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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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?
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!
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.
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)
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 precarious offspring 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? For he 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.
She Whose Wedding is Great
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
*All written content, except for that which is in quotation (grey bold print) is copyright ©Roxanna Bikadoroff and may not be reused or reprinted in whole without my permission. Please share via LINK only (with a short, credited excerpt, if necessary). Thanks for respecting my work as I have respected the work of others, herein.*
Resources:
The Myth of Er (Plato’s Republic)
The Lesser Mysteries of Eleusis (Gitana, Hellenion)
Mystery Cults and Visual Language in Graeco-Roman Antiquity: An Introduction (Nicole Belayche and Francesco Massa, Brill)
Phallus (video on Lacan’s theory, Todd McGowan)
The Rites in the Mysteries of Dionysus (Dr. Britt-Mari Näsström, Brewmate, an excellent blog!)
Article about the liknon and its contents (Iulia Millesima)
