Reading more of the complete Oracles, I see another 2nd artist card in the PMB that might have been chosen with the Oracles in mind: the "Strength" or "Fortitude" card. The Cary-Yale shows a woman holding the jaws of a lion, a typical representation of the cardinal virtue of Fortitude, i.e. Courage. Indeed, the early accounts invariably called the card "fortezza." meaning "fortitude" (
http://l-pollett.tripod.com/cards26.htm). In the PMB, however, we see a man, probably Hercules, bashing a lion with a club. Hercules was known for his great strength; he had courage, too, but most heroes had that. The same applies to the lady on other early cards. e.g. the Charles VI; she pushes over some columns, like Samson. Samson was distinguished by his strength; and like Hercules, he won a bout with a lion. A lion is sometimes next to the columns, e.g. in the "Mantegna." But the name was still "fortezza." The later Marseille style tarot, however, and the Cary Sheet before that, returned to the imagery of the Cary-Yale; yet on the Marseile we see the name "La Force," meaning strength or force. That name seems to reflect the distinguishing characteristic of Samson and Hercules rather than the Forezza of the lady lion-tamer.
One explanation for the PMB's emphasis on strength rather than courage might be that it is honoring Francesco Sforza and the Sforza family, for whom the cards were made. "Sforza" apparently means "strength" or "force." But another, less self-promoting reason might be that in the Chaldean Oracles, fortitude is not mentioned, but "strength" has a key role. Proclus says in
In Platonis Alcibiadem Priorem Commentarii 82
And the more vigorous natures behold the truth by themselves and are more inventive,
"saved through their own strength..."
as the oracle says, while the weaker ones need both instruction and reminders from others who possess perfection in those areas where they lack it. (Majercik p. 93)
I cite this quotation, out of three on the same theme, because it is the one Filelfo in Milan is most likely to have read.
The point is that for the theurgist inner strength is required to apprehend the signs from above, enabling his soul to ascend, after which he can help others of a weaker nature. Another quotation from a different source makes this point more clearly. Hierocles, in
Commentarius in Aureum Carmen 112, says
Therefore...for the purification of our luminous body there is need to get rid of material defilements, a need to undergo sacred purifications, and a need for the
"strength that binds us to God"
exciting us toward the flight up there. (Majarcik p. 95)
Moreover, this "strength" is an attribute not only of the theurgist but of the divine world as well. Lewy (
Chaldean Oracles and Theurgy p. 9f) cites a prayer that Porphyry repeated in a work now lost, but which was preserved in a Christian compilation done at the end of the 5th century, now known as the
Theosophy of Tuebingen, from the place where the most important of its manuscripts was found (Lewy p. 16). It was rediscovered by the Italian humanist Augustine Steuchus (1497-1548), author of the
Philosophia Perennis of 1540 (Lewy p. 9):
Ineffable Father of the immortals, Eternal, Myses, O Lord, Thou who ridest on the ethereal back of the revolving worlds where the Vigour of Thy Strength is fixed; to Thee, Who seest, and with Thy beauteous ears hearest everything (we pray). Hear Thy children whom Thou hast begotten in the times. For Thy golden, abundant, eternal Strength abides above the world and the starry heaven. Above Her (Strength) Thou art exalted, moving thyself through Light, and suckling, through eternally flowing channels, the equipoised Intellect: Who brings forth this all by shaping the imperishable matter, of which the creation was resolved upon when Thou boundest it by forms....
According to Lewy (p. 13), three Chaldean entities are indicated here: a primordial Father, a feminine power called "first intellect," who produces the eternal forms, and a "second intellect" who creates the rest in accord with the forms.
It is the feminine power who seems to be identical with, or at least on the same level, as "Strength" and "Vigour of Strength."
In the Oracles proper, there is another feminine power, perhaps a lower manifestation of the same hypostasis, this one midway between the intellectual and sensible worlds, facing in both directions, the Cosmic Soul from Plato's
Timaeus. In the Oracles she is also calledHecate, associated with magic and the moon; and once she is called Rhea, who conventionally had the title "mother of the gods."
With her, the lion even seems to make an appearance. In one verse, Hecate announces to the theurgist
If you speak to me often, you will perceive everything in lion-form...
according a verse quoted by Psellus (Majercik p. 105), a text known to Plethon (Lewy p. 475) and Ficino (as I have read somewhere). Psellus explains that what is meant is the constellation of Leo in the sky: it will be seen as the phantasm of a lion, and nothing else will be seen in the sky at all (Majercik p. 196, Johnston,
Hekate Soteira p. 112).
This verse and explanation has puzzled modern commentators. Most (but not Majercik) have a different explanation: the word
leonta, translated as "lion-form" (literally, lion), is a misprint for another Greek word meaning "dark," which Psellus failed to correct and struggled to make sense of as written (see prevous references).
But from the 15th century until the end of the 19th, the word would have been read as "lion." That association with Hecate is not as surprising as it might seem. On Greek and Roman coins, for instance (of which the Renaissance collected at least the Roman), the goddess Hekate is often associated with lions. In some, she is on one side and a lion's head on the other (see examples at
http://numismatics.org/search/results?q=department_facet:"Greek" AND deity_facet:"Hecate"&start=0). In one Roman coin on the web (
http://numismatics.org/search/results?q=department_facet:"Greek" AND deity_facet:"Hecate"&start=20), she is shown riding a lion.
In this way she is much like the lady on the Marseille "strength" card, shown with a lion obedient to her will.
I have two explanations, one short and one longer; I think both would have occurred to humanists of the Renaissance. The short one is that the lion was a symbol of strength, and in the Oracles Hecate is being identified with Strength. The longer one is that Hekate was identified in the ancient world with Rhea, who in turn was identified with the Great Mother-goddess Cybele; Cybele was typically shown riding a cart drawn by lions. The lion was her symbol. And so it becomes a symbol of Hecate as well.Or as Kroll put it (cited by Majercik, p. 196), "Leones autem matris magnae currum vehunt." I am not entirely sure what that means, but I think it is to the effect that lions were a symbol of the great mother.
In the context of the Oracles, then, the tarot's lady with the lion is none other than the great feminine power of the Chaldean system, Hecate, whose Strength becomes the strength of the theurgist leading his or her soul's ascent to heaven.