venicebard
Since I was rushed (by being at the end of my hour, though not my rope), let me restate (in more complete form) the necessary ingredients without which there is nothing to talk about here:
1. The tree-letters in their Gravesian form (TWG, chapters X and XI), to include the two hidden letters he hypothesizes (TWG chapter XIV, illustrated on p. 252) to fill in the remaining two corners of the dolmen (as he puts it), that is, to go along with Kk [Q] and Ss: Aa-palm and Ii-mistletoe/loranthus. (The name for A, ailm [pronounced alev], meant both fir and palm, according to Graves.)
2. The numbers said to have been used to refer to them in Irish medieval literature (TWG, pp. 295-6), and evidently also in Wales, judging from the fact that they are given in numerical order by one of the bards contributing to The Barddas of Iolo Morganwg.
3. The idea that the consonants make the 13 months of a calendar (with Kk and Ss doubling K and S), beginning at winter solstice (waxing of days), and that the vowels mark the seasons: A-Yule, O-spring, U-summer, E-autumn, and I-winter. (Aa as palm and Ii as mistletoe evidently signify the promise of better weather to come, since the days commence lengthening at yuletide, A, and continue to do so throughout winter, I.)
4. Orientation of the year or zodiac (a) with respect to the human form seated in meditation, such that spring springs up towards aries the head, summer blossoms out in the direction of the breasts or cancer, fall falls down towards libra the loins, and winter tests one's backbone, the mid-spine being capricorn (until one stands up and the round opens up once again to its broken-and-extended form, where scorpio through pisces extend down the legs to the feet), and (b) with respect to one's environment, where forward or cancer is one's line of sight towards other (one's 'bosom buddies') and back is back towards (or within one-) self ('backbone').
5. The 'twins' hypothesis of Graves, wherein the year is divided into an upper or heroic side (winter-spring) -- which he calls the oak-king -- and a lower or satiric side (summer-fall) -- which he calls holly-king, or 'tanist' (overthrower of the oak-king).
6. On occasion it is also helpful to mention two ramifications of the Boibel Loth names for ogham letters: (a) the answers to the riddles in the Hanes Taliesin Graves gives in (TWG) chapter V and lists at the beginning of chapter VI (p. 97) and again with the questions they are attached to in chapter VII (on pp. 119-20), from which he deduced it was the Boibel Loth that was being referenced, and (b) the Greek expressions close to these names from which Graves constructed (in chapter VIII) a sort of Orphic hymn he calls 'Hercules on the Lotus', whose text appears on page 137 (with the expressions for the vowels on the following page).
7. The trumps of the Tarot of Marseilles (my own preference is Grimaud, as the coloration seems most correct there).
PS. Some Welsh tourists I had in my cab the other day told me Taliesin is pronounced tah-lee-ESS-in, so I thought I would pass this on.
Since much of the above derives from Graves, let me say that if he is to be dismissed utterly, then there is nothing to discuss. But if you will give him a little credit for being a serious scholar as well as poet and humorist (judging from his absolutely delightful short stories), then it will not be difficult to accept, tentatively, this limited subset of what he put forth in TWG that opens forth into deeper understanding of tarot.
The credibility of the above-listed items in my mind is based on the fact that they resonate so well with the trumps and with so much else I have been able to dig up concerning shapes of letters, names (and shapes) of runes, meanings clearly embodied by these, and so on. Without the big picture, the greater context in which the meaning and structure of the tradition can be 'fleshed out', one is denied much of the corroborative evidence. Still, I think that the clarity with which most can be seen to fit their trumps even without said greater context should at least cause deeper interest in this line of investigation.
It is of course with the hope of stimulating interest in those better equipped to research certain aspects with greater thoroughness than I can that I speak to you at all, not simply some desire at self-aggrandizement. Why else would I have beat my head against your wall all this time with so little result? (No, I am not a masochist.)
To work, then.
1. The tree-letters in their Gravesian form (TWG, chapters X and XI), to include the two hidden letters he hypothesizes (TWG chapter XIV, illustrated on p. 252) to fill in the remaining two corners of the dolmen (as he puts it), that is, to go along with Kk [Q] and Ss: Aa-palm and Ii-mistletoe/loranthus. (The name for A, ailm [pronounced alev], meant both fir and palm, according to Graves.)
2. The numbers said to have been used to refer to them in Irish medieval literature (TWG, pp. 295-6), and evidently also in Wales, judging from the fact that they are given in numerical order by one of the bards contributing to The Barddas of Iolo Morganwg.
3. The idea that the consonants make the 13 months of a calendar (with Kk and Ss doubling K and S), beginning at winter solstice (waxing of days), and that the vowels mark the seasons: A-Yule, O-spring, U-summer, E-autumn, and I-winter. (Aa as palm and Ii as mistletoe evidently signify the promise of better weather to come, since the days commence lengthening at yuletide, A, and continue to do so throughout winter, I.)
4. Orientation of the year or zodiac (a) with respect to the human form seated in meditation, such that spring springs up towards aries the head, summer blossoms out in the direction of the breasts or cancer, fall falls down towards libra the loins, and winter tests one's backbone, the mid-spine being capricorn (until one stands up and the round opens up once again to its broken-and-extended form, where scorpio through pisces extend down the legs to the feet), and (b) with respect to one's environment, where forward or cancer is one's line of sight towards other (one's 'bosom buddies') and back is back towards (or within one-) self ('backbone').
5. The 'twins' hypothesis of Graves, wherein the year is divided into an upper or heroic side (winter-spring) -- which he calls the oak-king -- and a lower or satiric side (summer-fall) -- which he calls holly-king, or 'tanist' (overthrower of the oak-king).
6. On occasion it is also helpful to mention two ramifications of the Boibel Loth names for ogham letters: (a) the answers to the riddles in the Hanes Taliesin Graves gives in (TWG) chapter V and lists at the beginning of chapter VI (p. 97) and again with the questions they are attached to in chapter VII (on pp. 119-20), from which he deduced it was the Boibel Loth that was being referenced, and (b) the Greek expressions close to these names from which Graves constructed (in chapter VIII) a sort of Orphic hymn he calls 'Hercules on the Lotus', whose text appears on page 137 (with the expressions for the vowels on the following page).
7. The trumps of the Tarot of Marseilles (my own preference is Grimaud, as the coloration seems most correct there).
PS. Some Welsh tourists I had in my cab the other day told me Taliesin is pronounced tah-lee-ESS-in, so I thought I would pass this on.
Since much of the above derives from Graves, let me say that if he is to be dismissed utterly, then there is nothing to discuss. But if you will give him a little credit for being a serious scholar as well as poet and humorist (judging from his absolutely delightful short stories), then it will not be difficult to accept, tentatively, this limited subset of what he put forth in TWG that opens forth into deeper understanding of tarot.
The credibility of the above-listed items in my mind is based on the fact that they resonate so well with the trumps and with so much else I have been able to dig up concerning shapes of letters, names (and shapes) of runes, meanings clearly embodied by these, and so on. Without the big picture, the greater context in which the meaning and structure of the tradition can be 'fleshed out', one is denied much of the corroborative evidence. Still, I think that the clarity with which most can be seen to fit their trumps even without said greater context should at least cause deeper interest in this line of investigation.
It is of course with the hope of stimulating interest in those better equipped to research certain aspects with greater thoroughness than I can that I speak to you at all, not simply some desire at self-aggrandizement. Why else would I have beat my head against your wall all this time with so little result? (No, I am not a masochist.)
To work, then.