A Sibylline prophetic text sometimes attributed to Venerable Bede (VII century) presents in a relatively short form a depiction of the end of times which is similar to what we found in the biblical Book of Revelation. I think it is a good illustration of how the last seven trumps (XV-XXI) could be related to an eschatological narrative.
The full Latin text is available on
mlat.uzh.ch.
The following English translation comes from this page (possibly based on a slightly different Latin version):
https://sites.google.com/site/canilup/h ... ne-sibyl-1
The prophetic verses at the end also appear in Augustine's City of God (Book XVIII, 23). I copied the translation from:
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120118.htm
These verses (“Iudicii signum: tellus sudore madescet”) were quite popular in medieval times. In Augustine's version, “the initial letters of the lines [are] so arranged that these words could be read in them: ᾿Ιησοῦς Χριστος Θεοῦ υιὸς σωτηρ, which means, Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour” (i.e. The sentence that forms the Ichtys / Fish achronim).
This is an amazingly beautiful X Century composition based on this prophecy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COiHGmTaUT8
I highlight in bold a few words hinting to a possible parallel with the tarot trumps.
In that time a prince of iniquity, who will be called Antichrist, [XV] will rise up from the tribe of Dan. He will be a son of perdition, the head of pride, the master of error, the fullness of malice, who will subvert the earth and will do prodigies and great signs by means of false simulations. He will delude many through the art of magic so that fire will seem to descend from heaven.[XVI] And the years will be reduced as if they were months, and the months as if weeks, and the weeks as if days, and the days like hours, and the hours like points. And the foul peoples, that is, Gog and Magog, which Alexander as king of India enclosed, will rise us from the north. These are the 22 kingdoms [should be 12, “duodecim”], whose number is like the sand of the sea. When the king of the Romans shall have heard of this, assembling his army he will attack them and lay them low to the point of annihilation and afterward he will come to Jerusalem and, with his diadem and all of his royal regalia deposited there, he will surrender the kingdom of the Christians to God the Father and to Jesus Christ, his Son. And when the empire of the Romans shall have ceased, then Antichrist will be clearly revealed and he will sit in the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. With him ruling, the two most excellent men Elijah and Enoch will come forth to announce the coming of the Lord and Antichrist will kill them, and after three days they will be resurrected by the Lord. Then there will be a great persecution, the likes of which never happened before of since. But the Lord will shorten those days on account of the elect and Antichrist will be killed by the power of the Lord, by the arcangel Michael in the Mount of Olives.
When the Sibyl had predicted to the Romans these things and many other things to come, and by which signs the Lord would come for the sake of judging, she thundered, saying by way of prophecy:
Ι Judgment shall moisten the earth with the sweat of its standard,
Η Ever enduring, behold the King shall come through the ages,
Σ Sent to be here in the flesh, and Judge at the last of the world.
Ο O God, the believing and faithless alike shall behold You
Υ Uplifted with saints, when at last the ages are ended.
Σ Seated before Him are souls in the flesh for His judgment.
Χ Hid in thick vapors, the while desolate lies the earth.
Ρ Rejected by men are the idols and long hidden treasures;
Ε Earth is consumed by the fire, and it searches the ocean and heaven;
Ι Issuing forth, it destroys the terrible portals of hell.
Σ Saints in their body and soul freedom and light shall inherit;
Τ Those who are guilty shall burn in fire and brimstone for ever.
Ο Occult actions revealing, each one shall publish his secrets;
Σ Secrets of every man's heart God shall reveal in the light.
Θ Then shall be weeping and wailing, yea, and gnashing of teeth;
Ε Eclipsed is the sun, and silenced the stars in their chorus. [XIX, XVII]
Ο Over and gone is the splendor of moonlight, [XVIII] melted the heaven,
Υ Uplifted by Him are the valleys, and cast down the mountains.
Υ Utterly gone among men are distinctions of lofty and lowly.
Ι Into the plains rush the hills, the skies and oceans are mingled.
Ο Oh, what an end of all things! earth broken in pieces shall perish;
Σ Swelling together at once shall the waters and flames flow in rivers.
Σ Sounding the archangel's trumpet shall peal down from heaven, [XX]
Ω Over the wicked who groan in their guilt and their manifold sorrows.
Τ Trembling, the earth shall be opened, revealing chaos and hell.
Η Every king before God shall stand in that day to be judged.
Ρ Rivers of fire and brimstone shall fall from the heavens.
Then the Lord will judge according to the work of each one [XX] and the impious will go to the hell of eternal fire and the just will receive the reward of eternal life. And there will be a new heaven and a new earth [XXI] and both will remain in perpetuity, and the sea will no longer exist and the Lord will rule with his saints and these same ones will rule with him forever and ever. Amen.