jmd
There are various ways to try to understand the subtle imagery which arises in different versions of the Marseille.
The first is to try to see what may have been indicated intentionally, and another what arises from our own reflections on items which, though perhaps not consciously placed there by the artist, may nonetheless have found its way for reasons unknown by them - but intrinsically significant.
With regards to the 'Crown' upon the head-dress, both the Hadar and the Conver have this very clear. If indeed there exists a Hebrew alphabetic raison d'etre for the sequence, then the associated Kaph may also be used to indicate this Crown.
In my own personal reflections, one of the things I found quite marvelous is that her 'hat', unlike the otherwise similarly 'lemniscating' hat of the Bateleur, seems to depict more a flowform, with the flow perhaps from on high - from the Crown - needing to weave to the right, and then to the left, in ongoing rythmic way, before it enters her own internal reflections (within her head).
The very way that the double ream of her 'hat' seems to re-enter itself has also recalled to mind the alchemical flask called a pelican, where the narrow neck and head returns within the main body. Here, it reminded me, therefore, of a double pelican. In imagery, the pelican and phoenix are closely connected.
With regards to the 'scales', I must admit that I had never seen those as scales before, but rather more as outspurts of intellectual flames. This is especially more evident on the Dodal than on the Hadar (I also attach a copy of the Dodal here for comparison).
As an interesting aside, one can see what kind of reflections may have lead Crowley and Harris to transform this card as they did - to its detriment to my mind, but that's another matter. If one looks especially at the Dodal, on which the animal is far more lion-like than on the Conver, the woman seems to sit on the beast, and the opening of the lion's mouth placed in such a way that it can be more easily seen as metaphorically opening the mouth of her own sexual organ - hence also without apparent physical effort.
The Dodal is also quite significant in that only four cards do not use the definite article ('the', or rather, 'le' or 'la') before the card's name. On the card, then, it is not, as may reasonably be expected, 'La Force', but rather simply 'Force' - interestingly, the three depicted cardinal virtues (Justice, Strength and Temperance being amongst these!). Similarly on the earlier Noblet, by the way.
With regards to the possibility of her 'hat' not being a hat a all, but possibly a beast of some kind - whether salamander, serpent, or other, these are the kinds of reflections which may certainly aid in further unveiling aspects of the card.
What I personally do when I take my imaginative faculty along those important exegetical flights of possibilities, and allow analogical thinking to play with its ramifications, is that I also then allow for even more mundane than expected possiblities to be imaginatively played with. Could what we have taken as a 'hat' be no more than an elaborate way her hair is plaited or braided and arranged, perhaps with the assistance of some netting (the 'scales') and ribbons ?
The first is to try to see what may have been indicated intentionally, and another what arises from our own reflections on items which, though perhaps not consciously placed there by the artist, may nonetheless have found its way for reasons unknown by them - but intrinsically significant.
With regards to the 'Crown' upon the head-dress, both the Hadar and the Conver have this very clear. If indeed there exists a Hebrew alphabetic raison d'etre for the sequence, then the associated Kaph may also be used to indicate this Crown.
In my own personal reflections, one of the things I found quite marvelous is that her 'hat', unlike the otherwise similarly 'lemniscating' hat of the Bateleur, seems to depict more a flowform, with the flow perhaps from on high - from the Crown - needing to weave to the right, and then to the left, in ongoing rythmic way, before it enters her own internal reflections (within her head).
The very way that the double ream of her 'hat' seems to re-enter itself has also recalled to mind the alchemical flask called a pelican, where the narrow neck and head returns within the main body. Here, it reminded me, therefore, of a double pelican. In imagery, the pelican and phoenix are closely connected.
With regards to the 'scales', I must admit that I had never seen those as scales before, but rather more as outspurts of intellectual flames. This is especially more evident on the Dodal than on the Hadar (I also attach a copy of the Dodal here for comparison).
As an interesting aside, one can see what kind of reflections may have lead Crowley and Harris to transform this card as they did - to its detriment to my mind, but that's another matter. If one looks especially at the Dodal, on which the animal is far more lion-like than on the Conver, the woman seems to sit on the beast, and the opening of the lion's mouth placed in such a way that it can be more easily seen as metaphorically opening the mouth of her own sexual organ - hence also without apparent physical effort.
The Dodal is also quite significant in that only four cards do not use the definite article ('the', or rather, 'le' or 'la') before the card's name. On the card, then, it is not, as may reasonably be expected, 'La Force', but rather simply 'Force' - interestingly, the three depicted cardinal virtues (Justice, Strength and Temperance being amongst these!). Similarly on the earlier Noblet, by the way.
With regards to the possibility of her 'hat' not being a hat a all, but possibly a beast of some kind - whether salamander, serpent, or other, these are the kinds of reflections which may certainly aid in further unveiling aspects of the card.
What I personally do when I take my imaginative faculty along those important exegetical flights of possibilities, and allow analogical thinking to play with its ramifications, is that I also then allow for even more mundane than expected possiblities to be imaginatively played with. Could what we have taken as a 'hat' be no more than an elaborate way her hair is plaited or braided and arranged, perhaps with the assistance of some netting (the 'scales') and ribbons ?
