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.”
In a fragment from his c. 375 BC play Semele or Dionysus, Eubulus has the god of wine Dionysus describe proper and improper drinking:
For sensible men I prepare only three kraters: one for health (which they drink first), the second for love and pleasure, and the third for sleep. After the third one is drained, wise men go home. The fourth krater is not mine any more – it belongs to bad behaviour; the fifth is for shouting; the sixth is for rudeness and insults; the seventh is for fights; the eighth is for breaking the furniture; the ninth is for depression; the tenth is for madness and unconsciousness.
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. 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…good to 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)
Algol card from Le Tarot Astrologique, George Muchery
“A series of shocks – sneakers fall apart” ~ David Bowie/Up the Hill Backwards
We’ve heard the buzz, we’ve witnessed heads rolling on the collective stage. So what does it all mean, Algol ‘conjunct’ Mars and Uranus?
Ra’s al-Ghul, the ‘Demon’s head’ was not always associated with Gorgon and her blinking eye (the Hebrews knew it as the ‘Devil’s head’ but also the vampiric Lilith), but whatever, same evil connotations. The word comes from al-kuhl – meaning kohl, specifically referring to powders produced by alchemical sublimation. So already we find Algol linked to alchemy (and thereby chemistry), if only by name. Also, might ‘turning to stone’ have a double meaning?
Algol’s declination is way outside the ecliptic – it is not within the zodiacal constellation belt – so we can’t truly say it is ‘conjunct’ Mars and Uranus. But it does align latitudinally with 26 degrees of Taurus. A distant, fixed star like Algol becomes most potent at the time and place where it is a) rising, culminating or setting b) doing so with a planet or in aspect, or c) doing so with/aspecting another fixed star, which is calculated differently than with planetary aspects.
Mars and Uranus from Tarot Astrologique
Trump’s transit chart at the time of his near-Kennedy moment showed Mars and Uranus (and thereby Algol, by latitude) all right on his midheaven (top point/angle of the chart), which is very significant. However, for the time and location, Algol was in fact below the horizon, having already set and not yet risen. So this might explain why the bullet only clipped his ear, the star’s power wasn’t at its peak. (Am hoping the Teflon Don will now fall on his knees, a changed man, due to Jupiter’s grace, but won’t hold my breath). I have always thought Trump looks like he’s begging to be put out of his misery. As it turns out, the shooter himself had natal Mars conjunct Uranus which landed on Trump’s natal descendant, and opposed Trump’s Mars/ascendant. (Descendant can signify shadow projection). Tragic, in every aspect.
Uranus has been in Taurus a while now, urging change in a sign that hates being urged to change. It’s been a slow burn, especially for Taurus, earth signs and anyone with significant aspects to it. Uranus is electric, original, can be irrational, weird or totally scientific and detached. It is also futuristic. Just about every kind of horror B-movie monster created in a lab by a mad scientist or met in outer space is under Uranus’ jurisdiction, but so are downloads of inspiration and information from outer to inner space (strokes of genius or ‘daemon’). These I like to attribute to Urania, its feminine side, muse of Astronomy, Astrology and all things cosmic.
Mars is a firebrand, firecracker, firearm. He’s our ammunition, our physical energy and will power, our will to live. He’s now oriented. Whether hero saving the day or toxic masculinity personified, he works alone. In Taurus, he is somewhat restricted to working underground, it’s a sign he can’t be his spontaneous, bravado self in. So again, in terms of the shooting, the sniper acted alone, probably fancied himself a hero, and secretly plotted the whole thing out, over time (he didn’t just wake up with the idea that morning).
The two planets together, in exact conjunction today, are explosive. Avoid confrontation for the next several days, please. Ask yourself is it worth ‘losing my head’ over? Because with Algol in the mix, it could happen, one way or another. Headaches are another possibility. Algol mojo is the most powerful of any fixed star. We now know it is not a binary system (two stars) but actually a trinary one (three stars). There were three Gorgon sisters, and they had three sisters called the Graeae, who were born old with grey hair. They shared one eye and one tooth between them, passing it around (Perseus stole these as ransom until they told him where to find Medusa). Coincidence?
We want to make this alignment work for us, but to do this, our own Mars must be a noble hero, not a blow-hard with a big ego. Perseus, Medusa’s assassin, can be seen as either. Solar heroes tend to be not very bright, but very brave and willing. They have a particular bias toward anything that slithers – serpents, dragons, sea monsters – which symbolize the untameable, irrational, lunar (dark) forces of the creative feminine, but also monsters we create from shadow.
[I’ve written about Medusa and her relationship with Athena pre-Perseus, so search her name herein if you are curious, but this article concerns the classical, Perseus myth, forever preserved in constellation lore. The Perseus/Medusa myth goes back to around 500 BC, and gorgon/gorgoneions probably before that, but Andromeda’s rescue was added much later.]
Perseus, our Mars/Taurus hero, didn’t just wake up one morning and decide to go kill Medusa, Athena put him up to it. Athena represents the rational, cooler expression of Uranus in this scenario. Medusa (flip side of the same coin) represents the B-movie monster created by an out-of-control experiment (Athena ‘turning her into a gorgon’ in the first place). Asteroid Pallas Athena is currently opposite Mars, in his home sign of Scorpio, getting a ‘removed’ perspective.
In our own lives, depending on which house of our chart this conjunction occurs in (find 26 Taurus in your chart), here lies something which has ‘come to a head’ – a head that has become a monster that petrifies everything (ie, can no longer move/grow). Your inner Athena has taken an objective view of the situation and has decided something drastic must be done. Hopefully you are conscious of this, because then you can be in charge of deciding what form your Perseus will take. Unconsciously, outer events seemingly come out of nowhere (Uranus) and take you by (sort of) surprise. Stay safe!
[Note, if you don’t know your birth time, then let first house = Aries, second house = Taurus, and so on. Not as precise, but still bears similarity.]
* * * * * * * * * * *
First house of self (or Aries):
You are done to death with the way you look/feel or how others see/don’t see you. Who are you really, today, now, and how can you let your freak fly or let go of being a freak? Don’t hold back! This is transformation time and you can be a trend-setter. A new hairstyle might suffice, but wait a few days, avoid sharp objects about the head today. Wear your fanciest helmet. Taurus is Venus’ sign, after all.
Second house of personal resources/values (or Taurus):
What has been accumulating so much that it has taken on a life of its own and has begun calling the shots? The mould in your fridge? The property you own? It’s time for a cull, to make room for new growth, seek fresh resources. Pegasus and Chysaor were born out of Medusa’s severed neck, and with the use of her severed head, Perseus was able to save the Venusian Andromeda from Cetus. Beauty and love can be radical.
Third house of communication (or Gemini):
Be honest, where does your speech, way of speaking, novel, or life story need editing? It’s possible you need to call in outer help, get a second opinion from someone with a more objective view (or you might be that person for someone else). At least get some distance for a while, stop trying. (Practice Wu Wei). You might just get a brainstorm. There is vast space in the moment. But do stay alert on the road, watch out for those Martian red sports cars.
Fourth house of home/mother parent (or Cancer):
Looks like that reno or repair can’t wait any longer. There may be upheaval, uprooting, cutting of an umbilical chord, or weaning of the infant, whether literally or metaphorically. Comfort zones become (even more) uncomfortable. Something rocks the cradle or the foundations. Practice compassionate un-attachment, letting go. Mothers of those with the 4th house transit might have similar issues now.
Fifth house of creativity/children (or Leo):
For creativity, this is a great boost. You could conceive some original new ideas now. Algol with Uranus can bring strokes of genius. Be open to new daemons, but also note that future-directed Uranus-Taurus genius is not always appreciated in one’s own lifetime. Pro-creatively, this could mean one of those un-planned events, so take extra precautions if not your plan. Existing kids might have head bumps or headaches. No trampoline today, ok?
Sixth house of work/health (or Virgo):
Are your work habits making you sick? You need to change them now and taking more time for self-care and exercise, if this is the case, to prevent a chronic condition from developing. I’m sorry but this can’t be put off any longer. If you are already doing this, fantastic. This conjunction can bring a boost of will to change or a boost of energy. You might also decide to change your work/job.
Seventh house of partners (or Libra):
Can we talk about contracts, shadow projection and who is bearing the other’s what? If you are in an abusive situation (be it with a spouse, business partner or otherwise), and are trying to leave, consciously use the Perseus-Medusa myth to take back the power you gave to the other person, which is also your anger. Athena gets her mojo by wearing Medusa’s head on her breastplate. Reclaim, do not fear.
Eighth house of shared resources/death (or Scorpio):
One of the psychic houses, where what is hidden from sight could take the form of an ‘outer’ surprise. Here is where Medusa might have the upper hand. Also, vials of the blood spurting from her two, severed neck veins – right/healing and left/toxic – were given to Asclepius the healer, on whom Ophiuchus is based. His constellation straddles Scorpio and Sagittarius. It’s where we get the word ‘medicine,’ Use it wisely.
Ninth house of higher mind (or Sagittarius):
Here, this conjunction can be a mind-opener. If your moral standing is in order, Algol aloft should be fine. But if you’ve been pontificating ‘do as I say not as I do’, look out. She doesn’t like falsifiers and will turn you into a relic. Traveling or just reading this Summer should ideally take you as far away as possible, not to escape, but to be a-ston-ished, from ‘attonaire’, a Latin word meaning, ‘as if being struck by lightening.’ (ie, ‘turned to stone’).
Tenth house of career/father parent (or Capricorn):
I could save time by just putting a picture of the Tower card here. What the card actually depicts is a release from a prison tower, by divine intervention. It also has sexual connotations – le petit mort describes the ego death that happens with orgasm. Has your career, persona or reputation become a prison? It’s said the subject draws the lightening to itself. Did Medusa just want out of her misery? Or was Pegasus kicking in his stall?
Eleventh house of friends/groups (or Aquarius):
Are you living for others to the point where you’ve lost yourself? Are you sick of the company you’ve been keeping, not wanting to be in a club that would have you as a member? You might want to speak your mind – just be sure that your intent is for the betterment of everyone, or that you are ok with burning a bridge. Otherwise, it’s you they’ll eat. Stay on the high road, don’t take things personally.
Twelfth house of subconscious/unselfing (or Pisces):
You shouldn’t have trouble with the ‘letting go’ aspects of this conjunction, unless you are attached to things for sentimental reasons, but the acceleration might take you for a spin, if you’ve been just ‘going with the flow’ of changes up until now. This is the house of ‘self-undoing,’ so chopping off your own head is not out of the question. But is it that of the Gorgon or of the Hydra – the monster whose heads keep regrowing – that you sever? ~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!”
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 art in particular would employ this method of concealed meaning ‘for initiates only’ (namely other 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 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 it was imbedded in 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
