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.”
It is a tradition in esoteric history that whenever a new culture is embryonic in the womb of an older one, or when an esoteric school recognizes that a culture has served it’s purposes and is coming to an end, then a major work of art is created in dedication, as an outer sign for future ages. The work of art may be a remarkable piece of music, a poem, a garden or a building — but whatever its external artistic form, it encapsulates, in entirely esoteric principals, a summary of what has gone before, and what is to come. All great esoteric artists from Dante to Shakespeare, from Milton to Blake, have recognized this primal function of their art. The interesting thing is that all too often it is the exoteric aspects of their products which attract attention of those who follow, and the esoteric contents remain hidden, save perhaps for the seeing few, who are themselves alive to the esoteric background to human history.
– Fred Gettings, The Secret Zodiac
Marcus Zuerius Boxhorn, Emblemata, 1635
At the height of Renaissance in the 15th century, a fresh, Humanistic view of the world was flourishing. Scholarly and creative minds, it seems, had been opened through a revised symbolic and syncretic way of thinking. Revised, because a pre-existing, Medieval tradition of visuals serving as a window to higher concepts was already well-established, as were heraldic devices and emblems, but a big part of the collective re-awakening came by way of a new, parabolic language in the arts, born or copied from an older one shrouded in mystery. Renaissance literally means rebirth. But who and what was being reborn? A civilization, perhaps, that had planned for just such an everlasting afterlife?
[please click images to enlarge and read]
In Italy, especially in Florence, there was great interest in learning from the distant past. Greco-Roman revivalism in poetry and philosophy, art and architecture thrived, as the nobles competed for legacy and church fathers, for a time, actively encouraged and commissioned works. Pagan gods and goddesses frequently appeared alongside Christian ones, albeit not as subjects of worship (except for Isis, under guise as the Virgin). Ex-pats had returned from exile with personal libraries including medical, alchemical and astronomical manuscripts from the Middle East. Arthurian legends of courtly love from England and France were extremely popular. The printing press now meant more people could have access to literature – although nobles considered printed works to be gauche and still preferred to commission hand-crafted books. Among these, of course, was the first, Latin translation of The Corpus Hermeticum. The ‘alchemization’ of Europe had begun.
(More here. Pre-Conver Emperors do not show the Basilisk throne).
Egyptian artifacts, housed in Italy since Roman times, were a major part of this resurgence in all things ancient, esoteric and therefor exemplary. (To give you an idea, Pope Alexander VI aka Rodrigo Borgia even had his genealogy ‘traced’ back to Osiris thus establishing a link between the Egyptian gods and the church). Renaissance Humanists, fascinated by hieroglyphs, began a race to unlock them that would continue for the next 3 centuries.One main source of reference was a manuscript called ‘The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo Nilous.’ Horapollo (Horus Apollo) was a 5th century Egyptian scribe and one of the last remaining priests of Isis, who had also made a partially successful effort at decipherment (hieroglyphs were already thousands of years old, by his time). A translation of his work had turned up in Florence, in 1422 and was first printed in 1505. Another, slightly later reference source was the ‘Mensa Isiaca‘ or Table of Isis, which Athanasius Kircher in particular took as a model.
Egyptian winged Uraeus and Hieroglyphica by Valeriani, 1556
‘Hieroglyphica’, as it became known, inspired a tidal wave of emblematic art (‘emblemata’), as neo-Platonists and others sought to emulate these cryptic little pictures, resulting in an imaginative, western European hybrid. Hermetic and alchemical artists would employ this method of concealed meaning ‘for initiates only’ (namely, other hermeticists/alchemists).
This genre of the symbolic rereading of the hieroglyphs – “enigmatic hieroglyphs” as Rigoni and Zanco (1996) call them – was very popular in the late Hellenistic period. It should not surprise us, then, that so many Renaissance Humanists – for whom this was all quite familiar through Lucan, Apuleius, Plutarch, Clement of Alexandria and, especially, Ennead V by Plotinus – should see in the Hieroglyphica a genuine connection with the highest sphere of wisdom.
– Studiolum
Other antiquities being scoured for emblematic images were things like Roman coins, medallions and gem charms, which the ruling class loved to collect. Roman carved gems in particular were highly sought after, and became family heirlooms, often set in jewelry [see ‘Death and the Moon’ post].
It was out of this tradition that Tarot de Marseille emerged, presumably in Italy, during the mid 16th century. [No known prior examples of the classic TdM format exist and the oldest known example of a triumph is a single, World card – the oldest complete decks known are 17th century.] Its images are not just allegorical, but ‘hieroglyphic’ in nature – though obviously not actual Egyptian hieroglyphs. The apparent (I would even say obvious) application of Horapollo’s descriptions alone leaves little doubt, though, that they were purposefully designed with visual clues that provided a context for imbedded messages. What that purpose was and why playing cards, we can’t know for certain, but as Counter-Reformation loomed on the horizon, maybe it was time to encapsulate esoteric principals for future ages?
I will dive more deeply into some of the ‘glyphs in the other cards (not included herein), in upcoming blogposts, but wanted to provide this overview, first.
QUOTATIONS: ~ Fred Gettings opener from ‘The Secret Zodiac – The Hidden Art in Mediaeval Astrology’ [Routeledge & Kegan Paul, 1987] ~ ‘Enigmatic hieroglyphics’ quote from studiolum.com
~ Horapollo text translations (Alexander T. Cory, 1840) from sacred texts.com
REFS/OTHER LINKS: ~ The Egyptian Renaissance – The Afterlife of Ancient Egypt in Early Modern Italy, Brian Curran, Penn State University (pdf) ~ Hieroglyphs and Meaning, Lucia Morra, Carla Bazzanella (pdf)
~ Pinturicchio’s Frescoes in the Sala dei Santi in the Vatican Palace, Roger Gill, Birmingham City University (pdf)
~ The Art of Small Things by John Mack [Harvard University Press] ~ Horapollo Hieroglyphica via Jason Colavito
~ Giovanni Pierio VALERIANO BOLZANI Hieroglyphica, Google Books
There is a curious detail in the Marseille Emperor’s throne, which always reminded me of a goofy-looking bird, a bit like the Roadrunner cartoon. Merely an accident of design…or is it? Jodo refers only to the eye-like, circular shape, as symbolic of ‘alchemical gold.’ He and Camoin also insist there was an egg (under eagle’s tail) in the Conver card, which they ‘restored,’ a topic of much debate in Tarot circles.
detail in 3 versions of the Conver Emperor
Details in Tarot imagery are known to get muddled or omitted, so it’s necessary to look at as many variations as possible, to try and put a picture together. Often it’s nothing, sometimes it’s something. In this case, it was the latter.
In the two versions below, you’d be forgiven for thinking the bird head on the back of the Emperor’s throne was just another eagle, being the imperial bird (and in the first card, it appears to be), except for a couple of other clues; in the 2nd card, the arm of the throne is clearly ‘feathered’ like a rooster’s tail. Also there is the fact that the brim of the Emperor’s helmet-crown is almost without exception consistent in its red colouring.
18th c Emperors (Solothurn and Benois)
We could also make the connection to the alchemical basilisk, which symbolized the destructive fire preceding the transmutation of metals, as well as having the ability to kill with a glance, like Medusa (hence situated behind the Emperor, his shadow nature or hidden super-power). And, of course, the presence of Mercurius, the transmuter.
Basilisk in 12th c archway
Now, the next question is, why? Why, when chickens are a medieval symbol of cowardice and avarice, and when the rooster in particular belongs to Mercury or Mars, would anyone associate the noble Emperor with poultry? Isn’t the Emperor an avatar of Jupiter??
Actually, Emperors and Gallus gallus go a long way back. No ancient Roman Emperor was without an assembly of sacred fowl. You see, in olden days, chickens were not bred for frying, but for fighting and alectryomancy, a form of augury. Chickens were used to predict the outcome of battles and, yup, who the next Emperor would be. We can see the military aspect of our Tarot Emperor, though he be seated in repose.
Etruscan buccher 630-20 BC and German Rooster helmet c 1530 (MET Museum, NY)
Alright, so what does the regal rooster have to do with de Zeus, if anything?
This is where it gets a bit esoteric, because TdM imagery is never this = that. We can find associations in the Emperor card to Jupiter (imperial eagle on his shield, sometimes a thunderbolt in his sceptre, bearded), Mars and Mercury (rooster, as mentioned), as well as the Sun (rooster, medieval 4th sphere, wears a radiate crown over his helmet), but what about Pluto? Pluto/Hades was, after all, an aspect of the Jupiterian triplicity, one of the ‘bros’.
While the other, major Greco-Roman gods were always busy doing – Mars at battle or cavorting with Venus, Mercury flying all over the place, Jupiter running Olympus between mythic, erm, conquests – it seems Pluto’s one, big event was the ‘abduction’ of his young bride, Persephone/Proserpine. After that, the god of subterranean riches pretty much just sits there on his Underworld throne or lies in repose at banquets for the newly-dead, right?
engraving by Wenzel Holler (detail) 1600, Francesco Berti Bologna Emperor 17th c
This is likely due to the abduction myth being a relatively late injection; Persephone had long presided in the underworld as part of a Goddess triplicity (with Demeter and Hekate), before the patriarchal gods usurped:
“There is an archaic role for Persephone as the dread queen of the Underworld, whose very name it was forbidden to speak. In the Odyssey, commonly dated circa 800 to 600 BCE, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to her as the Iron Queen. Her central myth, for all its emotional familiarity, was also the tacit context of the secret initiatory mystery rites of regeneration at Eleusis, which promised immortality to their awe-struck participants—an immortality in her world beneath the soil, feasting with the heroes who dined beneath her dread gaze.”
Note the ‘dread gaze’ reference, again.
Persephone and Hades/Pluto Enthroned, 500-450 BC, Greek (Cleveland Museum of Art)
As it turns out, Hades/Pluto and Dionysus may have been one and the same (or syncretized). In this beautiful relief, we see that the cock and hen are familiars of Persephone and her consort, representing Springtime regeneration (and eggs!), when she emerges from the Earth to make it fecund, again. The ear of grain/wheat is another of her attributes (indeed she was the grain itself), and we see that the TdM Emperor wears a necklace (circle) of golden grain, just like Pluto/Dionysus wears on his head.
Going back to the subject of my previous post, every 4th card is also the 1st card of the next cycle of 3, the Empress being the first 3. Like Persephone, she embodies the cyclic, creative triplicity. The Emperor, in 4th place, represents the ‘death’ of the first cycle as well as the beginning of the next. Similarly, Winter is the 4th season, when the forces of life go underground.
Conver Empress and Emperor (BnF)
The aging Emperor is typically shown in profile, facing the Empress/past and with his back to the next cards/future (if they were laid out in numerical order). He will not go further in his current form, but holding his sceptre erect, looks to his lady for renewal, while she, in turn, holds her sceptre to her womb.
Addendum: Hermes-Mercury’s travels famously included being a psychopomp, being the only god who had licence to travel back and forth between realms. So don’t worry, this is not to discount the rooster/chicken as possible presence of Mercury, significator of transition, alchemical, numerical or otherwise. Rather it is to draw attention to the Plutonian nature of the Emperor. Hermes-Mercury is present in every Major Arcana card of the TdM (more on that some other post). Interestingly, modern ‘evolutionary’ astrology sees planetary Pluto as having to do with both death and transformation. ~rb
What does this famous line, chanted by the three Weird Sisters in Shakespeare’s MacBeth actually refer to? It’s Gemini season, so let’s deep dive into doubling.
The Tragedy of MacBeth
The Weird Sisters are basically the Fates (Moirai) or the Graeaes. We’ve spoken about three being the magic number of Hermes, but of course it is also the magic number of the Lunar Goddess, that maiden-mother-crone of past-present-future who spins the cycles of earthly existence. Hence three witches, fates, etc. The allegory of lunar Fortuna as black and white illustrates that ‘Some are born to sweet delight/Some are born to endless Night’(William Blake, Auguries of Innocence) and the changeability of fortune in general.
Fortuna with black and white Moon face
As the Sisters chant ’round the cauldron, they concoct and prophecy General MacBeth’s destiny – that he will become Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland. Hurray, but unfortunately MacBeth is not qualified to achieve the spiritual gold, because he lets his own demons run amok and, well, not to get too far into it, an unholy bloodbath ensues. According to my teacher mum, the tragedy demonstrates a perversion of the alchemical stages, which occur in backwards/out of order, from gold to black. ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair.’
Poster for Polanski’s MacBeth film – note the reverse Ace of Swords
So ‘Double Double’ refers to the two sides of fate and of human duality. With ascension to power, fame, wealth, there are pitfalls, if the destructive/shadow side of a man’s nature is not kept in check. This poster for the Polanski film depicts the reverse of an emblem we recognize as the Tarot Ace of Swords. In the card, the sword of Truth, pointing up, is both penetrating and girdled by the yonic crown of Wisdom (Sophia); the olive branch (lunar) of peace and palm frond (solar) of victory are held in equilibrium. I believe the symbol might possibly come from the Isis lotus flanked by two serpents, below.
Water canister (detail) Pompeii Isis temple, Ace of Swords (negative for comparison )
‘Toil and Trouble‘ is a forewarning that might refer to ‘the work’ and its inherent dangers. Be careful what you wish for. They famously tell him ‘none of woman born‘ shall be able to harm him, but neglect to mention the fine print, that C-sections don’t count. There are ‘doubles’ all through the play – specifically MacBeth and his wife, Lady MacBeth (she has no first name, for starters), who, in absorbent, lunar fashion disappears further into madness as her husband commits crimes. In reverse process, they start out unified, but become separate, Lady MacBeth eventually committing suicide.
The Sacred Marriage
2 Twos of Cups
A more joyous union, or at least the beginning of one, is beautifully illustrated in the 2 of Cups. Typically in Tarot de Marseille, the two dolphin-fish are slightly different in appearance. This twin fish theme, besides being Piscean, can also be traced back to the ancient, pagan world. In the sanctuary of Didyma (“twins”, thought to refer to twin temples of Apollo and Artemis), Greece, for example, we find a figure not unlike the split-tailed melusine (aka the Starbucks mermaid), who grasps her two tails, or sometimes two fish, much like the ones in the Cups card.
Didyma figureTwo versions of Mesuline
The 2 of Cups was one of the minor arcana cards with a space where a printer could put their name or an emblem. In these two examples, the emblem beneath the cups is not unrelated, heralding love and peace (the heart and olive branches). This card had come up in a discussion, recently, regarding the two ‘trumpets’ therein. Are they in fact trumpets? If so, what kind? Though they resemble telescopes, it’s probably something like a buisine or the North African import, below, played at processions, celebrations funerals and especially weddings.
Medieval double trumpet from North Africa
The Myth of Marsyas
What my little eye spied, however, was the Greek Aulos, a double flute that long ago served the same function, and is associated with the myth of Marsyas and Apollo. (Perhaps the lyre shape behind them was a clue).
The Aulos was said to have been created by Athena, who, upon catching a glimpse in the water of her puff-cheeked reflection playing it, threw the instrument away. It was then found by the satyr Marsyas, who was so elevated by it’s music, he had the crazy idea to invite Apollo and his lyre to a contest – winner ‘have his way’ with the loser. As judges, Apollo chose the Muses and Marsyas chose King Midas. Marsyas won the first round and was pretty excited at the prospect of sex, but for round two, Apollo demanded they play their instruments upside down, putting the satyr at an obvious disadvantage. Apollo was declared the winner, whereby he promptly had Marsyas strung from a tree and flayed alive for his hubris (divine insult against a god), then gave Midas donkey ears. Like MacBeth, Marsyas’ ambition blinded him and didn’t read the fine print of prophecy (Apollo).
Apollo, Marsyas and a Scythian waiting to flay him (relief, middle of the 4th century BC).
The myth is symbolic of the continual battle between the Apollonian reason and the Dionysian madness that make up man’s nature – as viewed by the Athenians. (Presumably women are better versed in this particular polarity, due to our physiological ties to the inconstant Moon…unless they have a partner like MacBeth).
Athena’s horror at her own reflection might have been too much of a reminder of her Medusa side (PMS – a most irrational affliction!). The aulos itself, being a double, wind instrument, can be viewed as expressing two winds or two spirits that ‘make beautiful music together’.
Roman Medusa cameo, 2nd-3rd c – what Athena saw?
As such, there is a deeper meaning to the flaying of Marsyas than the dangers of hubris. In his essential book, Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance, Edgar Wind explains:
‘The musical contest between Apollo and Marsyas was therefore concerned with the relative powers of Dionysian darkness and Apollonian clarity; and if the contest ended with the flaying of Marsyas, it was because flaying itself was a Dionysian rite, a tragic ordeal of purification by which the ugliness of the outward man was thrown off and the beauty of his inward self revealed.’
and:
‘The cry [of Marsyas]: ‘Why do you tear me from myself?’ expresses then an agonized ecstasy and could be turned, as it was by Dante, into a prayer addressed to Apollo: ‘Enter my breast, and so infuse me with your spirit as you did Marsyas when you tore him from the cover of his limbs.’ To obtain the ‘beloved laurel’ of Apollo, the poet must pass through the agony of Marsyas…The torture of the mortal by the god who inspires him was a central theme in the revival of ancient mysteries, its illustration in Apollo and Marsyas being only one of many variations’.
Chariot and Hanged Man of Jean Dodal, 17th c
In traditional TdM, the golden-haired Charioteer at first appears to be a solar-heroic, Roman emperor type. But his stance says Dionysus and, indeed, the very word ‘triumph’ comes down to us not from Roman victory processions, but from hymns to Dionysus sung in processions in his honour. So rather, the Charioteer is a conglomerate – albeit, like MacBeth, he is more Apollonian on the outside.
His epaulettes are indicative of his solar-lunar natures, facing opposite ways, while the two horses also want to go off in either direction. There definitely is a sense of hubris about him. The three stems growing underfoot in the black soil, here, foreshadow his reversal from hero to scapegoat; The Hanged Man, strung up between two boughs, not unlike Marsyas, and the dismemberment/decomposition that follows in arcanum 13.
Jacques Vieville 2 of Cups and Hanged Man duality detailsChariot detail showing solar and lunar horses (anonymous, 15th c Milan)
As with the fish and horses, the two tree bases in arcanum 12 are usually different, sometimes even containing sun and moon in them, as in the Vieville example. The figure can be flipped vertically and viewed two ways; hanging or dancing. His golden, solar hair is a clue to what’s going on – ‘the beauty of his inward self’ is slowly being revealed as he undergoes ‘living death’. Two of these oldest TdM examples (Vieville, Dodal) require flipping the card to read the number correctly – printer mistake?
The strange placement of his epaulette-ish hands might represent wings (sprouting or hidden), most apparent in this 17th c Jean Noblet card. Also of note, his reddish hair, a basis of discrimination and choosing sacrificial victims, especially Jews – Noblet himself being Jewish. But looking at it alchemically, ‘red gold’ was ‘pure gold’:
‘The oftener gold is subjected to the action of fire, the more refined in quality it becomes; indeed, fire is one test of its goodness, as, when submitted to intense heat, gold ought to assume a similar colour, and turn red and igneous in appearance; a mode of testing which is known as “obrussa.” [Pliny, “Natural History,” 33.19]’
Noblet Pendu, 17th c – note his elongated ears
The Hanged Man (Le Pendu/Pandu) was once called ‘The Traitor’ and the figure held two money bags, a reference to Judas, aka Didymus, ‘the Twin’ (also a supposed redhead). We know the two cards are related, because 7 is 3 + 4 and 12 is 3 x 4. (3 and 4 began separately as Empress and Emperor).
Alchemical fountain
Summation
Obviously we are complex creatures, made up of many polarities, but the most basic one is that we live consciously, outer or by day (solar) and unconsciously, inner or by night (lunar). This was expressed in Egypt as the two eyes of Horus. Right now, you are reading this and having both an outer and inner experience.
The alchemical equivalent of Marsyas and Apollo is the torture of base metals, such as lead, in order to extract the precious, pure one – namely gold, but also its ‘mate’, silver, and others. Lead is the metal of Saturn, who, strangely enough, ruled the Golden Age and is associated with Pan, satyrs, nature, etc. Apollo is of course the solar gold.
Devil and Sun cards, Nicholas Conver TdM, 18th c
Seeking material gold (symbolized by the physical crown, in MacBeth) is the ‘lower mystery’. But, as the alchemists discovered, this corporeal quest is often how initiation to the ‘higher mystery’ begins. In the end, after all our ‘toil and trouble‘, we might be fortunate enough to attain spiritual gold.
Self-knowledge (gnosis) is not just about understanding one’s own personality (another ‘lesser mystery’), but rather, understanding the entire workings of the universe as being within oneself, and vice versa; ‘As within, so without’. But this must be done in stages and is not something that can merely be understood as some intellectual concept.
I leave you with the last lines from William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence ‘ which, though we love to quote the first verse (‘To see the world in a grain of sand…’), in it’s entirety, puts it all in a nutshell. ~rb
‘Every Night & every Morn Some to Misery are Born Every Morn and every Night Some are Born to sweet delight Some are Born to sweet delight Some are Born to Endless Night We are led to Believe a Lie When we see not Thro the Eye Which was Born in a Night to perish in a Night When the Soul Slept in Beams of Light God Appears & God is Light To those poor Souls who dwell in Night But does a Human Form Display To those who Dwell in Realms of day‘
“The Greek word erēmia is in turn rooted in erēmos, meaning desolate. While a certain bleak emptiness can accompany unsought solitude, there is solace to be found even so. As Chesterton observed in that same essay of his: “It is in society that men quarrel with their friends; it is in solitude that they forgive them.” The word itself dates back to the 12th Century, and comes from the Greek word erēmia, meaning desert, a big clue to its religious roots. Paul of Thebes is widely regarded as the first hermit, fleeing anti-Christian persecution and a scheming relative to exist alone in the Egyptian desert from the age of 13 to his death in the year 314, aged 113.
“Look to other cultures, and you’ll find that even early Buddhism’s chaste female wanderers, for example, were exceptions to the rule. Like the Hermit card in Tarot decks, we picture them male. In literature, the woman who opts for isolation tends to be at best a figure of pity, at worst, something more malevolent.
“Finally, one of history’s rarer female hermit voices, the Christian mystic Julian of Norwich – who lived through the Black Death as a child and survived serious illness in adulthood – provides words to which we all, believers, agnostics and atheists alike, might cling: “All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.””
Saturn has been coming up as a topic for me, during this Mercury retrograde, I guess because of age, but also I have Saturn in the 3rd house, sexile my own Rx Mercury. Also it is my late father’s birthday, today. [Serendipitously, as I was writing this piece, some people began singing happy birthday, next door.]
Saturn can represent the father, or parent/grandparent/teacher that first enforces structure in our lives. I say ‘enforces’ because we have no choice in the matter. This can be for our protection, but it can also be to control us with or repress our natural expression, so, as we grow, we seek to redefine this outer structure that we didn’t create. Sometimes the repression can be quite severe, but Saturn is also the ‘karma lord,’ so somehow, somewhere, we must have had a hand in it and needed the lesson, if only to rebel against and thereby grow into ourselves.
found on ground
The first Saturn return (around age 29) is often difficult because, though it is usually defined as our first ‘true’ initiation into adulthood, reality and responsibility, our unconscious urges are to break out of any left-over, imposed structure not of our own creation, that we have spent our teens and 20s rebelling against.
So part of us may still be modelling our ‘adult’ self on the old blueprints and part of us seeks to continually redraw them until we come up with something more authentic. (We may have had kids prior to the first Saturn return and discovered we ‘turned into our parents’ along the way). Usually by the second Saturn return we have had some TIME and experience to soul-search and let go of definitions that no longer apply to who we are, often during the ‘mid life crisis’ that is the Uranus opposition and Chiron return.
Aki Inomata hermit crab glass cathedral shell (photo from Fast Company)
It reminds me of the hermit crab (since we’re in Cancer season), who has to keep changing shells as it outgrows the old one, but who always needs a shell to protect it’s soft body. Sometimes it’s new shell is not a shell, but whatever material it finds fitting.
Saturn’s cycles are in sync with the progressed Moon’s, as well as the lunar nodes’ which makes sense, since these represent instinct, the soul urge/potential, emotional body, memory, etc.
Tower and Moon cards
In Tarot, the Tower is the old structure that is struck down, thereby releasing the prisoners. It is often associated with Uranus. Indeed, Uranus is the first planet situated beyond the boundaries of Saturn (Chiron orbits between the two and has been called the ‘Rainbow Bridge’). As 16, it is a ‘1/4’ card (every 4th card is also the 1st card of a new cycle of 3, thus having to do with change/transition, death and rebirth). This type of change is a blow, shock or awakening from without (well, the lightening is attracted to certain structures for a reason).
In the Moon card, we see two, less imposing towers, with an opening in between, for the soul’s watery emergence. They may well be bridge towers. The Moon is a ‘3’ card (a womb for new creative potential, from which the next cycle is born). Since the Moon controls the tides of life, and the body of water that provides it, we can equate this with the soul forming and reshaping matter. Just look at beach glass, driftwood, etc. This type of change is a slow, but synchronized metamorphosis from within, that can be quite mysterious.
Saturn ultimately knows that in time, all structures will be changed, somehow. But the key word here is TIME. Patience, continued effort…there are no mistakes, no punishment, it’s all a process of becoming.
Meanwhile, Neptune in Pisces tides are wearing down our old preconceptions and washing away the footprints in the sand left by the Piscean Age. Things are cracking open. The Earth itself is changing, her waters rising, her crust shifting. It’s up to each and every one of us to use this opportunity to create new space for becoming who we really are, from within. Only we can change ourselves so that the old structures have no foundation to be re-built on.
