People of Orphalese, beauty is life when life unveils her holy face. But you are life and you are the veil. Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity and you are the mirror.
“After all, do seeds not contain within them the very hope for continuance of the entire species that bore it? This super-saturated state of the seed, where life condenses itself down into an intensely miniaturized holographic fragment of itself, promising the formation of future worlds within itself, is the very emblem of life’s immense and immortal power.”*
Soprafino Tarot
“Ascend above any height, descend further than any depth; receive all sensory impressions of the created: water, fire, dryness and wetness. Think that you are present everywhere: in the sea, on earth and in heaven; think that you were never born and that you are still in the embryonic state: young and old, dead and in the hereafter. Understand everything at the same time: time, place, things: quality and quantity.”
“At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity, Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards, Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.”
The Hanged Man/Le Pendu is surely among the most disturbing and evocative of the Tarot triumphs. He’s undergoing torture, but seems unwilling to reveal anything about his inner experience (I almost titled this piece, “We have ways of making you talk,” but this is now the title of some TV series). As it turns out he’s got a LOT to communicate to those who have crossed the threshold (XI) of Tarot’s ‘greater mysteries.’ Think of him as the babbling head of Orpheus. So let’s dive in, head first and dissect this frightful, human pendu-lum from toe to head; his mytho-alchemy, number symbolism, religious/cult connotations and more!
Charles VI Tarot (15th c) Note the 3 and 4 pegs beside his bags.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Formerly called ‘The Traitor,’ the figure initially held a sack in each hand, presumably containing money he either stole or acquired in a dubious exchange (such as bribery). In the Charles VI card (above), he almost looks like he ran into a trap, baited with the dough. The image is thought to be modelled on pittura infamante(‘shame portraits’) of the Italian Renaissance – horrifically, this punishment was actually inflicted on criminals and Jews. We could also imagine these ‘hermetically sealed’ bags as containing something secret (like the Fool’s bindle) that he won’t release, even under duress – alembics, if you will. In some Minchiate decks (cousin of Tarot), he is simply holding two roundels and is cleaned up to like an acrobat/jongleur.
Although he wasn’t hung thusly, it is also perhaps a reference to Judas Escariot, who was paid 30 pieces of silver for betraying Jesus to the Romans. Silver is the Moon’s metal, gold is the Sun’s, and Christ, the other twin, is characterized as solar/gold – similar in the nocturnal/diurnal sense to Dionysus and Apollo, who both ‘possess’ Orpheus at different times.
Visconti Sforza 16th c, Jacques Vieville 17th c, Nicholas Conver TdM 18th c
In the Visconti Sforza card (left, above), the calm, golden-haired rendition, similar to our TdM figure emerges. We see no money bags (did he even commit a crime?) and his hands are now hidden (tied?) behind his back. If we zoom in, we can see red ‘flames’, ie, life force, dripping from his clothing. Obviously fire doesn’t drip, blood does, but it’s shaped like flames, similar to the red plume escaping from the Charles VI figure’s leg. These flaming blood drips are transferred to the cut branches of his gibbet in TdM.
Beneath his head, just touching his hair is a pool of blue water – again, we are reminded of the head of Orpheus, thrown into the River Hebron, by the maenads. His leggings are green, the colour of new life, yet to ripen, and his very prominent gibbet now resembles a golden doorway. Because of how his leggings seem to be ‘chomping’ him, this card always reminds me of the alchemical Green Lion devouring the Sun image (below), said to represent vitriol (sulphuric acid) dissolving gold.
V.I.T.R.I.O.L. or V.I.T.R.I.O.L.U.M. (‘visita interiora terrae, rectificandoque, invenies occultum lapidem’, or ‘visit the interior of the earth, and purifying it, you will find the hidden stone.’ This is another way of saying, ‘look within yourself for the truth’). This phrase must be present in all Masonic chambers of reflection directly facing the candidate.
Visonti-Sforza hanged Man and Alchemical Green Lion devouring the Sun
In the Vieville version (middle) the number is printed/situated so that we must turn him ‘right-side up’ to read it correctly, thus also bringing the Lunar and Solar mounds either side of his large-ish head into view. Hmm…who is always situated between Luna and Sol? Note the Solar mound also contains the planetary spheres. His fingers seem to sprout like angelic wings from his shoulders, symbolic of Mercury elevating the spirit to the realm of the gods (we see this detail in Noblet and Dodal, also). As with the Marseille card, his gibbet now shows 6 cut branches on each side, only here the middle piece upon which he lands or dances has 4.
The Hanged Man dangles by his foot, not unlike a bunch of grapes clinging to a vine, and his wild hair in the TdM version does seem to evoke Dionysus. (Christ purportedly claimed to be ‘the true vine’, unlike that Pagan weirdo).
Grape flavoured Gods: The Wine Press by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope and Pompeii fresco Dionysus (both details)
ALCHEMICAL SCAPEGOAT
Ascending while or following descent is often expressed in myth by the ordeal of a [solar] god – Odin obviously comes to mind in relation to this card, but so do a few other resurrected or ‘twice-born’ gods. The Bacchic-Orphic mysteries also elude to a kind of simultaneous ascent-descent described as ‘rushing into milk’ (‘a bull, you rushed into milk’) or ‘falling into milk’ (‘a kid, I fell into milk’), found on a few of the gold tablets buried with initiates.
Alma Nungarrayi Granites, Seven Sisters MilkyWay Dreaming
Too involved to go into here (please check out the Orphic link posted above the three Pendu cards, if you want to know more), but ‘milk’ is thought to refer to the Milky Way and/or Paradise. Initiates would descend to the Underworld after death, where they were to tell the guardians they are ‘a child of the starry heavens, as you yourselves know,’ have been purified and wish to now return to their rightful place in the stars with their family of gods and heroes.
The Vieville card seems to elude to this concept, with its addition of heavenly spheres. He’s done or doing time here in human form, but will return. You decide which deity.
Ascend and descend: Franchises Gaffurius, Practica Musicae frontspiece, 1496
Aside: I asked musician friends for an example of ascending and descending notes being played/sung simultaneously, in order to possibly better comprehend the card on an emotional level, and was directed to JS Bach’s Chorale Harmonizations. These are just snippets, but have a listen.
In the classic Conver ‘type II’ version (right, above, next to Vieville), the mounds are just slightly differentiated and there is only one cut branch in the middle bough which has been reinterpreted as a little spoon, making 13.
For stirring up? Or making libations of wine on sacrificial victims?
Addendum: I only recently noticed in the Charles Cheminade deck (middle detail, above), one of the oldest existing type 1 TdM examples, the rope our Pendu hangs by is shaped like a spoon, so it must be a reference to the Fool and the ‘ultimate transformation’ process at hand.
His mane is firey like the Sun and his blue leggings are watery, so either things are upside down or the Sun has essentially sunk. A fallen angel? Or a drowned person with hair flowing in the water?
The Death of Orpheus by Jean Delville 1893
In alchemy, oftentimes what is meant by fire is sulphur and by water, mercury. These are the two prime materials or principals which, along with salt were the three ‘heavenly substances,’ or tria prima – philosophical elements, which, combined with the four classical elements, were thought to be the basis of everything. (3 + 4 pegs in Charles VI card). It’s a bit confusing, because philosophical mercury is spirit, even though it’s equated with water, and sulphur is soul, although it is fiery. Salt is the physical body. Think of the salt in an hourglass, Le Pendu being like a human version.
3/III and 4/IIII are of course the The Empress and Emperor. XII The Hanged Man is the middle ‘3’ card (1+2=3); the first being III The Empress (3) and third being XXI The World (2+1=3). Previously, I speculated that The Empress represents the beginning of ‘the work’ and the alembic itself. (All the ‘3’ placement cards – III, VI, VIIII, XII, XV, XVIII, XXI – have this ‘combining’ theme). We can spot parts of the 4 elemental beasties in her make-up already; the blackened eagle, her blue ‘wings’, crescent necklace and horned crown, her….mane and paw?? Must be a ‘printer’s mistake,’ heh. What a sphinx.
She bears a clunky resemblance to Philosophical Mercury, who appears more recognizably as Temperance in the Vieville deck (left, below). [Note to modern astrologers: this should make you think twice about handing Virgo’s rulership to the asteroids!]
Vieville Temperance (c 1650) and Flamel Philosophical Mercury (c 1330)
Their two imperial eagles are also emblematic of ‘the work’ and the process of transformation that is yet to occur. 3 x 4 = 12. Like the yin-yang, each contains some of the other. How else could they become one? ‘Lovers don’t meet/they are in each other all along.’[Rumi]. We are given a hint by the direction in which their wings point; the earthly lifted up toward the spirit and the spirit held/pulled down by the earthly. [Yes, I know the eagle (bird of Zeus-Jupiter) is a symbol of the Holy Roman Empire…do familiarize yourself with European heraldic and hermetic emblems.]
Payen (type I) Empress and Emperor cards-early 18th c
It is Mercury’s passive feminine divine nature, that allows the alchemist to transform one’s life and live more in harmony with the laws of nature. Mercury to the alchemist of today, is a symbol of the sexual waters of creation and the spinal fluid, that brings the carnal desires into submission of the divine mind. Once the alchemist understands the principles of Mercury (mind) and finds balance between its feminine passive force, and sulfur’s (soul) active masculine force, within his or her salt (fixed matter/body), he or she will become the philosopher’s stone, able to turn lead into gold at will. ~ The Wandering Alchemist
Watery Hanged Man from Dali Tarot
TOE-DIP INTO THE OCCULT
The Dali Hanged Man (above) is based on the Waite-Smith Tarot, but gives him the Hebrew letter lamed, in accordance with the French occult school, even though the Golden Dawn assigned mem to this card. Mem means ‘water’ and has to do with (self) reflection.
There are at least five different arrangements of Hebrew letters to Tarot triumphs, which to me makes the whole concept a bit wobbly-legged. Based on the accommodating nature of TdM and what I have read so far on the Hebrew letters, if there is anything to see here, it is likely much more fluid and nuanced than simply ‘this card = that letter.’
Nevertheless, to my limited understanding, the Golden Dawn (and Crowley) choice of mem rather than lamed for the Hanged Man is kind of fitting, considering the wateriness, although in terms of self-reflection, it also works with the Unnamed/Death card.
‘Know Thyself’ Roman mosaic, 1st c AD
Most of these schools agree that The Empress = gimmel, the third letter of the Aleph-bet. Although gimmel is never assigned to XII or XXI, it bears a phonetic similarity the word ‘gibbet’ (13th c French). The earliest pictograph for gimmel was a foot. Here are some meanings associated with the letter gimmel. Does it describe the Empress?
– Foot, Pride, Camel
– Lift up (above god = pride)
– The benefactor or the giver of charity; ‘A rich person running to give charity to a poor person.’ – ‘According to Kabbalah, the design of the gimmel is composed of two letters. The first is a vav, represents a person who stands upright. To the person’s left side is a yud, which signifies both the foot and the act of giving.’ – ‘He descended to die for us, he ascends to resurrect us. He is Jacob’s Ladder.’
That last one immediately reminded me of Philippe Camoin’s theory. Jacob’s Ladder was the original ‘Stairway to Heaven’, a hypothetical set of steps by which angels (and thereby souls) ascend and descend.
Philippe Camoin’s ladder insight
The ladder is also a Hermetic symbol of initiation into esoteric wisdom, via exoteric knowledge, the first step. This fits with the position of the card, directly following XI, the threshold of the ‘greater mysteries,’ and X, wherein a small portion of of a ladder (two rungs) forms the base of the Wheel. Camoin also points out a little ladder in the Fool’s bindle.
Also recall the little, gold ‘flame’ beneath the Juggler’s 3-legged table, a wood structure shaped not unlike the Hanged Man’s gibbet. The Juggler is about to perform his greatest magic trick, a re-enactment of the dismemberment rituals twice-born gods are compelled to endure. (Hermes himself is thrice born, at least). The Hanged Man’s sectioned clothing reminds me of a butcher’s bull diagram – favourite sacrificial animal of the gods, sacred to Osiris, Dionysus and Zeus.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, How They Met Themselves (1851-60)
THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
Esoteric (from Greek ‘within’) is a kind of knowledge that is only realized by ‘meeting it half-way.’ This is different from occult (from a Latin word meaning ‘hidden’), which suggests something outwardly revealed. The difference is subtle, and the two words are often used interchangeably (pet peeve!), but I think the TdM Hanged Man/Pendu exemplifies the esoteric. Each will come to know him on their own, personal terms, by their own projections and reflections.
Since ancient times, mirrors of some material or other have served the function of water (reflecting self/lunar) and fire (reflecting sun/solar). An example of the latter is the concave mirror with which the solar, Olympic flame was lit.
Bacchic-Orphic mystery initiation was thought to involve a simulated death experience wherein one essentially ‘met themselves’. This transformative and purifying ritual, of which little is actually known, was to prepare initiates for the real afterlife ordeal. The fresco detail below depicts the use of reflection in a metal bowl (spiked wine all drank), combined with the comedic death mask. It could be actual or a metaphor. Addendum: Consider also how the TdM Pendu’s face resembles the snake-haired gorgoneion – that mask concealing the greatest mystery of all – and how the six, ‘bloody’ branch cuts on each side evoke Medusa’s severed jugular veins; one that flowed with the elixir of rebirth, the other, of death.
A scary revelation, Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii
Excerpt snagged from an alchemy group thread:
“The purpose of the mirror was not to allow a person to contemplate himself physically, because scarcely was the mirror put down, when the person lost memory of his own image. The Mirror represents the Divine Spirit. When the soul sees itself in it, it observes the shameful things in itself and rejects them. … Once purified, it imitates and takes as model the Holy Ghost; it becomes spirit itself; calm possesses it and it turns continuously to this superior state in which it knows (the divine] and is known [by it]. Then having become without shadow, it divests itself of the chains that are its own and those it has in common with the body. And what is the word of the philosophers? Know thyself. – from Julius Evola’s interpretation of ‘La Chimie au Moyen Age’ and has been translated into English by E. E. Rehmus
The Hanged Man may not appear to be suffering in physical pain for the simple reason that he isn’t undergoing any or it’s not really the point of this exercise. Rather, the appearance of an unbearable situation is for those of us on the outside to see, that we might grasp the nature of his/our inner process.
Always, the first truth revealed in darkness is…the darkest one; the face of that which we are ashamed or afraid of, hidden from or kept hidden from view, like whatever Le Pendu hides behind his back, while staring squarely at us. Always, the first stage in an alchemical opus is ‘the blackening.’
Uh oh…
Possibly the equal Sun and Moon of Vieville indicate an eclipse, ie, a temporary but significant darkening. Only after the shadow is brought into the light of our awareness can the light of the divine self be freely revealed as the complete being (ie, the ‘philosopher’s stone’) in the mandorla/vesica piscis of the World card. The shape is yonic as well as an opened eye; it represents rebirth through renewed vision, an awakening or ‘apocalypse’ which literally means ‘lifting of the veil’. Talk about words that become twisted beyond recognition!
Who hasn’t seen the reflection of their worst and best selves in the eyes of another, or God in the eyes of a beloved or a newborn? The ‘enlightened’ being reflects back to everyone their own, divine nature.
Pierre Madenie World card 1709 and Leonhardt Thurneisser’s Anima Mercury 1570
SACRIFICIAL TO SACRED
Is this the ‘religious experience’ our Hanged Man, traitor to his divine ‘Christ’ self, has yet to experience? In making a sacrifice of his ‘sins’ or lesser being, the gods receive them as sacred gifts. Indeed, it was common practice to tear bits of clothing (or even body parts) from the sacrificed person, now magically imbued. The satyr Marsyas, while being flayed for his hubris at Apollo’s command, cries, ‘Why do you tear me from myself?!’ It’s to reveal the Apollonian within [Edgar Wind, Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance].
Some literally do put themselves through ordeals and physical extremes in the name of ritual purification or sacrifice, similar to cooking/torturing the stone. Others, in the name of martyrdom. Jupiter is the traditional ruler of Pisces, 12th (last) sign of the zodiac, associated with self-sacrifice, self-undoing, martyrdom, and the whole Piscean Age we are currently birthing out of, into Aquarius. (Someone please let the martyrs know).
Shiva devotee doing his daily practice. The Netherlands, 1727-1738
“The festival at which the king of Calicut staked his crown and his life on the issue of battle was known as the “Great Sacrifice.” It fell every twelfth year, when the planet Jupiter was in retrograde motion in the sign of the Crab, and it lasted twenty-eight days, culminating at the time of the eighth lunar asterism in the month of Makaram. As the date of the festival was determined by the position of Jupiter in the sky, and the interval between two festivals was twelve years, which is roughly Jupiter’s period of revolution round the sun, we may conjecture that the splendid planet was supposed to be in a special sense the king’s star and to rule his destiny, the period of its revolution in heaven corresponding to the period of his reign on earth.” – ‘The Golden Bough’, by James George Frazer (on the Killing of Divine Kings)
“At the end of their reigns, some Irish Kings were sacrificed or slain by having their palaces burned about them while they were either stabbed or drowned in a butt of wine or beer. That is to say, they were sacrificed by the two chief elements controlled by the druids, Fire and Water, the sacrificial draught and the funeral pyre. Their fate was perhaps ritual purification before natural death.” – The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols, Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrandt, trans. John Buchanan Brown
God-King Kurtz’s bedtime stories in ‘Apocalypse Now’
Since the Solar cycle is a mini Jupiter cycle (12 months vs 12 years), the Sun is Jupiter’s (God’s) son, planetarily speaking. At the end of his 12 year reign, the king would have to die, preferably by suicide. Similarly, the 13th Lunar month in a Solar year ‘kills’ the Sun. “He’s murdering the time! Off with his head!” Frazer suggests that in some places, this led to the practice of a false king – a substitute victim. Robert Graves writes about similar in Ancient Greece in ‘The Greek Myths,’ and an alternate Gospel from the late Middle Ages declares Christ himself had such a substitute, namely Judas.
Moon and Sun trees (detail), Rosarium Philosophorum, 19th c
The Hanged Man might be seeing his reflection upside down in water, outer and inner worlds reflecting each other, so that 13 branch cuts doubled become 26, the number of YHVH (Yahweh, aka God, Jupiter, Odin, etc). We too might be seeing only a reflection, or someone beneath the water. He does appear bloated, like a drowned body (or perhaps holding his breath). Yet, this is where life begins – in water, in utero, in a bath of mercury…
Liquid Mercury mirror telescope [NASA pic] TO CONCLUDE
In its metal form, the surface of ‘quicksilver’ or ‘water-silver’ (Greek hydrargyros) is essentially a mirror. Mercury never shows its own face, only reflections – masks, as it were. Another fact is that our eyes see everything upside down, our brain turns what we see right side up. Hanging upside down for long periods of time will actually result in reversing this!
The Hanged Man/Le Pendu reveals that there are many different perspectives from which we can view things (Tarot, for one) and sometimes a new outlook can change the course of our lives. When turned ‘right-side up’, as many have noted, he appears to be doing the maenad jig, like the Hermetic-Bacchic-Orphic-Christ-Androgyne in the mandorla, thereby assuring us it’s all necessary, that we all turn upside down in water before undergoing birth trauma and finally re-emerging as a complete being in a state of grace. But at this point, 21 is still a long way off. The ‘dark night of the soul’ has only just begun. ~rb
poem b Efrem K. Weitzman, student at Cooper Union, 1943 (courtesy of Bill Wolf)
They are never final in the sense of a literal statement, which would fix the mind to a given point; nor are they final in the sense of the mystical Absolute in which all images would vanish. Rather they keep the mind in continued suspense by presenting the paradox of an ‘inherent transcendence’; they persistently hint at more than they say. It is a mistake, therefore, to overlook a certain ambiguity in the praise of hieroglyphs which Ficino, and after him Giordano Bruno, adopted from an incidental remark by Plotinus. In a famous passage of the fifth Ennead, Plotinus had suggested that Egyptian ciphers are more suitable for sacred script than alphabetic writing because they represent the diverse parts of a discourse as implicit, and thus concealed, in one single form. Since Pico ascribed the same virtue to the writing of Hebrew without vowels, it is legitimate to suspect that the Renaissance speculations on ‘implicit signs’ were not concerned with a positive theory of optical intuition, but with that far less attractive subject called steganography, the cryptic recording of sacred knowledge. Because God, in the opinion of Ficino, ‘has knowledge of things not by a multiplicity of thoughts about an object, but by a simple and firm grasp of its essence’, it seemed only right that the Egyptian priests had imitated the divine comprehension in their script, signifying ‘the divine mysteries not by the use of minutely written letters, but of whole figures of plants, trees, and beasts.’ But as Erasmus observed in the Adagia, the content of these figures was not meant to be open to direct inspection, or ‘accessible to anyone’s guess’; they presupposed in the reader a full acquaintance with the properties of each animal, plant, or thing represented… Thus, contrary to the divine intelligence which the reading of hieroglyphs is supposed to foreshadow, the intuitive grasp of them depends on discursive knowledge. Unless one knows what a hieroglyph means, one cannot see what it says. But once one has acquired the relevant knowledge, ‘unfolded’ by more or less exoteric instruction, one can take pleasure in finding it ‘infolded’ in an esoteric image or sign.
With this in mind, let us venture, armed with discursive information, to intuitively grasp the divine intelligence ‘infolded’ in this most hieroglyphic of TdM triumphs. [As always, click any images to enlarge and for more info.]
PART ONE
15th century ‘Fortitude’ cards: Visconti-Sforza, Cary-Yale, Charles VI
Earliest examples of the Fortitude card expressed the concept allegorically as physical strength/courage; Hercules or Samson beating up the lion or a formidable lady exerting control over it (taming animal instinct or temperament). Alternately, this formidable Virtue could be found grasping or busting up a pillar, as you do. Sadly, the dragon-extractor with an anvil on her head standing on a wine press didn’t get selected…guess Medieval fashions had become passé.
Engravings: Samson rendering the Lion late 15th c, Hans Ledenspelder ‘Forteza’ (after “Mantegna” prints) mid 16th c
La Force from a French Book of Hours, 1430-35 [Morgan Library]Numerous variations of a man or woman atop a lion also appear in Valeriano’s 1556 Hieroglyphica book. He and others were directly inspired by Horapollo Nilous, an Egyptian scribe and one of the last remaining priests of Isis, whose ‘translations’ of Egyptian hieroglyphs had been re-discovered in 1422 and put to print in 1505. Such as,‘To denote Strength, they portray the FOREPARTS OF A LION, because these are the most powerful members of his body.’ Read all about Horapollo’s Hieroglyphica and TdM here.
Lion tamers from Valeriano’s Hieroglyphica 1556
The word ‘force/forza’ comes from Latin ‘fortis’, meaning “strong, mighty; firm, steadfast; brave, bold.” It later came to include “courage, fortitude; violence, power, compulsion.” Being top of the food chain and having a solar mane (Leo), the noble lion is one of the oldest symbols of power and rule, including rule of law; it’s roar equated with the thundering word of God. Examples are exhaustive, going back to ancient times. But male deities could only hope to possess or overcome this indomitable force of nature, which ultimately belonged to the great Mother – giver, protectress and taker of life.
Lion Goddess Medley (click image for details)
Without diving too far into the whole lion-goddess topic, there are a couple that might be mythically relevant to us; Al-lāt and Medusa/the Gorgoneion/Athena. We’ll return to them, and to Hercules, in a circular fashion. But the use of a woman, rather than Hercules or Samson, in the TdM Strength card might be intended to illustrate a ‘princely virtue not confined of military strategy, a combination of force and prudence’ and the mitigating effect of Venus on Mars’ impulsive and destructive nature. She does not destroy it – nothing would ever perish without Mars, creating a different kind of imbalance – merely keeps it in check, Venus as lion-tamer.
Henri Cartier-Bresson, The House with the Caryatids, Athens, 1953
When we place all the numbered triumphs in a row, Strength/La Force is situated smack in the middle – a gateway or junction between earth and heaven, waking life and the intermediate state, or even just at midlife:
Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say What was this forest savage, rough, and stern, Which in the very thought renews the fear.
So bitter is it, death is little more; But of the good to treat, which there I found, Speak will I of the other things I saw there.
That we can’t readily locate Prudence might indicate that Justice, Force and Temperance are more than just classical Virtues, if not the totality of them. Note how they all fall into the ‘2’ placement, according to the Pythagorean cosmology, ‘One becomes two, two becomes three, and out of the third comes the one as the fourth.’ Justice and Temperance flank Force on either side like two caryatids; one holding a sword and scales of dismemberment, the other, watery vessels of renewal. Seven cards (as with the 1s and 3s), three on either side of the central one.
Cards in the ‘2’ placement, Camoin-Jodorowsky deck, 1997
Ten, the divine number that forms the mystic tetractys – was also of great importance to Pythagoreans. Here is how the cards match up using their Roman numerals (this is not the numerology way of adding the digits together to reduce it to the ‘lower octave’, which can only be done with Arabic numerals):
Our chief concern here is that I (Le Bateleur), XI (La Force) and XXI (Le Monde) represent beginning, middle and end (and/or vice versa). In the beginning, as mentioned in this post about the Juggler/Bateleur, we see beneath his table a little, mandorla-shaped flame or golden barley grain (or cypress tree), in the distance. At the end, the complete being makes their appearance inside a similarly shaped wreath. And at the half-way mark, the lion’s maw extends directly from the yonic gates. Unique to TdM, this strongwoman doesn’t simply straddle the lion, it is part of her, just like Skylla’s hounds.
The ‘rule of three’: beginning, middle and end (Nicolas Conver TdM, ca 1760)
The pip cards are also numbered I to X, and the suit of swords bears a similar design to XXI. To Pythagoreans, the Vesica Piscis created by two, intersecting circles represented the intersection of heaven and earth – a place where dimensions merge into a lens or keyhole through which a more essential (or quintessential) reality might be glimpsed. Of course the church picked this concept up and ran with it.
Immaculate Conception, Taller del Pinturicchio, ca 1490
Notice how the TdM suit continually ‘blinks’ from sword (masc/odd) to flower (fem/even), until a blending of both (active red becomes passive blue, one sword becomes two) in the last card. The design is thought to be based on playing cards that originated during the Mamluk sultanate in Egypt, which ended in the early 16th century.
Conver TdM Sword pips
Now for a slight detour…
For over a thousand years prior to Islam, Northern Arabia and well beyond had been the domain of Al-lāt, central figure of a lunar triad known as ‘Manat’. The Black Stone in the Kabaa at Mecca (thought to be a meteor) was once part of Al-lāt’s cult and, as such, is not mentioned in the Quran. ‘The Kaaba marked the location where the sacred world intersected with the profane, and the embedded Black Stone was a further symbol of this; an object as a link between heaven and earth.’ [Wikipedia] There were in fact two more stones (the other two goddess of the lunar triad?), a red one associated with the deity of the South Arabian city of Ghaiman and a white one in the Kabaa of Al-Abalat, near the city of Tabala, south of Mecca. (Note the relation to the three primary colours of alchemy).
Manat triad with Al-lāt in the style of Athena and Lion of Al-lāt from her temple (destroyed by ISIL).
One of the hidden secrets of the medieval bardic romance is the Arabian origin of the Waste Land motif, most prominent in the Holy Grail cycle of tales. Despite monkish efforts to convert it into a Christian chalice, the Grail was generally recognized as a female symbol, whose loss implied fear for the fertility of the earth. Crusaders had seen for themselves the desolation of Arabia Deserta, one of the most lifeless regions on earth. They heard the Shi’ite heretics’ explanation for it: Islam had offended the Great Goddess, and she had cursed the land and departed. Now nothing would grow there. [Barbara G. Walker, The Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets]
Preserving the source: Rochais 18th c, Visconti-Sforza 15th c, Al Leone 17th cMoon face(?) detail of Visconti-Sforza card (attributed to Bonifacio Bembo)
In the three Aces of Cups, above, the lunar triad and feminine symbolism is obvious, as is a hint of Islamic influence. In the two, printed cards, it almost looks as if her ‘house’ has been up and transplanted (from the Holy Land?).
The Lyford House being transplanted by barge, 1957
In Christianity, the triple Moon Goddess became the ‘three Marys,’ the central or all-in-one figure being the ‘Mother of God.’ There were variations on the triad, depending on the context. She could also be expressed as the three virgins – Mother Mary with St. Catherine and St. Barbara.
In TdM tradition, the cup’s tripartite, central, steeple (flanked by three ‘minarets’ on each side = seven) evokes the robed Madonna – or at least something veiled and sacred with three conjoined circles at the top. All the great cathedrals of Europe were built and named for ‘Our Lady.’ Somewhat surprisingly, Mary is revered in Islam as the greatest and purest woman that ever lived, and is the only woman mentioned in the Quran.
Mary ‘Our Lady Of Willesden’ pilgrim’s badge, early 16th c
The Visconti-Sforza card depicts a beautiful fountain with water flowing from the ‘waxing’ and ‘waning’ flowers. Its central flower is aligned with the vessel-shaped winged figure, which may or may not have a full Moon face (it is too damaged to be certain). Under the Visconti, 14th-early 15th century Milan was a centre of Marian veneration out of which, despite macho, power politics, much wealth, beauty, art and culture was generated (or re-generated), including the hand-painted Tarot cards that bear their name.
Madonna and child flanked by lions, from a 15th c Parisian Book of Hours
END OF PART ONE
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PART TWO
Welcome back. Now let’s return to the card in question and examine some details of our TdM mistress, beginning with her infamous hat. Many have noted its ‘lemniscate’ shape, but otherwise it’s a conundrum. Examples of Renaissance era straw hats, hair nets (most likely) and headgear are continually compared, as if to suggest there is no other reason for its weird shape except that’s just (kind of like) what people wore. Well, alright, but why did the artist choose this particular shape of hat, for this particular card? Consistent in Tarot de Marseille, which takes cues from Renaissance art, is that the image components must serve more than one, visual function and must therefore remain vague enough to evoke or suggest, but never give the whole game away. It’s a puzzle we are invited to figure out.
Dodal (type 1) and Conver (type 2) hats
In both type 1 and 2 versions, only one side of the brim has a leafy/scaled pattern. We’ve established that XI is midway between I and XXI, and that what begins as a single ‘grain’ shape in the first card will become a whole wreath in the end. Might it not stand to reason, then, that only one side of her hat has been ‘filled’ thus far?
The scaly side in type 1 also strangely resembles a (bearded) serpent head, like that of the Egypto-Greco-Roman Agathos Daimon or ‘good spirit’ guarding the mysteries in the catacombs, below (and in opener image). The four, petal-like shapes in the gorgoneion (Medusa mask) above it are also a close fit.
Kom el Shoqafa Egypto-Greco-Roman catacombs, Alexandria [photo: Justina Atlasito]In the Conver card, we immediately notice a few irksome details about this so-called ‘lion.’ Number one, that it is not a lion at all, but a clearly something canine – or perhaps a bear – wearing a lion’s skin (and evoking the serpent?). Also, the top of the woman’s hat seems to replicate the beast’s lower mandible. In some versions, the lion has no lower teeth, as if they have migrated to her hat (below, right), but in others (the close up, below), it still has a few. Was the artist/printer really that bad at lions, or did they alter the image intentionally?
Addendum:Didier Dufond, who is the expert on Bacchic-Orphic symbolism in TdM recently pointed out (in a comment on the Fool post, which is perhaps more relevant within the context of this post):
..I add that this liturgical sequence was unknown to scholars at the time of the Renaissance, which suggests a direct transmission, far from the elites of that time. Same concealment technique with the strange hat of Force, with the pine cone of the thyrsus decorated with a knot, plus undoubtedly a snake and a crown of ivy, all attributes of the bacchantes. And a bacchante thinking of tearing off the head of a lion with her hands is known in Euripides’ tragedy The Bacchae, when it was about her own son, Pentheus.
So, in this case, the serpentine ‘petals’ of the gorgoneion in the tomb are pinecones just like in the thyrsus the Agathos Daimon below holds. Can’t believe I didn’t catch that!!
What he is referring to is a scene in said Greek tragedy where Pentheus, King of Thebes, having imprisoned and insulted Dionysus, ends up having his head torn off by his own mother, Agave, who thinks he is a lion. So much for the ‘princely virtue not confined of military strategy, a combination of force and prudence’ and the mitigating effect of Venus on Mars’ impulsive and destructive nature! Agave is clearly a force of nature. I need to study this play.
It has also been suggested that the beast resembles the ‘Tarasque‘, an ancient, lion-headed, dragon-like creature from French/Gaulish mythology that was ‘tamed’ by St. Martha. This does not change the esoteric meaning at all, but rather adds to it, since Martha was one of the ‘3 Marys’ and appears in connection with her brother Lazarus being raised from the dead.
Valentin & Dubesset 1637-1685 (oldest known type 2) and Conver ca 1760Nicolas Conver (British Museum card) ca 1760
2 placement cards always depict some kind of vessel(s), here represented by her two, mismatched, gold vambraces. In Conver versions, each is divided by eight lines into nine sections (excluding the full bands on the ends). This might not be accidental, as we shall see.
It’s also odd that the artist, after having taken such great care with the animal’s detail right down to the teeth, would have neglect to fix the lady’s goitre – another detail unique to Conver (supposed to be her hair). Now it looks as though her head has been, idk, severed? Hmm, what mythical being had a severed head with serpent scales…oh right.
“Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem Veram Medicinam” [Visit the interior of the earth, and by rectifying you will find the hidden stone which is the true medicine].
‘Golgoi Sarcophagus’, 475-450 BC. Discovered by tomb robbers in 1873 [MET]The Popess held open to us the book of lesser mysteries. Now it seems we’ve arrived at the gates of the greater mysteries, judging by the guardians:
At first in motion set those beauteous things; So were to me occasion of good hope, The variegated skin of that wild beast,
The hour of time, and the delicious season; But not so much, that did not give me fear A lion’s aspect which appeared to me.
He seemed as if against me he were coming With head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger, So that it seemed the air was afraid of him;
And a she-wolf, that with all hungerings Seemed to be laden in her meagreness, And many folk has caused to live forlorn!
~ Dante [ibid]
Dante running from the three Beasts, William Blake 1824-27
Throughout history, initiations have been performed in caves, or underground, in the belly of the Great Mother. We know that mystery initiates confronted the darker aspects of themselves during the simulated death experience that is essentially descent into the ‘unconscious’. Dante, who bridged classical/Pagan and Christian theologies, would have been no stranger to this idea. The three scary beasts he meets in the dark wood – a leopard-like creature, a lion and a she-wolf – are usually understood as fraud, violence and greed/incontinence, i.e., the very shadows of our three Virtues, whether personal or collective (the she-wolf, which frightened him most, is also thought to symbolize Rome).
The famed, Capitoline She-Wolf nursing Romulus and Remus, 5th c BC
What’s fascinating is how the TdM artist has merged the three, Dantean bardo-monsters into one creature. Wearing of a flayed skin easily subs for ‘fraud’ and Dante specifically refers to this creature by its ‘variegated skin.’ (Perhaps this mystery animal is otherwise occupied flaying Le Mat).
A fool may deceive by his dress and appearance, but his words will soon show what he really is.~ Aesop
As mentioned, both the Gorgoneion and Agathos Daimon (serpent/good spirit) had a powerful apotropaic function. Snakes were not considered evil by any means, they were the children of Mother Earth and protected her sacred places.
Shrine fresco showing offerings being made to the ‘good spirit.’ Pompeii, 1st c AD
Kom El Shoqafa, like other catacombs in Alexandria around this time, featured both Egyptian and Greco-Roman gods and rituals. When it came to the final journey, initiates agreed no ancestral Gods should be left out, regardless of anyone’s recent conversion. In a similar vein, travellers usually respected and made offerings to local gods – especially Hermes, in the form of a herm (where he gets his name) – for protection in foreign turf.
Whether or not the TdM artist(s) knew of such ancient catacombs where Egyptian, Greco-Roman and Christian religious imagery co-habitated peacefully, who knows (Kom El Shoqafa itself was only discovered in 1900), but they were certainly aware of the syncretization of the gods and had some grasp on how hieroglyphic imagery worked (on multi-levels), if not on the actual meanings of real hieroglyphs. And they surely would have been familiar with the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, a master at using a single, timeless image to tell more than one narrative, while leaving room for ambiguity.
‘An endeavour to concentrate in a single subject those various powers, which, rising from different points, naturally move in different directions’, was regarded by Sir Joshua Reynolds as unprofessional by a painter. ‘Art has its boundaries, though imagination has none.’ The expression of a ‘mixed passion’ was ‘not to be attempted’. But Renaissance artists rarely feared to attempt what the 18th century pronounced impossible. [Edgar Wind, ibid]
Hercules and the Hydra, 4th c, Catacomb of Via Latina, Rome
In the Christian Catacombs of Via Latina, we find this fabulous fresco of Hercules fighting a Medusa-esque Hydra, his second labour. Both figures are red, emphasizing the Martian life-blood-force, or force of nature, presumably being transferred to him from the monster. Fading into the background is the Nemean lion’s flayed skin (again resembling a bear), fruit of his first labour:
Because its golden fur was impervious to attack, it could not be killed with mortals’ weapons. Its claws were sharper than mortals’ swords and could cut through any strong armour. According to Apollodorus, he was the offspring of Typhon. In another tradition, told by Aelian (citing Epimenides) and Hyginus, the lion was “sprung from” the moon-goddess Selene, who threw him from the Moon at Hera’s request. [Wikipedia]
Hercules finally corners the lion in its own, dark cave, clubs it senseless, then strangles it with his bare hands. But after trying unsuccessfully to flay it with knife and stone, Athena finally has to intervene and tell him to use one of the lion’s own claws (those razor-like spikes in La Force’s hat?).
Aesop’s Ass in Lion’s Skin by Victor Wilbour, 1916 [Smithsonian]Athena will help him out again in his final labour, as will Hermes the psychopomp, for it involves making the ultra-perilous trip to Hades, to kidnap Cerberus the three-headed Hell-hound. For this, Hercules must first be initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries and purified. He will essentially enter the intermediate state, traverse the realm of death and re-emerge again.
That the fresco depicts Hercules naked and full of regenerative, serpent fire suggests his protective function in the afterlife, as well as perhaps a belief in re-emergence (be it on earth or in heaven). In the myth, the hero only achieves god status at the end of his trials when, in mortal pain from a nasty balm (made from the poison side of Medusa’s bloodstream), he finally throws himself on a funeral pyre, ie., the transforming fire. At this point, Hera and Zeus both decide he’s had enough and place him up in the heavens. [This old post goes into it in more detail.] Thus, Herc had his own cult back in the day, worshipped as a divine protector of mankind.
Franchises Gafurius, Practica Musicae frontspiece, 1496
11 has also been called the ‘mute’ number (perhaps because it is ‘neuter’; odd but reduces to even). In the woodcut above, Apollo’s serpent, fitted with the ‘special Cerberus of Serapis’ head (lion flanked by dog and wolf, which was also a hieroglyphic allegory of Prudence) descends the spheres from heavenly Apollo to the silent, chthonic realm of Thalia, equated with the musical pause. One can’t help drawing a parallel to La Force, with her looped, serpentine hat above, bare foot firmly planted on the Earth, and, in the Conver card, the 9 sections in her cuffs. Also to Dante’s three beasts.
Gafurius, a good friend of Leonardo, owned a copy of Ficino’s translation of Plato’s works. Edgar Wind again:
Gafurius’s serpent is distinguished by a particularly engaging trait. While plunging head-downward into the universe, it curls the end of its tail into a loop on which Apollo ceremoniously sets his feet. A serpent’s tail turning back on itself is an image of eternity or perfection (commonly illustrated by a serpent biting its own tail, but known also in the form of a circular loop on the serpent’s back…). Gafurius thus makes it diagrammatically clear that Time issues from Eternity, that the linear progression of the serpent depends on its attachment to the topmost sphere where its tail coils into a circle. That the ‘descent’ of a spiritual force is compatible with its continuous presence in the ‘supercelestial heaven’ was a basic tenet of Neoplatonism. Plotinus illustrated this difficult doctrine, which was essential to his concept of emanation, by the descent of Hercules into Hades. Homer, he said, had admitted ‘that the image of Hercules appeared in Hades while the hero was really with the gods, so that the poet affirms this double proposition: that Hercules is with the gods while he is in Hades.’ Pico della Mirandola extended the argument to Christ’s descent into Limbo, in the most startling of his Conclusiones in theologia, no. 8, which it is not surprising to find among the articles that were condemned…
Interesting, then, that the very next card, #12 Le Pendu/The Hanged Man depicts exactly such a figure; a man with golden locks who appears to be hanging head down, in limbo and, when flipped, dancing with his head in the heavens. No wonder his face expresses not agony but ‘mind in continued suspense by presenting the paradox of an ‘inherent transcendence’.
Jacques Vieville 17th c, Nicolas Conver TdM 18th c
The theme of the older cards has evolved from an allegorical but obvious representation of Hercules in his first labour as lion-basher to a more cryptic one eluding to his final labour, initiation and transition. At this ‘still point’ in the game, TdM’s enigmatic strongwoman of the threshold demands that we leave – or sacrifice – our own singular preconceptions (and egos) at the gates and submit to a higher/deeper understanding, if we wish to follow suit. ~rb
Today is my Mars return at 24 Aries. I’d been expecting the usual – namely, irritation (I did have an eczema outbreak, but that was immediately after listening to five minutes I’ll never get back of DT’s vitriol, last night) and a sudden surge of willpower to get things done. Check! But I hadn’t expected feeling ‘lighter’, even goofily so.
‘Scarface’, NASA photo of Mars
Aries is of course one of the signs ruled by red planet (the other being Scorpio, traditionally), God of War/Death, so Mars is well-placed here, where he can express himself absolutely. Mars in Aries is direct, to the point, impatient, quick to rile and often fearless, sometimes stupidly so, head-butting in first. But what about when he begins to mellow with age?
Titus Pullo from the HBO series, ROME
Mars is a lone wolf, shunned by the other Greco-Roman gods (together with his sister, Eris/’discord’, currently conjunct at 25 Aries), except Venus, who finds him a turn-on, and Pluto, always glad to expand the underworld population. No stranger to pain, tragedy and suffering, Mars has waded through blood and acquired many a battle scar, thus is also a knowledgeable healer. Military men had to know how to stop the bleeding, remove an arrow, cauterize an amputation, prevent infection, use herbs, and possibly recite prayers for the dying. Bodies belong to Mars, and they are impermanent.
Fool/Comedy and Death/Tragedy, flip sides, Grimaud Tarot de Marseille
But Aries also happens to be the sign of the Fool – the wise Fool or ‘wise child.’ April Fool’s Day is in Aries season, after all, and this is the first sign of the zodiac, the infant. Aries never seem to grow up, yet they see with a clarity (clear vision = clairvoyance) that can be unsettling. Like all fire signs, they like attention and rarely hold a grudge. Perhaps Aries the warrior secretly knows laughter (+good bedside manner) is the best medicine, that humour, like Venus’ love, disarms, and the lone wolf sits beside the Fool on the hill to watch the Sun go down and howl at the Moon.
So this other side of Mars in Aries becomes apparent. Take a look at the opening image of the Sola Busca Fool/MATO card. I tend to avoid this deck precisely because it is so gory and feels heavily Martian/Saturnian. But how interesting that he has a crow (death) on his shoulder and walks through a barren wasteland, much like a battlefield. He wears red (Mars/blood) and plays a bagpipe, an instrument of war even before the Romans brought it to the British Isles. Hmm.
Sketch of a Roman phallic tintinnabulum, 1746
Mars is currently in the third/last decan of Aries. Depending on which decan system you use, the third is either ruled by Jupiter (most common), Venus or Gemini. Based on how it feels (trine my Sagi Moon), I have to go with the jovial one. A planet in late degrees exhibits an accumulative effect, similar to life experience, or lifetimes of experience. Perhaps this is the real meaning of the dog (or cat) who bites our Fool from behind, a past of aggression he is walking away from, un-attachment to old anger, pain and fear, as he heads into the great beyond. ~rb
Prudence/Wisdom, 17th c needlework book cover, British (Met Museum, NY)
Theory has it that the 4th Cardinal Virtue, Prudence, is ‘missing’ from Tarot de Marseille. Many have tried to figure out which, if any, of the other trumps could possibly be her (Star, Popess, Hanged Man, Hermit and World have been proposed). My own speculation is that, if she is indeed present and hiding, a conglomerate of Popess and Pope could share the role of Prudence, on account of the Janus face, as well as making sense numerically – each Virtue falls into the ‘2’ placement, as do the Pope and Popess. Prudence was said to be the ‘mother of all Virtues’, without which one could not master the others. However, the World card does suggest wisdom attained (the Stone), as opposed to wisdom being received or sought.
Janus-faced Prudence with serpent and book, ca 1480-1520
In a previous article, ‘Disrobing the Papal Couple – Tarot de Marseille’s Pope and Popess,‘ I used an image (sculpture) of a Janus-faced Prudence as the opener. But because I’m more attracted to exploring the cryptic, esoteric principals at work in TdM, and the Cardinal Virtue identities of Justice, Strength and Temperance are exoteric, I didn’t venture down that road. There’s enough existing literature on this. Instead, I explored the Popess as an initiator, oracle and portal to the mysteries, noting that her book was wide open because her ‘greater’ mystery was hidden inside. Also that the strap going across her chest went from the book’s spine to her heart, suggesting a pathway of ascent.
BUT there was one thing I had neglected to notice, another piece of the puzzle. It just amazes me how Tarot de Marseille keeps offering up new bits n pieces, like treasures washing up on the beach. Maybe I’m late to the game, but I’ve never encountered mention of it anywhere, so, for what it’s worth…
Allegory of Alchemy, Notre Dame Cathedral (central portal) Paris, 1220
Above is a relief from the gothic Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. It’s entitled ‘Allegory of Alchemy’ but has also been called ‘Philosophia’ or ‘Sophia Wisdom’. (The two aren’t mutually exclusive, to alchemists). The important detail is that the figure is holding two books; one is held open, symbolizing the exoteric, the other is hidden behind, closed, symbolizing the esoteric. The 9-runged ladder – the scala philosophorum – is an alchemical emblem of the mystical ascension “that raises man through the transformation towards the Divine and the understanding of art.” In his definitive book, The Mystery of the Cathedrals, Fulcanelli describes it as “glyph of the patience the faithful must possess in the course of the nine successive operations of the hermetic labour.” In other words, the hidden book’s content – esoteric knowledge – is revealed only by way of ascension.
Now, please look tres carefully at these ‘type 2’ versions of the TdM Popess, below. Do you see it?
Three Conver versions, ca 1760
…How about in these ones?
Burdell 1751, Madenié 1709, Héri 1718.
That’s right…TWO BOOKS. One open on top, the other closed, hidden behind/under it.
The serpent held by Prudence is said to represent Wisdom (‘be ye wise as serpents’), but when she also holds a book, the serpent might represent esoteric wisdom in particular, ie, mysteries. “Look like th’ innocent flower but be the serpent under’t” ? (MacBeth is rife with alchemical symbolism, read about that here). The Popess, by her number is the first expression of duality. Thus, she is the gateway to and source of two wisdom paths; outer and inner, solar and lunar. On one level, she represents the orthodox teachings of the faith (church) and/or (if you like) the Cardinal Virtue Prudence/classical Wisdom. Simultaneously, on another level, Gnostic Wisdom and/or secret knowledge, aka ‘for initiates’.
The Juggler laid out the tools and the Popess provides the instruction manuals, two ways of understanding the Tarot de Marseille. But perhaps it is first necessary, as with the ‘lesser mysteries’, to start with the book that is open, before venturing into the ‘greater mysteries,’ which ultimately lie within. ~rb
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– Ladder quote from ‘Isis in Paris: Notes on the hermetic Symbolism of Notre Dame Cathedral’, Axis Mundi – Full text of Fulcanelli’s Mystery of the Cathedrals ( English translation).
– Audio of same, for those who like to be read to.
– Great image of the alchemical ladder in this scholarly paper on alchemy in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar’.
– Another site detailing the alchemical symbolism at Notre Dame.
Here’s another example of Notre Dame’s Hermetic/alchemical content.
These figures represent the different stages of the work.
“…a time comes, especially when the play of gods and heroes develops to gigantic proportions, when the spectator must feel the need for relief from the high concerns of great immortal themes; and a pathetic consciousness begins to form of little man confronted by these things – seeming by contrast comic in his limitations, yet peculiarly valiant in his one invincible power to take knocks; the Eternal Butt. His only weapon of offence to raise up against it all is the phallus, or a need to be undone and seduced when life becomes too much of an obstacle to step over with ease and dispassion.” ~ Richard Southern, The Seven Ages of Theatre, on the introduction of the comic interlude.
Fool from Heironymus Hess’ Dance of Death (after Holbein), mid 19th c
It’s been said that the Renaissance was a direct reverberation of the Black Plague, that out of this grim blackening (it always begins with blackening) a golden age was created, the rebirth of the light. In Italy, three famous poets (‘the big three’) are usually credited with having initiated Humanist thinking, providing an inspirational blueprint or script for the artistic movement that would reshape the consciousness of Europe; Petrarch (The Triumphs), Danté (The Divine Comedy) and Boccaccio (The Decameron).
Petrarch’s Triumph of Vainglory [Fame], ca 1380 (BnF)Renaissance scholar Jacob Burckhardt says that Danté “was and remained the man who first thrust antiquity into the foreground of national culture. In the ‘Divine Comedy’ he treats the ancient and the Christian worlds, not indeed as of equal authority, but as parallel to one another” and that Petrarch “owed his fame among his contemporaries far rather to the fact that he was a kind of living representative of antiquity, that he imitated all styles of Latin poetry, endeavored by his voluminous historical and philosophical writings not to supplant but to make known the works of the ancients.”
Although Boccaccio too drew on and borrowed from classical/ancient themes and styles, The Decameron was set in more contemporary, plague times and is referred to as early satire. It has been nicknamed the ‘Human’ Comedy and from my understanding (I haven’t read it) gets pretty bawdy and anti-clerical, enough so that it was thrown upon the vanity bonfire.We might say that in Boccaccio’s case, the phallus was indeed raised as his weapon of offence against the high concerns of great immortal themes, and in defiance of death, following the plague.
Laugh? I thought I’d die! (Camoin-Jodorowsky ConverTdM)
Tarot dates back at least to the middle Renaissance and, like the great poets, pairs ancient, classical themes and traditions with Medieval ones – especially the idea of a parade of characters (or gods), such as those in the Totentanz or Canterbury Tales, etc. TheFool and his Unnamed double emblematize the Middle Ages (pre-Renaissance) while at the same time representing that which is eternal; the immortal breath of spirit and the infinite void.
A jester points out God in a cloud, c 1405-15 (British Library)
“Men are born soft and supple; dead they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail.” ~ Lao Tzu
Noblet dingle dangle (mid 17th c)
Although the animal going after his buttocks in the classic, Conver Fool card (eg. Camoin-Jodorowsky and two samples in mid-quartet, below) looks canine, in pre-Conver type decks, such as Jean Noblet (above), it is usually feline. Fools were often depicted with a cat familiar, licentious, nocturnal cats being associated with sinners and the Devil (hence they were persecuted along with witches in Medieval Europe, resulting in the spread of plagues due to rodent profusion).
‘Devil’s Anus’ Woman with a Mirror and Jester, 1600s (anon)
However…like the proverbial cat who may look upon a king, a court fool/jester was the only person allowed to truly ‘look at’ the king. Like Fluffy, he’s acutely unimpressed by human status. It’s an old tradition. In ancient Rome, for instance, there was a person whose role was to stand behind the celebrated conqueror in his victory chariot, whispering, “Remember you are a man.” As well, ‘there are accounts of a funny man who performed impressions of the deceased – at their own funerals. The archimimus was allowed to offend even family members.’ [BBC]
The number of Fools is infinite.~ Ecclesiastes
Ancient Roman gallows humour [via BBC]Our Tarot Fool is more jongleur (travelling entertainer) than court jester, but he comes from the same, marginalized lineage. Though they were very skilled, jongleurs were often mistrusted, even condemned as ‘agents of the Devil’ because of their music, profane songs and dancing, which smacked of ancient, Pagan ritual. I say ‘smacked’ because this is usually what that long spoon was for – a slap stick. (Perhaps the comedic prop reminded the church of those ‘Pagan’ libations). An outsider who ‘stirred things up’ would likely need to make ninja use of their accoutrement on occasion. Yet he makes no effort to shoo the clawed attacker away.
So is the Fool a king? For a possible answer to this question, we might ponder another: Why does the tear in his pants reveal green skin?
The usual explanation is that the printers were simply ‘pulling a fig leaf’ by colouring his bared rump green, yet somehow Noblet got away with exposing not only his fleshy butt, but genitals too (apparently his way of flipping the bird to the tax man). And why make the Fool’s ‘outer skin’ (leggings) flesh coloured?
Green Men; Dodal, 2 Conver versions, Bologna version
Another, small but noteworthy detail is that the monadic ball on his left shoulder is usually – though not always – the only one (of the two on his shoulders) coloured red. Green skin (more on his upper back?), dog and red shoulder ball might together suggest a connection to Osiris, conflated with his constellation, Orion.
Orion is actually mentioned in the Bible as ‘Kesil’, a Hebrew word meaning fool/dullard/stupid fellow. Maybe because Orion the Hunter boasted he could kill any animal (and was also a criminal who committed rape), or else the Israelites regarded the Egyptian lord the same way a cat regards a king.
This incredibly evocative mosaic (below) depicts the moment Orion is transformed into a god aka constellation. It is so loaded with symbolism and emotion, I’ll have to do a separate post about it, at some point.
The moment Orion is transformed, House of Orion, Pompeii
The descent and rebirth (as vegetation) of Osiris was based on his constellation’s disappearance below and reappearance above the horizon. Next to it, in Canis Major – hence the dog – is Sirius, star of his loyal, loving Isis. The heliacal rising of Sirius initiated the new agricultural year, signifying the Nile would be rising, beginning a new cycle of life. The ‘red giant’ star in Orion’s eastern shoulder is Betelgeuse. [Note: the constellation was not seen as literally being Osiris, nor was Sirius Isis herself. They were called Sah and Sopdet, consecutively.]
Orion (Betelgeuse in top left) photo credit: Rogelio Bernal Andreo
The death/dismemberment of Osiris and his resurrection as new vegetation can also be understood as an alchemical process, which begins with ‘blackening.’ The word ‘alchemy’ comes via Khemet, aka Egypt, the black land (its fertile soil), but also the ‘black art’ they practiced; smelting and melting metals, which initially turned them black and for which charcoal was used. The term later became equated with ‘black magic’…not excluding witches, fools and their devilish familiars.
Green Osiris with three-fold flail and crook.
“You sleep that you may wake You die that you may live.”~ Pyramid Text
Osiris was syncretized with Greek Dionysus, so in TdM tradition, if our Fool evokes one, he’s going to evoke the other, via attributes. Dionysus, the antithesis of rational Apollo, was naturally more ‘Fool-like’ than the wise, good and beloved king Osiris. But they played similar roles as dying (dismembered) and resurrecting agricultural gods, celebrated in annual festivals. The triumph was originally a hymn of praise (thriambos), to Dionysus, sung in processions to his honour. He was also god of the Greek stage (hence the masks).
Greco-Roman Mosaics: Dionysus dancing with panther and with satyr and maenad.Baby Dionysus and his wild kitty, standing on a precipice (with masks), Pompeii
“The ancients conceived their divinities not as super-mundane beings of a different calibre from mankind, but as stooping sympathetically and not infrequently to don the mouse skin of humanity.” ~ Harold Bayley, The Secret Language of Symbolism
The word MAT likely comes from the Italian word ‘matto’ meaning crazy. But it can also refer to ‘dark’ (as in skin) or ‘dull’ (as in non-reflective or dim) or an actual mat, which, like the shoe, selflessly positions itself between us and the cold, dirty ground during pilgrimage or prayer. Similar to a mask?
There is also the oft mentioned Ma’at, Egyptian Goddess whose feather is weighed against hearts in the Judgement of the Dead. But let’s stay with crazy, dark and Christ-like, for the time being.
“Humour is reason gone mad.”~ Groucho Marx
Mad Dionysus Tauros (horned)
The cult of Dionysus was, initially, a rebellion against the powerful, known for only admitting people of the lowest ranks, like slaves, women, outcasts and outlaws. The aim of the cult was to spiritually liberate those who were always looked down on and empower them to help themselves. The devotees did practice sacrifice, and, in their frenzied, ecstatic state of becoming one with their god, were rumoured to have torn apart and eaten the flesh of whatever living being was in their path. Just imagine if, during Beatlemania, there’d been no bobbies to protect the Fab Four from scores of devouring, teen maenads. Would they have stopped at ‘a lock of George’s hair’?
But the wild things cried, “Oh please don’t go – we’ll eat you up – we love you so!” ~ Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak, 1963
Beatlemania maenads, 1964 …and this is without the laced wine!
A clue to the Fool’s role in all of this sits square above his shoulders. Let me just say, I have tried to replicate his posture with a rod held over the opposite shoulder and face held upward and turned all the way to the side, while walking, and conclude he is either a skilled contortionist or is minus a skeleton. Upon closer examination, it appears he’s actually wearing a mask, which may have been moved to the side of his ‘real’ face.
Did I Fool you?
Pompeii Tarotist Didier Dufond (you can find him on Facebook) points out that:
Le Mat’s headdress shows all the elements of the liknon: the wicker braces, the handles, the revealed phallus (with undoubtedly part of the veil falling) and even a fruit (probably a poppy) in the same place as on a Campana plaque, elements dismantled and reassembled to make this strange headdress, prefiguring cubism, and that there are numerous representations of Silenus carrying this mystical van on his head to celebrate an initiation, head bend over and look towards the sky. In his late representations, Silenus lost his Socratic snub nose and his equine references to become totally “human” (Coptic hanging of Dionysus or mosaic of Sarrin… and tarot…).
[Addendum: Profuse apologies for previously having written that he said the Fool’s head “resembles the Silenus mask in a liknon,” my faulty understanding/translation of his video presentation. Nobody likes to be misquoted!]
To me, the basket-hood also resembles a serpent head with open maw, sometimes accentuated with red ‘lips’, which is perhaps reminiscent of the Egyptian Mehen – a giant serpent who wraps itself around the Sun god Ra (Re) to protect him during his journey through the Underworld, during which he merges with Osiris, who becomes his ‘corpse’. (The shape beneath his shoulders even looks like a reverse sunset). It is also the name of an associated game with a coiled serpent board. The transit of the soul essentially begins at the snake’s tail and ends being ‘born’ through its mouth, a la Jonah and the Whale (the Christian version). This mystical rebirth is the real [a descendant confirmed it] meaning of the Visconti Biscione. ‘Renaissance’ means rebirth, after all (topic of future post).
Serpent births (clockwise from top left: TdM Fool, Mehen, Visconti Biscione, Jonah
Whether you care to invoke Osiris or not, or recognize a twinning with #13, it’s obvious that Le Mat is divided into 3 sections by his sticks; the bottom section shows his foot having made the initial step below (even the ground appears lowered), the middle one shows his thigh being wounded, or at least ‘unveiled.’ A mortal wound to the thigh was a typical prerequisite for heroes prior to descent (as was madness), but often what was meant by ‘thigh’ in myth was actually ‘genitals.’ (The Fisher King tale is a good example of this). The phallus held a prominent place in Dionysian ritual, to say the least (perhaps Noblet was conveying more than just an insult). Furthermore, remember Dionysus’ second birth was from the thigh of his father, Zeus, which is what made him a God and not simply a hero. At the top, the face or mask re-emerging from a winged maw (as described), and/or hinting at Dionysian objects. Oh yes, and his passport dangles beside his opened ham.
Fool’s ‘Passport’? Orphic gold tablets were sometimes leaf-shaped.
The Fool’s face resembles depictions of Hermes (hence the ‘wing’ in his hood) or Dionysus (Silenus was pug-nosed, but as Dufond states above, he later lost the “Socratic snub nose.”). Regardless, it’s clearly mask-shaped. In the Conver version (last two squares, above), you can even see the defining line of its side edge. His hood is also shaped to subtly define the mask border.
Coin with Silenus mask (or laureate head) in liknon and baby satyr playing with the maskMercury 6th-4th c BC and Dionysus 490-480 BC
Silenus, teacher and ward of Dionysus was of course a satyr and the Silenus mask would have been worn by the leader of the chorus in Greek Satyr plays. This became the mask of Comedy (Thalia), the other side being Tragedy (Melpomene). Boccaccio was influenced by these bawdy plays which were once the highlight of the Dionysian festival. Yes, in spite of efforts to prove the contrary, satire is indeed related to satyr plays.
Actors, House of the Tragic Poet, Pompeii
Like Silenus, the Fool archetype also has a dark side; that of the nihilist who believes that life is meaningless, rejecting all religious and moral principles and projecting their own inner emptiness onto the outer world. I am sure we’ve all met someone who fits this description (or been this person, in our existential twenties). Maybe this is why the Fool must embody all 21 arcana, before he can emerge at the other end crazy wise, and not just crazy. ~rb
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, Healthy, free, the world before me, The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose. Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune, Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing, Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms, Strong and content I travel the open road. The earth, that is sufficient, I do not want the constellations any nearer, I know they are very well where they are, I know they suffice for those who belong to them. (Still here I carry my old delicious burdens, I carry them, men and women, I carry them with me wherever I go, I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them, I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return.)
Speaking of immortality…
Below is an Ice Age ivory carving nick-named ‘The Adorant’, thought to represent the constellation of Orion: “The total number of notches (88) not only coincides with the number of days in 3 lunations (88.5) but also approximately with the number of days when the star Betelgeuse (Orion) disappeared from view each year between its heliacal set (about 14 days before the spring equinox around 33,000 BC) and its heliacal rise (approximately 19 days before the summer solstice). Conversely, the nine-month period when Orion was visible in the sky approximately matched the duration of human pregnancy…”
~ Don’s Maps (fantastic site!)
‘The Adorant’…oldest Tarot card??
Opening quote, ‘There is no danger of lowering God’ from Harold Bayley (quoting the Dean of Ely), The Lost Language of Symbolism, v. 1
From joy springs all creation, by joy it is sustained, towards joy it proceeds, and to joy it returns. – Mundaka Upanishad
Tarot de Marseille is a funny creature. Just when you think you’ve ‘figured it all out’, like a chimera it changes into something else. Fortunately I en-joy a mystery and seeking that which has no end. If I’ve learned one thing from TdM, it’s that the same pattern exists in whatever particular wisdom path you choose to follow. “All roads lead to Alexandria.” (wink)
The enigma is perhaps most apparent in the triad sequence, beginning with the Empress. To re-cap TdM’s inherent Pythagorean principal:
One becomes two, two becomes three and
out of three comes the one as the fourth.
Each 3 place card completes a triad from which the next cycle of three will be born, with 21 also completing the entire 3 x 7 cycle. Unlike the 1s with their solar crowns (monadic) and 2s with their lunar vessels (dyadic), there’s no obvious, recurring object in every 3 place card (triadic), other than a predominance of wateriness (and darkness, in the case of 9,12, 15 and 18). The Mercurial spirit of creation requires a container – a body of some kind – for transformation to take place, AND it is also that container, like caterpillar and pupa. They are not separate, but form each other. The 3 place cards allude to this secret, inner and outer process. Magic is afoot, is all we really know.
[Please click on any images to enlarge]
3 place cards, Camoin-Jodorowsky TdM
3
Let’s look at the three cards in the 3 place with the numeric sum of 3. The first, The Empress (3) shows us what we need to know. Atop her sceptre is the globus cruciger or sovereign’s orb – nothing unusual about that….except maybe the size? In reality, a globus this big would be hand held, with a smaller one atop the accompanying sceptre. Masculine sceptre and feminine orb (and the 4 and 3 of the orb’s parts) are being combined, and we can see that the base of her sceptre points to precisely where it’s all going to happen.
Emblem 2, the feminine qualities of the stone, from Michael Maier’s, Atalanta fugiens
In alchemy, one of the symbols for antimony, the ‘wild spirit of man’ (sometimes represented by a wolf) is the reversed Venus/copper symbol – a circle with cross on top. “Pliny the Elder (ca 77 AD) made a distinction between the “male” and “female” forms of antimony; the male form is probably the sulfide, while the female form, which is superior, heavier, and less friable, has been suspected to be native metallic antimony.” [Wikipedia] The symbol’s reversal and association with spirit is incentive for change – think of another reversed Venus symbol, the pentacle. The presence of Venus is significant, and becomes more apparent in the Lover card (6). If you’ve studied it closely, you may have noticed that in some Conver versions, there is a skull shape behind Eros – love not only binds, it makes one less fearful of Death/transformation.
Venusian (Taurus) QE II 1953 Coronation with orb and sceptre
‘The watery matrix holdeth the fire captive.’– Jacob Boehme
Like the eagle on her shield, the Empress has ‘wings.’ Her neckline forms three sides of a vertical rectangle and her sceptre forms the hypotenuse of the right angle her bent arm is making – Pythagoras was here? Beside her left hip is a scallop or scalloped bowl/font. The scallop shell was a funerary symbol denoting the heavenly afterlife but also rebirth (Venus).
Hellenistic Greek Glass Shell 2nd-1st century B.C.
Addendum: The scalloped basin was also a type of alchemical vessel and symbol of the Hermetic pilgrim, according to Fulcanelli. In both type 1 and type 2 Empress cards, there is often what resembles a triple flag under the basin, likely representing the main 3 stages/colours of the work (black, white, red), as in this relief (detail) on Notre Dame Cathedral depicting all the stages of alchemy (please see this new article on the Popess for more on Notre Dame alchemical reference).
Threefold alchemy ‘flag’ from Notre Dame, Noblet and Payen Empress details.
She looks burdened with ‘stuff’, if you ask me. Raw materials, or the contents of a royal tomb. Mythically speaking, since the Emperor evokes Pluto (aka Dionysus, aka Osiris), his partner must also evoke Persephone, Queen of the Dead and personification of Spring regeneration. But the ‘M’ shape of her blue skirt is the age-old symbol for water. Maya or Maia is mother ocean/womb, and Maria is literally ‘Maia with fire (R/Ur) in her belly’ (covered by red vest). The perennial fountain? Or an alembic? I like to think of her eagle shield as the ultrasound screen, and her sceptre as the transducer.
Noblet, Dodal and two versions of Conver Empress card
Before we start associating her with the Madonna, we need to mention another honourable Maria, namely Maria the Jewess, the first [non-mythical] alchemist of the western world. She lived sometime between the 1st and 3rd centuries in Alexandria, Egypt (of course). Maria also had a favourite axiom:
One becomes two, two becomes three and
out of three comes the one as the fourth.
Wait, haven’t we heard that before? Did she get it from Pythagoras (who lived several centuries prior) or is it just a case of universal truth? Both geniuses stood faithfully by these words. ‘Maria the Prophetess,’ as she’s also known, “incorporated lifelike attributes into her descriptions of metal such as bodies, souls, and spirits. She believed that metals had two different genders, and by joining the two genders together a new entity could be made.” [Wikipedia]
She is accredited with many firsts, particularly her invention of the balneum Mariae (bain-Marie), progenator of the modern-day double-boiler. Of her written works surviving in Arabic we find two most curious titles; The Book of Maria and the Wise Men and The Epistle of the Crown and the Creation of the Newborn Baby. (Ok, now we can start associating the Empress with the Madonna).
Leonora Carrington, The Chrysopeia of Mary the Jewess, 1964
Maria excelled in both mystical and scientific approaches and it’s thought she may have originated the idea of 4 colour stages in alchemy. Indeed she herself was an alembic, which is the whole point of this exercise, the teachings of the 3s. Hermes Trismegistus (‘thrice great’) was another such person, albeit more mythical. In Pythagorean numerology, 3 is the number of creativity, joy, artistic expression. In astrology, the trine is considered the most harmonious aspect, connecting planets or points of the same element. (However, it is fiery and energy can flow with lightening speed for better or worse).
Maria the Jewess and Hermes TrismegistusMaria’s bath, 1528.
So, the Empress, similar to the Juggler, has all four elements (or stages) about her, in physical form; earth (ground below + snake/globus + barely visible horns), fire (crown + hair), air (wings + human features) and water (blue robe/shell). The eagle represents the work as well as the water element. The difference being that 1 alone can’t yet do anything with all the separate, single parts, other than superficially (ie, practical magic), like performing tricks or perhaps trading with Jack for his cow.
The Empress and Emperor will complete each other (he too has orbed sceptre and eagle, and faces toward her), but they have not yet come together, they are still 3 and 4, neither added nor multiplied.
Conver Empress and World cards. Note the shield eagle’s amphibious wing.
In this older version (below), that she has attributes of the four ‘elemental beasts’ of the World card are more obvious; longer ‘horns’ (in crown and necklace), wings/human, eagle/phoenix and even a lion’s paw/mane.
Guilaume Dubesset-Claude Valentin, ca 1680
12
I’ve already written on some of the 3 place cards – the Hanged Man, the Hermit, the Devil and the Moon – so will just touch on the Hanged Man (12) here, as he’s part of this 3 x 3 sequence.
We know by his flaming hair and his number that he has solar connotations. The Sun represents the gold, and thus the process of purifying the ‘inner’ (philosophical) gold is in progress. But it is not the literal Sun, physical fire or material gold. Rather, it is a different fire altogether.
Visconti Sforza 16th c, Jacques Vieville 17th c, Nicholas Conver TdM 18th c
In the middle example, the number is placed so that he is flipped, indicating that as his body descends, his spirit ascends (note the lunar and solar ‘mounds’ on each side of his head, the solar one containing all the heavenly spheres), with emphasis on the spiritual. Not an accident, but likely an Orphic reference. In the third card, the descent of the ‘Sun’ (his head) into matter is emphasized. High noon and midnight, apex and nadir, bipolar. The main thing is that we can’t observe his inner process. Typically, the Hanged Man’s expression is placid, as if he’s either in acceptance or ‘somewhere else.’ His gibbet is like a (golden) doorway or threshold. All of this suggests he is experiencing what’s known in alchemy as the secret fire:
Search, therefore, this fire with all strength of your mind, and you shall reach the goal you have set yourself; for it is this that brings to completion all the stages of the Work, and is the key of all the Philosophers, which they have never revealed in their books. If you think well and deep upon this above-mentioned fire, you will know it. Not otherwise. – Potanus, The Secret Fire
To me, the Visconti-Sforza version is actually the most overtly alchemical, its colours alluding strongly to the (philosophical) Green Lion devouring the Sun. I love how well the following description of the symbolism relates to the card, albeit it seems to be more from a Jungian perspective than traditional alchemy (and granted, the solar ‘ego’ looks anything but terrified):
The image corresponds to the releasing of primordial essence. That is why the lion is green, which is a primordial, unripe color. It also connotates fecundity. Eating the sun symbolizes the dominance of the Ego by instinctual forces. It is the beginning of a return to a more natural psychological state in which human beings flourish. The ego perceives the encounter as terrifying because all transformational processes appear to be a kind of death to the ego. However, this process is the catalyst for an encounter with the Self. The instincts are amoral relative to human society and culture. Social conditioning aims to keep the instincts in check until the Higher Self is adequately present. Once present, our attitudes and feelings will be conditioned and directed by the Self. Otherwise, we experience a regression to the animalistic nature. ~ Tony Laguia, ‘The Green Lion Devouring the Sun‘ [Medium]
Visconti-Sforza hanged Man and Alchemical Green Lion devouring the Sun
21
The World (21) card, signifies the completion of the opus, the central figure representing ‘quintessence.’ Like an awakened eye, it is the revelation of that which embodies the essence of all past forms and potential for that shall be. In other words, what has been purified through many transformations becomes a catalyst for transformation; the Holy Grail or Philosopher’s Stone. Perhaps you’ve met someone who is a human tuning fork, or experienced a work of art, poetry, music, etc. that in its perfection had the effect of putting you ‘right side up’ again. Perhaps Tarot itself. ‘A light cannot help shedding its light. A flower cannot help giving off its fragrance.’ [Upanishads, ibid] When the young man in arcanum 6 was being initiated into the school of Venus/Eros, it was with the ultimate purpose of becoming just such a universal lover. ‘Everybody loves a lover.’
Ascend above any height, descend further than any depth; receive all sensory impressions of the created: water, fire, dryness and wetness. Think that you are present everywhere: in the sea, on earth and in heaven; think that you were never born and that you are still in the embryonic state: young and old, dead and in the hereafter. Understand everything at the same time: time, place, things: quality and quantity. ~ Corpus Hermeticum, 1460
The four creatures in the corners are assumed to be the four evangelists, the fixed signs of the zodiac, the seasons and/or the 4 elements. However…the bull is also lunar (2), the lion solar (1), and as we can see, they are now conjoined (3). The eagle previously represented the alchemical work, so then who might the winged human be when they’re at home? What of the Empress’ wings? Hmm.
Incidentally, Egyptian initiates were called ‘scarabs’ because they ‘pushed along the egg of their regeneration’ – the container and the work?
Below, left, is the oldest of all known TdM type World cards (found in the Sforza castle cistern). Though it is badly damaged, some curious details remain. The androgyne or hermaphroditic Christ/Dionysus figure appears to have one breast only, on their right side, which is our left (mirroring). Their other, male side has the thicker leg. On their breasted/female side, the partially-obscured bull (or cow) has perfect, lunar crescent horns and on their male side, the lion has distinct, solar rays in its mane. Unique to this card, the angel in the top left (Aquarius/Matthew/air) has a ‘flame of inspiration’ in his forehead – ‘fire in the belly’ raised to crown level?
Oldest TdM ca mid-late 16th c (photo courtesy Ross Caldwell), Jacques Vieville ca 1650
The Vieville version, right, mixes things up a bit – bull and lion are switched around and have no wings. Since this card depicts a sexless figure facing straight forward, I ventured to see what one might look like as two. (Admittedly, it felt taboo, but…for science).
The male twin has a red cloak, denoting fire and his life force energy is directing upwards, expressed poignantly by what’s left of the sceptre. His body, arms open, creates an M for Mars. The female twin has a dark blue cloak, denoting water and her large V for Venus directs life force energy downward to her vulva, which she covers with her hands. Two opposite triangles, converging as one. On the Empress and Emperors’ shields, in fact, her eagle’s wings point upward, his downward, similar to the yin-yang idea of ‘opposite but interconnecting, mutually perpetuating forces.’ [wiki]
Vieville twins
In medieval alchemy, ‘philosophical Mercury’ is what remains when earth, air, fire and water are removed from a substance. It is associated with ‘prima materia’ (‘first matter’), from which all other matter is composed.
Philosophical Mercury, composed of sulphur and quicksilver (distinguished from their ordinary or ‘vulgar’ forms), ca 1400
When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female, and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in the place of a hand and a foot in the place of a foot, and a likeness in the place of a likeness: then will you enter [the kingdom]. ~ From the Gospel of Didymos Judas Thomas (‘the Twin’), Nag Hammadi Library
ANAHATA the heart (fourth) chakra
Whatever wisdom path you choose to follow, the same patterns are found, and this is because patterns are ultimately geometrical/mathematical. But wisdom is not just an intellectual exercise. It must be applied, to thrive.
In Sanskrit, ‘anahata’ means ‘unstruck.’ (Funny, considering arcanum 6). The anahata or heart chakra, illustrated by two, interlocking triangles, is associated with unconditional love, compassion, and joy. This rose window of our personal cathedral serves to balance the upper (spiritual) and lower (material) chakras, so that we may experience pure love for both self and others, without attachment and expectation.
On March 21 (3/3), Venus (Ptolemaic 3rd sphere) will conjunct Saturn in Pisces. Saturn is the cold karma lord and task master of our consciousness, who has a way of shackling the heart with guilt, pain and sorrow. In Pisces, Saturn can feel like the weight of the whole, wretched world (as we collectively witness the shadow expression of yet another ancient symbol). Venus, on the other hand, exalts in Pisces, bringing potential for a moment of healing, amnesty and grace to weary hearts. Like the Empress conducting Venus into her belly, if we channel the energy of this transit, perhaps whatever beauty we create from it will serve as a tuning fork for someone, somewhere, sometime down the road. ~ rb
Allegory of Prudence with Janus face, 16th c, Nantes, France
Previously we looked at the masculine/solar cards in the 1/4 placement, beginning with the Juggler (1). Now let’s turn our attention to the feminine/ lunar cards in the 2 placement, beginning with The Popess (2) and The Pope (5). These two flank Empress (3) and Emperor (4), like the spiritual component or parent of each. The book on the Popess’ lap, whatever its mystery content, illustrates this concept; two covers (‘hidden’) and two facing pages (‘spread eagle’) inside.
Various Conver cards, 18th c
To Pythagoreans, and others throughout western history, the number of duality, by itself, was considered negative. Besides being Lunar (death) and feminine (sin), 2, the first real number to follow the ‘monad’ created a division:
The confrontation between I and Thou contains, by its very nature, an opposition, and such an opposition becomes even more evident when the human I is confronted with the absolute, unique, divine Thou… …it is impossible to think of anything truly opposed to the divine One. Thus, 2 becomes a number of contradiction and antithesis and, logically, of the non-divine. Since it produces discord, it is rarely used in magic. – Annemarie Schimmel,The Mystery of Numbers
Not exactly the ‘yin-yang’ approach. Of course, 2 could also bring about union and balance, but for the most part, it was suspect. Patriarchal religion regarded the feminine 2 (Eve) as usurper of the one-on-one relationship with the Godfather.
Eye pennies or prophylactic eyes? Conver 2 of Coins, BnF
Yet, Tarot de Marseille places the holy mother and father under its influence. Are we meant to interpret this as a mere jab? I don’t think so. 2 is the number of both desire – which is a complex issue – and duplicity; nothing in TdM is what is seems. Perhaps most importantly, 2 is the number of paradox, wherein truth lies. And although the 2s preceding the Strength (11) card are more indicative of division, those proceeding it emphasize reunification. The running visual theme in all of the 2 cards is of course pairs/doubles, always with some kind of vessel or opening. (We can think of the Papal crowns as a pair). I’m going to do a post on the Strength card by itself, because it’s so fascinating.
Cards which occupy the 2nd place, Camoin-Jodorowsky deck
Sweet Delight and Endless Night
But let’s begin with the Pope and his pair of strange little nipple-heads. These clearly have a connection with the middle figure in arcanum 20, another ‘2’ card, but we’ll leave that aside, for the time being.
Sarcophagus eyes
Number 5, belonging to sensual Venus, is connected to the 5 senses (plus 5 points of the human body, and 5 digits on each hand and foot, etc). Being the sum of the first two ‘real’ numbers (2 and 3), 5 is considered sacred, and has been since the days of Goddess worship. The role of numbers in TdM imagery interpretation cannot be understated:
From early times 5 was considered a somewhat unusual, even rebellious number, and the discovery by Hippasos of a fifth geometrical body, the pentagondodecahedron, which consists of 12 regular pentagons, embarrassed the Pythagoreans, who had concentrated on the 4. Legend tells that the discoverer of this new body was drowned for his transgression... …Since the human being consists of 4 elements, a fifth, secret one (quinta essentia) was added in order to reach the sacred 5. This quinta essentia, our quintessence, was considered to be the real element of life, and its production was a goal of medieval alchemists. To find the principal of life and overcome death one has to rely on procreation and Eros [Venus], so the quinta essentia again points back to the ancient life-giving power of the Mother Goddess… – Annemarie Schimmel (ibid)
Heads will roll…
You might have noticed that, in many TdM versions of this card, the two, perfectly round, alternately spinning heads are not even really attached to their bodies. And in the Conver cards, they often have red centres, reminding me of my least favourite Peak Frean cookie.
Fruit Cream fortune cookies
Notice that the nipple-head on the Pope’s right has a golden hat (solar, but also appears to contain a Moon) on his back, distinguishing it from the one on his left, who usually has a light/flesh-coloured round form in front, partially hidden (lunar?). An arm appears behind him from outside the picture and in Conver type decks, a little curved knife shape under the hand suggests something sinister. The power struggle between Horus and Set comes to mind, wherein Horus loses an eye. The gradual restoration (‘filling’) of it relates to the Moon’s phases.
Agathos daemon (good) and Cacodaemon (bad), 2nd c Roman mosaic, Antioch
Here, we must bring Plato into the picture. The Myth of Er, from his Republic is, I think, essential to a more complete understanding of this card and the theme(s) of TdM in general. If you wish to be read to, here’s an audio link.
It opens with Socrates saying:
Well, I said I will tell you a tale; not one of the tales which Odysseus tells to the hero Alcinous, yet this too is a tale of a hero, Er the son of Armenius, a Pamphylian by birth. He was slain in battle, and ten days afterwards, when the bodies of the dead were taken up already in a state of corruption, his body was found unaffected by decay, and carried away home to be buried. And on the twelfth day, as he was lying on the funeral pile, he returned to life and told them what he had seen in the other world. He said that when his soul left the body he went on a journey with a great company, and that they came to a mysterious place at which there were two openings in the earth; they were near together, and over against them were two other openings in the heaven above. In the intermediate space there were judges seated, who commanded the just, after they had given judgment on them and had bound their sentences in front of them, to ascend by the heavenly way on the right hand; and in like manner the unjust were bidden by them to descend by the lower way on the left hand;these also bore the symbols of their deeds, but fastened on their backs.
He [Er] drew near, and they told him that he was to be the messenger who would carry the report of the other world to men, and they bade him hear and see all that was to be heard and seen in that place. Then he beheld and saw on one side the souls departing at either opening of heaven and earth when sentence had been given on them; and at the two other openings other souls, some ascending out of the earth dusty and worn with travel, some descending out of heaven clean and bright.
Further description given of wretched souls trying to climb out and being dragged back reminded me of my favourite Mercurius depiction of all time, which in turn reminded me of the Pope card.
Cappella della zodiaco, Agostino di Ducciodetail
The Conver Pope’s staff has the triple (ie, suspiciously Mercurial and/or Lunar) cross of a high-ranking Roman pontiff, used in procession or when crossing a threshold of a holy door. Hmm. 3 might also neutralize the divisive effect of 2 by creating sacred 5 (or 7). In other decks it’s usually a shepherd hook crosier – which, Tarot or not, comes from Egyptian Osiris – or something resembling a spindle whorl (or a mix of the two). Consistent in all versions, however, is that his staff appears to penetrate the lunar nipple-head on his left, like the pitchfork in the mosaic of the ‘bad daemon.’ And btw, who or what are those curious little daemons that flank the Pope’s head in the Vieville card?
Noblet, Payen and Vieville Popes
Further into The Myth or Er, we are told how souls choose their next ‘lots’:
When Er and the spirits arrived, their duty was to go at once to Lachesis; but first of all there came a prophet who arranged them in order; then he took from the knees of Lachesis lots and samples of lives, and having mounted a high pulpit, spoke as follows: ‘Hear the word of Lachesis, the daughter of Necessity. Mortal souls, behold a new cycle of life and mortality. Your genius will not be allotted to you, but you choose your genius; and let him who draws the first lot have the first choice, and the life which he chooses shall be his destiny. Virtue is free, and as a man honours or dishonours her he will have more or less of her; the responsibility is with the chooser –God is justified.’ When the Interpreter had thus spoken he scattered lots indifferently among them all, and each of them took up the lot which fell near him, all but Er himself (he was not allowed), and each as he took his lot perceived the number which he had obtained. Then the Interpreter placed on the ground before them the samples of lives; and there were many more lives than the souls present, and they were of all sorts. There were lives of every animal and of man in every condition. And there were tyrannies among them, some lasting out the tyrant’s life, others which broke off in the middle and came to an end in poverty and exile and beggary; and there were lives of famous men, some who were famous for their form and beauty as well as for their strength and success in games, or, again, for their birth and the qualities of their ancestors; and some who were the reverse of famous for the opposite qualities. And of women likewise; there was not, however, any definite character then, because the soul, when choosing a new life, must of necessity become different. But there was every other quality, and they all mingled with one another, and also with elements of wealth and poverty, and disease and health; and there were mean states also.
And they say Tarot was never about fortune telling until the late 18th century!
Lucky lottery numbers
In Medieval/Hellenistic astrology, no chart was complete without calculating the ‘Arabic’ lots or parts (pars). The two main ones still used today in the west are the Part of Fortune and Part of Spirit (or Daemon). The two are opposites, derived from the same equation done forwards and backwards, and, vice versa depending on whether a day (solar) or night (lunar) chart. It’s said that “the Lot of Fortune is the hand you’re dealt, and the Lot of Spirit is how you play your cards.” And so begins the game.
Daemones gambling for souls, between the prophylactic eyes.
Whatever sacred knowledge there was from the highest reasoning, the ancient poets joined to their measures. Thus the mystical philosophy of Poetry can be spoken in its own right. She sings mystical truths. For while the impulse of the heavens driven around in circles rushes down, she produces sounds with constant rotation.
~ Lodovico Lazzarelli,De Gentilium Deorum Imaginibus, 15th c (trans. William O’Neal)
Silenus with lyre and wild-eyed Dionysus (detail), 30 BC, British Museum
Although the Pope, like the Emperor, evokes various gods and prophets, or god-prophets, the one that stands out for me is Silenus, teacher and foster parent of Dionysus (if not an older Dion himself). For one thing, he always looks a bit drunk. And what is drink but the pap of satyrs? Also, if we follow the gold trim on his robe opening, particularly in ‘type 2’ (Conver, Madenié), we can make out a harp shape – an instrument often interchangeable in Medieval/Renaissance depictions of the Orphic lyre. Perhaps he is teaching Orphic hymns or using music to disarm the marked assassin sent by Pythagoras (or both). It’s not at all far-fetched when you consider that harmony and discord/chaos will produce good and bad fortune. A scholarly paper about that here.
Dionysus characterized the essence of the drama, by crossing and transgressing the border between the divine and the human world. When the gods interacted with men in the Homeric epics, they did so for their own selfish reasons, but in the classical drama they reflect and judge the activity of men. The drama thus reflects a change of paradigm from the world of myth to an ethical dialogue between men’s world and the will of heaven. – Dr. Britt-Marie Nässtrom,The Rites and Mysteries of Dionysus: The Birth of the Drama
Silenus wasn’t just a prophet, but when pie-eyed, possessed a ‘terrible wisdom,’ as famously expressed in this telling (during a brief capture by King Midas):
Midas, after hunting, asked his captive Silenus somewhat urgently, what was the most desirable thing among humankind. At first he could offer no response, and was obstinately silent. At length, when Midas would not stop plaguing him, he erupted with these words, though very unwillingly: ‘you, seed of an evil genius and precariousoffspring of hard fortune, whose life is but for a day, why do you compel me to tell you those things of which it is better you should remain ignorant?Forhe lives with the least worry who knows not his misfortune; but for humans, the best for them is not to be born at all, not to partake of nature’s excellence; not to be is best, for both sexes. This should be our choice,if choice we have; and the next to this is, when we are born, to die as soon as we can.’ It is plain therefore, that he declared the condition of the dead to be better than that of the living. – Aristotle, Eudemus (354 BCE), surviving fragment quoted in Plutarch, Wikipedia
The Silenus mask, btw, was essential to the Dionysian mysteries and was the prototype for that worn by Thalia, muse of Comedy – the implication alluded to in a previous post on Death and the Moon. Note the doubles, in the pic below.
Now, let’s return to that beguiling embodiment of the primal 2, The Popess. If you are familiar with the Gnostic hymn, The Thunder : Perfect Mind, this gives a good sense of the paradoxical element of the mysteries in general, but especially of the dual feminine. The Popess holds a book open (one hand on each side, in type 2 decks) in full view – yet, unless we understand the imagery itself, we can’t begin to know what it says or means.
The rituals of the Lesser Mysteries were often called the myesis, as opposed to the rites of the Greater, which were called epopteia. The word myesis means “to teach” and also “to initiate.” Epopteia has a similar meaning, but with an important difference; it means “to witness” and “to be initiated.” The slight differences in these two words explain a fundamental difference in what happened to the initiates during these two sets of rituals. In the Lesser Mysteries, candidates were taught the theology of the Two Goddesses, and the meaning of the rites of the Mysteries. However, in the Greater Mysteries, they could experience what they had learned, and near the end of the week-long festival, they would even see a vision of Persephone. ~ Hellenion, Lesser Mysteries of Eleusis
Veiled Persephone or the soul of the deceased, Museum of Cyrene, Libya.
The Mysteries represented the myth of the abduction of Persephone from her mother Demeter by the king of the underworld Hades, in a cycle with three phases: the descent (loss), the search, and the ascent, with the main theme being the ascent of Persephone and the reunion with her mother. – Wikipedia
In type 2 versions of the card, the ends of her curled drapery are typically stencilled red, so that they resemble inverted torches, which are a lunar goddess symbol, since they illuminate the darkness. We could think of the torches as the descent, the labyrinthian book as the search and the ribbon going from its spine (hinge/door) to her heart, as the ascent.
Conver Papess and Victorian tombstone symbolsAltar with Iacchus, Demeter, Rhea and Kore, National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Note three boukrainion (bull craniums) with Moon horns.
The serpentine ‘scroll’ endings in type 1 might suggest the lituus, a ritual divining rod used in augury, or plant shoots. As well, in the Lesser Mysteries of Eleusis, ‘touching the snake’ meant the initiate was ready to receive them. The Dodal version (type 1) calls her ‘La Pances’, which in old French (and Italian) means ‘belly’ – a clue to her oracular nature? Perhaps the book represents words of wisdom from her middle.
Jean Dodal ‘La Pances’
Originally, ventriloquism was a religious practice. The name comes from the Latin for ‘to speak from the stomach: ventre (belly) and loqui (speak). The Greeks called this gastromancy (Greek: εγγαστριμυθία). The noises produced by the stomach were thought to be the voices of the unliving, who took up residence in the stomach of the ventriloquist. The ventriloquist would then interpret the sounds, as they were thought to be able to speak to the dead, as well as foretell the future. One of the earliest recorded group of prophets to use this technique was the Pythia, the priestess at the temple of Apollo in Delphi, who acted as the conduit for the Delphic Oracle. – Wikipedia
Altar with sacred articles of Demeter, National Archaeological Museum of Athens
The phallic shape created by her crowned head and shoulders (well, why not, the Pope card has nipples) might have something to do with the desire element. It’s been suggested that this image (below) of a woman reaching to lift the covering of a ritual phallus, represents desire – the object of which is potent so long as its mystery is maintained. (It’s why we rarely see full frontal male nudity in the movies. That would spoil everything). The individual (or institution) ‘holding The Phallus’ has all the desire power, which translates as the power of mystery; ie, it is not a monarch or pope’s actual shlong that people are drawn to, but rather, the inexplicable mojo they are in possession of. And they keep possession of it precisely by keeping it under wraps. Otherwise, everyone would immediately see that the Emperor has no clothes. Comedians are their greatest nightmare.
Shrouded in mystery, Dionysiac Frieze detail, Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii
So the (shrouded) shape of the Popess’ head and bib might serve to illustrate that she is the living mystery, or alone contains within her ‘perfect mind’ that which we seek/desire. Further, that it is the feminine – woman – that naturally possesses ‘The Phallus’, for the simple reason that her procreative (lunar) magic is contained within, where it can’t be seen, only imagined. (Thus it’s ok to expose her, like the open book, since doing so won’t give anything away and will create more desire). The Popess presents us with the ultimate conundrum of the 2: the unknowable ‘other.’ And if you don’t think that is a powerful notion, you have obviously never seen an advertisement or a selfie.
‘Out of one (tis wonder and no wonder,) Come forth’, Manley P. Hall collection
That’s one possibility. The other might simply be that her crown resembles the omphalos of Delphi – where the maxim ‘Know thyself‘ was inscribed on the temple – confirming that she is an oracle. The omphalos is modelled on a beehive and we can see the flowers in her crown, distinguishing it from the Pope’s. No reason both explanations can’t coexist, of course, that is the nature of the 2.
Python coin, Conver Popess, Omphalos
I’ve started using the word cryptic rather than esoteric, in reference to TdM, the latter is so wrongly overused and has all but lost its true meaning. However, the Popess truly embodies the esoteric, which at it’s root means ‘within.’ Prior to and/or without application, inquiries into her meaning are ‘Lesser Mysteries’.
The last 2 card is Judgement (20), which, as mentioned, is connected to 5 by a third nipple-head rising from the ‘grave.’ This bizarre and extremely loaded card is way TMI to include herein, but potentially offers insight into Tarot’s immense popularity at the dawn of the Aquarian Age. Stay tuned, I’ll get to it! ~rb
Behold, I have related things about which you must remain in ignorance, though you have heard them. –Apuleius
Persephone: “I brought the ergot!” Dionysus: “I brought the grapes and kantharos!”
Isis assists with the embalming of a mummy, Kom El Shokafa, Alexandria, 2nd c
‘One becomes Two, Two becomes Three, and out of the Third
comes the One as the Fourth.’ ~ Pythagoras
In a previous post , we saw how this Cosmology of Pythagoras applies to Tarot. It is but one of the initial or initiatory, key concepts conveyed to us as a visual clue by our Master of Ceremonies, The Juggler/Le Bateleur. Do you see it? Hint: It’s ‘dessous la table’, in every Marseille-type deck.
Vieville, Conver and Noblet cards
Of course, I am referring to the legs. People tend to write off his three-legged table as simply being of the portable sort that Bagatelles used. It’s true, three legs provide the most stable table for any surface. (Especially if it happens to be a tripod with a Pythia sitting on it). But his table in fact has four. Because one of his legs is behind or combined with one of the table legs, his other leg becomes the 4th leg; ‘the One as the Fourth.’ Another consistent feature is that the rectangular table top always extends beyond the picture border… just how long might it be?
Below are two images of Anubis, god of funerary rites and underworld guide, preparing the dead. His uncovered, lower legs are always visible beneath the embalming bed, and knees about level. This ritual table traditionally had a lion head(s) and legs, which we will return to in a moment.
Legs of AnubisEgyptian embalmer’s bed, 664-332 BC (Met Museum, NY)
The Juggler is often equated with Hermes/Thoth, initiator into the mysteries or the ‘in-between’ state itself who oversees the alchemical process. But he’s also seen as an initiate, who maybe doesn’t yet know what all these objects he’s selling are for. As others familiar with Osirian-Orphic mystery content in TdM imagery have noted, they likely allude to dismemberment or sacrifice. They also bear a resemblance to the tools used in the Egyptian ‘Opening of the Mouth’ ceremony, which according to belief, enabled the deceased to eat, breathe, drink and use their senses in the afterlife.
Religious equipment for ‘Opening of the Mouth’ ceremony, 6th dyn. (British Museum)
Naturally, the Juggler’s objects also symbolize the four Hermetic elements (ie, the suits of the minor arcana) and the four ways a body is returned to them in traditional funerary rites. The four ‘parts’ of us that are returned to their sources – body to earth, spirit to fire, soul to water, mind or breath to air – will again be drawn from them and remixed, for another round.
Four ways a body is returned to the elements
Now, let’s just for fun assume the Juggler’s table should have another wooden leg, that it is indeed modelled on an embalming table with leonine features and that it displays tools related to the ‘opening of the mouth.’
Where would we then look for the missing leg? Only the Conver-type decks give us a proper clue [addendum: Dodal also] – the Strength lion’s single leg having a distinctly wooden look and no paw. (Always thought it a rather canine-looking lion). In other TdM decks, it has normal, lion forepaws, which, nevertheless is a hieroglyphic feature, based on Horapollo.
The missing leg and the opening of the mouth
The Pythagorean rule informs us that every 4th card is also a first. 1 was considered masculine/solar and 2, feminine/lunar. 3, while odd, fiery and therefor technically ‘masculine,’ creates the first enclosed space (triangle/womb), so it is actually a combination of masc/fem (the Mercurial, creative magic of the trinity need not be re-explained here). 11 is two 1s or 1+1=2, the lunar partner to the solar Juggler.
I’ll discuss the 2s in my next post, but let the image below, from the Catacombs of Kom El Shokafa, where Egyptian and Greco-Roman mysteries meet, serve as a preview.
Where did you get that hat? Gorgoneion as ‘death face’ of the Sun
The crown/corona worn by royals represents the Sun’s rays. To be coronated means to be crowned with the Sun and become a god-like, solar figure. In alchemy, the Sun symbolizes both the material gold and the hidden, spiritual gold, which is only achieved after a long process. The Juggler holds a little yellow coin or roundel (material gold) and there is a small, yellow flame [aka ear of golden grain] beneath the table, in the distance (spiritual gold). They are separate, at this point in the game.
One/Four cards (Camoin-Jodo deck)
Notice that every card in the 1/4 place between Juggler and Sun depicts a crown, in various phases of transmutation, as well as solar wheels (Chariot, Fortune) and phallic symbols (all seven do, but in the last card it is a horizontal wall). The Sun is its own corona (unified, risen spirit), but what about the Juggler? He is only a 1, not a 1/4, and wears not a crown but a floppy hat with a spherical, red middle. Could this too be symbolic of the Sun?
Floppy discs
Answer is yes. The question of his hat had admittedly irked me a long time, until I saw these beautiful, French prints of Egyptian deities in the NYPL collections.
Winged solar disk, emblems of Thoth/Hermes Trismegistus (NYPL)
So the red sphere of the Juggler’s hat represents the solar disk, its brim being vaguely reminiscent of wings – or – perhaps symbolic of the funerary boat in which the Sun god Ra, and thereby Kings and Pharaohs traversed the Duat, when the sun set. The red sphere appears to sink into the brim, ie, setting below the horizon, corona faded. Meanwhile, on the distant horizon flickers that tiny, golden flame of spirit, which will become a bright Sun once again. Pythagoreans believed in reincarnation, Pythagoras himself was said to have remembered several of his past lives.
New take on retro fashion or just comparing scars?
On that note, I leave you with a vivid, childhood memory…
My father was a psychiatrist with a sense of humour (and with whom I often played cards). Hanging on our bathroom wall was a small, framed photo of Sigmund Freud, with a quote by Groucho Marx taped beneath:
“This may be a phallus, but gentlemen, let us remember, it is also a cigar.”
Previously, we looked at the influence of hieroglyphica and emblemata in the Renaissance and its connection to Tarot de Marseille, how TdM’s ‘mytho-alchemical’ imagery is hieroglyphic in nature, playfully imbedded with visual hints of esoteric meaning hidden in plain sight. The cards relate to each other in a variety of ways, too, be it by numeric pattern or other similarities. (Perhaps why they naturally lend themselves to being ‘read’, a different narrative following every shuffle).
Do read my post on Horapollo and the Hieroglyphic Mysteries of TdM , if you haven’t, as an introduction. And as always, click images for details.
Fool and Death (Camoin-Jodorowsky deck)
The Unnamed Card – Death
The Unnamed card (‘Death/La Mort’) is a prime example. Most Tarotists are aware of its relationship with The Fool/Le Mat, and how they strike the very same pose. By design alone, it is immediately apparent that the two figures are related or even one and the same; the first being unnumbered, the second, unnamed. Suddenly it all makes sense, right?
Original Tragicomedy act: the Greek Muses Melpomene (T) and Thalia (C)
Let’s take a closer look at the Unnamed card and its relationship to another major, The Moon, that we might find the visual clues needed for a better understanding of their mystery teachings.
The first consistent features we notice in the TdM skeleton, are its colour-emphasized spine and hip bones, and the skin pulled back around his skull, creating a crescent shape. Also, his spine appears to be made of grain. Typically, it matches the grain in the Emperor’s necklace (which his chicken-basilisk surely must covet!). The Emperor wears the golden seeds of his own, cyclic renewal. 1 + 3 = 4 and in number order, both cards are in the 1/4 place.
grain storage?Skull face (featuring pyramid and new Moon) and Moon face of TdM
It’s obvious, too, that the Reaper’s face is a mirror image of the Moon. Makes sense, the Solar year has 13 moons, the last one being the ‘killing Moon.’ It’s ultimately why Sun worshippers suffer from triskaidekaphobia. Try as they might, the Greeks could not make 13 – or death – be rational and fit in. They felt the same way about 0, rejecting it outright (ie, no number?). The “inconstant Moon” has long been considered a kind of depository for souls coming and going between incarnations. It is not the light of wakefulness.
Of course Horapollo is talking about the djed bone of Osiris and we can see how the card must be a reference to the Osirian myth. While the djed bone has obvious phallic implications, it is actually symbolic of the grain god’s spine, by which his ‘kundalini energy’ or ‘life force’ climbs:
“The djed was an important part of the ceremony called “raising the djed“, which was a part of the celebrations of the Sed festival, the Egyptian jubilee celebration. The act of raising the djed has been explained as representing Osiris’s triumph over Seth. Ceremonies in Memphis are described where the pharaoh, with the help of the priests, raised a wooden djed column using ropes. The ceremony took place during the period when fields were sown and the year’s agricultural season would begin, corresponding to the month of Koiak, the fourth month of the Season of the Inundation. This ceremony was a part of one of the more popular holidays and celebrations of the time, a larger festival dedicated to Osiris conducted from the 13th to 30th day of the Koiak. Celebrated as it was at that time of the year when the soil and climate were most suitable for agriculture, the festival and its ceremonies can be seen as an appeal to Osiris, who was the God of vegetation, to favor the growth of the seeds sown, paralleling his own resurrection and renewal after his murder by Seth.”[wikipedia]
Seth and his hungry familiar, the Oxyrhynchus
As for his phallus, remember that when Isis collected her dismembered beloved’s pieces to put them back together, she could not find this last bit, which had been eaten by a fish, so the resourceful Goddess had to make a new one, using magic. Might we even see a fishbone shape in the reaper’s frame, its head being the hips and tail being the crescent? Peut-être.
Claude Burrell 1751 (Yves Renaud repro 2015) and a bass
Dismemberment is the beginning of the transformation process. This card alludes to that which Osiris/Osiris-Dionysus presided over, the natural cycles of death and resurrection/rebirth. He was also called ‘god of the living’ and ‘lord of silence’ (ie, no name?). The black soil [of Kemet (‘kmt‘), the ‘black land’ from whence comes ‘alchemy’] pertains to fertility – new growth from rich putrefaction and loam. The Egyptians took their cues from nature, the great alchemist.
“In some rare instances, Osiris was depicted wearing a crown that included a rendering of the moon. This has led some researchers to surmise he was associated with the moon or the night.” [Ancient Egypt Online]
Thoth (Thoth-Hermes), Ibis-headed god of the Moon, who oversees the whole transmutation, might also be at hand…
Ibis beak and scythe
The Moon – Rebirth
Now that we’re experts on the Lunar associations in the Unnamed card…what about the Moon card’s association with Death?
That the crayfish may literally represent the astrological sign of Cancer in TdM is, as the detective novels say, a ‘red herring’. But the association reminds us that in ancient Egypt, Cancer was a scarab – symbol of birth, life, death, resurrection and immortality.
Osiris Canopus with ‘scrab’ (detail) Roman-Egyptian 100-200 AD
Crabs and other sea creatures (and worms) become active, lay eggs, spawn or hatch with lunar cycles/tides, just as we came into the world through our mother’s watery womb at the end of 9 (1+8) lunations. Cancer also rules the breasts and Momma’s milk. Interestingly, in Arab astronomy, the four stars of Cancer were seen as a crib or manger, while in Chinese, as ghosts or spirits of the deceased. [Tip: Stick with stars, planets and constellations, rather than ‘signs’ if/when applying to TdM.]
Cary and Dodal Moon cards – 200 year difference in crayfish design
The Great Mother’s milk is of course the Milky Way, by which the stalwart scarab navigates. Surely this did not escape the Egyptians, whose sky was the Goddess Nut, and readers familiar with Pythagorean and Orphic beliefs will see the significance. Note how the position of the crayfish mimics the upward facing scarab in Egyptian art. Scarab amulets carved with magical hieroglyphs were buried with the dead to protect the heart (seat of the mind) and ensure a safe transition. But the full Moon’s bright light can actually make the scarab’s journey longer and more difficult.
Nutrient-rich dung is my gold: Winged scarab, Greek Period (304-330 BC)
It’s tempting to assume that TdM printers were unfamiliar with the number of legs on a crayfish. But might there be a better explanation for its having only 6?
Greco-Romans and Gnostics, incorporating Egyptian culture/religion also used amuletic, carved scarabs and gems – which, as mentioned previously, were collected and studied during the Italian Renaissance:
“The leading families of Renaissance Italy, the Visconti and the Sforza dukes in Milan, the Estes and Gonzagas in Ferrara and Mantua, or the Medicis in Florence, were certainly willing to pay huge sums of money for authenticated ancient gems: Piero de’ Medici is reported to have remarked that an engraved gemstone was ‘worth more than gold itself.’ They became treasured family heirlooms.” [John Mack, The Art of Small Things]
Like hieroglyphica and coinage, this art form influenced emblemata and likely Tarot as well.
[addendum: the crayfish was used on Greek coins as a symbol for ‘city.’ Marseilles, a port city, was originally founded and colonized by the Greeks.]
Roman carved gems with triplicate Hekate and Moon card crayfishHekate with Anubis (gem and impression), 2nd century
The Moon card, being 18, falls into the ‘3’ position and contains the three dominions of the Goddess Hekate; sky, earth and sea.Hekate (pronounced Hekaté) was portrayed in antiquity as three figures around a central column; forming the Lunar Goddess triad with Selene and Diana, or Underworld Goddess triad with Demeter and Persephone (mysteries). Goddess of crossroads, the saffron-robed, torch-bearing Hekate was invoked to guide souls in the afterlife (some sources say Hermes was her consort) – note the crayfish’s torch-like claws.
Green Conver Moon card and Hecate lamp (Roman, 1st-4th c)Selene with ‘claws’ and torch (Roman, 1st c)
But she had many other roles besides psychopomp, including Goddess of childbirth. Let’s not ignore the crayfish’s uterine shape, either.
The two fortresses in the distance are thought by some to be her temple towers, which is not unreasonable. As well, the Lunar Nodes – ecliptic points where paths of Sun and Moon cross (hence eclipses), connected to reincarnation – have an approximately 18.5 year cycle. Hmm. The visual clue, however, is that these structures are the only elements here, besides the Moon and ‘spirit-dew’, that are above the horizon (the dogs look as if sinking beneath it). There are few cards that make use of depth perspective, so this should alert our attention.
Addendum: Tarot expert Andrea Vitali points out something so hidden in plain sight, even I didn’t spot it (!), which is that the entire lunar cycle is depicted in the card; the two towers representing waxing and waning phases, the middle obviously being the full phase, and the water/crayfish being the dark Moon, when it is not visible. This adds to the idea of Hekate residing here, in the underworld/between world or unconscious realm, so to speak. As mentioned, the claws resemble the guiding torches she bears during this passage.
Pompeii fresco (detail)
The horizon is where the stars rise and set, ie, are born and die. Circumpolar stars never sink beneath the horizon, thus represent the eternal. Two such stars were known to the Egyptians, therefor, as the Indestructibles; Kochab, in Ursa Minor and Mizar, in Ursa Major, which flanked the Pole Star (then Thuban, constellation of Draco). Pharaohs’ pyramids were built in exact alignment with these stars so they could be directly ‘beamed up, Scotty.’
For those without custom-built pyramids, the in-between state might be less streamlined and more perilous. The Moon here appears to occult the Northernmost star, just as she obscures the Milky Way for our scarab. A wandering soul without a visible sky map might find themselves reborn down here, rather than as a god in eternity. I say we invoke the crayfish.
And look, it’s those 4 stars! A bit of a stretch, perhaps…but how curious that the tip of the right dog’s tail in the Conver Moon card is clipped by the border. Accidental or intended clue?
The little croc-headed beastie pasted in the lower right is Ammit, the composite Goddess (I think also part leopard and hippo) who gobbles scale-tipping hearts. Actually, she is more like a composter of the heart-mind:
“Two ways are offered to our soul after death: either a final liberation or a return into incarnation in order to continue the experience of becoming conscious. Many are the texts alluding to reincarnation, either overtly or implicitly through such locutions as ‘renewal of life’ or ‘repetition of births’. The Judgment of the Dead takes place in the ‘Hall of the Double Maât’. This judgment is made in the presence of the dead person’s consciousness, Maât, while the other Maât, cosmic consciousness, presides at the weighing of his heart. Placed on one of the pans of the scale, and weighed against the feather of Maât, the heart expresses the feelings and passions which, if too heavy, risk drawing the soul back again towards earth.” [Lucie Lamie, Egyptian MysteriesNew Light on Ancient Knowledge]
Thus we return to the first lesson, that of the Fool (Le Mat, as if that wasn’t obvious enough) and the Unnamed being as one. An important, first lesson to get us through life, death and all the in-betweens. ~rb
