Re: Cremonese Inquiries

31
R.A. Hendley wrote: The rather unsophisticated nature of the trumps also suggests the game originated from the people, not the courts, with mass produced decks coming before the fancy court versions.
So unsophisticated no one at the time or to this day has been able to provide a convincing narrative, bar in individual interpreters own minds.

It shows the influence of a literate mind, whether a poet at court or among the people, it is of an individual and literate mind. To say it is a product of 'the people' makes no sense; you suggesting it was invented by a co-operative of 'common people', whatever they were? Everything has an inventer (and a market - the people, hoi polloi or courts, both of which were frequenters of taverns, may have been the market, if that is what you mean). We know also that the courts had plates and presses and made printed decks for market, are they of the courts or of the people?

If you go back further, to the origin of the pips, are cup bearers and polo sticks of the people too do you suppose, or of the courts? Along with leiutenant, first leitenants, knights, valets and kings - every tavern had one of them eh, well at least a queen or two, perhaps that's why they were introduced :P

Of course they came through apparently the mamluk military slave army system (which no doubt had its contingent of camp followers and 'cup bearers'.)

Rosarium Philosophorum

32
10+0 = 11
Image

21+0 = 22

1 Head
10 fingers
1=genitalia=0
10 toes

The image of the sacred hermaphrodite embodies a resolution of duality, for the ‘adversary’ only exists to those whose vision sees opposition, conflict, polarity wherever their eyes may turn.
The simple Truth: shadows require light to be cast :eiL xelpmoc ehT

To build a House from a single Stone is the riddle which asks:
How could Nothing ever be some thing?

The mytho-poetics of the ancient world, in crafting the alchemical allegories of our celestial constellations & the lore attending them, concealed the secrets of this Great Work in plain sight.

Kabbalah & Tarot are both, at their root, a system of alKEMy - another invention attributed our trickster-god, Thoth. The glyphs & symbols arranged within our cipher-text alphabet find expression through Tarot iconography such that, until One beholds the vision of these puzzle pieces as a unified whole, their poignancy will elude any ‘rational’ minded individual already convinced of their own opinions.

1 do not pretend to Knowledge for 1 know Nothing.

If you come to this work loaded with presumptions such as: these cards were invented by the ‘lower classes’ solely for gambling purposes, or the deck’s design has no connection to the mathematics of cablah blah blah - then you rob yourself the opportunity of solving ‘the puzzle’. Your reasons have already told you ‘it’ doesn’t exist; and Reason - insofar as it needn’t have any connection to empirical or transcendental Understanding - requires opposition to formulate an argument. Just ask any logician-


:ymparty: (%)
Tempore patet occulta veritas...

Re: Cremonese Inquiries

33
SteveM wrote:
R.A. Hendley wrote: The rather unsophisticated nature of the trumps also suggests the game originated from the people, not the courts, with mass produced decks coming before the fancy court versions.
So unsophisticated no one at the time or to this day has been able to provide a convincing narrative, bar in individual interpreters own minds.

It shows the influence of a literate mind, whether a poet at court or among the people, it is of an individual and literate mind. To say it is a product of 'the people' makes no sense; you suggesting it was invented by a co-operative of 'common people', whatever they were? Everything has an inventer (and a market - the people, hoi polloi or courts, both of which were frequenters of taverns, may have been the market, if that is what you mean). We know also that the courts had plates and presses and made printed decks for market, are they of the courts or of the people?

If you go back further, to the origin of the pips, are cup bearers and polo sticks of the people too do you suppose, or of the courts? Along with leiutenant, first leitenants, knights, valets and kings - every tavern had one of them eh, well at least a queen or two, perhaps that's why they were introduced :P

Of course they came through apparently the mamluk military slave army system (which no doubt had its contingent of camp followers and 'cup bearers'.)

Ah, Steve! It's good to see we're disagreeing again! I was beginning to worry. :D

Where you and I differ is that I believe we have provided a convincing narrative, more or less.
I think Dummett identified the basic structure of the trump narrative 30 years ago. It would take some pretty impressive documentation, or a very high caliber weapon to convince me other wise.

Michael Hurst has taken the ball and ran with it for years. He's examined Dummett's structure, and done us all a big favor by doing loads of leg work (research) and presenting it in an understandable fashion. We are definitely in the right ballpark. The details are, naturally up for debate, as they would have been in 1450. I understand why the "new-age" crowd refuses to accept this - it kills their magic. I guess the only other reason one would refuse to accept it, without evidence, is pride. Ignorance and Pride. Reminds me of the first couple of trumps.

My point about "the people", is not who they were specifically, but that, IMO, the trumps cater to the POPULAR sentiment. Any poetry, philosophy, theology or political commentary in the trumps would have been there as a by-product of the popular theater, literature, and art that the game aped. :(|) I especially think the trumps derive from the popular theater and pageants, both in the choice of "characters" and in the overall narrative. :popcorn ~ GREAT SHOW!
I'd even go so far as to say the first printed decks were hawked at the very events they mimicked, the pageants and morality plays, in a stall right next to the guy selling sausages on a sick. =p~

You can read all the literary allusion into the trumps you want. I reckon it was there because the card maker knew it was popular and would sell more decks. $-)



BTW, shouldn't Yngwë Yngweron's rather speculative musings be over in the Unicorn Stable.
Last edited by R.A. Hendley on 07 Jul 2010, 00:28, edited 1 time in total.
When a clock is hungry, it goes back four seconds.

Re: Rosarium Philosophorum

34
Yngwë Yngweron wrote:
If you come to this work loaded with presumptions such as: these cards were invented by the ‘lower classes’ solely for gambling purposes, or the deck’s design has no connection to the mathematics of cablah blah blah - then you rob yourself the opportunity of solving ‘the puzzle’.

Funny! :))

I alway tell people that if they come to this work loaded with presumptions such as: these cards were invented by space aliens :ymalien: for the sole purpose of hiding their secret mathematical wisdom in a game so that future pakalolo smokers can find it and show off online - then you rob yourself the opportunity to see a clever 15th century allegory, that might have a thing or two to teach us about fairness, courage and moderation.
When a clock is hungry, it goes back four seconds.

Re: Cremonese Inquiries

35
Its dificulty to me said this in English...

First in spanish.

Cuando yo estudiaba la carrera de historia, hará unos veinte años, muchos profesores seguían la historiografía marxista, que con el tiempo se ha revelado insuficiente, por reduccionista, y, desde luego, absolutamente aburrida. Hoy en día nadie quiere ni mirar un libro de los historiadores marxistas (¡con todos esos datos económicos!). Sin embargo, siguen teniendo propuestas interesantes de las que todos podemos aprender.

Hoy en día, como reacción a los doscientos años post-Gebellin / Eteilla, se tiende a mirar con mucho recelo todo aquello que hayan dicho los autores ocultistas (Eliphas Levy, Papus, Wirht, etcétera), aunque -como ha señalado M. Hurst en repetidas ocasiones- se está cayendo en una platonifilia ciega que sustituye la anterior ceguera esotérica.

Sin embargo, hay que liberarse de cualquier prejuicio. Siempre podemos aprender algo, aunque sea que un camino es incorrecto. Lo importante es analizar las cosas de forma objetiva, sin ideas preconcebidas.

Por otro lado, hay investigaciones -como las que se puedan hacer sobre la Cabala- que, aunque no lleven a buen puerto, valen la pena por sí mismas, dado que nos enriquecen como personas. Como decía Kavafis, a veces lo importante no es llegar a Itaca, sino estar viajando.

Por eso mismo, yo le agradezco mucho a Yngwë Yngweron que haya abierto este post.

**************

Its the 04.09 am in Madrid... I need sleep because in -16 hours I need to go in a big party for celebrity the spanish victory in footbal (or defeat, but, in any case, very much beer)... I use the Google traslate, sorry friends:


When I was a graduate student of history, some twenty years ago, many professors were Marxist historiography, which over time has proved inadequate, reductive, and, of course, quite boring. Today nobody wants to or look at a book of Marxist historians (with all those economic data!). But still interesting proposals which we can all learn.

Today, in response to the two hundred years post-Gebellin / Eteilla, we tend to look very suspicious of everything that the authors have occult (Eliphas Levy, Papus, Wirht, etc.), although, as pointed out by M. Hurst repeatedly, is falling into a blind platonifilia replaces the former blindness esoteric.

However, it must be free of any bias. We can always learn something, even if a road is incorrect. The important thing is to discuss things objectively, without preconceptions.

On the other hand, some research-like that can be done on the Kabbalah, which, although not carried to fruition, are worth in themselves, given that enrich us as people. As Cavafy said, sometimes it is not important to get to Ithaca, but to be traveling.

That is why I am very grateful to Yngwë Yngweron you have opened this post.
When a man has a theory // Can’t keep his mind on nothing else (By Ross)

Reliquary II: Wounded King

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A legend concerning ‘Constantine the Great’ - first Christian to rule the Roman Empire, tells that 20 year into his reign he extended to his mother, Helena, unlimited access to the imperial treasury that she may gather what surviving relics of the crucifixion could still be found within the Holy Land. She returned five years later (c.325) bearing, by her testimony, fragments of the ‘one true cross’ - excavated from beneath a statue of Venus occupying the former hill of skulls, Golgotha. Tearing down the pagan idol, she ascertained which of three crosses buried there had been Jesus’ by touching each to someone on the verge of death. Naturally, the ‘one true cross’ saved the poor wretch.

Whether the tale was ever literally true or not is beside the point, for its’ continuation of the central mythos in Christian faith placed within the hands of Roman Imperial power a set of Iron nails declared the very same to have pinned the ‘Son’ of YHVH to his Cross: a tangible link to the Divine for all ‘true believers’. As such, St. Helena’s reliquary of magic Nails became talismans of the ‘earthly power by divine right’ granted a Sovereign upon ascending his Throne. Even though their empirical authenticity has always been dubious, at best, anyone committed to an ‘orthodox’ interpretation of history is more likely to accept their connection to specific Biblical episodes as literally ‘true’.

Enshrining one of these Nails, another talisman reputedly derived from the ‘Passion of Christ’ and known as the ‘Holy Lance of Vienna’, was regarded in medieval Christendom as the very spearhead to have pierced the side of Jesus on the Cross. One of several relics making this claim, this particular spear served as a ritual TooL in the coronation ceremony of many a King & Emperor, and traces its’ lineage to the fabled bearer of the Lance, Saint Maurice: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Lance ... g_spear.29

Image

♐ ‘Lance’

XIV
Image

V

♉ ‘Nail’
Image


The Golden Legend
“Moris or Maurice was duke of the right holy legion of Thebans. They were named Thebans, of Thebes their city. And that region is in the parts of the East beyond the parts of Arabia, and it is full of richesses, plenteous of fruit, delectable of trees. The indwellers of that region be of great bodies and noble in arms, strong in battle, subtle in engine, and right abundant in wisdom...

“And Ambrose saith thus of these martyrs in his preface: The company of these true christian men enlumined with divine light, coming from the farther ends of the world, which were armed with spiritual arms, and hied to their martyrdom with stable faith and diligent constancy, whom the cruel tyrant for to fear them tithed two times by the slaughter of the sword, and after, he seeing them constant in the faith, commanded them all to have their heads smitten off. But they burned in so great charity that they cast and threw away their arms and harness, and kneeling on their knees received sufferably with a joyous heart the swords of them that martyred them, among whom Maurice, embraced in the love and faith of Jesu Christ, received the crown of martyrdom. Hæc Ambrosius.

“....Then let us devoutly beseech Almighty God that by the merits of this holy martyr Saint Maurice and his holy fellowship the legion, which is six thousand six hundred and sixty-six, that suffered martyrdom, as heretofore is rehearsed, we may after this transitory life come unto the everlasting bliss in heaven, where he reigneth, world without end. Amen.”


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Maurice#Veneration
Image


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agaunum
After ordering the execution of his son for having opposed his rise to the throne, King Sigismund watched him strangled to death, repenting too late. It was said he prayed the remainder of his days for a just punishment from God for having murdered his own child - one he may have received when stripped of his kingdom by sons of the Merovingian King, Clovis I, whose queen, Clotilde, had been exiled from Burgundy as a child after her mother & father, Chilperic II, were killed by her uncle, Gundobad - Sigismund’s dad.

Apprehending the Burgundian king in the Abbey his endowment had built, one of Clotilde’s sons executed him against the entreaties of their bishop, Avitas, by throwing the penitent King down a well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund_of_Burgundy

Image

http://www.liv.ac.uk/~spmr02/rings/sforza.html

Image

Image

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Tempore patet occulta veritas...

Serious...

37
Admittedly, introduction of the notorious ‘Hopfberg Spear’ into our discourse carries a certain amount of strange baggage. However, long before shadows of the 20th century ever fell upon this Lance, the artifact did reside within the reliquary of the Holy Roman Emperors and played a pivotal role in their coronation ceremonies. This is a documentable fact; as is Sigismund of Burgundy’s association with the Abbey of St. Maurice - the fabled bearer of the Holy Lance.

It is said that, in 926, Henry “the Fowler” ceded the neighboring region Aargau to the bishopric of Sion in order to obtain this ‘relic’.

Being also in the possession of Sigismund I (The Emperor), combined with his alleged connection to the ‘Borromean Rings’ adorning the Church of San Sigismundo’s cloister door, definitively qualifies the so-called ‘Spear of Destiny’ as a part of Tarot History. The question naturally arises whether these facts are relevant with respect to the emergence of the Viscounti-Sforza deck. No doubt the more sober among you will scoff at the possibility of any such association, but the structural parallels with the puzzle-box described in RING TWO (http://yzygy.blogspot.com/) are indeed striking:

At a temple of the god Mercury (Thoth),
2 decimations of Theban martyrs (2x 666) connected to
a Nail+Spear (V=XIV) piercing The Sun on the Cross.

A King thrown down a well resurrected through
an Emperor heralded by
a Dragon biting its’ own tail

Could it be that the wedding ceremony itself was a weaving together of saints, relics & heraldic emblems intended to compose a specific alchemical formula across the canvas of Time?

Image


As opposed to scent hounds, whose persistence in locating their prey relies primarily upon their sense of smell, this particular breed is a type of sighthound - a dog whose hunting skills depend on spotting game quickly & giving chase with great speed & agility.

Image


Another curious feature in the pattern of events wedding these elements together, the Viscounti-Sforza marriage occurs in 1441. Assuming the estimation of equinoctial precession at 1 degree for every 72 years, 1441 would be the first year of the 3rd decanate of an Age of Pisces beginning in 1 AD. To the astrologically conscious, this would have been very auspicious -particularly if under the impression that One were observing an Egyptian partition of the celestial sphere:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius#Obs ... al_history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decans#Anc ... an_origins

1 zodiacal age of equinoctial precession:
2160 = 10 cubes of 6

216 - 146 = 70

1460 = 10 octahedrons of 6
:realignment of Sothic & sidereal years
Tempore patet occulta veritas...
cron