I thought maybe someone who reads this can comment on what they think.
I was looking at a plan of the Scrovegni Chapel in Italy( originally posted by Le Pendu)
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/g ... index.html
Look to the depictions of Vice and Virtue and the way the Church is laid out
- at the same time I was
trying to work out a circular pattern of the 22 atouts of the Noblet. Any Tarot de Marseille would suffice though.
It started with a comment that one place in the sequence was known for sure and that was the Hanged Man at Card 12.
So I put a triangle on Him. Temperance is a Virtue so I put a square on her at Card 14.
Then I saw an ancient woodblock of Christ standing and around was the four Apostles as their symbols.
To put it all in context, I saw these illuminations of the Church personified.
http://www.bnf.fr/enluminures/themes/t_5/ast_5_03.htm
The Pattern that emerged was one of a Tripartite pattern- The Church Personified- The Virtues and The Vices-The Communion of Saints- very similar to the Scrovegni Chapel paintings by Giotto. This is the result of many years of trying to extricate myself from occult Tarot- and finally finding Tarot of Marseille five years ago. I have wanted Tarot to be anything but Christian- and finally have had to admit to Tarot's undeniable atmosphere of Birth.
1..... The Bateleur/Magician Mercury- The Clergy
II......The Papesse -Charity/Charitas, selfless Love
III.....The Empress-Vanity/Envy Selfishness
IV.....The Emperor Mars- The Church Building (Romanesque) Warriors of God Headquarters
V...... The Pope- Faith
VI. .... The Lovers- Infidelity
VII.... The Chariot -Venus -Living Saints in Love/Agape-active Church in it's Ark (body of the Church)
VIII.... Justice - Justice
IX.......Hermite/Ermite - Injustice
X........W.O.F. Earth- The Hub of the Church/Under the Dome
XI.......Strength/Fortitude- stet
XII......The Hanged Man- Inconstancy/disloyalty
XIII.....Death Saturn- The Harvester- The Saints dead, waiting in Purgatory
XIV......Temperance- stet
XV......The Devil- Wrath
XVI.....The Tower Jupiter- The Tabernacle/ Jupiters/Jove's Bolt of Lightening
XVII....The Star- Hope
XVIII...The Moon- Despair
XIX......The Sun Sun The Altar rails/Altar/Rose window
XX.......Judgment
XXI.....The World- Prudence
0.........The Fool- Foolishness
The blue Highlight are the Church personified. This was a common artistic device as you can see by the illuminations link.
I always thought the World was the quintessence card, but it is not- it is Judgment, in my view. After every Church Personified card you have the Virtues and the Vices.
To understand the Moon as Despair- not as the Moon, you need to look at the Nuremberg Chronicle at the Omens, where it depicts the odd appearing sun with dew drops and the Moon with Moon dogs- the Days of Despair.
The Chronicle often depicts atmospheric/meteorological phenomena, such as these Moon Dogs and Sun Dogs. A modern, scientific explanation (the Chronicle simply describes the appearance of the phenomena and what people believed it foretold) follows:
Sun dogs, also called mock suns, are colored, luminous spots caused by the refraction of light by six-sided ice crystals in the atmosphere. These bright spots form in the solar halo at points that are 22 degrees on either side of the sun and at the same elevation as the sun. The rarer moon dogs occur for the same reason, but only during a very bright full moon.
The Hermite/Ermite as Injustice is how the Church saw Heresy as Injustice (a whole thread by itself) and the Ermites that had private chapels that the Church wanted open to the public- so confiscated them and re built larger Churches on the sites. See the History of the Scrovegni Chapel and it's original Ermite owners.
To round the whole thing- I personally believe the sequence of Tarot was the description of the 9th article of the Apostles Creed (The Old Roman Rule of Faith). This was a basic pictorial creed and was recited in Latin, by those who were to be baptised. So the blue Highlighted cards are pictorial of the Communion of Saints.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.
Amen.
To follow the rule of Faith one must be Virtuous and overcome Vice.