alchemical Maison-Dieu
Posted: 25 Jul 2011, 23:09
The Alchemical Maison-Dieu. Of all the cards, this one most closely resembles a piece of alchemical apparatus, specifically the furnace, or athanor. There was one in operation in the picture from the Mutus Liber that I showed in the previous chapter, on the Devil card. A later illustration reveals that its top comes off.
Similar apparatus can be seen even in theDresden Heilege Dreifaltigkeit of the early 1400s.
Clearly the top is supposed to stay on, if the distilled substance is to be collected by the tube and sent below. On the card, however, the top is off. There has been an onslaught of energy, from above to be sure, but also, in the Noblet, from below, the fire in the tower.
O'Neill compares the onslaught to an alchemical emblem by Fludd (Summum Bonum 1609) of demons and their associated birds and insects attacking the alchemist at God's command, while the archangels defend it. The demons are Azael, Azazel, lSamael and Mahazael; the archangels are Raphael, Uriel, Michael, and Gabriel. In the middle the alchemist, "Homo Sanus"--sane man--can only pray. In someways, to be sure, this image is different from the Maison-Dieu. The figures in the tarot card have no such place of safety, and no archangels to protect them.
O'Neill also compares the card to an account of a thunderstorm that breaks out just as the alchemist is beginning to climb up the sacred mountain out of hell. It may force him back into the depths, from which he will have to try again and again. O'Neill uses again the images of a man falling out of a tree or off the end of a ladder (the first time was with the Hanged Man). Similarly, we have figures falling off the tower in the tarot card. But there is a bright side. O"Neill concludes
What is being depicted in the manuscript is distillation, the purification of a substance by boiling in an enclosed space. The upside-down man in the flask might be floating upward. Either that or he is falling, condensing, again a gentle process, a distillation that results in an ever-purer Subject.
I think there may also be an alchemical significance to the small globes that are descending on both sides of the tower in most 17th century versions of the card. They are different colors, and are the flashes of color that are seen at this stage of the work, the so-called "peacock's tail." That tail may be seen to the left of the flask in the manuscript image above. The alchemists also called the flashes "scintilla," or sparks.
As I exhibited in relation to the Hanged Man, Bosch had many upside down men in his Garden of Earthly Delights, where the pose seems to be that of a trance-state, although none that I see has precisely the same leg positions. William Blake, as I exhibited in relation to the Hanged Man, used this alchemical image in depicting the element of air.
What is important is to use a lot of dung, the alchemists advised. One emblem that O'Neill cites, from Maier's Symbola aureae mensae 1617, shows a man trying to run up the side of a building. The master alchemist advises the other, "Take that which is trodden underfoot in the dunghill, for if thou dost not, thou wilt fall on thine head when thou wouldst climb without steps" (quoted in Fabricius, Alchemy p. 22, where the emblem also appears; Fabricius does not offer an interpretation). This quotation is from an Arabic manuscript translated into Latin in 1182 by Robert of Chester, de Rola tells us.
De Rola says that the alchemist pointing to the ground is "a reminder that the earth shares with the Philosophick Earth or Subject the same spagyrical [i.e. alchemical] sign" (p. 114). My interpretation is that with the gentle heat and gases provided by decomposing dung, the Subject, philosophical Mercury, will be able to ascend and descend successfully. In the card, however, the top has come off. Also, there is heat coming from above, the sun's rays, or a lightning-strike. Well, accidents due to overheating no doubt were frequent. It is the same in life.
Similar apparatus can be seen even in theDresden Heilege Dreifaltigkeit of the early 1400s.
Clearly the top is supposed to stay on, if the distilled substance is to be collected by the tube and sent below. On the card, however, the top is off. There has been an onslaught of energy, from above to be sure, but also, in the Noblet, from below, the fire in the tower.
O'Neill compares the onslaught to an alchemical emblem by Fludd (Summum Bonum 1609) of demons and their associated birds and insects attacking the alchemist at God's command, while the archangels defend it. The demons are Azael, Azazel, lSamael and Mahazael; the archangels are Raphael, Uriel, Michael, and Gabriel. In the middle the alchemist, "Homo Sanus"--sane man--can only pray. In someways, to be sure, this image is different from the Maison-Dieu. The figures in the tarot card have no such place of safety, and no archangels to protect them.
O'Neill also compares the card to an account of a thunderstorm that breaks out just as the alchemist is beginning to climb up the sacred mountain out of hell. It may force him back into the depths, from which he will have to try again and again. O'Neill uses again the images of a man falling out of a tree or off the end of a ladder (the first time was with the Hanged Man). Similarly, we have figures falling off the tower in the tarot card. But there is a bright side. O"Neill concludes
Yet it seems to me that there is one detail suggesting that the process can be less traumatic than it looks. The figure who appears falling may be suspended in the air, his fingers just dipping into some liquid below. An example is the original Noblet, with its colors faded, on the right below. According to Flornoy's reconstruction, the color of the dark mass at the bottom is blue, hence water (http://letarot.com/jean-noblet/pages/pa ... -diev.html). At the same time, the figure's legs are positioned similarly to that in the alchemical text we saw in connection with the "Gringonneur" Hanged Man ( from Dixon, Bosch p. 256, Folio 40 of Ms. 29, Wellcome Institute, London):The long blackening period has ended, the decomposition is completed in the traumatic thunderstorm. The dark night of the soul is completed and the ascent to heaven begins. (Tarot Symbolism p. 284)
What is being depicted in the manuscript is distillation, the purification of a substance by boiling in an enclosed space. The upside-down man in the flask might be floating upward. Either that or he is falling, condensing, again a gentle process, a distillation that results in an ever-purer Subject.
I think there may also be an alchemical significance to the small globes that are descending on both sides of the tower in most 17th century versions of the card. They are different colors, and are the flashes of color that are seen at this stage of the work, the so-called "peacock's tail." That tail may be seen to the left of the flask in the manuscript image above. The alchemists also called the flashes "scintilla," or sparks.
As I exhibited in relation to the Hanged Man, Bosch had many upside down men in his Garden of Earthly Delights, where the pose seems to be that of a trance-state, although none that I see has precisely the same leg positions. William Blake, as I exhibited in relation to the Hanged Man, used this alchemical image in depicting the element of air.
What is important is to use a lot of dung, the alchemists advised. One emblem that O'Neill cites, from Maier's Symbola aureae mensae 1617, shows a man trying to run up the side of a building. The master alchemist advises the other, "Take that which is trodden underfoot in the dunghill, for if thou dost not, thou wilt fall on thine head when thou wouldst climb without steps" (quoted in Fabricius, Alchemy p. 22, where the emblem also appears; Fabricius does not offer an interpretation). This quotation is from an Arabic manuscript translated into Latin in 1182 by Robert of Chester, de Rola tells us.
De Rola says that the alchemist pointing to the ground is "a reminder that the earth shares with the Philosophick Earth or Subject the same spagyrical [i.e. alchemical] sign" (p. 114). My interpretation is that with the gentle heat and gases provided by decomposing dung, the Subject, philosophical Mercury, will be able to ascend and descend successfully. In the card, however, the top has come off. Also, there is heat coming from above, the sun's rays, or a lightning-strike. Well, accidents due to overheating no doubt were frequent. It is the same in life.