To meet the need of play the pictures would have been subjects commonly known by all, and of a hierarchal nature that would have been easy to determine without numbers. 15th century players knew the order, partially by consensus, but mainly because these images were part of popular culture. The 'tri...

He's standing on a stack of old Metal LPs. Devil's music you know... Ozzy, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath... Yeah man, I play it ALL backwards...

Perhaps this one may be a bit more familiar to some. If you've actually read anything about it in the past, and had an explanation spelled out for you, please hold your comments until after I post the catalog entry so as not to influence the others who haven't seen it before. I know this one, so I'...

EnriqueEnriquez wrote:
At a personal level I think my sperm count dropped after reading such thing...

Are you sure it wasn't those tight 'boxer briefs' your wife gave you for Christmas?

As lovely as the Mitelli is, I don't think this one pattern alone is enough to prove the 2 Emperors/2 Popes theory, not without more evidence. As for the Fool and Juggler not 'pairing up', I see them as the perfect pair - a deceiver must have someone to deceive. A glance at history shows us that 'ev...

Great quotes. Thanks for those EE.

If I remember correctly, also the examples presented by RAH where originally presented by Ross on Aeclectic Tarot Forum.But I don't remember from which books they where extracted. Marco Yep. That's where I got 'um! B-) That nifty diagram is my own though. (Which may be a plus, or a minus. :-s )

If the Papess and Empress represent Church and State, then what need for a Pope and an Emperor? I mean, I see your point, RAH, but I suspect there's gender balancing going on here. :)) I suspect that 15th century Italians gave as little consideration to "gender balance" as 21st century It...

Yep, yep - Catholic alright. And yet... nobody has yet been able to explain to me the presence of a Popesse and an Empress in the sequence of trumps. These hardly fit Catholic (or indeed, Protestant) hierarchies. Women were used for representations of virtues (and sometimes, vices), for abstraction...

Mercury as perhaps the flourishing of knowledge or health in peace-time I agree with your analysis of the elements of Peace and War, RAH. But I think that Mercury is here mainly as a symbol of the flourishing of commerce, since he is holding a purse which I think is full of money. Still, the presen...