The fact that Aleph means “bull” doesn’t make me think about the bull (or ox) in XXI; I prefer to look for a hidden bull, rather than a visible one, in this case (because in Le Monde, together with the bull, there are other figures assuming the same level of importance). It makes me think about the bull in which Jupiter / Zeus transformed itself when he seduced Europe – thought maybe the animal Mithra fights with could also make an interesting correlation?
“House” is more than a house; it is a hidden place (of intimacy), a refuge, a chamber of secrets, a receptacle, a mother’s womb… A house, taken as an archetype, is not a menacing or terrifying place, nor forces out its occupants, as in La Maison-Dieu. As to this latter, it reminds me of the sentence "Terribilis est locus iste! Haec domus Dei est et porta coeli" (Genesis, 28,17), or "terrible is this place: it is the house of God, and the gate of heaven…” The most famous use of this sentence seems to be over the door of the church of Rennes-le-Château, but I must inform that here in Portugal we have a very interesting 16th century mural painting, executed inside a 12th century templar rotunda, where the same words are written.
It is true that Beith, or Beth-El, means “the house of God”, but it also designates a rock, the rock upon which Jacob rested his head when he had his inspired vision at the place called Bethel (Bethany, if I am not mistaken). So… maybe we could see La Papesse, second arcane and therefore equivalent to Beith, as the personification of that very stone, since she – as Papesse – is the feminine counterpart of the Pope, and the Pope is in fact Peter, or Pierre, or – the rock? As Beith, she would simply be La Pierre. This rock is an axis-mundi, or an omphalos (belly button?), a sacred place, that could be also represented as a temple or as an altar. I can understand La Papesse in this sense… the altar of the Law? And isn’t the Book of the Law open in her hands?
Well, and from here we could go on and on: the philosopher’s stone, the freemason’s square stone, etc… but this is not about La Papesse (or Beith). As to Aleph, I still recall that, by transforming itself in a bull (correspondent to the Taurus constellation) Jupiter gave a demonstration of its shape shifting abilities – he acted as a deceiver, a trickster, a… Bateleur? Anyway, I don’t know much about the subject, but it seems that in very ancient times the Hebrews called Aleph to the Taurus constellation. As to the Bateleur, his hat could, of course, be a symbol of the bull’s horns, usually depicted in immense proportions.
An interesting site about the bull (and Taurus):
http://www.winshop.com.au/annew/Taurus.html
From here, I can’t resist to copy this passage, which is all about the bull as a “beginner” and a “creator” – just as Le Bateleur:
“The bull was a powerful phallic emblem signifying the
paternal creative power of the Demiurgus. (…) As the sign rising over the horizon at the vernal equinox constitutes the starry body for the annual incarnation of the sun, the bull not only was the celestial symbol of the Solar Man but, because the vernal equinox took place in the constellation of Taurus, was called the
Breaker or Opener of the year . For this reason in astronomical symbolism the bull is often shown
breaking the annular egg with his horns . (…) The white bull was also symbolically sacred as the appointed emblem of
the initiates , signifying the spiritualized material bodies of both man and Nature.”
Silvia