In Greek mythology, while transformation into a rock is usually a barren fate, a pattern emerges in which the heroines who were transformed into islands are lovers of the gods; just as islands, like cities, were usually personified as minor goddesses or heroes. [Wikipedia]
This is precisely what happened to Asteria, Titan Goddess of falling stars, oneiromancy (divination by dreams) and astrology (by stars), and mother of Hecate. She transforms herself into the Island of Delos, where her sister Leto at last gave birth to the lunar Artemis and solar Apollo, after an exhaustive search for refuge. The usual suspects were to blame; Zeus for making Leto pregnant, then pursuing Asteria, and jealous Hera’s subsequent curse, that Leto not be able to find solid ground on which to give birth, forbidding all places on earth to accept her. Hera also kidnapped the goddess of childbirth to ensure that Leto’s labour would be ultra painful. Asteria (‘star’) defied Hera’s orders, but as she had not succumb to Zeus’ advances, Hera, though angry, did not punish her.
Artemis was an easy delivery, but Apollo took 9 days and nights to come out (luckily, Artemis was able to assist). There are a few variations on the myth, as is typical. Delos means ‘to manifest or reveal’. It had been a floating island, ’emerged’ for Leto by helpful Zeus (the least he could do since he can’t seem to keep his Tower in his robe). Either it was uninhabited or it was and the people didn’t want her giving birth there, so Leto gifted the island with 4 anchors to keep it stable, which pleased them. Are these ‘anchors’ the 4 Royal Stars (Aldebaran, Regulus, Antares, Fomalhaut)?
“Hail. O heaven-built isle [Delos], most lovely scion of the children of bright-haired Leto, O daughter of the sea, thou unmoved marvel of the spacious earth, by mortal men called Delos, but by the blessed gods of Olympos (Olympus) known as the far-seen star (astra) of the dark-blue earth . . . For aforetime, that isle was tossed on the waves by all manner of whirling winds; but, when Leto, the daughter of Koios (Coeus), in the frenzy of her imminent pangs of travail, set foot on her, then it was that four lofty pillars rose from the roots of earth, and on their capitals held up the rock with their adamantine bases. There it was that she gave birth to, and beheld, her blessed offspring.” ~ Pindar, Processional Song on Delos (Greek lyric ca 5th B.C.) [Theoi.com]
Both Delos and Delphi, site of Apollo’s famous oracle and omphalos (navel), share the root word ‘del’ with ‘delphini,’ which means dolphin in Greek. Dolphins are sacred to Apollo, Dionysus and Poseidon. The Cary sheet hints at location with a fish-tail shape in the shoreline. Dolphins were considered by mariners to be a very good omen indeed, guiding and protective. They are also known to protect whales giving birth. So saviour-like are dolphins, that in the 14th century, French heirs began calling themselves ‘dauphin.’ It is beyond shameful and utterly reprehensible how modern humans have abused these sacred beings (the marine mammals, not the French kings).
Apollo wore his golden hair long and his sacred number is 7, associated with the traditional planets, stringed lyre and the Pleaides (starry rain-makers).
The cards do not give us absolutes, but evoke in a mnemonic, riddling fashion, so don’t be too confused by the lack of breasts on the Cary water-bearer.
After her transformation into Delos, several stars, deeply moved by her tale, aligned themselves in her honor. This formation, known as an asterism, served as a protective shield and a tribute to the goddess. For sailors navigating the vast seas and stargazers looking up in wonder, this celestial pattern became a symbol of Asteria’s indomitable spirit. [Olympioi.com]
It’s obvious that the birthing waters have broken, which explains why the card is somewhat incorrectly interpreted as illustrating the zodiac sign of Aquarius. Aquarius signifies a similar idea (and the constellation once included the Southern Fish, with Royal Star Fomalhaut in its mouth) – albeit in the dead of Winter we are talking more about inward, spiritual rebirth, ultimately necessary for a more evolved, physical return (Saturn).
The androgynous figure pours one jug onto the earth and one into the water, as she will do in the classic Tarot de Marseille card. We get the sense of purification by libation – libation of feminine fluids – as well as the cyclical nature of water, aka life, connecting with her arms in a continuum. In alchemy the liquid purification of spirit is considered Lunar and feminine, inner.
Now it’s also possible that her two pitchers contain waters of Mnemosyne and Lethe – some Orphic lamellae (gold tablets) instruct the deceased to only drink from Mnemosyne’s streams, not Lethe’s, in order to avoid another, terrestrial birth or an eternity in gloomy Hades:
“You will find a spring on the left of the halls of Hades, and beside it a white cypress growing. Do not even go near this spring. And you will find another, from the Lake of Memory, flowing forth with cold water. In front of it are guards. You must say, ‘I am the child of Ge and starry Ouranos; this you yourselves also know. I am dry with thirst and am perishing. Come, give me at once cold water flowing forth from the Lake of Memory.’ And they themselves will give you to drink from the divine spring, and then thereafter you will reign with the other heroes.” ~ from Petelia, 4-3 BC
Other sources seem to indicate we’re to drink a bit of each. Hmm.
The little black bird, which could represent the soul or ‘Ba bird‘, in the background is also a mytho-alchemical clue, for the crow in alchemy is symbolic of Saturn and the blackening (the first stage of the work, now fading in the distance, but not entirely forgotten).
In another, Apollo myth, he sends his originally white bird to keep watch (spy) on his lover, Coronis (‘crow’). Unfortunately for everyone involved, the bird reports she’s been cheating with a mortal. Seething, Apollo scorches the messenger for his efforts, then shoots his woman down. Naturally, he regrets it, tries to revive her, but it’s too late, because Greek tragedy. In the opener image kylix detail, we see the blackened crow or raven as Apollo’s bird of prophecy. Are bird and lover one and the same? Only the shadow knows.
During the alchemical opus, there is something called the ‘impregnation stage’ wherein:
The star rises to the surface and thus connects both the upper spiritual part of the vessel and the lower substance. The bird flies upwards, the soul of the process also seeks union with the spirit. The Impregnation is the turning point of this phase, and indeed it marks the point in the whole process where we are no longer dealing with mere material substances, but the seed of the spiritualization of substance has here been sown, and from now on we will see, through the many following stages, just how this seed grows, metamorphoses, and develops. ~ Adam McLean, The Alchemy Website
It’s been pointed out that in the Cary, there is an emphasis on 4 stars surrounding the main one, creating a starry quintessence, but problematic is the 5th ‘extra’ star in the figure’s right shoulder. In keeping with with the theme, however, this evokes the constellation of Orion, aka Osiris, with red star Betelgeuse placed thusly. Osiris was the god of death and regeneration par excellence, whose reappearance signified the annual rising of the Nile and the land becoming fertile again with birthing waters. (Hapi, who was male but had breasts, was the god of the actual flooding of the Nile, that became Aquarius).
Interestingly, one of the reasons Pythagoreans were superstitious about the number 17 was that Osiris was killed on the 17th day of the month of Athyr.
Eridanus, the cosmic River of Night, has a bright, fixed star at either end; in the north, Rigel, situated in the foot of Orion/Osiris, and in the south, Achernar, the ‘end of the river.’ The god-king has one foot in the water at the serpentine river’s mouth, as if being born out of it. (Article with more on this here).
If we count the number of little plants sprouting from the earth in the Cary card, they equal the number of small stars. As above, so below. Inner quintessence = outer/cosmic. This unification can only happen after the Tower – the structures we build around our minds from the outer, ego, etc – has been transformed. The star not only depicts ‘outer space’ but ‘inner space.’
The ancient Egyptians saw earth as the mirror of the heavens. The sky goddess Nut is depicted, like Hapi of the Nile, holding two jugs that flow with the waters of creation/fertility.
Nut was the goddess of the sky and all heavenly bodies, a symbol of protecting the dead when they enter the afterlife. According to the Egyptians, during the day, the Egyptian decans would make their way across her body. Then, at dusk, they would be swallowed, pass through her belly during the night, and be reborn at dawn. She was often painted on the inside lid of the sarcophagus, protecting the deceased. The vaults of tombs were often painted dark blue with many stars as a representation of Nut. [Wikipedia]
In astrology the ‘big three’ of a natal (birth) chart are our Sun, Moon and Ascendant. The Sun indicates the time of year we’re born, energizing the present lifetime and our natural, outward expression of what we aspire to be this time around. The Moon shows time of the month (phase, day) and is indicative of the past and of our inner or nighttime realms – memory, dreams, soul lineage – what we bring with us, unconsciously. The Ascendant completes the picture with our precise moment of arrival/first breath. There is something very fated and acutely personal about this moment.
To the ancients, it was not so much the moment itself or even the rising sign, necessarily, but the star heralding or accompanying the Sun, as it rose on the day of birth (they didn’t have clocks) that was of prime importance. Stars on any angle or conjunct a luminary or planet are also significant, coming into play at different times during the course of a life. We could muse that this first star on the horizon is our navigational star, guiding us back to the ‘berth’.
The TdM Star card is also interpreted as Venus, since she is symbolized with 8 points, but of course she can also have 5 (evening and morning star symbols). In the Tarocchi of ‘Mantegna’ print below, we find Venus in her river toilette (note the anagram, there), with her entourage of Eros and the Graces, looking suspiciously like the Star card figure. Meanwhile, in the unique, Leber-Rouen card, a witchy ‘Stella Maris’ looks like the wild twin of Botticelli’s serene goddess. (Might the cross/ankh around her neck have been an add-on?).
Lodovico Lazzarelli, in his De Gentilium Deorum Imaginibus (trans. William O’Neal) described the first one:
Nude Venus swims forth from the midst of the natal wave of the sea, and the fair one holds a sea-shell in her right hand. For she divests lovers from extraordinary cares and affairs. Nude Venus calls nude bodies to herself Indeed the sea shell engages itself in sexual union within its own body. Passionate love is ship-wrecked by a sea of troubles.
The victor stands with his quiver of arrows, and he is swift on his wings. The nude boy Cupid stands with eyes covered. At one time he hurls down golden arrowheads from his bow and at another time lead ones, and each strikes the hearts of men with a different wound. The lead-tipped arrows drive love away but the golden-tipped bring it about. As hatred is strong so also love is dear. The nude boy loves the defenseless. Love with eyes covered does not know at whom he aims. He drags his prisoners through hard places. And those ignorant of every road wander off through lonely places The boy calls young men to his camp. Love marks out their unstable souls for his swift wings. He causes wounds hastened along by his quivers.
The Idalian nymphs, the fair and pleasing crowd of three, stand together with their bodies unclothed. They hold their arms together bound by interchanging bonds as often interchanging Love ties the bonds. The first holds the light of her countenance and her eyes toward us. The rest of her group sees us in her gentle eyes. First, Pasithea enraptures us in her gentle fires. Aglaia revives those taken in with her flattery. Euphrosyne entangles them in fetters and strong chains, and she does not permit her captives to go back. Then, Venus, pitying those mangled in such sorrows encourages them with her sweet enticements and flattery. Poets have treated these many things from the star of Venus which lovingly presides over the triple place of heaven. This constellation stands in the highest part of heaven with a triple name. Of course, it has always been said to be Venus.
Sounds a bit like alchemy-speak, no? Lead and gold-tipped arrows? I’m still pondering the arrangement of her four doves. Anyone?
In the Leber-Rouen card, our Stella Maris is of course Venus-Fortuna, for she holds in one hand a large arrow-cum-spindle, its quiver wound (with hair?). In the other, she grasps a lock of her windswept tresses. It bears a similarity to Lazzarelli’s description – she lures or navigates ships through shifting weather in the same, fated manner as Cupid sends forth his arrows.
Sailors were a superstitious lot. They believed women, being ‘wetter’ (ie, more lunar) than men had a special power over the sea. Medical writers like Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History (77 AD) declared, “For, in the first place, hailstorms, they say, whirlwinds, and lightening even, will be scared away by a woman uncovering her body while her monthly courses are upon her. The same, too, with all kinds of tempestuous weather; and out at sea, a storm may be lulled by a woman uncovering her body.”
Hence ancient goddesses, Isis in particular, but also the Stella Maris (‘Star of the Sea’, which could be Venus or any navigational star) became protector of ships at sea, and female figureheads were often bare-breasted.
Now, obviously I’ve focused only on the more cryptic Star cards, as mystery is what I find interesting, but there are just a few more worth an honourable mention, before wrapping up this essay. Their imagery, at first, may not seem to relate to our running theme, but let’s take a closer look…
The third image is not a Star card but depicts one of the Liberal Arts inspiring these learned men: Geometry (‘to measure the earth’). Of all the Liberal Arts personified in the ‘Mantegna’, she is the only one floating in the sky above.
In the first card, the man sits at a drafting or reading table with books on it and holds the compass to his head, in thought. It’s hard to say whether he’s aware of the Star or whether it’s symbolic only, but divine, mathematical inspiration is being transmitted. I like to think of him as either an astrologer or an explorer creating maps.
In the second card, the central Star and four little stars form a ‘quintessential’ arrangement. An astronomer/astrologer or mason (or alchemist) sits in contemplation or meditation before a cathedral-like building that has a clock or rose window in its bell tower. The division of the cosmos has now become a precision science, thanks to the sacred gadget. He appears to be measuring the heavens, but as in the Paris card, the compass almost seems to be a conduit and, held this way, it resembles the numeral V (5). The ground has a checkered pattern typical of masonry tiles and alchemists’ labs, but also resembling meridian lines of the earthly plain. Vieville or whoever created the the images for this deck was likely of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood. It’s just barely possible find a rose hidden under that red circle behind the figure’s head.
Like the Cary, in Vieville we find a 5th small star, this time in the clock/window face, connecting the above and the below. The Vieville Star card with its theme of enlightenment is in contrast to his Moon card, wherein an old woman sits spinning yard (and fate) under a tree, in the realm of night.
The compass (actually called a divider) was specifically created in order to measure the heavens (hence time), while the much older square was used for earthly structures. These were the two essential tools of the stone masons and still form the well-known, Freemason logo. Because it allowed for the concept of eternity/divinity (the monad) to be perfectly drawn, the compass became a symbol of man’s spirituality and higher nature.
“It is said that the compasses’ two points represent spirit and matter, life and form; from these all the complexities of the fleeting, ever-changing mantle of the one-life are produced within the circle, self-imposed by the Being who has decreed the bounds of His Universe or His System.” ~ Harold Bayley, The Lost Language of Symbolism
Thus in these two variations, another aspect of the Star is emphasized: human intellect (Mercury/Aquarius) or indeed wisdom as the vehicle for uniting Heaven and Earth.
The sacred tool bears a notable resemblance to a stork or crane, birds associated with birth/immortality (like crow and raven, they are interchangeable, symbolically). We all know the greeting card baby delivery propaganda, but it was once the belief in Ancient Greece that they actually stole infants, like Harpies. [Fun fact: vultures evolved from storks.] Hera’s wrath again – this time at some haughty Pygmy queen who’d just given birth to a son:
The other Pygmies brought many gifts for the newborn infant, but Hera, enraged that Gerana would not worship her, elongated her neck and turned her into a crane. Wishing to keep close to her child, Gerana as a crane would fly from roof to roof, but the people armed themselves and chased her away, and thus arose the rivalry between the Pygmies and cranes. [Wikipedia]
Nevertheless, the nesting of cranes/storks on one’s rooftop is generally considered auspicious. People sometimes placed old cartwheels on the roof, to help initiate nesting. (Interesting we have named the mechanical monsters of construction after them, due to the resemblance).
Indeed, if we zoom in on the ‘Mantegna’ Geometria print, we find one of these very birds hunting in the river below….and it has caught a snake!
From compass to compass, star to star, this concludes our sojourn of the 17th Triumph. Thank you for reading. To explore more articles on the Tarot de Marseille, simply type ‘TdM’ into the search, or scroll the Home page, where I list recent articles. ~rb
Related, excellent talk, if you wish to go deeper:
How the Alchemists Meditated by alchemist Dennis William Hauck
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