John Meador
Postel, franckenberg and Joachim of Fiore
The possibility of an influence upon the structure and iconography of the Tarot's trumps by Joachim of Fiore and/or later Joachites has been discussed by Bob V. O'Neill, in Tarot Symbolism, 1985, and Timothy Betts, Tarot and the Millenium, 1998.
Joachim of Fiore's deep influence upon Guillaume Postel is discussed in: Reeves, Marjorie: "The influence of prophecy in the later Middle Ages; a study in Joachimism".
Published: Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1969.
Postel modified Joachim's view by defining a quaterary of stages of being. These he gave as: Father, Mother, Son and Daughter. Furthermore, the stage of the Father was ruled by the archangel Michael and attached to the rule over Nature. The stage of the Mother was ruled by the archangel Gabriel and attached to Law. The stage of the Son was presided by Uriel and attached to Grace. The final stage of the Daughter was presided over by Raphael and advanced Restitution. This complimented an alchemical paradigm of the restored Anthropos, the original androgynous Adam who was comprised of a quaternity which included an eternal Animus which was male and an Anima which was female. Each of these was subdivided into two parts; one rational and one sensual, male and female.
These call to mind the 4 court cards and the Pope/Papess, Emperor/Empress.
Abraham von Franckenberg also embraced the archangel Raphael as the agent of Restitution in his work, "Raphael oder Artzt-Engel", 1638:
http://www.calicoweb.net/rubinoworks/raphael.html
http://www.ritmanlibrary.nl/500_56.html
Rafal T. Prinke specifies the connection between Franckenberg's mandala and the round altar that stood in the centre of the Vault of Christian Rosenkreutz as expressed in the Fama Fraternitatis 1614:
http://math.amu.edu.pl/~rafalp/ART/g_work.html
" It has been shown that some of the writings associated with the recrudescence of the Rosicrucian movement in the early seventeenth century reveal definite Joachimist influence. These people expected a third age of reformation and a new order to implement it. Among the schemata used is one which appears in a work by Franckenberg, Raphael oder Arztengel, in 1638. This has five double circles, one placed centrally and four at the four points of the compass. They touch but do not intersect. All are contained within one large double outer circle. In the central circle Christ appears in glory and the whole figure bears the caption - Jesus mihi omnia. The affinity with Joachim's Rotae-figure appears not only in the form but also in some of the captions, where the four animalia, four opera Christi, and the four points of the compass are inserted. There is also an interesting sequence of tree-captions reminiscent of Joachim's symbolism.
<<On the four sides of the square frarning the whole figure are the captions: Arbor Naturae, Arbor Legis, Arbor Gratiae, Arbor Gloriae; in the central circle: Arbor Theousia(?) Vitae.>>"
-Marjorie Reeves and Beatrice Hirsch-Reich: "The Figurae of Joachim of Fiore", 1972
This apparently reflects a sephiratic, Kabbalistic ordering.
see also:
http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cach...tas+evangelii+nequaquam+vacuum&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Here is a reproduction of Joachim of Fiore's Rotae from his Liber Concordia, Book 5
http://f2.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/gHcyP7...yJkn0bFVSr8vhXkZS6UiarCZDZx_-hk69P8/rotae.jpg
Comparison of Joachim's Rotae with Franckenberg's Raphael oder Artzt-Engel mandala of 1638 (which precedes the illustration of Postel's Clavis, 1646) is instructive.
"Joachim relates each of the Old Testament histories to one of the four Gospels through four of the great works of Christ. Both Job and Matthew relate to the Nativity of Christ. Tobit and Luke relate to the Passion of Christ. Judith and Mark relate to Christ's Resurrection, and Esther and John relate to his Ascension. The abbot notes moreover that the Jews do not accord Tobit and Judith canonical authority, although the Church does. This lack of canonical authority is appropriate, for their New Testament corollaries, Mark and Luke, were disciples of apostles and only describe what they have heard rather than what they have seen. Thus, the outer wheel, the general history of the Old Testament, has its four faces in Job, Tobit, Judith, and Esther; the inner wheel, the general history contained in the Apocalypse, has its four faces in Matthew, Luke, Mark, and John (VSB 22:35-69; LC 113v; EA 3r). Book V, Part IV, of the Liber Concordie is Joachim's commentary on Job, Tobit, Judith, and Esther."
-Delno West: "Joachim of Fiore. A Study in Spiritual Perception and History", 1983.
"This concept of the Trinity as a mysterious 'society' communally active in a complexity of patterns throughout history belies the overly simple notion often attributed to Joachim of a straight lineal sequence in which three successive ages are 'appropriated' to three successive Persons, each superseding the preceding one. This latter could be called a two-dimensional view, whereas Joachim's might be termed multi-dimensional. It is significant that Joachim never drew a simple horizontal figure of the three successive status. The figure which he created from the Wheels of Ezechiel - so often in his thoughts - shows the growth of spiritual illumination as the wheel within a wheel, drawing to a focus in the central caption caritas, the symbol of the third status; and the verb with which he expresses the relationship of the stages is inesse... In Book V of the Liber- concordie Joachim expounds the four 'special' histories - Job, Tobias, Judith, Esther - which are symbolized in the four facies of Ezechiel's wheels and typify the four opera Christi as well as the four evangelists."
-Marjorie Reeves: "Originality and Influence of Joachim of Fiore" in: Traditio, Vol. 36, 1980, pp289-290.
In iconography of existing Marsielles decks, we don't find specific visual reference associating the Wheel of Fortune to the Wheel of Ezekiel. But we do find textual indications that such existed:
"But by reading of authenticke histories and Chronicles, yee shall learne experience by Theoricke, applying the bypast things to the present estate, quia nihil novum sub sole, [There is nothing new under the sun] such is the continuall volubilities of things earthly, according to the roundnesse of the world, and revolution of the, heavenly circles: which is expressed by the wheeles in Ezechiels visions, and counterfeited by the Poets in rota Fortunae"
-James I: Basilicon Doron(the Kingly Gift )1598, p.40.
Eliphas Levi identifies the Wheel of Fortune with the Wheels of Ezekiel in
The Magical Ritual of the Sanctum Regnum
http://www.blackmask.com/books30c/sanctumregnum.htm
A.E. Waite and Pamela Colman-Smith follow.
W.B. Yeats has been the figure suggested as the person, mentioned by Waite, who assisted Waite/Colman-Smith in the design of their tarot ( Roger Parisious :“Figures in a Dance: W. B. Yeats and the Waite-Ride Tarot”). Of some interest, may be Yeat's familiarity with some of the works of Joachim of Fiore. In this regard, see: "Joachim of Fiore and the myth of the eternal evangel in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries",Gould, Warwick.
Oxford : Clarendon Press ; Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2001. revised edition.
The possibility of an influence upon the structure and iconography of the Tarot's trumps by Joachim of Fiore and/or later Joachites has been discussed by Bob V. O'Neill, in Tarot Symbolism, 1985, and Timothy Betts, Tarot and the Millenium, 1998.
Joachim of Fiore's deep influence upon Guillaume Postel is discussed in: Reeves, Marjorie: "The influence of prophecy in the later Middle Ages; a study in Joachimism".
Published: Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1969.
Postel modified Joachim's view by defining a quaterary of stages of being. These he gave as: Father, Mother, Son and Daughter. Furthermore, the stage of the Father was ruled by the archangel Michael and attached to the rule over Nature. The stage of the Mother was ruled by the archangel Gabriel and attached to Law. The stage of the Son was presided by Uriel and attached to Grace. The final stage of the Daughter was presided over by Raphael and advanced Restitution. This complimented an alchemical paradigm of the restored Anthropos, the original androgynous Adam who was comprised of a quaternity which included an eternal Animus which was male and an Anima which was female. Each of these was subdivided into two parts; one rational and one sensual, male and female.
These call to mind the 4 court cards and the Pope/Papess, Emperor/Empress.
Abraham von Franckenberg also embraced the archangel Raphael as the agent of Restitution in his work, "Raphael oder Artzt-Engel", 1638:
http://www.calicoweb.net/rubinoworks/raphael.html
http://www.ritmanlibrary.nl/500_56.html
Rafal T. Prinke specifies the connection between Franckenberg's mandala and the round altar that stood in the centre of the Vault of Christian Rosenkreutz as expressed in the Fama Fraternitatis 1614:
http://math.amu.edu.pl/~rafalp/ART/g_work.html
" It has been shown that some of the writings associated with the recrudescence of the Rosicrucian movement in the early seventeenth century reveal definite Joachimist influence. These people expected a third age of reformation and a new order to implement it. Among the schemata used is one which appears in a work by Franckenberg, Raphael oder Arztengel, in 1638. This has five double circles, one placed centrally and four at the four points of the compass. They touch but do not intersect. All are contained within one large double outer circle. In the central circle Christ appears in glory and the whole figure bears the caption - Jesus mihi omnia. The affinity with Joachim's Rotae-figure appears not only in the form but also in some of the captions, where the four animalia, four opera Christi, and the four points of the compass are inserted. There is also an interesting sequence of tree-captions reminiscent of Joachim's symbolism.
<<On the four sides of the square frarning the whole figure are the captions: Arbor Naturae, Arbor Legis, Arbor Gratiae, Arbor Gloriae; in the central circle: Arbor Theousia(?) Vitae.>>"
-Marjorie Reeves and Beatrice Hirsch-Reich: "The Figurae of Joachim of Fiore", 1972
This apparently reflects a sephiratic, Kabbalistic ordering.
see also:
http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cach...tas+evangelii+nequaquam+vacuum&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Here is a reproduction of Joachim of Fiore's Rotae from his Liber Concordia, Book 5
http://f2.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/gHcyP7...yJkn0bFVSr8vhXkZS6UiarCZDZx_-hk69P8/rotae.jpg
Comparison of Joachim's Rotae with Franckenberg's Raphael oder Artzt-Engel mandala of 1638 (which precedes the illustration of Postel's Clavis, 1646) is instructive.
"Joachim relates each of the Old Testament histories to one of the four Gospels through four of the great works of Christ. Both Job and Matthew relate to the Nativity of Christ. Tobit and Luke relate to the Passion of Christ. Judith and Mark relate to Christ's Resurrection, and Esther and John relate to his Ascension. The abbot notes moreover that the Jews do not accord Tobit and Judith canonical authority, although the Church does. This lack of canonical authority is appropriate, for their New Testament corollaries, Mark and Luke, were disciples of apostles and only describe what they have heard rather than what they have seen. Thus, the outer wheel, the general history of the Old Testament, has its four faces in Job, Tobit, Judith, and Esther; the inner wheel, the general history contained in the Apocalypse, has its four faces in Matthew, Luke, Mark, and John (VSB 22:35-69; LC 113v; EA 3r). Book V, Part IV, of the Liber Concordie is Joachim's commentary on Job, Tobit, Judith, and Esther."
-Delno West: "Joachim of Fiore. A Study in Spiritual Perception and History", 1983.
"This concept of the Trinity as a mysterious 'society' communally active in a complexity of patterns throughout history belies the overly simple notion often attributed to Joachim of a straight lineal sequence in which three successive ages are 'appropriated' to three successive Persons, each superseding the preceding one. This latter could be called a two-dimensional view, whereas Joachim's might be termed multi-dimensional. It is significant that Joachim never drew a simple horizontal figure of the three successive status. The figure which he created from the Wheels of Ezechiel - so often in his thoughts - shows the growth of spiritual illumination as the wheel within a wheel, drawing to a focus in the central caption caritas, the symbol of the third status; and the verb with which he expresses the relationship of the stages is inesse... In Book V of the Liber- concordie Joachim expounds the four 'special' histories - Job, Tobias, Judith, Esther - which are symbolized in the four facies of Ezechiel's wheels and typify the four opera Christi as well as the four evangelists."
-Marjorie Reeves: "Originality and Influence of Joachim of Fiore" in: Traditio, Vol. 36, 1980, pp289-290.
In iconography of existing Marsielles decks, we don't find specific visual reference associating the Wheel of Fortune to the Wheel of Ezekiel. But we do find textual indications that such existed:
"But by reading of authenticke histories and Chronicles, yee shall learne experience by Theoricke, applying the bypast things to the present estate, quia nihil novum sub sole, [There is nothing new under the sun] such is the continuall volubilities of things earthly, according to the roundnesse of the world, and revolution of the, heavenly circles: which is expressed by the wheeles in Ezechiels visions, and counterfeited by the Poets in rota Fortunae"
-James I: Basilicon Doron(the Kingly Gift )1598, p.40.
Eliphas Levi identifies the Wheel of Fortune with the Wheels of Ezekiel in
The Magical Ritual of the Sanctum Regnum
http://www.blackmask.com/books30c/sanctumregnum.htm
A.E. Waite and Pamela Colman-Smith follow.
W.B. Yeats has been the figure suggested as the person, mentioned by Waite, who assisted Waite/Colman-Smith in the design of their tarot ( Roger Parisious :“Figures in a Dance: W. B. Yeats and the Waite-Ride Tarot”). Of some interest, may be Yeat's familiarity with some of the works of Joachim of Fiore. In this regard, see: "Joachim of Fiore and the myth of the eternal evangel in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries",Gould, Warwick.
Oxford : Clarendon Press ; Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2001. revised edition.