XXI - Le Monde

XXI -- Le Monde

Thanks for the extended quotation on "Sophia" from Wikipedia. Certainly the World may be this very Sophia. Gnostic themes entered the Grail stories, and might as well have entered the Tarot. In La Folie Perceval, a French manuscript of about 1330, the new Grail king is given a book of the secret sayings of Didymus, apparently the well-known now Gospel of Thomas, including the "secret words which the Living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas wrote".( See Graham Phillips' Chalice of Magdalene, chapters 13-15, and opening verse to the Gospel of Thomas.) Now, the Gospel of Thomas includes key sayings that call for the harmonizing of male and female aspects of the human being, such as 22 and 114 : "...When you make the male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male and the female not female,...then shall you enter the Kingdom" ( from saying 22) . Thus, XXI may be Sophia, or the whole image may be the perfected harmony of the Soul's male/female polarity, the Father-Mother in Man. The surrounding feminine mandorla, enclosed in symbols for the four gospels, all written by males, supports the message of ultimate unity beyond polarity . The center being is androgynous, in the enlightened state beyond opposed elements of being.

An interesting addition, as I was preparing a paper on early symbols relevant to Freemasonry and Tarot, is from Albertus Magnus's Philosophia Naturalis's 1650 Basle (Swiss) publication.

I have not been able to find if the image was used in any earlier edition, nor even if it was in the 1506 Basle edition of the same work.

It would of course also be of interest to see if any other images from the same book, or indeed from other books published in the period from the presses at Basle, had any similarity to Tarot.

For now, however, here is what we have:

The number of stars along the inner rim correspond to the 24 hours of the day. In addition, there are a further seven stars within the inner portion, three below the central figure's legs, three to his right, and one to his left.

At the centre, in front of his stomach, is depicted the sphere of the Earth plane in which manifests the four elements.

The top semi-circle obviously corresponds to the day (ruled by the Sun), and the lower dark semi-circle the night (overseen by the Moon).

Above this is the figure of a head, below which are the numbers one through to ten.

The corners have what may here be taken as symbols linking to the four cardinal virtues (clockwise from top left-hand side): Justice, Prudence, Fortitude, and Temperance.

Here's another interesting mandorla-like image, from the Hopi tribe of North America. This is from a sacred tablet that was given to the Hopi Bear Clan after their emergence to the Fourth World (the current world), by their deity Sőqőmhomaw. (source: The Book of the Hopi, by Frank Waters)

Two snakes are arranged in a mandorla, which symbolizes the two rivers which mark the boundaries of the people's land (the Colorado and Rio Grande rivers). Inside the snakes are 4 cornstalks and 5 animals, representing how they were to make their living on this land. There are figures in each of the four corners of the table, signifying religious leaders holding and claiming the land for their people.

It is fascinating how these archetypal images emerge in cultures and times around the "World"!

In the thread The Cary-Yale Visconti (post 51), kwaw mentions thatThis, to me, is one of the most insightful and 'obvious' overlooked statements I have read for quite some time, and one that has deep bearing not only for this card, but for the neo-platonic possible influence on tarot in general.

It is by both combing, combining and sifting the materials at hand at the disposal of the educated masses of the times that deeper insights into some plausible influences will continue to be discovered - or at least, as I see it.

I simply here did not want that important comment, in another thread, to be omitted from its place in this one as well!

Well bless my soul.

I found an interesting image in a book called Romanesque: Architecture, Sculpture, Painting. Edited by Rolf Toman. Page 292.



The caption reads "Jaca (Aragón), San Salvador y San Gines. Sarcophagus of Infanta Dona Sañcha: display side. c. 1100"

To see the entire image click here.

The book describes the image as follows:
"One of the most important works of the Spanish Romanesque period not connected to an architectural structure is the sarcophagus of Dona Sañcha, daughter of King Ramiro I and the widow of the count of Toulouse; it used to be kept in the convent of Santa Cruz de la Serós not far from Jaca. On the front, underneath arcades, are two scenes in memory of the countess who died in 1097: on the right Dona Sañcha herself is depicted between two nuns or maids, and on the left is her burial. In the center, the soul of the dead is shown by two angels within a mandorla, an image of salvation."

A search for more info brought up this:http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0422/is_n2_v78/ai_18486165/pg_3

In the article, Dona Sañcha is mentioned:
One of the best-known Spanish tombs of the early twelfth century is identified with another Dona Sancha (d. 1096), daughter of King Ramiro I of Aragon. Sancha was originally buried in the convent of Santa Cruz de la Seros, together with her sisters, Urraca and Teresa. In the seventeenth century, the sarcophagus was transferred to the nuns' new convent in Jaca, where it remains today. The sarcophagus of Dona Sancha in Jaca is an example of developing Spanish traditions in tomb decoration, some of which come into play in the sarcophagus of Blanca of Navarre. First, Sancha's soul, at the center of the relief, is depicted as a nude child (eidolon), standing in a mandorla, which is supported by angels in her ascent to Heaven. Second, the rituals of her funeral are depicted at the left; a bishop with a crozier gives a blessing with his right hand; he is flanked by two clerics, one with a censer and incense boat, the other with an open book. Third, the deceased and her family are identified at the right, where three women are represented - a central figure flanked by two smaller ones. While some have described the three as mourners, they are not in attitudes of lament. This is most likely the trio of sisters who were eventually buried in the chapel that they built at Santa Cruz de la Seros. On the face of the sarcophagus, therefore, the aristocratic status of the tomb's occupant and the female line of her family are commemorated. The images leave little doubt about her rank in earthly society and the expectation of her salvation. On the reverse and ends, however, the imagery is not gender specific. There are scenes of combat on the reverse: two knights on horseback and a man wrestling with a lion - either Samson or David. These battles are usually read as a combat between virtue and vice, possibly alluding to the wars of the Reconquest. At the ends, griffins and a chrismon reiterate the theme of everlasting life and Christian salvation. Thus, the Jaca sarcophagus, while specifying the female identity of its occupant, does not develop a particularly feminized approach to its religious imagery.

Frustratingly.. Jstor tempts us with the opening of an article. DAMN! I wish I had access to their articles.. it is so frustrating knowing that information is out there IF you have membership. If anyone has access, I'd love to hear what the rest of the article says.

So.. both authors identify the being inside the mandorla as a "Soul". One uses the word "eidolon", which Wikipedia says is "a Greek concept of a shade or astral double of a living being".

Yes,Le Pendu...
1-A wonderful sacred vagina depiction here we have.
2-The Anima Mundi,thus Christ who said he will be with us to the end of the TIME.
3-Just see the XXI card of Dodal my friend...
A Sacred Vagina as a return to the Sacred origin so God.

eugim

1-If one see TdM 1 and TdM 2 a thing comes fast...
2-At TdM 2 the figure is a Women.
3-At TdM 1 the figure is a Man.


Miguelito

The Creak of Wood