Rusty Neon
catboxer said:Ah, yes, good old Peter Pantacles.
Those five-point stars first showed up, I believe, on Waite's deck around 1910.
According to M. Dummet, Waite engineered the name change this way. When he was translating Levi's "Rituals of High Magic," Waite deliberately left the French word "pantacles" untranslated. Levi said that the suit of coins represented "pantacles," which I guess roughly translates as "talismans." Waite knew that English-speaking readers would interpret the word as meaning "pentacles," and then he exploited the misunderstanding by having Pamela Colman Smith draw those little star thingies on the coins of his own deck.
That's from "Wicked Pack," p. 47.
This pantacle/pentacle difference got me interested. I have just glanced at _Le Tarot des imagiers du Moyen Âge_ by Oswald Wirth, and I have noticed that Wirth uses the French word "pentacle" (rather than "pantacle") in relation to the Coins suit. At page 364, he writes:
"Aux 22 arcanes primitifs ont été ajoutées 56 cartes à jouer partagées en 4 séries de 14, désignées chacune par un emblème très significatif. _Bâton_, _Coupe_, _Épée_, _Denier_ constituent, en effet, un quaternaire magique, dans lequel, _Bâton_, Baguette or Sceptre correspond au pouvoir de commander, _Coupe_ à extase dionysiaque, source d'inspiration divinatoire, _Épée_ au discernement qui écarte l'erreur et _Denier_ à l'appui que les pentacles offrent au penseur qui n'est pas à leur égard un illetré.
"Le Sceptre se termine en fleur d'idéalité; la Coupe a pour base l'hexagone macrocosmique; l'Épée s'élance comme un rayon parti du pommeau solaire qui domine les croissants opposés de la garde; quant au Denier, il objective en quaternaire l"idéal du Sceptre. La possession des quatre instruments confère l'Adeptat ou la Maîtrise occulte."
Anyone who has the Wirth book in French or in translation ... There is an illustration in Wirth's book to accompany the quoted passages. It shows a Cup, Baton, Épée and a round object to the Deniers suit. The round object is partly concealed by the other three. What is it meant to be? A coin? A talisman?
By the way, I understand that Wirth's book was published in 1927, so it's after rather than before the epoch of Golden Dawn.