Chrysopoeia

beanu

Yg,

Q1. Can you point me at any early copies of, or references to, these constellation diagrams?

I've had a look at the cards, but its a hard slog.

Re: Decans.
Q2. Should I be looking at Picatrix, or modern astrology decans?

Q3. Do these constellations come from the Zodiac,
or any particulay astrology (roman, greek, egyptian, Indian, etc)?
The 22 sign zodiac perhaps?

some early guesses

2 = Arrow
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I'm guessing it flows up the "path of the Arrow" on the Tree. This puts it in a very "balanced position, and the top two cards are very male/femal oriented, hence marriage, whose symbol is LIBRA.
There are also a lot of indications of the two coming from the one.
I guess I shouldn't discount the "too obvious" sagittarius

3 = Cup
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The image looks like either Aries or Taurus maybe.

5 = Staff
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Seems a bit like a staff of authority - a male symbol - perhaps the male pillar,
although I think the pillars don't work. Its the male snake of the Caduceus.
OR, it could be the golden staff given to Hermes by Persius - Sun God, Medusa, etc. But that doesn't lead me to a constellation.
The Staff of the Hermit - Virgo?

6 = Pillars
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Gemini, presumably. The whole castor and pollux thing. Male and female pillars on the tree.

7 = Spiral
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Scorpio. Some of the vices listed by the cards, plus the general shape

8 = Star
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I can see it on the Tree, but haven't sussed constellation yet.
The Seal of Solomon I see as Justice/Libra, but I've already used that.
Maybe the other one is wrong.

Need Sleep - Brain hurts.

beanu

Hey yyg,
your symbols have come through now. I guess someone installed a font somewhere (or my machine did)
B

Yygdrasilian

...et tu, Bruno?

beanu said:
Q1. Can you point me at any early copies of, or references to, these constellation diagrams?

The mnemonic system in Tarot Roots may be related to Brother Giordano’s methods...

Marie-Louise Von Franz said:
“In his work De umbris idearum (by which he means magical shadow facsimiles of the heavenly archetypes), Bruno arranges the thirty-six images of the decanates, the forty-nine planetary images (seven per planet), and finally the thirty-six representations said to pertain to the twelve zodiac signs, into a circular system. The complete structure, however, is not meant to represent a horoscope, but a cosmic ‘memory system’; it functions, simultaneously, as a means of becoming identical with God.”

“In another of Bruno’s books, Articuli centum et sexaginta adversus mathematicos atque philosophpos (1588), he presents a collection of the most curious mandala drawings... [He] was so profoundly moved by his mandala model of the universe that he also interpreted Copernicus’ heliocentric theory and Mordente’s invention of the compass in the same way, maintaining that these discoverers insufficiently grasped the meaning of their theories (or discoveries) because they merely comprehended them scientifically. For himself they held a deeper, magical significance.”
- Number and Time

If Giordano Bruno ever taught his mnemonic techniques during his many years of wandering he would likely have used matrices such as these:
http://books.google.com/books?id=_d7u3Nis52MC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Number+and+Time#PPA189,M1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Unamed_Figures.jpg

We may find it reasonable to suspect these methods stemmed from a tradition saved from near extinction by a 'Renaissance' of ancient learning...

Marie-Louise Von Franz said:
“Among these three (ideae, rationes, species) exist magical connections (concatenationes), so that by bringing the ‘correct’ earthly substances together, the idea can be magically captured and constellated. In this way, portions of the world-soul can also be pulled down to the lower world and captured, thereby even ‘deconstellating’ adverse physical conditions. For this reason, Marsilio Ficino believed, it would be particularly beneficial to fashion a likeness of the whole universe (a mundus figura). This figure should consist of bronze combined with gold & silver (= Jupiter, Sol, Venus). The work should be begun when the sun enters Aries, and completed when it stands in the sign of Venus. It must contain three colors: green, gold, and blue. The sum total is envisaged to be a kind of talismanic object, in the form of a mandala, which can either be worn like a medallion or a jewel, or hung on the wall to be contemplated. One must, he continues, meditate on this figure in one’s soul and then it can exert a positive influence on the world. Whoever contemplates such an image and impresses its lines and colors on his memory can, when he goes forth from his house and is overwhelmed by the many impressions of the outer world, transform their chaotic experience into a unity through the image of higher reality carried within himself.” - Number and Time
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie-Louise_Von_Franz

... A tradition that was wedded to the Trionfi.

As far as the spreads published by Angeles Arrien in The Tarot Handbook are concerned, I reckon she must have applied additive persistence to the Crowley-Smith Tarot and placed the ‘Constellations’ within the matrices of the types of mandalas cited above, ...perhaps whilst deep into a 3-week ‘ecstatic experience’ of ‘shamanic’ trance sessions involving holotropic breath-work, and/or a kykeon brew.

beanu said:
Q2. Should I be looking at Picatrix, or modern astrology decans?

Think of it as two rings: one with the cycle of planets, the other with the zodiac. For every arc of the zodiacal ring, the planet ring turns 3 arcs, until every house is divided into 3 decans of 10°, each being assigned its planet: Mars-Aries, Sun-Aries, Venus-Aries, Mercury-Taurus, etc.,
These are then numbered, counting up from 2 to 10.
Thus, a code of thirty-six 7:12 juxtapositions (out of a possible eighty-four) indexed into Nine sets of 4 pairs.
Each One of these pairs is a metaphor for a different Element of that Root.

beanu said:
Q3. Do these constellations come from the Zodiac,
or any particulay astrology (roman, greek, egyptian, Indian, etc)?
The 22 sign zodiac perhaps?

Being a sacred memory TooL it is difficult to be sure when it was authored or by whom.
Perhaps we are looking at a form of Hermetic astrology shared by the Sages of antiquity. If One imagines reading these as hieroglyphs whose design embody their meaning, it becomes easier to understand what is being ‘shown’ you. Ask what types of motion or energy are being uniquely described by joining these glyphs together, and how might they appear as an allegory or character from ancient mythology.

Its utility as a knowledge bank transcends language barriers.

Chrysopoeia

beanu

beanu

Yygdrasilian