caridwen
I have misplaced my LWB so will find this even more difficult but thought I would start with the Foolish Man which is numbered 0.
A man stands teetering on a cliff edge with a raging sea beneath him. He holds a flower and has a wolf on a chain. Another flower grows from the wolf. A bright sun beats down. His full nap sack sits at his feet. A crocodile or sea monster peers up from the sea and the man stares off into the distance.
The card is titled the Spirit of Ether.
The element air is to his left side.
I found a picture here:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/-XJvM9tXVE5I/SxGiJbD3WcI/AAAAAAAACA8/kSKGA3BlykM/0_The_Foolish_Man.jpg
I'm assuming that the gylph above his ruck sack is an alchemy symbol but since I have misplaced the LWB can't find what it means. I assume the Hebrew lettering is Aleph and the gylph is possibly the sign for the Spirit of Ether.
I looked up Spirit of Ether and found some information:
This is from the book: A Text-Book Of Pharmacology, Therapeutics And Materia Medica by T. Lauder Brunton
Pure Ether apparently has the same effects on the system as alcohol. It used to be inhaled directly into the lungs:
The above is from the same book and continues:
So Ether used to be inhaled and used as a narcotic with a likeness to alcohol and morphine but had several severe side effects one of which was death and the other was "serious nervous disorders".
Spirit of Ether is used in a similar way to chloroform in operations. There is also something called Compound Spirit of Ether which is a mixture of alcohol, ether and ethereal oil also called Hoffman's anodyne after the man who invented it. It is also used as a carminative, antispasmodic and stimulant.
Ether was also held by the Ancient Greeks as the element that held the moon and stars together and we, human beings are supposed to be composed of Ether:
1. That one of the elements which, according to Aristotle, forms the material of the heavenly spheres and bodies from the moon to the fixed stars.
2. Physics; -A hypothetical medium supposed to fill all known space, even those portions occupied by fluids and solids.
The functions assigned to the ether, such as the transmission waves with the velocity of light and the production, when under certain strains or subjected to certain motions, of all the phenomena due to electric and magnetic fields of force, indicate properties unlike those of any known form of matter.
I would assume that since the Fool is symbolised by Air, Spirit of Ether refers to the Ethereal or something formed of ether. Something light or airy, spirit like, extremely delicate etc It also refers to the: “Vast chain of being, which from God began, Natures ethereal, human, angel, man" – Pope.
The symbol for the human being is apparently: E = THE = R (V.2) which means (2) x ethereal beings (male and female) joined in vibrational motion to create an equilibrium of one, through balance created by the dynamic equilibrium resulting in ‘reversible chemical reaction’, being fluids forming solid.
A man stands teetering on a cliff edge with a raging sea beneath him. He holds a flower and has a wolf on a chain. Another flower grows from the wolf. A bright sun beats down. His full nap sack sits at his feet. A crocodile or sea monster peers up from the sea and the man stares off into the distance.
The card is titled the Spirit of Ether.
The element air is to his left side.
I found a picture here:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/-XJvM9tXVE5I/SxGiJbD3WcI/AAAAAAAACA8/kSKGA3BlykM/0_The_Foolish_Man.jpg
I'm assuming that the gylph above his ruck sack is an alchemy symbol but since I have misplaced the LWB can't find what it means. I assume the Hebrew lettering is Aleph and the gylph is possibly the sign for the Spirit of Ether.
I looked up Spirit of Ether and found some information:
This is from the book: A Text-Book Of Pharmacology, Therapeutics And Materia Medica by T. Lauder Brunton
Pure Ether apparently has the same effects on the system as alcohol. It used to be inhaled directly into the lungs:
The above is from the same book and continues:
So Ether used to be inhaled and used as a narcotic with a likeness to alcohol and morphine but had several severe side effects one of which was death and the other was "serious nervous disorders".
Spirit of Ether is used in a similar way to chloroform in operations. There is also something called Compound Spirit of Ether which is a mixture of alcohol, ether and ethereal oil also called Hoffman's anodyne after the man who invented it. It is also used as a carminative, antispasmodic and stimulant.
Ether was also held by the Ancient Greeks as the element that held the moon and stars together and we, human beings are supposed to be composed of Ether:
1. That one of the elements which, according to Aristotle, forms the material of the heavenly spheres and bodies from the moon to the fixed stars.
2. Physics; -A hypothetical medium supposed to fill all known space, even those portions occupied by fluids and solids.
The functions assigned to the ether, such as the transmission waves with the velocity of light and the production, when under certain strains or subjected to certain motions, of all the phenomena due to electric and magnetic fields of force, indicate properties unlike those of any known form of matter.
I would assume that since the Fool is symbolised by Air, Spirit of Ether refers to the Ethereal or something formed of ether. Something light or airy, spirit like, extremely delicate etc It also refers to the: “Vast chain of being, which from God began, Natures ethereal, human, angel, man" – Pope.
The symbol for the human being is apparently: E = THE = R (V.2) which means (2) x ethereal beings (male and female) joined in vibrational motion to create an equilibrium of one, through balance created by the dynamic equilibrium resulting in ‘reversible chemical reaction’, being fluids forming solid.
