mikeh wrote: 22 Feb 2018, 01:27
As to which it was, aquarius or scorpio. I tend to think a man would substitute for a man, and an animal for an animal, but more research is required. It still seems to me that the positions of the four evangelists in the window correspond to the positions of at least three of the zodiacal signs in the map.
Well, besides what we may think, we know in Agrippa's compendium of attributions, the Man he associates with Water signs and the Eagle with Air --
(A connection with water signs, and thus through them their co-signified houses, would suggest Man as a Man of Sorrows type connection)
The reasons generally given for the substitution are that they relate to the emblems of the tribes of Israel (well, we have a three out of 12 match), the 12 tribes in four groups of three camped in the four quarters at which were placed the banners of the eagle, lion, bull and man -- the Eagle was the banner of the Tribe of Dan, though their emblem was actually a serpent - the change from a serpent to an eagle people suggest is cognate with a change from a serpent to an eagle (in modern astrology the three, the eagle, the serpent and the eagle have applied all of these to Scorpio as representing 'different octaves' of the sign) --
This idea was basically promulgated in a book by Drummond in 1811 expounding upon a theory of biblical astrology - it is from then that the idea that Eagle=Scorpio became popularized (and yes it has been suggested by many the association is through the constellation of Aquilla, rather with Scorpio directly) - it was more common prior to then I think to associate the Eagle with air, thus aquarius - and your chartre example follows that, keeping the lion and the bull in their correct place (it seems perverse to me to missplace the two knowns in support of the two unknowns, rather than the other way round - by the same token, the order in the Tarot de Marseille would then suggest Eagle=Scorpio, most of them going from bottom left, bull, lion, eagle, man) :
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The attribution of the tribes to the signs vary of course among several sources, here is the scale of four from Agrippa:
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Drummond's basis for the substitution of the eagle for the adder he got from Kircher, following up on his reference to Kircher, I find the exact quote is:
"Creditum est Dan quod cerastem in vexillo pingere recusaret aquilam pro serpente pinxisse Ita putaverunt doctores et merito"
{It is believed that Dan, rejecting the image of the horned adder, had an eagle painted in place of the snake for the merit of his officers}
Kircher does not give a source, but it is possible from his fellow Jesuit Jerome de Prado [1547 – 13 January 1595], who wrote in his commentary on Ezekiel:
“The different leaders of the tribes had their own standards, with the crests of their ancestors depicted upon them. On the east, above the tent of Naasson the first-born of Judah, there shone a standard of a green colour, this colour having been adopted by him because it was in a green stone, viz., an emerald, that the name of his forefather Judah was engraved on the breastplate of the high priest (Ex. 25:15ff.), and on this standard there was depicted a lion, the crest and hieroglyphic of his ancestor Judah, whom Jacob had compared to a lion, saying, ‘Judah is a lion’s whelp.’ Towards the south, above the tent of Elisur the son of Reuben, there floated a red standard, having the colour of the sardus, on which the name of his father, viz., Reuben, was engraved upon the breastplate of the high priest. The symbol depicted upon this standard was a human head, because Reuben was the first-born, and head of the family. On the west, above the tent of Elishamah the son of Ephraim, there was a golden flag, on which the head of a calf was depicted, because it was through the vision of the calves or oxen that his ancestor Joseph had predicted and provided for the famine in Egypt (Gen. 41); and hence Moses, when blessing the tribe of Joseph, i.e., Ephraim (Deu. 33:17), said, ‘his glory is that of the first-born of a bull.’ The golden splendour of the standard of Ephraim resembled that of the chrysolite, in which the name of Ephraim was engraved upon the breastplate. Towards the north, above the tent of Ahiezer the son of Dan, there floated a motley standard of white and red, like the jaspis (or, as some say, a carbuncle), in which the name of Dan was engraved upon the breastplate. The crest upon this was an eagle, the great doe to serpents, which had been chosen by the leader in the place of a serpent, because his forefather Jacob had compared Dan to a serpent, saying, ‘Dan is a serpent in the way, an adder (cerastes, a horned snake) in the path;’ but Ahiezer substituted the eagle, the destroyer of serpents as he shrank from carrying an adder upon his flag.”