Sortes Virgilianae

It has been a while since I posted in this my favourite forum on Aeclectic.
If you were to read this Wikipedia site- it will explain that the two most widely read written books were the Bible and Virgil's work 'the Aeneid'. The Aeneid is in Verse.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortes_virgilianae
How this worked, was with dice (not the Bible or Homer) One got the Book, and Line verse this way- yet I have not been able to find out how one arrived at the wild card Number of Zero with die. The site posted gives some examples of Divination by famous people.
This form of Biblomancy was very popular at the time of Tarot's origin, along with Horoscopes. Unlike Horoscopes, which were expensive, this form of Sortes was available to those with Books- after the printing press were increasingly available.
Now the 'Aeneid' was a Pagan tale by a Pagan Man, whom the Christian Church adopted as their own- so he was thought to be Christian by the Medieval times. Here is a basic outline of the story.

Nearly the entirety of the Aeneid is devoted to the theme of conflict. The primary conflict is that of Aeneas, as guided by gods such as Jupiter, Apollo and Venus, Aeneas' mother. Aeneas is representative of pietas (a self-less sense of duty), against Turnus, who is guided by Juno, representing unbridled furor (mindless passion and fury). Furor is also personified in the character Dido; however, although her furor conflicts with Aeneas' pietas, she herself is not pitted against Aeneas. Other conflicts within the Aeneid include fate versus action, male versus female, Rome versus Carthage, Aeneas as Odysseus in Books 1–6 versus Aeneas as Achilles in Books 7–12, calm weather versus storms, and the Gate of Horn versus the Ivory Gate of Book VI.

Pietas, possibly the key quality of any 'honourable' Roman, consisted of a series of duties: duty towards the gods (hence the English word piety), duty towards one's homeland, duty towards one's followers and duty to one's family—especially one's father. Therefore, a further theme of the poem explores the strong relationship between fathers and sons. The bonds between Aeneas and Ascanius, Aeneas and Anchises, Evander and Pallas, Mezentius and Lausus are all worthy of note. This theme reflects Augustan moral reforms and was perhaps intended to set an example for Roman youth.

The major moral of the Aeneid is acceptance of the workings of the gods as fate through the use of pietas or piety. In composing the character of Aeneas, Virgil alludes to Augustus, suggesting that the gods work their ways through humans, using Aeneas to found Rome and Augustus to lead it, and that one must accept one's fate.

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Virgil Commentary
The story of Aeneas was very popular in the time of the expected creation of Tarot- in Florence- in 1439 when the Council of Basel/Ferrara/Florence went finally to Florence to settle the split between Eastern and Western Churches. Aside from the conflict between the lateran Council and the Pope- the entry into Florence of Eastern Potentates was a 'fabulous' time in Renaissance History and the Virgilian books were used to emphasise this
greatness through the fabulous stories of Troy etc.

http://www.palazzo-medici.it/mediateca/en/schede.php?id_scheda=161
If you look at image 19 in the Iconographia you will see the Horoscope of the time- Scorpio as in the sky with Orion with the Planet Mars- a time of War.(Troy)
You can also see very similiar images to the handpainted cards of Tarot, which of course were Gothic and predominate at the time, so of course there will be similarities.
Out of curiousity I drew a sortes and got.....
Better times perhaps await us who are now wretched.. Reminded me of the Fool.
Enjoy....
~Rosanne

I typed this out from a small generic book on Virgil (Collectors Library) in which the commentary is almost similar to most wiki sites on Virgil.

The Aeneid was composed at least in part to celebrate ''truth, justice, and the Roman way'' and to promote the rebirth of the Roman way of life under Augustus. The Aeneid also universalises Roman experience, ideals, and aspirations. The Aeneid represents a pivotal point in western literature: Virgil drew on the whole of Greek and Latin literature to create this epic. He expanded the range of the Latin epic, using elements from most types of late classical literature, while refining the linguistic and metrical possibilities of the epic genre. Because of its generic inclusiveness and linguistic brilliance, the Aeneid spread its influence across every form of written discourse for centuries.
In the last two thousand years the Aeneid has been a pagan bible, a Latin style manual, a moral allegory, a document of European unity, a pacifist document—and one of the most-read and studied works of world literature of all time. Entering its third millennium, the Aeneid can still speak immediately to the reader.

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I do wonder if in any way the Sortes of Virgil influenced Tarot.
~Rosanne

Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride

While it may not have been divined under the influence of some mantic accident, the Great Seal of the United States can be read as a kind of Sortes Virgilianae:

Jupiter omnipotens, audacibus annue cœptis.
"Jupiter Almighty, favour these bold undertakings."

la Roue de Fortune
♃
כ
Hand Palm

It manus in gyrum; paullatim singula vires
Deperdunt proprias; the color est e pluribus unus
“The hand goes in circles: gradually the separate essences
Lose distinction, the color is out of many one”

Ox Goad

ל
Justice

Ultima Cumaei venit iam carminis ætas;
Now comes the final era of the Sibyl's song

Magnus ab integro sæclorum nascitur ordo.
The great order of the ages is born afresh.

iam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna,
And now justice returns, honored rules return;

iam nova progenies cælo demittitur alto.
now a new lineage is sent down from high heaven.

Being Dante’s guide through the infernal undergloom and up the heights of Mount Purgatory, yet unable to enter the spheres of heaven leading unto paradise, the use of Virgil’s phrases upon the reverse of every US One Dollar Federal Reserve Note was perhaps intended to serve as a reminder of the shortcomings inherent with any form of money. Though, from a certain perspective, the Eye of Providence may lend us a view unto an “immortal” truth alluded to by those specific poetic excerpts.
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=191652

We can only hope that Glaukos, hidden so carefully upon the front of this leaf from the Tree of Life, will indeed prove the herald of Justice returning to her proper provenance.

Athena said:

"Too mighty is this matter, whatsoe’er
Of mortals claims to judge hereof aright.
Yea, me, even me, eternal Right forbids
To judge the issues of blood-guilt, and wrath
That follows swift behind. This too gives pause,
That thou as one with all due rites performed
Dost come unsinning, pure, unto my shrine.
Whate’er thou art, in this my city’s name,
As uncondemned, I take thee to my side.—
Yet have these foes of thine such dues by fate,
I may not banish them: and if they fail,
O’erthrown in judgment of the cause, forthwith
Their anger’s poison shall infect the land—
A dropping plague-spot of eternal ill.
Thus stand we with a woe on either hand:
Stay they, or go at my commandment forth,
Perplexity or pain must needs befall.
Yet, as on me Fate hath imposed the cause,
I choose unto me judges that shall be
An ordinance for ever, set to rule
The dues of blood-guilt, upon oath declared.
But ye, call forth your witness and your proof,
Words strong for justice, fortified by oath;
And I, whoe’er are truest in my town,
Them will I choose and bring, and straitly charge,
Look on this cause, discriminating well,
And pledge your oath to utter nought of wrong."
- Aeschylus, The Furies

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