Premier Cahier,</i> p. 19, put online by Wellcome Institute, in the same volume as the <i>Second Cahier</i>). 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." </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Fives</span></span></span></span><br />
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In the Sola-Busca 5 of Batons we see a man carrying a gourd and five large lances. Sofia Di Vincenzo, in her book <span style="font-style: italic;">Sola-Busca Tarot</span>
(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 <a class="postlink" href="http://academic.evergreen.edu/curricular/materiality/handout%20PDFs/Renaissance%20Prints%20winter%2009.pdf">http://academic.evergreen.edu/curricula ... r%2009.pdf</a>, p. 7, we find it identified in Durer's <span style="font-style: italic;">Jerome in his Study</span>
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 (<span style="font-style: italic;">Signs and Symbols in Christian Art, with Illustrations from the Paintings of the Renaissance</span>,
p. 31, in Google Books), its association with the story in Jonah made the
gourd a symbol of the Resurrection. In a Crivelli <i>Madonna and
Child</i>, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/food/hd_food.htm">http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/food/hd_food.htm</a>),
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 (<a class="postlink" href="http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/mcj025/">http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/mcj025/</a>). Moreover, Levenson (<span style="font-style: italic;">Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration</span>,
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 (<span style="font-style: italic;">Art Bulletin</span> Vol. 53 No. 3, online in jstor), refers to its use as a symbol of vain pride. <br />
<br />
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.<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /><br /></span></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipGLEvX9GWdIkvxHaklwibsvyknbVvzxrjm1VFaHYIixrm3FzNWlcJDvl5t8sNb9graxk1SIzPtoaF11uJ6r6NhG9LI81JPUwpzJbEpM9PbuWlLuMhbqr9I1xVejcHShNoF4Lm5SF7EFathBfqBuzRviFCAwrhGX541URjPrxl-dgylASaf4tO95Y21A/s1403/Grand'Etteilla5Ba.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1403" data-original-width="793" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipGLEvX9GWdIkvxHaklwibsvyknbVvzxrjm1VFaHYIixrm3FzNWlcJDvl5t8sNb9graxk1SIzPtoaF11uJ6r6NhG9LI81JPUwpzJbEpM9PbuWlLuMhbqr9I1xVejcHShNoF4Lm5SF7EFathBfqBuzRviFCAwrhGX541URjPrxl-dgylASaf4tO95Y21A/s320/Grand'Etteilla5Ba.jpg" width="181" /></a><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">In Batons, the "Etteilla" word-list reads like a reflection on wealth and its possibly unjust or unjustly envied acquisition:</span></span></span><br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">5
OF BATONS: GOLD, Riches, Opulence, Splendor, Sumptuousness, Brilliance,
Luxury, Abundance, Fortune. Physical, Philosophical,<b> and/</b><i>or</i><b> </b>Moral Sun<b>. </b>REVERSED: TRIAL. Litigation,
Differences,<b> </b><i><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">Quarrels</span></span></span></i><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">, </span></span></span>Contestations, Disputes, Contrarieties, Discussions, <b>Exhortatio</b>n, <b>Instruction, Proceedings,
</b>Chicanery, Annoyance, Contradiction, Inconsistency. <br /></span></span></span></div>
</blockquote><p>
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 <span style="font-style: italic;">The Merchant of Venice. </span>That tale, typical of the genre, derived from Italian sources, including Boccaccio's <i>Decameron</i> (<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_of_Venice">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_of_Venice</a>). <br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">The Etteilla School's Reverseds fit in well with the idea of rectifying unjust distribution, as the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>
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.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRQaOT8zEdgrcBDjyiWDDK0UTDrqjJDuRwwhNm038c76zDAZqBFb-lbKguXGQyInMQf_xmcdA50MmDzjNHjerZC7Q-eoXmJdFZYuyo9Tg1bICpt3_-OqWYoOEXBKQVTVwiTr82UFLhTHpx/s1600/Wands05.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRQaOT8zEdgrcBDjyiWDDK0UTDrqjJDuRwwhNm038c76zDAZqBFb-lbKguXGQyInMQf_xmcdA50MmDzjNHjerZC7Q-eoXmJdFZYuyo9Tg1bICpt3_-OqWYoOEXBKQVTVwiTr82UFLhTHpx/s320/Wands05.jpg" width="182" /></a>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
<b>"riches"</b> in the uprights and <b>"fights"</b> etc. in the reversed. The Waite
card focuses on fights, both in play and in earnest. For
interpretations,</span></span></span><br />
</p><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: 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. <i>Reversed</i>: Litigation, disputes, trickery, contradiction.</span></span></span></b></blockquote>
So here we have some role-modeling: the battle of life is not a fair fight.<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"> </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">In
Swords, the "Etteilla" list suggest the loss of such riches. </span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><div><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjgyT6kl8hx60abo4tSKZp9yMTuteeTPeIQRaRM5pu1JqakWLXOS-TTNSGIIUWMdWfDQtSdw3O9erpazmzSCh8X2mW8JL2I4tW8pyLfH2EF3mNS0U6-Eyi6IRskV0UdoBJGOW46duXe9uORXAi-v_KRIgFnvH8IQHglMnCKbRyDKP7jCrCSDXmZPWl2w/s1566/5SwEttWaite.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1387" data-original-width="1566" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjgyT6kl8hx60abo4tSKZp9yMTuteeTPeIQRaRM5pu1JqakWLXOS-TTNSGIIUWMdWfDQtSdw3O9erpazmzSCh8X2mW8JL2I4tW8pyLfH2EF3mNS0U6-Eyi6IRskV0UdoBJGOW46duXe9uORXAi-v_KRIgFnvH8IQHglMnCKbRyDKP7jCrCSDXmZPWl2w/s320/5SwEttWaite.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span></span><blockquote><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">5 OF SWORDS: LOSS<b>,</b><b> Deterioration, Waste, Attrition, Decline, Destruction, Detriment, Diminution, </b><b> </b></span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><b> </b>Damages, Damaged, Prejudice<b>, </b>Disadvantage,<b> </b>Defeat,</span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><b> </b>Reversal, Ruin, Rout<b>, Wrong, Devastation, Dilapidation,
Dissipation, </b>Misfortune, <b>Afflictions, Reversals of Fortune</b><b>, </b>Debauchery,<b> </b>Shame, Defamation<b>, </b>Dishonor,<b> </b>Infamy, Affront<b>, </b>Ignominy, Ugliness, Deformity,
Humiliation<b>. </b>Theft<b>, </b>Larceny,<b> </b>Abduction,
Plagiarism, Kidnapping: Stealing.<b> </b>Hideous, Horrible.<b> </b>Opprobrium, Corruption,<b> </b>Misbehavior, Seduction, Licentiousness.
REVERSED: MOURNING, Regret, <i>Desolation, </i>Affliction<i>, </i>Sadness, Chagrin, Ailment, Grief, <i>Calamity</i><b>, </b><i>Misfortune, </i>Mental Suffering, Funeral Rites, Interment, Obsequies,
Funerals, Inhumation, Sepulcher.</span></span></blockquote><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span></span></div></span></span><p> 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:</p><blockquote>
<b><i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: Degradation, destruction, revocation, infamy, dishonour, loss, with the variants and analogues of these. <i>Reversed</i>: The same; burial and obsequies. </b></blockquote><p>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. <br /></p><p><b></b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9WE9MXEGFx7qsQqt9u4l6dDK4mfAe1jWNHsyTWTnbb8BsaredzakxnZI3H9gutK4vhe46MF0zNGN1rK2_9hJryKce0YZzQewq4Ic14n9V7QBPDPLAUpMtgR34yFR7x3IKxDeL_N6-JLRbe7Xq7PTOPgtoBcVW_1ig8zaaVn2o1vA6rZ4X8eAqdUTBKg/s400/05S_Sola_Busca.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="216" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9WE9MXEGFx7qsQqt9u4l6dDK4mfAe1jWNHsyTWTnbb8BsaredzakxnZI3H9gutK4vhe46MF0zNGN1rK2_9hJryKce0YZzQewq4Ic14n9V7QBPDPLAUpMtgR34yFR7x3IKxDeL_N6-JLRbe7Xq7PTOPgtoBcVW_1ig8zaaVn2o1vA6rZ4X8eAqdUTBKg/s320/05S_Sola_Busca.jpg" width="173" /></a></div>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.<br /><p></p><p>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.
</p> <p>
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!</p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9ObBWKJQ7vFACakM8f_XnIyiduUuraUEb24aVtzCvr_xoB4ECwpp83WpY_O1lxdoRqQeUSSA4qacbR3ZpVtXX8qPbVGu68rBN8DhVNutR9qaYho9r8nefD937glsCjGST65LrMvO6k0c9cxrl65rGAATnXBjrVinvGsX34FGs1pU40-d7Ro8odu5iCw/s1387/Grand'Etteilla%2005cups.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1387" data-original-width="806" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9ObBWKJQ7vFACakM8f_XnIyiduUuraUEb24aVtzCvr_xoB4ECwpp83WpY_O1lxdoRqQeUSSA4qacbR3ZpVtXX8qPbVGu68rBN8DhVNutR9qaYho9r8nefD937glsCjGST65LrMvO6k0c9cxrl65rGAATnXBjrVinvGsX34FGs1pU40-d7Ro8odu5iCw/s320/Grand'Etteilla%2005cups.jpg" width="186" /></a><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">Turning to Cups, here is the Etteilla School's list, with the card:</span></span></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">5
OF CUPS: INHERITANCE. </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">Succession, </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">Legacy, Gift, Donation, Dowry, Jointure, Legitimate, Patrimony, Transmission, Testament. Tradition, <i>Revelation,</i><b><i> </i>Revolution, </b>Cabal.<b> </b>REVERSED: RELATIVE. </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">3rd Cahier:<i> </i></span></span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">Flawed Plans, </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">changed to</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"> <i>Parent</i> (i.e. Relative) </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">in the <i>4th Cahier Supplement</i>, p. 148. Lists:</span></span></span>
Consanguinity, Blood, Family, Forbears, Ancestors, Father, Mother,
Brother, Sister, Uncle, Aunt, Cousin. <i>Adam & Eve</i>. Filiation, Extraction, Race,
Lineage, Alliance<b>. </b>Affinity, Acquaintance,
Rapport, Liaison.</span></span></span></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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 <i>Theology</i> 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 <i>Theology</i> says. D'Odoucet's </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2zRhLFU3pAWK22O4xU2s0eFbBnCdczuqiN52-9E2eG_kVyoDLDRk2ZkJtlPdU1zHsBONJ_lQYkzRGSISmQMVTOh6t5D1W_A8sy9IS7bosmEInKqAKYglT7AwYZ6y_jscBjrUExCvgQfR9fwYruMMvK4KLH9bBi1UvmXxP9Z1_2qbOoB81Lc1l4m6_Mg/s426/5CuSBMantegna.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="426" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2zRhLFU3pAWK22O4xU2s0eFbBnCdczuqiN52-9E2eG_kVyoDLDRk2ZkJtlPdU1zHsBONJ_lQYkzRGSISmQMVTOh6t5D1W_A8sy9IS7bosmEInKqAKYglT7AwYZ6y_jscBjrUExCvgQfR9fwYruMMvK4KLH9bBi1UvmXxP9Z1_2qbOoB81Lc1l4m6_Mg/s320/5CuSBMantegna.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">"Revolution" fits with "Tradition" and "Cabal" (the French <i>Tradition</i> and <i>Cabale</i>)
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.<br /></span></span></span></p><p>
</p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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. <span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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. </span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRHqxeccwT6imHmifc90Httf7D0AzPNDOC1iDJc_gZDFqy9TS2lzx_CTN5D8UKsdfNM_0thEN1wx5WfYBKNiSvLP4AO9PBosR-OZMq1bN0Ty9mBQu_xkEY2Qw8vN0gySQ7rOxU4E1hAlX_6CfR0HoQmEQVT-4gz_i_wSqH-yzocDitAsh-zSDvLJSpHQ/s537/cu05.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRHqxeccwT6imHmifc90Httf7D0AzPNDOC1iDJc_gZDFqy9TS2lzx_CTN5D8UKsdfNM_0thEN1wx5WfYBKNiSvLP4AO9PBosR-OZMq1bN0Ty9mBQu_xkEY2Qw8vN0gySQ7rOxU4E1hAlX_6CfR0HoQmEQVT-4gz_i_wSqH-yzocDitAsh-zSDvLJSpHQ/s320/cu05.jpg" width="179" /></a></div>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 <i>ponte</i>, Latin for "bridge."<br /><p></p><p>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:<br />
</p><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: 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. <i>Reversed</i>: News, alliances, affinity, consanguinity, ancestry, return, false projects.</b></blockquote><p>
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 <span class="posthilit">Neopythagorean idea of five as a marriage number, with Etteilla focusing on the property relationships. </span>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.</p><p>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. <br /></p><p>The remaining suit to be examined is Coins. Here are the Etteilla school's "synonyms":<br />
</p><blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgINbHeDMJJiOOdigl2cjPfayRNZdOVSh6sZXnCZy0SqwrQ_Z23MmsCz2VKbkIUONPhBjNebijiy1eUOiVFcFXHq9uCowkcZtb--M0pv5GbkG2WQxExU-wWgEfK9Xq2eNKj98MXBHTrixihl-0Q9HmSYQYukLc7jmM8T85O6Cp7epdGeHfSNyjQ_bGhWA/s1373/Grand'Etteilla_5Co.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1373" data-original-width="787" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgINbHeDMJJiOOdigl2cjPfayRNZdOVSh6sZXnCZy0SqwrQ_Z23MmsCz2VKbkIUONPhBjNebijiy1eUOiVFcFXHq9uCowkcZtb--M0pv5GbkG2WQxExU-wWgEfK9Xq2eNKj98MXBHTrixihl-0Q9HmSYQYukLc7jmM8T85O6Cp7epdGeHfSNyjQ_bGhWA/s320/Grand'Etteilla_5Co.jpg" width="183" /></a>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.<b> </b>Love (or Like),
Cherish, Adore.—Selection, Accord, Respectability, <i>Rapport<b>,</b></i><b> </b>Presentable, Propriety.<b> </b>REVERSED: LACK OF ORDER. Disordered, Counter-order, Misconduct. Disorder, Trouble, Confusion, Chaos.<b> </b>Damage, Ravage,
Ruin.—Dissipation, Consumption
(Tuberculosis). Dissoluteness, Licentiousness. Discord,
Disharmony, <b>Discordance</b>.
</blockquote>
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 <i>Theology's</i> 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:<br />
<blockquote>
<b>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</b>. (<i>Theology</i> p. 65)</blockquote>
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 <i>Theology's</i> "feminine number of marriage."<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiukxiD29Pg6t7RjUTn_xRUBmQAtMgU5wDNVgW7KOCNFV9V0KZhIsqreXQQV-ZhDQKG1VMKKLgKf-rL1QRSS5xqLqGhJP63pi8HNqtm4kz5LBT66QCAU_VBZjoOZpn31kt12VS21m6ubyms/s1600/05D_Sola_BuscaA.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiukxiD29Pg6t7RjUTn_xRUBmQAtMgU5wDNVgW7KOCNFV9V0KZhIsqreXQQV-ZhDQKG1VMKKLgKf-rL1QRSS5xqLqGhJP63pi8HNqtm4kz5LBT66QCAU_VBZjoOZpn31kt12VS21m6ubyms/s1600/05D_Sola_BuscaA.jpg" /></a></span></span></span>Perhaps surprisingly, some Pythagoreans, including the <i>Theology</i>, 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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Birds were phallic symbols, as a drawing from approximately the same time and place should make clear.In reproducing this image, Zucker (<i>The Illustrated Bartsch</i>, vol. 24 part 3 p. 199) comments:
<br />
<blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinRi1OAAUFjiwl_8TGNkuurRmSGFFUoFL9Edhy-6EoDUg5nRTtfYPCQKgw1bxNWYaLFnBUlA8EgdngEAvMj4BNd1WnSiiDNbPux08SJ5nb8OtqCq0EHoIbCXauvNlho8Ahd9wSkiB_5zt5/s1600/05birdpenisA.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinRi1OAAUFjiwl_8TGNkuurRmSGFFUoFL9Edhy-6EoDUg5nRTtfYPCQKgw1bxNWYaLFnBUlA8EgdngEAvMj4BNd1WnSiiDNbPux08SJ5nb8OtqCq0EHoIbCXauvNlho8Ahd9wSkiB_5zt5/s1600/05birdpenisA.jpg" /></a></div>
<b>Hind quite rightly noted that the "representation of the penis in the form of a bird dates from antiquity," and that <i>accello</i> is still used idiomatically for "penis" in Italian..</b>.
</blockquote>
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.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsXStda-7fAtmmEKaq1D5uTmF50ep1CvAUTr2hPVTyLHmYB9vWaQmEE8E34wzbE743oIjr6dmKcXZI9PmgjClV-ShQez-gJhqhslnYjR9zDiEq2_p-PuQ8YOn_FMB4rMhAEn3w7nEGvUkP/s1600/05falcon.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsXStda-7fAtmmEKaq1D5uTmF50ep1CvAUTr2hPVTyLHmYB9vWaQmEE8E34wzbE743oIjr6dmKcXZI9PmgjClV-ShQez-gJhqhslnYjR9zDiEq2_p-PuQ8YOn_FMB4rMhAEn3w7nEGvUkP/s320/05falcon.jpg" width="277" /></a></div>
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, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Medieval Art of Love</span>, 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.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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 (<a href="http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=733&start=0">http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=733&start=0</a>) 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:</span></span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
T<b>he 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.'</b>”</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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 "</span></span></span>alkos Dodus," - brass of Dodona - meaning "a babbler, or one who talks an infinite deal of nothing.<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">" 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.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
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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 <b>"two mendicants"</b>--i.e. beggars--<b>"in a snowstorm"</b> who <b>"pass a lighted casement".</b> Then he finds that part of the traditional interpretation (i.e. of the Etteilla school) have little applicability:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: 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. <i>Reversed</i>: Disorder, chaos, ruin, discord, profligacy.</b></blockquote><p>
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").<b> </b><br />
<b><br /></b>
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.</p><p>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.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: medium;">Conclusion so far</span></b> <br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj63wTBCYQeiI1PBQhUC9qK8yZY-CVWSS-0geQuoZ1Q6nCsoVDKo3SsQnp55brSxvOeNSCXKSuvQHXHyKy3RAQo6kbDfvt5LiYi446ayW-VdKc1M5YgJVcNWZ8jodtES_eDtQ-CJYjqyMvD0f2ype9vxRqSu53F7SCNBvVU0-ufKQgy3J1kVdvxdolE5A/s320/05B_Sola_BuscaWaiteSw.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="289" data-original-width="320" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj63wTBCYQeiI1PBQhUC9qK8yZY-CVWSS-0geQuoZ1Q6nCsoVDKo3SsQnp55brSxvOeNSCXKSuvQHXHyKy3RAQo6kbDfvt5LiYi446ayW-VdKc1M5YgJVcNWZ8jodtES_eDtQ-CJYjqyMvD0f2ype9vxRqSu53F7SCNBvVU0-ufKQgy3J1kVdvxdolE5A/s1600/05B_Sola_BuscaWaiteSw.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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.. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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%.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"> the melting down of swords represents a destruction of a subject's power or property; it is the negative side</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"> 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.</span></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span><b> The 5s after Etteilla and his school </b></span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span><b><br /></b></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVt3gPUwSyu7jERjXKMRWTdTA4R08bTnKSd5h5PqH6VIdZo7WApl1SCVRRCpETqljJKxp1riSsk7DiZrEC-4xCYt1U-dmTf3ePrNEE-hxh5DnuyGP3IOTIfC6yGptX3vri2KQenrThzAhDw2yR5LzzmN8-MAhEm3mod-PQWuxazPR4FQ4V6Xqp00ZDmw/s1566/PopeConver.JPEG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1566" data-original-width="821" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVt3gPUwSyu7jERjXKMRWTdTA4R08bTnKSd5h5PqH6VIdZo7WApl1SCVRRCpETqljJKxp1riSsk7DiZrEC-4xCYt1U-dmTf3ePrNEE-hxh5DnuyGP3IOTIfC6yGptX3vri2KQenrThzAhDw2yR5LzzmN8-MAhEm3mod-PQWuxazPR4FQ4V6Xqp00ZDmw/s320/PopeConver.JPEG" width="168" /></a></span></span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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."<br /></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"> 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 </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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 <i>natura naturata </i>- nature natured - rather than <i>natura naturans</i>, nature naturing, thus receptive rather than active. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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. <br /></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6-3Id98X9LSMH_PzgiZRL1L1WP4yFFxKJXAmEZAQJTnq2iokCiFPIj_pxkbes8ECOqsZ59GOsLKaacxPcIPV5lNsB_Q4os4GEo8eCJlkykW7PauRJxbvm11D8gVmcNkKQhGg5GVspQH0p5xug-Tpw8fhgaB5dWrAzAtdnpAyI0WWuBZt60pbQDSYLiA/s1341/p32-33.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1095" data-original-width="1341" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6-3Id98X9LSMH_PzgiZRL1L1WP4yFFxKJXAmEZAQJTnq2iokCiFPIj_pxkbes8ECOqsZ59GOsLKaacxPcIPV5lNsB_Q4os4GEo8eCJlkykW7PauRJxbvm11D8gVmcNkKQhGg5GVspQH0p5xug-Tpw8fhgaB5dWrAzAtdnpAyI0WWuBZt60pbQDSYLiA/w400-h326/p32-33.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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.<br /></span></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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 <i>Sefer Yetzirah</i> it corresponded to the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Papus also, interestingly enough, had associated the card with <i>Pached</i>, 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</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"> Levi's emphasis on the 5s as expressions of Gevurah, Severity.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioCcX3Dvw89c-UGDPX3sDYHeKW121x8VpxwnZrmzXv25QGvy2hnD73kgGBYTbqjWEiLRFQwc8q0wlzfFMJewlyaaeXNJwVICPlBxWU3JHHGLtT6EkVtM56jCsV33hfGd_LlS_K1d7Kak0jLMVtyFq2pNRndfKVrCBFZR4I9JRk2v5uhL5FSXYYqalq4w/s1411/p79b&135b.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1411" data-original-width="1281" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioCcX3Dvw89c-UGDPX3sDYHeKW121x8VpxwnZrmzXv25QGvy2hnD73kgGBYTbqjWEiLRFQwc8q0wlzfFMJewlyaaeXNJwVICPlBxWU3JHHGLtT6EkVtM56jCsV33hfGd_LlS_K1d7Kak0jLMVtyFq2pNRndfKVrCBFZR4I9JRk2v5uhL5FSXYYqalq4w/w364-h400/p79b&135b.jpg" width="364" /></a></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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.</span></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5FwIRTrCA2U6gsnPmEClnzJUTEWurCOgveJLUQ28J-7Xcsn7e7hKRpRDGnmghFXsza-bScuIRJmP-y0xZoHp02_YXd9xJBI_AdfQWnMYKkJwdJl0T3vwvsIWOt_gLDj3dxwXszI6S-j-uZBPfqybYCXLuLmRd96u6ClJ5fZ0sNY6W2m8cPnQDGfvbcw/s1363/p163b&107b.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1363" data-original-width="1301" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5FwIRTrCA2U6gsnPmEClnzJUTEWurCOgveJLUQ28J-7Xcsn7e7hKRpRDGnmghFXsza-bScuIRJmP-y0xZoHp02_YXd9xJBI_AdfQWnMYKkJwdJl0T3vwvsIWOt_gLDj3dxwXszI6S-j-uZBPfqybYCXLuLmRd96u6ClJ5fZ0sNY6W2m8cPnQDGfvbcw/w381-h400/p163b&107b.jpg" width="381" /></a></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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.</span></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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. '</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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. <br /></span></span></span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXHY-_dHfBYHiIFHQt5T0hWUTk6tZOpjtFK0ElhkY8l_oW2PUvDEC-OwSI2i00D_fY2YB11fkRPabxnzgAcSCbJkw5f7r_Gl5xNx5OHLox0MIEdn02CJT110f6JaWH0F8nC6goIC1L44pYzmHSJHXnZzbCsNbC-w1kqUdXsoG9ZAEEayZ9MRw-FKTeoQ/s1639/5BaConvJodo.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1558" data-original-width="1639" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXHY-_dHfBYHiIFHQt5T0hWUTk6tZOpjtFK0ElhkY8l_oW2PUvDEC-OwSI2i00D_fY2YB11fkRPabxnzgAcSCbJkw5f7r_Gl5xNx5OHLox0MIEdn02CJT110f6JaWH0F8nC6goIC1L44pYzmHSJHXnZzbCsNbC-w1kqUdXsoG9ZAEEayZ9MRw-FKTeoQ/s320/5BaConvJodo.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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. </span></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKZGDdjCzYsdAgSryp__8R37w4B32BxnOPFDVk68l1lgV4k2q2cfdbK6Nap5M0wmaIJ91i_aiAPXIxeKr-Js0ddbBxgecyFUFNZo4C6Eov4iAXvqaKeFLwvFjjHdZyJoEXnvmZWPDY9vSJmn4Pk3BFk_dV-qzN8mBmm1jkFfTr1Z8SRzuWiZsR3dM0cQ/s1656/5CuConverJodo.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1566" data-original-width="1656" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKZGDdjCzYsdAgSryp__8R37w4B32BxnOPFDVk68l1lgV4k2q2cfdbK6Nap5M0wmaIJ91i_aiAPXIxeKr-Js0ddbBxgecyFUFNZo4C6Eov4iAXvqaKeFLwvFjjHdZyJoEXnvmZWPDY9vSJmn4Pk3BFk_dV-qzN8mBmm1jkFfTr1Z8SRzuWiZsR3dM0cQ/w320-h303/5CuConverJodo.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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. </span></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-7FekibLLuiUyk4uUeC46pN8lYMGcZcZbVMs1aOYt4dWJfNm0HJqswXU_FUnzfJ6dthH-jIqU6WnHD7-3076vmUdwFd1gEEcn-JRCzpWfHebPoW3GqwPDyyeEpDtZRII1IZKkAjQShi2neSrgPTwvcks73_4DhM_8v3cP2qgUfiZd0AN6fu58fTrtUA/s2472/5SwConverJodo3Sw.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1566" data-original-width="2472" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-7FekibLLuiUyk4uUeC46pN8lYMGcZcZbVMs1aOYt4dWJfNm0HJqswXU_FUnzfJ6dthH-jIqU6WnHD7-3076vmUdwFd1gEEcn-JRCzpWfHebPoW3GqwPDyyeEpDtZRII1IZKkAjQShi2neSrgPTwvcks73_4DhM_8v3cP2qgUfiZd0AN6fu58fTrtUA/w400-h254/5SwConverJodo3Sw.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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).<br /></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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.<br /></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFdNEh-zsJU2yYwnbwpxYK8JXLX05bORTxGemohmgNvExkY2nXE4_FMiYJZg8KoAb108CnpO0W76dHzx2RRuiVbgT7ogye1sQj7d730wRK-kNl6xPMfJaq7kPy4fGHvbLYXwmJjpEojOAUzNAh-p2qiQqkuVtuk6uvJEjMbu0QtZCM8jkNiWeCT2d8JQ/s1648/5CoConverJodoUPRIGHT.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1566" data-original-width="1648" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFdNEh-zsJU2yYwnbwpxYK8JXLX05bORTxGemohmgNvExkY2nXE4_FMiYJZg8KoAb108CnpO0W76dHzx2RRuiVbgT7ogye1sQj7d730wRK-kNl6xPMfJaq7kPy4fGHvbLYXwmJjpEojOAUzNAh-p2qiQqkuVtuk6uvJEjMbu0QtZCM8jkNiWeCT2d8JQ/s320/5CoConverJodoUPRIGHT.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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. </span></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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.</span></span></span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">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.</span></span></span><b> </b><br /></p>Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677044918876619054.post-38136886961314845682012-05-15T22:18:00.064-07:002023-08-07T19:00:01.732-07:00Lover and Sixes<p>Continuing the poem from Du Bartas, late 16th century, that I have been beginning these posts with, here is the number Six:</p><blockquote><b>The perfect <span class="rend-italic">Six,</span> whose just proportions gather,<br />To make his Whole, his members altogether:<br />For <span class="rend-italic">Three</span>'s his half, his <span class="rend-italic">Sixth One, Two</span> his <span class="rend-italic">Third;<br />And <span class="rend-italic">One Two Three</span> make <span class="rend-italic">Six,</span> in One conferred.</span></b></blockquote><p>The same is said by Agrippa, in almost the same words (p. 265, Tyson ed., in archive.org). That sum, 6, fits the definition of a perfect number: one whose factors add up to the number itself. 6 is the first, the next is 28 (1+2+4+7+14), and after that there isn't another one until 496: "which perfection all other numbers want," Agrippa adds , meaning, one must assume, among those between 1 and 10. Its "perfection" is a dictum repeated in almost every Pythagorean text referring to these numbers. In the Theology of Arithmetic, it is in the first sentence of that chapter (Waterfield trans. p. 75, in archive.org).</p><p>Agrippa adds, without explanation, that "for the Pythagorean it is said to be altogether applied to generation, and marriage." Tyson in his note refers to Theon, who comments, "That is why it is called that of marriage, because the task of marriage produces children similar to their parents." The point is that any number ending in 6, multiplied by another number ending in 6, will also end in 6. It is the same as in the case of 5, which is another marriage number. In this case, 6 is produced by multiplication, 2x3=6, as opposed to addition, 2+3=5. 6, being even, is the feminine marriage number.</p><p></p><p>For the <i>Theology of Arithmetic</i>, 6 governs the animal soul, the soul of that which can move its body from place to place of its own volition (pp. 72-73) in any of the six directions: up, down, left, right,
forward, back (p. 78). (Plants grow from a single spot, or are carried from place to place by the wind or by animals.) As such, the card corresponds to the sixth day of
creation in Genesis, when God made the four-leggeds--although a
Pythagorean account would probably hold that all animals would have
been made on that day. Genesis also has God making humans on that day.
But humans possess rational as well as animal souls, and to that extent
correspond to the Pythagorean Seven.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqN1wQ7dtPUr6bLLStpjQsCI-_EaWIoLGr9LGuLsnDnGaNyxa6O_9Jr6rWsGqOkjGS2OxsbHBNIiHr5ikDHptWtisxdErggETH3R9oJI4LRrHLK-pXkHnMegX33Dw9KCXQd8Iy0yPTDhjiLjgvCPwXv1gGMR-ifFYGY7Svx7AiAT0ZNiJpKnbdj2cz-A/s552/carracciveronese.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="525" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqN1wQ7dtPUr6bLLStpjQsCI-_EaWIoLGr9LGuLsnDnGaNyxa6O_9Jr6rWsGqOkjGS2OxsbHBNIiHr5ikDHptWtisxdErggETH3R9oJI4LRrHLK-pXkHnMegX33Dw9KCXQd8Iy0yPTDhjiLjgvCPwXv1gGMR-ifFYGY7Svx7AiAT0ZNiJpKnbdj2cz-A/s320/carracciveronese.jpg" width="304" /></a>In Pythagoreanism, for higher animals, moving means not just growing in
whatever direction it can, like a plant, but making choices, a
combination of instinct and reason. The Hexad is called "presider over
crossroads" (p. 81). In human beings, reason is supposedly dominant,
but instinct probably plays more of a role than we realize.<br />
<br />As bearing
the number for choices, the interpretation of the Marseille Lover card in terms
of the choice between Pleasure and Duty fits well. The choice was
actually called "the Pythagorean Y," the Y being the crossroads of
Hercules. That interpretation was first made explicitly by the Comte de Mellet, but it surely would have been common before then, as Hercules at the Crossroads was a common subject of 16th-17th century art, as in the details of two paintings at right. However, the figure of Cupid was usually missing. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2slEB7EKE6m3JG-5mlx7rpE-eHVTpba8mDKIrbppHHx6qfiAkLzaasMPo64KzNDYiJzTcHOIdGIQb8XhCGWYjMNBLhPp5wUvbC8c2hFYYIlaV4e3ktaWs7mKE0woRv_wQIwjB4rTV4TvpQdPOGIby3QPjZRZ1QlulonEwrzpqRmGJEf-6NMjY-4U_Gg/s588/06Sebastiano_RicciChosson.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="588" data-original-width="540" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2slEB7EKE6m3JG-5mlx7rpE-eHVTpba8mDKIrbppHHx6qfiAkLzaasMPo64KzNDYiJzTcHOIdGIQb8XhCGWYjMNBLhPp5wUvbC8c2hFYYIlaV4e3ktaWs7mKE0woRv_wQIwjB4rTV4TvpQdPOGIby3QPjZRZ1QlulonEwrzpqRmGJEf-6NMjY-4U_Gg/s320/06Sebastiano_RicciChosson.jpg" width="294" /></a></div>When Cupid was there, the subject was often love, as for example in the painting at near right, in which Bacchus appears to be putting a ring on Ariadne's finger, while a Bacchante is either officiating or witnessing. The number 6 is also a marriage number in Pythagorean
theory, based on one way of combining 2 and 3, the first female and
male numbers. Added, the result is 5, and since that is an odd number
it was called the male number of marriage. Multiplied, the two numbers
are 6, an even number and hence the female number of marriage, which is also an appropriate theme for the Lover card.<br />
<br />
The Etteilla card that corresponds to the Marseille Lover is his number
13, sometimes erroneously called "The High Priest," but not by Etteilla (center below). Perhaps his giving it that number was something of a joke, as the number 13 was by then associated with bad luck, and he refers often enough to his wife as "his Xantippe," the <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg33lE4st75UO8es5OIw5BZcA0wTdb76V60SLn5AaOmPgshDf236OyTNwopj3h2WD1f5X01F0UaPRiFaIbxq39UIwMLTLVO2VQi7uWQO7tF4ul7XmEX7t5Quo8wSRTFvtSb89wyIdhKhyhZLsNn6VhQk7cum9FSzmZGb-bb4b8AUtgQ04YLDXLfIgHVfg/s598/06jschoenVievilleEtteilla.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="598" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg33lE4st75UO8es5OIw5BZcA0wTdb76V60SLn5AaOmPgshDf236OyTNwopj3h2WD1f5X01F0UaPRiFaIbxq39UIwMLTLVO2VQi7uWQO7tF4ul7XmEX7t5Quo8wSRTFvtSb89wyIdhKhyhZLsNn6VhQk7cum9FSzmZGb-bb4b8AUtgQ04YLDXLfIgHVfg/s320/06jschoenVievilleEtteilla.jpg" width="320" /></a>name of Socrates' proverbially practical and thus shrewish wife. Etteilla's "marriage" card shows a high church official,
with the hat of a bishop, in the middle between a man and a woman, whose hands
he is joining. He is clearly marrying them, as in one historical
version of the Lover card, i.e. the Vieville of c. 1650 Paris (at right below) and the 1507 Schoen Horoscope (at left), one part of an engraving of the astrological houses of which all or most correspond to tarot cards. <p></p>It is also similar to scenes of the <i>coiniunctio</i> in
alchemical emblems, for example the 6th key of Basil Valentine as illustrated in the Tripus aureus of <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4Bcn1d9D3B8is4JXPFIa8jE8TkSTntb13LExOTzaia4zZn7KuEVVVN-7RRuQ6qxdX493n_jEcSoVAVTX4mIEoMcfIXbzTEyjv95XDt-mWVSZVjhdCMzrK0QeIUvGyo1aY8dLW1d75Bsm/s1600/06hembl_seq_12keys.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4Bcn1d9D3B8is4JXPFIa8jE8TkSTntb13LExOTzaia4zZn7KuEVVVN-7RRuQ6qxdX493n_jEcSoVAVTX4mIEoMcfIXbzTEyjv95XDt-mWVSZVjhdCMzrK0QeIUvGyo1aY8dLW1d75Bsm/s320/06hembl_seq_12keys.jpg" width="320" /></a>Michael Maier, 1618 Frankifurt: "Marriage, , , , in which the Brother and Sister are Wed"<br />
<br />
The keywords on Etteilla's card are appropriately "Mariage" and "Union." Here are the word-lists:<br />
<blockquote>
UPRIGHT: MARRIAGE. <b> Union, </b>Junction<b>, </b>Assembly, Alliance,<i> Meeting, </i>Bond, <i>Nuptials,</i><b> </b><span><i>Vow, Fervent, Intimacy, Liaison, Conjunction, Copulation, Coupling</i></span><b>. </b>Chain, Slavery,<b> </b>Confined, Captivity, Servitude. REVERSED: UNION<b>, </b>Society, Acquaintance, <span><i>Concubinage,</i></span><b><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></b><span><i>Adultery, Incest</i></span><b>.
</b>Alloy, Blending, Mixture,<b> </b><i>Amalgam.</i> Peace, Concord, Accord, Harmony, Good Rapport [bonne intelligence]. <span><i>Reconciliation, Patching up</i></span>. </blockquote>
We see more than union in the Uprights: there is a Bond or Vow , as
in marriage or a political alliance. The Reverseds have
terms that could apply to metals or chemicals as much as to people;
moreover, there are terms there for relationships between humans
outside of marriage. To me this suggests strongly that at least one way
of seeing the Lover card before this time was as Marriage, or some
other intimate relationship, with perhaps the suggestion of an
alchemical analogy.<br />
<br />
Harmony, one of the key concepts of the Reverseds, was for the Pythagoreans is especially related to the Hexad. Martianus writes (p. 281):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>It has been demonstrated that the number six is the source and origin of the musical concords: the ratio of six to twelve represents the interval of the active; six to nine is the interval of the fifth; and six to eight the interval of the fourth. For this reason Venus </b>[the deity Martianus identifies with the Hexad]<b> is said to be the number of Harmony.</b></blockquote>
In mythology Harmony was the child of Venus and Mars. The <i>Theology</i> adds that the <b>"the first portion in the generation of soul is reasonably held to be the hexad."</b> I suspect that this is because it is soul that harmonizes the various parts of the body and enables them to function as a unit. <br />
<br />
<b><br />THE SIXES</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />How can the Sola-Busca sixes be interpreted in relation to the Neopythagoreans? Here is one possibility. As though to express the animal's defining property of self-locomotion, the Sola-Busca Six of Swords (below far right) shows us a man walking, albeit laboriously,
given the six swords he is carrying. That difficulty reflects a fact of
life in those days, that travel was not that safe. It
was also dangerous, and one needed all the protection one could get.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglOHPrqPEKPcMMfDtEo2fhnI9pCjMVEeU9xYOuvi9QcqyWJGP2HbcMsIr4AtlcZV4fDPmP8zq28bgyuvvW04umaGbdH3Qt23WG1977PO-KzL6N3yaBPKLS_veMiNtQVw-OR5qQUG1E99T2oD44Zsd5Sr5XN8rdA3cPX71Y-c-ozvuZjcmYFzfNH245Vw/s1538/06Sw_Etteilla_SB.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1367" data-original-width="1538" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglOHPrqPEKPcMMfDtEo2fhnI9pCjMVEeU9xYOuvi9QcqyWJGP2HbcMsIr4AtlcZV4fDPmP8zq28bgyuvvW04umaGbdH3Qt23WG1977PO-KzL6N3yaBPKLS_veMiNtQVw-OR5qQUG1E99T2oD44Zsd5Sr5XN8rdA3cPX71Y-c-ozvuZjcmYFzfNH245Vw/s320/06Sw_Etteilla_SB.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The Etteilla School's word-list shows a similar emphasis on self-movement, at least in the uprights.<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
No. 58. 6 OF SWORDS, UPRIGHTS: ROAD. <i>3rd Cahier</i>: Envoy, Messenger. Lists: Path, Lane, Walk, Footpath,
Route, Way, Trail, Course, Promenade, Trafficking,<i> </i>Gait, Consideration<b>, Conduct</b><b>,</b> Means, Manner, Fashion, Expedient,<b> </b> <b>Example, Trace, Vestige,</b> Envoy, Messenger. REVERSED:<b> </b>DECLARATION. <i>3rd Cahier:</i> Declaration of Love, changed to just "Declaration" in <i>4th Cahier Supplemen</i>t, p. 149. Lists: <b>Declaratory Act, Development, Explication, Interpretation. Charter, Constitution, Diploma, Manifest
Law, Ordinance</b><b>. </b>Publication, Proclamation, Conspicuousness, Public Notice,
Publicity, Authenticity, Notoriety. Denunciation, <b>Enumeration, </b><i>Denotation, Designation</i><i>.</i><b> </b>Knowledge, Discovery,
Exposure, Vision, Revelation, Apparition, Appearance. Admission,
Confession, Protestation, Approval, Authorization.</div>
</blockquote><p>
The keyword
"Declaration," and the similar "Proclamation," etc., have something to do with
the meaning of "Envoy" in the Uprights: it is what he communicates. "Vision,
Revelation, Apparition" are declarations of sorts, but they also may be connected with another aspect of the
Hexad, its connection with Hecate (p. 81), who in ancient Alexandria
was the goddess of witches and curses, i.e. hexes (<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hecate">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hecate</a>).
In medieval Germany, hexagonal designs were painted on buildings as
protection against hexes, perhaps because of the linguistic similarity;
but I can find no evidence for an actual etymological connection
between "hex" meaning "witch" and "hex" meaning "six."</p><p>D'Odoucet derives the meanings of the card from the numbers 5 and 8, 5 as the divine agent in his system, and 8 the circulation of generations. However, he does not explain how these yield the keywords reqiored.
</p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5IvZeQ_uJqXx4ku-2mjKpJoHrde_drS0LsptfCShUvHXWlgxOI3KrKWRZFxPFr-GlNFG2zROLQNunJL7qegGzVB5ghxAQJMldR-yw1IwDyO-q2afuVVLxWtjPU0HPvNqoMpUk8H6C07oV/s1600/06WaiteSwords06.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5IvZeQ_uJqXx4ku-2mjKpJoHrde_drS0LsptfCShUvHXWlgxOI3KrKWRZFxPFr-GlNFG2zROLQNunJL7qegGzVB5ghxAQJMldR-yw1IwDyO-q2afuVVLxWtjPU0HPvNqoMpUk8H6C07oV/w185-h320/06WaiteSwords06.jpg" width="185" /></a>Like Etteilla, Waite understood the Six of Swords in terms
of traveling, which as I have said is a feature of the animal soul. For
some
reason Waite associated the card with travel by water, although such is
not part of the Neopythagorean meaning, nor the Etteilla School's
word-list:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: journey by water, route, way, envoy, commissionary, expedient. <i>Reversed</i>: Declaration, confession, publicity; one account says that it is a proposal of love. </b></blockquote><p>
Smith's illustration shows a man on a raft, having a much easier time
of it than the SB's man on foot. The woman and child are part of a
narrative that Waite conceived for the Swords (Kaplan, <i>Encyclopedia of Tarot</i> Vol. 1, p. 272),
and have nothing to do with anything before him that I can find.</p><p>In the SB Cups (below far right), we see three childlike cherubs playing on a large cup in which five other cups are part of its design. The theme might be that of childhood, which for the users of the Sola-Busca would have been in the past. The Etteilla School's list, in the uprights, is all about the past. In the
Reverseds, it is the opposite: the future.</p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1k6Q0Y-3zRL_7klrMLtXjlmtM5-bHBcyc2h04_53PE6cBLa4Qx-bI19ZGgJzRvfMyCp_cbxOTC4IQ-R_Kyh_5ah-DX-yPHBng7e1Oi2GIgsFFYvi_UqqYEaaSk-feE-BzPiUfYA95yvUc3xHRbliW7SUGhRpJe77BcuTXWG4v_CF0wUy4JzvNBVfDzw/s1551/06Cu_Etteilla_SB.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1374" data-original-width="1551" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1k6Q0Y-3zRL_7klrMLtXjlmtM5-bHBcyc2h04_53PE6cBLa4Qx-bI19ZGgJzRvfMyCp_cbxOTC4IQ-R_Kyh_5ah-DX-yPHBng7e1Oi2GIgsFFYvi_UqqYEaaSk-feE-BzPiUfYA95yvUc3xHRbliW7SUGhRpJe77BcuTXWG4v_CF0wUy4JzvNBVfDzw/s320/06Cu_Etteilla_SB.jpg" width="320" /></a></p><blockquote class="uncited"><div>No. 44. 6 OF CUPS: THE PAST<b>. </b>Past Tense, Withered,<b> </b>Faded, Dried Up<b>. </b>Formerly, Earlier, Previously,<b> </b>Long Ago, At One Time.<b> </b>Old Age,
Decrepitude, Antiquity. REVERSED: FUTURE<b>. </b>After, Following, Subsequently, Later. Regeneration,
Resurrection. Reproduction, Renewal,<b> </b>Reiteration. </div>
</blockquote><p>
What do childhood, the past, and the future have to do with the number six? The <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>
speaks of six as divisible by three, and hence, like the Triad,
pertaining to beginning, middle, and end (p. 78). But in the 6, it seems to me, these
three are in the context of the animal soul, which unlike the plant
remembers its past, has these memories available to it in the present,
and can use them to anticipate the future: beginning, middle, and end
have become past, present, and future. </p><p>In the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>,
we do not find this point in so many words; all it says,
obscurely, is that the Hexad is<b> "measurer of time in twos,</b>" p. 81.
However it would seem that the Renaissance linked time with the animal
soul, as for example in Titian's famous <span style="font-style: italic;">Allegory of Prudence</span>,
which has a wolf and an old man for the past, a lion and a man in the
prime of life for the present, and a dog and a youth for the future
(see <a href="http://www.abcgallery.com/T/titian/titian76.html">http://www.abcgallery.com/T/titian/titian76.html</a>).
In Cups, we see the past in the Etteilla school's Uprights and the future in
the Reverseds. In the SB card, we see just the past: the play
and exploration of childhood. On the other hand, there are three putti, which allegorically can be beginning, middle, and end of their exploration, or past, looking to the present, looking to the future.<br />
<br />
The Neopythagorean texts relate the
Hexad to childhood in three other ways. First, like the 5, multiplying a 6 by itself always results in a
number ending with 6: the child is like the parents: "<b>it is the function of marriage to make offspring similar to parents"</b> (p. 75).</p><blockquote class="uncited">
</blockquote><p>
Second, it says, the number of days, from conception, after which a
human fetus is viable on its own (self-moving, in other words, outside of the womb) is 216,
the cube of 6 (p. 83). <br />
<br />
And third, from Pythagoras's account of his former lives--legend had it
that he could remember previous incarnations--the author deduces from
the historical facts Pythagoras mentioned that the time between
incarnations was 216 years, again the cube of 6 (p. 84). Thus 216 is
the number for regeneration or rebirth into childhood as well as
generation in the womb resulting in a self-moving child.</p><p>D'Odoucet explains the card in terms of its constituents 4 and 4, with the number 4 representing, in his system, the universe, which now presents itself in two aspects. These, he says, are past and future.<br /></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaDPI4D4df1SHMaqLuOF7e30aqQGhyK5OgAKJhWhL1ZxMAjTs4ONZAWibjKYddsRXiHqxCc9qlil4lmB9GOF1icum6N58Mgl0nGWmIMo1lgprYPIeywuBnIyvUq05kGIipvIAXITxZGZVw/s1600/06WaiteCups06.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaDPI4D4df1SHMaqLuOF7e30aqQGhyK5OgAKJhWhL1ZxMAjTs4ONZAWibjKYddsRXiHqxCc9qlil4lmB9GOF1icum6N58Mgl0nGWmIMo1lgprYPIeywuBnIyvUq05kGIipvIAXITxZGZVw/w181-h320/06WaiteCups06.jpg" width="181" /></a></p><p>The Waite/Smith seems to have turned the SB's
putti into children, also making explicit the connection between
childhood and the past. <br />
</p><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: A card of the past and of memories, looking
back, as--for example--on childhood; happiness, enjoyment, but coming
rather from the past; things that have vanished. Another reading
reverses this, giving new relations, new knowledge, new environment, and
then the children are disporting in an unfamiliar precinct. <i>Reversed</i>: The future, renewal, that which will come to pass presently.</b> </blockquote><p>
Like Etteilla, he saw the theme as the past, an
adult's
childhood, in the Uprights, and the future in the Reverseds. Presumably the tower in the background, and the coat of arms etched on the pedestal, are more specific references to the past. <br /></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiukfcGJbEdloB4ngLUIczgXE4ZE7J2gG8skfCDzR_gEEfD-tfUgARBoDEeWyilOGAYP7l8_3-fK5Kdujz3pL7YoABUm4ewV6RY3Xqo3c2Zlro9GPM6TyNXKdVi_2h07XRcdIBk-IE-HQ9X/s1600/06D_Sola_Busca.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiukfcGJbEdloB4ngLUIczgXE4ZE7J2gG8skfCDzR_gEEfD-tfUgARBoDEeWyilOGAYP7l8_3-fK5Kdujz3pL7YoABUm4ewV6RY3Xqo3c2Zlro9GPM6TyNXKdVi_2h07XRcdIBk-IE-HQ9X/s320/06D_Sola_Busca.jpg" width="173" /></a>
The SB Six of Coins shows a man pounding out a pattern on a metal
plate, while other metal plates, in the shape of discs, hang on the
wall.<br />
<br />
The arrangement of discs on the wall corresponds to a particular
feature of the Six, that it is a "triangular" number, that is, its
units can be laid out with equal spaces between them and forming an
equilateral triangle. This concept was carefully explained in medieval
and Renaissance arithmetic books, for example the passage below from
the same 1570 Parisian book I showed in relation to the Tetrad. Three is the first triangular number. Correspondingly, the SB Three of
Coins also has the discs laid out in the shape of an equilateral
triangle. The next one will be ten.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNOTRz_XUYkUdihGG7geHYh_mNs3_Ppol6M8Ov0_H0g4O9aDN-pvqw2fOzl1havB4vghohecAA6qyg_wkvGOwPFlIxlmYJty533w8N-1Sd6wt0CktO_tVqwNPraS5b9P8bWy_lsdy7YbXk/s1600/06riangular.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNOTRz_XUYkUdihGG7geHYh_mNs3_Ppol6M8Ov0_H0g4O9aDN-pvqw2fOzl1havB4vghohecAA6qyg_wkvGOwPFlIxlmYJty533w8N-1Sd6wt0CktO_tVqwNPraS5b9P8bWy_lsdy7YbXk/s400/06riangular.jpg" width="400" /></a><p>Turning to the bottom of the card, we see a worker very much in the
present. He is focused, attending, on-task, and careful
not to make errors. It is, I think, the third part of time, not covered
in Cups, which has past in the Uprights and future in the Reverseds. </p><p>The "Etteilla" word list for Coins similarly speaks of the present time, and of attention and care for the present activity:
</p><blockquote class="uncited">
<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgthiR6wB35KS0ssfbkYLxA8JeLuwJK3QNKjS2vq2scXK2GC7WLOkBufcu0WWF2ZTKnZ_fRsWW9xDqdYo_bd2vsCv0aacr_V6AuKbwKGEFkeAk90bIBcrvW6_S---78ka4tuTrcIHHOVmIkjYdoLrW2wzt2cfqDcAENVb_dXcI8uRkYoBAzCbtywxelSQ/s1604/06Co_Etteilla_Waite.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1391" data-original-width="1604" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgthiR6wB35KS0ssfbkYLxA8JeLuwJK3QNKjS2vq2scXK2GC7WLOkBufcu0WWF2ZTKnZ_fRsWW9xDqdYo_bd2vsCv0aacr_V6AuKbwKGEFkeAk90bIBcrvW6_S---78ka4tuTrcIHHOVmIkjYdoLrW2wzt2cfqDcAENVb_dXcI8uRkYoBAzCbtywxelSQ/s320/06Co_Etteilla_Waite.jpg" width="320" /></a> 6 OF COINS, UPRIGHT: THE PRESENT. At the Moment, Presently, <i>At Present,</i> Now,
Forthwith, Suddenly, Right Now,<b> </b><i>Immediately,</i><b> </b><i>At once, To Start With, </i><b>At This Time, Today. Assistant,
Witness, </b>Contemporary.<b> Attentive, Careful, Vigilant</b><b>. </b>REVERSED: AMBITION. Desire, Wish, Searches. <b>Eagerness, Ardor,
</b>Passion, Cupidity, Again. Jealousy, Illusion.</div>
</blockquote>
The reverseds, some of them, relate to the future, in the sphere of emotions, but it is an immediate future, so part of the present. The planetary god featured on the card, Jupiter, perhaps has some relation to the reversed meanings. He was both the highest of the Olympian gods and known for his passions for nymphs and mortal women, arousing much jealousy in his wife Juno.<br />
<br />
Waite, in borrowing
from this list, seems to have taken the keyword "present" in the sense of "gift." Homonyms are allowed, but usually as secondary meanings. We see
both senses in his
list of Upright meaning:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: Presents, gifts, gratification; another account says attention, vigilance, now is the accepted time, present prosperity, etc. </b><b><i>Reversed</i>: Desire, cupidity, envy, jealousy, illusion.</b> </blockquote><p>
The Reverseds are simply copied from the Etteilla school. "Envy" is an addition in a c. 1838 book (by a certain "Julia Orsini," pseudonym of the publisher) whose word-lists are mostly based on de la Salette.<br />
<br />
Corresponding
to the homonym,
Smith's design for Coins shows a man giving alms to beggars. This of
course has nothing to do with the theme of purposeful movement that connects the various meanings together and with the animal
soul. The Sola-Busca Six of Coins won't go to waste, however: Smith uses a version of it for her Eight of Pentacles (<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pents08.jpg">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pents08.jpg</a>), of which more later.</p><p>D'Odoucet derives the meanings of the card from the 2 and the 7 of the card's number: vegetation joined to life, which, he says, "indicates the present time, which may well be considered the father of ambition." This derivation is as arbitrary as most of his attempts.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBXJtOp_9ELX8-qIhGVPiMRWoFMHpGx9Q0zNoLLwf9zQZP9Tq2veygHJ402zu4qqzM5WX0XZqRDXW59msVmu-9zxq_P_VgLxbBNQBa5XB6_4fVCouw19MPcv9HjLWR6Y65yXGl_DaIWFIg7bbjVAHP-6gTlq042ZfDisgqn8Msxx-mkv6i-4IXXiZvyQ/s399/06B_Sola_Busca.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="399" data-original-width="216" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBXJtOp_9ELX8-qIhGVPiMRWoFMHpGx9Q0zNoLLwf9zQZP9Tq2veygHJ402zu4qqzM5WX0XZqRDXW59msVmu-9zxq_P_VgLxbBNQBa5XB6_4fVCouw19MPcv9HjLWR6Y65yXGl_DaIWFIg7bbjVAHP-6gTlq042ZfDisgqn8Msxx-mkv6i-4IXXiZvyQ/s320/06B_Sola_Busca.jpg" width="173" /></a></div>Finally, the SB Batons shows a man carrying large arrows and holding a lantern. The ribbon divides the arrows into groups of three, two, and one. This
division corresponds to a special feature of the Hexad as presented in
the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology of Arithmetic</span>. The first sentence of the chapter reads:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>The hexad is the first perfect number; for it is counted by its own parts, as containing a sixth, a third, and a half.</b> (p. 75)</div>
</blockquote><p>
That is, its factors when added together yield the number itself.<br />
<br />
I imagine the man in the SB as a servant forced to do labor past the time he would
normally have stopped for the day. Or perhaps he has unexpectedly had to get up before dawn. (The man didn't even have time to put
on his pants!) Here I am influenced by the "Etteilla" word-list, which
again reads like a meditation upon the SB card. <br /></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv1BDayKPaBsPBHA1o5o4PaJQq3yrYgdF43Nx5roxa0ztxCWZFek2eX0dPJat0V2CKMC6FIxRx1GE2HxtZ73j6pG5zKNOTF824Jlb8EAShibuPY2EEVttwQZr1A6yxLUnidi2_wtuh9i3167EzweyYoSe2168VpQ_23XhnRjbVBrhOEApfcMYP7eRNEw/s1394/Grand'Etteilla%2006Ba.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1394" data-original-width="792" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv1BDayKPaBsPBHA1o5o4PaJQq3yrYgdF43Nx5roxa0ztxCWZFek2eX0dPJat0V2CKMC6FIxRx1GE2HxtZ73j6pG5zKNOTF824Jlb8EAShibuPY2EEVttwQZr1A6yxLUnidi2_wtuh9i3167EzweyYoSe2168VpQ_23XhnRjbVBrhOEApfcMYP7eRNEw/s320/Grand'Etteilla%2006Ba.jpg" width="182" /></a><blockquote class="uncited"><div>No. 30. 6 OF BATONS, UPRIGHT: DOMESTIC WORKER. Servant, Valet, Lackey, Maid,
Mercenary, Subordinate, Slave.<b> </b>Courier, Delivery Man, Messenger, Message, <i>Announcement,
Commission, Housework, Servitude.</i> <b>Interior of a House, Housekeeping, Family, All the Servants of the House.</b> REVERSED: WAITING. Expectation, Hope,<b> Rely on, Base Yourself On, </b>Trust,<b> Promise Yourself</b>. Confidence,<b> </b>Foresight. Fear, Apprehension.</div>
</blockquote><p>
The uprights are consistent with the interpretation of the man as a
servant. The reverseds convey what a person in that position would be feeling, in regard to the future: it is again about
time, but now about emotional attitudes about the future from the
perspective of the present: hope, fear, confidence, etc., all emotions
that the higher animals might have as well. Since he is traveling, we
again have locomotion in space; but the fourth dimension of time is
there, too.<br />
<br />
The themes that tie together all of these cards, including the
Lover, are those of motion and time: past, present, future, traveling,
and the choices we make.</p><p>D'Odoucet's derivation is from the 3 and the 0: "the world, symbol of our possessions that cooperate with our well-being, needs the support of generations." But there is nothing about the world, possessions, or the generations in the keywords or other meanings of the card, except perhaps "family" in the uprights.<br />
</p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqIKT3VlyIMr1M8ZcoJz5SbjFlsWai6Xw2RL3D4jHBzWuV6l5L-5d2E1cNB0dSGFJoNuiHMkcMOjJSClSPdZ3cdP9vJr6mb822D1NgA-wDHR9gkDNxEXYhyphenhyphenWQZYN27ze0GukZnQAZgyRy9/s1600/Wands06.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqIKT3VlyIMr1M8ZcoJz5SbjFlsWai6Xw2RL3D4jHBzWuV6l5L-5d2E1cNB0dSGFJoNuiHMkcMOjJSClSPdZ3cdP9vJr6mb822D1NgA-wDHR9gkDNxEXYhyphenhyphenWQZYN27ze0GukZnQAZgyRy9/s320/Wands06.jpg" width="184" /></a>Smith's design for the Six of Batons seizes on the two words <b>"Courier, Messenger"</b> in just one of the Etteilla School's list, that of de la Salette. This
card has the same 1, 2, 3, grouping of staves as the corresponding Sola-Busca card,
as well as the sense that the figure is in motion, the hallmark
of the animal soul. However the figure is by no means so lowly.<br />
<br />
The servant has dropped out of Waite's list, replaced by a messenger of important news:<br />
<blockquote>
<b><i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: The card has been so designed that it can
cover several significations; on the surface, it is a victor triumphing,
but it is also great news, such as might be carried in state by the
King's courier; it is expectation crowned with its own desire, the crown
of hope, and so forth. <i>Reversed</i>: Apprehension, fear, as of a
victorious enemy at the gate; treachery, disloyalty, as of gates being
opened to the enemy; also indefinite delay. </b></blockquote><p>
The Reverseds seem unnecessarily negative, as opposed to being merely the receiving end of the message of the uprights. Wait is again fixated on winning or losing as positive and negative, as though active and receptive were not also possible for the two ends of the card. <b><br /></b></p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b><br />
<br />
Three of Smith's designs are in harmony with the Sola-Busca; only her
Coins is out of step.<br />
<br />
As far as Etteilla's lists fitting the Sola-Busca, it seems to me they all do, more or less, so 100%.<br />
<br />
Waite's word-lists correspond to Etteilla's in the same three cases. Iin the fourth Etteilla's list, at least in the Uprights, does not save him. In Batons "Fear" is only one of Etteilla's meanings. So maybe 85% correspondence.<br />
<br />
As far as Pythagoreanism, if we allow the temporal aspect of journeys as well as the spatial, there is a close correspondence to the "animal soul" of the Pythagoreans, except for"domestic worker." So about 90% correspondence, I'd guess, for Etteilla. Waite avoids that pitfall but his "presents" is equally non-Pythagorean. So about the same for Waite. Smith makes the non-Pythagorean aspect of Coins principal, so that design brings the Pythagorean content down to 75%; charity is not part of the Pythagorean meaning of the Hexad.</p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The Sixes in the French Tradition after Etteilla</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"> Levi, following de Mellet's essay, takes the Lover card as about the choice between virtue and vice. He does not expound on the 6s specifically, except to say that they fall under Tiphereth, meaning divine beauty - masculine, feminine, both together, and the world.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Christian merely repeats Levi, although more dramatically. The one wielding the bow is "the genius of Justice," who directs his arrow of punishment at Vice. In the divine world, it is the knowledge of Good and Evil. In the intellectual world, it is the balance between liberty and necessity, and in the physical world the antagonism of natural forces. Papus adds that for the man the two outcomes lead to becoming a Mage on the one hand or one of the unfortunates of the Tower card on the other. The card is about the struggle between conscience and the passions. It is a balance between Good and Evil in the divine world, met with Beauty (of the Holy Spirit), between freedom and necessity in the human world, met with Love, and between opposing forces in the physical world, met with Universal Attraction. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Picard takes his interpretation of the Lover card in the four areas of life indicated by the four suits. In Scepters, it is a choice between idleness and work in one's enterprises (p. 80). In Cups, two groups of 3 cups each present themselves, and one hesitates to choose between them (p. 136). As in the Lover card, it is a matter of the heart. It connotes torments and scruples about a decision on the subject of marriage. In Swords, the picture shows rams on top and a crab on the bottom, Aries and Cancer. It is a choice between emancipation and servitude, freedom and necessity. In Coins, a the three theological virtues are engraved on the top discs, and the sign of Capricorn on the ones below. The issue is the good or bad use of one's fortune, a choice between generosity and greed. </span><span style="font-size: small;">Given
that Levi had identified the 5s with the sefira of Tifereth, which is
in the middle between Severity and Mercy, one may wonder whether the
choice between extremes might not really be a matter of finding a
"middle way" between the two in each case.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK1thy4n1b_cDWc_5apvwuP-885FXQ1c1pN-WEvNDvo-FnQRkTGqcRjSpRULi8s33F3PlWRiGgs8K9tJYqMJVa4v3HFioXrbAI4gsWqyJxovVx3GN_hZNZOmpldw79ScO-3dGNh0KqhiPoo6s9fdCrOzYZG2WGmQdp_d2OPO1kA_jwgh9eIZYhQAmOLdzq/s1937/Picard4sixes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="809" data-original-width="1937" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK1thy4n1b_cDWc_5apvwuP-885FXQ1c1pN-WEvNDvo-FnQRkTGqcRjSpRULi8s33F3PlWRiGgs8K9tJYqMJVa4v3HFioXrbAI4gsWqyJxovVx3GN_hZNZOmpldw79ScO-3dGNh0KqhiPoo6s9fdCrOzYZG2WGmQdp_d2OPO1kA_jwgh9eIZYhQAmOLdzq/w640-h268/Picard4sixes.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Jodorowsky applies his ideas to the Marseille versions of the cards. The Lover card can take many interpretations, but in all of them it is a relational card with several individuals on the same level. It </span><span style="font-size: small;">also involves "the descent of the beauty of love from the Heavens" (p. 293)</span><span style="font-size: small;">. So at the very least, it is about union in general and in particular doing what we love rather than just imagining it.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv2_wxMVREVU3zCNtUISZZza8v_4jTMk6cmMCnrcLiuc3Oqy4gchNQX7rEltMkt7GTLsJRizBZB0yPeLzV0tRQ40xgI4TnYxuIlkhkDSr8amPDpaqXW07ox5m_CA7GRaqKgubuqPh2mz9S3SuIv_Gtlu_aYoFwBms2bH4QD0qdJlrfRCSWI5tG3PUydw/s2019/Jodo6s.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="955" data-original-width="2019" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv2_wxMVREVU3zCNtUISZZza8v_4jTMk6cmMCnrcLiuc3Oqy4gchNQX7rEltMkt7GTLsJRizBZB0yPeLzV0tRQ40xgI4TnYxuIlkhkDSr8amPDpaqXW07ox5m_CA7GRaqKgubuqPh2mz9S3SuIv_Gtlu_aYoFwBms2bH4QD0qdJlrfRCSWI5tG3PUydw/w640-h302/Jodo6s.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">The 6 of Cups has two sets of 3 cups each facing each other, in the manner of kindred spirits who tend to seclude themselves and share only in private. In the ego-world relationship the ego finds itself at one with the world: "I am the world and the world is me." (Above second from left; I omit the Conver originals because they are essentially the same, differing only in that there is just one shade of blue, light blue, and one of yellow, halfway between yellow and orange.)<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">The 6 of Coins or Pentacles (far right above), with its four coins in the center, is grounded in a familiar reality yet opens itself to what is outside that reality in opposite ways: past and future, higher consciousness and subconsciousness, light and shadow, etc. It is a search both for what surpasses one and what is already in one. It is also a card that counsels generosity to oneself as well as a well-managed economy, valuing the beauty of the world that money opens one up to - for example, investing in art that one loves - rather than money itself or superficial appearances.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">The 6 of Swords (third from left above) has a lone flower in the middle of an enclosure formed by the 6 swords, cut off from its plant and hence from the world. It is a representation of the joy of the solitary intellect, Jodorowsky says.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">The 6 of Wands is also a card of joy: the joy of creating, joyful sexuality, work that is a joy to perform, that affirms one's unique personality, if only we do not cut ourselves off from experiencing that joy. Jodorowsky sees one of the plants as active and one as receptive, masculine and feminine.In that way it is the joy of the sexual encounter. It seems to me that both plants have aspects of both (the stem is phallic, the leaves more like the shape of a womb): it seems to me that sexuality involves both functions for both partners, nor is it limited to just masculine and feminine. <br /></span></p>Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677044918876619054.post-26975712324558056152012-05-15T22:17:00.016-07:002023-09-24T17:18:05.527-07:00Chariot and Sevens<p> Here is Du Bartas on the number 7:</p><div class="line"><b>The Critical and double-sexed <span class="rend-italic">Seven,</span></b></div>
<div class="line"><b>The Number of the unfixed Fires of Heaven;</b></div>
<div class="line"><b>And of the eternal sacred <span class="rend-italic">Sabbath;</span></b></div>
<div class="line"><b>Which <span class="rend-italic">Three</span> and <span class="rend-italic">Four</span> containeth jointly both.</b></div><div class="line"> </div><div class="line">The use of the word "critical" to describe the 7 is of interest because it is a word that does not appear in Agrippa or in any other numerological work I know of, except the Theology of Arithmetic. It says:</div><div class="line">Moreover, the hepbdomad has the property of being the most critiacal number, not only in pregnancy and in the ages of life development, but also in disease and health.</div><div class="line">The work had already described how if a fetus survived to 7 months, it was viable outside the womb. Then came other critical sevens: "after birth in seven hours they reach the crisis of whether or not they will live. . . . As regards the acceptance of the air which is being breathed and by which soul in general acquires tension, they are confirmed at the critical seventh hour one wy or the other 0 either towards life or towards death." After that come more 7s: children cut their teeth at seven months, and at twice seven sit up and gain an unswaying posture, and at three times deven they begin to articulate speech . . .", etc.</div><div class="line"> </div><div class="line">Moreover, life divided into periods of seven, at the end of which came a physical change. <br /><blockquote>
<b>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.</b> (<span style="font-style: italic;">Theology of Arithmetic</span> p. 87f. See also Martianus Capella, <i>Marriage of Mercury and Philology</i> p. 283, Macrobius <i>Dream of Scipio</i> pp. 114-115.)</blockquote>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<i> kairos</i>, the opportune or critical time, and perhaps that is enough. This word "critical" - <i>critique</i>, in French - will be seen to play a role in Etteilla's 7s.<br /></div><div class="line"> </div><div class="line">Du Bartas's "Double-sexed" refers to its being the sum of the first even (on the Theology's account) and odd number. It also relates to Athena, in that, "like Athena, it is not womanish, but divisible number is female" (p. 99).</div><div class="line"> </div><div class="line">The "unfixed Fires of Heaven" of course refers to the seven celestial bodies that changed position relative to the other celestial bodies in the sky, the "planets," from the Greek for "wanderer." The Sabbath is not only the last day of the week, but also the seventh day of creation, when God rested. </div><p></p><p>The number 7 in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span> 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 <span style="font-style: italic;">Phaedrus</span>,
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.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6uyl6qWR8C7cvJ4N2jxpIdismPL3IchoqlKAMXHmixw3qBkQ2YpWQlZAm6Rt7ZszUdOjD4HrhOYMU10cOauuNOIJB81oKDb6e8CggY1TdlX89nDW1ixxNqS5-vIBBW8HrMaUq2xoTuT6wV4YRuDoWfwudnT3xaYk3f_3p1ZN1mSk5VtttY_UM3EabbQ/s1498/07Marseille_Predecessors.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="1498" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6uyl6qWR8C7cvJ4N2jxpIdismPL3IchoqlKAMXHmixw3qBkQ2YpWQlZAm6Rt7ZszUdOjD4HrhOYMU10cOauuNOIJB81oKDb6e8CggY1TdlX89nDW1ixxNqS5-vIBBW8HrMaUq2xoTuT6wV4YRuDoWfwudnT3xaYk3f_3p1ZN1mSk5VtttY_UM3EabbQ/w640-h224/07Marseille_Predecessors.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>In Etteilla's system, the seventh card was a scene with birds and fishes, while the seventh day of creation was his card number 8, on which he put "7 Repos" and a naked woman in a natural setting. He said it corresponded to the Popess card of the Marseille. What corresponds to the Marseille Chariot in Etteilla's system is his card number 21. It has one keyword, "Dissension," both upright and reversed.
<p></p><blockquote>
<b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ70nGHRmn6NUhI9mXjZUeB3DiolYVEoY7rvOFIBcTovLl7tVfRRChh7vlkhhOLyShPjtxnHbZF8DdUqNaHewPpcU7xlctU94E6xcsO8-YMWeji_gsRBWAjrW5KouL8zF1z8gw0lvjmlHmw7cuP8gkcyKFItQdNLDrnzlDaIpl5hpYJjKS6dtUEXxM0g/s1404/Grand'Etteilla%20004.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1404" data-original-width="781" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ70nGHRmn6NUhI9mXjZUeB3DiolYVEoY7rvOFIBcTovLl7tVfRRChh7vlkhhOLyShPjtxnHbZF8DdUqNaHewPpcU7xlctU94E6xcsO8-YMWeji_gsRBWAjrW5KouL8zF1z8gw0lvjmlHmw7cuP8gkcyKFItQdNLDrnzlDaIpl5hpYJjKS6dtUEXxM0g/s320/Grand'Etteilla%20004.jpg" width="178" /></a></div>DISSENSION</b><b> —</b>War,<b> <span>Dispute, Noise. </span></b>Troubles,<b> </b><span><i>Insurrection, Sedition, Faction, Rebellion, Defection</i></span><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">,</span>
Riots, Unrest. </b>Battle, Fight, Combat.<b> </b>Arrogance<b>, Haughtiness,
</b>Vanity, False Glory, Pomp, Ostentation, Audacity,
Temerity.<b>—</b>Violence, Disorder, Anger, Injury,<b> Abuse, </b>Presumptuousness,
Vengeance.<b> </b>REVERSED: DISSENSION. Noise, Din, Quarrel, Differences, Disagreement, Lawsuit, Harassment, <span>Argumentation, </span>Debate.
</blockquote><p>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. </p><p>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 <i>Monde Primitif</i> vol. 8, p. 399. De Mellet says (<a href="https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1087220/f498.item">https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1087220/f498.item</a>):</p><p></p><blockquote><p>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.</p><p>(<span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">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.)</span></span></span></p></blockquote><p><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"></span></span></span><span class="ZSCsVd"></span></p><div class="kO6q6e"></div><p>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.</p><p>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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<b>THE SB SEVENS</b> <br />
<br />
Here are the Sola-Busca Sevens, from <a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sola-Busca_gallery">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sola-Busca_gallery</a>:<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDoSxYUjxyqhHpIwgk2mnMpWO5-V_G3jDbAit80hueCnLgVgE11v_2MmVnFIsRFumacgVp8ERYqNMyHDDltH16DFUtKMR1-IA7REwcXRnT001kKYTXpJp_fg9qXVs86bhMbR17D2bcfu0/s1600/07_Sola_BuscaALLSM.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606768388554183954" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDoSxYUjxyqhHpIwgk2mnMpWO5-V_G3jDbAit80hueCnLgVgE11v_2MmVnFIsRFumacgVp8ERYqNMyHDDltH16DFUtKMR1-IA7REwcXRnT001kKYTXpJp_fg9qXVs86bhMbR17D2bcfu0/s1600/07_Sola_BuscaALLSM.jpg" /></a><br />
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
<i>Theology</i> (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:<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWXQa2Li2-1KMIUFet6HLe0njl7QCUV4LoAwrlUP-jw3I7Omf6jRjXypEM-z7xnym4WZkoxYwortvCR8O0FSWaG02zSa5gbQJsjZ_3u8LMfGszgSXkSp_o-_p3U4NHXRQD_ma4yPWaPNM/s1600/07sevenages2.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606768384710210050" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWXQa2Li2-1KMIUFet6HLe0njl7QCUV4LoAwrlUP-jw3I7Omf6jRjXypEM-z7xnym4WZkoxYwortvCR8O0FSWaG02zSa5gbQJsjZ_3u8LMfGszgSXkSp_o-_p3U4NHXRQD_ma4yPWaPNM/s1600/07sevenages2.jpg" /></a><br />
The figure labeled <i>iuventus</i> even has a similar bird as the figure on the SB Seven of Coins.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Another example of the seven ages is the poem by the melancholy Jaques in Shakespeare's <span style="font-style: italic;">As You Like It</span>, 2.7.139ff:<br />
</p><blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>JAQUES. All the world's a stage,<br />
And all the men and women merely players,<br />
They have their exits and entrances,<br />
And one man in his time plays many parts,<br />
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,<br />
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.<br />
Then, the whining schoolboy with his satchel<br />
And shining morning face, creeping like snail<br />
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,<br />
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad<br />
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,<br />
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,<br />
Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,<br />
Seeking the bubble reputation<br />
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice<br />
In fair round belly, with good capon lin'd,<br />
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,<br />
Full of wise saws, and modern instances,<br />
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts<br />
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,<br />
With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side,<br />
His youthful hose well sav'd, a world too wide,<br />
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,<br />
Turning again towards childish treble, pipes<br />
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,<br />
That ends this strange eventful history,<br />
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,<br />
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.</b></div>
</blockquote><p>
The seven ages also correlate with the seven planets, from the Moon to Saturn, as is evident in Jaques' speech.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Childhood is the second age, the <span style="font-style: italic;">puer</span>.
For that one, of Mercury, Shakespeare has a schoolboy with his <b>"shining
morning face."</b> 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 (<a href="http://www.wga.hu/art/v/verocchi/sculptur/y_david.jpg">http://www.wga.hu/art/v/verocchi/sculptur/y_david.jpg</a>), later adapted by Michelangelo.<br />
<br />
Shakespeare's image for <span style="font-style: italic;">adolescencia,</span>
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 <b>"woeful" </b>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.<br />
<br />
Di Vincenzo in her S<span style="font-style: italic;">ola Busca Taro</span><span style="font-style: italic;">t</span> 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 <b>"the passions, the instinctive elements of the
personality, the base thoughts generated by the struggle to assert
one's external ego" </b>(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.<br />
<br />
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 <span style="font-style: italic;">rubedo</span>,
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 <b>"sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans
everything,"</b> as Shakespeare's Jaques would have it, is a purification
transcending all the senses. In the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology of Arithmetic</span>, however, this state is not reached until the Eights and Nines. The Sevens are the realm of the <b>"rational soul"</b> (p. 73).<br />
<br />
For the fourth age, <span style="font-style: italic;">juventas</span>
and Mars, we have just such a soldier as Shakespeare describes,<b>
"seeking the bubble reputation even in the cannon's mouth"</b>: 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.<br />
<br />
(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 [<span style="font-style: italic;">Illustrated Bartsch</span>, Vol. 24 Part 3, p. 66] points out, Trump XV has SPQV on Metelo's shield, the same abbreviation except referring to Venice.) <br />
<br />
Our fourth SB card, the man bending double under his load, corresponds to the <span style="font-style: italic;">senex, </span>Shakespeare's sixth age, of the<b> "shrunk shank"</b> and a voice <b>"turning now to childish treble"</b>; he is not the man he used to be.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Then there are the Ette<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4QzwNavz1o6tDR_mnTXxsfOBVVrqd9KXiPjFNsQVfTuUSx8Hyh3YqjdVWXR38E8OSHGv-wRdKyY4A1i2yqfz8B3plI-GNCimH6pWjIbB8rPgUL1yLKN1-n04vQJE148CTvz7TNUil_Q-gY8EOpAKsKmDpXPPLZmZbnyZhD4hX4s0AXmB7a8U0W5npJQ/s1374/Grand'Etteilla%2007Cu.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1374" data-original-width="805" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4QzwNavz1o6tDR_mnTXxsfOBVVrqd9KXiPjFNsQVfTuUSx8Hyh3YqjdVWXR38E8OSHGv-wRdKyY4A1i2yqfz8B3plI-GNCimH6pWjIbB8rPgUL1yLKN1-n04vQJE148CTvz7TNUil_Q-gY8EOpAKsKmDpXPPLZmZbnyZhD4hX4s0AXmB7a8U0W5npJQ/s320/Grand'Etteilla%2007Cu.jpg" width="187" /></a>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? </p><p>For Cups, we have:<br />
</p><blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
43. 7 OF CUPS, UPRIGHT: THOUGHT, Soul, Mind, Intelligence, Idea, Memory,
Imagination, Understanding, Conception, Meditation, Contemplation,
Reflection, Deliberation,<b> View,</b><b> </b>Opinion, Sentiment.<b>
</b>REVERSED: PROJECTS.<b> </b><i>3rd Cahier:</i><b> </b>Plan. Lists: Design, Intention, Desire, Will, Resolution,<b> </b>Determination, Premeditation. </div>
</blockquote><p>
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).</p><p>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. <br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihx-kKZK8li7L2rsGckKgcEzSOwPAjbc4X1ljVgsvPwItxSwg61X4l5h2Gp8B85qXnj2Y602hpmjmmSbOLvOx1P5Y0nj8A47-JLwPKHKAxQ-LgsVrvYoGN--iKea-giEuqCxScirss4A6DEbHsQhgbQaE9wXQal-acYMSgxLh2bXwll0Za9mr8iNvH1A/s1399/Grand'Etteilla%2007Co.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1399" data-original-width="793" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihx-kKZK8li7L2rsGckKgcEzSOwPAjbc4X1ljVgsvPwItxSwg61X4l5h2Gp8B85qXnj2Y602hpmjmmSbOLvOx1P5Y0nj8A47-JLwPKHKAxQ-LgsVrvYoGN--iKea-giEuqCxScirss4A6DEbHsQhgbQaE9wXQal-acYMSgxLh2bXwll0Za9mr8iNvH1A/s320/Grand'Etteilla%2007Co.jpg" width="181" /></a></b>For Coins, the Etteilla has:<br />
</p><blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
71. 7 OF COINS, UPRIGHT: MONEY. Wealth, Sum, Silver. Silverware. Whiteness,
Purity, Candor, Innocence, Ingenuousness [ingénuité]. Moon.—Purgation,
Purification. REVERSED: ANXIETY.<b> </b>Mental Torment,<b> Impatience</b><b>, </b>Affliction, Chagrin, Worry, Solicitude. Care, Attention, Diligence, Application.<b>—Apprehension, Fear, Distrust, Mistrust, Suspicion</b><b>.</b></div>
</blockquote><p>
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 <i>ingénuité </i>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.<br />
</p><p>
</p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9tP6NfWy4Z_LL6fs0v-5-LFDcJC8U3_xUaakqHe3_QxoT9WSr0tIAPY3CSCAELx-5WklH3AgK_yqTIOcEym-R2guVmBNf_076D5kHFpM1ZuifzjnmAlVRjQTRuYSPuF4hbi4xqmlkfTBLrP89Qb6cqQ5hh2LIiMhzdyKgyIHtRwInnUP0u-IyhIrxTA/s1369/Grand'Etteilla%2007Ba.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1369" data-original-width="805" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9tP6NfWy4Z_LL6fs0v-5-LFDcJC8U3_xUaakqHe3_QxoT9WSr0tIAPY3CSCAELx-5WklH3AgK_yqTIOcEym-R2guVmBNf_076D5kHFpM1ZuifzjnmAlVRjQTRuYSPuF4hbi4xqmlkfTBLrP89Qb6cqQ5hh2LIiMhzdyKgyIHtRwInnUP0u-IyhIrxTA/s320/Grand'Etteilla%2007Ba.jpg" width="188" /></a>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. <br /><p>Next, Swords:<br />
</p><blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
7 OF SWORDS, UPRIGHT: HOPE OR EXPECTATION. Waiting for, Hope, <b>Aim Toward</b>, <b>Institute, </b><b>Trust in, </b><b>Build a Basis, Design</b>, Will, Desire,
Wish, Longing, Craving, Taste, Fantasy. REVERSED: WISE ADVICE. Good
Counsel, Salutory Warning, <b>Instruction, Lesson. Observation, Reflection,
Remark, Careful Observation of, Thought. Reprimand, Slander. </b>News, Announcement, Public
Notice. Consultation, Admonition.</div>
</blockquote>
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHeQIh34CigmhlUjPsdjZV2Zb6PsW8fQmWNZ7xwgEFZuFhSR70pjlGnQ0JAO7PC8s3oP-riik8XV1JCWhWTw5aapPG3kagQ16W99E_9TKwsvHzlIBeilaLPsYhx8v7nP0Ezfx8TfAasHGPWQXlcsGfkoT_VZNsJvHrebT-kgr6E5lPXAVwGFdhehMXlw/s1390/Grand'Etteilla%2007Ba.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1390" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHeQIh34CigmhlUjPsdjZV2Zb6PsW8fQmWNZ7xwgEFZuFhSR70pjlGnQ0JAO7PC8s3oP-riik8XV1JCWhWTw5aapPG3kagQ16W99E_9TKwsvHzlIBeilaLPsYhx8v7nP0Ezfx8TfAasHGPWQXlcsGfkoT_VZNsJvHrebT-kgr6E5lPXAVwGFdhehMXlw/s320/Grand'Etteilla%2007Ba.jpg" width="184" /></a></div></b>29. 7 OF BATONS, UPRIGHT: NEGOTIATIONS. <i>3rd Cahier</i>:<b> </b>Prattle (Caquets), changed to "Words" in the <i>4th Cahier Supplement</i>, p. 147, neither positive or negative<b>. </b>Lists: Discourse,
Interview, <b>Conference</b>, Colloquium, Conversation,
Dissertation, Deliberation, Discussion. Word, Pronunciation,<b>
</b>Grammar, Dictionary, Language, Idiom, Dialect [Patois].<b>
</b>Negotiation, Market, Exchange, Measure,
Commerce, Traffic, Correspondence.<b> </b>Speak, Say, Declare, Confer, Gossip,
Chat, Sow Division, Prattle, Chatter<b>. </b>REVERSED: INDECISION.
Irresolution, Uncertainty, Perplexity, Fickleness, Flightiness,
Variation, Variety, Diversity. Hesitate, Hesitation. Waver, Vacillate,
Changeability.</div>
</blockquote>
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 <span style="font-style: italic;">Lawrence of Arabia</span>, where Alec Guinness, playing Prince Faisal, tells Peter O'Toole, playing Major Lawrence: <br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>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.</b></div>
</blockquote><p>
The Prince's characterization of <b>"young men" </b>fits the scene
in Swords. In Batons, we are with the <b>"old men." </b>The Uprights express
negotiation in a positive way - or cynically, perhaps, in the <i>3rd Cahier</i> - while the Reverseds indicate the hazards
to be avoided. <br /></p><p>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).<br />
<br />
<b>WAITE-SMITH SEVENS</b><br />
<br />
For comparison purposes, I repeat the SB cards, and now below them put the corresponding cards of the Waite-Smith.<br />
</p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDoSxYUjxyqhHpIwgk2mnMpWO5-V_G3jDbAit80hueCnLgVgE11v_2MmVnFIsRFumacgVp8ERYqNMyHDDltH16DFUtKMR1-IA7REwcXRnT001kKYTXpJp_fg9qXVs86bhMbR17D2bcfu0/s1600/07_Sola_BuscaALLSM.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606768388554183954" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDoSxYUjxyqhHpIwgk2mnMpWO5-V_G3jDbAit80hueCnLgVgE11v_2MmVnFIsRFumacgVp8ERYqNMyHDDltH16DFUtKMR1-IA7REwcXRnT001kKYTXpJp_fg9qXVs86bhMbR17D2bcfu0/s1600/07_Sola_BuscaALLSM.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
<img alt="Image" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuPHpYvooh6RUd-3JyzBKFMMMmqoIrhOCxpqulf31UdCUFeeqj9VzqJIqINJOp724sAymWE8m18YRALEkpONcZuCCZysJbV5Twm6THDtYqQL-1fEk_T9yqazMDX1I52MIEFDw_Wgq-aWg/s640/07rwALLSM.jpg" width="640" /><br />
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:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: 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. <i>Reversed</i>: Good advice, counsel, instruction, slander, babbling.</b></blockquote>
These are much like Etteilla's, except for <b>"a plan that may fail"</b> (hence the backward look) and "annoyance" in the Uprights and "babbling" in the Reverseds. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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: <b>"Strange chalices of vision, but the images are more especially those of the fantastic spirit"</b> and "<b>some attainment in these degrees, but nothing permanent or substantial is suggested."</b> This discouragement is lacking from both the SB and the Etteilla school. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<b>CONCLUSION</b> <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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%<br />
<br />
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:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>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. <i>Reversed</i>: Perplexity, embarrassments, anxiety. It is also a caution against indecision.</b> </blockquote>
Valor (the basis for Smith's image) is not part of Etteilla's meaning, but otherwise this is close to Etteilla. So 85%.<br />
<br />
In Coins Waite says:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>in the main, it is a card of money, business, barter; but one reading
gives altercation, quarrels--and another innocence, ingenuity,
purgation. <i>Reversed</i>: Cause for anxiety regarding money which it may be proposed to lend.</b></blockquote><p>
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.<br />
<br />
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. </p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The Sevens in the French esoteric tradition</span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">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. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">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. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">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.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Picard applies the concept of the conqueror to the themes of the four suits as he characterizes them. </span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">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:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p></p><blockquote>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.</blockquote><p></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">It is the symbol of every victory over material difficulties that may arise against enterprises.</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">The light that dominates the material world indicates the supremacy of the spirit over the elements.Signification: invention.<br /></span></span></span></span></blockquote><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDBkc-NOjvcSqnD72f96iZqsLrrfACgNLXUDeLt_EvxoaREb19J98Abkv3_-9z7Hf2jYcvqLrFJaC98fi8LNK6a9rXNHtEZysRyCfjtXxxn_nzDmf2uXcVHbBCJBaLuyTyPtCV87D7rQXuFAjuc1TsK_twkEPiEQzVw7At7aVFhYouohVNvZAlqn0yww/s957/PicardSceptersCups.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="802" data-original-width="957" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDBkc-NOjvcSqnD72f96iZqsLrrfACgNLXUDeLt_EvxoaREb19J98Abkv3_-9z7Hf2jYcvqLrFJaC98fi8LNK6a9rXNHtEZysRyCfjtXxxn_nzDmf2uXcVHbBCJBaLuyTyPtCV87D7rQXuFAjuc1TsK_twkEPiEQzVw7At7aVFhYouohVNvZAlqn0yww/w320-h268/PicardSceptersCups.jpg" width="320" /></a></span><span style="font-size: small;">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.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"> In Cups (above right), the theme is spirit as love over matter, so (p. 138):</span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"></span></span></span></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">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.</span></span></span> <br /></blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">This card means victory in matters of love, won over material difficulties.</span></span> Signification: <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">Happy solution of material questions hindering projects of union.</span></span></span></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: small;">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. <br /></span></p><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"></span></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Since Swords are for Picard an evil suit, it represents the victory of evil - albeit temporary (p. 166):</span></p><blockquote>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.</blockquote><p></p><blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWaiLgwt1At1o-wELvJm8ElDmbGgtXKT_oPi9-5R_0f4MyIoR8bEXK9AMHPUkN1lwYycDlmOHgGIelymPZ8tVyU7oHdZzdFaaHAOdw7wqanh5AV33MJv3bUZbu-fqjB_Cjm01X8jcXwR6Y1a5Zfj-2omjE4aw7jjKdZmFbElRVrndRjZJ6Z4fvu8-N_A/s964/PicardswordsCoins.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="806" data-original-width="964" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWaiLgwt1At1o-wELvJm8ElDmbGgtXKT_oPi9-5R_0f4MyIoR8bEXK9AMHPUkN1lwYycDlmOHgGIelymPZ8tVyU7oHdZzdFaaHAOdw7wqanh5AV33MJv3bUZbu-fqjB_Cjm01X8jcXwR6Y1a5Zfj-2omjE4aw7jjKdZmFbElRVrndRjZJ6Z4fvu8-N_A/w320-h268/PicardswordsCoins.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">The cold Moon, mistress of the nights, shoots its rays onto the Sun, which is enclosed in the depths of the waters.</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">It is the supremacy of darkness over light.</span></span><span class="jCAhz"><span class="ryNqvb">
</span></span><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">This barrage of rays applies to evil works, to the temporary success of the wicked, to shady undertakings.</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">Signification: Armed robbery.</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">Treachery.</span></span></span></span></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: small;">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.<br /></span></p><p><span><span style="font-size: small;">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):</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">Cette lame represente la force morale que procure l'argent et son emploi raisonée. Signification: bienfaisance.<span style="font-size: small;"><p>This card represents the moral force that procures money and its reasoned employment. Signification: beneficence. </p></span></span></blockquote><p><span><span style="font-size: small;">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.</span></span></p><p><span><span style="font-size: small;">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. </span></span></p><p><span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4l-I90htk-tcqGQGjb_smUQORxS0SzIK2GGUoOsUwqEkWX6fgzs6ik8NIivFGLVhuQ2raR7_PeAl9EIMHAs80_rt4ZUrUgLI6hSw6SW3yyF4kJuiEv5dSPs8THZUVOf92ndYhtid70VR4iPiuuZKLgeaKOzUi8hWrKB8qhX0Qa5eYYFwQuSsg-CFVyQ/s1067/JodoPicardWands.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="1067" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4l-I90htk-tcqGQGjb_smUQORxS0SzIK2GGUoOsUwqEkWX6fgzs6ik8NIivFGLVhuQ2raR7_PeAl9EIMHAs80_rt4ZUrUgLI6hSw6SW3yyF4kJuiEv5dSPs8THZUVOf92ndYhtid70VR4iPiuuZKLgeaKOzUi8hWrKB8qhX0Qa5eYYFwQuSsg-CFVyQ/s320/JodoPicardWands.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;">Wands/Batons (near right) is "a card of explosive, glorious energy," as shown in the card as emanation from a red center in all directions that "offers itself via its black tips [on the card] to whoever can skillfully employ it" (p. 296). In the next section he adds, "In terms of artistic realization, this is success, creativity blossoming in service to self and others" (pp. 318-319). Other expressions of this essentially sexual energy are "a passionate relationship, talent, a triumph, or insemination of the world."</span><p></p><p><span><span style="font-size: small;">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.<br /></span></span></p><p><span><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP-83P6g8GOj2iXdzx5PjiKzGc8XShVIhY33fcHFXVb_x4aBYIvaetA8BLB_9iKUl0eGdUCP7VrZO6ExdsqWA3TGlP95ZmQflo_XhKiZ_38JyFrD5jejL7t7gT9fW95I18CDSnJpSyvT-nV3jyieVQz6jf5m6KL7aJ7rPUeTdSquR4514XjQ3Wxk-4OQ/s1059/JodoPicardSwords.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="947" data-original-width="1059" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP-83P6g8GOj2iXdzx5PjiKzGc8XShVIhY33fcHFXVb_x4aBYIvaetA8BLB_9iKUl0eGdUCP7VrZO6ExdsqWA3TGlP95ZmQflo_XhKiZ_38JyFrD5jejL7t7gT9fW95I18CDSnJpSyvT-nV3jyieVQz6jf5m6KL7aJ7rPUeTdSquR4514XjQ3Wxk-4OQ/s320/JodoPicardSwords.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">In contrast, the six outside swords in the 7 of Swords form a kind of prison in which the central sword is held. It "neither moves nor acts" (p. 298). It "seeks for objective vision" and so "must learn to receive." He adds in the next section of his book, "It is an active meditation turned to the needs of the world. . . . We can now step out of ourselves; we are able to be self-effacing in order to be more giving" (p. 313). So, for example, a scientist devotes his research to the needs of the world. If so, it seems to me, the center sword is not simply imprisoned, but also going beyond the conceptual framework itself, into "action in the world." </span><span><span style="font-size: small;">The corresponding
danger is "knowledge used for cynical purposes" or "aggressive ideas
destroying the world. </span></span><p></p><p><span><span style="font-size: small;">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. </span></span><span><span style="font-size: small;">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.<br /></span></span></p><p><span><span style="font-size: small;">Cups and Coins exhibit the 3 + 4 configuration used by others before him. </span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4a5UVlD_VYGfXO9I2wXPcHKQfPuIh24hwBHzn7KPn0zuRFCbw5VMywmT7iwng8oRnRyMPo4rRmdkTqD6l4z0Dey7XKSjNq8tM18034fqXyFR7MxMPbPoriazZEdvBqsgrOvNpdPUaY1KNQOPNZOKXnVul8gCk4gREdEvvNuyYgBj7LBDrcOxBSlGrbg/s1069/JodoPicardCoins.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="941" data-original-width="1069" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4a5UVlD_VYGfXO9I2wXPcHKQfPuIh24hwBHzn7KPn0zuRFCbw5VMywmT7iwng8oRnRyMPo4rRmdkTqD6l4z0Dey7XKSjNq8tM18034fqXyFR7MxMPbPoriazZEdvBqsgrOvNpdPUaY1KNQOPNZOKXnVul8gCk4gREdEvvNuyYgBj7LBDrcOxBSlGrbg/s320/JodoPicardCoins.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span><span style="font-size: small;">In Coins, it is spirit (the three middle discs) gestating in the center of matter (the four in the corners), as suggested by the plant connecting the two realms surrounds in a kind of embrace the card by itself int he second row, like Christ in the womb of Mary. "Spiritualization of matter and materialization of spirit have been achieved," he says in the next section (p. 322); "Ideas move into action in the world and produce money. The money is used to finance research and information, and to help humanity evolve."</span></span><p></p><p><span><span style="font-size: small;">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."<br /></span></span></p><p><span><span style="font-size: small;">In Cup</span></span><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ9TWz_bZlJ-LTlMSVfWe9mBxkFtJeqSul4_NHY6wwM9IBNhKQHcABxq6yyntK6fWy5XGQWpKaq0gi4ilFef7zi7cq1KjAij6kqK0TwaZeouTfNaRTkzfvHPa1H5DFAq293yVxZsDHo1-lmLWBp4koyUrCLe0ZPimwHVmVkwrYe4RrOGaZmgsSd2XLTw/s1059/JodoPicard%20Cups.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="1059" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ9TWz_bZlJ-LTlMSVfWe9mBxkFtJeqSul4_NHY6wwM9IBNhKQHcABxq6yyntK6fWy5XGQWpKaq0gi4ilFef7zi7cq1KjAij6kqK0TwaZeouTfNaRTkzfvHPa1H5DFAq293yVxZsDHo1-lmLWBp4koyUrCLe0ZPimwHVmVkwrYe4RrOGaZmgsSd2XLTw/s320/JodoPicard%20Cups.jpg" width="320" /></a></span><span><span style="font-size: small;">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</span></span><span><span style="font-size: small;"> 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."</span></span></p><p><span><span style="font-size: small;">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. </span></span> <br /></p><p></p><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"></span></span><p></p>Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677044918876619054.post-28619447847882993382012-05-15T22:16:00.025-07:002023-09-25T01:17:09.911-07:00Justice and Eights<p>Du Bartas does not have much to say about the Eight, just "<b>The <span class="rend-italic">Eight,</span> double-square." </b>But this "double-square" is significant, because it is on this basis, Agrippa says, "<b>The Pythagoreans call eight the number of justice, and fullness." </b>What is mainly of interest is the relationship to justice, since that is the title of one of the cards, which in the Marseille deck in use in France was in fact Number 8. It was also number 8 in the Florentine extended deck of Minchiate and in the Tarocchi Bolognese, even though the orders there were otherwise different. But what precisely makes a "double-square" symbolic of justice?<br /></p><p>Agrippa's explanation is a paraphrase of Macrobius, and not quite as clearly written as his source. Macrobius was at least as widely read as Agrippa, since both were in Latin and Macrobius lacked Agrippa's taint of heresy and black magic. So I will quote from him. Macrobius says:
<br />
</p><blockquote>
<b>The Pythagoreans, indeed, called the number eight Justice because it is
the first number that may be divided into two equal numbers and divided
again into two more equal even numbers . . . It is also the product of
equals: two times two times two. Since it is the product of equal even
numbers and may be divided equally, even down to the unit, which does
not admit of division to mathematical computation, it deserves to
receive the name Justice.</b> (<span style="font-style: italic;">Commentary on the Dream of Scipio</span>, trans. Stahl, p. 98)</blockquote><p>Oddly, enough, I cannot find Justice given to eight in any Pythagorean before Macrobius. The <i>Theology of Arithmetic,</i> of Macrobius's time but in Greek, says that a certain Anatolius gave justice to four (Waterfield trans., p. 63, in archive.org), while its excerpt from Nichomachus gives it to five (p. 68).</p><p>In the tarot of the 15th and 16th centuries, Justice is eighth only in Bologna and the Florentine Minchaite, in the former flanked by the two other virtues, Temperance and Fortitude, and in the former the highest of the three. In the list from the Ferrara area of around 1500, it is the second highest, just below the World at 21. In the Lombard lists of c. 1540 Justice is seventh. It changes to eighth in France, whose order is otherwise similar to the Lombard. Perhaps it was precisely to reflect Macrobius's account.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzaURkbp5pIQxgf3ZRzAxod_QDe2gECjgTxnFNYYw9-FQDwQtsi1ANAFbCjJew2pTdmXVch2tM0HVpNdUkjpRyuz-cbcoNLRMk8uSP_dOzhm-F5_OQM6cxHJhIC8Ssp6dzHTkowU7t-lov/s1600/08EtteillaJustice.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzaURkbp5pIQxgf3ZRzAxod_QDe2gECjgTxnFNYYw9-FQDwQtsi1ANAFbCjJew2pTdmXVch2tM0HVpNdUkjpRyuz-cbcoNLRMk8uSP_dOzhm-F5_OQM6cxHJhIC8Ssp6dzHTkowU7t-lov/s320/08EtteillaJustice.jpg" width="176" /></a>Etteilla, according to his own logic, gave the number 9 to his Justice card. His original is faithfully reproduced in a c.
1910 deck; it had first appeared as the frontispiece to his 1st <i>Cahiers</i>, 1785 or 1786 (despite the "1783" on the title page).<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The keywords are "Justice" and "Le Legiste," meaning "The Jurist," i.e. a legal expert. And the word-lists:</span><b><br /></b>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: small;">JUSTICE. Equity, Probity, <span>Uprightness</span><span style="font-style: italic;">,</span> Right,<span> Rectitude, </span>Reason<span>. </span>Justice, Execution. <span>Thoth, or the book of Thoth.</span> REVERSED: THE JURIST. Legislation, Legislator.—Law, <span><i>Decree</i></span>, Code, <span><i>Ordinance</i></span>,<span> </span>Statutes,
Precepts, <i>Commandment</i>, <i>Domination.</i> I<i>nstitution, Constitution,
Temperament, Complexion. Natural Laws, Moral Laws, Religious Laws, Civil Laws, Political Laws</i>,<b> </b>Natural Rights, Human Rights, Public Rights, Civil Rights, Rights of War.<b> The Jurist is under the immediate influence of
this hieroglyph. </b></span></blockquote><p>
The Uprights reflect the traditional cardinal virtue of Justice. The Reverseds stress the law, as rules to be obeyed, as well as rights, which got increasing emphasis in the 17th and 18th centuries.<br />
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-size: small;">SOLA-BUSCA EIGHTS</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
Among the Sola-Busca Eights, I am starting with
Batons because it is the only one of the four SB Eights to have all
eight of the suit-sign objects together. Swords and Coins are both 7+1;
Cups is 6 + 2.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzIBpJgW6GVdhTsT-TwZBjN_V_M8ackN7gtksa2wtEhWFNJ2J08ontUf8spIaaBdo0VIUT5WTQnJN4hIp-a92y51ASSc1vxtxWYpLVHGT1kFqCwXL_meQe1ydHyWsCm_1VReE_oq-jdZpb/s1600/08B_Sola_Busca.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzIBpJgW6GVdhTsT-TwZBjN_V_M8ackN7gtksa2wtEhWFNJ2J08ontUf8spIaaBdo0VIUT5WTQnJN4hIp-a92y51ASSc1vxtxWYpLVHGT1kFqCwXL_meQe1ydHyWsCm_1VReE_oq-jdZpb/s320/08B_Sola_Busca.jpg" width="173" /></a>From the perspective of Renaissance popular art, not drawing on Greek
myth or philosophy, the most obvious interpretation is that the batons
are phallic symbols, and the cup a vagina. The batons might also be
children and the cup a uterus. Di Vincenzo, in her <i>Sola-Busca Tarot</i>, applies this line of thinking to the Sola-Busca 8 of Batons:</p><p><b>First of all, the vase is a symbol of the uterus in which a new life is
formed; symbol of the secret forces of nature, receptacle of the drink
of immortality, image of the universal heart, of the secret center from
whence the souls of the just come and in which they return.</b> (p. 105)<br />
</p>Commenting on the flower petals that adorn the vase, she adds:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>The lotus, or waterlily, in Egyptian iconography represents rebirth..</b>.(p. 105)</div>
</blockquote>
In connection with another of the Eights, the Eight of Cups, she also observes:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>There being eight orifices in the female body, this number is
traditionally associated with the vagina--the door through which a new
life enters into the world.</b> (p. 48)</div>
</blockquote>
I cannot find any verification of such a tradition, at least as it would have been known in late 15th century Italy; however, it is true enough, anatomically. What was certainly known is that 8, as an even number, would have been called female. Moreover, the number was identified with one goddess in particular, Rhea. The <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span><i> of Arithmetic</i> says (p. 103) :<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>Hence they used to call the ogdoad 'mother,' perhaps referring to what
has already been said (for even number is female), but perhaps, since
Rhea is the mother of the gods, because although the dyad was shown to
belong to Rhea seminally, the ogdoad does in extension. </b>[Translator's
note: see p. 46: 8 is 2 cubed.] <b>And some think that the word 'ogdoad'
was coined to resemble 'ekdyad'--that is, the one which is generated
'out of the dyad,' when it is cubed.</b></div>
</blockquote>
Page 46 of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>
(the translator's reference above) is in the chapter on the Dyad. The
Triad, or enformed matter, is the product of the Monad, pure form in
the mind of God, and the Dyad, unformed matter: God is the father,
matter the mother.<br />
<br />
In the ancient world, Rhea was more than the mother
of the gods: she was the Great Mother, the mother of all nature (<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_%28mythology%29">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_(mythology)</a>). P. 46 of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>
says that the Dyad is Rhea because it is flux, i.e. matter in flux,
with no definite form. A note by the translator informs us that the
Greek word for "flux" is similar to "Rhea."<br />
<br />
Then Rhea reappears in the
Ogdoad, which is the cube of 2. Here she is not mere matter, but a
strong personality with her own myth. In fact, as Great Mother she was identified with the Near Eastern mother-goddess Cybele. Capella goes so far as to relate that name to the Greek word for cube (p. 184).<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Every cube is to be assigned to the Mother of the gods, for that is the origin of the word Cybebe.</b></blockquote><p>
<i>Cybebe</i> is an alternative form of <i>Cybele</i>, the translator tells us in a footnote, while assuring us that the resemblance to <i>kubos</i> is purely coincidental. In Greek myth, Rhea was the mother of all six of the elder Olympian gods. The Greeks identified her with the Anatolian mother-goddess Cybele. <br />
<br />Rhea was also the wife of Kronos, king of the gods in the generation before the Olympians. Kronos, mindful of a
prophecy that one of his children will overthrow him, eats his children
one by one shortly after she gives birth. So if the petaled container of the Sola-Busca 8 of Batons represents her uterus, the batons in it would be her impregnations. It is true that these were one at a time, and only six, but the card needs 8 suit-objects. Moreover, as a true Great Mother, all of nature, beyond the province of her mother Gaea (earth), would be her progeny. In the ancient worldview, there were eight spheres around the earth,
seven for the "planets" and the eighth for the fixed stars. Her womb may be
large enough to contain them all. The petaled container could also represent Kronos's stomach. </p><p>Here is the situation. On the one hand, Rhea is the source of all life, all things fruitful, married to Kronos, whom the Romans merged with their own Saturn, god of agriculture and king during a Golden Age of peace and agricultural prosperity. We see these aspects in the Etteilla Uprights in Batons. On the other hand, she is full of regret for allowing her husband to eat all her children one by one. That side of her is indicated
in the Etteilla Reverseds.<br />
</p><blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCBku6LFDCg4QautXJSCb5rgPZ3lqnMghfD8OGsPRbREDsB9ooWVuKpMBVYE0NUjohA_hExBOD5vcvTeuunbWPAG7INy0nEJJb-eoAANm_6tQdco7xkhsNZDvGv8qslATcjUuoL3HsqrET2l2npFk8PvpFabskwQcJBVEwS2saVsbKGRBT-_0oUF_iEw/s1384/Grand'Etteilla%2008Ba.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1384" data-original-width="801" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCBku6LFDCg4QautXJSCb5rgPZ3lqnMghfD8OGsPRbREDsB9ooWVuKpMBVYE0NUjohA_hExBOD5vcvTeuunbWPAG7INy0nEJJb-eoAANm_6tQdco7xkhsNZDvGv8qslATcjUuoL3HsqrET2l2npFk8PvpFabskwQcJBVEwS2saVsbKGRBT-_0oUF_iEw/s320/Grand'Etteilla%2008Ba.jpg" width="185" /></a></div></b>28. 8 OF BATONS: COUNTRYSIDE.<b> </b><i>3rd Cahier</i><b>:</b> Party in the Countryside (Partie de Campagne).<b>
Field, Plain, </b>Agriculture, Cultivation, Plowing,<b> </b>Real
Estate, Farm, Tenant Farm, Garden, Orchard, Meadow, Woods, Grove, Shade, Pleasure,
Diversions, Amusements,<b> </b>Pastime, Recreations,<b> </b>Festivities. Peace,
Calm, Tranquility, Innocence. Country Life. Forest, Valley,
Mountain, <i>Sheep-fold,</i> War Camp. REVERSED: INTERNAL DISPUTE.<b> Examination, Reasoning. </b>Dissension. Regrets, Remorse, Repent<b>,</b> Internal Agitation, Indecision, Uncertainty, Inconceivable, Incomprehensible.
Doubt, Scruple, Anxious Conscience.<b> <br /></b></div>
</blockquote><p>
The Sola-Busca's harmoniously placed darts flanked by flower petals become the Etteilla Uprights, Rhea as Great Mother and wife of Saturn, Roman god of agriculture (from which his scythe derives). The
Reverseds reflect her anxiety about the problem with her husband.</p><p>For d'Odoucet the meaning combines 8, standing for the "progression of generations of all kinds" (trans. p. 140), with 2, the number of vegetation: so it relates to the countryside, presumably because it is where vegetation is most abundant. That account certainly fits Etteilla's Upright keyword.<br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWJmXXRVe5utSck-E1IKbvNc_S_r8L2hehAYVf29jh6Ald99Mns_MfVbjbLbYCVe6tN7ss-io_adAXbHFL_fxXe7ilfx51pAcZgOTlUDqN0VE9YBs6lKwy6JwFU2QHilYMa64_WTJm-k1c/s1600/08S_Sola_Busca.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWJmXXRVe5utSck-E1IKbvNc_S_r8L2hehAYVf29jh6Ald99Mns_MfVbjbLbYCVe6tN7ss-io_adAXbHFL_fxXe7ilfx51pAcZgOTlUDqN0VE9YBs6lKwy6JwFU2QHilYMa64_WTJm-k1c/s320/08S_Sola_Busca.jpg" width="173" /></a></div>
For the SB Eight of Swords, some of what Di Vincenzo says is again instructive:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>the naked youth (like truth) embraces seven swords, symbols of the
indispensable virtues for achieving the inner balance (strength,
justice, prudence, temperance, faith, hope charity) which is inevitably
reflected outside the self. The eighth sword represents the will
required for fighting against one's own defects</b>. (p. 133)</div>
</blockquote>In this conception, the card is not just 8, but 7 + 1, a division also suggested by the card itself, in that the man is holding only one sword. So it is 7 of something - virtues will do - plus the will to use them.<br />
<br />
I hypothesize that the Pythagoreanism the card is drawing on is
something that Aristotle said about the Pythagoreans, in a lost work
quoted by others, that seven is the number of <span style="font-style: italic;">kairos</span>, translated as "opportunity" or "critical time" (<span style="font-style: italic;">Pythagoras: his life Teaching, and Influence</span>, 2005, p. 81, in Google Books). In his surviving works, Aristotle alludes to this doctrine in <span style="font-style: italic;">Metaphysics</span> I.5, mentioning<i> kairos </i>but not associating it with a specific number. The <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>, however, associates the concept with the Heptad:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
H<b>ence many things, both in the heavens of the universe and on the
Earth--celestial bodies and creatures and plants--are in fact brought
to completion by it. And that is why it is called 'Chance,' because it
accompanies everything which happens, and 'critical time,' because it
has gained the most critical position and nature.</b></div>
</blockquote>
Among its numerous illustrations of this point are the critical points
in the development of the human organism: semen fertilizes the egg
within seven hours or not at all, then come seven days before the
embryo is stable in the womb, after which abortion is more difficult;
then seven months until a viable birth, seven hours before the
severance of the umbilical cord, seven more months until teeth are cut,
2x7 for sitting up, 3x7 for talking, 7 years for shedding the first set
of teeth, and so on, through the seven stages of life (pp. 91-94). In
each case, at least before a person's full development (age 28, the Theology says), seven marks a critical point, when something must happen if
the organism is to develop further.<br />
<br />
So: in the myth of Rhea, she is at a crisis point, a concept associated with the
number seven. The <i>Theology</i> even says that the prognosis of a child born after eight months' pregnancy is not as good as one born after seven.
Similarly, in the alchemical illustration Di Vincenzo gives for the
Seven (which she continues in the Eight), after the purification of all
the metals, the work is at a crisis point: something must come next,
the result of living conformably with all the virtues, the three
Christian virtues and the four Platonic/Ciceronian ones.<br />
<br />
The Etteilla school's word-lists, especially in the uprights, read like a reflection upon this situation:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9SohViGDFdOp4V6wRPX4_wLZnVzZr7qzvO34esxyJH7jt80I8FpjbQJPY2dbAL1sqyaa-icPmvalFMa3V49vm8_dekNDVMvpTHRzNKMd0WiStAm0ON3xazC4uED0CKLzIWhFgFxq0Lrxgd2PkaBanvsNYqBdAa-F20yIoec86e9E6J8jowaAhkbR4xQ/s1398/Grand'Etteilla%2008Sw.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1398" data-original-width="802" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9SohViGDFdOp4V6wRPX4_wLZnVzZr7qzvO34esxyJH7jt80I8FpjbQJPY2dbAL1sqyaa-icPmvalFMa3V49vm8_dekNDVMvpTHRzNKMd0WiStAm0ON3xazC4uED0CKLzIWhFgFxq0Lrxgd2PkaBanvsNYqBdAa-F20yIoec86e9E6J8jowaAhkbR4xQ/s320/Grand'Etteilla%2008Sw.jpg" width="184" /></a></div>56. 8 OF SWORDS: CRITICAL. <i>3rd Cahie</i>r: Illness, with "moral or physical leper" added in <i>4th Cahier Supplement</i>. Lists:<b> </b>Regrettable Situation, Critical
Moment, Critical Time, Decisive Moment, Unfortunate Situation, Delicate
Circumstance, Crisis. Examination, Discussion, Investigation, Blame,
Censure, Gloss, Epilogue, Inspection, Disapprobation, Condemnation,
<b>Abrogation, Judgment</b><b>, </b>Contempt. REVERSED:
INCIDENT. <i>3rd Cahier</i>: Past Betrayal.<b> </b>Lists: Difficulty,<b> Exceptional Situation, Conjunction, Event,
Accessory, Drawback, Obstacle, Delay, Waiting.—Abjection.—</b>Dispute,
<b>Contradiction, Opposition, Resistance. </b>Objection, Delaying Tactics, Unexpected, Unforeseen, Fortuitous Event<b>, </b>By Chance, Occurrence<b>, </b>Destiny, Fate, Mishap, Misfortunes, Disgrace, Unfortunate.
Symptom.</div>
</blockquote><p>
In comparison to the grasped sword and sad resolve to act in the
Sola-Busca, the Etteilla list only describes the situation and says how
critical and unfortunate it is, without coming to any conclusion. </p><p>D'Odoucet explains this card 56 by supposing a conflict between the movement of the globe, 6, and that of the universal spirit, 5, "which seems to move in an opposite direction" (trans. p. 247). The result is a "critical situation" with "countless incidents" (reading d'Odoucet's <i>incidens, </i>p. 128 of original, as "incidents" rather than "incidences"). The reasoning is not clear to me.<br /></p><p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXTvlWYWl8C9Z1dUdPCy274EDWkdpZioETjDvXAADuRl4HWdyG3vhyW19DANjn7bY7cK5GI7Ai0HRaBn2XbgaPshObZgAHXUyvnyVgoR-tWZ-zxpLgiC9fwXeKlO8oBwq_DKMz5inxOuYmh70i28TmB2Mx1t3sDOUUkugl7FVUdUDNF98vwBaKEtLbqQ/s877/sola-busca-43.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="877" data-original-width="474" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXTvlWYWl8C9Z1dUdPCy274EDWkdpZioETjDvXAADuRl4HWdyG3vhyW19DANjn7bY7cK5GI7Ai0HRaBn2XbgaPshObZgAHXUyvnyVgoR-tWZ-zxpLgiC9fwXeKlO8oBwq_DKMz5inxOuYmh70i28TmB2Mx1t3sDOUUkugl7FVUdUDNF98vwBaKEtLbqQ/s320/sola-busca-43.jpg" width="173" /></a>The Sola-Busca Coins (or discs or shields) also has the 7+1 motif. But this time the suit-object outside the main group sits on the ground and has a skull next to it. What are we to make of it? I notice that it is facing the 8th disc, the one not contained in the basket, which let us imagine stands for the stomach of Kronos. If that shield represents Zeus, then the skull would be his father, whom he overthrows and confines in Tartarus, the Greek version of Hell. Since Tartarus is the place of the dead, the skull is appropriate.</p><p></p><p>Di Vincenzo has some appropriate comments about another aspect of the card:<br />
</p><blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>The tree, which sheds and bedecks itself with leaves each year,
represents the continuous evolution of life (death and regeneration). </b>(p. 77)</div>
</blockquote>
The tree might be in particular that of the crucifixion,
the tree of death which will become the tree of life. The card shows us
the part of the process pertaining to death. The bird is most likely a
vulture, which picks the flesh off of dead bodies, transforming it to
its own living substance and leaving the bones. The vulture was
worshiped as such by the Egyptians. She also says that Eight is <br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>t</b><b>he symbol of the resurrection of Christ and the promise of the resurrection of man transfigured by grace. </b>(p. 77)</div>
</blockquote><p>
Eight did have that symbolism in Christianity, at least regarding the
resurrection of man. There are eight sides to a baptismal font, for
example, and baptism is a condition for man's regeneration on Judgment
Day.</p><p>For Etteilla the suit-objects are not discs or shields, but coins: it is the suit of Deniers, French for Coins. This, too, is appropriate. Rhea's Roman equivalent was Ops, a Latin word meaning "wealth." She was queen during the Golden Age of Saturn's reign, when all could work the soil in peace and acquire its riches. In a sense, her wealth is also her children. With that introduction, here are the Etteilla school's word-lists:</p><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTrUp9ovBpDF7ydtlA1zpOmaszLiKlLMOb-b-_wXRbzYeLNdtejqjhcP35phmUrC1gK64v5iBELJgEdJYCNqsrdRNYW3wP1I_Y8GR2_cq1l3Dgfvgi72lQyjhAbzelMVtc3Bz-YhJyzrejzHF6f6e3pzYPnkIyLjgVQyqS9i9SsvkGiqpvROYCSAg8IQ/s1400/Grand'Etteilla%2008Co.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="796" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTrUp9ovBpDF7ydtlA1zpOmaszLiKlLMOb-b-_wXRbzYeLNdtejqjhcP35phmUrC1gK64v5iBELJgEdJYCNqsrdRNYW3wP1I_Y8GR2_cq1l3Dgfvgi72lQyjhAbzelMVtc3Bz-YhJyzrejzHF6f6e3pzYPnkIyLjgVQyqS9i9SsvkGiqpvROYCSAg8IQ/s320/Grand'Etteilla%2008Co.jpg" width="182" /></a></div>70. 8 OF COINS, UPRIGHT: DARK-HAIRED GIRL, Honest Girl, Obliging Welcome,
Thoughtfulness, Politeness, Honesty, Civility, Complaisance,
Condescension, Hospitality, Morals, Character, Natural.<b> </b>REVERSED:
MORE. 3rd Cahier: Usury. Advantage, Increase, Majority, To Advantage, Very Much,
Copiously, Abundantly. Usury. Exorbitant, Exaction, Usurious, Avarice.
More than . . . More of . . . , Again, Importance. Elevation, Height or
Haughtiness, Pride, Vanity.</blockquote><p>In the uprights, "Dark-Haired Girl" comes from Coins' cartomantic equivalent in French suits, Clubs in English, a dark suit-sign called <i>Trèfles</i> in French, the word for clover, also a slang term for money since at least the 16th century. The terms might apply to Rhea as seen by others, but not to her myth. The positive terms in the Reversed would apply to a Golden Age of plenty. The negative ones are the very attitudes that show a decline from a Golden Age.</p><p>Another aspect of Etteilla's card is the astrological sign imprinted on each of the coins: it is called "the tail of the dragon," as he says in the <i>4th Cahier</i> (in Google Books, p. 25). For him it appears to mean only that the prognostication applies to the first ten days of the month (Ibid.). It also called the "north node," referring to the northernmost point at which a lunar eclipse falls, as the earth's shadow blocks its reflected light. Astrologers have different interpretations of its astrological significance. </p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9lqJ6jlsqduswgHJxkxcU7l8fHUP6mxreQ-Pga8x3p7UM0ZNYzw1a4bvnYPMv7nhPirHXYCAbA30YCfIELnldwA3MFr-QxDDs8GDOvDbdYbdz8erriFYZ2GySAxsQ5Mzs5Rau55ObBoZH/s1600/08C_Sola_Busca.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9lqJ6jlsqduswgHJxkxcU7l8fHUP6mxreQ-Pga8x3p7UM0ZNYzw1a4bvnYPMv7nhPirHXYCAbA30YCfIELnldwA3MFr-QxDDs8GDOvDbdYbdz8erriFYZ2GySAxsQ5Mzs5Rau55ObBoZH/s320/08C_Sola_Busca.jpg" width="173" /></a>D'Odoucet says that the 0 in card 70 signifies emptiness of that signified by 7, life. But "dark-haired girl" indicates fertility, so "more abundance" than before.<br /></p><p>Finally we come to the Sola-Busca's Eight of Cups. In terms of the myth, six cups, which could stand for her five children already born and swallowed, are on the ground, but two
remain, representing the one she is pregnant with. The added cup in both
places is then simply so make the total add up to 8. Two putti prance on top of a box that the cups are attached to.<br />
<br />
In her impotence and despair, Rhea asks her mother Gaia and father
Uranos for a way to save her child. The answer is to give her husband a
stone wrapped in swaddling clothes instead of the newborn (<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_%28mythology%29">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_(mythology)</a>.
Then her child will be raised in a remote place where her husband will
not find her. All that remains is to execute the plan, in fear and
trembling, yet with great hidden joy.<br />
<br />
The Etteilla School's list is consistent with some of this, although again the uprights come from Etteilla's previous interpretation for the 8 of Hearts:<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMIBejMevfUKpfWjOvT0kBkUzmNgzzjEtimGXej6SkrhacitH1XvFd9_TPykZkfltBv1d6Q3izCRMCBmcrt6JDl6xVdCmTWK0GISz2IMTfrx0M8QFFpQTU9t4a0sFuWzviDjsaNVaulG7ItQSTvwBZesu-5IpxbSmMTsX-IL10B4VgNr2zu4TVydTySA/s1400/Grand'Etteilla%2008Cu.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="795" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMIBejMevfUKpfWjOvT0kBkUzmNgzzjEtimGXej6SkrhacitH1XvFd9_TPykZkfltBv1d6Q3izCRMCBmcrt6JDl6xVdCmTWK0GISz2IMTfrx0M8QFFpQTU9t4a0sFuWzviDjsaNVaulG7ItQSTvwBZesu-5IpxbSmMTsX-IL10B4VgNr2zu4TVydTySA/s320/Grand'Etteilla%2008Cu.jpg" width="182" /></a></p><blockquote class="uncited"><div>42. 8 OF CUPS: BLONDE GIRL Honest Girl, Modest Girl,
Honor,<b> Decency, </b><i>Shame,</i><b> </b>Modesty, Restrained, Timidity, Fear, Apprehension. Mildness<b>, Attractiveness. </b>REVERSED: SATISFACTION. <i>3rd Cahier: </i>Celebrations, Gaiety. Lists:<b><i> </i></b><i>Pleasure</i>, Happiness,
Contentment, Gaiety, Joy, Elation, Rejoicing, Entertainment,
Festival.<b> </b>Excuse, Reparation, Exoneration. Public Joy, Spectacle, Device, Ready, Preparation, Arrangement.</div>
</blockquote><p>
Here the Uprights would be her character as she has been until her final pregnancy. The Reverseds suggest what might come if she rejects that character for something else, bold and devious, but with a happy ending.</p><p>4 is the number of the universe and 2 that of vegetation, according to d'Odoucet: hence "universal vegetation," while 8, the number of cups on the card, is for "the succession of generations" (p. 94 of original). Cups, he says, are emblems of the sciences ("emblêmes des sciences," p. 95). The propagation of such thoughts and insights, "not less universal than the universe itself," gives us pleasure, symbolized by the epithet "blonde girl," and much satisfaction, more durable if less lively ("moins vive").<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdxAIznQJP_Exu-kAtrglLqz7H0pvhfD3mjzuwFE9NgGEDwz9mbsJ5t3037BYywkewWmwp3DiQT9kQPylsy0tQGmjMHihttXDfBtBx-vPiyRz7WNiq-2LLGu_DT3eSvdWBmcRTuLegnF5uEYmj9FlxUycQaeVCC_2rdW6TBKC85bwGX3fVZvGQNQBCiw/s526/cu08.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdxAIznQJP_Exu-kAtrglLqz7H0pvhfD3mjzuwFE9NgGEDwz9mbsJ5t3037BYywkewWmwp3DiQT9kQPylsy0tQGmjMHihttXDfBtBx-vPiyRz7WNiq-2LLGu_DT3eSvdWBmcRTuLegnF5uEYmj9FlxUycQaeVCC_2rdW6TBKC85bwGX3fVZvGQNQBCiw/s320/cu08.jpg" width="183" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">Waite's commentary on the 8 of Cups, instead of Etteilla's "timidity, fear, mildness" might well describe Rhea's character in the myth (as well as, of course that of a blonde girl), He says:</span><br />
<p></p><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>A man of dejected aspect is deserting the cups of his felicity, enterprise, undertaking or previous concern. <i>Divinatory Meanings</i>:
The card speaks for itself on the surface, but other readings are
entirely antithetical--giving joy, mildness, timidity, honour, modesty.
In practice, it is usually found that the card shews the decline of a
matter, or that a matter which has been thought to be important is
really of slight consequence--either for good or evil. <i>Reversed</i>: Great joy, happiness, feasting.</b></blockquote>
While giving lip service to the Etteilla school, Waite's own contribution - <b>"a matter which has been thought to be important is really of slight consequence</b>" - does not support my perspective in terms of Rhea, where the situation is one of justice vs. injustice. While Etteilla's commentary on Cups fits the Pythagorean narrative (100%), Waite's additions only confuse it, from the Pythagorean perspective (making it only 75% relevant).<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJI8hmAIyGnJOqNAwZ2OYtv3MdFH--b2xfmmKw-W2O1woqQyVHXXjy6K811QQBCStdwbNt7IxIbppjWQIv4jf97KYw9WSYpSuUMKbPZBIMpr8FbA6tFv9ckYnDTC6uSHS2ZPUYBJ16jZmF148C2qFO1ZE1TtjV8n8J4-4H5oKfEP4O76V3msZHmUdK_w/s524/pe08.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJI8hmAIyGnJOqNAwZ2OYtv3MdFH--b2xfmmKw-W2O1woqQyVHXXjy6K811QQBCStdwbNt7IxIbppjWQIv4jf97KYw9WSYpSuUMKbPZBIMpr8FbA6tFv9ckYnDTC6uSHS2ZPUYBJ16jZmF148C2qFO1ZE1TtjV8n8J4-4H5oKfEP4O76V3msZHmUdK_w/s320/pe08.jpg" width="183" /></a></div><br />In Coins, I said that Etteilla's "Advantage, Increase, Majority, To Advantage, Very Much,
Copiously, More than. . . More of. . ."<b> </b>describes Rhea well enough as Ops, goddess of wealth. Waite has removed the positive terms and kept the negative. His upright meanings are related to what is pictured on the card, a man doing metalwork, a theme that the Sola-Busca used for the 7 of Coins. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Work, employment, commission, craftsmanship, skill in craft and business, perhaps in the preparatory stage. <i>Reversed</i>: Voided ambition, vanity, cupidity, exaction, usury. It
may also signify the possession of skill, in the sense of the ingenious
mind turned to cunning and intrigue.</b></blockquote>
While most of these are not relevant to the Pythagorean 8s, the end of the Reverseds does suggest the way out for Rhea: <b>"the ingenious mind turned to cunning and intrigue"</b>. So about 25% related to the Pythagorean 8s. Etteilla's also do not fit very well, perhaps 40%. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnLtWBIJu_LYo3B_ZjwkZuQHuGYBtgdAmjqzG5fJX5t__oj7bbhX6BZ-rFQRIYF1y3Pgf7hZ9BVCqroRY4d_h-gqQ3zRrLXIHUGBKBC2MRPNs71XbIJE5UJrmkny_gUcImPvkOwq3UoHR0CXFPB3q4CfqR6fd5eu9-bLPkEXmupVKRLkI7iPZICi6D3g/s530/wa08.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="530" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnLtWBIJu_LYo3B_ZjwkZuQHuGYBtgdAmjqzG5fJX5t__oj7bbhX6BZ-rFQRIYF1y3Pgf7hZ9BVCqroRY4d_h-gqQ3zRrLXIHUGBKBC2MRPNs71XbIJE5UJrmkny_gUcImPvkOwq3UoHR0CXFPB3q4CfqR6fd5eu9-bLPkEXmupVKRLkI7iPZICi6D3g/s320/wa08.jpg" width="181" /></a></div>Here is Waite on Wands:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: Activity in undertakings, the path of such activity,
swiftness, as that of an express messenger; great haste, great hope,
speed towards an end which promises assured felicity; generally, that
which is on the move; also the arrows of love. <i>Reversed</i>: Arrows of jealousy, internal dispute, stingings of conscience, quarrels; and domestic disputes for persons who are married.</b></blockquote>
From the Pythagorean perspective, the Uprights are appropriate to describe the speed with which someone in Rhea's situation must act. It is not the <b>"party in the country"</b> of Etteilla. The Reverseds also fit Rhea's situation. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Swords:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>A woman, bound and hoodwinked, with the swords of the card about her.
Yet it is rather a card of temporary durance than of irretrievable
bondage. <i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: Bad news, violent <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJFggIvnpejHj8fISFuZ0_6hkkZuiwJQn_bBJ31Ks06zZzO4Ime8W6wBdbvUQwM4sq0id85y2U7sL8Jk2NgdTOOZ-sAMWNiPB7sNR8YvNuAPjOiGz7HhNPw78v9lHWYP7xJ5icH4qq3ZJ8-HVj-BFDQGc_tLHoPj88lpz9eAJQ-q9W9bdu5h-Brnl01A/s518/sw08.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="518" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJFggIvnpejHj8fISFuZ0_6hkkZuiwJQn_bBJ31Ks06zZzO4Ime8W6wBdbvUQwM4sq0id85y2U7sL8Jk2NgdTOOZ-sAMWNiPB7sNR8YvNuAPjOiGz7HhNPw78v9lHWYP7xJ5icH4qq3ZJ8-HVj-BFDQGc_tLHoPj88lpz9eAJQ-q9W9bdu5h-Brnl01A/s320/sw08.jpg" width="185" /></a></div>chagrin, crisis, censure, power in trammels, conflict, calumny; also sickness. <i>Reversed</i>: Disquiet, difficulty, opposition, accident, treachery; what is unforeseen; fatality.</b> </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: small;">Some of these words, very much taken from Etteilla's word-list, describe Rhea's situation fairly well, mostly before she takes action. but perhaps also, in the reversed, her action as well.</span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: small;">CONCLUSION</span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Of the Waite-Smith Eights, all but Batons/Wands have some visual relationship to the preceding Sola-Busca. Corresponding to the bound lady are the bound swords of the SB. Both Cups and Discs have a similar 6 + 1 structure, although very different otherwise. Waite's Discs (Pentacles) are also similar to the SB 7 of Discs. Both CuFor the other questions I have been considering, the answers come from looking at both accounts for all four suits. Since they are in different places on this page, comparing requires a lot of searching up and down this page. It is easiest in two rows of four.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP6IlXs4jt30LWHlnYdF8Ktx7hsZk68yRMObtMtHbcs7moxjJVUp3docezl7qusa3XSVMlxkTw8s6sLW_2jreqAOGuedPuJB-XCK31ZPc4J6jdLzHaYIAe5CKXjRoeTFSdqSM8E74u5Le0/s1600/08sb8all8.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP6IlXs4jt30LWHlnYdF8Ktx7hsZk68yRMObtMtHbcs7moxjJVUp3docezl7qusa3XSVMlxkTw8s6sLW_2jreqAOGuedPuJB-XCK31ZPc4J6jdLzHaYIAe5CKXjRoeTFSdqSM8E74u5Le0/s1600/08sb8all8.jpg" /></a></div><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBkS5Zj4eoPQJLA39tC-zMSjPsuWq-gdJRG1GAh4MqD58_ga_R62rP0BaoCkL255pH7EzaETHYowGQIWuARbVkoIjMXnxSrywqWmpsQN91_VGhUAhDm46Vz3fy9XjZrpNcO8x0kRNAxe4Ln65dX-JKjNFqp64GMXNfcHUdRGFzTjMmQWjN3B1Y3ygMX9cO/s1188/Waite8s.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="518" data-original-width="1188" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBkS5Zj4eoPQJLA39tC-zMSjPsuWq-gdJRG1GAh4MqD58_ga_R62rP0BaoCkL255pH7EzaETHYowGQIWuARbVkoIjMXnxSrywqWmpsQN91_VGhUAhDm46Vz3fy9XjZrpNcO8x0kRNAxe4Ln65dX-JKjNFqp64GMXNfcHUdRGFzTjMmQWjN3B1Y3ygMX9cO/w640-h280/Waite8s.jpg" width="640" /></a> <span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHGuyEm2pbgYFP453lTc9x0B-1FfKVMLJRVz3o7yohLo1MKs303XecaZiL5Zn3-2gVURI--eICdcu-6fIYI1o2PdKymutFgei44awONIgYvq9FA2vihfSkR9iycMg0vsvdlFmDssvb1ZIhHXx-wGKP0pp155kQKLnYF7GIOkQ8DLX5uL4Kpd_Ka8X2buR-/s3204/EtteillaSWBACuCo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="3204" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHGuyEm2pbgYFP453lTc9x0B-1FfKVMLJRVz3o7yohLo1MKs303XecaZiL5Zn3-2gVURI--eICdcu-6fIYI1o2PdKymutFgei44awONIgYvq9FA2vihfSkR9iycMg0vsvdlFmDssvb1ZIhHXx-wGKP0pp155kQKLnYF7GIOkQ8DLX5uL4Kpd_Ka8X2buR-/w640-h280/EtteillaSWBACuCo.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Looking at the SB in relation to Etteilla's word=lists, the reverseds fit in a general sort of way, so at most 50% - but it is so general that 30% might be more accurate. Between </span><span style="font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-size: small;">Waite and Etteilla's word-lists, Waite has in every case taken something from Etteilla and also added something. In Cups, about a quarter of the uprights and all of the Reverseds come from Etteilla, so around 62% overall. In Coins maybe half of each comes from Etteilla, so 50%. In Wands (Batons) none of the Uprights come from Etteilla, but all of the Reverseds, so 50%. In Swords most of the Uprights and half of the Reversed come from Etteilla, so 75%. Overall 60% of Waite on the 8s comes from Etteilla.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">In relation to Pythagoreanism's myth of Rhea, of justice vs. injustice, and of breaking out of bondage to the seven planetary powers, in Cups Etteilla is around 90% relevant, chiefly to the myth of Rhea; Waite is about 50% related to Pythagoreanism: not so much about Rhea, but about getting out of bondage to the concerns represented by the planetary powers. In Coins, as we have seen, both are 50% related to Pythagoreanism, as we have seen. In Swords, even though they are quite different in content, both Etteilla and Waite fit Pythagoreanism and in particular the myth of Rhea around 100%. In Wands, Etteilla's Reverseds apply but not the Uprights, except in the weak sense that Rhea is the wife of the god of agriculture, so I would say 60%. Waite's Wands apply 100%, specifically to Rhea. All told, Etteilla averages 75% related to Pythagoreanism, and Waite 75% as well. In this case, it seems to me that Smith's designs all illustrate aspects of the Rhea myth: the need for decisive action, the desperation of the situation, the "great night" (although not walking away), and the need for an artfully constructed substitute for the infant. So about 90% for her. </span><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The Eights in France after the Etteilla School<br /></b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Levi emphasized balance as the theme of the card more than justice, declaring that it connotes "balance, attraction and repulsion, life, fear, promise and threat." If so, he is also saying what the balance is between: opposing forces of attraction and repulsion, and reward and punishment. The latter is clear enough from the sword in one hand and the balance in the other: the balance as the promise of reward and penalty, depending on which is needed to equalize the pans, with the sword the power to enforce the verdict. The figure herself is simply Justice.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Paul Christian emphasized two aspects of justice: on the one hand, as an ideal, "absolute justice"; on the other, human justice, which is by nature fallible, imperfect. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghblcO4T41o8NPiiAh0fqKpiXLGOO0a23u-LkqyqcNTvzmRVtW-qK6SpZ00IbM1CC0J6M7rREEhaLlFGQClgysFThP6nhO3U0MtzxceyQyQBABkIrfbR9jZfe3zhF-TWpCqdVf_M0Kqm36JPSQ3s0s7oI8IcBd-zUdI7haQr8ao2ZMmeuKKSx60PruZQ/s791/p85a.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="791" data-original-width="482" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghblcO4T41o8NPiiAh0fqKpiXLGOO0a23u-LkqyqcNTvzmRVtW-qK6SpZ00IbM1CC0J6M7rREEhaLlFGQClgysFThP6nhO3U0MtzxceyQyQBABkIrfbR9jZfe3zhF-TWpCqdVf_M0Kqm36JPSQ3s0s7oI8IcBd-zUdI7haQr8ao2ZMmeuKKSx60PruZQ/s320/p85a.jpg" width="195" /></a></div><p><span style="font-size: small;">Picard points out that the Hebrew letter assigned to the Justice card by Levi and Christian is Teth, meaning "field"; hence Etteilla's assignment of "countryside" to the 8 of Batons, and d'Odoucet similarly, "field" and "plain," Batons being the sign of agriculture and the sticks allowed to peasants for their defense. For Picard himself, however, the suit of Batons indicates enterprises in general, in which balance is of some importance. Thus (p. 84):</span></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-size: small;">C'est l'image de l'équilibre des facultés intellectuelles. C'est le genie discipliné par la raison; c'est aussi la milieu temperé favorable à la vie; la zone des échanges. significiation: </span><span style="font-size: small;">pondération. Les transactions commerciales.</span></p><p><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"></span></span></span></p>It is the image of the balance of the intellectual faculties. <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">It is genius disciplined by reason;</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">it is also the temperate environment favorable to life;</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">the trading area.</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">Signification: moderation.</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">Commercial transactions.</span></span><p></p></blockquote><p><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"></span></span></span><span class="ZSCsVd"></span></p><div aria-hidden="true" class="UdTY9 WdefRb" data-location="2"><div class="kO6q6e">In the card, it is smoke above, fire below: <br /></div><div class="kO6q6e"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtKeAwJ7sSsbtPEJpK582qnYPVyAtDlVPWqYI2Eb7aD17Ja4Z2WY6WHuOa50jD9fg2EPCC99J4_y6FEKNQdt36oZ1xMfpX82v19ZlH7Nj5ODmTLU6c9z2xEpYl27yp6815xLuA5AxiL9dLBW493gxWB0b7XLThoupECcsf9T0u0HY11TQpmzcu4urHSA/s798/p113a.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="798" data-original-width="484" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtKeAwJ7sSsbtPEJpK582qnYPVyAtDlVPWqYI2Eb7aD17Ja4Z2WY6WHuOa50jD9fg2EPCC99J4_y6FEKNQdt36oZ1xMfpX82v19ZlH7Nj5ODmTLU6c9z2xEpYl27yp6815xLuA5AxiL9dLBW493gxWB0b7XLThoupECcsf9T0u0HY11TQpmzcu4urHSA/s320/p113a.jpg" width="194" /></a></div>Closely related is the suit of Coins, the medium of exchange. Here the balance is the source of equality, but strangely not equal for equal, but the utopian communal ideal of equal sharing of goods (p. 112). Exactly what a "fair distribution" of wealth consists in is not said: is it "to each according to his work," "to each according to his needs," "each according to his investment," or something else? <br /></div><blockquote><div class="kO6q6e">Cette lame évoque l'idée d'égalité de partage des biens et de répartition juste de la fortune. Elle ausi correspond a l'age de raison pour les filles.</div><div class="kO6q6e"><br /></div><div class="kO6q6e"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">This card evokes the idea of equal sharing of property and fair distribution of wealth.</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">It also corresponds to the age of reason for girls.</span></span></span></div><div class="kO6q6e"></div></blockquote><div class="kO6q6e">The part about girls comes from a tradition in which, since there were no female court cards corresponding to the valet or page, the 8s of the Cups and Coins were given that role. In French suits, what corresponded were Hearts (Coeurs) and Clubs (Trefles), for blond and dark-haired girls respectively.<br /></div><div class="kO6q6e"> </div><div class="kO6q6e">Cups deals with love and the emotions. Applying the concept of equilibrium is fairly easy, to which is added sharing (p. 140):</div><div class="kO6q6e"></div><blockquote><div class="kO6q6e"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ7WhcvzJRvX5N5bVDW97U5wGiut7Ydskw0DThXIJqgkUVvdDOn6y0k66CKWkz6hY5T6XF5Bh54x0rmbtGHmjBkGCPVBB1yukUaM0YWAcVypawxkFBy-j6kCF-DdygAz1dRwd1q5Vys8BOjqrp8U9ZtrxPTJLjxV8DZx2Sy00xgt3esgTDLwVFN90v9g/s937/PicardCupsSwords.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="798" data-original-width="937" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ7WhcvzJRvX5N5bVDW97U5wGiut7Ydskw0DThXIJqgkUVvdDOn6y0k66CKWkz6hY5T6XF5Bh54x0rmbtGHmjBkGCPVBB1yukUaM0YWAcVypawxkFBy-j6kCF-DdygAz1dRwd1q5Vys8BOjqrp8U9ZtrxPTJLjxV8DZx2Sy00xgt3esgTDLwVFN90v9g/w320-h273/PicardCupsSwords.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span></span>C'est l'équilibre des sentiments et de la passion. La lame correspond aussi l'âge de raison pour les hommes. Signification: Amour partegé. Garçons de 7 ans.</div><div class="kO6q6e"></div><div class="kO6q6e"></div><div class="kO6q6e"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"><br /></span></span></span><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">It is the equilibrium of feelings and passion.</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">The card also corresponds to the age of reason for men.</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">Signification: shared love.</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">7 year old boys.</span></span></span></div></blockquote><div class="kO6q6e"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"></span></span></span></div><div class="kO6q6e">While the 8 of Cups had been devoted to girls, it can just as easily be devoted to young boys.</div><div class="kO6q6e"> </div><div class="kO6q6e">Swords is about evil deeds, as usual (p. 168). With three swords in the water and three in the air: <br /></div><div class="kO6q6e"></div><blockquote><div class="kO6q6e">Le nombre 8 évoque l'idée de l'équilibre et de la Justice. Cette lame exprime les sanctions de la justice. Signification: Condemnation.</div><div class="kO6q6e"> </div><div class="kO6q6e"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">The number 8 evokes the idea of equilibrium and Justice.</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">This card expresses the sanctions of Justice.</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">Meaning: Condemnation.</span></span></span></div></blockquote><p>All the 8s are in the shape of 8-pointed stars, with a contrast between light and dark above and below. In Coins the dark is earth; in Swords it is water. These are simply the elements Picard associates to those two suits.</p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhRMHyypl23MyT12WmfmgA2oInu6JJP3pnIndDF938GJl942gibpGqWunplGBMgNLfHuQmDS20C_ql3BEqozjGjVVpYgTNvJ2FK7GSp7Gd-ycg4c765kWvJnOzSWfyUkLdFg7OHA-rTTVjiq7pmB5bS4GoNuSxcWSYyOS2gC7E7pbq6epiMlxOT0wdSg/s972/8---Justice---Marseilles-Jodo.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="972" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhRMHyypl23MyT12WmfmgA2oInu6JJP3pnIndDF938GJl942gibpGqWunplGBMgNLfHuQmDS20C_ql3BEqozjGjVVpYgTNvJ2FK7GSp7Gd-ycg4c765kWvJnOzSWfyUkLdFg7OHA-rTTVjiq7pmB5bS4GoNuSxcWSYyOS2gC7E7pbq6epiMlxOT0wdSg/s320/8---Justice---Marseilles-Jodo.jpg" width="165" /></a>The last theorist in my survey, Jodorowsky, says that 8 is the number of perfection - it is the stage at which the various kinds of activities denoted by the four suits are perfected. How this is expressed in the Justice and Moon cards, both with 8s in them, is unclear to me. Probably it is related to the idea, expressed by Christian, that in the divine world the card represents "absolute Justice," that is to say, Justice based on perfect knowledge of the facts and the application of the principle of Justice to them. But Temperance and Fortitude are also ideals imperfectly realized in human life. And perhaps there is such a thing as the perfect Emperor or Pope. Perfection is a concept that applies to several of the cards. </p><p>What makes the situation confusing is that the figure on the card seems not to stand for perfect justice, according to Jodorowsky. He points out that the figure has her left elbow on the scales, as if to keep that side from rising higher. She is inviting us not to strive for perfection, he says. If so, she is not engaging in only justice. It seems to me that she is more likely advocating the tempering of justice with mercy, as Shakespeare's heroine advised Shylock in Merchant of Venice. That is not the same as perfect justice. It is in a sense more perfect than perfect justice, since it adds compassion to justice without taking anything away from Justice's exposure of human shortcomings.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjv9QtFUXHkL3WwBD-PLdflhFwhDMK6s_aPM1bqzAKx3GcScLfHFePoHzxsMx58TWUZItAZpOOZN3QgJG2XTEjpmEbEC8I95KimWO_Cdod6ImRJZI-IrK22Zoeb6ascDvIrRieebhTUlB_WlhfU5azlW8FipKUxzfEoYi6zQtSdQIdHGsvXfxJA5DD7g/s1007/JodoSwordsCups.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="957" data-original-width="1007" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjv9QtFUXHkL3WwBD-PLdflhFwhDMK6s_aPM1bqzAKx3GcScLfHFePoHzxsMx58TWUZItAZpOOZN3QgJG2XTEjpmEbEC8I95KimWO_Cdod6ImRJZI-IrK22Zoeb6ascDvIrRieebhTUlB_WlhfU5azlW8FipKUxzfEoYi6zQtSdQIdHGsvXfxJA5DD7g/s320/JodoSwordsCups.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>In Swords, the perfection of thinking is, Jodorowsky says, the empty mind of meditation practices, as indicated by the enclosure formed by the eight swords, containing only "a small blue receptive flower, whose center is formed by a minuscule red circle stamped with a dot that represents the eye, the impartial witness. The four outside flowers, which in the other Swords' cards are yellow and red (active in intelligence), adopt a blue color here, symbol of spiritual receptivity. The Eight of Swords represents the Buddhist ideal of emptiness" (pp. 299-300). </div><div aria-hidden="true" class="UdTY9 WdefRb" data-location="2"><p></p><p>If Swords represent emptiness, Cups represents fullness. Again there is the small red dot at the center. But in this card the horizontal foliage encloses the two cups in the middle, the male/female or active/receptive pair, while other foliage goes up and down, enclosing the top and bottom middle cups: receptivity to heaven and activity toward the earth in the vertical direction. Meanwhile the four cups in the corner suggest emotional stability. "The Eight of Cups symbolizes the Christlike ideal of the flaming heart, all charity and all love" (p. 301).<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivC7aBHcvCKqbi3Twofmc7c6qZnZxjCzzi-ye77tIkEbSEoyQR0svqglcl1VnpEFXj_Viy-jd6YW6OzwIWDhmNgDKLt5-xlfW5OVqgl26i1Z2PI-I2IgO5B_FhvLInr1Q_WKM5K0N2OLbYn0aFG9nSp21Bvn0a6W0Q3LWa8_nZHRjPsC7kq8XEDkAq6Q/s1003/JodoCoinsBatons.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="945" data-original-width="1003" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivC7aBHcvCKqbi3Twofmc7c6qZnZxjCzzi-ye77tIkEbSEoyQR0svqglcl1VnpEFXj_Viy-jd6YW6OzwIWDhmNgDKLt5-xlfW5OVqgl26i1Z2PI-I2IgO5B_FhvLInr1Q_WKM5K0N2OLbYn0aFG9nSp21Bvn0a6W0Q3LWa8_nZHRjPsC7kq8XEDkAq6Q/s320/JodoCoinsBatons.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Coins/Pentacles again has the four suit-signs in the corners, indicating now that "material life is assured" (p. 301). Like the two other cards, it also has the dot in the center, which this time he has colored orange (he says it is yellow, symbolic of mental activity). The foliage marks off a "central square" from the top two and bottom two discs." The mind buried in matter, preeminently active, is acting on the material world and in spiritual life simultaneously .<span style="font-size: small;">Spirituality
is indicated by the light blue petals as well as the cross in the
middle of the dot, the intersection of eternity (the vertical line) and
infinity (the horizontal line).</span> This interaction of worlds engenders total prosperity. The Eight of Pentacles represents true wealth, health, happiness in the home, and harmonious" (p. 301). <br /><p></p><p>In Batons, he notes that the lateral flowers have been removed, so that only vertical ones remain. "It is the Freudian concept of the sublimation of the ego." The result is "sexual energy employed in service of the spiritual work, such as Mother Teresa or a great healer." It is also "a situation in which we give all our energy to the present situation without the slightest distraction" (pp. 301-302). <br /></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Picard and Jodorowsky both draw from the Justice card for their perspectives; yet the result is quite different. The cards themselves are not so different. Picard has obviously been inspired by the Marseille 8s, which have in the center of all but Batons an eight-pointed star-like figure. In Batons, however, we see the idea of intersecting lines that Picard is inspired by.<br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivZedQbpIDsruT14dUz6aWyyI_mzxo9lCwha1C1_W2DzY1I1v6wHyFWiS7hWbPMlukVcvx1iRZtFEjKUcJtvS0ZrJlBj0yc0cDZnetF_tHy-wcu8cI7jtaS05NWUBr-oRMFcpYsPfbqI6blq3nPSK2xfOIp6NTYDNa1B6lzZOu5OAek3-GisDRP_JM6w/s3908/Merged_document1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="957" data-original-width="3908" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivZedQbpIDsruT14dUz6aWyyI_mzxo9lCwha1C1_W2DzY1I1v6wHyFWiS7hWbPMlukVcvx1iRZtFEjKUcJtvS0ZrJlBj0yc0cDZnetF_tHy-wcu8cI7jtaS05NWUBr-oRMFcpYsPfbqI6blq3nPSK2xfOIp6NTYDNa1B6lzZOu5OAek3-GisDRP_JM6w/w640-h156/Merged_document1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">In Swords, Picard has transformed the points of the star in the middle of the Marseille into eight swords, no longer curved. </span><span style="font-size: small;">In Cups, each
has three cups on top, two in the middle, and three below. Coins in each has
four discs above and four below, separated again by a configuration with
a center and eight points, connected by eight radiating rays, with
other lines dividing each disc from the others. In Picard it is
accomplished by the rays, and in the Marseille by the foliage, where
instead of diagonal lines the Marseille has gently curving stems. In Batons, where the idea of lines intersecting in the center already expresses Picard's idea, the foliage at top and bottom and the Roman numerals on the sides completes the design. Both Picard and Jodorowsky seem far from the Sola-Busca, Etteilla, and the Waite-Smith.</span><p></p><p></p></div>Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677044918876619054.post-83280266601658970052012-05-15T22:15:00.034-07:002023-05-20T17:56:01.899-07:00Marseille Trumps 11-21<div class="separator"><p style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /><br />
</p></div><p>After 10, we start again. Some say that we the numbers start again at 10, by adding up the digits in the previous cycle, so that 10 = 1, 11 = 2. and so on.. But that doesn't work in the Roman or Greek system of numbers. For one thing, there is no zero. So ten is simply X, Iota, or Yod, all ways of writing what in Greek is called the Decad. In Roman numerals, the I reappears in XI. In Greek, the same number is Iota Alpha, and in Hebrew, Yod Aleph (<a href="http://www.mathsisgoodforyou.com/numerals/greeknums.htm">http://www.mathsisgoodforyou.com/numerals/greeknums.htm</a>). So the numbers start again at eleven, XI on the card, at least in the Marseille and Waite decks. Etteilla's deck is different, using the Arabic notation. D'Odoucet treats each card above 9 as a composite of the two digits. Paul Foster Case's BOTA deck also uses the Arabic, and in his case he adds the two digits together to produce a digit from 1 to 9. These two are oddities.<br />
<br />
In what follows, I have benefited in some cases from Jodorowsky's interpretations of the cards in his <i>Way of Tarot</i> (originally 1998 in French).<i> </i>In general I am following the interpretations of these cards that make the most sense to me, from a Neopythagorean perspective. Here I try to justify that perspective and in some cases give links to places where I have said more.<br />
<br />In number Eleven, the lady’s Fortitude (below, Noblet c. 1650, Conver 1760, Jodorowsky 1998, Waite 1909) is rewarded by the
lion’s willing submission. We immediately see a commonality with the Magician here, in the wide-brimmed hat, which the esotericists turned into an infinity sign. That is one sign of the monad, as containing an infinity of possibilities within itself, like the number one, which is both no number and all.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSxMuyMz3j38ntnH2wldm_yZdgx1AOYR7kHxSMTE-Lzn8Qhls5E_IRxWzJXReZjLvgGxUs0QV4AE3Ood6s86KR-OPYVVyZUVcvedIdhDQyeeK6LIGaxgm6D0i64EZeBc6ytgra6yGIxK4rxm2n45aucfDRA4YLxDyOiB2jpNSghxTZmwt1ZQVsu6-rtw/s2161/11NobletConverJodoWaite.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="972" data-original-width="2161" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSxMuyMz3j38ntnH2wldm_yZdgx1AOYR7kHxSMTE-Lzn8Qhls5E_IRxWzJXReZjLvgGxUs0QV4AE3Ood6s86KR-OPYVVyZUVcvedIdhDQyeeK6LIGaxgm6D0i64EZeBc6ytgra6yGIxK4rxm2n45aucfDRA4YLxDyOiB2jpNSghxTZmwt1ZQVsu6-rtw/w640-h288/11NobletConverJodoWaite.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>Jodorowsky makes much of the lion's position, below her waist. He says (<i>Way of Tarot</i> p. 187):<p></p><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Strength, number 11, is the first card of the second decimal series. It is she who opens the path for unconscious energies... Whereas The Magician, her counterpart of the first series, works from the waist upward and exercises his intelligence, Strength works from the waist to the bottom, allowing the teachings of the depths to communicate with the spiritual authorities of her being.</b></blockquote><p>
I think that historically the Renaissance would have found in the lion's "spiritual authority" more than unconscious forces. The lion would have also been the “lion of Judah,” i.e. Christ,
whose aid and comfort will be essential in the trials ahead in the tarot sequence. The Monad
has reappeared in the lion; we require God's strength to see us through
what is to come.The strength of the Christian was from God, and it was in trusting God, just as the lady trusts the lion, that this strength was shown. After a turn of the Wheel, whether up or down, moral strength is required--to withstand adversity, it the turn was for the worse, or to resist taking undue advantage of one's victory, if the turn was for the better. </p><p>While the possibilities of Strength may be infinite, a human being understands he or she is to use that Strength in ways pleasing to God. In the Tarot, as Thomas Aquinas taught, Strength is never to be in the service of injustice. Thus in the human world, strength is moral strength, as opposed to physical strength in the physical world, and inner rather than outer. In that way it makes sense to put Justice higher than Strength, as Waite does, and many early tarot orders did as well (Florence, Ferrara). The lion and the lady are in harmony, each expressing the same divine will. Waite pictures her closing the lion's mouth, while the rest have her opening it. What is important is that the lion willingly submits to the lady, and the lady is ready to utilize all its strength, with no gesture of closing it down.<br />
<br />In the Lombard tarot, Strength was at the 9th spot and the Hermit at the 11th. In that case it is strength from God that one must bring to the Wheel. Then the Hermit is there to initiate the new series. In Minchiate, too, the Hermit is card 11. He is the beginning of the new series, turning within.</p><p> In
XII, the Hanged Man, we see a
return to the passive receptivity of a being in matter, as the Dyad expresses, now internalized instead of being received from without from the Popess's book, or the divinity that impregnates her. </p><p>Jodorowsky observes,<br />
</p><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>The key word for understanding the Twos is the concept of passive and receptive accumulation" </b>(p. 280) </blockquote>
The figure is bound hand and foot
and hung upside down, to be lowered into the darkness, like a corpse into a grave--or a seed into
the soil. Jodorowsky says (p. 280): <br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>The
Hanged Man, degree 2 of the second decimal series, is bound with his
hands behind him. He does not choose but dives into himself.</b></div>
</blockquote><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqfleGPqodvMTXcwOJem0_w7z17Bm8WJlc47VQK1LZIJDMppfqGZb1w1ysHYUX9QncBkAHchdCm-uO6_HLhaBCnyoz-5Czsewq_LSyfZP1IUsgX7mAe-Gd995LSRsYvquTAslhuov-5AZKxS3knl7gAXXwjedy3v_zLCK4_JBNFd4Zowotudg7bL-dng/s2511/12NobConvJodoWaite.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1128" data-original-width="2511" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqfleGPqodvMTXcwOJem0_w7z17Bm8WJlc47VQK1LZIJDMppfqGZb1w1ysHYUX9QncBkAHchdCm-uO6_HLhaBCnyoz-5Czsewq_LSyfZP1IUsgX7mAe-Gd995LSRsYvquTAslhuov-5AZKxS3knl7gAXXwjedy3v_zLCK4_JBNFd4Zowotudg7bL-dng/w640-h288/12NobConvJodoWaite.jpg" width="640" /></a>
When this image entered the tarot in 15th century Italy, it signified someone judged a traitor. The card was even called "Il Traditor" in many places. He is thus in a state of isolation and shame, private or public, even if it results from courageous action (Strength) or the self-examination encouraged by the Hermit. Thereby a new being is slowly being engendered, like a fetus in the womb. </p><p>If we look at how the image changed over time, we might notice that in the earliest "Marseille" design, of c. 1650 Paris (Noblet, far left above), there were five notches on one pole and six on the other, suggesting the Hanged Man as 12th, a number associated with Judas. One early version even showed him with coins falling from his pockets, the "30 pieces of silver." But at some point one more notch was added on the left (second left above), making the figure in the middle 13th, i.e. Jesus. The card got the meaning of "sacrifice" and the figure a sacred being surrounded by light, as in Waite's card. His sacrifice is the condition for the rebirth of humanity<br /></p><p>
In
the Death card, unnamed and unnumbered but in the XIII spot, we have
again the emergence of a new being, a further step in rebirth. A man’s and a woman’s heads
appear above the ground, the rest of their bodies unformed, or still below, like the
beginnings of a new plant. Jodorowsky aptly comments.</p><blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>The figure in Arcanum XIIII is using his scythe to cut down the bad growth so the new being can develop.</b> (p. 284).</div>
</blockquote><p>
At
least that is what the card shows us, in most instances. Below, second from left, I use the Chosson, 1672, on which the Conver was based, because it has Death's
lower leg, missing in the Conver. We can see that the hand-shaped plants of the Noblet (far left) have become real hands and feet in the Conver. It seems to me that the flesh on the bones of the Noblet and Chosson is no accident. It is present even on the earliest cards, and is probably the result of the importation of mummies from Egypt. It is a sign of Death's undying nature. Waite's card, where Death is depicted as in a famous engraving by Durer, in armor and on horseback, is a more explicit rendition of the theme of rebirth. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5yGkVzwtez-cLEuOy3Fr4pEccx8MdpLd_2s7uPpQEGMOuGSJvjLdAP3DmZZZE9lQbCMvIuioTW2U3cUMBi2miPx02d-_zgB-UeRIdv8y1lJF-gRMA1xMFg68ReWjAQhxIjv7YR1IKBMqRV8iphou2fui2OgvYNMCHfpBT-_2HrJYsmxRm7uSxjPo2og/s1166/13NobChossJodoWaite.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="528" data-original-width="1166" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5yGkVzwtez-cLEuOy3Fr4pEccx8MdpLd_2s7uPpQEGMOuGSJvjLdAP3DmZZZE9lQbCMvIuioTW2U3cUMBi2miPx02d-_zgB-UeRIdv8y1lJF-gRMA1xMFg68ReWjAQhxIjv7YR1IKBMqRV8iphou2fui2OgvYNMCHfpBT-_2HrJYsmxRm7uSxjPo2og/w640-h290/13NobChossJodoWaite.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>With XIIII, Temperance, we are concerned with moderation in food, drink,
physical exercise, mental exertion, and everything else concerning our
physical body. Of the three parts of the Platonic soul, temperance has
to do with the material part, courage with the spirited part, and
justice with the rational part. The Neopythagorean Tetrad is the number of
fully realized material existence, of which the Emperor is the
guardian. In Fourteen, however, it is one’s own self that must stand
guard. As in the centers of the Conver Fours, there is a place in the
middle where something new is generating.<br />
<br />
Jodorowsky says:<br />
</p><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Just like The Emperor in the first decimal series, Temperance is a 4, the number of stability. The angel is anchored in the earth and does not fly, although its light blue wings give it that possibility. </b></blockquote>The Temperance angel offers us
the water of life and of the soul: it is in seeking the middle way between extremes that we find the path to immortality. Jodorowsky's card seems to have borrowed from both the Dodal (far left) and the standard Marseille seen in Chosson (second left). Waite adds the pool below (the water of life?) to a shining crown, of which he says it is "the secret of Eternal Life." That seems an allusion to the mixing of water and wine in the Eucharist. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Jt1G-RtzGHY6iqJSqKp5RvH2ST1Y1JNAidFsJwL76G3IozCKauRcCzQPlevYW2qA-LPKnkPg5TxrfkMpNKF1HYk5hPO_1pgd15yVcq8FVBjb7-a_aGLJ5xC8_7Uz7lSntnCvgAPz0LpbstwM9j4O16KNKyw_pheF0DXNbInmLQwW14zcS1Xi7m2a6Q/s2121/14DodalChossJodo.Waite.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="978" data-original-width="2121" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Jt1G-RtzGHY6iqJSqKp5RvH2ST1Y1JNAidFsJwL76G3IozCKauRcCzQPlevYW2qA-LPKnkPg5TxrfkMpNKF1HYk5hPO_1pgd15yVcq8FVBjb7-a_aGLJ5xC8_7Uz7lSntnCvgAPz0LpbstwM9j4O16KNKyw_pheF0DXNbInmLQwW14zcS1Xi7m2a6Q/w640-h296/14DodalChossJodo.Waite.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p><br />With XV, the Devil, as has often been said, we are in the realm of the infernal counterpart of the Pope. Below, one can see where Jodorowsky got his card, by putting some of the Dodal's features - the lower face, the eyes on the knees - on the design reflected in Chosson.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiibNuTxvBjORgDtjKfrbGVf450at_vHBoY9n5i1AbPh3YtawXtQ84UTsvbYtjQGoSWIeAcwOOPFoRf_UUxKVCiLSE6Eg0xVtoco6qeMi5EFx2lhs59LSsK-Ec6ELO5J2tbLwh-DdCmOW9-K-FVyFuS232ZTaYnNEvJe6FV0kel2EktTVwOQ64TKVZQdg/s2153/15NobletDodalChossonJodo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="977" data-original-width="2153" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiibNuTxvBjORgDtjKfrbGVf450at_vHBoY9n5i1AbPh3YtawXtQ84UTsvbYtjQGoSWIeAcwOOPFoRf_UUxKVCiLSE6Eg0xVtoco6qeMi5EFx2lhs59LSsK-Ec6ELO5J2tbLwh-DdCmOW9-K-FVyFuS232ZTaYnNEvJe6FV0kel2EktTVwOQ64TKVZQdg/w640-h290/15NobletDodalChossonJodo.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
I like how Jodorowsky connects the Pope with the Devil, both of which share the letter V in their Roman number:<br />
<p></p><blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>The
Pope and The Devil are invitations to go further, to go beyond the
limits of the material and the rational. The Pope, without abandoning
his disciples who belong to this world, establishes a bridge, a
communication with the other world: the divine or cosmic dimension. The
Tempter, The Devil, offers a descent into darkness and the subconscious
to reach the impersonal magma that is the source of all creativity</b>. (p.
290)</div>
</blockquote><p>
The Pope is not all that he promises, in the eyes of many even in the 17th century, and certainly Jodorowsky. But the Pope, or what he symbolizes, definitely has something to do with the
soul’s growth and even rebirth. He challenges the ego to go beyond itself toward other human beings (Christ's message, common to all religions: do onto others as one would be done unto) and what is beyond humanity. </p><p>The Devil likewise invites us to go beyond our ego-consciousness into the unconscious. In the first ten numbers, 5 is in the middle,
between material life below it and soul life above it. Five is the
number of the vegetative soul, that which grows, dies, and reproduces
itself in the birth of a new organism. There is likewise the birth of
spiritual consciousness, and also rebirth in the subterranean depths of
the unconscious. Christ first descended to Hell before he resurrecting on earth. More meaningfully for our us, Jonah had to enter the belly of the whale before he could acknowledge his own darkness, his own fear of doing the Lord's bidding, before the whale could spit him out. In becoming whole human beings, similarly, we have to acknowledge our own darkness and evil, our shadow, which the Devil reveals with his torch; that is a necessary condition for further development of the personality.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3K0G9SQbfeYJwYdEuI0Wdmp1QLRhOUgmed7X83QefIsgyLJbpCKUyni2HztSnEkqC3Xxmnm0i2CVNZXdXtlVHSw0g9o0vy_VfF0QvSHZD9RK7_jWqfxvGOKjaDw3z_vwF_9jOvUYkvRqSD4m5g7XUcTybOWjb9huta_aRoP5yprKaGg6Tp4vYeuFpcg/s2441/5EtteillaLeviWaite.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1399" data-original-width="2441" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3K0G9SQbfeYJwYdEuI0Wdmp1QLRhOUgmed7X83QefIsgyLJbpCKUyni2HztSnEkqC3Xxmnm0i2CVNZXdXtlVHSw0g9o0vy_VfF0QvSHZD9RK7_jWqfxvGOKjaDw3z_vwF_9jOvUYkvRqSD4m5g7XUcTybOWjb9huta_aRoP5yprKaGg6Tp4vYeuFpcg/w640-h366/5EtteillaLeviWaite.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>Here Etteilla's image for this card is of interest (at left above). A hermaphroditic Devil (breasts, long beard) stands over a two lower figures, the man colored black and the woman white. The meaning is <i>force majeur</i>, a French term for unforeseeable natural calamities - floods, wildfires, earthquakes, etc. In English these are "acts of God." But it is nature that is acting, or God as nature. Papus calls it "the universal destroying force." As for the two figures below the hermaphrodite, Etteilla has this to say, in the course of explaining the symbolism of a spread in which 35 cards are divided into three piles, with 2 remaining. Below, the comments in brackets are mine: <p></p><p></p><blockquote>With the third laying [<i>division</i>, in Etteilla's original], 11 came into each row, and 2 remained, that is the person who is denoted by this number. The former thus [i.e. the 1] and the latter [the 2] represents for us the Godhead in the centres of the person, the man and the woman; or the fire, the spirit, the soul of the universe in the middle of the white woman and the black man - and as you could see on the 14th card of the Book of Thoth which you must have before your eye.</blockquote><p>This draws on alchemical language. Although Etteilla's wording is cryptic, he was knowledgeable about alchemy, even writing a book on the subject. My guess is that what he means is that the Devil represents the world-spirit buried in matter, with the "black man" as the <i>nigredo</i>, after which the white woman is the <i>albedo</i>, its purification, leading to the world-soul in purified form on the World card. It would seem that Levi understood Etteilla in this way, at least as regards the main figure, because he envisioned the Devil as a form of the ancient god Pan, the spirit of nature (his drawing at center above, adapted by Papus's illustrator Wirth and then Waite ), and said that Etteilla "understood this card perfectly." Paul Christian gave it the keyword "Fate." Papus called it "the mysterious astral force, the origin of which is revealed to us by the hieroglyphic of Samech." He had previously described Samech as an arrow circling back on itself. Perhaps he is thinking of what the Hindus call karma, and what corresponds to our expression "The chickens coming home to rest."<br /></p><p> <img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGJbE4VPYxR7qe4ADFOfYh66wxfDX8_2Ikvu9lTc5uL0k5rUfWNbtTbwlLLfi7woMNgW-n501ESjAI7exbwjdCcMJCV7YROHFCnszcvgOmISTxOVXmEJZdtYziNMGjjKeK5eZTVVWOoo-a/s1600/16amnobDodHeronSM.jpg" /></p>
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqkwoNglTJuk_NGjI4EypyQMH0OqSKzjAM8m2TDxWcLZY8JhvkwELL5yFrcvY1S-upRBKIfswzJf3vZOZB8f5PZ6e7b5ZuAHKun53cLuG_V96dI1XQVRBVIV3TY9d5_H1qyzV0JF8PLvJ8/s1600/06cnobDodCon1761SM.jpg" /> <p></p><p>What could the Maison-Dieu, XVI, have to do with the Lover, VI? Here again I like Jodorowsky’s remarks:<br />
</p><blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>In
The Lover (VI), degree 6 in the first decimal series of the Major
Arcana, the cherub is responsible for the descent of the beauty of love
from the Heavens. In the Tower, Arcanum XVI, another manifestation of
6, the Earth is sending an explosion of elation and joyful energy from
its center towards the heights that causes the two initiates to dance
in ecstasy. It is also possible that the sky is responsible for sending
this flaming manifestation down. The Tarot allows the same symbol to be
interpreted in two different ways without forcing a choice between the
two responses, both of which can be right at the same time.</b> (p. 293)</div>
</blockquote><p>
In
both VI and the XVI, the soul is in motion, choosing according to a
pattern sent down from above. In VI is it Cupid's arrow; in XVI it is a lightning-bolt, also called "arrow" in the early cards, or smoke and flames rising to heaven. In the Noblet and Dodal, the smoke or flames goes mostly up; in the Conver, it seems to be going down. From below, according to Jodorowsky, it suggests an unconscious force bursting upwards
like an explosion of sexual energy or the Kundalini of the Hindus,
upending the center of consciousness altogether and sending the
initiates flying. (For more on this analysis of the Tower, see my Tarot History Forum posts
at <a class="postlink-local" href="http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=399&start=10#p7240">viewtopic.php?f=23&t=399&start=10#p7240</a> and <a class="postlink-local" href="http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=399&start=20#p7246">viewtopic.php?f=23&t=399&start=20#p7246</a>.) </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj19500o-wwKdaeOpLyVszkbjxGCMsCggD3ZHMGvTCSVi12IAS_mQaexyGrlXhFuDXFn5-JOWHtEaTkSTKZg--LKuDPnCx5oQPbCia846MSaH4BRB_HiYlfalc5Ig3UhMtRvUTtDCEN0-Ykt6iO5Olv8qCFsCo_73SWHQXAy8W7BNxhYELgyJUBeSmeqA/s552/16VievSchon1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="552" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj19500o-wwKdaeOpLyVszkbjxGCMsCggD3ZHMGvTCSVi12IAS_mQaexyGrlXhFuDXFn5-JOWHtEaTkSTKZg--LKuDPnCx5oQPbCia846MSaH4BRB_HiYlfalc5Ig3UhMtRvUTtDCEN0-Ykt6iO5Olv8qCFsCo_73SWHQXAy8W7BNxhYELgyJUBeSmeqA/s320/16VievSchon1.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>My own interpretation of the ones with mostly upward smoke,which I think is in keeping with 16th-17th century thinking, would see the smoke going upward as the distressed soul seeking reconciliation with God. This interpretation is supported by a 16th century horoscope in which the 12 astrological houses seem to portray scenes from the tarot. The most obscure of these is the house of sickness, the 6th house (far right) which shows a man in his sick bed being visited by others. Probably this is meant to correspond to the Tower card. There is also the 17th century card by Vieville - there is not even a tower, just lightning - which shows large balls of hail and fire raining down on a shepherd, who looks up with his hands in the air, as though it were the beginning of the Last Days.<br /><p></p><p>Eliphas Levi imagined the scene on the Marseille to be the Tower of Babel, an interpretation based on the the Golden Legend rather than the Bible itself. The description there is so close to what is on the card that it is hard to imagine otherwise. Levi's disciple Paul Christian declared that the card was about "ruin," the misfortunes of ambitious projects and intractable rivalries, which teach us not to put faith in material things. Jodorowsky, on the contrary, says that in the Bible, God's destruction of the tower was not to punish humanity for trying to attain to heaven but rather to scatter them to the ends of the earth, so as to repopulate it after the flood. In this re-imagining of the card, the figure in the air is not falling from the tower but dancing on his hands, charged with the outburst of energy: it is the rediscovery of divinity on the earthly plane.
<br /><br />
<img alt="Image" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM8puClWrhyphenhyphenHy2orSizH9ZN4agNxNpzzA5mAnkike8OvQOocZE-Ww9cXB8nPNMRFTiy1cCxzLC8VE_Xcrs3bhFE5jnl3eoxRZ_AqH1_b6JujOluQNKOHNHPA8P7Q3Kc4t21mljjLtjXVHf/s400/17aNobChosSM.jpg" width="400" /><br />
What is relevant about the Seven continues to be that it is the number of the “critical time,” the <span style="font-style: italic;">kairos</span>.
For XVII (Noblet and Chosson shown above), we are guided by a star,
just as Plato's Charioteer (card VII) in the <i>Phaedrus</i> is guided by his memory of
true Beauty. Yet the Charioteer is also led by his horses, whose minds are not
always the most rational. Which is to lead, the one led by lust or by the voice of his master, the rational mind?<br />
<br />
The star-lady, on one interpretation, offers a similar choice, whether to drink from the waters of Lethe, forgetting, or go on to drink of the waters of Mnemosyne, remembering. The first sends the soul back to earth for another incarnation, the second to heaven. We
know from the end of Dante's <span style="font-style: italic;">Purgatorio</span> (see my post at <a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=1968490&postcount=39">http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... stcount=39</a>)
that the lady is offering us the waters of forgetting and of
remembering, and that the critical time is none other than that of
admission to Paradise. Mnemosyne (the power to remember),
as the Orphic hymn to that goddess recommends, has the power to break the fetters of Lethe (the water of forgetfulness drunk by souls before entering again into incarnation).<br />
<br />
In a related interpretation, the two jars contain the water to wash away sin and the oil of anointing for reception in God's house In a diatribe chastising Israel as a harlot, Ezekiel (16:9) counts
being washed and anointed as one of the blessings that God has given
his ungrateful people. Ezekiel has God say: <br />
</p><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"And I washed thee with
water, and cleansed away thy blood from thee and I anointed thee with
oil." (Et lavi te aqua et emundavi sanguinem tuum ex te et unxi te
oleo; at <a href="http://vulgate.org/ot/ezekiel_16.htm" id="link_1304539746808_23" target="_blank">http://vulgate.org/ot/ezekiel_16.htm</a>).</b></blockquote>
Similarly,
Moses has Aaron and his sons washed, and then Aaron, as high priest,
anointed (Lev. 8:6-12). David, recognizing that he will not get a child by Bathsheba until he atones with God, first fasts, then washes himself, and finally anoints himself (II Sam. 12:20), Then Bathsheba becomes pregnant with Solomon. In the New Testament, John the Baptist washes
Jesus in the Jordan, while the Holy Spirit anoints him (Acts 10:38).
Then at the end of Jesus's life, Mary Magdalene washes his feet with
her tears and anoints them with oil (John 13:2). <br />
<br />
Jodorowsky uses different language to a similar point: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>S</b><b>ymbolically, The Star is the spiritual guide we carry within who is connected to the most profound forces of the universe and to the sacred.</b></blockquote>
And comparing the Chariot and the Star, he says:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>But while the Chariot enters the world like a conqueror, a traveler, or an inseminating prince, The Star acts on the world by irrigating and nourishing it. The naked figure's breasts evoke lactation, and we can see an allusion to the Milky Way in the stars hanging overhead.</b></blockquote>
Accepting all the star-lady's gifts results in a motion upwards, closer to Heaven.<br />
<img alt="Image" height="351" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggCZCLZNI2egpPh6gvM9bX5vxNgreHJqfsdJDqrPioeG6Zau8I2x9INnAVFvnPXsBrSeLhZaVuzqoshFUKdmNgyXBcnW42zne1lRcWT3umTPv1bkYzoqft_rCaY8BFyskYCpHoBL1NGZPc/s400/18aanobConSM.jpg" width="400" /><br />
The
Eight, besides being Justice, is in the <i>Theology</i> also one of two numbers of Rhea (2 is
the other). In XVIII, the Moon, we have Rhea as the dark passivity that
is complicit in the dethroning and castration of her husband Saturn by her son Jupiter. The Ogdoad, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>
tells us (p. 47), was identified with the Moon. It is another crisis
point, as indeed the "Etteilla" word-list for the Eight of Swords
proclaims. Both Eights, VIII Justice and XVIII The Moon, proclaim that
<b>“The only freedom is obedience to the Law,”</b> as Jodorowsky imagines
Justice saying (p. 299; but he doesn't actually find Justice and the Mooon comparable). With the first Eight, it is the external law
that must be obeyed, that of society. Now, it seems to me, it is an internal law that
matters, that of our divine being, which lies in the crayfish’s claws.
Will we take the jewel that the crayfish holds?<br />
<br />
Below top center is the detail in the Conver. A similar detail may be in the Noblet (detail center middle)--it is hard to say; at least claws are open, and wavy lines don't go through them. And even as early as the Cary Sheet Moon card, c. 1500, there appears to be something in the jaws of what I take to be a crocodile in the center of the card, next to the pool. See my post at <a class="postlink-local" href="http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=401&start=30#p6931">viewtopic.php?f=23&t=401&start=30#p6931</a>.)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9bmfBGBBD9LTcK9Szgl6WSyzgvezEGvuD3nb4tYUMAV8o-nBkZujbPOI7xruUIXS7bs78NK6HvHnqpmPJ6EMCzWr6s5Me5u8xK2ohU27zy917r4pX8XdP7vOzeCpwERPud8bPtg27heRD/s1600/18bcarplusdetNotSM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9bmfBGBBD9LTcK9Szgl6WSyzgvezEGvuD3nb4tYUMAV8o-nBkZujbPOI7xruUIXS7bs78NK6HvHnqpmPJ6EMCzWr6s5Me5u8xK2ohU27zy917r4pX8XdP7vOzeCpwERPud8bPtg27heRD/s400/18bcarplusdetNotSM.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
I am reminded of Kafka’s Parable of the Law (<a class="postlink" href="http://records.viu.ca/%7Ejohnstoi/kafka/beforethelaw.htm">http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/kafka/beforethelaw.htm</a>).
A guard stands in front of an open door, before which the petitioner
waits, as patient as Job, for permission to enter. The guard tells him
he is free to go in without an invitation, but there are other
doorkeepers more terrifying than he. At the end of the petitioner’s
life, he asks why he has seen no one else seeking admission to the Law.
The guard says, “Here no one else can gain entry, since this entrance
was assigned only to you. I’m going now to close it.” It is up to us to
choose to follow the law of our inner being, in fear and trembling, and
not wait for an invitation. The guard is also the doorman, the opener
of doors. Such also is the crayfish.<br />
<img alt="Image" height="309" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF9_cb71uCDq4DMhntRewcqXktHSvlImaPgxDIJbU1-TR_tobcUf4fbls5EWeom-vlo423vgZwNpuldbm5chRFsmtca-2-soPVn8C4NqefP03l4HlEeC-XQ1NQWamMJXUIxUy2VQnlG6YQ/s320/19HeronwithHermitSM.jpg" width="320" /><br />
In
the Nines, we step into the unknown, the world beyond Kafka’s door,
into the ocean that is beyond the cosmos. The Hermit has been there, in
the world but not of it, shining his lantern that we may have him as a
guide. The Sun, XVIIII, is a similar light, so bright that the darkness
flees. What he asks of us is sacrifice, in emulation of Christ’s
sacrifice, so that we, too, may not be of the world.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOsNDQDOGEB4Q-zF3v5WfYrCjI2vybvQGyuCWneLD6bmqZRI7_pFy5VuQJ44Ztq1K5SDRoWADGTkBOjYoEXSmRvLqy-X9lP4xfTgdKVLXtlcVbGhuDHkff-J0FXSQii4jOtnEyMP0CbTGM/s1600/19ChosHeronCamoinSM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOsNDQDOGEB4Q-zF3v5WfYrCjI2vybvQGyuCWneLD6bmqZRI7_pFy5VuQJ44Ztq1K5SDRoWADGTkBOjYoEXSmRvLqy-X9lP4xfTgdKVLXtlcVbGhuDHkff-J0FXSQii4jOtnEyMP0CbTGM/s400/19ChosHeronCamoinSM.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Notice what appears to be a tail hanging next to the upper right leg of the twin on our left. Camoin and Jodorowsky have made it obvious in their version of the card, at right above. Historically, what corresponds is the white area in the same place on the "Chosson" card of either 1672 (the date on the 2 of Coins in that deck) or early 18th century (as some insist). Conver, 1761, kept the tail-like line but removed the white area.<br />
<br />
That twin, with the tail, it seems to me, is the <i>tragos</i> (goat, in Greek) of Greek tragedy, the goat-sacrifice, the sacrifice of the cult-animal of the god for the sake of union with the god. Whereas the Hermit
demanded submission, of our lower nature to our spiritual, the Sun demands
sacrifice, a torment of the spirit for the sake of the raising up the lower, as in
Pollux's willing sacrifice--in the Conver version, which has the Gemini--for the sake of his
brother Castor's immortality, or of Christ's sacrifice for the sake of humanity. (For a fuller account, see my post at <a class="postlink-local" href="http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=402&start=20#p6671">viewtopic.php?f=23&t=402&start=20#p6671</a>.) In Oedipus's case, he sacrificed his eyes, the organs by which he received the light, for atonement with the god, in his case Apollo. He received in return Apollo's gift of prophecy. <br />
<br />
Hard-pressed to find indications of the Nine in the Sun card, Jodorowsky (p. 243) points to nine horizontal bands in the blue on the right side of his version of the Marseille-style card. They are not there in any historical card that I can find. However there are nine vertical ines on the Conver card in that place. They perhaps will do. Jodorowsky says, after discussing the numbers of other bands in the left and center (also not present in any historical cards, and not corresponding to the 10 lines on the left and 9 in the center, as I count): <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>...and finally the nine on the right-hand side of the card, which brings to mind the numerological value 9, crisis of the cycle's end and detachment... But what is involved here is an initiatory crossing over. The short red-and-yellw wall in the background indicates that already, aat the heart of this crisis, a new construction is in place. The two individuals, breaking from their past, are triggering a new life.</b> (p. 243):</blockquote>
Jodorowsky also compares the Hermit's lantern with the light of the Sun. But the sun is already present in the Hermit's robe. <br />
<img alt="Image" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjhX66zNWAJEXmvbZwyAcstX_rHceda8MhlACXWenxQD4WjIEIbnRdTc1hoys_80I6NL2qx15LWQ4if7qgklqB0ImdTbGKcUFtPnKbw_ZjgHCdUUsZHte90t3FTUZB054rLsgPu71tAuBi/s400/21NobConv20SM.jpg" width="400" /><br />
In
the Tens we are ending one cycle so that another may begin. The Judgment card is the end, and the World the new beginning. The Judgment is the
release of the soul from the lower regions, that it may fly
heavenward. As Jodorowsky says <br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>The
heavens are opening, the irresistible call is echoing, the new being is
rising out of the depths of the Earth to move towards the celestial
dimension. In this ending, the new beginning is already present.</b> (p.
306)</div>
</blockquote>
And the World, the final trump, is the
return home to the Monad, past the fourness of spiritualized matter,
the four evangelists, into the Magician’s world again, who stands in
the center holding his or her wand. And so we begin again on yet
another level. <br />
<br />
In the Noblet World card, a red circle tops the
two lower figures, and a yellow circle the upper figures. The red
circles seem to me to be sunrise and sunset; the yellow ones are the
sun overhead. The result is half of the sun’s circular journey; the
other half we cannot see, as it is below the card. The sun has gone
full circle, above the earth for 10 numbers, then setting and
journeying below, then returning to the beginning.<br />Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677044918876619054.post-37805862307739112832012-05-15T22:15:00.028-07:002023-03-28T13:46:55.319-07:00Hermit and Nines<p><span>Guillaume de Salluste, seigneur </span>Du Bartas (1544-1590) with whom I have been starting this series of posts, says of the Nine (early 16th century translation, online, with spelling modernized):<br /></p><blockquote><b>The sacred note of <i>Nine,</i><br />
Which comprehends the <i>Triple-Trine.</i></b></blockquote><p>Indeed, the nine Muses were nine. Extending the point, the <i>Theology</i> identifies the Muse governing this
number as Terpsichore (Waterfield, p. 107). From <i>treperin, </i>to turn,
and <i>choros,</i> dance, it interprets the name as <b>“like the turning and
revolution in a dance,”</b> in this case one leading back to the One, which reappears in Eleven (not in Ten, because the Greeks did not use Arabic numerals; they gave the tenth letter of their alphabet to ten and then the tenth letter plus alpha, the number for one, after that. However, the Theology does describe the Decad as a return to the beginning again. </p><p>I am not aware that the Muses were divided into three groups of three, but perhaps somebody did so. Probably Du Bartas is simply pointing out that nine is three squared, just as eight, which he had just mentioned, is 2 squared. <br /></p><div class="line">The number Nine in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology of Arithmetic</span>
is also associated with Oceanus, the god that governs that which borders our
world: <br />
</div><blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>Hence
they call it 'Oceanus'</b> [Translator's note: Oceanus was envisaged as an
expanse of water encircling the outer limits of the world] <b>and
'horizon,' because it encompasses both of these locations and has them
within itself.</b> [Translator's note: Because all things are made from
number and 9 is the furthest limit of number.] (p. 105)</div>
</blockquote><p>
Here I think a metaphor is intended, since by then it was commonly accepted, at least by educated people, that the earth was a sphere. The ocean, meaning primarily the
Atlantic Ocean, was what was beyond the known. It is similar to what is
beyond the sphere of Fixed Stars (<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoreanism">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoreanism</a>). The realm beyond the fixed stars is like
an ocean that acts as boundary to the land. So it is a super-celestial
realm of visions not seen by the light of nature. It is the ninth
sphere in order from the earth, the last movable sphere before the Empyrean, in medieval cosmology, which Dante visits at the end of the <i>Divine Comedy.</i> It is thus a super-celestial
region leading up to the Neoplatonists' One.</p><p>For the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>, there were also the Curetes, the initiators of Zeus: <br />
</p><blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>Both
Orpheus and Pythagoras made a particular point of describing the ennead
as 'pertaining to the Curetes,' on the grounds the rites sacred to the
Curetes are tripartite [Translator's note: the Curetes were Cretan
deities who in myth looked after the infant Zeus], with three rites to
each part, or as 'Kore' </b>[Translator's note: Persephone]<b>; both of these
titles are appropriate to the triad, and the ennead contains the triad
three times. </b>(p. 107)</div>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The number 9, for the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>,
thus represents the time that Jupiter/Zeus spent growing up in hiding
on Crete, being nursed by the Curetes. The “rites of the Curetes” in
which Zeus was initiated, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>
says, had 3 rites of 3 parts each. So Du Bartas's reference to the "triple-trine" would have been more meaningful in connection with the Curetes or the rites of Persphone.<br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">He also would have been equally meaningful if he were referring to to Pseudo-Dionysus's 9 choirs of angels, in the heavenly
realm called the <i>Primum Mobile</i> (first moved), between the fixed stars and God, the 9th sphere of classical astronomy. These were divided into three groups (see Wikipedia on Pseudo-Dionysus's <i>On the Celestial Hierarchy</i>.)</div><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj59bKgIoOJV-sznjQ7D4KGauyPXIcXPBDYjpqx156AGTz9wPaHkt4LqwC46UAAC9MBeqlsDkJcLnEd-rM4bDRNOUPbEqwDnY9bt8XhQJRVnCMdeeWRZYbdNBaDM6SUnXBELedaJzfVn_yp/s1600/09EtteillaTraitre.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj59bKgIoOJV-sznjQ7D4KGauyPXIcXPBDYjpqx156AGTz9wPaHkt4LqwC46UAAC9MBeqlsDkJcLnEd-rM4bDRNOUPbEqwDnY9bt8XhQJRVnCMdeeWRZYbdNBaDM6SUnXBELedaJzfVn_yp/w220-h400/09EtteillaTraitre.jpg" width="220" /></a></div>
The Etteilla image that corresponds to the Hermit is his no. 19, which shows a monk holding a lantern and walking with a cane.<br />
<br />
The
keywords do not fit the Hermit as we have known him up to now: <i>Traitre</i> and <i>Faux Devout, </i>meaning "Traitor" and "False Devout." And
when we look at the word-lists for this card, only the Reverseds
correspond to the Hermit we know:</div>
<blockquote>
19. TRAITOR—Betrayal, Dissembling, Dissimulation, <span><i>Hypocrite</i></span>, Hypocrisy, a Traitor, a Deceiver, Corrupter, Seducer. Cunning, Imposture. <span><i>Hypocrite, Fanatic, Suborner, Fanaticism.</i></span> REVERSED: TRAITOR. Hermit, Anchorite, Solitary, <i>Sleepwalker,</i> Hidden, Concealed, Disguised. Political. End. <i>Cunning.</i> </blockquote>
In my view what has happened is that Etteilla has deliberately mixed
together parts of two cards, the Marseille Hermit and the Marseille
Hanged Man. The keywords and the Uprights belong to the Hanged Man,
while some of the Reverseds apply to the Hermit.<br />
<br />
Etteilla has no Hanged Man card at all. What he has instead is the fourth cardinal virtue, Prudence. He has decided, following de Gebelin, that the person on the card should be seen right side up, but going one step further in claiming that what the Marseille card makers had seen as a rope was actually a snake. Below
is the Marseille Hanged Man card on the left, the way de Gebelin saw
the card in the center, and on the right Etteilla's Prudence card,
which turns the rope into a snake. The snake is a traditional attribute
of Prudence, dating at least to Jesus's "Be ye wise as serpents and
gentle as doves."<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHbna7oXkO2f4RspMTb1jy2FwHZrnODj0o0NK7Ox-SfmP5l2PEQXpaqmx1Lsxzyv5uQDz-fuqt3L5VDH4xqfjqZ7a6pMWnRgjTV_XesZqE9bQRxuAREf0r5iblnWUdGrwEoi0Vpj6qfek/s1600/d0161212Gebelin.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623159282600823858" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHbna7oXkO2f4RspMTb1jy2FwHZrnODj0o0NK7Ox-SfmP5l2PEQXpaqmx1Lsxzyv5uQDz-fuqt3L5VDH4xqfjqZ7a6pMWnRgjTV_XesZqE9bQRxuAREf0r5iblnWUdGrwEoi0Vpj6qfek/s1600/d0161212Gebelin.jpg" /></a><br />
Thinking
the snake is a rope, Etteilla supposes, the card-makers assumed that
the man was hanging by one leg and turned the card upside down. Then
for the Prudence card, Etteilla used some of the ideas that would
normally apply to the Hermit. Here are the words for Etteilla's
Prudence, combining two lists, words in de la Salette only in italics, in d'Odoucet only in bold:<br />
<blockquote>
12. PRUDENCE. Reserve<span style="font-style: italic;">,</span> Wisdom, Circumspection, Restrained, Discernment, Foresight, <i><span>Forecast</span>,</i> Presentiment, <span><i>Prediction</i></span>, Prognostic,<i> </i><span><i>Divination</i></span><span>, <i>Prophecy,</i> </span><b>Prophet</b>. <span><i>Horoscope </i></span>. REVERSED: <span>THE PEOPLE.</span> Nation,<i> <span>Sovereign</span></i>,<span> </span>Legislator<span style="font-style: italic;">,</span> Body Politic, Population, Generation. </blockquote>
As
you can see, the Uprights fit the Marseille Hermit. So I think that if
we take the Prudence uprights and some of the Traitor Reverseds, we
will get something like how the cartomantic tradition before Etteilla
might have seen the Hermit. In other words, for the Hermit: <br />
<blockquote>
Prudence, Reserve<span style="font-style: italic;">,</span> Wisdom, Circumspection, Restrained, Discernment, Foresight, <i><span>Forecast</span>,</i> Presentiment, <span><i>Prediction</i></span>, Prognostic,<i> </i><span><i>Divination</i></span><span>, <i>Prophecy,</i> </span><b>Prophet</b>. <span><i>Horoscope</i></span>. Hermit, Anchorite, Solitary,</blockquote>
Some of the other words then fit the Marseille Hanged Man, i.e.: <br />
<blockquote>Traitor, Betrayal, Dissembling, Dissimulation, a Traitor, a Deceiver, Corrupter, Seducer. Cunning, Imposture.</blockquote><p>
The words
associated with Prudence's Reverseds, "People," drop out as irrelevant to the Marseille. They were probably added as a reflection of the political situation in France in the 1780s.<br />
<br />
In the Lombard lists of the mid-16th century (the earliest known for this region) the Hermit was called Il Vecchio, The Old Man, and was number 11 rather than 9. For the Pythagoreans, eleven was One over again, the beginning of a new series on a higher level. In the luxury deck of the Sforza now divided between New York and Bergamo, as well as in that of the Medici now in Paris, the <i>Vecchio</i> carried an hourglass, but by the time of the 16th century lists it was a lantern. The number 9, as the next to last of a series of 10, might seem more appropriate than the number 1, the beginning of something new. However,, both the lantern and the hourglass suggest looking at oneself in the light of eternity, a reminder to prepare for what comes later in the series, notably Death, the Devil, the Tower (then called Lightning), and the Judgment. If so, 11 is as appropriate as 9, the beginning of a new series as much as the end of an old one.<br />
<br />
In Minchiate, card 9 was the Wheel (<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ5LiVFPyMkin02QjelvebG10zGUBTyWqI56dUaS0aiEuypIdBumQ35IDfa884vVsiUYDRlZtfdTY6dGCFFhMv547dIZ5KrWwloilNVO6wEDle8ymAA8vPAnx0d2LBahx-ed2VUoUtuN8/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-11-03+at+3.47.35+PM.png">here</a>). We are ahead of ourselves.
<br />
<b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD5_ABe5sPbP9ICZIBqVyjpvumHXuNkFSVopqdiFdF7oPRtzqo9nEfHoMlg1zELB6PVayffD1Gyoj8yu_PkKGKNMe_P4SFqNTDtEAlt8DQMLz4Uus77h4FoVXBi1gG6C0E7syC89vdb55VnObiWdvwMURaEYOQCJK4PkyUGweGetM_ObYoVTNO0H0Hjw/s399/09B_Sola_Busca.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="399" data-original-width="216" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD5_ABe5sPbP9ICZIBqVyjpvumHXuNkFSVopqdiFdF7oPRtzqo9nEfHoMlg1zELB6PVayffD1Gyoj8yu_PkKGKNMe_P4SFqNTDtEAlt8DQMLz4Uus77h4FoVXBi1gG6C0E7syC89vdb55VnObiWdvwMURaEYOQCJK4PkyUGweGetM_ObYoVTNO0H0Hjw/s320/09B_Sola_Busca.jpg" width="173" /></a></b></div><b><br />THE NINES: SOLA-BUSCA, ETTEILLA, WAITE <br /></b><p></p><p>The SB Nine of Batons shows a man crossing a stream carrying a heavy load of sticks. In
the Renaissance, the most familiar picture of someone crossing a stream
with a load was that of St. Christopher carrying the child Jesus across
a swollen river. According to the Golden Legend, he felt like he was
carrying the weight of the whole world. (<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Christopher">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Christopher</a>). The child then told him that not only had he carried the whole world, but also He who made it.</p>
In the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>,
as we have seen, the Ennead is associated with Oceanus, the god that
governs that which borders our world and than which nothing further can
be conceived, similar to what is beyond the sphere of Fixed Stars. It
contains the whole cosmos. However, the "Etteilla" list takes a less cosmic approach. <br /><blockquote class="uncited"><div>27. ETTEILLA
9 OF BATONS: DELAY, Waiting Time, Distance, Expulsion [or Return],
Postponement, Adjournment,
Deferral, <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv3nG3yb5TiDrFzrdBjLD30LxQUYFA2HKEfZY2wlJamzSQWZA8lgbvuO32MjtlhEZ_xbolfOB86NVGUeADDI4I2yJKASQ44-PKSfWNcZUN0dhwChW7-ixYkMHUVMliTOmVLBNgO6u36AQqKNl831eUsUtp-3sl3YBZwM0GR1INZFXq-BHQSb-dEMoCQg/s1419/Grand'Etteilla%2009Ba.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1419" data-original-width="796" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv3nG3yb5TiDrFzrdBjLD30LxQUYFA2HKEfZY2wlJamzSQWZA8lgbvuO32MjtlhEZ_xbolfOB86NVGUeADDI4I2yJKASQ44-PKSfWNcZUN0dhwChW7-ixYkMHUVMliTOmVLBNgO6u36AQqKNl831eUsUtp-3sl3YBZwM0GR1INZFXq-BHQSb-dEMoCQg/s320/Grand'Etteilla%2009Ba.jpg" width="180" /></a>Suspension, Drawing Out, Slowness, Slowing Down. REVERSED: TRAVERSES,Obstacle, Difficulty, Contrariety, Disadvantage,
Adversity, Pain, Bad Luck, Misfortune, Calamity.</div>
</blockquote>
Here
it is the Reverseds that fit the SB image directly, and even then not
its last three words; they pertain more to Rhea and the Eight. The
Uprights convey the idea of a river as something that slows one down.
You have to wait for the ferry, or spend a long time finding a place
and time to ford it. Spiritually, that may mean a long time between
incarnations, or before getting out of Purgatory and into Heaven, or a
long time climbing the rungs of Heaven. In terms of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>, there is the question, even if the author doesn't ask it: what does one do in the 216 years between incarnations? <br />
<br />
Di Vincenzo in her book <span style="font-style: italic;">Sola-Busca</span>
takes a similar approach as Etteilla, seeing the card in terms of
obstacles to be overcome. However she adds that the river <b>"</b>separates
two existential <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS9gliSX8yqBUWHdumhtgqAn2pAR0Rkbqoct6QL7ZDuvWGQzWwLBL0AOO8XK9uCMEubhnUXDPZKP7teygEYYy9euUatticvz4qwXm3LbiBMlrya8O2vS7ONyxgRePSR9MAFe83LjYumg-8/s1600/Wands09.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS9gliSX8yqBUWHdumhtgqAn2pAR0Rkbqoct6QL7ZDuvWGQzWwLBL0AOO8XK9uCMEubhnUXDPZKP7teygEYYy9euUatticvz4qwXm3LbiBMlrya8O2vS7ONyxgRePSR9MAFe83LjYumg-8/w183-h320/Wands09.jpg" width="183" /></a><p>conditions" and compares the river crossing to baptism<b> </b>(<span style="font-style: italic;">Sola Busca</span>, p. 108). She mentions that Dante's <span style="font-style: italic;">Divine Comedy</span>
had nine infernal regions and nine heavens (p. 107). Another
interesting detail she notices is that the person has a white ribbon in
his or her hair: white ribbons symbolized purity (as in a recent German
movie by that title); the person is undergoing a purification. In that
way it is like the nine initiatory rites of the Curetes.</p>
Waite copies Ettteilla on the meanings of the card.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: The card signifies strength in opposition.
If attacked, the person will meet an onslaught boldly; and his build
shews, that he may prove a formidable antagonist. With this main
significance there are all its possible adjuncts--delay, suspension,
adjournment. <i>Reversed</i>: Obstacles, adversity, calamity.</b></blockquote>
But the card omits the SB's river. The result is that we see no obstacles. He says, "The figure leans upon his staff and has an expectant look, as if <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil0XSEDMx5FbkN3NsymCYj0idKfz1_EvZAOPn3mq13mB6tnLSClsBKzMEJZUa2FGWL4LyLp25O4zUVKwU9Hw1xqp18Tw7Y7ZUVRnMt7PhKhZv1alX7nQvwlPT7XQDtW5LoRj3jkCW8wZsL/s1600/09S_Sola_BuscaSM.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil0XSEDMx5FbkN3NsymCYj0idKfz1_EvZAOPn3mq13mB6tnLSClsBKzMEJZUa2FGWL4LyLp25O4zUVKwU9Hw1xqp18Tw7Y7ZUVRnMt7PhKhZv1alX7nQvwlPT7XQDtW5LoRj3jkCW8wZsL/s320/09S_Sola_BuscaSM.jpg" width="162" /></a>awaiting an enemy." But that rather trivializes the cosmic metaphor we see in the SB card, one appropriate to the number seen in the Pythagorean way.<br />
<br />
Let us move on to Swords. I see very much the same Neopythagorean world-view as in the case of Batons. The
container is the large vessel containing 8 swords, perhaps
corresponding to the 8 spheres between the earth and the void. But the
man is not in that vessel. He, and the 9th sword, are mostly outside.
Only his hand is inside. It isn't clear what that hand is doing. Di
Vincenzo says he is taking swords out of a well (p. 135). It is perhaps a container of some kind. We don't actually see his left hand. Maybe he is
feeling the bottom, to see if it is on <span style="font-style: italic;">terra firma</span>--corresponding
to one Neopythagorean interpretation of the 9th sphere, that it is the
earth itself, counting from the sphere of the fixed stars as number
one. But what I think is that he is standing in our world and reaching
into the supercelestial world, where the infants swallowed by Saturn
are. The figure is like a person who lives in the world, but who is
focused on the other world. Or as the "Etteilla" Uprights have it:<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDaI9Ujgg6Aw0BgZVB0mIog8CYLuCTMBDlotH78oDH70Lbjn9m4U7m2S8sfIkEDOBiZyz4qsJA8ttqkVodIrlB-7MvGAMhfKNFwNkPEgOh2tE8KYq5tuSRRXc5R6IdSMlJoDuKMuRO9RVPYxA1TXrfYgV2Qx34u2OxYqXdhtHRj3It9h1O0Z-bkVk2mA/s1387/Grand'Etteilla%2009Sw.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1387" data-original-width="806" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDaI9Ujgg6Aw0BgZVB0mIog8CYLuCTMBDlotH78oDH70Lbjn9m4U7m2S8sfIkEDOBiZyz4qsJA8ttqkVodIrlB-7MvGAMhfKNFwNkPEgOh2tE8KYq5tuSRRXc5R6IdSMlJoDuKMuRO9RVPYxA1TXrfYgV2Qx34u2OxYqXdhtHRj3It9h1O0Z-bkVk2mA/s320/Grand'Etteilla%2009Sw.jpg" width="186" /></a><blockquote class="uncited"><div>53. 9 of SWORDS: ECCLESIASTIC, Apostle, Pope, Cardinal, Archbishop, Bishop, Abbot, Priest,, Monk, Hermit, Religious Person, Temple,
Church, Monastery, Convent, Hermitage, Sanctuary. Unmarried Person [<i>Celibat</i>, Celibate],
Virginity, Puberty. Cult, Religion,
Piety, Devotion, Rite, Ceremony, Ritual. Recluse, Anchorite, Vestal Virgin. REVERSED: JUSTIFIED DISTRUST. Well-founded Suspicion, Reasonable Fear, Misgiving, Doubt,
Conjecture.—Scruple, Troubled Conscience, Innocent,
Timidity, Propriety, Shame.</div>
</blockquote>
Di Vincenzo makes an interesting point about the putto and what she
takes to be a key hanging from the wall. She says that the putto is a
beneficent angel that is helping him to unlock the red ribbon (the
color of the rubedo, completion of the work) that ties the swords
together. In that way the card is about learning to be conscious of the
whole, and the need for divine guidance. At the same time the Reverseds lend justifiable caution to the procedure: when one has one foot in the unseen realm, one's view of it may be simply a projection of what one already has seen, and a more considered view is needed.<br />
<br />
That point is indeed
consistent with the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>.
Wisdom is in part to know and discriminate among the spheres, and what goes with what. However I
still do not see any action implied in the card; it is about knowledge,
not action, perhaps including musical knowledge, listening to the
harmony of the spheres, for the Ennead, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span> proclaims, it:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>brings
numbers together and makes them play in concert, it is is called
'concord' and 'limitation,' and also 'sun,' in the sense that it gathers
things together</b>.[Translator's note: <span style="font-style: italic;">Helios </span>(sun) is linked with<span style="font-style: italic;"> halizein</span> (gather together)] (p. 106).
</div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1kynq5KnPifZUXQY2_HgM1P6ESR_HHaOIlRV5CAWYDxOsZ2iyFFmZqF8R3Chyjw-ipzda1nKyilfjoc7efdoqAVxvrCfjibrWXj1OtA08GIMtn4McYgfDHFqH-WzNn65V4iuRxYPKpuI5/s1600/Swords09.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1kynq5KnPifZUXQY2_HgM1P6ESR_HHaOIlRV5CAWYDxOsZ2iyFFmZqF8R3Chyjw-ipzda1nKyilfjoc7efdoqAVxvrCfjibrWXj1OtA08GIMtn4McYgfDHFqH-WzNn65V4iuRxYPKpuI5/s320/Swords09.jpg" width="183" /></a></div>
Waite, with his view (expressed earlier by de Mellet) that Swords are a suit of misfortune, has kept the Etteilla school's Reverseds but ignored completely their Uprights, and furthermore using his new Uprights as the theme of the image on the card (at right). Here is what he says about it: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>One seated on her couch in lamentation, with the swords over her. She is
as one who knows no sorrow which is like unto hers. It is a card of
utter desolation. <i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: Death, failure, miscarriage, delay, deception, disappointment, despair. <i>Reversed</i>: Imprisonment, suspicion, doubt, reasonable fear, shame.</b></blockquote>
This is taking misfortune much too far, in my opinion. Nine is a number of transcendence, even of venturing forth beyond the limits of the cosmos itself. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIac7eWGKLmucRl7lBmq1FCSqot5GfFfmP48ca1JncN9wh1mxLpHdQVpl-dts27LKSQTdMi-8K4Ui2_BrW5xuAKr-WfesEM32QuOuSpwkXcxeredSdJyQ0qdRqW171VkhgpIKLrnCC8uzT/s1600/09C_Sola_BuscaSM.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIac7eWGKLmucRl7lBmq1FCSqot5GfFfmP48ca1JncN9wh1mxLpHdQVpl-dts27LKSQTdMi-8K4Ui2_BrW5xuAKr-WfesEM32QuOuSpwkXcxeredSdJyQ0qdRqW171VkhgpIKLrnCC8uzT/s320/09C_Sola_BuscaSM.jpg" width="177" /></a>
On to Cups (below right). Di
Vincenzo says that the sea-creature is a Triton. The figure may have
been copied from a an Italian engraving of the late 15th century,
according to Hind (<span style="font-style: italic;">Early Italian Engraving</span>,
vol 2, Pl 149) done in the North of Italy but derived from a Florentine
original. I reproduce here the relevant detail of the engraving, its
central image. The circle containing the Triton is flanked by winged
putti along with a man on the left offering a ring and a woman on the
right offering a wreath.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibGrsv2pYVz7f2zOunjIQxp9LqkKqdNhO-54_ISorb70fAwuex_f68a2sN7YD72_Rvx1q7n47wW3og9r1qhSSWUGujzO_QWZjXVXspNGPUN40jwAXCrL7lwCinQFPkALP7ImKOUd4q4ZEu/s1600/09tritonCTR.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibGrsv2pYVz7f2zOunjIQxp9LqkKqdNhO-54_ISorb70fAwuex_f68a2sN7YD72_Rvx1q7n47wW3og9r1qhSSWUGujzO_QWZjXVXspNGPUN40jwAXCrL7lwCinQFPkALP7ImKOUd4q4ZEu/s200/09tritonCTR.jpg" width="200" /></a>"Triton"
was a generic term denoting a class of sea-demigods with the above
appearance. It also denoted a particular demigod, the son of
Poseidon and Amphitrite (<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triton_%28mythology">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triton_(mythology</a>).<br />
<br />
A complication is that Poseidon had another son, Proteus, by the
goddess Tethys, who was represented in the same way. Proteus had a
special ability that makes him a more attractive candidate for the
sea-creature on the card (and here I am agreeing with <a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Cups_Sola_Busca">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Cups_Sola_Busca</a>).
He could change his shape at will, thereby making him a candidate for
the alchemists' elusive Mercurius. The legend was that whoever caught
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhofJjU6Mz0Sv04b44U1ZSPLtLsCN4Lwq-rYhB1uTksdAXYJ-TQBWRAmQcgBRjaJuSWLYV89-lPrrhRJURm8BQcbYtEz9TJRU7I-K3moLVThSNx_HO6FwyUWPzmrXdoOtIKT-rFYC6xRJ7c/s1600/09MoreTriton.gif" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhofJjU6Mz0Sv04b44U1ZSPLtLsCN4Lwq-rYhB1uTksdAXYJ-TQBWRAmQcgBRjaJuSWLYV89-lPrrhRJURm8BQcbYtEz9TJRU7I-K3moLVThSNx_HO6FwyUWPzmrXdoOtIKT-rFYC6xRJ7c/s200/09MoreTriton.gif" width="196" /></a>him, despite these changes, would be able to make him prophesy. At right is
how Alciato depicted him in his<span style="font-style: italic;"> Emblemata</span> of 1551 (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.mun.ca/alciato/e183.html">http://www.mun.ca/alciato/e183.html</a>). (And yes, I know that he is shown with horse's legs; but that doesn't differentiate him from Triton; Triton, too, was sometimes shown that way; see <a class="postlink" href="http://www.theoi.com/Pontios/Triton.html">http://www.theoi.com/Pontios/Triton.html</a>.)<br />
<br />
Alciato's text (first published 1531) below the image reads: <br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>O
Proteus, old man of Pallene, with the form of an actor, who at one
moment takes the limbs o</b><b>f a man, at another those of a beast, come tell
us why you turn into all shapes, so that, forever changing, you have no
fixed form?</b></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>I bring forth symbols of antiquity and a primaeval age, of which each man dreams, according to his wishes.</b></div>
</blockquote>
The
motto, above the image, reads: <b>"All that is most ancient is a lie."</b>
That's quite a statement for someone like Alciati, who makes his living
concocting emblems based on ancient mythology. However it fits in with
Proteus's answer in the text, that the earliest myths, like dreams, are
just wish-fulfillment fantasies.<br />
<br />
Here is an alchemical reference to Proteus as a form of Mercurius, by Heinrich Khunruth (1560-1605) (<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proteus">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proteus</a>):<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>our
Catholick Mercury, by virtue of his universal fiery spark of the light
of nature, is beyond doubt Proteus, the sea god of the ancient pagan
sages, who hath the key to the sea and …power over all things, son of
Oceanos and Tethys. </b>(From <span style="font-style: italic;">Von hylealischen Chaos</span> p. 54f, as quoted in Carl Jung, <span style="font-style: italic;">Mysterium Coniunctionus</span> p. 56.).</div>
</blockquote>
The
SB character, whoever he is, has five cups in the air. while he holds
onto four with ropes. He is like an accomplished juggler. But it seems
to me that the upper cups may also be balloons, held down by similar
ropes as hold the lower ones. Then is the character an impostor? Or would that be to jump to unwarranted conclusions?<br />
<br />
Di Vincenzo's comments
that the creature<b> "represents the end of a course, the completion of a
cycle, and the beginning of a new life."</b> For in the Nines, besides
completing something, as befitting 3x3 (3 as the number of beginnings,
middles, and ends), we are starting a return to the Source. She sees
the creature as a representative of<b> "Primitive energies preserved by
the water,</b>" yet in a merely personal way, as <b>"hereditary components,
aspects of the personality present in the individual even before birth"</b>
(p.51).<br />
<br />
The perspective of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span> is similar, but also grander. We see the similarity in some of the names it gives the Ennead. One is <br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>'finishing post,' because it has been organized as the goal and, as it were, turning-point of advancement.</b></div>
</blockquote>
Similarly, it is <br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>'Terpsichore,'
because the recurrence of the principles and their convergence on it as
if from an end to a mid-point and to the beginning is like the turning
and revolution of a dance</b>. [Translator's note: Terpsichore, one of the
Muses, is assimilated to <span style="font-style: italic;">trepein</span> (to turn) and <span style="font-style: italic;">chorus</span> (dance); in fact, her name means 'delighter in dance.'] (p. 107)</div>
</blockquote>
Both
as Proteus and as number, it is the origin of everything, the beginning
that contains, like St. Christopher's Christ-child, all the spheres of
being.<br />
<br />
Di Vincenzo shows some awareness of this cosmic aspect of the card when she comments that nine<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>...is
the number of the angelic choirs, and of the infernal circles, the
number of Muses, the parts of the universe in the Orphean
philosophy...It is also that of the days and nights required for the
creation in Hesiod's <span style="font-style: italic;">Theogony</span>
as well as the months required for the completion of the human fetus in
the maternal womb, followed by the actual birth.</b> (p. 50.)</div>
</blockquote>
Similarly the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span> says:<b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOG7W75yWIlVd3bi2Wh2TFNSm_9LbqDvYXdUm6Rq_4DGr7HUsca4T5y3nppt9GXhRoXgeR9wkgwm9T1zDMBRKVvnlWGnHq8cmkUNvCIPl3eoeIc3vMjCCu_r07cwQ5iag2Bt29qIlf2eo6ko9vYdZqzq7FW7JbUBHaYi7AX6YkygjJafgvOYhPVSKlug/s1391/Grand'Etteilla%2009Cu.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1391" data-original-width="790" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOG7W75yWIlVd3bi2Wh2TFNSm_9LbqDvYXdUm6Rq_4DGr7HUsca4T5y3nppt9GXhRoXgeR9wkgwm9T1zDMBRKVvnlWGnHq8cmkUNvCIPl3eoeIc3vMjCCu_r07cwQ5iag2Bt29qIlf2eo6ko9vYdZqzq7FW7JbUBHaYi7AX6YkygjJafgvOYhPVSKlug/s320/Grand'Etteilla%2009Cu.jpg" width="182" /></a></div></b><blockquote class="uncited"><div><b>The
Ennead is the first square based on an odd number. It too is called
'that which brings completion,' and it completes nine-month children,
moreover it is called 'perfect,' because it is arises out of 3, which
is a perfect number.</b></div>
</blockquote>
Etteilla and his school seem to express the <i>Theology</i>'s cosmic perspective in the Uprights, and aspects of the Triton in his Reverseds: its freedom and also the primitiveness that Di Vincenzo describes<br />
<blockquote>
41. ETTEILLA 9 OF CUPS: VICTORY, Success, Attainment, Advantage, Profit. Pomp,
Triumph, Trophy, <b>Pre-Eminence, Superiority</b>, <i>Majesty.</i> Spectacle, Pageantry, Paraphernalia.
REVERSED: SINCERITY, Truth, Reality, Loyalty, <b>Good Faith</b>, Frankness, Artlessness, <i>Naivete</i>, <b>Candor, Romantic
Overture, Unaffectedness</b>. Liberty, License, Freedom, Familiarity, Boldness, Ease, Licentiousness.</blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Waite's corresponding image has much of the energy and fantasy of the<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAndCpVAUSwX9tEVPfP9RUyxL1v5irdgLPYvbQs-6qZAAFwmRz_nxdokw_IIiv_Gh9JcXNB-SFtwHriF2aU4pHZxa4qhJPyqhh_0fXiGvJrpADcbE18QeALzRzeLl0p3WpuhKFLxEAee8P/s1600/Cups09.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAndCpVAUSwX9tEVPfP9RUyxL1v5irdgLPYvbQs-6qZAAFwmRz_nxdokw_IIiv_Gh9JcXNB-SFtwHriF2aU4pHZxa4qhJPyqhh_0fXiGvJrpADcbE18QeALzRzeLl0p3WpuhKFLxEAee8P/s320/Cups09.jpg" width="181" /></a></div>
SB 9 of Cups, but without any of the specific mythology. He comments:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>A goodly personage has feasted to his heart's content, and abundant
refreshment of wine is on the arched counter behind him, seeming to
indicate that the future is also assured. The picture offers the
material side only, but there are other aspects. <i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: Concord, contentment, physical <i>bien-être</i>; also victory, success, advantage; satisfaction for the Querent or person for whom the consultation is made. <i>Reversed</i>: Truth, loyalty, liberty; but the readings vary and include mistakes, imperfections, etc.</b></blockquote><p>
The only thing Pythagorean here is the idea of the goal attained, the great achievement of reaching the 9th sphere, and perhaps the "there are other aspects." The reference to the ocean--and hence to the 9th sphere above the stars--and the protean character at home in it has no specific equivalent, unless one imagines that perhaps the person is some kind of sorcerer, if only one whose tools are words, gestures, talismans, and wands.</p><p>The last of our Nines is Coins (SB near right), a man face down in the
fire that heats the discs above him. This is the SB's equivalent of
Waite's 9 of Swords, the one permeated by death and despair. But there
is a difference.
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNWLCGk9gYPtEVgiZlSDLgsmOFql4a40DiCR_HSu_DaAXFXaocT_Q3LpXwQuJHT4-6bzATISTRHooi5m3v5hTJdhbhcxS8S9e64ruVfuFoFhTbkkjhli82_o05N1pq7ew1XXxIhdGwRWh4EmsnXEoz2QxG5MxzKaPNT9-sur9_dB_pwNVJTrBitOEU_A/s675/imgonline-com-ua-twotoone-DeIqLHlbBqFzFu.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="675" height="381" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNWLCGk9gYPtEVgiZlSDLgsmOFql4a40DiCR_HSu_DaAXFXaocT_Q3LpXwQuJHT4-6bzATISTRHooi5m3v5hTJdhbhcxS8S9e64ruVfuFoFhTbkkjhli82_o05N1pq7ew1XXxIhdGwRWh4EmsnXEoz2QxG5MxzKaPNT9-sur9_dB_pwNVJTrBitOEU_A/w640-h381/imgonline-com-ua-twotoone-DeIqLHlbBqFzFu.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
If the 8 of Coins was a <span style="font-style: italic;">Mortificatio</span>,
the 9 looks even more so. A human-identified figure in a fire is not
that uncommon in alchemy, for example in Emblem 23 of Michael Maier’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Atalanta Fugiens</span>, where the figure on the fire is Antimony, an agent of transformation, symbolized by the wolf (far right). The fire destroys the wolf, so that the result is a return to the form the substance had in the beginning, but now re-vivified. <br />
<br />
In
the SB image, the discs above the fire have the appearance of the
triangular Hexad, one of the "perfect" numbers; but there are actually
seven. Besides them, there is one above and one below, suggesting the
goal, heaven, and the starting-point, earth. The realm of soul is in
between. The next perfect number, in fact the most perfect, is the
Decad.<br />
<br />
In alchemy,
the result is a return to the beginning in purified form, like the King who walks away in Meier's image. . That was one
of the roles of Proteus, whom we met in Cups. The discs above the fire
are like the dead king, which will emerge purified and
perfected in the decad. <br />
<br />
In the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>,
one deity associated with the Ennead, we have seen, is Terpsichore,
which it says means "turning around." Nine is the number which begins
the return to the Monad on a higher level, actualized and purified by
its ascension through the numbers. Another deity that the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span> associates with the Ennead is Haephestus, whose Roman name was Vulcan:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>They
used to call it 'Hephaestus,' because the way up to it is, as it were,
by smelting and evaporation..</b>.[Translator's note: Haephestus was the
metallurgical god; perhaps the image is supposed to suggest that
'smelting' is the fusion of monads into the sequence of numbers, but
the monad is not exhausted--some part of it evaporates,' in the sense
that it can continue the sequence.] (p. 106)</div>
</blockquote>
Thus we see the ninth disc at the very top of the pile, perhaps corresponding to "evaporation" in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>.
The discs in the container are like the Rebus. The man on the fire is
like Mercurius, the agent of transformation. The alchemist participates in all of this.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEEO-61mBgxE2cQQWb6Hqzj5DxWjbXJqGyVMiX3dA2TPWTcWpP78Jrgj7OMlx_P6eL8GM7x38Qhqrj2_grh3oHEzZErvv7U_frDvp3DqLmDHwLUAm2xKdKJlVQhg7HRBRtE68ZICXDqiKvo2mkfIRMgMmrfIfxNn9fVSiEk31DAXaBO0ZFccxIORFvLw/s1391/Grand'Etteilla%2009Co.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1391" data-original-width="801" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEEO-61mBgxE2cQQWb6Hqzj5DxWjbXJqGyVMiX3dA2TPWTcWpP78Jrgj7OMlx_P6eL8GM7x38Qhqrj2_grh3oHEzZErvv7U_frDvp3DqLmDHwLUAm2xKdKJlVQhg7HRBRtE68ZICXDqiKvo2mkfIRMgMmrfIfxNn9fVSiEk31DAXaBO0ZFccxIORFvLw/s320/Grand'Etteilla%2009Co.jpg" width="184" /></a><br />
That the fire, however painful, burns to a good end is
reflected in the "Etteilla" Uprights. The Reverseds, it seems to me,
describe the false alchemist, the deceiver or "puffer," as other
alchemists called them, who claimed to be able to turn base metals into
gold--and even gave demonstrations if pressed enough.<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
No. 69. 9
OF COINS: EFFECT, Sequel, Consequence, Result, Consequence, Evidence, Accomplishment. Evidence, Conviction, Conclusion. Event, Execution, Achievement, Perfection, Goods, Furniture [Meubles], <b>Real Estate </b>[Immeubles]. REVERSED: TRICKERY, Deceit, Surprise, Error, <b>Deception Hour</b> [Heure Supercherie],<i> Snare</i>, Fraud, Cheat, Ruse, Deception, Sleight of Hand, Swindle,
Infidelity.</div>
</blockquote>
The Reverseds perhaps also owe something to Alciato, for whom Proteus was a symbol of primordial wish-fulfillment.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbT6GCpSyFn9nKmFv7Tsu7jMBuzYSrS5BqeQc0z8soSss9O3tVS0XBCUIAn8jS9jTCM93mjThyphenhyphen3uhhG2qSYynHB6retV_uu0G5M7aAJNGfI1ip8F8uSEuGQU2hDs2fZEUoWuhCUkR5n4xo/s1600/Pents09.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbT6GCpSyFn9nKmFv7Tsu7jMBuzYSrS5BqeQc0z8soSss9O3tVS0XBCUIAn8jS9jTCM93mjThyphenhyphen3uhhG2qSYynHB6retV_uu0G5M7aAJNGfI1ip8F8uSEuGQU2hDs2fZEUoWuhCUkR5n4xo/s320/Pents09.jpg" width="183" /></a></div>
Again, Waite copies the Etteilla school's list, while as usual missing the dynamish of transformation in favor of reducing the meaning to that of the suit sign, in this case "material well-being". <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>A woman, with a bird upon her wrist, stands amidst a great abundance of
grapevines in the garden of a manorial house. It is a wide domain,
suggesting plenty in all things. Possibly it is her own possession and
testifies to material well-being. <i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: Prudence, safety, success, accomplishment, certitude, discernment. <i>Reversed</i>: Roguery, deception, voided project, bad faith.</b> </blockquote>
All that from a Pythagorean perspective is admirable here is the arrangement of the discs, in three groups of three, like the Curetes or, in a different setting, the choirs of angels of pseudo-Dionysius. <br />
<br />
<b>CONCLUSION</b><br />
<br />
To sum up, in Etteilla and in the SB, all the 9s reflect the theme of transcendence of the sensible
world into the angelic or supersensible world, which is also the main
theme, I believe, of the Marseille-style Hermit. This Pythagorean sense of the 9s, the ecstatic dance of Terpsicore and the Curetes, which we see in different ways in all four SB 9s, has been captured in two of Smith's designs. One that does not fit is Swords, which has a weeping young lady in a bed with nine swords above her. The other is Batons, where a man uses the 9th baton to lean on while waiting for an adversary. Only one of the Smith cards seems to owe anything to the SB, namely, Cups, so: 25%.<br />
<br />
For his part, Waite has largely stuck to Etteilla's divinatory meanings, except those for the Uprights in Swords. Also, he has added comments pertaining to the meaning of the individual suits: misfortune in Swords, feasting in Cups, material well-being in Coins, strength (?) in Batons. So 95% for 3, 45% for 1, average 83%.<br />
<br />
It is the about the same percentage for Waite's Pythagorean content--well, perhaps less, because Waite's "Strength in opposition" in Batons/Wands is expressed in a personal rather than impersonal way, hence cosmic sense. Etteilla avoids this pitfall. So around 75% for Waite and Smith, 90% for Etteilla for conformity to Pythagoreanism.Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677044918876619054.post-35167358640944140382012-05-15T22:15:00.027-07:002023-03-28T13:43:38.092-07:00Wheel and Tens<p>Here is how du Bartas finishes his series of verses on the first ten numbers:</p><blockquote><b>The <i>Ten, </i>which doth all Numbers force combine:<br />The <i>Ten</i>, which makes, as <i>One </i>the <i>Point,</i> the <i>Line:</i><br />The <i>Figure,</i> th' <i>Hundred, Thousand </i>(solid corps)<br />Which, oft re-doubled, on th'<i> Atlantic</i> shores<br />Can sum the sand, and all the drops distilling<br />From weeping <i>Auster,</i> or the Ocean filling.</b></blockquote>Auster is Latin for the South Wind. The number for the point is 1. The number for the line is 2 (a minimum of two points define a line) and for the figure 3 (a minimum of three points define a plane figure). How the Ten makes them as One I am not sure about: perhaps it is simply that in Arabic numerals, 10 has a 1 in it. It is likewise the magic of Arabic numerals that adding zeros turns Ten into a Hundred, a Thousand, and more, enough to sum up the grains of sand and the drops of water in the ocean.<p>The number 10, like the 1, is the number of God, but this time
fully realized rather than existing in potential. It includes not just
the material universe, as in the case of the 4, but the soul in all its
microcosmic and macrocosmic manifestation--in the ten spheres of being
as well as in the soul of humans. Here what Agrippa says about 10 is
especially relevant: <br />
</p><blockquote>
<b>This number also is as circular as
unity, because being heaped together, returns into a unity, from whence
it had its beginning, and is the end, and perfection of all numbers,
and the beginning of tens. As the number ten flows back into a unity,
from whence it proceeded, so everything that is flowing is returned
back to that from which it had the beginning of its flux. </b>(Book II,
Ch. XIII, p. 287 of Tyson's edition.) </blockquote>
By "<b>heaped
together,</b>" Tyson explains, Agrippa means when when the numbers 1 to 10
are added together, they total 55, the numerals of which added together
totals 10, which added together totals 1.<br />
<br />
The Wheel of Fortune, from this perspective, shows an entire cycle, first rising in the world to reach the top, then a decline downward toward the beginning point again. Then the cycle repeats, just as the numbers repeat after 10. Eleven is the One over again, but on a higher level (we will have an example when we get to the Pages) and so on.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijmbaKdcSN75QTAdzVLLrbSzIornIFVPHl3hA1sXrD6Ck833vFT-1p6azg1X2MeVbmBtKtvTa_R7F79uP54DEgIvfct6-EEQ4fIk9YgydFZOWUptX_fjUS7Fs6cG2-WDkhxLKCqrWS_eNi20Rkt3yl5jgkZm0kEEIWHkv3YXt-SSo-bhPJzjgahxlDtg/s1334/10Grand'EtteillaWheel.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1334" data-original-width="732" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijmbaKdcSN75QTAdzVLLrbSzIornIFVPHl3hA1sXrD6Ck833vFT-1p6azg1X2MeVbmBtKtvTa_R7F79uP54DEgIvfct6-EEQ4fIk9YgydFZOWUptX_fjUS7Fs6cG2-WDkhxLKCqrWS_eNi20Rkt3yl5jgkZm0kEEIWHkv3YXt-SSo-bhPJzjgahxlDtg/s320/10Grand'EtteillaWheel.jpg" width="176" /></a><br />
Etteilla's card here is his number 20, which presents life governed by this card as a kind of "rat race" dictated by the King of the Rats himself. The keywords are "Fortune" and "Augmentation," i.e. Increase (here I am continuing my practice of combining lists, putting words in d'Odoucet only (<i>Science des Signes, </i>vol. 2, 1806 or after, in archive.org) in bold and in de la Salette only (<i>Dictionnaire Synonimique, </i>ca. 1792, in archive.org) in italics. The translations are mine.<br />
<blockquote>
20. UPRIGHT: FORTUNE, Happiness, Felicity, Amelioration, Enhancement, <span><i>Blessing</i></span>, Prosperity. Goods, Riches, Advantages. Gifts, Favors. Fate, Destiny, Ventures, Good Fortune. REVERSED: INCREASE, Growth, Expansion, Abundance, Surplus. Development, Vegetation, Production.</blockquote>
Unlike the rather bleak image on the card, these
words are all positive, both Uprights and Reverseds. I don't know whether
the cartomantic tradition that Etteilla was drawing on did similarly,
or if Etteilla just had the good business sense to know that positive
fortunes are more popular than negative ones. The main difference is that the Reverseds are not as fully realized as the Uprights.<br />
<br />
In Minchiate, as I said in the previous section, card number 10 is the Chariot, immediately following the Wheel. In this case, the Wheel's has resulted in a personal triumph, a fitting conclusion to the series. Number 11, in Minchiate as in the Lombard tarot, will be the Hermit.<br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Tens: Sola-Busca, Etteilla, Waite.</span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<br />
From what the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology of Arithmetic</span>
says about the Ennead, that it marks a turning around to the beginning,
the source, one might expect that it would talk about the Decad as the
Monad in another form. There is some of that, in that it refers to both
as "God." But the Decad is not a new beginning; it is rather the
fulfillment of what the Monad began: it is the actuality of that which
the Monad was in potentiality. We can tell that by the epithets that it
lists for the Decad:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>Hence the
Pythagoreans in their theology called it sometimes ‘universe,’
sometimes ‘heaven,’ sometimes ‘all,’ sometimes ‘Fate’ and ‘Eternity’,
‘power’ and ‘trust’ and ‘Necessity,’ ‘Atlas’ and ‘unwearying,’ and
simply ‘God’ and ‘Phanes’ and ‘sun.’</b> (pp. 109-110)</div>
</blockquote>
Counting
to ten on our fingers, when we complete the count we are still on our
fingers. It is only at 11 that we start over, either on our toes or our
other hand again. It is the same in the Greek way of writing numerals.
One is alpha, Two is Beta, and so on up to Ten, which is Iota (<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_numerals">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_numerals</a>).
Then Eleven is not Kappa but rather Iota Alpha. The series starts over,
on a new level. It is not until Twenty that the letter Kappa is used,
and Twenty-one is Kappa Alpha, etc. Iota represents the entirety of
what has come before, and that letter followed by Alpha is the new
beginning. The Decad is thus the whole, of which the prior numbers are
the parts, and after which is only a repetition of what came before.<br />
<br />
In that spirit, I see the SB Tens as expressing different interpretations of life's wholes.<br />
<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheY8dcuZJ62Jg5Xrvyzwoq1k_U-TA7osOcxixW7S5ZG6lHayig_j7UuVH5zie3T6MFTsRJ76XQfxjQBeMZsG9pDJq6qancmaum53gwpS4hjba6t8sjycgqwNz7p9DI4b6CHLg97JS6PJVTNn4QjoctTGS8-VbA8AK2HGGkeh_hTucUjqEf7ZNiWKD1_w/s1538/10SWSBEtteilla.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1390" data-original-width="1538" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheY8dcuZJ62Jg5Xrvyzwoq1k_U-TA7osOcxixW7S5ZG6lHayig_j7UuVH5zie3T6MFTsRJ76XQfxjQBeMZsG9pDJq6qancmaum53gwpS4hjba6t8sjycgqwNz7p9DI4b6CHLg97JS6PJVTNn4QjoctTGS8-VbA8AK2HGGkeh_hTucUjqEf7ZNiWKD1_w/s320/10SWSBEtteilla.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>First,
in Swords (near right), the man's bent head suggests sorrow. All ten swords are in
his bag; the job is completed; what next? It is hard to let go of a
project once it is done. You want to keep going over something you've
written, for example, perfecting it, adding things you missed, etc. You
realize its imperfections; it was not as grand as you had hoped. One
might imagine the Creator-god feeling that way, surveying his creation
in these latter days. It all works, but with such suffering, such
antagonisms, such refusal to accept what He has wrought. The demiurge
grieves. <p></p><p>The Etteilla school's keywords and synonyms seem made to order for the SB card:<br />
</p><blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
54. ETTEILLA
10 OF SWORDS: TEARS, Weeping, Sobs, Crying, Sobs, Groans, Sighs, Moans,
Lamentations, Complaints, Ailments, Grief, Sadness, Distress, <i>Jeremiad,
Lay [Poetry], Desolation</i>. REVERSED: ADVANTAGE.<i> </i>3rd Cahier: Unfortunate event which turns to advantage. Lists:
Gain, Profit, Success. Favor, Gift, Kind Deed.
Influence, Ability, Empire, Authority, Power, Usurpation.</div>
</blockquote>
The Uprights very much capture the feeling of the SB card. The
Reverseds suggest the other side of affliction when it occurs by virtue
of force of arms. One man's sorrow is another's victory. The Reverseds
draw on a tradition that the suit of Swords connoted the soldier and
warfare. So the most of Swords would be the most of warfare, which
results in the most of sorrow for one side and the most in victory, if
not always happiness, for the other.<br />
<br />
It is a peculiarity of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology's</span>
concept of Fate that it is an apprehension of the future perceived not
by some sort of trance-state but by conscious rationality. In the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>, one of the epithets of the Decad is Fate.<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>Again,
they called it ‘Fate,’ because there is no attribute, either among
numbers or among things which have been formed by numbers, which is not
sown in the decad and the numbers within it, and does not also extend,
in the remaining series, step by step, to what follows the decad, and
Fate is as it were a connected and orderly result. </b>[Translator’s note: <span style="font-style: italic;">Heimarmene</span><span style="font-style: italic;">heirmos</span> (series)]<b>.</b> (Fate) is here related to (p. 110) </div>
</blockquote>
To
the Pythagoreans, number is what makes possible a rational order in a
universe with limitless possibilities. Number equals Fate, the law of
God to which, like the man in Swords, all must bow down. What physicist
today would disagree? The upside of Fate in this sense, according to
the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>, is trust:
because God works by numbers, the future will be like the past. The sun
will rise tomorrow not because it always has, in our experience, but
because the numbers say it will. Again, this is something with which
both Newton and Einstein would agree.<br />
<br />
What is more, from the ten numbers of the Decad alone, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>
declares, it is possible to know the laws of the whole universe, in
microcosm. For example, if 6x6 results in a number ending in 6, the
same will be true of all powers of 6 <i>ad infinitum</i>. A less intuitive
example is that the sequence of squares is generated by the successive
sums of odd numbers, i.e. 1+3=4, 1+3+5=9, 1+3+5+7=16, and so on. By
reason, knowing that the universe is inherently comprehensible, we
apprehend fate, with trust that the order will continue. This
principle, that the macrocosm is like the microcosm, has served
scientists well. The same numeric laws that govern the apple falling on
Newton's head govern the movements of the planets.<br />
<br />
How, then,
can knowing our fate by reason bring sorrow and submission? A mundane
example is when one's expenses habitually are more than one's income.
One is fated to end up with debt. In classical literature, a
non-quantitative example is Sophocles' Oedipus. He goes about
intellectually solving the problem of why Thebes is suffering from
plague. In the process, he learns his own origins, and thereby deduces
by intellect that he is the problem with Thebes, that he must leave,
and that he must atone for his <i>hybris</i>. In self-exiling and
self-blinding, he submits to the powers of fate he had previously
sought to avoid. Thus indeed, his intellectual task is finished, in
great sorrow and all the other words in the Etteilla school's word list. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXySAktPUShyphenhypheny6nn4m3jYDVE4yL2CJe3NgvyyT24UTxHyTIBlxXecsZlZ9LbS2Z-hOVYrF4VbeTGgWr0Cniia7Kjl5Nl6TU_gaAVKdBU3WwdV8gxM81miOVFFttS3vEDDZrnnh492URsqn/s1600/Swords10.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXySAktPUShyphenhypheny6nn4m3jYDVE4yL2CJe3NgvyyT24UTxHyTIBlxXecsZlZ9LbS2Z-hOVYrF4VbeTGgWr0Cniia7Kjl5Nl6TU_gaAVKdBU3WwdV8gxM81miOVFFttS3vEDDZrnnh492URsqn/s320/Swords10.jpg" width="185" /></a>
Waite, for his part, has again copied the Etteilla school's list.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>A prostrate figure, pierced by all the swords belonging to the card. <i>Divinatory Meanings</i>:
Whatsoever is intimated by the design; also pain, affliction, tears,
sadness, desolation. It is not especially a card of violent death. <i>Reversed</i>: Advantage, profit, success, favour, but none of these are permanent; also power and authority.</b></blockquote>
The image, however, is a bit much, and in fact no different, except for the gender of the victim, from his 9 of Swords. The SB's figure was at least left standing, perhaps to grieve in the midst of victory, like Tolstoy's Pierre at Borodino (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_and_Peace">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_and_Peace</a>), for all the suffering and all that has been left unachieved.<br />
<br />
I will move on to Batons (at right). It is another view of a completed
whole. I see it as the commemorative tomb of a man whose life was spent honorably and well. It is also the positive side of the creator's work: a world of beauty in which suffering is the ladder toward moral loftiness. <br />
<br />
Here
I like Di Vinzenzo's statement of the card's significance, which also
points to the downside of honor, namely, going after honor too much,
with too much self-pride.<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvH6fXPvZrwYXB4HNbgpmaanspf2hkwRfJYdTqrmkcx8PKeeObn0w0iiJIgPhIZH_CZkdypUOSoMM-robvf4f1gUDvIBM1xJxCO-vBGmMHWClX8lzRYtthspKHwfo4W7nawHAOqT6UrIOzU8IrYrWwMSGx1aBfmjddHQgYPl6EXtC90dCI7haKgcuygA/s1539/10BaSBEtteilla.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1386" data-original-width="1539" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvH6fXPvZrwYXB4HNbgpmaanspf2hkwRfJYdTqrmkcx8PKeeObn0w0iiJIgPhIZH_CZkdypUOSoMM-robvf4f1gUDvIBM1xJxCO-vBGmMHWClX8lzRYtthspKHwfo4W7nawHAOqT6UrIOzU8IrYrWwMSGx1aBfmjddHQgYPl6EXtC90dCI7haKgcuygA/s320/10BaSBEtteilla.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">Significance:
Display one’s successes with pride. Successes in public life,
professional rewards, fame, glory. Also, excessive self-love,
ostentation of one’s status, narcissism, longing to distinguish oneself
at all costs.</span> (p. 119).</div>
</blockquote>
I would add that there
is the danger of achieving the appearance of honor only, and not the
real thing, Plato talked about the life of the man of honor,
both positively and negatively, in Book VIII of his <span style="font-style: italic;">Republic</span> (545ff).<br />
<br />
The
"Ettella" Uprights seem to pick up on just the negative side of the man
of honor, i.e. the appearance of honor, not its realization. The
Reverseds focus on another negative, the difficulties someone might
achieve in the completion of one's goal.<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
26. ETTEILLA
10 OF BATONS: TREASON. 3rd Cahier: Betrayal. Lists: Perfidy, Trickery, Deception, Cunning, Surprise,
Disguise, Dissimulation, Hypocrisy, Prevarication, Duplicity,
Disloyalty, Darkness, <i>Villainy,</i> Falsity.
Conspiracy, Imposture. REVERSED: OBSTACLE, <b>Haste</b> <b>[Empressement]</b>, <i>Impediment [Empechement]</i>.<b> Bar, Hindrance, </b>Contrariety, <b>Difficulty,</b> <i>Disadvantage</i><b>, Toil</b>, <i>Adversity,</i> Pain. <b>Inconvenience, Abjectness, Chicanery, Complaint, Pitfall, Hate [or Hedge; Haie], Entrenchment, Redoubt, Fortification, </b><i>Bad Luck, Misfortune, Calamity.<b><br /></b></i></div>
</blockquote>
This does not seem to me one of the better efforts of the Etteilla school; the Reverseds should have been more positive.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3GFCY_9Sycw0KVnaaZjAbs6kUCyW5LYKS4K9dRbPx2KR5vOOalUC3ZSqyn7_iIeUl8hmbzqd3w1rGA0GPgGNntnVUO852u1o-w-20UqnkrhtYz1NW4NIHL2-5dSXntsZ3XFBJvA6zMPuS/s1600/Wands10.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3GFCY_9Sycw0KVnaaZjAbs6kUCyW5LYKS4K9dRbPx2KR5vOOalUC3ZSqyn7_iIeUl8hmbzqd3w1rGA0GPgGNntnVUO852u1o-w-20UqnkrhtYz1NW4NIHL2-5dSXntsZ3XFBJvA6zMPuS/s320/Wands10.jpg" width="185" /></a></div>
Here Smith took for Wands what the SB had for Swords. Meanwhile, Waite struggles with the task of fitting the Etteilla school's word-list for Batons to this image from the SB Swords:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>A man oppressed by the weight of the ten staves which he is carrying. <i>Divinatory Meanings</i>:
A card of many significances, and some of the readings cannot be
harmonized. I set aside that which connects it with honour and good
faith. The chief meaning is oppression simply, but it is also fortune,
gain, any kind of success, and then it is the oppression of these
things. It is also a card of false-seeming, disguise, perfidy. The place
which the figure is approaching may suffer from the rods that he
carries. Success is stultified if the Nine of Swords follows, and if it
is a question of a lawsuit, there will be certain loss. <i>Reversed</i>: Contrarieties, difficulties, intrigues, and their analogies.</b></blockquote>
In general this account, except for the repeated word "oppression"--put in because of the image chosen--is a better fit for the SB image for Batons than Etteilla's list, especially if we do not set aside "honor". The SB's elaborate tomb shows the man of honor, earned or not, after his death.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimoetr78iDHUqM6KMaeR0PeP3t4rpqonhWBpVYFexWki9_Ax3EK26L8QSSSnIqVMYDsEo1Xq8jC2We5J5wU_J3upI5BdnGxDGLDLOBdfhxE-o_GdXJwq4DuBQC_Os9GCE8yvapGaV9jLXG8Ro0bfakTj9Q0MBCLIvYStmsi4KTtFYgXfwUwYdkosJJRw/s1556/10CoSWEtteilla.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1407" data-original-width="1556" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimoetr78iDHUqM6KMaeR0PeP3t4rpqonhWBpVYFexWki9_Ax3EK26L8QSSSnIqVMYDsEo1Xq8jC2We5J5wU_J3upI5BdnGxDGLDLOBdfhxE-o_GdXJwq4DuBQC_Os9GCE8yvapGaV9jLXG8Ro0bfakTj9Q0MBCLIvYStmsi4KTtFYgXfwUwYdkosJJRw/s320/10CoSWEtteilla.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
In
Coins, I think the SB shows us another response to the completion of a
task, namely, to keep something undone, so as not to "close the lid,"
so to speak--or to keep something in reserve, so as not to put all
one's eggs in one basket, to commit everything.<br />
<br />
The "Etteilla" Uprights admittedly in this case do not fit a Pythagorean interpretation of the card. However, it will if one ignores the discs themselves to focus just on their container, be it a house or a safe deposit box. <br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
68. ETTEILLA
10 OF COINS: HOUSE, Household, Economy, Savings. Dwelling, Domicile,
Residence, Manor, Abode, Lodging, Hotel, Boutique Palace, Stall, Lodge, Shed, Building, Vessel, Vase. Archive, Castle, Cottage<i>. Cabin, Tent, Pavilion, Hostel, Inn, Cabaret, Bistro,
Tavern, Religious House, Monastery, Convent, Hermitage, Burial, Tomb,
Sepulcher, Stable</i>. Family, Extraction, Race, Line [c. 1838 only],
Posterity. Den, Cavern, Lair, <i>Retreat, House of the Zodiac.</i> REVERSED: LOTTERY, Lot, Fortune, Gambling, Fortunate or Unfortunate Situation,
Fate, Ignorance, Chance, Destiny, Destined,
Inevitability. <b>Fortunate or Unfortunate Occasion. </b><i>Arrest, Decree, Decision, Dowry, Legitimate,
Share, Division, Gift, Bonus, Pension, Occasion.</i></div>
</blockquote>
We
are now in the area of life--for some, the main part--in which the goal
is not honor but material things: money, possessions. The tradition
that saw Swords as associated with warfare also saw Coins as associated
with money an material wealth. De Mellet writes (in de Gebelin, <i>Le Monde Primitif,</i> vol. 8, p. 402, 1781, in Gallica):<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>Les Coupes en général annonçoient le bonheur, & les deniers la richesse.</b> <br /></div></blockquote><blockquote class="uncited"><div><b>(The Cups in general denote happiness, & the Coins riches.)</b> </div>
</blockquote>
On
the SB card, the box below the putto could be such a person's life
savings, or also his house and grounds, all that he will pass on to his
heirs. The dog scratching itself in front suggests to me the typical
placement of a dog, in front of a house as its guardian--in this case,
a rather preoccupied one.<br />
<br />
To keep back one coin, which is what I
see the putto doing, suggests to me a hedge against fate, which seems
to pull him to have everything deposited in the one place. If all else
is lost, the person will at least have something. Or if the one disc is
lost, he will still have the rest.<br />
<br />
The "Etteilla" Reverseds refer specifically to Fate. Let us recall the Neopythagorean concept of fate as spelled out in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>,
which I discussed in relation to Swords. It is a rational apprehension,
frequently too late, of what is in store for one. While our fate may be
deducible from the numbers, the problem is that we never seem to have
all the numbers we need. So perhaps the putto is wise to hesitate
before throwing in the last disc. Let us not tempt fate with the
illusion of security, i.e. the box guarded by the lazy dog. Perhaps we
should gamble our last disc, or invest it riskily, or hold it close to
ourselves instead of putting it someplace that appears safer. On the
other hand, perhaps there is no place
safer than the box.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd5gamNmMVndJ-h2z7Ie3ix-fFpKr_lEPV8I19W7NynXBPFsYv1i273iCLPH9OfX51rSYO6wySHRpmtHb4ltEqrNLEI1ucFJIwGQd0qvSWckAW5eXKA2nODxnl7M6902G5SCXtpnz2tbeF/s1600/Pents10.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd5gamNmMVndJ-h2z7Ie3ix-fFpKr_lEPV8I19W7NynXBPFsYv1i273iCLPH9OfX51rSYO6wySHRpmtHb4ltEqrNLEI1ucFJIwGQd0qvSWckAW5eXKA2nODxnl7M6902G5SCXtpnz2tbeF/s320/Pents10.jpg" width="186" /></a></div>
Waite has borrowed some elements from the SB, but making it conform more literally to the Etteilla school's word-lists.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>A man and woman beneath an archway which gives entrance to a house and
domain. They are accompanied by a child, who looks curiously at two dogs
accosting an ancient personage seated in the foreground. The child's
hand is on one of them. <i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: Gain, riches; family matters, archives, extraction, the abode of a family. <i>Reversed</i>: Chance, fatality, loss, robbery, games of hazard; sometimes gift, dowry, pension.</b> </blockquote>
So instead of a box we have the house. The SB's dog has become two dogs, more actively involved with the people, of whom three generations are represented: a full house, we might say. And we don't have to wonder about the one disc not yet there. Instead we have the array of the Kabbalists' "Tree of Life," although what it is doing there, in such a materialistic suit, is not clear.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG6IwdTWrslaVQW-xqzi3Sr3_N0Dzdl9Di_CPDT3s1UM9Di7QqJODlaOToJP4dD8nNkexLpUTWarFMkY6XsvStJInc58IzYkNm1_QqHC_b7-2I4fiRZ2r8Nv40dU_4c_p13LdMDWFA8H34Dt1XfdB9rATlSJ7tQuYMObm5eu6TEhVJE-PC4W6bZawl7g/s1541/10CuSBEtteilla.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1388" data-original-width="1541" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG6IwdTWrslaVQW-xqzi3Sr3_N0Dzdl9Di_CPDT3s1UM9Di7QqJODlaOToJP4dD8nNkexLpUTWarFMkY6XsvStJInc58IzYkNm1_QqHC_b7-2I4fiRZ2r8Nv40dU_4c_p13LdMDWFA8H34Dt1XfdB9rATlSJ7tQuYMObm5eu6TEhVJE-PC4W6bZawl7g/s320/10CuSBEtteilla.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Let us turn to the SB Ten of Cups (near right). This
card is rather similar to the Nine of Cups, but with a mature man's
face instead of the young sea-god. The cups seem to be dancing around
him. We may perhaps get a clue to its meaning from the "Etteilla."<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
ETTEILLA
10 OF CUPS: TOWN (LA VILLE). <i>3rd Cahier</i>: Town where one is<i>. </i>Lists<i>:</i> City, Homeland, Country, Market Town, Village, Place,
Site, Dwelling Place, House, Residence.—Citizen, <i>Citizenry, Town
Resident</i>. REVERSED: WRATH. 3rd Cahier: Prepared to lose. Lists: Indignation, Strife,
Irritation, Rage, Anger, Violence. Hate, Aversion,
<i>Blame,</i> Animosity, Antipathy, Resentment, Vengeance, Danger, Risk,
Peril, Injury, Affront, Outrage, <i>Blasphemy, </i>Thunderstorm, Tempest,
Squall. Cruelty, Inhumanity, Atrocity, <b>Enormity.</b><br /></div>
</blockquote>
A
traditional suit meaning for Cups was the town, in contrast to Batons,
which was the countryside. This can be seen in the essay by de
Mellet already quoted. First he explains that the French suit of Hearts (Coeurs, in French), corresponds to that of Cups in tarot, both signifying happiness (bonheur), while Diamonds (Carrreaux, in French) corresponds to Batons i, both signifying "indifference and the countryside" (p. 403) Then he adds (Ibid.): <br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div><b>Les coeurs & plus
particulierement le dix, dévoilent les événemens qui doivent arriver à
la ville. La coupe, symbole duc Sacerdoce, semble destinée à exprimer
Memphis & le sejour des Pontifes.</b> <br /></div></blockquote><blockquote class="uncited"><div><b>The hearts
& more particularly the Ten, reveal the events that must arrive at
the city. The cups, symbol of the priesthood, seem intended to express
Memphis & the stay of the Pontiffs.</b></div>
</blockquote>
So
in this highest of Cup number cards, we have a townsman, perhaps a shopkeeper
and his wares. The Reverseds perhaps indicate the hostility a
shopkeeper can generate if his wares are deemed too expensive, or of
poorer quality than is claimed for them. Or perhaps they turn against
the merchant for some reason unrelated to his services; perhaps he is a
Jew. I will expand on this point in a moment, but first I want to quote
Di Vicenzo on this card (<span style="font-style: italic;">Sola-Busca Tarot</span>, pp. 52-53). She is worth hearing at length:
<blockquote>
<b>The
number Ten represents fulfillment, the manifestation of the original
unity after working out the first nine numbers, the totality of the
universe, but also of man. It is the famous Pythagorean Tetraktys, in
which the source and the root of the whole of nature is found. The
Tetraktys forms a shape with ten points arranged on four planes
(1+2+3+4=10) . . .<br />
Ten is also the number of the Sphiroth [sic] of the Tree of Qabbalah . . .<br />
The face symbolizes the evolution of the human being from darkness to light, and represents the revelation, incomplete and fleeting, of the person . . .<br />
The card symbolically represents the achievement of
individuality during the last phases of pregnancy. At the same time, it
describes the moment in which the individual, perfectly mature and
aware, gets ready to resume the road back to the bosom of divinity.<br /><i>Significance:
A face surrounded by ewers—deep reflection is required. Maturity,
completeness, end of a cycle, or doubts, perplexity, well-grounded
fears, perspicacity</i>.</b></blockquote>
I did not understand the point about pregnancy. It would make more sense if the word there were "life" instead of "pregnancy"; perhaps there was an error in translation. I liked very much that she noticed the man's look of apprehension and other emotions. It is indeed a wonderful face. There are indeed ten sefiroth; what follows in that paragraph is just more about the Tree; what it has to do with the card was not developed. Not every ten is relevant. Yet the layout on the card is not far out of line. And the comparison might have a special
appropriateness, if the man in the middle might be a Jew. Since Jews
were generally forbidden to own land, they were the quintessential
town-dwellers. Cups is associated with the town. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTcjntyUeqayEmeOaAeFjXaIBrPR7UvM3sxBkGKxkucuyCoED756o_lp-jLI5EsSjh1kHO8hPTU2ChbRGFnlrY1ZVqjZVGX_530fb_QrRaINqmvzyqJgTwho78zC24_BnmhNRKod_htFwURZAJx0YHJJ6_DijoNNEJaO19d1Chn920oefSRGF4wZDiJg/s560/ma-233196-WEB.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="560" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTcjntyUeqayEmeOaAeFjXaIBrPR7UvM3sxBkGKxkucuyCoED756o_lp-jLI5EsSjh1kHO8hPTU2ChbRGFnlrY1ZVqjZVGX_530fb_QrRaINqmvzyqJgTwho78zC24_BnmhNRKod_htFwURZAJx0YHJJ6_DijoNNEJaO19d1Chn920oefSRGF4wZDiJg/w400-h297/ma-233196-WEB.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>To me the face itself suggests Jewishness. It
invites comparison to that of King Solomon in a wedding chest painting by Marco Zoppo, late 15th century Ferrara. Solomon is conducting a test like that of the true and false
mother; here the putative sons of a deceased man are commanded to shoot
arrows at the body of their father. Only the true son, protesting at
right in the detail below, refuses. It
may only be the beards on the left-hand figures that make me think
this, all rather like Solomon's. But Jews were not the only one to wear
beards in Renaissance Italy; Alfonso d'Este the duke-apparent of
Ferrara, wore one, and also the Doge of Venice,(<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agostino_Barbarigo">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agostino_Barbarigo</a>).<br />
<br />
The
conditions of Jews at that time may be relevant to the card. The
numerous Jews in Ferrara had much the same rights as other citizens,
and no forced labels on their clothing (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=116&letter=F#288">http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view. ... tter=F#288</a>).
Yet there were occasional indignities--and special taxes to be paid.
There was also the ranting of preachers, which Leonelo and Pope
Nicholas V had combined to suppress. Ercole lifted the special taxes,
as the <i>Jewish Encyclopedia</i> relates:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>in
1473 Duke Ercole I. declared, probably in answer to the pope's request
for their expulsion, that in the interest of the duchy he could not
spare them, and that he would therefore relieve them not only from all
special burdens, but also from the payment of the sums formerly
extorted as taxes by papal legates.</b></div>
</blockquote>
But the situation could change at any time--and probably did, after the Estensi lost power in 1598..<br />
<br />
The
situation in nearby Venice was much worse; there were occasional forced
baptisms, and in 1480, the killing of three in a "blood libel" case (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Venice.html">http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jso ... enice.html</a>).
They could not build synagogues and had to wear yellow badges, yellow
considered the most demeaning color, as that associated with
prostitutes (<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_ghettos_in_Europe">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_ghettos_in_Europe</a>).<br />
<br />
The moral: those who welcomed one, and whom one benefited, could also turn against one.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMy6pqTMr8tA6U9hm1ff75WrNgrxuvo90-DI2tr5L-9tMEktjoEedonxslv_Lt5yItYGMK0ykvn111SUnsr0gyXJ6n1klUp3eDtE_6y3v_iJB5H2GGImRJhs1pq1VPaxLBg8roz0i1euZh/s1600/Cups10.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMy6pqTMr8tA6U9hm1ff75WrNgrxuvo90-DI2tr5L-9tMEktjoEedonxslv_Lt5yItYGMK0ykvn111SUnsr0gyXJ6n1klUp3eDtE_6y3v_iJB5H2GGImRJhs1pq1VPaxLBg8roz0i1euZh/s320/Cups10.jpg" width="182" /></a></div>
Waite seems to understand this moral in his account of the card, even if the image, that of a family whose adults, at least, are admiring a rainbow of cups, has no hint of the negative side:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i>Divinatory Meanings</i>: Contentment, repose of the entire heart; the
perfection of that state; also perfection of human love and friendship;
if with several picture-cards, a person who is taking charge of the
Querent's interests; also the town, village or country inhabited by the
Querent. <i>Reversed</i>: Repose of the false heart, indignation, violence.</b> </blockquote>
"Repose of the false heart" and "repose of the entire heart" (in the original "repose of the true heart", come from a work attributed to Etteilla and published in 1801,<i> Le Bohemien.</i> The masterfulness of the SB painter in capturing the figure's apprehension in the midst of plenty is probably impossible to duplicate. But something like it would have been nice, to reflect both negative and positive. Such touches were especially appreciated during the Renaissance, as adding a sense of mystery and indeed transcendence to the image. The Waite-Smith too seldom takes advantages of the opportunities available to it.<br />
<br />
<b>CONCLUSION</b><br />
<br />
Here Smith has used only one of the SB designs, that of Swords (for her Batons), so 25%.<br />
<br />
As far as the Etteilla list reflecting the SB designs, Swords' "affliction" does well, but "betrayal" in Batons doesn't fit the SB's tomb at all. The fit to Coins is strained. Cups fits perfectly. Overall perhaps there is a 70% correlation.<br />
<br />
In Swords, Waite takes most of the Etteilla uprights but adds "not permanent" to the gains of the Reverseds. So around 90%. In Batons he adds a couple of things to the Uprights not in Etteilla, so around 85%. In Coins he adds "riches" where Etteilla only has "savings," so 90%. In Cups he follows Etteilla closely, 100%. So overall 90%.<br />
<br />
In the sense<b> </b>of returning to the whole of<b> </b>whatever the suit sign signifies, the SB does well: affliction in Swords, honor in Batons, the well to do city-dweller in Cups, the miser in Coins. Likewise for Eteilla. Waite, and Smith's card, even if for the latter two Batons is more oppression than honor. I rate them all at 90%.Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677044918876619054.post-64463905340473546062012-05-15T22:14:00.003-07:002017-04-14T02:33:28.380-07:00Marseille PipsFor another look at the whole, I want to compare the SB pips with the
more usual “Marseille” ones. How well does the Pythagorean framework I
have developed fit those more abstract designs? The short answer is:
with mixed results. The Aces and Twos are differentiated enough to see
the same Neopythagorean point expressed in different ways in the two
decks. The Threes through Sixes also express a Neopythagorean idea, but
not differentiated among suits as we see it in the SB. I see no
comparable Neopythagorean point expressed in the Sevens and Eights. The
Nines and Tens are like the Threes through Sixes: there is something
there, but not differentiated among suits.<br />
<br />
There is also the question of the flowers and vines that slither among the suit-objects. I know that people--e.g. Jodorowsky, <span style="font-style: italic;">Way of Tarot</span>--have
developed ingenious interpretations of these arrangements, but I see
very little that relates either to the Neopythagorean properties of the
numbers, the SB pip designs, or any historical set of cartomantic
interpretations, such as the "Etteilla." The flowers and vines look to
me mostly like an attempt to fill in blank spaces in a pleasing way.
The only meaningful exception might be the twos and the fours, as we
shall see.<br />
<br />
Now for the often tedious details.<br />
<br />
T<b>HE MARSEILLE ACES </b><br />
<br />
I have already discussed the “Marseille” aces, at the beginning of this essay, but now I want to go into more detail.<br />
<br />
The Ace of Cups
not only has a cup or chalice, but three splashes of liquid coming out
of it (I give here the Conver of 1761, but others, back to Noblet of c.
1650, are similar). These three splashes could well correspond to the
three putti on the SB Ace of Cups, and so equally well represent the
Trinity as the three-in-one.<br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTrS0VHkf2GuN_08E984_YU9huJvY1l0er_QW3_By84m6ix8FzJ9S2CJVpMtiTsrkX3GPGCibUKwqywyKUvKTVixn2aPMn3T7QPMFsYWZPPaTjVubcywKVxnj5pXGEvW9VrbKtPV2udjKx/s1600/01scan0067smLGR.jpg" /><br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFdCdnViZg9OIX4d-neC3BmYmB_xZ9yBkO2JrzwveK81yki2wJ0N54l1EqW4wRz4d6_UU0nvPsWDxaZIfFifEkFYoBYkri73ng7oTYIT6HO4PQWf71atHyK3n26GHvcqne6zjoViJLd_FB/s1600/sb1ALL.jpg" /><br />
The
Ace of Swords also has some correspondence to the SB Ace of Swords. If,
as I see it, the SB Ace has a man and a woman, the “Marseille” image
correspondingly has a phallic sword penetrating a vaginal crown. It is
again the theme of the unity of opposites, the male-femaleness of the
Neopythagorean Monad. <br />
<br />
In the SB Ace of Coins, there are three
putti, which I analyzed as the three members of the Trinity. In the
"Marseille" Ace of Coins, as Jodorowsky points out in <span style="font-style: italic;">Way of Tarot</span>, there are three circles. Here is his illustration showing the three (p. 278).<br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4BvuzqSfuCIPyoVM9yXkQkE9l0OfDVhbpBKBay1BFGp6kSNC7HZCdbDLHvLK6Zgu25xRh1e07UTagDpxPjmTak0YODNdR12y6urNB8GQYz3QeKR8pAietvhpGwbvrt3Dg2DLKGXkj4puo/s1600/jodo.jpg" /><br />
Both
the three circles and the three putti might again represent the
Trinity: in the "Marseille," the flower in the middle might be the
Creator, the Sunlike jagged circle beyond that might be the Son, and
the four vines might be the four gospels through which the Holy Spirit
spread and continues to spread the Divine Word.<br />
<br />
Another way in which the Conver Ace expresses the Monad is as the Sun, as de Mellet writes (<a class="postlink" href="http://tarotpedia.com/wiki/Recherches_sur_les_Tarots">http://tarotpedia.com/wiki/Recherches_sur_les_Tarots</a>, Section III):<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>The One-eyed one or the Ace of Coins, Phoebe 'lampadis instar', devoted to Apollo.</b></div>
</blockquote>
The
Latin translates as "Image of Apollo's Light," according to J. Karlin
in a note to her translation. A-pollo means in Greek, "not many," and
is one of the Pythagorean names of the Monad.<br />
<br />
For the Marseille Ace
of Batons is not the “unity of sames” that I saw in the SB card's two
identical putti. Jodorowsky sees a phallic club ending in a vaginal
black ellipse at the top (<span style="font-style: italic;">Way of Tarot</span>
p. 273). Batons in the Milanese tradition have been the suit of
fertility and sexuality ever since the Sforza, as can be seen by the
"greensleeves" motif on the PMB court cards. Similarly the "Marseille"
club is colored green. In the Noblet, there is a leaf sprouting from an
otherwise dead-looking piece of wood. (I don't know why it isn't green,
too.) This is a common Renaissance way of indicating the Resurrection
(see my post at <a class="postlink-local" href="http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=502&start=10#p6849">viewtopic.php?f=11&t=502&start=10#p6849</a>).
In both the Noblet and Conver versions of the "Marseille" design, the
cuts in the wood are colored red. To me this suggests death, i.e. the
crucifixion, conceived here as a lopping off of the extremities. There
is a similar effect in the Hanged Man card (3rd from left below), where
the cuts that trim the posts are colored red on the Conver. (In the
Noblet they are red, yellow, and green, thereby muting the symbolism.)<br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4fvmL8BHyfKWXjhEgtJfQKKL8r-viGv6saZx3NswxdqPrjddbpx6FewX45X8i6KntrV_5POmMWhxo7Vu1Ks4bDu234P7QSAUIU6E5U595uvNCkuOKfczSeEVCizJj2ivQRIqqdXp_YTgx/s1600/3Noblet1Conver.jpg" />One
difference between the Noblet (the two at left above) and Conver Aces
is that in the Noblet, the club is surrounded by what look like
tear-drops falling downward. In the Conver, they are rays, pointing up.
It is as though Noblet wanted to convey the death-dealing aspect of
clubs and swords, while Conver wanted to suggest rebirth. Another
detail to the same effect is the green stems coming out of the crown as
(in both versions) an olive branch and the palm leaf of victory.<br />
<br />
<b>THE MARSEILLE TWOS </b><br />
<br />
In
the Twos (below), the crossed-sticks pattern we saw in the SB Two of
Batons occurs in the “Marseille” version as well. The way is barred to
Paradise, I think both styles of card say. The message is clearer in
the SB, with its forlorn-looking man looking off beyond the card. Here
the Noblet has an interesting detail (above, far right): the two
flowers, one going up and one going down, have the same slash marks as
in the case of the Ace of Batons, except painted yellow. It is as
though the batons not only barred the way, but created the division
into two, Adam digging and Eve spinning, both in their own little
worlds, a divinely imposed gap between them. Perhaps that is one reason
for the card's reputation as the only evil card among the Batons. De
Mellet says, in Section III:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>The two alone, in which the batons are the color of red, seems consecrated to evil fortune.</b></div>
</blockquote>
Be that as it may, all the even-numbered Noblet Batons are done the same way, sometimes with the cuts a bright red.<br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGGyFefYW0ogOzgQPcZoQyldGVdR-EaUrJ8lLykrSL5_6LD31cIqxkYAlqm8_f1CG9xHhFsh4TgTVV_NDb-cGy24tPLL7i-SFtsGtwDgKe0BRQj1aMQYZBf954kQ4ZO45CwjjXcJRTCO4A/s1600/scan0064.jpg" /><br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlvwfcL-BqlyfEbzVDznZOqRv91lDEvTti9xps1FYbzPfUM9I4n1g4NeRNB5pKNIufcFEj5JcESBAqedfxPkg3gLr8jnLPqjPkDWMu65mn5HN5sfmg1LtshZwBCR463OUT-pJLYQJIMFu3/s1600/sb2all.jpg" /><br />
For
the remaining pips, I see no important differences between Noblet and
Conver. To simplify my presentation, I will illustrate my points with
just one of them, the Conver. For reference, I will continue to include
the corresponding SB cards. (Here I am using the SB images that were
painted in the 20th century and used in the commercially available
deck. I had them already prepared in sets of four before I learned
about the historical images on Tarotpedia. These are not the SB of
history, I know, but in most cases the differences are inconsequential.
I include them for reference only. The historical images are in my
previous posts.)<br />
<br />
In Swords, the two swords embrace at the top
and bottom. It is a card of friendship like the SB card, a "unity of
sames" across the two sides of the card, corresponding to the two sides
of life in the SB, youth and age.<br />
<br />
In Cups, we have two cups side
by side. The Dyad is an act of separation from the Monad, resulting in
two distinct beings. What is missing is the longing for the original
unity that we see in the SB Two's cherub. In the Conver they are
together.<br />
<br />
In Coins, the belt connecting the two coins is much
like the chain connecting the two medallions in the SB card. De Mellet,
in Section IV of his essay, says that this card was called <b>“the belt of
Isis.”</b> The Two of Cups was also consecrated to Isis, de Mellet says
(Section II). The Ace, as Neopythagorean creator god, fits de Mellet's
description of Osiris: "le Dieu générateur," the generator god (in
section I of his essay). It is then the doctrine of male = odd, female
= even, as described in numerous Neopythagorean texts (e.g. Macrobius, <span style="font-style: italic;">Commentary on the Dream of Scipio</span>,
trans. Stahl, p. 99). Presumably the Three would be Horus, the son of
Isis and Osiris, to complete the Greco-Egyptian trinity (as expounded
by Plutarch in <span style="font-style: italic;">Of Isis and Osiris</span>).<br />
<br />
<b>THE MARSEILLE THREES</b><br />
<br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE4IFP-vEmdquNreT2y1gzXm4rBpBDH6D854syZij2CXQGYr1RPPywfnjMX19JAk47m9uhL5n24raPZpXs13W-w2wVHXICl_Q-G_ecn_d5qU2-a9SZ0FqicTHslqXYg6VI-4OtCcEkv_26/s1600/scan0065.jpg" /><br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb_No8yCBaQSkljjDwcJxF8b3o_ksiCxbkcoAwImr_-Y_JBljNcRH910ZP-9t7uGiIGc3e8dU2Qe2fKlcLikW-OfEkrfc578_Etzpou4Y0FdDJqhyphenhyphenP6WitIA8FThCPI8SURh3fTW0kYHSd/s1600/sb3all3.jpg" /><br />
In
the Conver Threes, the triangular pattern, one above two in Cups and
Coins, or one between two in Swords and Batons, again suggests the
mother, the father, and their child: the Neopythagorean/Aristotelian
enformed matter, or the Divine Child Jesus, Horus, etc. But there is no
differentiation among the suits; the different ways the 2 + 1 is
represented are just a function of the how the different suit-objects
are shaped. And there is no explicit representation of the child as in
the SB Batons and Coins.<br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi25BvyeL0iNuMZBv6kRbohSXmQUR0OYmacIHPaAVnYFg7IuXry5Rw4QhTkW6bTgjvb7LYLP3eehDTNsP_3G2BvnsHXE8FxC118krICJc4H3XqxAdlbvwMHwgeBIrQHX_mK4SrCZIleEOH/s1600/scan0067.jpg" /><br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDxMsttdYh_c2WPWrlmV1HsPYeVr7iNS776aUKaKw0xnG_A0r-suPitjM9kyvdrP4y3BI1yIq9fD8Vqk5rHpbONSj3ui-9pIxx4_SAzuAJiPPsudS_5Q5Flg3UVD3B58ZF-cvWoMn0Nhq9/s1600/sb4ALLc.jpg" /><br />
<br />
<b>THE MARSEILLE FOURS </b><br />
<br />
In
the Fours, the "Marseille's" arrangements of the suit objects all
exploit the fourness of the corners of the cards. It is the four
directions, the four winds, the four evangelists (as on the World
card), etc., as signifying a whole of some kind. That something is in
the middle, a plant or coat of arms, might suggest that something is
missing, something that will manifest in the fives: the element of soul.<br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNhgjhyphenhyphenRBsw7zOmd_K40OwnJd5i80yuPJp0WgZQs3tVrKmzqDDmB5M5AzaHFNmY0J3WJDMNhPlxJnbjrBn9ZPcf6ncAOiLgIcCB91uM_Ck0rk3aMAcbl7H7DOXDl_5nKpxJT4cqKEeR4eB/s1600/scan0068.jpg" /><br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiToAZqYte9FpyutsxUsD0M97D-l8hLka1EB6Jp6FqmzafL91O1hrMY6mcHFLVDaSHGxrChmeSu6d8wrS3E4q6gZId_wx-VCnhPyJJF89UYPaPBtbS5vzbz0jADxUalA9Rp52IswA0JYp1/s1600/sb5ALLc.jpg" /><br />
<br />
<b>THE MARSEILLE FIVES </b><br />
<br />
The
Conver Fives might perhaps be representing this missing element, soul,
as the middle suit-object surrounded by the four arranged as before;
but there are no further clues or any differentiation among suits, such
as the SB has abundantly.<br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDkTGj5Gy49uNtKcMzVGGYFHiFPnNNC-sdAOj46X2y-5qt2TJG7GVgix8rVfVj9Q-etbVVWGGS7h8IB9q7C9uUN_exXK4lGVxXGMzNZA5Tx-wt8UGIlSumQmr5TeginBTJrlMCS6oL0ry5/s1600/scan0069.jpg" /><br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVZu7G1hGRNZchIzlZMqRCOpdGwlUnEn1BWcZQMM1es_rLxsJgGkHYCl6612Vf3moU4uNwRQA-vkuU9bXc4G0qOoe-ri9IS0mVCPSI_9sEZfK3GijJ8HSUdRKr4aZ6TTcSuJgAVhXVZ23t/s1600/sb6all6.jpg" /><br />
The Conver Sixes are each grouped as three groups of two, or two groups of three. The <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>
explains that in being 3 x 2 and 2 x 3, the Hexad, like the Triad,
designates the process of beginning, middle, and end. In the SB and the
"Etteilla" word lists, this sequence was expressed in the sixes as the
past, present, and future of the animal soul. We get nothing like that
in Conver.<br />
<br />
<b>THE MARSEILLE SEVENS </b><br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhNvxnwR_jFZe1_cABd4uUdLz0tInPARR8pULWUUA2r6DxbaZrwjU0ghh2Dgbkfwxei4PvEbi3trbimDTMIdWEK0rewioxxCeXELB2iDYFtThUWpT-rilSUzw3v84y305mATvFxAYnwN7N/s1600/scan0072.jpg" /><br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivZ_lq6o2efb0jPDnh5ygK2e4sKdS61LpxmylSxIvqptas3L137We4KsS7DDVK4atgbR4gOavqN401rNVQsMsbN0sR0IL2-lMqxhqCa0JLV_hn0XMyK_bKQA4vnzEA7nQN51AkOSQEQbxJ/s1600/sb7ALLc.jpg" />The
Conver Sevens show 6 + 1 or 3 +4. The first has no straightforward
Neopythagorean significance. The second does have meaning in
Neopythagoreanism: it is the three parts of the soul plus the four
cardinal virtues, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology of Arithmetic</span>
tells us (p. 100), and also the two sides of the triangle at right
angles to each other in the Pythagorean Theorem (p. 87). But these
references are irrelevant to the tradition of the "seven ages of man"
that I see reflected in the SB and irrelevant to the "Etteilla" word
lists. It is also irrelevant to the "critical time" aspect of the seven
that is expressed in the SB and "Etteilla" Eight of Swords.<br />
<br />
<b>THE MARSEILLE EIGHTS </b><br />
<br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlP6Df4_z0VpX02pUtipFaVrizqAV-efUyPnF96O1YTHzos7czjdFTjZadq5Jf-h3rRVTR0iMUbwXH5mFoJ2GPEJ5l79K63LRYRa1CgoRKxqp2NhL3XzzVq5mV4EP1ge_lgm7QmUni76Ai/s1600/scan0073.jpg" /><br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgShn-tpwzSrK9HZXaJJeOjRFkTN3rhIc93hqs1MdSg5O2RcSsNs1k7RIGQ4g1ZMmIUHro9RQlEMPbbc3zJi7BokULaKAJowWpxjnflrdb5fnAMpDUlSLdeE3C64CNenJ1rI0JXSD6Caqi2/s1600/sb8all8.jpg" />The<br />
<br />
The Conver Eights show two groups of four, or four groups of two. This
relates to the concept of Justice as equality on both parts of a
scales, and the same for its parts (2 and 2), and its parts (1 and 1),
a concept expounded by Macrobius (<span style="font-style: italic;">Commentary</span> p. 98). It relates to the Conver eighth trump, but not to the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology's</span> exposition of the Ogdoad, the SB Eight, or the corresponding "Etteilla" word list.<br />
<br />
<b>THE MARSEILLE NINES</b><br />
<br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxlKbtIotjrQkik1PQ5zSoOaw-4LX-RXnE8OedeUFtLqedwGZuWvru5XPAyGOJGq8azo0ags4aJ6nMJKbUqioatR2p8A_6eE4G9lUEkM_NgcYDbFsAdpNmhXl8KO40k8aFBvwpVqEsEeQ2/s1600/scan0074.jpg" /><br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj197UtIEzG5HOk8N__MALRTYALwerKaURcxnspzyLtP_TqQqowssEyhF32ZLhaLyrjVQEEtajfqqzmcPZl5R7EbbLDdXFuOhiiCIkeE56jWx7SOWmct1mdfn1Pdx6g_5b-KoLtNFu6ySCa/s1600/sb9all9.jpg" /><br />
The
Conver Nines show 8 + 1 in three suits, while Cups is three groups of
three. 8 + 1 has the Neopythagorean significance of the leap beyond the
cosmos into the unknown beyond. 3 x 3 has to do with the Curetes (<span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span>
p. 107) or the pseudo-Dionysian choirs of angels, again going beyond
the cosmos. This result is consistent with the meaning of the Ennead,
even more than Cups in the SB and "Etteilla," where the meaning is
simply that of success in one's undertaking, like the juggling
sea-creature. But in the Conver there is again no differentiation in
meaning among suits.<br />
<br />
<b>THE MARSEILLE TENS</b><br />
<br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiYrNkscGGDdDVlwxneY_isTHKjXGJ-wAO5cGrtSAMiUgoZZ7vp_qaK1Ycn0RyRDC63o-QANBst-JZn_yqmLwshEmE9QE7d1kvreXdYbjEILyfEwzbDTvffCH6o2zMjoL_xpMHemzMzKMl/s1600/scan0079.jpg" /><br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw93caH5o_D133z6euNSZPLqThlMcqD_YqVR8R_caDmOm-Gkafy7bn0UTojzwlKzTVRijgEitIF4pBMEgt54k1NZJlC3x5QBSTzVSs4KOuojffo0H_TY-njgqJjoha_UL58qhPFaaSgrLt/s1600/sb10all10.jpg" /><br />
Two
of the Conver Tens, Swords and Batons, are grouped as 8 + 2; Coins is 5
+ 5, and Cups is 9 + 1. Although the first of these combinations
appears in the SB Ten of Batons and Cups as well, it has no particular
Neopythagorean significance as such; nor does this combination play a
role in the interpretation of the SB Tens. 9 + 1 is the completion of
the sequence, seen also in the SB Swords and Coins. But it takes the
pictorial details to relate these cards to Neopythagoreanism in a way
that is cartomantically significant. 5 + 5 is the same as 5 x 2, which
the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theology</span> finds significant:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>The decad is potentially generated by the even and odd, for 10 is five times two. </b>(p. 114)</div>
</blockquote>
But
why this statement is significant is not said. Perhaps it makes 10 one
of the "male-female" numbers, as containing both odd (male) and even
(female), and thus like the Monad, to which we are returning.<br />
<br />
In
summary, we can say neither that the pip arrangements in the
"Marseille" style design have no relationship to a cartomantic
tradition such as that suggested by the SB pips and the "Etteilla"
word-lists, nor that it has a close relationship to such a tradition.
Since the cards were primarily used in a trick-taking game, the
deciding factor in determining these abstract designs was probably what
looked good in a rectangular layout.Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677044918876619054.post-24270570854170416362012-05-15T22:13:00.003-07:002017-04-14T03:03:59.894-07:00Courts, Sola-Busca and MarseilleIn most tarot decks, the court cards are not numbered; for that
reason Jodorowsky challenges the assumption that Pages are 11, Knights
12, Queens 13 and Kings 14, putting the Knights at 14. Iin the
Sola-Busca, however, the court cards do have numbers,11 to 14, pages
to kings. That also corresponds to
their traditional rankings for the purpose of winning tricks in the
trick-taking game. <br />
<br />
In the Sola-Busca, all the
courts except the
Pages are even given names; they correspond to legendary and historical
figures, some pertaining to the
Trojan War and others from the life of Alexander the Great. The two
time periods are connected, in that the main female figure of one,
Olympia the mother of Alexander, was said to descend from the main
female figure of the other, Polyxena, youngest daughter of Priam and
Hecuba, King and Queen of Troy. It is possible that the pages also
correspond to figures in these legends; if so, no one has been able to
figure out who they are..<br />
<br />
The court figures in other decks
of that period do not look like the ones of the Sola-Busca and probably
cannot be identified with the same legendary or historical
personalities. <br />
<br />
In
the Sola-Busca, the courts also correlate, more or less, to
the four temperaments, one per suit. The correlations, with two
exceptions and four which have no clear assignment (out of sixteen
total), are based on specific details that conventionally are
associated with particular temperaments. The assignments of suits to
temperaments has been detailed by Marco at
<a href="http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=530#p7367">http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=530#p7367</a>. This
of course has nothing to do with Neopythagoreanism. <br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>THE SOLA BUSCA PAGES</b><br />
<br />
Here are the Pages:<br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-FbYtatbAndMeFh7XyS4PTSXzzeysJJqDRM5l9rIkYO5iOYTFLAPVxfb1H24HB6-Eb4XQgsAu2VOIZaIoNgs9r-avgEJHt_xIoIPpwpiLXZYUH2I89dMEPXmD9wqZdqgvm-2-qW1xz9_9/s1600/PagesSB4.jpg" /><br />
Swords plays a lute. Coins plays with birds, at least one of which is a falcon on its perch, Cups is tending either a fire or "blooming plants" (Di Vicenzo p. 54)
coming out of his suit-symbol, while carrying a purse; and Batons is
walking somewhere, carrying a purse by its strings, what looks like a
letter in his boot, and a stiletto in his belt.<br />
<br />
There
is also the emotional mood conveyed by the bodies and especially faces
of the young men here. Swords and Coins look contemplative. Cups is simply observing, perhaps with a certain amount of wonderment. And Batons is rather jaunty, with a slight smile.<br />
<br />
I see no Neopythagreanism whatever in these images. Unlike the Aces,
none represents any aspect of the Pythagorean One or Monad, which is
the equivalent to God. Their only association with the number One is
that they are all youths starting out in life.<br />
<br />
Much
the same impression may be gotten from looking at the Etteilla School's
word-lists for these cards.For cups, there is the word "student,"
suggesting someone starting a scholarly or clerical career, and words
like "bent" or "Inclination" which might attach to the selection of a
career.. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"PAGE OF CUPS, UPRIGHT: FAIR YOUNG MAN (GARCON BLOND), Studious.—Student,
Application [Diligence], Work, Thought, Observation, Consideration,
Reflection, Contemplation, Job.—Business, Profession, Employment.
REVERSED. TENDENCY (PENCHANT). Bent, Proclivity, Inclination, Attraction, Taste,
Sympathy, Passion, Affection, Attachment, Friendship.—Heart, Craving,
Desire, Appeal, Promise, Seduction, Invitation,
Agreeableness.—Flattery, Cajolery, Fawning, Sycophancy, Praise,
Approbation.—Inclined towards threatening ruin and complete destruction. </b></blockquote>
I see nothing here to suggest the Sola-Busca Cups' image of a youth before a blooming plant or fire.<br />
<br />
For
coins there is "apprentice," suggesting the start of a career in
business, and again words like "scholar", Student", "Disciple", etc.,
which could apply to someone preparing for any career.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>PAGE OF COINS: BROWN-HAIRED YOUNG MAN (GARCON BRUN), Study, Instruction, Diligence
[</b>not in c. 1838<b>], Application, Meditation, Reflection.—Work,
Occupation, Apprenticeship.—Scholar, Disciple, Student, Apprentice,
Amateur, Pupil, Speculator, Negotiator [</b>last 2 not in c. 1838<b>].
REVERSED: PRODIGALITY (PRODIGALITE). [Extravagance,</b> c. 1838<b>], Profession [</b>not in c. 1838, which
has<b> Profusion], Superfluity, Magnanimity, Luxuriousness, Sumptuousness,
Splendor, Abundance, Myriad.—Liberality, Kind Deed.—Generosity,
Charity.—Crowd, Multitude.—Degradation, Wasting, Pillage, Dissipation.</b></blockquote>
Again, I see no relationship to the Sola-Busca, which has a youth with a falcon.<br />
<br />
For
Batons the words suggestion instruction or educations are in the
Reverseds. In the Uprights, we have "Stranger". which perhaps suggests
someone starting afresh in a new town, if not necessarily someone of a
young age. The SB Batons youth does appear to be traveling.Here is Etteilla:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>PAGE OF BATONS, UPRIGHT: STRANGER (ETRANGER) [c. 1838 GOOD STRANGER, (BON ETRANGER)], Unknown,
Extraordinary.—Strange, Uncommon, Unusual, Unheard Of, Surprising,
Admirable, Wonderful, Marvel, Miracle.—Episode, Digression, Anonymous.
REVERSED: NEWS (NOUVELLE). Announcement, Instruction, Opinion, Warning, Admonition,
Anecdotes, News, History, Stories, Fables, Postmen [?] [</b>not in c. 1838, which has<b> Notiens],
Education.</b></blockquote>
In
this case there is another detail in the Sola-Busca card that suggests
some of these words: the note in the youth's boot, which might fit
"News" "Announcement" etc.But this has nothing to do with numbers or
Neopythagoreanism.<br />
<br />
Again, swords:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>PAGE OF SWORDS, UPRIGHT: SPY (ESPION). Overseer, Onlooker, Observer,
Searcher, Connoisseur, Intendant.—Examination, Note, Remark,
Observation, Annotation, Speculation, Count, Calculation,
Computation—Learned, Artistic. REVERSED. WITHOUT WARNING (IMPREVUE) [c. 1838, LACK OF FORESIGHT (IMPREVOYANCE). Sudden,
Suddenly, Suddenly Interrupting [not in c. 1838], Astonishing, Surprising,
Unexpectedly.—Improvise, Act and Speak Without Preparation, Compose and
Recite Straightaway [last 2 not in c. 1838, which has Unhoped-for, Fortuitously]. </b></blockquote>
Again
there are words pertaining to someone setting out in life (Examination,
Calculation, Learned, Artistic, even the ability to speak
extemporaneously), but nothing related to the Pythagorean Monad..<br />
<br />
The
only remaining issue I see concerning the SB Pages is how to assign
the four temperaments among
them, related to the items that are with them on the card and the moods
exicited by the four youths. The determination is a matter of seeing
what temperaments these details are associated with in other imagery of
the time. I refer the interested reader to my post on Tarot History
Forum about this issue, <a href="http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=530&start=40#p8973">http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=530&start=40#p8973</a> and my post following that one. <br />
<br />
In
general, as I argue, it is not easy to say which temperament is
associated with which page. Since this question is not one that
pertains to Neopythagoreanism, I will not spend any longer on it. In
fact, I see no ready association between the Neopythagorean One and the
pages, either the sB images or the Etteilla word lists. All I see is
youths just starting out in life, and to that extent appropriate to the
number 1 as the first of the numbers.<br />
<br />
By the same
token, it is not hard to associate the number 2 with the Knights: there
are two creatures represented on each of these cards, the knight and
his horse. Similarly, 3 associates the Queens with the third tarot
trump, the Empress, and 4 associates the Kings with the tarot Emperor.
Since no pictures are necessary to make these associations, there is no
need for me to repreoduce here the corresponding Sola-Busca cards. .<br />
<br />
<b>THE MARSEILLE PAGES</b><br />
<br />
I
also do not see any Neopythagoreanism at work in the traditional
Marseille images of the courts, except for the simple one of beginnings. For the differentition among suits, I see see more intricate
connections between trumps and courts than the simple ones I have
already indicated. In particular, the pages are visually related to the
Bateleur and the Lover, the knights to the Popess (ii) and the Chariot
(VII), the Queens to the Empress (III) and Justice (VIII), and the
Kings to the Emperor (IIII) and the Hermit (VIIII). I will illustrate.<br />
<br />
To begin with, compare the left side of the Bateleur, holding a coin,
with the left side of the Page of Coins, and the right side, holding
his wand, with the right side of the Page of Batons.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-KRCVdt6Ajh6U-bFcoeo8EvGqBAqVtACSj1eraRIYJF_CEFN6logehj6dbI69W_CKoUKrb9E4jgqwQUZpTQ-W8feY3sqg7gisxQCjtYyBu3sLJJ_chKj0KVjHakBaea656qntqfRBWpU/s1600/11pagesbatCoBa.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607164673646276818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-KRCVdt6Ajh6U-bFcoeo8EvGqBAqVtACSj1eraRIYJF_CEFN6logehj6dbI69W_CKoUKrb9E4jgqwQUZpTQ-W8feY3sqg7gisxQCjtYyBu3sLJJ_chKj0KVjHakBaea656qntqfRBWpU/s400/11pagesbatCoBa.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 222px; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
So
we might say that the Page of Batons holds an instrument capable of
performing magical transformations. For someone only used to using his
fists as weapons, a club is magical indeed. By the same token, the Page
of Coins might be seen as holding an object upon which magic can be
performed. In the hands of a clever banker, indeed, coins can be made
to multiply--and disappear in the hands of someone not so clever.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjelknGGcc2yi_8ngZugC40HlXU9JFcFMCZcaVb5myIFd4xvN0zwn_8-3-5LtDduFXON5AfvK7Z4zbfICSbmf_weHxcCSwpPejDQGFcdVqJgnaBSN1INN0emY584QVQLkhX9fezIq3BMq4/s1600/11PagesLove.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607164677768951138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjelknGGcc2yi_8ngZugC40HlXU9JFcFMCZcaVb5myIFd4xvN0zwn_8-3-5LtDduFXON5AfvK7Z4zbfICSbmf_weHxcCSwpPejDQGFcdVqJgnaBSN1INN0emY584QVQLkhX9fezIq3BMq4/s400/11PagesLove.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 210px; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Similarly,
the wreath on the Page of Cups give us a basis for comparing him with
the girl on the right side of the Lover card, trump VI. The one in the
middle, making the choice, is comparable in posture to the Page of
Swords. And the profile of the woman on the left is comparable in
profile to the Page of Batons (even more in the Conver Lover card,
where her left hand reaches down toward the man). In this
interpretation the Page of Batons is a hesitant lover, the Page of
Swords someone faced with a difficult choice, and the Page of Batons
someone who represents virtue.<br />
<br />
Perhaps surprisingly, this
interpretation fits certain pages even in the 15th century. The CY Male
and Female Pages of Cups resemble the man and woman on the Love card.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzMY6NaYsXjTFzsTxXRcWbPiJ_Epgb5aQmS1VBbRLGgjvArc_hr1VIcQL_s-ltSf74aB1IEhiGteuL5wh-xlJjKrHEJMOvD42YthG1eL8iMGH-IsZwQ6jaD4F-O1plbG32l2qCHSsHEx8/s1600/11tCaryCuPaMFKLoveLGb.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607164680000406258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzMY6NaYsXjTFzsTxXRcWbPiJ_Epgb5aQmS1VBbRLGgjvArc_hr1VIcQL_s-ltSf74aB1IEhiGteuL5wh-xlJjKrHEJMOvD42YthG1eL8iMGH-IsZwQ6jaD4F-O1plbG32l2qCHSsHEx8/s400/11tCaryCuPaMFKLoveLGb.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 264px; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
The
PMB Page of Batons has the green gloves suggestive of sexuality and
fertility that all the PMB Baton court figures wear, comparable to the
large club of the Noblet page and of course to the phallic finger of
the Bateleur. The d'Este Page of Batons holds himself with pride, as
though representing virtue.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix1QfCuzLQ24SveMH5XKK5Z24GoTYfZ_gFvoEc44HKt0ghi84oWI8Zhtfh30CfJtnrRQ1Yr9tPuiKPSDzzMqFNbsPoTSUe-uETbgnVkieZIoXuiL2cMn6xbagegKlCZsLwaqVYmds171Y/s1600/11pageBaPMBEste.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607164670601114786" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix1QfCuzLQ24SveMH5XKK5Z24GoTYfZ_gFvoEc44HKt0ghi84oWI8Zhtfh30CfJtnrRQ1Yr9tPuiKPSDzzMqFNbsPoTSUe-uETbgnVkieZIoXuiL2cMn6xbagegKlCZsLwaqVYmds171Y/s400/11pageBaPMBEste.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 271px; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Only
the Page of Swords does not fit the Noblet's charactaerization, as seen
here (above rigt) in the PMB. He strikes a confident pose. Other Pages
of Swords show him with is sword raised in attack, again with an air of
confidence. The Noblet is not like that. I speculate that this
difference has to do with the changing nature of war in the space of
200 years. The introduction of gunpowder made it much more deadly than
previously, a fact that did not go unobserved in the literature of the
time. Swords were the privilege of the nobility. The son of an officer
might know more about the effectiveness of cannons than a club-wielding
peasant whose village had not yet been caught up in war.<br />
<br />
<b>THE ETTEILLA PAGES</b>
<br />
<br />
Here the
Etteilla word-lists are useful in showing what people made of
these figures over the course of time. n my view the word-lists were standard meanings developed using traditional Marseille-type images of the court figures. Etteilla's artist then used these word-lists, or at least the keywords, as the basis for his own depictions. Thus for our purposes how the cards look is much less important than the word-lists, in fact quite unnecessary. For that reason I am not even going to post here the Etteilla images; for anyone interested, a good site with historic cards is <a href="http://sumada.multiply.com/photos/album/83/Etteilla_1_-_Grimaud">http://sumada.multiply.com/photos/album/83/Etteilla_1_-_Grimaud</a>.
<br />
<br />
The meanings indicated by the word-lists sometimes do seem to relate to how Etteilla characterized the suits in his <i>Lecons Theorique-Pratique du Livre de Thot</i>, as relating to his imagined social structure of ancient Egypt. Batons was agriculture, Cups the priestly class, Swords the military, and Coins the business people.<br />
<br />
In Batons, the Uprights perhaps suggest something of the Marseille Bateleur (an association we have already looked at), with words like "Extraordinary", "Marvel" and "Miracle". The different meaning of "Stranger" also relates to the Bateleur,
in that street conjurers usually traveled from one town to another in
rapid succession. Their interest was in their novelty, and also in news they might bring from other places. <br />
<blockquote>
<b>ETTEILLA,
PAGE OF BATONS: Stranger, Unknown, Extraordinary.—Strange, Uncommon,
Unusual, Unheard Of, Surprising, Admirable, Wonderful, Marvel,
Miracle.—Episode, Digression, Anonymous. REVERSED: Announcement,
Instruction, Opinion, Warning, Admonition, Anecdotes, News, History,
Stories, Fables, Notions [</b>c. 1838<b> "Notion"], Education.</b></blockquote>
In
Cups, the Lover is suggested in the Reverseds, although these meanings could also have been suggested by the French suit equivalent of Hearts.. The Uprights suggest his
youth, as well as the beginning of a clerical or scholarly occupation, or a profession like law or medicine."Fair" comes from the color of the suit of Hearts (as opposed to the darker Spades and Clubs).. <br />
<blockquote>
<b>ETTEILLA,
PAGE OF CUPS: Fair [Fr. Blond] Young Man, Studious.—Student,
Application [Diligence], Work, Thought, Observation, Consideration,
Reflection, Contemplation, Job [</b>not in c. 1838<b>].—Business [</b>c. 1838 has
<b>Occupation], Profession, Employment. REVERSED: Tendency, Bent,
Proclivity, Inclination, Attraction, Taste, Sympathy, Passion,
Affection, Attachment, Friendship.—Heart, Craving, Desire, Appeal,
Promise, Seduction, Invitation, Agreeableness.—Flattery, Cajolery,
Fawning, Sycophancy [</b>not in c. 1838, which has<b> Adulation], Praise,
Approbation.—Inclined towards threatening ruin and complete
destruction. [</b>This last, starting with "Inclined" not in c. 1838, which
has instead<b> Courtier, Coax, Entice, Siren Song (Courtisan, Amadouer,
Aflecher, Chant des Sirenes)].</b></blockquote>
In
Coins, the banker's son is suggested, as well as his youth, and his
entering the beginning of an occupation.. The Reverseds suggest the
trappings and dangers of wealth:<br />
<blockquote>
<b>ETTEILLA,
PAGE OF COINS, DARK YOUNG MAN (GARÇON BRUN): Study, Instruction, Diligence [</b>not in c.
1838<b>], Application, Meditation, Reflection.—Work, Occupation,
Apprenticeship.—Scholar, Disciple, Student, Apprentice, Amateur, Pupil,
Speculator, Negotiator [</b>last 2 not in c. 1838<b>]. REVERSED, PRODIGALITY (PRODIGALITÉ): Profession [</b>not in c. 1838, which has
<b>Profusion], Superfluity, Magnanimity, Luxuriousness, Sumptuousness,
Splendor, Abundance, Myriad.—Liberality, Kind Deed.—Generosity,
Charity.—Crowd, Multitude.—Degradation, Wasting, Pillage, Dissipation.</b></blockquote>
In
Swords, we have the keyword "Spy" in the uprights, along with "onlooker." I have an idea where these come from. In Italy young noblemen were sent to other courts for military training, ones that presumably they would not be fighting.. For example, the d'Este princes were sent to Naples. Yet such young men could also be expected to report back to their fathers about what was going on in the courts they had been sent to, in other words to observe and perhaps spy (in the sense of learning things they are not supposed to learn). <br />
<blockquote>
<b>ETTEILLA,
PAGE OF SWORDS, SPY (ESPION): Spy, Curious </b>[from c. 1838]<b>, Onlooker, Observer,
Searcher, Overseer, [Connoisseur</b>--not in c. 1838, which has<b> "Amateur"],
Intendant [Entendant, i.e. Discerning].—Examination, Note, Remark,
Observation, Annotation, Speculation, Count, Calculation,
Computation—Learned, Artistic. [</b>last 6 not in c. 1838<b>] REVERSED, UNFORESEEN (IMPRÉVU): [</b>c. 1838 <b>WITHOUT FORESIGHT (IMPREVOYANCE)]: Sudden,
Suddenly, Suddenly Interrupting [</b>last 3 not in c. 1838<b>], Astonishing,
Surprising, Unexpectedly. [Fortuitously, c. 1838]—Improvise, Act and
Speak Without Preparation, Compose and Recite Straightaway [</b>last 2 not
in c. 1838<b>].</b></blockquote>
In the reversed, we have the situation of someone being taught the
skills of foresight and, conversely, doing things by surprise. These
are good skills for a military leader to have.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>THE MARSEILLE AND ETTEILLA KNIGHTS</b> <br />
<br />
XII
corresponds to the Knights. The corresponding low numbers in
the trumps are II and VII. Since II is a female figure, without any
horses, we can skip it for now. But there are interesting parallels
to the Chariot.<br />
<br />
What is of interest, in relation to the Noblet
Knights, are the horses. Notice their color. One chariot horse is peach
or light red, the other gray. In the Knights, Batons' horse is all
peach, while Coins' is all gray (except for the mane). Both Cups' and
Swords' horses are, in the legs, part one and part the other.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFbFDO3doyELdjJi5fA7p5T2D0yUM6pOOQQUWJFE7U2h97CuLx10NEYy6mMBmVHLeva9Ea-7E4TKtGE2akm9iysdb1TKSsAt3Y1docGAR3n4QkCsvdLj8SV5gZEC4trzi9c6Sh-Ajh7S4M/s1600-h/scan0073NobChKnBaSw.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="336" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272487231039192130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFbFDO3doyELdjJi5fA7p5T2D0yUM6pOOQQUWJFE7U2h97CuLx10NEYy6mMBmVHLeva9Ea-7E4TKtGE2akm9iysdb1TKSsAt3Y1docGAR3n4QkCsvdLj8SV5gZEC4trzi9c6Sh-Ajh7S4M/s640/scan0073NobChKnBaSw.jpg" style="height: 210px; width: 400px;" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ_xC-v0RAE1lgAHLn1FwKaj1Ew8Dse6qyXQFrKrqqdsZ3PvrkXZZORz3ehGYtbyR6L5-DJKTUtuvt9zzLu0yhLgzMXpKj0In729c4B5BVHyaGv2sj0eQlli946HUsH8rQfF4Am4sf-5dD/s1600-h/scan0073b.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272489387472995090" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ_xC-v0RAE1lgAHLn1FwKaj1Ew8Dse6qyXQFrKrqqdsZ3PvrkXZZORz3ehGYtbyR6L5-DJKTUtuvt9zzLu0yhLgzMXpKj0In729c4B5BVHyaGv2sj0eQlli946HUsH8rQfF4Am4sf-5dD/s400/scan0073b.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 323px; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
What could this set of arrangements mean? In Plato's <span style="font-style: italic;">Phaedrus</span>,
one horse, the red or dark one, acts from the sensuous impulse to
possess the beautiful object, and the other from thought and
recollection of the archetype of beauty. Perhaps Batons is the one
acting from impulse, and Coins the one acting from thought. This
distinction between two "parts of the soul" was very much alive in the
Renaissance. For example, it is in the French philosopher Pierre de la
Primaudaye. (4):<br />
<blockquote>
<b>...But the most sensible, common and
true opinion, which the wisest among the Philosophers had of the soule,
is that which divideth it into two parts onely, under which all the
rest are comprised: the one being spiritual and intelligible, where the
discourse of reason is; the other brutush, which is the sensuall will,
of itself wandring and disordred, where all motions contrarie to
reason, and all evill desires have their dwelling...</b></blockquote>
The
peach color, as we have seen, is actually darker on the original, and
perhaps more red than peach. It is the color of the Chariot's inferior
horse, the one that responds energetically to what he sees without the
restraints imposed by Reason. Correspondingly, the all-peach horse is
that of Batons and the peasants. Peasants, on this conception, live in
a world of bodily appetites and feeling without abstract thought. They
plow, plant, harvest, and store, and in between have as much fun as
their hard lives will allow. If they rebel, it will be spontaneous,
ill-prepared, and sandwiched in between farm duties. If it isn't over
quickly, they lose, and it is never over quickly.<br />
<br />
The peasant
rebels in response to his senses--his hunger, and his numbers,
against his few masters--without thinking through the forces against
him and his own limitations. The merchant, to get rich, has to ignore
his impulses--to reduce his prices to those in need, for example, or to
trade in what he likes rather than what will sell--and consider
thoughtfully how best to make his profit, comparing expenses to the
price at which he can best sell his goods. It is a heartless business.
The warrior, however, needs both the fire of impulse against his enemy
and a thoughtfulness about how to best win a conflict. Likewise the
monk or lover needs both the flame of desire, leading him to the
"divine madness," and the rationality that will keep him from
overzealousness and real madness. Or so I imagine Plato's framework in
the context of the four Knights.<br />
<br />
In
the Knights of Swords vs. Batons, there is a suggestion of class
distinction. Peasants were not allowed to own or use swords; their only
defense was a club. And in fact in the 16th century and 17th centuries
there were horrible battles in the countryside of Europe. The worst was
in the 1520's, when hundreds of thousands of German peasants rose up
against their masters in hopes of a better life under Protestantism.
Luther did not support them, and hundreds of thousands were slaughtered
by the bearers of the sword.<br />
<br />
The German artist Albrecht Durer
was moved to design a monument to these peasants, which of course never
was built. (The part at right is the continuation upwards of the base
at left.) At the top is a peasant in despair, a sword in his back,
while below his own weapons--scythes, hoes, shovels, and other tools of
his work--are tied tightly together. (10)<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE7uFuIIxp5-KN2356m37Kb446c8OKyR2tH0asaek0OU0rmP-PzTGz6eMZV69I31C102-2MBcE5BULSxEbh4eG1FmDlWoETYvzKnAyr-mPTfJQzi7RizKASqkCv_qtPxuSYSzDHyg37FwY/s1600-h/01scan0053awithtop.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309626222031452002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE7uFuIIxp5-KN2356m37Kb446c8OKyR2tH0asaek0OU0rmP-PzTGz6eMZV69I31C102-2MBcE5BULSxEbh4eG1FmDlWoETYvzKnAyr-mPTfJQzi7RizKASqkCv_qtPxuSYSzDHyg37FwY/s400/01scan0053awithtop.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 284px; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<br />
To the peasants it must have
seemed impossible at first to lose their struggle, so much did the they
outnumber their masters. But numbers are not everything: he knows
nothing of war. Moreover, in a war one needs to eat, and the only food
is the harvest, to which this same rebel must attend in place of his
war.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6258xG66mmP6nwfo7TKnYzRbRe0zG3T2xWUJcElOYyAcea5BUp7nBOz3pzskAmuPr2pm1HO8nANUgH6R0J-HXB8lUzxGVSETJTV_ccl64x4MVUhTXoq3ZwBEWG9YgAGNDNczSxkmkYpSp/s1600-h/05scan0035a.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310313805468050242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6258xG66mmP6nwfo7TKnYzRbRe0zG3T2xWUJcElOYyAcea5BUp7nBOz3pzskAmuPr2pm1HO8nANUgH6R0J-HXB8lUzxGVSETJTV_ccl64x4MVUhTXoq3ZwBEWG9YgAGNDNczSxkmkYpSp/s400/05scan0035a.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 320px; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
The
Page of Batons looks at his impressive club with confidence; it will
service him, he thinks. But the Knight is not so sure; already he is
wheeling his horse around.<br />
<br />
Here is Etteilla, starting in Swords: <br />
<blockquote>
<b>KNIGHT OF SWORDS, UPRIGHT: SOLDIER (MILITAIRE), Man With a Sword, Man-At-Arms, Fencing Master,
Swordsman.—Soldier From an Entire Corps or Army [</b>c. 1838 simply has<b>
Soldat, </b>i.e.<b> Soldier], Combatant, Enemy.—Dispute, War, Combat, Battle,
Duel.—Attack, Address </b>[not in c. 1838<b>], Defense, Opposition,
Resistance, Destruction, Ruin, Reversal.—Enmity, Hate, Wrath [</b>c. 1838<b>
Colere, Anger], Resentment.—Courage, Valor, Bravery.—Satellite
[Attendant], Mercenary [Stipendiary]. REVERSED: IGNORANCE (IGNORANCE), Incompetence,
Ineptitude, Foolishness, Folly, Stupidity [Imbecility], Imprudence,
Impertinence, Extravagance, Ridicule, Silliness.—Fraud, Swindling,
Mischief, Cunning. [</b>last 4 not in c. 1838<b>]</b></blockquote>
These words describe the professional soldier, in all his fearsomeness, and also his folly.<br />
<br />
Batons seems to me to describe the peasant who has lost:<br />
<blockquote>
<b>ETTEILLA,
KNIGHT OF BATONS, UPRIGHT: DEPARTURE (DEPART), Moving, Alienation, Absence,
Abandonment, Change, Flight, Desertion, Transmigration,
Emigration.—Transposition, Translation, Transplantation, Transmutation,
Escape. REVERSED: DISUNITY (DESUNION) Discord, Breach, Rupture, Dissension, Division, Going
Off, Separation, Splitting Up.—Faction—Quarrel, Sorting Out—Cut, Break,
Discontinuity, Interruption.</b></blockquote>
The peasants, to survive,
have to be on the move. Even though they are tied to the soil, yet in
the 16th17th centuries the old feudal relationships were changing, due
to the wars of religion--changing but not ending. Many tens of
thousands died. Those that didn't, moved so as to serve the lord
practicing their own religion. Or they became independent but landless,
migrating to the cities or emigrating to the New World.<br />
<br />
Now Cups: <br />
<blockquote>
<b>KNIGHT
OF CUPS, UPRIGHT: ARRIVAL (ARRIVE) Coming, Approach, Access, Reception,
Entrance, Bringing Closer.— Similarity.—Advent, Reunion [</b>c. 1838 only<b>].
Approximation.—Accession To .—Flow [Fr. Affluence] .—Comparison [not in
c. 1838]. REVERSED: ROGUERY (FRIPONNERIE) or Mischief, Deceit [</b>1838 only,<b> Fourberie], Villainy,
Duplicity, Cunning, Artifice.—Keenness (</b>c. 1838 has<b> Dexterity,
Adresse], Shrewdness, Suppleness, Trickery [</b>c. 1838 only, <b>Tricherie]
Fraud.—Subtlety, Irregularity.—Evil Deed. [c.</b> 1838 does not have last
2<b>].</b></blockquote>
We have "arrival" here because the horse, by its
bowing, is clearly approaching. The knight is paying homage to his
Lady, or to his Lord. The Reverseds warn of the danger, fealty
misapplied.<br />
<br />
And finally Coins: <br />
<blockquote>
<b>KNIGHT OF COINS,
UPRIGHT: UTILITY (UTILITE), Serviceable [</b>not in c. 1838, which has<b> Advantage],
Benefit, Gain, Profit, Interest.—Profitable, Interesting, Worthwhile,
Important, Necessary, Obliging, Officious. REVERSED: INACTION (INACTION), Peace, Tranquility, Repose, Sleep, Apathy, Inertia, Stagnation,
Inactivity, Idleness [Unemployment].—Leisure, Pass-times [should be
"pastime"].—Recreation, Carefree, Nonchalance, Indolence, Laziness,
Doing Nothing, Dullness, Discouragement, Exhaustion [</b>not in c. 1838,
which has<b> Aneantissement, </b>i.e.<b> Annihilation, Ruin]</b>.</blockquote>
The
Uprights emphasize this knight's role as a traveling representative of
a merchant or banking firm. He must ingratiate himself with the local
powers that be and selling himself to them. The Reverseds are again the
opposites of his industriousness, many of them dangers to be avoided.<br />
<br />
With
this information, I can think of characters in classical literature
that fit these Knights. The Knight of Swords is classically a
natural-born knight, like Parsifal. Or someone cold-bloodedly
calculating, like Octavius Caesar, as described by Plutarch. The Knight
of Cups is classically Paris, whose love of Helen started the Trojan
War. There is also Tristan, betraying his Lord for love of his Lady.
The Knight of Batons is someone who leaves the fray rather than
fighting to the finish, so as to live to fight another day. There are
not many models in literature. There are the Greeks at Troy; but they
only seemed to retreat.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">References, the Knights</span><br />
4. the soul, according to La Primaudaye: <span style="font-style: italic;">The French Acadamie,</span> translated by T.B., 1586, p. 24.<br />
8. From Kaplan, <span style="font-style: italic;">Encyclopedia of Tarot</span>, Vol. 2, p. 277.<br />
10. Durer: image from Karl-Adolf Knappe, <span style="font-style: italic;">Durer: The Complete Engravings, Etchings, and Woodcuts</span>, p. 369.<br />
11. de Mellet: in his section IV, Karlin, p. 56.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size: small;">THE MARSEILLE AND ETTEILLA QUEENS</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br />The tarot Queens reflect all the females of the trumps </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">early in the sequence</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
Popess and Justice as well as Empress. And the ambiguities of the Death
card (XIII) appear in the Queens as well: Swords is a widow, while Batons
embodies fertility.<br /><br />In the earliest tarot Queens, the main
iconographic similarity was with the Empress. But gradually more
differentiation developed.<br /><br />I will start with Coins. Here there
is a clear similarity with the Empress, both in her staff and in the
found object they hold. The Queen has been made older than the Empress,
to match the age of her bearded husband the King of Coins. The
Empress's clueless love of opulence is carried in the suits by the
Queen of Coins, who perhaps now is not so clueless. Presumably their
husbands are rich, either because of their office or their business.</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5H_kR4aI49rbAdZ-k8_ntXIgo7h9H9RKxRRvt6-U0GeZc7qn4s_T9atb1wt7Gzar3oUdgf79K6n8JEFnJxpxBxwyoMIQYIMYce1jREt6Aaw9Ssg47c139ZIKgIgr0YYr1BexF13OEEyc/s1600/13coinsEmpress.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607433993379570882" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5H_kR4aI49rbAdZ-k8_ntXIgo7h9H9RKxRRvt6-U0GeZc7qn4s_T9atb1wt7Gzar3oUdgf79K6n8JEFnJxpxBxwyoMIQYIMYce1jREt6Aaw9Ssg47c139ZIKgIgr0YYr1BexF13OEEyc/s400/13coinsEmpress.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 313px; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
The
Etteilla School's word-list reflects this attribute of wealth in the
Uprights. Wealth makes for a certain sense of security and hence
boldness. The Reverseds have the opposite of this last.<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>QUEEN <span class="posthilit">OF</span>
COINS: BROWN-HAIRED WOMAN (FEMME BRUNE), Opulence, Wealth, Prosperous, Luxury,
Magnificence.—Self-Confidence, Reliability, Trust, Certainty,
Affirmation.—Security, Boldness, Liberty, Candor. REVERSED: CERTAIN EVIL (MAL-SUR, or MAL CERTAIN </b>in c. 1838<b>).
Doubting, Unsure, Doubt, Indecision, Uncertainty.— Fear, Dread, Fright,
Timidity, Apprehension, Wavering, Hesitation.—Undecided, Indecisive,
Puzzled, in Suspense. </b>[last 4 not in c. 1838]</div>
</blockquote>
The SB has for this card Helen of Troy, shown looking at herself in a
mirror. Such a person certainly would like opulence and exhibit
boldness. She would also be untrustworthy, from her husband's
perspective. Another candidate would be Cleopatra, as Plutarch
describes her.<br />
<br />
In Cups, the similarity is with the Popess.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpH4zKlxBFfNlfmxhZQbmlpJHUTEW2YHv1B34e5zoYsXbnh3Os4Ujk7bv0n9rkt10Z5FP3X5-07GjAtucqjU6tmVY6LwBZqiGhsOaXCUJC4mhcrmCZShdGCOQQfiAz3iU0SBvp2KT4RbQ/s1600/13cupspopess.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607433983019008626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpH4zKlxBFfNlfmxhZQbmlpJHUTEW2YHv1B34e5zoYsXbnh3Os4Ujk7bv0n9rkt10Z5FP3X5-07GjAtucqjU6tmVY6LwBZqiGhsOaXCUJC4mhcrmCZShdGCOQQfiAz3iU0SBvp2KT4RbQ/s400/13cupspopess.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 324px; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Both
the Popess and the Queen of Cups look to our left at the sacred object
they hold there, in the one case the Bible and the other case the cup.
The veil behind the Popess is suggested by the fabric above the Queen's
head. The religious aspect of the Popess has rubbed off on the Queen of
Cups, reinforcing the religious interpretation of Cups made by de
Gebelin and de Mellet.<br />
<br />
The Etteilla School's word-list takes a different approach, emphasizing her honesty rather than her connection to God.<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>"ETTEILLA" QUEEN <span class="posthilit">OF</span> CUPS, UPRIGHT: FAIR WOMAN (FEMME BLONDE)—Honest Woman, Virtue, Wisdom, Honesty. REVERSED: WOMAN OF HIGH RANK (FEMME EN PLACE) [</b>c. 1838 ,<b> WIFE OF A MAN OF HIGH RANK (FEMME D'HOMME EN PLACE), Honest Woman [</b>not in c. 1838<b>].—Vice, Dishonesty, Depravity, Dissoluteness, Corruption, Scandal. </b></div>
</blockquote>
But one who is connected to God is supposedly full of virtue. The SB's
Queen of Cups, Polyxena, youngest daughter of Priam, is virtuous, true
to her country. And <span class="posthilit">of</span> distinguished rank. She was also dishonest with Achilles, betraying him to his enemies when he told her how he could be killed.<br />
<br />
It
seems to me that the Queen's inspiration is not merely the words of a
book, as suggested by the Popess, but her own direct connection to the
divine. She looks at her cup in the way that a fortune-teller might
look in her crystal ball. I am reminded of Cassandra, who was given the
gift of prophecy and also the curse of having no one believe her. She
spoke the truth. Shakespeare's Cassandra was similar, as well as the
character of Margaret in his <span style="font-style: italic;">Richard III</span>, who predicts the calamitous reign and downfall of Richard III.<br />
<br />
In Swords, the parallel seems to me to be with the second trump with III in it, Justice.<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwE2BwkEm0vwcWXCoSMhzRbBSvoGtqCH2Oq4IVD_hpOFLEw0eLgJ4jHbahe-tvYnD4-kaaYopHVWNQvYVyvv-nkSK7oRwQp4x5Fque0yQSH5WlD6rqzz4FfPehsPi_f16v8g7xmBeDKug/s1600/13swordsjustice.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607433988447478114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwE2BwkEm0vwcWXCoSMhzRbBSvoGtqCH2Oq4IVD_hpOFLEw0eLgJ4jHbahe-tvYnD4-kaaYopHVWNQvYVyvv-nkSK7oRwQp4x5Fque0yQSH5WlD6rqzz4FfPehsPi_f16v8g7xmBeDKug/s400/13swordsjustice.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 330px; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
However she looks at her sword with dismay. We can see why by looking at the Etteilla School's word-list.<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>ETTEILLA, QUEEN <span class="posthilit">OF</span> <span class="posthilit">SWORDS</span>,
UPRIGHT: WIDOWHOOD (VEUVAGE), Widow, Privation, Absence, Dearth, Sterility,
Indigence, Poverty.—Empty, Vacant, Deserted, Idle, Inactive,
Unoccupied. [</b>last 6 not in c. 1838<b>]. REVERSED: EVIL WOMAN (MECHANTE FEMME).—Bale,
Malice, Trickery, Subtlety, Artifice, Mischievousness, Bigotry,
Prudery, Hypocrisy.</b></div>
</blockquote>
Etteilla's 1773 book has, for
Spades, "Femme veuve. R. Femme du monde, vous regarderez si c’est
present, passe, ou avenir": "Widow. Reversed, woman <span class="posthilit">of</span> the world, you will watch if it is present, past, or future." The basic interpretation was there even then.<br />
<br />
The
Etteilla Reverseds may have come from the SB association. Olympias was
said to have murdered her husband Phillip. This perhaps relates the
card to the 13th trump, Death. She is also an evil woman: malicious,
subtle, and tricky. The malicious nature of the Queen of Spades was by
Tchaikovsky as the title role of an opera: she is the prototypical <span style="font-style: italic;">femme fatale</span>.<br />
<br />
The
Queen of Swords' fate as widow seems to be in the cards quite early, as
early as the d'Este deck. In contrast to the PMB (at left), there is a
wistfulness as she waves good-bye to her husband going off to war, a
fear that he will not return alive.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXCGFYZEIaldCuOFlHn9MJswONKLSumLcbFuMRt-mUsSlEQ3AphN7J595OSEAihO_e8prwop7mxpL3xUW9nPvvyDhnAN2AQACo-ttwug6fyA3hwYBVTtv4FCFDnNscXqvwtY340XJsNrA/s1600/13QUEstePMB.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607442126930612034" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXCGFYZEIaldCuOFlHn9MJswONKLSumLcbFuMRt-mUsSlEQ3AphN7J595OSEAihO_e8prwop7mxpL3xUW9nPvvyDhnAN2AQACo-ttwug6fyA3hwYBVTtv4FCFDnNscXqvwtY340XJsNrA/s400/13QUEstePMB.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 350px; width: 362px;" /></a><br />
I
suspect that it is part of the growing realization of the deadliness of
gunpowder-based warfare, of which the Ferrarese had first-hand
experience in the war with Venice of the 1470s.<br />
<br />
For Batons, it
may be that the card is drawing some inspiration from the Chariot card.
The flesh-color in ignoble horse gets repeated in the Queen of Batons.
She is the object of sensual love and so an image of fertility, as
shown by her exposed nurturing breasts.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAptoNL5KPuElu_7zOn193qDx0tLaoWx0J77boN6KlKBWY5gdukhDktii-6oOAYXl1zSf7HzqrjYH5Uf3ELs0yFt0nXIr4nP3ltJCAj13RBltyQbSa1AVrw0EsxBZcLvdW78w4soVPET0/s1600/13batonschariot2.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607433985055491890" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAptoNL5KPuElu_7zOn193qDx0tLaoWx0J77boN6KlKBWY5gdukhDktii-6oOAYXl1zSf7HzqrjYH5Uf3ELs0yFt0nXIr4nP3ltJCAj13RBltyQbSa1AVrw0EsxBZcLvdW78w4soVPET0/s400/13batonschariot2.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 228px; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
This connection to sex and fertility goes back at least to the PMB (at right), with its green gloves in all the Baton courts.<br />
<br />
The Etteilla School's word-list emphasizes her relationship to the country and her qualities as a housewife.<br />
<div>
<blockquote>
<b>QUEEN <span class="posthilit">OF</span> BATONS, UPRIGHT: WOMAN OF THE COUNTRY (FEMME DE COMPAGNE), Housewife, Economy, Honesty, Politeness.—Gentleness,
Virtue.—Honor, Chastity. REVERSED: GOOD WOMAN (BONNE FEMME), Kindness,
Excellence.—Obliging, Officious, Helpful.—Favor, Service, Duty.</b></blockquote>
</div>
These are of course the perfect qualities for a wife and mother.<br />
<br />
<b>THE MARSEILLE AND ETTEILLA KINGS</b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">A 16th century proofsheet has this
series of the four kings. Cups is pointing upwards, toward heaven. It
is the cup as sacramental vessel. Batons point to himself. The baton is
about his own authority. It is not clear where the other two are
pointing, if anywhere. Perhaps one is pointing down and the other at
us, but I cannot tell.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi398tTnu1AxGprcB3T_Id7u9UiYl6oYR3o71j8LPn2LTqw0zOlzyJOIwKD4heuGt5sWLLOPI13im-6DmU1gVz7doZs4SoeVETWU2v-XyYnTtf0VKCbTbTu4s8wyG5OxOZDKYuhPhSRAa8/s1600/14kings.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607496233366741106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi398tTnu1AxGprcB3T_Id7u9UiYl6oYR3o71j8LPn2LTqw0zOlzyJOIwKD4heuGt5sWLLOPI13im-6DmU1gVz7doZs4SoeVETWU2v-XyYnTtf0VKCbTbTu4s8wyG5OxOZDKYuhPhSRAa8/s400/14kings.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 219px; width: 400px;" /></a><br />If
we look at Kings of Swords in sequence, from Cary-Yale to the PMB and
the d'Este (below), what we see is a victorious soldier who looks
progressively more gloomy. As the highest member of a traditionally
doleful suit, he has negative connotations. His skill and judgment
decide matters of life, death, and other considerations of material
life.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-cDYjNRrRUF5Aeg8JC8A6Zx-VgoUkgYFVsCYgFqxPJb9E74YmYu7AWsyTbVBFeKSYEtbrMnQdD-O_6cJ5wNgim9pMSFUQpox7F_Vxit-25DFOJzvZzpRzVYSySg9HGaKY1rzW8TZ9wFg/s1600/14CaSfEsKSw.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607490988485110658" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-cDYjNRrRUF5Aeg8JC8A6Zx-VgoUkgYFVsCYgFqxPJb9E74YmYu7AWsyTbVBFeKSYEtbrMnQdD-O_6cJ5wNgim9pMSFUQpox7F_Vxit-25DFOJzvZzpRzVYSySg9HGaKY1rzW8TZ9wFg/s400/14CaSfEsKSw.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 247px; width: 400px;" /></a> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">By
the Noblet, he even looks fearful. With his sideways glance, he
suspects even his friends, conveys both his power of life over death
and how "uneasy lies the crown," as Shakespeare had a similar King of
Swords say, in his <span style="font-style: italic;">Henry IV Part 2</span>. He acts on behalf of Justice, but others have their idea of Justice, too.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT3u6tKtNym2ojhMQIUuM5fRZvtYE303JeYKVMx9Mn0NoxzgJtDVf5EnFzMHKlCDInW_J6zdo2DKLoayaivW5hYmRk3-IIFcixSbHW-D9X23EAOLDbtglSdp_NR0hc2aYJfcrrK9PADsM/s1600/14swordsjustice.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607490996626271266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT3u6tKtNym2ojhMQIUuM5fRZvtYE303JeYKVMx9Mn0NoxzgJtDVf5EnFzMHKlCDInW_J6zdo2DKLoayaivW5hYmRk3-IIFcixSbHW-D9X23EAOLDbtglSdp_NR0hc2aYJfcrrK9PADsM/s400/14swordsjustice.jpg" style="height: 343px; width: 399px;" /></a><br />Here is Etteilla; he has broadened the Kingship to include some of his subjects; yet even these form an exclusive club.</span><br />
<blockquote>
<b><span style="font-size: 100%;">KING OF SWORDS, UPRIGHT: MAN OF THE LAW (HOMME DE ROBE), <span style="font-size: 100%;">Lawyer, </span>Judge, Councilor,
Assessor, Senator, Businessman, Medical Practitioner, Attorney, Public
Prosecutor, Doctor, Physician.—Jurist, Jurisprudence.—Litigant,
Jurisconsult. REVERSED: HOMME <span style="font-size: 100%;">MECHANT </span> (EVIL MAN), Ill-Intentioned, Wickedness, Perversity,
Perfidy, Crime, Cruelty, Barbarity, Inhumanity.</span></b></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: 100%;">
The Reverseds give the downside of power backed by law.<br /><br />The
King of Batons bears a relationship to the Charioteer that complements
his wife's. The Queen of Batons, as we have seen, took on the color of
the reddish horse, signifying sensuous passion. Her husband has the
color of the other horse, the noble one's dull white, his version of
rule through rationality. From his picture, he would seem to be mostly
concerned about his own authority, as in the 16th century black and
white version. Another in the same tradition would seem to be the
d'Este, in which the King merely stares at his baton, his symbol of
authority<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguoVR2ZEg3iQPAkr7aVRVj7ImMEbFOFVO2v0xpbKTodIz4TpnmcixrYO3F2dOvFAN8xsx-3ThyphenhyphenCCZF41hjng6k5k4p4Hv4hIZx7AKEZCNv905cACEYqG3nsE5RTZqtazCx36ouAlWpv0w/s1600/13batonschariot2.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607491779285069330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguoVR2ZEg3iQPAkr7aVRVj7ImMEbFOFVO2v0xpbKTodIz4TpnmcixrYO3F2dOvFAN8xsx-3ThyphenhyphenCCZF41hjng6k5k4p4Hv4hIZx7AKEZCNv905cACEYqG3nsE5RTZqtazCx36ouAlWpv0w/s400/13batonschariot2.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 323px; width: 400px;" /></a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX6iG-sJgXrDUjB0kFan4dksGa0LPqw9urppX30fNi-X_2epnnrv7nGHThN7F7YKfwRxowlDF9GYkzV1RhblVW_P0xOXW1p-y5C0scL_YXJtRp8XF2Zf9892QwNxShaxT5Dn9osy73eJ8/s1600/14EsSfKBa.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607496234981883282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX6iG-sJgXrDUjB0kFan4dksGa0LPqw9urppX30fNi-X_2epnnrv7nGHThN7F7YKfwRxowlDF9GYkzV1RhblVW_P0xOXW1p-y5C0scL_YXJtRp8XF2Zf9892QwNxShaxT5Dn9osy73eJ8/s400/14EsSfKBa.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 350px; width: 355px;" /></a></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;">Here is the Etteilla School's take on the King of Batons.</span><br />
<blockquote>
<b><span style="font-size: 100%;">KING OF BATONS, UPRIGHT: MAN OF THE COUNTRY (HOMME DE CAMPAGNE), Good and Strict [</span></b><span style="font-size: 100%;">Stockman has </span><b><span style="font-size: 100%;">"Austere") Man, Well Intentioned Man<span style="font-size: 100%;"> </span></span></b><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">[last 2 not in c. 1838]</span></span><b><span style="font-size: 100%;">,
Honest Man—Conscientiousness {Stockman has Conscience], Integrity.—Agriculturist,
Laborer, Farmer. [</span></b><span style="font-size: 100%;">1838 adds:</span><b><span style="font-size: 100%;"> Villager, Yokel (Rustre). REVERSED: GOOD AND SEVERE MAN (HOMME BON ET SEVERE).—Leniency, Austerity [</span></b><span style="font-size: 100%;">c. 1838 has </span><b><span style="font-size: 100%;">Indulgent Severity],
Indulgence, Complaisance [</span></b><span style="font-size: 100%;">last 2, c. 1838 only<b>]</b></span><b><span style="font-size: 100%;">, Tolerance,
Condescension.</span></b></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: 100%;">
</span><span style="font-size: 100%;">This
list seems to alternate between severity and leniency. Well, he is
still young. Historically the suit in general has to do with the
countryside. The Noblet's green club, which goes back to the PMB's geen
gloves, suggests the greenery of field, orchard and forest.</span><span style="font-size: 100%;">
Thus we have the designation "countryman." Etteilla's descriptions
suggests the country gentleman, in all his honesty, friendliness, and
conscientiousness in administering his estate, as opposed to other
traits more likely cultivated by the absentee landlord in the city.<br /><br />If the Queen of Cups relates to the Popess, it is to be expected that the Kign of Cups should be reminiscent of the Pope.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGfXyPN7tNVOQcnqBY_2oV22JFg8MW9-7MZ84pQhuoAyDFIodMkcii6do3NIQefutkDiMACxOocSSxgruOrjSQKGIAOxF2wnk6uakuP6r9fZzX3eKKWNrVWCsD7g-IzK7szuh-_9EQCw8/s1600/14popecupsNob.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607490995746716626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGfXyPN7tNVOQcnqBY_2oV22JFg8MW9-7MZ84pQhuoAyDFIodMkcii6do3NIQefutkDiMACxOocSSxgruOrjSQKGIAOxF2wnk6uakuP6r9fZzX3eKKWNrVWCsD7g-IzK7szuh-_9EQCw8/s400/14popecupsNob.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 324px; width: 400px;" /></a><br />Here is the Etteilla School list for the King of Cups.</span><br />
<blockquote>
<b><span style="font-size: 100%;">KING
OF CUPS, UPRIGHT: FAIR-HAIRD MAN (HOMME BLOND), Honest Man, Integrity, Equity, Arts,
Sciences. REVERSED: MAN OF HIGH RANK [HOMME EN PLACE],
Honest Man [</span></b><span style="font-size: 100%;">not in c. 1838</span><b><span style="font-size: 100%;">].—Dishonest Man.—Exaction, Misappropriation
of Public Funds, Injustice, Bandit, Swindler, Rogue.—Vice, Corruption,
Scandal [Swindler </span></b><span style="font-size: 100%;">and last 3 not in c. 1838, which has</span><b><span style="font-size: 100%;"> Waste
[gaspillage], Embezzlement (Dilapidation), Thief (Voleur)]</span></b></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: 100%;">
These attributes are similar to the Queen's. </span><span style="font-size: 100%;">Positively, it is the man of calm vision whose passion is to a higher realm than this earth. </span><span style="font-size: 100%;">"Fair" is Etteilla's association of this suit with Hearts, a red suit.</span><span style="font-size: 100%;"> In the Reverseds, I am reminded of Hamlet's uncle, the apparently generous and diplomatic King Claudius.</span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /><br />So we come to the King of Coins, who holds his suit sign near where the Emperor has his. Both are bearded, older figures.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeMKBJwJgxVghBAaKHbV2SGWlBLgjBb4Vp_v5oYYjwhw0xwhFhyhCG49UgQWsxeoNsPBN-aBAh5_iGfRezZJXDpMZFUDsQrtK-XBQBmBqA5aXcVsdflHyWEPBem-u-X0uHKhAANBAkIc8/s1600/14empcoins2.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607490988032920018" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeMKBJwJgxVghBAaKHbV2SGWlBLgjBb4Vp_v5oYYjwhw0xwhFhyhCG49UgQWsxeoNsPBN-aBAh5_iGfRezZJXDpMZFUDsQrtK-XBQBmBqA5aXcVsdflHyWEPBem-u-X0uHKhAANBAkIc8/s400/14empcoins2.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 312px; width: 400px;" /></a><br />The Etteilla School gives his professions in the Uprights:</span><br />
<blockquote>
<b><span style="font-size: 100%;">KING
OF COINS, UPRIGHT: BROWN-HAIRED MAN (HOMME BRUN), Shopkeeper, Merchant, Banker,
Stockbroker, Calculator, Speculator, Physicist [</span></b><span style="font-size: 100%;">c. 1838 only</span><b><span style="font-size: 100%;">].—Physics,
Geometry [</span></b><span style="font-size: 100%;">c. 1838 only</span><b><span style="font-size: 100%;">], Mathematics, Science—Teacher [British:
Master], Professor. REVERSED: DEPRAVED MAN (HOMME VICIEUX), Vice, Flaw, Weakness, Defective, Faulty
Conformation [</span></b><span style="font-size: 100%;">not in c. 1838</span><b><span style="font-size: 100%;">], Misshapen Nature.—Dissoluteness [</span></b><span style="font-size: 100%;">c. 1838</span><b><span style="font-size: 100%;">
dereglement, i.e. disorder], Ugliness, Deformity.—Corruption.—Arrogance
[</span></b><span style="font-size: 100%;">not in c. 1838, which has</span><b><span style="font-size: 100%;"> Puanteur, i.e. Stench].</span></b></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: 100%;">
Merchants
and businessmen are featured here, as well as the skills needed for
success in business, a head for calculations.. The leap to mathematics
in general is not a great one. The dark side of business is corruption.
Historically the theme of the miser would have been included: not
necessarily corrupt, just unfeeling; perhaps that is what Etteilla had
in mind with "vice" and "misshapen nature." The term "brown-haired" in the list
merely shows that Coins, for Etteilla, corresponds to the regular suit
of Clubs.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"> A melancholia
pervades this suit in Noblet, especially noticeable in the King. It is
as though to say, riches don't buy happiness.</span> Earlier ones were more genial (below, from left to right, the Cary-Yale, the PMB, and the d'Este).<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidWzacxrwyuO8eAfFKvtMsYSEmhHt1lRQm2H2y26xvv_cIJk86a403507KAGuF9k-qO_flJbrbcV8YLr8x8mtySvG5Bhb929Mzye_WHPP92MJebiveFhBJsULtTUytG1lHnsDPjxwOa8g/s1600/14CaSfEsKCo.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607549098210248194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidWzacxrwyuO8eAfFKvtMsYSEmhHt1lRQm2H2y26xvv_cIJk86a403507KAGuF9k-qO_flJbrbcV8YLr8x8mtySvG5Bhb929Mzye_WHPP92MJebiveFhBJsULtTUytG1lHnsDPjxwOa8g/s400/14CaSfEsKCo.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 259px; width: 400px;" /></a>Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677044918876619054.post-39829470137865558612012-05-15T22:13:00.001-07:002017-04-18T15:09:50.237-07:00Conclusion: drawing connections<span class="corners-top"></span>
<br />
By way of summary, I want to investigate three questions. First, how much does the <span class="posthilit">Waite</span>-Smith
owe to the Sola-Busca? Second, How well do
the <i>Theology of Arithmetic</i> and “Etteilla” word-lists describe the Sola-Busca?<br />
<br />
Added in 2017 (now in process of development): Third, is there any relationship between Etteilla's word lists and another list, similar at least in that associated words with cards, that Franco Pratesi found in Bologna and dated to around 1750? If so, that would be a further confirmation of a connection, as Bologna is not far from Venice, albeit its list is two and a half centuries later. <br />
<br />
<b>THE SB CARDS AND SMITH’S DESIGNS</b><br />
<br />
For this first question, here is the score, inning by inning, if I may use a North American figure of speech. I have tried to keep track, number by number, of the degree, in percentages, to which Smith's designs show some influence from the SB. Now it is just a matter of averaging those percentages; or, if you like, saying which do and which don't.<br />
<br />
Among
the Aces, the only one of the Smiths that might owe something to the SB
is the Ace of Cups: in that it represents the three persons of the
Trinity, it corresponds to the SB Ace of Coins. The relationship is
more conceptual than iconographic, so I would score the Aces at .5 out
of 4. Or, in another way of counting, 1 out of four with some
relationship.<br />
<br />
In the Twos, Batons in both a man looks
wistfully off in the distance. I give that .75. Cups has lovers, but
with two instead of the one lovelorn putto. A .5. Swords has the common
crossed swords pattern; but that is hardly specific to the SB. The
motif in Coins is borrowed form the “Marseille.” So about 1.25, or 2
out of 4 with some influence.<br />
<br />
In the Threes, of course, Swords
borrows heavily from the SB: 1.0. In Cups and Coins, all we have is the
equilateral-triangle pattern, .25 each, or 1.5 overall, 3 out of 4 with
some influence.<br />
<br />
In the Fours, Coins borrows heavily, a score of
1.0. In Cups, Smith carries over the idea of the missing cup, so some influence, about .75. Swords, with the theme of triumph in death, borrows
a lot but looks different, .75. So 2.5, or 3 out of 4 with some
relationship.<br />
<br />
In the Fives, Staves shows a fight, and the SB
implies one: .75. Swords shows a loss of weapons in both cases, but
otherwise different: .75. There is some connection in Coins, either love
as illness or illicit love as outside the church and
disastrous: .75 again So around 2.25 out of 4, although 3 out of 4 show
influence.<br />
<br />
In the Sixes, in Swords, we have the sorrowful
journey in both cases: about .75; the same, I’d guess. In Cups, the
theme of innocent children: .75 again. In Staves, man carrying
messages, again .755. Total 2.25 out of 4, or 3 out of 4 with some
relationship.<br />
<br />
In the Sevens, Smith’s outnumbered youth in Batons
has a vague relationship to the SB’s man bowed over by their weight:
.5. Smith’s dreamy young man matches SB’s, 1. Swords is a close
match: 1.0. Total 2.5, or 3 out of 4.<br />
<br />
In the Eights, Smith’s
young metal worker in Coins comes from the SB 7 of Coins, 1.0. That’s
the only one that bears any relationship. So 1.0 and 1 out of 4.<br />
<br />
In
the Nines, the exotic man in Cups bears some relationship in mood to
the sea-creature. .5. And that’s the only one I see, 1 out of 4.<br />
<br />
In the Tens, the flying Cups are about .5 similar. And the 10 of Batons comes from the SB Swords, 1.0. Total 1.5, or 2 out of 4.<br />
<br />
Averaging
the first figures, we get 14 out of 40 possible. Averaging the second
figures, we get 17 out of 40. Or 30% figured one way, 42% the other.
Either way, the SB is a major influence on the <span class="posthilit">Waite</span>-Smith. A lot more than the five cards that look similar would indicate.<br />
<br />
I can also estimate how much the Etteilla school's word-lists influenced Waite. It is just a matter of averaging the 10 scores. <br />
<br />
I tried to quantify the discrepancies, by going back and estimating
the degree of fit between the members of no less than five pairs, which I
put at the end of each section. The pairs are: Smith to Sola Busca,
Etteilla to Sola-Busca, Waite to Etteilla, Pythagoreanism to Etteilla,
and Pythagoreanism to Waite. I can now report the results.<br />
<br />
For
Smith designs to SB designs, it seems to me in retrospect that in most
cases either she used an SB design or she didn't. Counting as best I
could, it seems to me that she used an SB design 14 times. Excluding the
Aces, which aren't based on the SB at all, that is 14 out of 36 (1 of
the Twos, then 1, 2, 1, 3, 3, 1, 1, and 1. That is not even a majority,
but it is considerably more than the 5 or so that have usually been
credited.<br />
<br />
For how much of Waite's lists come from
Etteilla, it seems to me that he does so about 85% of the time (100% for
the Aces, then 75, 75, 62, 82, 85, 70, 60, 83, 90).<br />
<br />
On how much Etteilla corresponds to the SB, excluding the Aces the result is 83% (75, 100, 60, 100, 100, 87, 60, 100, and 70). <br />
<br />
Another question how much the SB is influenced by the <i>Theology of Arithmetic</i>, and how much the Etteilla and Waite word-lists are influenced by a <i>Theology of Arithmetic</i>- based tradition.<br />
<br />
In every case, the SB images seemed to fit something in the <i>Theology</i>. But there is also a lot in the <i>Theology</i> that is not in the imagery for a particular card. I ignored those parts.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, occasionally I would make a mistake and try to apply the wrong section in the <i>Theology</i> to a particular number in the cards. It wouldn't work. I would think my whole enterprise ws doomed, until I discovered my mistake. Try it yourself. I can't make a connection that is within the realm of possibility between a section on one number in the <i>Theology</i> and a different number on the cards.<br />
<br />
It was definitely not true as often that the Waite-Smith designs reflected a Pythagorean view of that number. <br />
<br />
This was true of th100e word-lists, too. Combining them out of sequence, the "wrong" word-list for a particular card, wouldn't work for me. I leave it to others to see whether they can devise equally plausible "connections", so to speak, where I couldn't.<br />
<br />
On how much Etteilla fits Pythgoreanism, I get 88% (100, 75, 100, 75, 75, 90, 100, 75, 90, 100).<br />
<br />
On how much Waite fits Pythagoreanism, I get 84% (100, 70, 95, 75, 75, 87, 100, 75, 75, 90).<br />
<br />
On how much the Smith-Waite designs fit Pythagoreanism, I get 69% (100, 30, 30, 50, 50, 75, 100, 90, 75, 90) . The designs tend often to use the one part of Waite's list that doesn't relate to that philosophy. <br />
<br />
I initially didn't bother counting the number of times the SB fit Pythagoreanism, as I assumed it would be 100%, because the figures are so ambiguous it would not hard to fit any philosophical schema to them, especially one where I can select among a large number of choices. Indeed, going back and looking at the SB images again, they do all fit the Pythagorean concepts I have put into use. A few are a bit strained, but not many, perhaps dropping the percentage to 98% at most. I am not sure, however, that they could fit in any other arrangement. There is my experience of trying other fits between the SB and Pythagoreanism and they didn't work. <br />
<br />
<div class="postbody">
<div class="content">
That there is a reduction in the fit of Pythagorean concepts to the cards, from 100% (Sola-Busca) to 84% (Etteilla and Waite) to 62% (Waite-Smith cards) is not surprising. The drop is to be expected when instead of copying what came before one picks something without always using the principle being measured.<br />
<br />
The high correlation between Etteilla and the SB, however, is surprising, given the separation in time and space between the two, and that little appears to have been written down. A set of pips
with SB pictures and Grand Etteilla Uprights and Reversed keywords would in fact not look
incongruous. Certainly the correlations of SB cards with Etteilla school word-lists have not shown many incongruities.<br />
<br />
For the second interval, from Etteilla to Waite, Waite had merely to use what Etteilla had already written. That was not true for the first inteval, when little was written down. I don’t think it is simply that I have tailored my
interpretations so that the SB and the “Etteilla” fit together. The
images and the lists are too specific. As I have said, in the process of writing drafts
of my posts, I occasionally made mistakes and tried to fit an SB card
with an “Etteilla” word-list for some other card. In most cases I
couldn’t make it work.<br />
<br />
Could Etteilla have made up his lists by
looking at the SB? I doubt it. The SB images weren’t general knowledge
then; and Etteilla’s own imagery is radically different from the SB’s.
Moreover, the correspondences are rougher at the beginning of his
career and get better, as though he had obtained more information from
somewhere. The only conclusion I can think of is that the SB was part
of the Italian cartomantic tradition from which Etteilla said he drew
in constructing his keywords. (I will give some evidence for that in the next section.) In his first book, I theorize, he
invented the notion of “Reversals” but probably took them mostly from standard
meanings then in use, upright or reversed not distinguished, from the
cards not used in the Piquet deck. Then in the full deck he introduced
later, the so-called “Grand Etteilla,” he restored the meanings to the
cards that originally had them, with a few improvements derived from
his sources.<br />
<br />
He also added reversals for all the cards--from where, we don't know, but they are appropriate. A.relationship to the <i>Theology</i> and other Pythagorean texts is more likely than to the SB. If Reversals were indeed not used before Etteilla, he may have made up some and gotten some from a another tradition, using Pythagoreanism either directly himself or indirectly from others..<br />
<br />
Etteilla did say in one place (I will quote from it later) that his method was based on that of a certain Greek refugee in Spain.. The <i>Theology of Arithmetic</i> at least was in Greek.<br />
<br />
<b>THE PRATESI CARTOMANCER IN BOLOGNA, C. 1750 </b><br />
<br />
Befpre Etteilla there is only one surviving cartomantic word-list giving keywords for tarot cards, which Franco Pratesi found in a Bologna library and dated to around 1750. If what I am saying about the Sola-Busca is correct, and that its associations to the cards survived to Etteilla's time, there should be correlations between it and Etteilla's lists.<br />
<br />
<b> </b><br />
Here is Franco's list for the trumps:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
La Stella = Regalo, Carro = Viaggio, Mondo = Viaggio Lungo, Traditore =
Tradimento, Diavolo = Rabbia, Luna = Notte, Sole = Giorno, Bagattino =
Uomo maritato, Matto = Pazzia, Amore = Amore, Forza = Violenza, Morte =
Morte, Tempra = Tempo <br />
(The Star = Gift, Carro = Journey, World =
Long Journey, Traitor = Treason, Devil = Anger, Moon = Night, Sun =
Day, Bagattino = Married man, Matto = Madness, Love = Love, Strength =
Violence, Death = Death, Tempra = Time)</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
Except for Bagattino, and Tempra (Temperance), these associations are rather obvious, even if they do in many cases correspond to the Etteilla school's associations. If the associations given for the non-obvious ones corresponded to Etteilla keywords, that might point to a non-coincidental connection between the two. Unfortunately they do not correspond: "Gift" - rather obvious for the Bolognese scene of the Three Magi - is not in the Etteilla word list for the Star (where the only gift is the water being poured), nor "Married Man" for the Bateleur image (with the keyword "Maladie"), nor Time for Temperance. The association to Time perhaps comes from the similarity of "Tempra" to "Tempo", time n Italian. This spelling "Tempra" apparently did not survive in France. <br />
<br />
The suit cards will perhaps be of more interest. But here there is a question: which version of the list do we take for Etteilla? It seems to me we should go as
early as possible. His keywords for the tarot deck (which I have been
using up to now) are an expanded version of those he gave for a
shortened deck with cards only in the four suits<i>,</i> and with only 8 cards per suit, given in his first book, of 1770, on how to tell
fortunes with a piquet deck. While I do not have access to the first edition, According to Decker, Depaulis, and Dummett, the assignments are the same as in the second edition, which is online in Gallica, the website of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. Each
card, unlike those of the Bolognese cartomancer, has two meanings, upright and
reversed. Also, the piquet deck is missing two cards from each suit of
the tarocchini, the Knights and the Sixes. But instead of using those meanings, I think we can go back even further. <br />
<br />
There is another list of "Etteilla" meanings that was
published anonymously in 1797, in which the author claims he is
publishing a short pamphlet Etteilla did for his friends in 1771. This
one has very few reversals, and Decker, Depaulis, and Dummett (DDD, for
short) think it is probably his earliest version, which he claimed he
did in 1757, when he was "fifteen or sixteen". DDD do not give the actual list of keywords, but I was able to obtain scans of an 1801 reprint of the 1797 book from the University of Chicago (I am reasonably sure about that,
because it conforms in every detail to DDD's quotations and paraphrases
of the 1797). It seems to me worth comparing that c. 1757 with the c. 1750 list
reported by Pratesi.<br />
<br />
Pratesi's report uses Italian abbreviations: B for Batons, C for Cups, D for Coins ("Denari"), S for Spades, A for Ace, R for King, Q for Queen, C for Knight ("Cavallo") F for Page (Fante, male, in Batons and Swords, Fantina, female, in Cups and Coins), Beneath these, for each suit, I have given Etteilla's keywords, suit by suit, using the equivalence Trefles (Trefoils, i.e. Clubs) = Denari (Coins), Coeurs (Hearts) = Coppe (Cups), Piques (Pikes) = Spade (Swords), and Carroux (Tiles, i.e. Diamonds) = Bastoni (Staves). These equivalences were given by de Mellet in his 1781 essay on cartomancy and seem to work in this context as well:
<br />
<blockquote>
Bologna RD
= L’uomo (A man), QD = Verità (Truth), CD = Pensier dell’Uomo [thought of a man], FD =
Denari (money], FD = Signorina (Girl), AD = Tavola (Table), 10D = Denari (Money).<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Etteilla Trefles/Trefoils/Coins (English Clubs)</span>. K = dark-haired man; Q= dark-haired woman, J = Dark-haired boy, A = A lot of money, 10 = House, 9 = A present; 8 = dark-haired girl, 7 = Money.<br />
<br />
Bologna RC
= Un Vecchio [an old man], QC = Donna Maritata [married woman], CC =
Accomodamento [accomodation], FC = La Donna, AC = La Casa [House]
<br />
<b>Etteilla Coeurs/Hearts/Cups.</b> K=blond man, Q = blonde woman, J = blond boy, A= Bottle, table, 10= city, 9=Victory, 8=blonde girl, 7=Thought, <br />
<br />
Bologna RB = Un signore non ammogliato [unmarried man], QB = P...na, CB = Martello
della porta [hammer of a door], FB = Pensiere della Donna [thought of
the woman], AB = Baronate<br />
<b>Etteilla Carreaux/Tiles/Batons (English Diamonds).</b> K=a man, Q=a woman, J=military man/servant, A=Letters or news, 10=Gold/Anger, 9=Delay, 8=Country, 7=Gossip. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Bologna RS= Mala Lingua [bad tongue], AS = Lettera, 10S = Lagrime [tears].<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Etteilla Piques/Pikes/Swords.</span>
K = Robed/widowed man, Q = Gallant/Widowed woman, J = Envoy/curious,
A = Love/Pregnancy, 10 = Tears, 9 = Ecclesiastic/Mourning, 8 = Illness.</blockquote>
It seems to me that while there are obviously differences between the two lists, there may be a relationship between them. The Italian<i>
Cavalli</i> [Knights] have dropped out, as to be expected, since French suits don't have them. If the Italian deck had 6s, there is no sign of them in the list. The colors of French suits have influenced
Etteilla's Kings, Queens, and Valets (which unlike the Bolognese are all male).
"Letter" from Swords goes to Etteilla's Diamonds and "Gossip" from Swords ("bad tongue)
goes to Etteilla's Diamonds/Batons. There are similar switches in Coins/Clubs and
Cups/Hearts. Granting these adjustments, it looks to me like Etteilla's list is related to the Bolognese one. In fact, it seems to me that many of the marginally Pythagorean elements in Etteilla, such as "Table", "House", "Thought", and "A Present", come from this tradition. Unfortunately for my thesis, there is nothing Pythagorean about the Pratesi Cartomancer. Perhaps there were different expressions of the tradition, one intellectual and the other not, in which Pythagoreanism was not preserved.<br />
<br />
There are likely other influences on the tradition that is common to both lists. Geomancy was popular in Italy at the time and place of the SB. Etteilla, for his part, talks about his system being based on 33 "sticks" used by a Greek refugee in Spain. Not counting one card added by Etteilla, 32 is half the number of geomancy figures, 16.<br />
<br />
Geomancy's 16 figures in medieval Europe were called Vita=Life,
Lucrum=Riches, Fratres=Brothers, Genitor=Father, Nati=Sons,
Valetudo=Health, Uxor=Wife, Mors=Death, Itineris=Journeys,
Regnum=Kings, Benefacta=Good Fortune, Carcer= Prison. They also divide
into mothers, sisters, nieces, witnesses, judge, and (optional)
super-judge. (For all these, see <a class="postlink" href="https://www.princeton.edu/%7Eezb/geomancy/geostep.html">https://www.princeton.edu/~ezb/geomancy/geostep.html</a>).<br />
<br />
Is there any relationship to
the cards? There is some correspondence, but in fortune-telling some
commonalities are to be expected, if they are basic to human
life--things like good and bad fortune, and people categorized in
important ways. If fortune-telling with cards developed from geomancy,
the idea of family relationships (mother, father, sons, niece, etc.)
would seem not to have been retained, replaced by stage of life, marital
status (boy, man, widower, old man; one system even has children). To
these are added hair color, related to suit color, and profession.
Geomancy's Judge reappears as the Robed Man in Etteilla, Life as
Pregnancy, Death as Mourning, Journeys as Envoy (although stays "Journeys" in Etteilla's trump cards), Health as Illness.
Other things are replaced by new associations letters, city, love, gossip. <br />
<br />
Another
type of parallel in Etteilla to previous divination practices is that illustrated by the 1730 century English play "Jack and the Giant Killer". where predictions are made based on the positions of significators. Mary
Greer quotes from the play "Jack the <span class="posthilit">Giant</span> Killer" (<a class="postlink" href="https://marygreer.wordpress.com/2008/04/08/in-1730-reason-triumphs-over-folly/">https://marygreer.wordpress.com/2008/04 ... ver-folly/</a>), in which two women read the fortunes of four men by identifying each with the King of the suit that best fits his personality:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<b>First
woman.</b> You. Lord Gormillan, are the King of Clubs; Lord Thunderdale
shall be the angry Majesty of Spades; The Diamond Crown Lord Blunderboar
shall wear; and King of Hearts Lord Galligantus shall assume.</div>
</blockquote>
Greer explains:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
The
cards were probably laid out in several rows, perhaps a square of 25 as
we see in later examples. The significator card shows the location of
the person within the situation, while the other court cards represent
the other people involved. The cards that fall between the main
significator and the significator of another person show what is
occurring between them. </div>
</blockquote>
This practice seems also to have been incorporated into geomancy, although not in the same way. Here is Wikipedia (<a class="postlink" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomancy">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomancy</a>):<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
Pietro
d'Abano discusses the primary modes of perfection used in geomantic
interpretations with significators in his geomancy essay.[11] In
astrological geomancy, the significators are chosen based upon the
identity of the querent and the identity of the quesited. Generally,
except when the querent asks about a situation about a subject with no
immediate connection to themselves, the querent's significator is
located in the first house (see Derivative house). The querent's
significator is identified based upon the focus of the query: this is
based upon the relation of the query to the astrological houses. Some
questions require more than two significators, such as in a query
involving several primary factors (e.g., two parties quarrelling over an
estate).</div>
</blockquote>
Pietro d'Abano was a c. 1300 professor
at Padua who died in prison during a trial for heresy, apparently
connected with denying the causal role of angels and demons in the lives
of humans, as opposed to astrological influences (what a thing to die
for!). In legend, he was also considered a powerful summoner of demons
(even if he denied their influence on humans). His writings, or translations, on
the decans are considered a major influence on the astrological program
at the Schifanoia Palace in Ferrara. The PMB Strength card seems
modeled on one of the figures in an illustrated Abano book (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.trionfi.com/0/i/r/11.html">http://www.trionfi.com/0/i/r/11.html</a>). <br />
<br />
It
is surely true that this feature of cartomancy--the significator--goes
back to that time in geomancy.. On the other hand, it is a natural component of
randomized procedures for making decisions. When we "draw straws" to see
who will go first, the straws are all significators. Court cards are
natural significators. We see that in the Fernando de la Torre's
comments about his proposed cards in 1450 Spain (cited by Ross Caldwell
at <a class="postlink" href="http://www.academia.edu/6477311/Brief_history_of_cartomancy">http://www.academia.edu/6477311/Brief_h ... cartomancy</a>):<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
...players
could tell fortunes with them to know who each one loves most and who
is most desired and by many other and diverse ways.</div>
</blockquote>
Ross also gives examples from the Spanish witch trials, e.g.:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
Once,
she had the cards read by the wife of a poor water-bearer. She wanted
to know if her man loved another woman: the King of Cups represented the
man and the Jack of Coins represented Lady Maria. Getting both cards
together would signify that the young man only loved Lady Maria; but
getting any other Jack with the Knight or the King of Cups would be a
signal of the young man having another lady.</div>
</blockquote>
There
are also the comments about Boiardo's version of the tarot deck, written around the beginning of the 16th century in Ferrara or Urbino (<a class="postlink" href="http://trionfi.com/0/h/">http://trionfi.com/0/h/</a>):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>And sometimes the tercets
are so appropriate that the friends laugh heartily, ... </b></blockquote>
and the<i> tarocchi appropriati</i> popular in 16th and 17th century Northern Italy, where particular triumphs were assigned to
particular ladies. These last two arenot divination per se, just this
phenomenon of signification. <br />
<br />
Systems of divination do
influence one another, especially when there are already natural
commonalities. These features seem to converge in Etteilla's system.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>APPENDIX: THE SB AND THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS</b><br />
<br />
Finally, I have report on something I did not pay attention to in the individual chapters, namely, how well the Sola-Busca pips correlate with an assignment of suits to temperaments that was worked out by Marco on Tarot History Forum. This is not, strictly speaking, Neopythagorean. However it is interesting. Based on conventional symbols of the four temperaments that appear in the SB court cards, Marco assigned Coins to the Sanguine temperament, Swords to the Choleric temperament, Cups to the Phlegmatic temperament, and Batons to the Melancholic Temperaments. <br />
<br />
Here are the degrees to which the various pips correlate to Marco’s schema:<br />
Aces: 75%. (The cherubs holding up the club do not seem to me to reflect melancholia.)<br />
Twos: 100%<br />
Threes: 100%<br />
Fours: 0%<br />
Fives: 0%<br />
Sixes: 100%<br />
Sevens: 100%<br />
Eights; 50% <br />
Nines: 0%<br />
Tens: 0%<br />
<br />
So
Marco’s schema works about half the time; and for a given number, it
usually either works all the way or it doesn’t at all. For almost every
card, however, it does make sense to assign it a temperament, if not
the one that Marco’s schema would predict.Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com0