darwinia
A Second Look
I like both these associations in the Tarot of the Saints, and I hope you might enjoy the deck more with this extra information.
This reminds me a bit of my initial reaction to the Empress in the Leonardo Da Vinci Tarot, who is Bianca Sforza, and was never a Mother or an empress. After further study and reading about her life, I came to realize that although not a mother herself, she embodied the qualities and personality of an Empress. For me, the Queen of Pentacles is the Mother card in decks and the Empress is very much a ruler who cares deeply for people, and her fertility is not only physical but mental and emotional as well. Bianca Sforza was a much-loved girl of intellect and courtly breeding, who brought light and sunshine to many people who were deeply grief-stricken by her death at a young age. Not just her family, but the city mourned.
I think tarot deck creators use two approaches to the Empress in the same way that you and I do. Now you've got me really curious to see how Mary fits into the Moon card--that's one I would never have thought of. I think Mary or a Madonna-like figure might be depicted with the moon in the Symbolon deck--can't remember and I traded the deck.
I'll just give you my general impression:
In this deck, Jesus is the Sun so it seems as a reflection that she might quite naturally fall into the role of The Moon. There is a bit of illusion and mystery to Mary, not only in regard to the Immaculate Conception but in regard to the way her mystique nearly took over from Jesus in worship. At one point I think the Church banned her likeness because devotion to her usurped the classic place of Jesus.
I actually understand that impetus. Thinking historically, nuns and priests who voluntarily left their families and remained celibate and without children, needed a mother figure for comfort I'm sure and it's easy to see why mother could usurp the place of a torn and tormented saviour. if you look at the history of other deities, they often encompass the idea of Mary--I am thinking specifically of Kuan Yin, the goddess of mercy and compassion who started out as a male Indian deity and gradually changed into our current concept of her, with discernible acknowledgement historically to Mary, the Mother of Christ in Western traditions. Also, specifying that a motherly archetype has to be a mother to know nurturing and birth is not supportable--there are many childless people who are mothers and fathers in spirit to others in the world, some religious, some not. It is an arbitrary specification for the Empress despite the classic pictorial definition on some tarot cards. I don't think it viable to restrict the archetype to those who have physically given birth. We see the opposite of that in the world today and world history.
Emotion, intuition, the nurturing qualities of the female, worry about family (and LORD this woman must have worried herself sick about her children). Let's see, what else, deep spirituality is the Moon and psychic premonition and the deception of others. Fears, dreams, daydreams, I like the connection to motherhood via the Moon.
There is a darker side to being the mother of a saviour to the world, the FEAR side and worry which this highlights. Knowing--mothers are often given credit for intuition and "knowing" when their children are in trouble or something's not right, YES? Yes. She knew of Jesus' inevitable death and the danger to her other children from political and religious factions. Deep, mysterious motherhood and the mental and emotional umbilical cord it carries, much like the Moon archetype. The ghostly sadness of clouds drifting across the Moon, the deep paths of the soul who bears that knowing sadness all her life, howling into the night.
The saint on the Empress card, St. Helena, was initially an empress of Constantius Chlorus when he was co-Regent of the West, but he divorced her after twenty years for political reasons. She was NOT a virgin BTW. She again became Empress of Rome when her son Constantine became emperor in 312--he made her Empress because he resented that his father had divorced her. Robert Place says that classically this card in the tarot represented the wife and Empress of the Holy Roman Emperor. She was an Empress as a mother and wife. Very clear connection there classically and historically to this archetype
She converted to Christianity and by doing so, probably caused Constantine her son to issue an edict making Christianity a tolerated religion. Again, the mother archetype protecting and nurturing others and their faith. She was very charitable helping the poor with her own money, and built many churches including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem which she founded after going to the Holy Land on a pilgrimage when she was eighty. She died there, and "It is presumed that her remains were transferred in 849 to the Abbey of Hautvillers, in the French Archdiocese of Reims, as recorded by the monk Altmann in his "Translatio." Her relics are under the altar of the Capella Sant' Elena in the church of Ara Coeli, in Rome which was built in the 7th century--she is supposed to have found a true piece of the cross after a vision, plus three nails from the crucifixion. She is often depicted holding these items, which is probably why Place has her holding the cross in the card.
One of the pillars of St. Peter's in Rome is dedicated to her and has her statue near it. In the gallery above her huge marble statue, the relics of St. Peter's are displayed several times during the year. Almost as if she is still looking after things!
Charity, loving concern for people, faithful, regal, and a true Empress in all ways; mired in politics and the machinations of mankind, but still concerned for those she ruled. Her influence and liberality caused the wider spread of Christianity:
"Her princely munificence was such that, according to Eusebius, she assisted not only individuals but entire communities. The poor and destitute were the special objects of her charity. She visited the churches everywhere with pious zeal and made them rich donations. It was thus that, in fulfilment of the Saviour's precept, she brought forth abundant fruit in word and deed. If Helena conducted herself in this manner while in the Holy Land, which is indeed testified to by Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, we should not doubt that she manifested the same piety and benevolence in those other cities of the empire in which she resided after her conversion."
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07202b.htm
Enjoy, enjoy!!!
I like both these associations in the Tarot of the Saints, and I hope you might enjoy the deck more with this extra information.
This reminds me a bit of my initial reaction to the Empress in the Leonardo Da Vinci Tarot, who is Bianca Sforza, and was never a Mother or an empress. After further study and reading about her life, I came to realize that although not a mother herself, she embodied the qualities and personality of an Empress. For me, the Queen of Pentacles is the Mother card in decks and the Empress is very much a ruler who cares deeply for people, and her fertility is not only physical but mental and emotional as well. Bianca Sforza was a much-loved girl of intellect and courtly breeding, who brought light and sunshine to many people who were deeply grief-stricken by her death at a young age. Not just her family, but the city mourned.
I think tarot deck creators use two approaches to the Empress in the same way that you and I do. Now you've got me really curious to see how Mary fits into the Moon card--that's one I would never have thought of. I think Mary or a Madonna-like figure might be depicted with the moon in the Symbolon deck--can't remember and I traded the deck.
I'll just give you my general impression:
In this deck, Jesus is the Sun so it seems as a reflection that she might quite naturally fall into the role of The Moon. There is a bit of illusion and mystery to Mary, not only in regard to the Immaculate Conception but in regard to the way her mystique nearly took over from Jesus in worship. At one point I think the Church banned her likeness because devotion to her usurped the classic place of Jesus.
I actually understand that impetus. Thinking historically, nuns and priests who voluntarily left their families and remained celibate and without children, needed a mother figure for comfort I'm sure and it's easy to see why mother could usurp the place of a torn and tormented saviour. if you look at the history of other deities, they often encompass the idea of Mary--I am thinking specifically of Kuan Yin, the goddess of mercy and compassion who started out as a male Indian deity and gradually changed into our current concept of her, with discernible acknowledgement historically to Mary, the Mother of Christ in Western traditions. Also, specifying that a motherly archetype has to be a mother to know nurturing and birth is not supportable--there are many childless people who are mothers and fathers in spirit to others in the world, some religious, some not. It is an arbitrary specification for the Empress despite the classic pictorial definition on some tarot cards. I don't think it viable to restrict the archetype to those who have physically given birth. We see the opposite of that in the world today and world history.
Emotion, intuition, the nurturing qualities of the female, worry about family (and LORD this woman must have worried herself sick about her children). Let's see, what else, deep spirituality is the Moon and psychic premonition and the deception of others. Fears, dreams, daydreams, I like the connection to motherhood via the Moon.
There is a darker side to being the mother of a saviour to the world, the FEAR side and worry which this highlights. Knowing--mothers are often given credit for intuition and "knowing" when their children are in trouble or something's not right, YES? Yes. She knew of Jesus' inevitable death and the danger to her other children from political and religious factions. Deep, mysterious motherhood and the mental and emotional umbilical cord it carries, much like the Moon archetype. The ghostly sadness of clouds drifting across the Moon, the deep paths of the soul who bears that knowing sadness all her life, howling into the night.
The saint on the Empress card, St. Helena, was initially an empress of Constantius Chlorus when he was co-Regent of the West, but he divorced her after twenty years for political reasons. She was NOT a virgin BTW. She again became Empress of Rome when her son Constantine became emperor in 312--he made her Empress because he resented that his father had divorced her. Robert Place says that classically this card in the tarot represented the wife and Empress of the Holy Roman Emperor. She was an Empress as a mother and wife. Very clear connection there classically and historically to this archetype
She converted to Christianity and by doing so, probably caused Constantine her son to issue an edict making Christianity a tolerated religion. Again, the mother archetype protecting and nurturing others and their faith. She was very charitable helping the poor with her own money, and built many churches including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem which she founded after going to the Holy Land on a pilgrimage when she was eighty. She died there, and "It is presumed that her remains were transferred in 849 to the Abbey of Hautvillers, in the French Archdiocese of Reims, as recorded by the monk Altmann in his "Translatio." Her relics are under the altar of the Capella Sant' Elena in the church of Ara Coeli, in Rome which was built in the 7th century--she is supposed to have found a true piece of the cross after a vision, plus three nails from the crucifixion. She is often depicted holding these items, which is probably why Place has her holding the cross in the card.
One of the pillars of St. Peter's in Rome is dedicated to her and has her statue near it. In the gallery above her huge marble statue, the relics of St. Peter's are displayed several times during the year. Almost as if she is still looking after things!
Charity, loving concern for people, faithful, regal, and a true Empress in all ways; mired in politics and the machinations of mankind, but still concerned for those she ruled. Her influence and liberality caused the wider spread of Christianity:
"Her princely munificence was such that, according to Eusebius, she assisted not only individuals but entire communities. The poor and destitute were the special objects of her charity. She visited the churches everywhere with pious zeal and made them rich donations. It was thus that, in fulfilment of the Saviour's precept, she brought forth abundant fruit in word and deed. If Helena conducted herself in this manner while in the Holy Land, which is indeed testified to by Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, we should not doubt that she manifested the same piety and benevolence in those other cities of the empire in which she resided after her conversion."
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07202b.htm
Enjoy, enjoy!!!
