Justice and Eights

Du Bartas does not have much to say about the Eight, just "The Eight, double-square." But this "double-square" is significant, because it is on this basis, Agrippa says, "The Pythagoreans call eight the number of justice, and fullness."  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?

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:

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. (Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, trans. Stahl, p. 98)

Oddly, enough, I cannot find Justice given to eight in any Pythagorean before Macrobius. The Theology of Arithmetic, 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).

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.

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 Cahiers, 1785 or 1786 (despite the "1783" on the title page).

The keywords are "Justice" and "Le Legiste," meaning "The Jurist," i.e. a legal expert. And the word-lists:

JUSTICE. Equity, Probity, Uprightness, Right, Rectitude, Reason. Justice, Execution. Thoth, or the book of Thoth. REVERSED: THE JURIST. Legislation, Legislator.—Law, Decree, Code, Ordinance, Statutes, Precepts, Commandment, Domination. Institution, Constitution, Temperament, Complexion. Natural Laws, Moral Laws, Religious Laws, Civil Laws, Political Laws, Natural Rights, Human Rights, Public Rights, Civil Rights, Rights of War. The Jurist is under the immediate influence of this hieroglyph.

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.

SOLA-BUSCA EIGHTS

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.

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 Sola-Busca Tarot, applies this line of thinking to the Sola-Busca 8 of Batons:

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. (p. 105)

Commenting on the flower petals that adorn the vase, she adds:

The lotus, or waterlily, in Egyptian iconography represents rebirth...(p. 105)

In connection with another of the Eights, the Eight of Cups, she also observes:

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. (p. 48)

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 Theology of Arithmetic says (p. 103) :

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. [Translator's note: see p. 46: 8 is 2 cubed.] 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.

Page 46 of the Theology (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.

In the ancient world, Rhea was more than the mother of the gods: she was the Great Mother, the mother of all nature (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_(mythology)). P. 46 of the Theology 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."

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).

Every cube  is to be assigned to the Mother of the gods, for that is the origin of the word Cybebe.

Cybebe is an alternative form of Cybele, the translator tells us in a footnote, while assuring us that the resemblance to kubos 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.

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. 

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.

28. 8 OF BATONS: COUNTRYSIDE. 3rd Cahier: Party in the Countryside (Partie de Campagne). Field, Plain, Agriculture, Cultivation, Plowing, Real Estate, Farm, Tenant Farm, Garden, Orchard, Meadow, Woods, Grove, Shade, Pleasure, Diversions, Amusements, Pastime, Recreations, Festivities. Peace, Calm, Tranquility, Innocence. Country Life. Forest, Valley, Mountain, Sheep-fold, War Camp. REVERSED: INTERNAL DISPUTE. Examination, Reasoning. Dissension. Regrets, Remorse, Repent, Internal Agitation, Indecision, Uncertainty, Inconceivable, Incomprehensible. Doubt, Scruple, Anxious Conscience.

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.

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.

For the SB Eight of Swords, some of what Di Vincenzo says is again instructive:

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. (p. 133)

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.

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 kairos, translated as "opportunity" or "critical time" (Pythagoras: his life Teaching, and Influence, 2005, p. 81, in Google Books). In his surviving works, Aristotle alludes to this doctrine in Metaphysics I.5, mentioning kairos but not associating it with a specific number. The Theology, however, associates the concept with the Heptad:

Hence 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.

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.

So: in the myth of Rhea, she is at a crisis point, a concept associated with the number seven. The Theology 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.

The Etteilla school's word-lists, especially in the uprights, read like a reflection upon this situation:

56. 8 OF SWORDS: CRITICAL. 3rd Cahier: Illness, with "moral or physical leper" added in 4th Cahier Supplement. Lists: Regrettable Situation, Critical Moment, Critical Time, Decisive Moment, Unfortunate Situation, Delicate Circumstance, Crisis. Examination, Discussion, Investigation, Blame, Censure, Gloss, Epilogue, Inspection, Disapprobation, Condemnation, Abrogation, Judgment, Contempt. REVERSED: INCIDENT. 3rd Cahier: Past Betrayal. Lists: Difficulty, Exceptional Situation, Conjunction, Event, Accessory, Drawback, Obstacle, Delay, Waiting.—Abjection.—Dispute, Contradiction, Opposition, Resistance. Objection, Delaying Tactics, Unexpected, Unforeseen, Fortuitous Event, By Chance, Occurrence, Destiny, Fate, Mishap, Misfortunes, Disgrace, Unfortunate. Symptom.

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.  

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 incidens, p. 128 of original, as "incidents" rather than "incidences"). The reasoning is not clear to me.

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.

Di Vincenzo has some appropriate comments about another aspect of the card:

The tree, which sheds and bedecks itself with leaves each year, represents the continuous evolution of life (death and regeneration). (p. 77)

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

the symbol of the resurrection of Christ and the promise of the resurrection of man transfigured by grace. (p. 77)

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.

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:

70. 8 OF COINS, UPRIGHT: DARK-HAIRED GIRL, Honest Girl, Obliging Welcome, Thoughtfulness, Politeness, Honesty, Civility, Complaisance, Condescension, Hospitality, Morals, Character, Natural. 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.

In the uprights, "Dark-Haired Girl" comes from Coins' cartomantic equivalent in French suits, Clubs in English, a dark suit-sign called Trèfles 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.

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 4th Cahier (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. 

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.

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.

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 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_(mythology). 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.

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:

42. 8 OF CUPS: BLONDE GIRL Honest Girl, Modest Girl, Honor, Decency, Shame, Modesty, Restrained, Timidity, Fear, Apprehension. Mildness, Attractiveness. REVERSED: SATISFACTION. 3rd Cahier: Celebrations, Gaiety. Lists: Pleasure, Happiness, Contentment, Gaiety, Joy, Elation, Rejoicing, Entertainment, Festival. Excuse, Reparation, Exoneration. Public Joy, Spectacle, Device, Ready, Preparation, Arrangement.

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.

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").

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:

A man of dejected aspect is deserting the cups of his felicity, enterprise, undertaking or previous concern. Divinatory Meanings: 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. Reversed: Great joy, happiness, feasting.

While giving lip service to the Etteilla school, Waite's own contribution - "a matter which has been thought to be important is really of slight consequence" - 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).

In Coins, I said that Etteilla's "Advantage, Increase, Majority, To Advantage, Very Much, Copiously, More than. . . More of. . ." 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.

Work, employment, commission, craftsmanship, skill in craft and business, perhaps in the preparatory stage. Reversed: 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.

While most of these are not relevant to the Pythagorean 8s, the end of the Reverseds does suggest the way out for Rhea: "the ingenious mind turned to cunning and intrigue". So about 25% related to the Pythagorean 8s. Etteilla's also do not fit very well, perhaps 40%.

Here is Waite on Wands:

Divinatory Meanings: 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. Reversed: Arrows of jealousy, internal dispute, stingings of conscience, quarrels; and domestic disputes for persons who are married.

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 "party in the country" of Etteilla. The Reverseds also fit Rhea's situation.

Swords:

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. Divinatory Meanings: Bad news, violent

chagrin, crisis, censure, power in trammels, conflict, calumny; also sickness. Reversed: Disquiet, difficulty, opposition, accident, treachery; what is unforeseen; fatality.

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.

CONCLUSION

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.

 
 

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 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.

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.

The Eights in France after the Etteilla School

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.

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. 

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):

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: pondération. Les transactions commerciales.

It is the image of the balance of the intellectual faculties. It is genius disciplined by reason; it is also the temperate environment favorable to life; the trading area. Signification: moderation. Commercial transactions.

In the card, it is smoke above, fire below:

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? 

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.

This card evokes the idea of equal sharing of property and fair distribution of wealth. It also corresponds to the age of reason for girls.

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.

 

Cups deals with love and the emotions. Applying the concept of equilibrium is fairly easy, to which is added sharing (p. 140):

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.

It is the equilibrium of feelings and passion. The card also corresponds to the age of reason for men. Signification: shared love. 7 year old boys.

While the 8 of Cups had been devoted to girls, it can just as easily be devoted to young boys.

 

Swords is about evil deeds, as usual (p. 168). With three swords in the water and three in the air:

Le nombre 8 évoque l'idée de l'équilibre et de la Justice. Cette lame exprime les sanctions de la justice. Signification: Condemnation.

 

The number 8 evokes the idea of equilibrium and Justice. This card expresses the sanctions of Justice. Meaning: Condemnation.

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.

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. 

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.

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). 

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).

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 .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). This interaction of worlds engenders total prosperity. The Eight of Pentacles represents true wealth, health, happiness in the home, and harmonious" (p. 301).

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).

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.

 In Swords, Picard has transformed the points of the star in the middle of the Marseille into eight swords, no longer curved. 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.