Judgment, World, Conclusion; Epithets of Dionysus

These chapters last revised in June 2011.

20. Judgment: O Dionysos Psilas, Giver of Wings, teach us how to fly.

At the Apocalypse, a light shines greater than sun, moon, or stars, calling the faithful ones to the New Jerusalem. This is the third of the 4 last things. The tombs open up, and the souls rise to their Judge, to be sent to heaven or hell according to their merits and God's grace. At least that is what it says in Revelation, and what numerous chapel walls and illuminated books in the 14th and 15th centuries illustrated. So naturally there has to be a Judgment in the tarot. (1)

In the earliest surviving Judgment cards, three naked figures arise from one or two tombs. In the Cary-Visconti, a Jesus stands looking at them with open arms. In the Visconti-Sforza, an older bearded figure looks down, holding sword and world. In both, two trumpeting angels summon the arisen souls to judgment. The main difference between these cards and later ones (examples below) is that neither Jesus nor the bearded God the Father appear again. The souls generally greet the trumpeter or trumpeters in an attitude of reverence, although there are a few instances of fear. The Minchiate angel trumpets above a sleeping village, with no humans visible. (2)

I looked to see how Hieronymus Bosch treated the Judgment theme. I could find only one painting that had either someone judging sinners or people coming from their tombs. In the early (c. 1480) Seven Deadly Sins and Four Last Things, he shows both, in separate circles in the four corners of the painting. (The other two "last things" are death and hell.) (3):


What strikes me about these paintings is that the one that is similar to the tarot card is "Heaven" rather than "Judgment." "Heaven" is the one with trumpeting angels and reverent people rising from their tombs. "Judgment" has none of this, only the sinner being led before his Judge, and the Judge in all his awesome might. In contrast, the cathedral scenes usually feature the ascent only after the judgment, and with a comparable number of souls headed the other way. I am led to conclude that the Judgment card is less about judgment than it is a celebration of God's mercy in welcoming his people to Heaven. We have already seen damnation in the Devil card, and judgment in the Maison-Dieu. It is time for a scene of prayer and forgiveness.

References, Christian, Judgment:
1. Trumpets: Rev. 8:7-12, 9:1, 9:13, 11:15. Open graves: John 5:28. Judgment: 20:13. New Jerusalem: Rev. 21:3. No need for sun or moon: Rev. 21:23.
2. Catelin Geoffrey: http://www.poker168.com/bwg/bwg_tl6.htm, Rothschild: http://trionfi.com/0/j/d/bologna/. Minchiate: http://www.unics.uni-hannover.de/rrzn/endebrock/coll/pages/i31.html.
3. Bosch: Dixon, Bosch, p. 42f. On Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Deadly_Sins_and_the_Four_Last_Things.

Greco-Egyptian perspective. There was an Egyptian equivalent to the rising of souls from their tombs at the Last Judgment, but I'm not sure that the card designers knew about it. In Egypt the winged Ka soul frees the Ba soul from the body at death. The tomb painting shows the Ka using a special instrument to open the mouth. Then the Ba can go to the Judgment Hall. Like the trumpeting angels, the Ka has wings and sets the soul of the deceased on its way.

The card-makers would not have seen such scenes, since they are in tombs or papyri. Most of the above-ground papyri had been destroyed by the 15th century, although it is possible that the Vatican had a few. The influence on the tarot is most likely indirect, through the Christian co-optation of the idea of the soul's flight to judgment. (1)

However there is a peculiar innovation in Chosson (card dated to 1736, but the woodblock might be 1672), repeated in Conver: the tonsured head of one of the souls arising from the tombs, when set against the contour of the hill behind him, forms an eye, rather like the "eye of Horus," in Egypt the wadjet, which by the 18th century would have been well known. 

Plutarch (Isis and Osiris LII, at http://thriceholy.net/Texts/Isis.html) describes the eyes of Horus as the sun and the moon. Since the sun sees everything, that eye probably would have been identified with the all-seeing eye of God, a well-known hieroglyph, most famously in the US dolar bil (below right)l. An earlier example is the one at left below, from an 17th century alchemical text. Quo Modo Deum translates as 'This is the way of God'. These two examples and a host of others, starting with the Eye od Horus, are at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_Providence.

On the card, at least one of the two souls is looking at the central figure rather than at the angel, as though he were their ticket to Heaven. Perhaps Christ is in the card after all. (2)

References, Judgment, Egyptian:
1. Ba and Ka: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_soul.
2. Eye of Horus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_Horus. Image: http://www.netconstructions.com/horus/eye.html.

Dionysian. Pausanias, in his travels, came across a statue of "winged Dionysus" in Amyclae, a town near Sparta. This naturally led the emblem-makers to show Dionysus in angelic form. An example is Junius's Emblemata of 1565. (1)

The accompanying verse reads:

Peaceful Amyclae, you set up a statue of Bromius [Bacchus] the grape-bearer:
but why as a flying creature with swift wings?
Bacchus takes inventive genius from the soil, and elevates the mind,
And carries it on wings like Pegasus’s.

Junius also quotes Catullus as a possible reference for a winged Dionysus: "But in another place abundant with flowers Iacchus was fluttering about." Cartari (1581 edition) has him as the winged Priapus, saying that for some he was a form of Dionysus, although he was also called the son of Dionysus and Venus, as the result of wine plus love. The wings perhaps came from Priapus's identification with the winged Harpocrates, Horus the Child. (2)


Who, then, is the center figure in the tomb, whose head forms an "eye of Horus"? The card-designers would have learned from Plutarch that the night-time ritual that summoned Dionysus from the underworld, returning from the search for Semele, was the blowing of trumpets. Then he was said to emerge from the bottomless pool, risen from the dead. After that, according to Plutarch, offerings were made. A life was given to Hades in exchange for a life given up by Hades. (4)

On the Chosson/Conver card (below), the side of his back to our left looks like the front of a woman; the curve of his shoulder blade could be the curve of a breast. The other side has no such mark; it is the back of a man. So some, for example Flornoy, have said that this figure unites male and female. Indeed, this was part of Dionysus's myth, corresponding to the two ways that wine affected people, with gentleness or anger, and to the two ways of representing Dionysus, as smooth-shaven or bearded. It is also how Dionysus was as Phanes, the androgynous god who was born from the cosmic egg. (5)

In the tarot image, these two sides are shown as separate in the two figures on either side. They look at the center figure rather than at the trumpeter: he is their example. He is the sacrificed god Dionysus, risen from the tomb. Our initiates are now combined into one androgynous being.

It is the Androgynous Anthropos of the Poimandres, and before that the Androgyne of Plato's myth in the Symposium. It is a Christian as well as Greek idea, the return to Adam as he was before Eve was fashioned from his rib.

For the addict, this is the result of the spiritual practice that he or she has undertaken, along with a continuing recognition of the harm caused to himself and others by the addiction: an integrity that he or she was separated from before.

References, Dionysian, Judgment:
1. Pausanias: Description of Greece III.19.6, at http://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias3B.html. Junius: http://www.emblems.arts.gla.ac.uk/french/books.php?id=FJUb.
2. Cartari, 1581, Priapus: http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/camenaref/cartari/cartari1/jpg/s295.html, and preceding page 294, at http://www.bibliotecaitaliana.it/exist/bibit/browse/autore.xq?autore=Cartari,%20Vincenzo.
3. Image: Daimonax at http://www.bacchos.org/tarothtm/7chariot1.html.
4. Plutarch: Isis and Osiris XXXV, at http://thriceholy.net/Texts/Isis.html. This pool is identified with the Alcyonian Lake by Frazier, in his notes to Pausanias's Description of Greece - Google Books Result, p. 302f.
5. Flornoy: Pelinerage des Bateleurs, p. 223f. Cosmic egg: to be discussed in the next section, on the World card. See http://www.theoi.com/Protogenos/Phanes.html, search "two-sexed."


Alchemical Judgment. There are frequent images of angels blowing trumpets in alchemy. With repeated distillations and sublimations, there are any number of deaths and rebirths. Each rebirth would be an occasion for trumpets. It is the seed once planted coming to the surface, there to mature and die again. (1)

What is different about this particular return is the double-genderedness of the central figure, which can be seen in the Noblet and Conver, as opposed to the feminine Moon and masculine sun. In Mylius's Anatomia Auri, what we have are two figures, the King and the Queen together. In the Rosarium series, there is this same doubleness, in fact a hermaphrodite. It is again the androgyne that we saw in the Conver image as imagined by Flornoy. (2)

The c. 1415 Buch der Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit has an earlier version of the Rosarium image.
Roob comments (p. 462) :

Ulmannus (early 15th century) began, like Jacob Böhme, with man’s free choice between the worlds of wrath and love. "Here you have three kingdoms in which you wish to be, your works are in accordance." Man is created out of the twofold sun." The inward, spiritual sun embodies the divine hermaphrodite. He is the personification of unselfish alchemy, consisting of "jesus, the male stone of purity" (Mercurius/Spirit) and "mary, the female stone of loveliness" (Luna/Body). Their unity with God the Father (Sol/Soul), the "petrolith," which strengthens against all the devil’s temptations.

So in alchemy what corresponds to the Trinity is spirit, soul, and body; and that is Jesus/Mercurius, Mary/Luna and Father/Sol. Ulmannus, the author, does not say in so many words that the Trinity consists of Father, Mother, and Son--that would be heresy, I think--but he comes very close to that Neopythagorean teaching.

The couple of the Sun card is now one. An image I showed in connection with the couple and children on the Sun card may again be relevant. (3)


Continually in a state of union with itself, the androgynous substance can produce any number of children. Likewise Christ's sacrifice is the expiation for all.

References, Alchemical Judgment.
1. From Michael Maier, Tripus aureus 1618. In de Rola Golden Game p. 122.
2. Left: Johann Daniel Mylius, Anatomia auri, in de Rola Golden Game p. 204. Right: Rosarium Philosophorum, Frankfurt 1550, Emblem 17. My source for image: http://elbanet.ethz.ch/wikifarm/kompositwesen/index.php?n=Main.Alchemie.
3. Image: Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, p. 240.

21. The World: O great Dionysos Ômadios, I see that there is always only your dance.

Christian base. We are near the end of the tarot's story. But what is it, and how does one represent it? The Cary-Visconti card gives us a picture that I think illustrates a scene from the Grail stories, among other things. There is a lake, and on it a boat with two people in it, one of them sitting down as though fishing. On the left side of the lake another figure fishes. A knight approaches the lake from our right. In back of the lake is a castle, and in back of it more castles. There is also a castle on the far right.

At least one of the figures fishing in the lake is the Fisher King, and the castle by the lake is his castle. The knight is Parsifal/Parzival, coming upon the Grail Castle. The Fisher King is an allegory for humanity and also Jesus. He is the fisher of men, he is the King of Kings, but due to the human lust in his heart he is wounded in the thigh, impotent. Only one knight, Parsifal, can set in motion the events that will cure him. Then the castle will have its old power,and the land will be fertile again. Parsifal will be the new king, and the Grail Castle is a taste of the New Jerusalem. (1)

All this is suggested on the card. Filippo Maria Visconti was said to be fond of Arthurian romances. One such saga was illustrated in a similar style to the Cary-Yale cards around the same time (Kaplan Encyclopedia of Tarot vol. 2 p. 126).

Yet we can also imagine other stories in which the scene takes place. As M.M. Filesi tells us, Filippo had a mistress whom he set up in a castle across a river; he probably was rowed over to see her (http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=365&p=6796). Perhaps they would play a card game. There was also the time that Piccinino was caught behind enemy lines and had to be sneaked across a river in a sack, as though he were a bunch of turnips, to join his own side under Francesco Sforza (Huck Meyer posted this story: http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=70236&page=6&pp=10&highlight=Piccinino.) Perhaps at a dinner later he was given the deck to commemorate the deed. Just by altering one figure in a scene, the scene can be used to remind the players of other stories at other times.

At the top of the card is a woman holding a trumpet. Who is she? Tarot historians have observed that the two trumpets here are characteristic of the personification of Fame, which is also one of Petrarch's triumphs. But the same word, Fama, meant both worldly fame and eternal glory, in the next world. "Death is bitter, but fama is eternal"--"mors acuta, fama perpetua"--shouted one of the assassins of Galeazzo Maria Sforza before his execution. If eternal glory is meant, then it could be the Grail Castle that is meant, Parzival's claim to fame and glory. And it could be the conditiore's dream of glory by confounding his opponents. It could also be the glory of faithfulness to an eternal love.

The next World card done for the Milan ruling family was simpler, Two cherubs hold up a walled city. What world is this? Our world or the divine world? It again is reminiscent of the Grail Castle as it was then represented, as Kaplan has pointed out. Here is the image he offers (Encyclopedia of Tarot vol. 2 p. 174)

It also bears some resemblance to a design for a new Milan, Sforzinda, that was developed by the architect Filarete for Francesco Sforza (http://www.sforzinda.com/gallery/idealcity/pages/idealcity001.html). It is the ideal in process of being realized by its benevolent rulers. Or is it a New Jerusalem in the clouds, which the Christian will someday call home? (2)

The Ferrara and Charles VI cards seem more this-worldly. A cherub or lady is handing one the World. It is the highest trump, the winning card, the attainment of one's desires.

At some point there is a totally different design. We see it in the card that was part of the set found in Sforza Castle, from sometime in the period 1500-1650. A person stands in a lunette. It looks to me like a woman's soft face; but it could be a gentle man's. The four figures in the four corners are hard to recognize, but they are the same as in the Noblet and Vieville cards: a bull, a lion, an eagle, and an angel. All have halos.

In Vieville, all except the bird's is red. In Noblet, the bottom two are red and the top two yellow. These colors match the color of the sun at different times of day: red for the sun on the horizon, yellow for higher up.

In Vieville, the figure in the middle is clearly a man, apparently Christ. At the end of the quest, the top of the tree, he is the one we would expect, in the same place as the Elixir or the Lapis in the alchemical trees.

Then in Noblet, the figure is a woman, as indicated by the breasts, but with a masculine build.

Dodal's central figure is neither masculine nor feminine, and there are no breasts. In Chosson it is unambiguously a woman, and the same in Conver and all those who follow that pattern. (3)
The four figures in the corners have several sets of associations in Christianity. They are the four faces of the angels around the throne of God in Ezekiel (10:14), and the four living creatures of Revelation (4:7). They are part of the symbolism of the fourth of the Four Last Things, the New Jerusalem. They are also the four traditional writers of the canonical gospels. As such they are symbolic gateways for our entry into the Kingdom of God.

A medieval ivory piece shows all four just as in the tarot card, with the lunette and Vieville's Christ. (4)

The four figures also connote the four elements, to which the evangelists were traditionally associated: Luke, the bull, as earth: Mark, the lion, as fire; Matthew, the man, as water; and John, the eagle, as air. I have been looking for examples in Renaissance art where this identification is clear. One is Durer's painting "the four apostles," 1520's. Here only two are gospel-writers: John, on the far left, and Mark, on the middle right. The other two are Peter, middle left, and Paul, far right.

What distinguishes them is that they represent the four temperaments traditionally associated with the elements. John is the youngest, with a ruddy complexion; these two characteristics identify him with air and the sanguine temperament. The bird on the card would suit him. In back, Mark's angry expression identifies him with the choleric temperament and fire. His animal was the lion, traditionally identified with the sun and hence fire. Paul, with the book and in the most shade, is associated with melancholia and earth. I speculate that he was identified with melancholia by virtue of having what the Renaissance called "divine madness," exemplified by his experience on the road to Damascus. Peter, in the back, is the phlegmatic, associated with water.

Like the evangelists, the four elements and temperaments were put on the corners of rectangular images, this time also representing the four winds of the four seasons. Durer has left us with an example:

There is a clear similarity to the design of the World card. Durer has arranged them in counterclockwise order. The top right, where John would be, is Boreas, the wind of spring, the sanguine temperament and air. To his left is Euris, for fire and choler. Below him is Boreas, for earth and melancholia. And finally, in the lower right, is Auster, for water and phlegm.

As for a woman being there rather than Christ, that is probably an allusion to classical mythology. In Greece, it would be Urania, one of the muses. The Greek travel writer Diodorus explains that this Muse is called Urania because “..men who have been instructed by her she raises aloft to heaven (ouranos), for it is a fact that imagination and the power of thought lift men’s thoughts to heavenly heights.” This quote has the same sense as the "winged Dionysus" in the epigram printed by Junius. (6)

In Hellenistic Jewish thought, influenced by Platonism, she is Chochma, meaning Wisdom. who was given many of the attributes that the Christians later applied to Christ. And as Vitali points out, the Virgin Mary in the Renaissance was shown in similar almond-shaped lunettes as Jesus. (8)

This feminine concept of the world-soul was put back into the tarot by Chosson in 1672. Dodal makes a half-hearted attempt at the same: the hair is long and figure slim, bu there are no breasts; it still looks rather masculine. Conver copies Chosson.

It is of some interest that Paul Marteau, when he put out his "restoration" of Conver, used Conver's image but with a more masculine face. I have enlarged three examples below, on top. You can see that Camoin and Jodorowsky are more faithful to the original. Where Marteau got this image of the face is unclear. Daimonax says that Marteau's androgynous face is more authentic, based on plates he must have had. But this is a preference, not an argument. (9)


There are several other changes that Chosson makes and Conver follows. Let me go over them one by one.

One is regarding what the figure has in her right hand. In Marteau's version, like Chosson's, it appears to be a small wand. However Camoin and Jodorowsky have made it a vase. In Conver it is not clear what she holds: it could be a vase. Her left hand in all four versions holds the Bateleur's wand or the Emperor and Empress's scepter. Thus the figure here may have a receptive, feminine symbol in the left and an active, masculine symbol in the right. In any case, the figure has both masculine and feminine aspects. In the Renaissance Christ was depicted similarly, with long hair, a robe, and soft features. (10)

Another allusion to Christ in Chosson/Conver, is the crossed legs, repeating the posture of the Emperor and the Hanged Man. These are not present earlier.

Two other alterations Chosson/Conver made have to do with the bull. For one thing, it is ambiguous: is it a bull or a horse? Flornoy sees it as a horse, and hence a pun on "cabale," meaning both "mare" and "cabala" in Provencale French. In Italian, the corresponding word is "cavallo." In modern French, the word is "chevale." Probably the "v" and "b" sounds were pronounced similarly, as in Spanish even today. (10)

The other change is that the horse or bull has lost its halo! My guess is that Chosson considered that this animal represented matter, and that matter was not sacred.

Another change has to do with the eagle. For Chosson the bird stands on what looks like a heart, with a ship inside it. Camoin and Jodorowky's version brings this interpretation out clearly. In Dodal the eagle stands on what appears to be a piece of wood. In Noblet (middle below), it sits on nothing at all. In the Sforza Castle version (left) something is there, probably Dodal's wood. In Conver (right) it is still the heart, but the engraver has painted over the details, as though hesitant about it.

For some reason the designer of the Chosson wanted to associate the eagle with a heart. I have no idea why, but I can think of possibilities: something about the disciple John and his love for Jesus, or Zeus as the spirit of love, perhaps. But I know of no other imagery associating eagle and heart that would enable one to pick one possibility over another.

Finally, you will notice that the Chosson and the Conver kept Vieville's red halos on top, as opposed to yellow, as in Noblet and Dodal. I see no particular significance to this choice.

In general, then, the Christian symbolism makes the figure in the center an androgynous or feminine Christ-figure welcoming the Christian to New Jerusalem, as foretold in the Book of Revelation. The four evangelists are one's guides, and the lunette is the opening to heaven.

We may also, from this perspective, go one step further. If the four corners are the four elements, the card turns into a creation story, for the four elements are the traditional building blocks of the universe. The four elements are an affirmation of creation. The Christian is not creator of the universe, but having experienced God, he or she goes into the world in a new way, bringing about the New Jerusalem on earth in his own small way.

References, World, Christian:
1. Fisher King: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_King.
2. New Jerusalem: Rev. 21:2.
3. Sforza Castle: Kaplan, Encyclopedia of Tarot, Vol 2. On web at http://www.associazioneletarot.it/Saggi/images/V69L.jpg. For others, see Links section.
4. Ivory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aureole.
6. Diodorus: Library of History 4.7.4, at http://www.theoi.com/Text/DiodorusSiculus4A.html. Durer engraving: Ernst and Johanna Lehner, Astrology and Astronomy, p. 33.
7. Hochma and Sophia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_(wisdom).
8. Daimonax: http://www.bacchos.org/tarothtm/21monde1.html.
9. Feminine, masculine: Jodorowsky, La Via del Tarot.
10. Flornoy: Pelerinage des Bateleurs, p. 36f.
11. correlation of elements to evangelists: Innes, The Tarot, p. 60.

Greco-Egyptian perspective. The Neoplatonists studied in the Renaissance identified the central figure with Isis. For the Roman philosopher Macrobius she was the Soul of the World, the animating spirit of the universe. Macrobius also identified Isis as world-soul with the famous Diana of Ephesus, of the manifold breasts. Vitali cites Apuleius in this connection; Isis is "mother of all, mistress and governor of the elements," among other things. (1)

In the real ancient Egypt, Isis was shown in the judgment hall, behind Osiris and with with her sister Nepthys, both welcoming the deceased. I don't know if 17th century France had access to papyri showing the scene, but it knew from Plutarch that Isis went to join her husband there. (2)

The four figures in the corners of the card, from the perspective of Plutarch's account of the Osiris myth, might be seen as its main characters. The bull is Osiris the Apis Bull, and earth. In c. 1500 Rome, the pope traced his lineage back to that bull. The lion is Seth, fire, the destructive and creative power. The bird could be Nepthys, who took the form of a kite and was shown as such at Dendera. However since the eagle/hawk Horus is on the Empress and Emperor cards, it could also be Horus. Then comes the angel, the winged god. This could be Horus as Harpocrates. Horus was the falcon-god, and Harpocrates the Egyptian Cupid; they were sometimes merged, sometimes (as in Plutarch) separated. The wings and clouds below him show that he represents air. It could also be Isis or Nepthys, both of whom had wings in their kite form. (3)

This interpretation correlates with de Gebelin's much-maligned identification of the four corners with the four seasons: the bull or ox for autumn "when we plow and when we sow"; the Lion for summer, "the ardors of the sun"; the eagle for spring, "when the birds reemerge"; and the man for winter, "when we come together in society." It is said against de Gebelin that Egypt in fact divided the year into three seasons. What he says is true for the seasons in Italy, correlated with the four temperaments. (4)

In this interpretation, the lady in the center carries a sistrum in one hand and a scepter in the other, just as Isis was shown in representations known in Europe by the 16th century at least. So when represented as female, she is Isis; when represented as male, he is Osiris.

References, Egyptian, World:
1. Macrobius: Saturnalia, I, c. 20 -21, cited by Vitali at http://trionfi.com/0/i/c/21/v/F2-bottom.html. Plato, Symposium 180E., at http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/symposium.html. Apuleius, at http://books.eserver.org/fiction/apuleius/bookes/eleven.html.
2. Plutarch:
3. Kite: The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses - Google Books Result, by George Hart, p. 121.
4. De Gebelin: Karlin, Rhapsodies of the Bizarre, p. 32. Seasons in Egypt: http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/ideology/festivaldates.html.

The Dionysian World. Dionysus was called “God of the Raw Feast” because of the mythic dismembering and eating of raw meat, human or animal, by Maenads, the animal side of humanity in an ecstatic state. It is also the addict’s addicted side, or that of one who represses the life-force, as in the case of Pentheus (whom we must imagine as enacting the release from ordinary consciousness himself, in the catharsis experienced by the playgoer). In actual ritual, according to Pausanias, the raw feast is the goat-sacrifice, not eaten but thrown into a pit for the god to eat. (1)

After the ritual, in its Orphic manifestation, the initiate leads an even purer life than before, perhaps even as a vegetarian. The fragment from Euripides' Cretans has the speaker say:

It is a pure life I have since I have become initiate of the Idaean Zeus and herdsman of nocturnal Zagreus [Dionysus]; after I have celebrated the dinners of raw meat and raised the torches for the Mother in the mountains with the Curetes, I have been sanctified and have acquired the name Bacchant. (2)

The Curetes were mythic male dancers devoted to Cybele, who also served as nurses to the infant Dionysus. (3)

A visual expression of the Maenad’s frenzy is the ecstatic dance. Daimonax compares the cloth on the card to the whirling sash of the dance at Pompeii (second below, on the right); but similar circular motion of fabrics was portrayed on Dionysian sarcophagi, as in the two dancing Maenads, upper left and upper right below, and even, to an extent, in the sleeping Ariadne at the lower right. She is a dancing Ariadne, for whom Homer said Daedalus built a dancing ground, or in more androgynous representations Dionysus himself. In shape it also echoes the almond surrounding this figure. (4)



The almond, in the Roman Empire as in the Christian Middle Ages, is the Milky Way, pathway to the heaven beyond the stars. Here is an illustration:

In Graeco-Roman mythology, it is the milk spilled from the Queen of Heaven's breast. It is either Juno's or Ops' (Rhea's), as related by the Roman writer Hyginus: (http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusAstronomica2.html#43):

There is a certain circular figure among the constellations, white in color, which some have called the Milky Way. Eratosthenes says that Juno, without realizing it, gave milk to the infant Mercury, but when she learned that he was the son of Maia, she thrust him away, and the whiteness of the flowing milk appears among the constellations.

Others have said that Hercules was given to Juno to nurse when she slept. When she awoke, it happened as described above. Others, again, say that Hercules was so greedy that he couldn’t hold in his mouth all the milk he had sucked, and the Milky Way spilled over from his mouth.
Still others say that at the time Ops brought to Saturn the stone, pretending it was a child, he bade her offer milk to it; when she pressed her breast, the milk that was caused to flow formed the circle which we mentioned above.

The central figure is also the Orphics’ androgynous Phanes, pictured in a famous medallion (below) as emerging from the cosmic egg, surrounded by the 4 winds, which are also the 4 elements (below). Like the preceding medallion, this one has a zodiac around the main scene. This zodiac has 12 signs; the previous one can be dated 300 years earlier because it is missing Libra. The serpent winding around him has its echo in the sash on the card. (5)

The figure in the oval is to that extent similar to Durer's rendering of Urania, which we saw a little earlier. Panofsky reports that this particular medallion, housed at the d'Este Library in Modena, was well-known and understood in the 16th century. The oval is also the "egg" which de Gebelin correctly saw in the card and associated to time. In Mithraism, as we saw in discussing the Pope card, the figure in the middle was the lion-headed god holding the key, also identified with Mithras himself as Sol Invictus, the Invincible Sun. (6)

The scholars of the Renaissance and after would have read about Phanes in several places. One is the Argonautica:

Firstly, ancient Khaos’s (Air's) stern Ananke (Inevitability), and Khronos (Time), who bred within his boundless coils Aither (Light) and two-sexed, two-faced, glorious Eros [Phanes], ever-born Nyx’s (Night’s) father, whom latter men call Phanes, for he first was manifested. (7)

Notice especially here the epithet "two-sexed"; hence the androgyny of this figure sometimes, as well as in other figures in the tarot.

The card-designers would also have identified Phanes with the creator god ascribed to Epicurus by Epiphanius:

And he [Epicurus] says that the world began in the likeness of an egg, and the Wind [Khronos (Time) and Ananke (Inevitability) entwined?] encircling the egg serpent-fashion like a wreath or a belt then began to constrict nature. As it tried to squeeze all the matter with greater force, it divided the world into the two hemispheres [Ouranos and Gaia, heaven and earth]. (8)

With the corners as the four elements, a connection to the whole is implied, material as well as spiritual, The movement is not only in, toward the center, but out, toward the four elements and the physical world. The tarot forms a circle, and we are back to card 1.

References, Dionysian, World:
1. Euripides, Bacchae V. 139. Euripides Cretans ( fr. 79 Austin). Orphic Hymn 30.5, cited at http://herodot.georgehinge.com/orph.html.
2. Quoted at above website.
3. Curetes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korybantes.
4. Dancing Ground: Homer, Iliad. Images: Dionysian sarophagus, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; "House of the Mysteries," Pompeii, in Kerenyi, Dionysus, Archetypal image of indestructible life.
5. Image: Ernst and Johanna Lehner, Astrology and Astronomy. Milky Way: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way_(mythology)#Greek_and_Roman. Argonautica 12 ff (trans. West) (Greek epic C4th to C6th A.D.), at http://www.theoi.com/Protogenos/Phanes.html. Medallion: discussed by Kerenyi. 300 years earlier: Kerenyi. Four winds: Hans Leisegang, "The Mystery of the Serpent," in J. Campbell, ed. The Mysteries: Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks - Google Books Result. p. 211; and elsewhere.
6. Panofsky: cited by Wind, p. 170. De Gebelin: Karlin, Rhapsodies of the Bizarre, p. 32. Sol Invictus, Leisegang, p. 224.
7. At http://www.theoi.com/Protogenos/Phanes.html.
8. Same.

Alchemical World. In this last card we are at the end of the quest, the top of the alchemical tree, where the Stone or Elixir is. The last two images of the Rosarium, 19 and 20, give us, first, an ambiguous image of a crowned child, either masculine or feminine, and then the risen Christ.

In case anyone is able to decipher the Latin writing on the banners, here is a closer view of the top of the left-hand emblem.

It would appear that the child is a girl, but that is not 100% clear.

To show the relationship between this image and the World card, I will show an earlier version of that scene, in the Heilegen Dreifaltigkeit of the early 15th century (Roob, Alchemy and Mysticism, p. 479).

There are two interesting things about this picture: first, the center figure is female; and second, the four creatures of the World card are in the four corners.

The scene is clearly that of the Coronation of the Virgin. It is not easy for me to decipher the alchemical meaning, although it appears that it is an expression of the divinization of matter and of the feminine.Roob explains (Alchemy and Mysticism p. 478):

The Book of the Holy Trinity (1415-1419) sought to sweep away the erroneous doctrine that only God the Father and the Son are essentially one, for Mary was also born in the Holy Spirit, and had conceived in the Holy Spirit: "jesus mary mother of god he himself is she his own mother in his humanity." The son represents the spirit (Mercury), the father the soul (sol) and the virgin mother the body (Luna). She is the divine matrix, the great mystery from which all being springs. "If she dissolves, it is to give male nature (...) and when she congeals, it is to take on a female body."

In view of this image, I would tend to think that the later Rosarium image was originally of a female child, the Virgin. So instead of the hermaphrodite, we now, in the last two Rosarium emblems, have two figures, the crowned Virgin and the resurrected Christ. Mylius presents the same scene in a way that is at least as amgibuous.

Is this figure a boy or a girl? De Rola merely calls it a "child," but then refers to it as "he." This confusion of genders interestingly also occurs in different versions of the Marseille-style World card: some, like Vieville (far left), are clearly masculine. Others, like the Conver far right), are clearly feminine; others, like the Sforza Castle and the Noblet, have aspects of both genders.

What is also interesting about the Heilegen Dreifaltigkeit's image of the Virgin is the four creatures in the corner. Roob says (p. 478):

The higher trinity of body, spirit and soul is joined by the four Evangelists, as the four sublimated elements: Luke, the bull, is fire (Mars), Matthew the angel, is water (Venus), John, the eagle, is earth (Saturn) and Mark, the lion, is air (Jupiter).

To be sure, this arrangement of the four creatures is not the same as in the Marseille-style card. Yet the precise arrangement of the Heilegen Dreifaltigkeit image can be found in another representation of the four creatures, in the so-called "tarocchi of Mantegna," in its S- series representation of the Empyrian sphere of the cosmos, done around 1485 (http://trionfi.com/mantegna/; click on S-series card 50).

The creatures were not represented at all in the earlier E-series version of these cards. Perhaps the S-series image was influenced by the alchemical text. I could not find another instance of the same configuration. However I did find yet a third positioning of the four creatures in an illumination from the Book of Kells, which was done in 8th century Scotland (http://historymedren.about.com/b/2005/12/03/the-four-evangelists.htm).

Another alchemical manuscript suggests a less spiritual meaning of the figure in the oval. Here is a page from Palat. Lat. 412 (in Jung, Psychology and Alchemy p. 201)

Here the four scribes suggest again the four evangelists. In the center is an egg, with a double-headed chick hatching from it. One head wears a temporal crown, the other a papal tiara. It is the emperor-pope of which I showed other images in the chapter on the Emperor. It is what the Rosarium portrays as the risen Christ--whom Mylius turns into an Emperor.

For Jung it is the "captive world-soul" escaping from the chaos inside the egg. He concludes:

Out of the egg--symbolized by the round cooking vessel--will rise the eagle or phoenix, the liberated soul, which is ultimately identical with the Anthropos who was imprisoned in the embrace of Physis. He is referring to the myth of th Poimandres, in which the double-sexed Anthropos descends from and is caught in the embrace of matter. (Psychology and Alchemy p. 202)

In this framework, the ascents of both Jesus and the Virgin are particular instances of that escape. At the same time, it is not an escape at all but a transformation, from the impure state of the King and Queen to the divine substance of the Lapis, still very much in this world, just as the Virgin is when she immaculately gives birth to Jesus, and as Jesus himself is while on earth. It is the attainment of such divine substance that is the alchemist's goal. To the extent that the tarot is an exercise in the imitatio Christi, that is also the goal, however unreachable, of the tarot sequence as well.

The Pythagorean and Kabbalist World.With the number 21 = 1, we are back to the beginning. The first god of Orphism is on the World card, corresponding to the demiurgos of Plato's Timaeus. The four elements expressed in the four corners of the World card are in the four suit-objects of the Bateleur.

In Kabbalah the correspondence is to the En Sof. After the Last Judgment, the soul becomes unified with the God above the gods.

Summaries of Each Perspective, Taken Through the Sequence

During the course of this blog I gave 22 Invocations of Dionysus, one for each of the trumps, and occasionally a summary of the correspondingChristian and Greco-Egyptian interpretations. Now I will repeat these invocations as a whole sequence. It recapitulates what I think was the historical progression of the cards: first Christian, then quite soon adding Egyptian references and a few Dionysian, then over the next 170 years or so, ending with Chosson, 1672, adding more Dionysian and Egyptian references.

This time I am going to divide the sequence into groups. Partly I am basing this division on one proposed by Michael J. Hurst, into a beginning, a middle, and an end. He gets to this division in part through observing that in most cases each card triumphs over, or trumps, the one before it in the sequence, in the manner of the tableaux of Petrarch's poem "I Trionfi." In those few cases where there is a break in the sequence, and the card does not trump the one before it, that suggests that a new group was started. Another factor is the variations in the order: the variations for the most part are within the groups he proposes, and not variations that cross from one to another. To these considerations I want to add another: the rules of the game that was played with the cards. In so doing, we will see that there are more groups than three, or perhaps subgroups within the three. (1)

It is not easy to determine exactly how the game was played. The first written rules that scholars have found are from in 1637, in French and quite obscurely at that. The author is perhaps making assumptions that may have been common knowledge than but which are unknown now. The next presentation of the rules is de Gebelin's, 1781. From what I can understand of these two presentations, I will extrapolate backwards. I will use de Gebelin as my main source. (2)

Hurst's first group is the cards now numbered 1-5, plus the Fool at the beginning. These are an abbreviated collection of "stations of life." The "tarot of Mantegna" had given 10, all males. In the tarot as usually understood we have 5, 3 males and 2 females. The Fool, Bateleur and the Popess are on the low end of society--the Popess because she is a fraud--and the other three on the high end. The Bateleur trumps the Fool by taking his money. The Popess trumps the Bateleur in being a bigger fraud. The Pope trumps the Emperor by being the higher authority.

Then at the end Hurst has the last 7 cards, starting with the Devil. These are the "eternals," entities that have existed ever since the beginning and which will last until the end. In between are the 9 middle cards, which Hurst says have to do with life-events and the virtues one must practice.

For his part, De Geblin groups cards 1-5 together, as what he calls the "minor atouts." At the beginning of play, the more of these one has, the higher the points one can declare. 3 are worth 5 points, 4 are worth 10, and if one has all 5 one gets 15 points. However one has to actually show one's cards to the other players. If they remember them, that can cost you later. Within the groupings, each card is counted the same. Hence there can be different orderings of trumps and yet the same rule as far as scoring.

Similarly, the 5 at the end, 17-21, are called the "major atouts." At the beginning of play, one can show what one has of them, and get the same points as in the case of the minor atouts.

So we have the basis here for two groups, each of 5. De Gebelin then has another group, the "atouts par excellence." These are three of them, plus the 4 kings: the Fool, the Bateleur, and the World. If one has all three, one gets 15 points. If one has two, then one has the privilege of asking the other if he has the third. If the other does not show the third, then the one asking gets 5 points. He might not have it, because three hands are dealt, the third being a "dead" hand, not played. The point here seems to be that the beginning and the end of the sequence are both especially important.

Then the game is played. The Fool acts as a wild card. It can be played at any time, to avoid playing a card one would rather not lose to one's opponent. It can never win a trick, but after the trick is done, it counts in the cards won by the person who played it, not the person who won the trick. "It wins nothing, and nothing wins it." Another thing is that if one player takes the Bateleur from the other, he gets 5 additional points.

Finally, at the end, one gets points by pairing the 7 "atouts par excellence" with suit cards. At this point the text gets rather obscure. Unraveling it is not that important for our purposes. It simply shows the importance of the 4 kings plus the Fool, World, and Bateleur.

Combining Hurst and de Gebelin, we get the following. First, the Fool is a group of his own, since he can be played at any time, cannot win, yet keeps with the player who was dealt him. Then we have the 5 "minor atouts." Then the 9 following cards, as for Hurst. Then the next two cards seem different from the preceding 9, yet are not "atouts" in either of de Gebelin's categories. Moreover, they seem different in meaning from the other five: along with number 13, they are the darkest of the 22. So I make them another group, a kind of transition to the final group. Then comes the last 5, the "major atouts."

Here, then, is the sequence, grouped in the way I have just presented.Group of the Fool:

Unnumbered Fool, Christian base: types of ignorance. Greco-Egyptian perspective: the Apis Bull and the pawn of board-games. The Dionysian Fool. May we not profane thy mysteries, O Dionysos Aigobolos, Slayer of Goats.

Group of the "minor atouts":

1. Bateleur, Christian base: a cheap trickster we can learn from, Greco-Egyptian perspective: Plato's Theuth, and the Aries of Dendera. The Dionysian Bateleur: May your illusions lead us to knowledge, O Botryophoros, Bearer of the Grape Clusters.2. Popess, Christian base: Pope Joan, and Faith or the Church personified. Greco-Egyptian perspective: Isis as pupil of Thoth, and the High Priestess in her Greco-Roman cult. The Dionysian Popess: May she who knows you favor us, O Dionysos Gynnis, Womanish One.3. Empress, Christian base: the mother of princes and princesses. Greco-Egyptian perspective: Isis as mother. The Dionysian Empress. May your mothers bear us and your grandmothers protect us, Dionysos Dimetor, born of two mothers.

4: Emperor, Christian base: leader of the people, defender of the faith. Greco-Egyptian perspective. Osiris spreads the plow and the vine to the people of many lands. The Dionysian Emperor. O Enorches, Emballed One, engender in us your divine spirit.

5. Pope, Christian base: keeper of the keys, transmitter of the faith. Greco-Egyptian perspective: the High Priest oversees our preparation for Eternity. The Dionysian Pope. "Dionysos Zatheos, Most Holy One, help us to recognize the guides you send us. Mithraic interpretation: the Pope as Mithras and the lion-headed god.

Group of life-events and virtues:

6. Love, Christian base: secular and divine love, or virtue and vice. Greco-Egyptian perspective: the incarnation of the savior, and the sacred marriage. The Dionysian Lover: Life-giving Huês, Bringer of Moisture and Fertility, you send us tears of both joy and anguish.7. Chariot, Christian base: triumph requires hard work and the practice of virtue. Plato's Phaedrus. Reason must lead Honorto curb Appetitr. Egyptian perspective: uniting energy and order. The Dionysian Chariot: Direct our wills that we may pull your cart straight, O Thrambios, He of the Triumphal Hymn.8: Justice, Christian base: justice wil be served, if not here then hereafter. Greco-Egyptian perspective: the scales of Ma'at, the sign of Libra at Dendera. Dionysian Justice. At your feast, O Isodaitês, Giver of Equal Shares, all may partake of your joys and none is immune from your wrath.
9. The Hermit: Christian base; to know salvation, turn away from the world. Greco-Egyptian perspective: the books of Hermes contain the wisdom needed. Dionysian Hermit. Your light shines, yet I follow without seeing, Dionysos Kryphios, Hidden One.10. The Wheel, Christian base: The things of this world are transitory. Greco-Egyptian perspective: everything occurs in cycles; be prepared. Dionysian Wheel: You raise me up, you strike me down, Dionysos Lênaios, He of the Wine Press.11. Strength, Christian base: One must have inner strength, sent by God, to defeat Satan. Greco-Egyptian perspective: Divine strength comes from knowing Ra. Dionysian Strength: In your presence, O Meilichios, Gentle One, even the strongest submit to your rule.

12. The Hanged Man: Christian base. The traitor suffers his own punishment as well as the world's. But Jesus was ennobled by his persecution. Greco-Egyptian perspective: Seth feels a cuckold's shame. Osiris suffers shame and darkness in the casket in which he is trapped. The Dionysian Hanged Man: Reveal to me my darkness, Dionysos Nyktiphaês, Illuminator of the Night.

13. Death, Christian base. Death comes to all, whatever our life and station. Greco-Egyptian perspective. Seth discovers Osiris and scatters his members. Dionysian Death: O Xenos, Stranger, why do you abuse my hospitality?14. Temperance: Christian base. Mixing wine with water makes life longer and happier. The Eucharist defeats death. Greco-Egyptian perspective. The mixture of good and evil, order and energy, makes the world go well. Dionysian Temperance: I am an empty vessel, may I receive your spirit, Oikêtôr, Indweller of the cup.

Transitional group:
15. The Devil: Christian base. The Devil takes his own. Egyptian perspective: Seth takes his captives before Pharaoh to be judged. Dionysian Devil: Dionysos Paralogos, beyond reason, I do not understand your ways.

16. Maison-Dieu: Christian base. God's lightning defeats the Devil's house; the call of conscience in the House of God tells us to fear and accept him. Greco-Egyptian perspective: The first rays of light hit the top of the obelisk. Evildoers are called to atone before the people.Dionysian Maison-Dieu. O Dionysos Sôtêr, Savior, deliver us from the torments you send us.

Last group, the "major atouts":
17. Star, Christian base. The Star of Bethlehem, the "bright morning star" of revelation, is our hope. Greco-Egyptian perspective: Sothis heralds the coming flood, cascading in two streams from the mountains and the plain, to fertilize Isis with Osiris. Dionysian Star: You who allow me often to forget, help me also to remember, my Teletarchê, Initiator.

18. Moon, Christian base. The emblem of Faith in this dark world, sign of our comforter. Greco-Egyptian perspective: The tears of Isis bring the July Flood. The scarab wakes up the Sun from his netherworld death. The Dionysian Moon. Great Phanês, Shining One, Revealer, you illuminate the heights and the depths, the night and the day; I see my divine being.

19. Sun: Christian base. God's charity shines unceasingly on his children. Greco-Egyptian perspective: August, month of the Sun, brings deliverance and also deadly pestilence. The Dionysian Sun. Accept, Lord Charidôtês, Merciful One, this sacrifice of myself, that mortality may know immortality.

20. Judgment, Christian base. The trumpet sounds. Arise from your tombs to be judged. Greco-Egyptian perspective:the soul flies to Osoris's judgment hall; Horus and his eye deliver us from Seth. Dionysian Judgment: O Dionysos Psilas, Giver of Wings, show us how to fly.

21. World, Christian base. Christ and the Virgin receive us into Heaven, as we are guided by the 4 evangelists. Greco-Egyptian perspective: after judgment, Isis and Nepthys welcome us to the fields of the blest, and we flow on the milk of Hathor. Osiris, Seth, Isis and Horus have been with us. The Dionysian World: O great Ômadios, God of the Raw Feast, I see that there is everywhere only your dance.

NowI will make a few general observations. The Egyptian characterizations ares much closer to the Christian than the Dionysian are. In general, these fit fairly well the interpretations that historically have been associated to these cards in divination, i.e. since these started being written down at end of the 18th century. In fact my documentation tends to support these divinatory interpretations. I tend to think that the historical references I have given, plus many more that I am not aware of, are in fact the basis for these interpretations. In that sense they are "the accumulated wisdom of the ages," even though they didn't come into existence until the 15th century.

The Dionysian interpretations, in contrast, better fit the new interpretations that are just now being published in France. That is not surprising, since Nietzsche revived Dionysus in modern form and his work has had a tremendous impact on French thought, much more than in English-speaking countries. I am myself just starting to read these interpretations. I hope that they will be available in translation so that they may reach a wider audience.References, Conclusion
1. Hurst: http://web.archive.org/web/20040919015803/http://geocities.com/cartedatrionfi/Riddle.html.
2. 1637 Rules: Flornoy, Pelinerage des Bateleurs, Annex 1 (in French only). De Gebelin's rules: translated in J. Karlin, Rhapsodies of the Bizarre.

SUMMARY: ALCHEMY AND THE TAROT TRUMPS

Fool. Fixation of the Volatile, Volitization of the Fixed.

Popess. Soror Mystica. Female spirit-guide. Oil of Mercury.

Empres.: Eve. Undeveloped anima. Luna. Mercury in an impure state.

Emperor. Adam. Undeveloped animus. Sol. Sulphur in an impure state.

Pope. Male spirit-guide. Adepts of the past as spirit-guide to the questing alchemist in the present. Sulphur of the Wise.

Lover. Mystic marriage of Adam and Eve, Sol and Luna, in the hermetic vessel.

Chariot. Triumph of the son of Sol and Luna, volatization of the fixed.

Justice. The scales are a tool of the alchemist for measuring out proper and equal proportions.

Hermit. Return of the Son as Chronos, Time. Fixatino of the volatile.

Wheel of Fortune. Repeated circulation of the subject towards greater purity.

Strength. The soror plunges into the fire and the subject is tempered.

Hanged Man. The seed of the metals returns to the warm earth.

Death. Keep the subject in the warm earth for the specified period, its impurities removed by the alchemist.

Temperance. Add liquid to the subject that it may dissolve therein.

Devil. Heat the subject within the confines of the vessel and its earth.

Maison-Dieu. Distillation of the subject and its sublimation on the side of the vessel. Display of colors.

Star. Washing and whitening the subject in two baths, producing all the colors of the rainbow.

Moon. At the Full Moon, the white subject lies in the lunar water guarded by the dragon.

Sun. Reddening of the subject, now released and drying in the light. Children are an indication of the coniunctio that produces more of its kind.

Judgment. Raising of the red hermaphrodite as the Stone.

World. Fixation of the stone, and its multiplication throughout the world. Homage to the masculine and feminine personifications of divinity.

SUMMARY: NEOPYTHAGOREAN PERSPECTIVE ON ALL 78 CARDS

THE MONAD. Source of multiplicity. Contains Unity of opposites: male/female, light/dark (as in Genesis 1:5), order/chaos, permanence/change, growth/decay etc.). Genesis: “In the beginning God created heaven and earth. And the earth was without form.” Presumably heaven was with form. In Plato’s Timaeus, the creator-god follows a pattern already laid down in heaven In trumps, he is the Magician I, with his 4 sorts of objects, like the 4 elements or4 suits: swords for war and power; batons for country matters, peasants and new life; cups for religion, love, and feasting; coins for money and happiness; the several groups of 3, reflect the Trinity; and the 2 male and female objects in his hands, the Pythagorean unity of opposites. Strength XI also has God in it: the lion is the solar beast and the “Lion of Judah.” In the couet cards,the Pages are the beginning, the apprentices.

THE DYAD. Daring separation of matter from form, female from male, unlimited from limited, indefinite from definite. Separation as sadness (SB and Etteilla School batons), friendship (coins), anxiety (swords), and love (cups). Isis (as in Isosceles), Diana the Moon goddess (Di, two), Muse Erato (like Eros). The Two is womb to the One as seed. (Dodal’s Popess is “Pances,” belly. And the Hanged Man’s solar head is suspended above the earth’s womb.) Source of more and less, i.e. inequality, but also equality and justice (Dike). “God...divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; the 2nd day.” In the courts, the Knights are the skilled practitioners, the journeymen.

THE TRIAD. 1st number to make actual the potentialities of the Monad. Form added to matter is like the seed to the womb, producing as child enformed matter, the unity of form and matter in particular things. Plutarch: “Plato calls the Intelligible ‘Idea,’ “Model,” ‘Father,’ and Matter he terms ‘Mother,’ ‘Nurse,’ the seat and receptacle of generation, and that which results from both he is accustomed to denominate ‘issue,’ and ‘Birth.” The Empress III’s shield, on her lap, is her child. In Death XIII, likewise, the human heads poke up like new plants from which the Reaper is clearing weeds. First odd number, first male number. The Trinity (cups, swords), and the Son in the Trinity (batons, coins). In Genesis, form is added to the primal mud: “God called the dry land Earth; and...the waters called he Seas. The Earth brought forth grass...and herb yielding seed after its kind.... ...the third day.” In the courts, the Queens are helpers to the Kings, bearing his children and nurturing them and the people of the realm.

THE TETRAD. Wholes: 4 winds, 4 directions, 4 seasons, 4 elements, made up of 4 qualities. 4 temperaments. 4 cardinal virtues. 4 “seasons” of a person’s life. 4 gospels and no more. If 3 is the actuality of something, 4 is its full manifestation. 4 points determine a solid, beyond which geometry cannot go. Thus Matter in its full richness (coins), power (swords), labor (batons); yet still something is missing (cups). The Emperor IV, ruler of the material conditions of life, and Temperance XIV, the virtue governing bodily appetites. “Let there be lights in the firmament...and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years. ...the 4th day.” In the courts, the Kings are the rulers over their particular country or field of endeavor, guiding it toward prosperity and ensuring its continuance in the next generation.

THE PENTAD. (1). Male number of marriage. Combines Triad and Dyad (or Triad and Tetrad, via Pythagorean Theorem). Since every power of 5 ends in 5, its children resemble it. (2) Nemesis, divine vengeance. Those wronged deserve satisfaction (hence the thief in batons, as either the wrong or its satisfaction). (3) Number of the “vegetative soul,” the part of the soul that is born, grows, and dies, as in the case of plants. Love is its force (coins, the nightingale). Makes ancestors, hence inheritance, possible (cups, search for origins or wife). The Quintessence, as that which transcends the four elements of matter, remains when body destroyed (swords), and so is the element missing from the Tetrad. The Pope V as spiritual leader rules the soul, and the Devil XV is his opposition. “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree...” (from the 3rd day).

THE HEXAD. “Perfect,” as sum of its divisors; hence “health” and “panacea.” Muse Thalia, meaning “the plentiful one.” (1) Triangular number (coins). (2) Female number of marriage, as 2 x 3. Since every power of 6 ends in 6, its children resemble it. (3) Number of the “animal soul,” creatures moving whole body under own power. Travel (SB swords). Goddess is Hecate, keeper of crossroads. Which road to take: with motion comes the possibility of choices, even for higher animals. So the Lover VI must choose between Duty and Pleasure; and in the Tower XVI, the sinner chooses God over the abyss. (4) If 3 allows beginning, middle, and end; 6 governs a similar division in the process of the soul: past, present, future. So childhood (cups), attention in the present (coins), and hope or fear (batons). “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth...the 5th day.” “God made the beast of the earth...and every thing that creepeth upon the earth.. ...the 6th day.”

THE HEPTAD. Number of the rational soul. Athena. Human life and development. The seven ages of man: infancy, childhood (cups), adolescence (coins), young adulthood (swords), prime of life, late middle age (batons), decrepitude. Transition from one stage to another. Success is indicated by the Chariot card; but continuing danger by the horses. Suits govern some options: Get advice; discuss with peers or think about; use imagination; act spontaneously, even if naively. In trumps, the Chariot VII has reason on top, leading his good and bad horses; in the Star XVII, there is a similar layout, with one jar poured on land and the other in water. Genesis: “God created man in his own image... ...the 6th day.”

THE OGDOAD. (1) As 2x2x2 it is “equal times equal times equal” and so the most equal. Number of Justice VIII per Macrobius: as “it is not only is it the product of two equal numbers, but it is the first number that can be divided into two equal even numbers, again into two more equal even numbers, and then into two equal parts once more.” (2) 8th sphere in the heavens, that of the fixed stars, so the highest of the celestial spheres, which all sound in harmony, yet govern one’s fate. (3) Pythagoreans say “Ogdoad” means “generated out of the Dyad”; thus the actuality of the mother which existed as potential in the Dyad. Rhea, mother of the Olympian gods. Sphere of fixed stars as a container or womb for the cosmos. It is the mother by which “things come of love, friendship, and wisdom, and creative thought.” This is exemplified in Rhea’s myth. She is commanded by her husband Kronos to give him each child at birth, for him to swallow and thus escape the prophecy that a son will overthrow him. The result is a clash between two natural forces: the creative love instinct against destructive impersonal nature. Rhea grieves her lost children. Dark despair as in the tarot Moon XVIII, in the night sky where the fixed stars also visible. Her children are like the SB swords, all contained in a receptacle; yet there is a fire of imagination that can disrupt this containment (batons). There is a fearful but happy plan, feeding Kronos the stones (cups, keeping one out), requiring stealth and skill. There is the possibility of transcending death (coins); similarly, the crayfish in the Moon card has jewels in its claws.

THE ENNEAD. (1) The God Oceanus. The realm beyond the fixed stars is like an ocean that acts as boundary to the land. Supercelestial realm of visions not seen by the light of nature, as in a well known 1888 illustration of pilgrim who breaks through the sky and sees what is beyond, i.e. the chariot of Ezekiel. Thus we have the crossing of the river in the SB batons, carrying what one has learned. The Hermit VIIII is similar, spelled “Hermit” instead of the French “Ermite” to suggest the hermetic arts. The light dawns in his robe. It is the breakthrough beyond fate toward the One. In the Sun XVIIII, we have a mystical preparation for return: perhaps the reunification of male and female, or the sacrifice of the lower self. (2) Rhea hides her child Zeus on Crete, in isolation, while his siblings are inside Kronos, as in the SB swords. His nurses there are the Curetes. The mystical “rites of the Curetes,” the Theology says, had 3 rites of 3 parts each. (3) The 9 is governed by Haephestos, god of blacksmiths and alchemists, keeper of the terrestrial fire, which is the 9th sphere counting inward instead of out, “because the way up to it is, as it were, by smelting and evaporating.” (Theology of Arithmetic} Thus we have the man burning in the fire of the SB coins. The result is a kind of magical act, as in the triton keeping all the SB cups in the air. Or maybe it’s all a show with hot-air balloons. In a similar spirit, the muse governing this number is Terpsichore, which in relation to “treperin,” to turn, and “choros,” dance, they interpret as “like the turning and revolution in a dance,” an ecstatic dance leading back to the One.

THE DECAD. “Encompasses all things, both plane and solid.” It is the sacred Tetrakys, anticipated in the Tetrad, the sum of the first four numbers and like the Monad called “God” and “Sun.” Associated with the muse Ouranos, meaning ‘heaven.” It is “the All,” the god Pan, and Phanes, the first of the Orphic Gods. It is the most of whatever a suit represents, be it sorrow or happiness. So in swords we have great affliction for many, power for a few. In batons, a hypocritical show of success, but also a barring from the goal. Coins hold great good, yet total success is not certain. In cups, my favorite card, we have a man surrounded by his good deeds yet still wary of danger. The Wheel of Fortune X cycles us back to the starting point. The Judgment XX calls us home. In the World XXI, we are both leaving and entering the 4 elements again, a new life.

APPENDIX: EPITHETS OF DIONYSUS

227 names of Dionysus, in classical sources known during the 15th=17th centuries:

Aisymnêtês (dictator, or masks), Agathos Daimon (good spirit), Akrôreitês (goat kid), Adôneus (ruler), Aisumnêtês (ruler, lord), Agriônios (of the Agrionia festival at Orchomenus in Boeotia), Aigobolos (slayer of goats), Agrios (wild one), Agyieus (protector of the ways), Aisymnetes (elected monarch, judge), Akratophoros (giver of unmixed wine), Aktaios (of the seacoast), Amphietês (annual; or god of two years), Anax (lord), Anax Agreus (lord hunter), Androgynos (sexually androgynous), Anthion (of the flowers), Anthios (god of all blossoming things), Antheus (the blossoming one), Anthroporraistes (slayer or crusher of men), Areion (warlike one), Arretos (ineffable), Arsenothelys (man-womanly), Auxites (bringer of growth), Axios Tauros (worthy bull),

Bakcheios (Bacchic one), Bakchos (Raving), Bassareus (fox god, Thracian; of the long robe), Basullios (multiplier of leaves), Botryophoros (bearer of grape clusters), Bougenes (calf), Boukeros (Bull-horned one), Erebinthinos (of the chickpea), Brisaios (son of the nymph Brisa, said to have brought him up), Bromios (boisterous, roaring), Bythios (the deep), Buphagus (cow-eater).

Gapotos (he who is drunken up by the earth), Gethosynos (the joyful), Gigantophonos (giant-slayer), Gynaimanês (mad for women), Gynnis (womanish).

Dasullios (of the thicket, wildwood), Dendritês (of the tree), Dikerotes (two-horned), Dimeter (he of two mothers), Dimorphos (the two-formed one), Diphyes (two-natured), Dissokotos (doubly born),
Dithyrambos (of the dithyrambic hymn; of the two gates),Diwonusojo (from Linear B), Dotês (giver), Druphoros (oak-bearer), Dusales (hybrid).

Eiraphiotes (insewn), Ekstatophoros (bringer of ecstasy), Eleuthereus (emancipator), Endendros (tree), Enorches (in the balls; also, a son of Thystes, said to be born of an egg),Epaphios (god who inspires frenzy), Erebinthinos (of the chickpea, applied to worthless people or things), Eriboas (howler), Eribromios (loud roarer), Erectheus (god conceived in the underworld), Erikapaios (eternal singer), Erikapeos (androgenous god), Eriphios (goat kid), Eiraphiôtês (of the goat kid), Ernesipeplos (the short-robed), Eschatos (the furthest, most extreme), Euanthes (fair blossoming one), Euaster (he who shouts Eua), Eubouleus (of good counsel), Euergetês (benefactor, doer of good), Euios, Euhios (from the ritual cry; reveler).

Zagreus (hunter, capturer of animals), Zatheos (the very holy), Zoophoros (life bringer), Zoros (undiluted wine).

Hagnos (pure, holy), Hebetikos (the youthful), Hêgatheos (high god), Hemerides (of the cultivated vine), Hestio (of the feast), Horaia (of ripe fruits), Huês (of moisture; moist or fertilizing one), Hugiates (dispenser of health), Huposkelizein (one who trips).

Thaumasios (the wondrous, the miraculous), Thaumatourgos (the wonderworker), Theoinos (god of the wine), Theourgikos (god of the theurgy), Thesmophoros (lawgiver), Thiasogenetês (father of the Thiasos), Thriambos (of the triumphal hymn), Thullophoros (bearer of boughs), Thuoneus, Thyonidas, Thuonidas (son of Thyone-Semele; inspired), Thyrsomanês (thysus-raving), Thursophoros, Thyrsophoros (thyrsus bearer), Thyrsotinaktês (thyrsus-shaker).

Iackhos, Iakchos (crier, caller), Iatros (healer; delight), Iobakkhos (of the ritual cry), Ignigena (born of fire), Iyngies (of the Wryneck bird), Intonsos (unshorn), Isodaitês (he who gives to all equally),

Kadmios (of Kadmos), Kaludônios (of Kalydonos, where an image was carried to Patreae during his festival), Katharsios (he who releases), Kissobryos (ivy-wrapped), Kissokomês (ivy-crowned), Kissos (ivy), Kissios (of the ivy; releaser), Kissobryos (ivy-wrapped), Kistophoros (basket bearer), Kittophoros (ivy bearer), Kolônatês (of the knoll), Kôlôtês (spotted gecko), Korymbophoros (cluster-laden), Kouros (youth), Krêsios (Cretan), Kryphios (hidden, secret)

Lampteros, Lampter (torch-bearer, of lights), Laphustios (of the Boeotian mountain Laphystius; glutton), Leibenos (of libations), Lenaios (of the wine press), Liknites (in the liknon, or winnowing fan), Limnaios, Limnêtês -is, Limnêgenês (of the marsh), Luaeus, Lyaios (he who frees), Lusios (liberator, deliverer)

Mainomenos (frenzied), Makar (blessed), Manikos (mad one), Mantis (prophet, seer),Meilikhios, Meilichios (sweet, mild, gentle, the god who can be propitiated), Melanaigis (he of the black goatskin), Melpomenos (harp-singer), Mainolês (raging), Mêkônikos (of the poppies), Merotraphes (seam-splitter), Mesateus (of Mesatis, where Dionysus was educated), Mêthumnaios (rich in vines), Mitrephoros (crown, circlet), Morychos (dark one), Moschophagus (calf-eater), Musagetes (god of the muses), Mystês (of the mysteries).

Nebrodes (fawn-form one), Nyktelios (of the night), Nyktiphaês (night-illuminating one), Nyktipolos (night prowler), Nysios (he of Nysa)

Xenokos daimon (foreign demon), Xenos (stranger, foreigner)

Oinops (wine-dark), Omphakitês (of the unripe grape; green stone), Oreiarchês (lord of the mountain), Orthos (the erect, the upright one)

Palaios (the ancient one), Paradoxos (the unexpected, paradoxical), Paralogos (the inexplicable), Patrôios (the paternal or ancestral), Pelagios (of the sea), Pelakys (of the axe), Perikionios (of the column, entwined around the pillars), Petemptamenti (he who is in the underworld), Ploutodotês (bestower of riches), Ploutos (wealth), Politês (citizen), Polyboulos (much-counseling, exceedingly wise), Polyeides (of many images), Polygethes (bringer of many joys), Polymorphos (many formed), Polyonomos (many named), Polyparthenos (of many maidens), Protogonos (first born), Protrugaios (feast before the vintage, first of the vintage), Pyrigenes (fire born).

Sabazios (consort of Kybele), Sannion (wagging one), Sisolopolis (savior of the city), Skêptouchos (scepter-bearer), Soter (savior), Sôtêrios (recovery from madness), Sphalen, Sphaleotas (he who causes stumbling), Sphaltes (tumbler), Staphylitês (of the grape), Staphylos (the grape), Sukites, Sykites (of the fig tree)

Taurokeros Theos (bull horned god), Taurekophallos (bull phallus), Tauromorphos (bull-formed), Taurophagos (bull devourer), Tauropôn (bull faced), Tauros (bull), Teletarches (lord of initiations), Trieterikos (the biennial one), Triptolemos (sower), Trigonos (thrice-born)

Phallên (of the phallus), Phanes (illuminator, revealer, shining one), Philogaios (lover of the earth), Philogelôs (lover of laughter), Philogêthês (lover of joy), Philoinos (lover of wine), Philomêtôr (lover of the mother), Philomousos (lover of the muses), Philopaignos (lover of satyrs), Phleôn (luxuriant one, giver of plenty), Phloios (regeneration of a vegetative nature), Phytalmios (god of growth).

Charidotes (giver of grace), Charma Brotoisin (god of many joys), Choreios (god of the dance), Choreutês (dancer), Choroplekes (dance-weaving one), Chthonios (subterranean), Choiropsalas (cunt-plucker).

Psilas (giver of wings, or the unbearded), Pseudanor (falsely virile), Psilax (winged).

Omadios (of the raw feast), Omestes (feeds on raw flesh).