5. The Six Cards by the PMB 2nd artist

THIS IS A CONTINUATION FROM THE PRECEDING SECTION

THE PMB STAR, MOON, AND SUN

Now let us look again at some of the cards of the tarot: specifically, the six added cards of the PMB (Pierpont-Morgan-Bergamo) tarot, done sometime after 1460 to supplement 14 pre-existing cards in Milan. I will start with the Star, Moon, and Sun, in relation to a quotation I have alredy cited in connection with the Lover card, about the Chaldean triad Truth, Faith, and Love.Then I will discuss the World, Temperance, and Fortezza, which are the other three cards of the PMB by the second artist

The Oracles associate Truth, Faith, and Love with the three cosmic "teletarchs," one for each of the three realms in the Chaldean cosmos. Majercik comments, pp. 11-12 (and here I do my best to transliterate the Greek words, as I don't know how to make the keyboard type Greek):

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Beneath the Iynges and Connectors are located the Teletarchs (teletarchai, lit. "masters of initiation"; see fr. 85 and 86), divine entities which are assimilated to the cosmagoi as rulers of the three worlds of Chaldean cosmology... The Teletarchs are also associated with the Chaldean virtues of Faith (pistis), Truth (aletheia), and Love (eros; see fr. 46), which function as faculties of the three rulers; Faith is connected with the Material Teletarch; Truth with the Ethereal Teletarch; Love with the Empyrean Teletarch. (A fourth virtue, "fire-bearing Hope"--Elpis purnoxos--is also mentioned; see fr. 47.) As such, these virtues are not to be understood as spiritual qualities (as is the case with the Pauline triad of Faith, Hope, Charity), but as cosmic entities involved in the very creation and maintenance of the Universe: "For all things," says the oracle, "are governed and exist in these three (virtues)" (fr. 48)... In addition, Faith, Truth, and Love are also understood in a theurgic sense, as it is through these three virtues that the theurgist is said to unite with God (see fr. 48 and notes).... This last emphasis again connects these three virtues with the Teletarchs, as these three rulers are responsible for both purifying the ascending soul of material influences as well as guiding its journey upward. (As noted supra, it was through the medium of the Teletarchs that the rays of the sun--or "Material Connectors"--were conducted downward. It was on these rays, then, that the soul ascended, guided by the Teletarchs.) Further, all three Teletarchs have additional solar connections: the Empyrean Teletarch is associated with Aion (the transmundane sun) as the intelliglble source of light, the Ethereal Teletarch is associated with Helios (the mundane sun) as the direct source of the earth's light; the Material Teletarch is associated with the moon and, as such, rules the sublunar zone traversed by the rays of the visible sun.

But the Ethereal realm includes more than the mundane sun; Majercik says (p. 16f). It includes all the planets and in addition the fixed stars.

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The Chaldean concept of the cosmos envisions a triad of concentric circles which encompasses both the intelligible and sensible orders: the Empyrean World is properly that of the intelligible; the Ethereal, that of the fixed stars and planets; the material comprises the sublunar realm including Earth. However, such a distinction is not explicitly made in the extant fragments (but cf. fr. 76 and see frr. 39, 61, 62, 67) but is based on information from the later Neoplatonists.

But it would seem that the Ethereal realm does not include all the planets, as Majercik also says, in the previous quote, "the material Teletarch is associated with the moon." And later (p. 17):

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...each of the three worlds can be viewed as a 'fiery' circle dominated, respectively, by the transmundane sun, mundane sun, and moon, each of which, in turn, is equated with one of the three Teletarchs.

It seems to me that these three worlds might be reflected in the PMB 2nd artist's Star, Moon, and Sun cards. Stars are part of the the Ethereal world, and as such represent Truth--in Christian terms, Truth as embodied in Christ, the "bright and morning star" of the 2nd coming, heralded by the Star of Bethlehem. Thus the card shows a star in its upper corner, to which a woman prays. It is similar to the Cary-Yale Hope card. The woman embodies Hope, while the star is Truth.

The Moon is associated with the Material world, and the corresponding virtue is Faith. So we have the vicissitudes of material life, against which Faith is the light in the darkness. The Moon's Goddess in the Oracles is Hecate, who holds the bridle of chastity as the means for purifying our material being. She corresponds to Faith in the Cary-Yale.

The Sun is in this case the transmundane sun, from which all light, spiritual and material, derives. The child suggests Cupid, i.e. Eros, as in the case of the Love card. corresponding more closely, it is the child of fr. who appears in visions riding on rays of fire. It corresponds to the virtue of Charity in the Cary-Yale.

It seems to me that this same interpretation extends to the Marseille cards. The Star is still the star of Truth; the lady's nakedness suggests the nakedness of truth, uncovered and unadorned; her jugs, one or both, offer hope.The Moon card has Hecate's hounds instead of chastity's bridle; the fear these demons inspire in the sublunar world is another test for the sake of purification. The children or male-female couple on the Sun card embody love, in the case of the children that of the Gemini, the twins, for each other; generalizing, the love is for all humanity. The drops that we see in the air on the cards are the rays sent down from the transmundane sun by the "Material Connectors" to guide the soul upwards.

Huck wrote

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Interestingly Gian Maria goes, after the scandal for a year or something like that, to "Guglielmo Paleologo marchese di Monferrato"... Guglielmo (then 44 years old) needed urgently a heir and married January 1465 (wife 15 years old), so "recently", before Gian Mario Filelfo arrived there. The wife died 1467, and Guglielmo married Elisabetta Sforza (13 years old) in July 1469. MikeH, you showed interest in that earlier. Elisabetta died 1473. Guglielmo, still without male heir, married again 1474 and died 1484, his wife died one year later. Still without heir, a brother took Montferrat. The later Montferrat house descended from the Byzantine emperors with Theodore I of Montferrat. The earlier Montferrat house was active in crusades and had titles like Queen of Jerusalem, King of Jerusalem etc. Sofia of Montferrat... Sofia, Emps of Constantinople, *Casale 1396/99, +Turin 10.12.1437; 1m: 1406 (anulled 1411) Filippo Maria Visconti, Ct of Pavia (*Milan 23.9.1392, +Milan 13.8.1447); 2m: 19.1.1421 (div 1426) Ióannés VIII Palaiologos, Emperor of Byzantium (*16.12.1392, +31.10.1448) ..., once an Empress of Constantinople (wife of John VIII, the emperor at the council) and then divorced, was an aunt to Guglielmo.

It has been my contention for a while (see http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewto...a+sforza#p4821) that Elisabetta Sforza is the lady depicted on the PMB 2nd artist's Temperance, Star, and Moon cards, as shown by comparison with a c. 1480 Lombard portrayal in an altarpiece of a similar-looking lady in company with ladies looking like Bona of Savoy and Ippolita Sforza; the three had been together once, at Bona's 1468 marriage. As related to distinguished Greeks, her husband Guglielmo might have appreciated references to the Oracles in a tarot deck modified in her honor. That the postulated programmer's son had visited him a little before the time the marriage was contracted is another fact in support of my idea/

THE PMB FORTEZZA CARD

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 had shown 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." (http://l-pollett.tripod.com/cards26.htm), which meant both "fortitude" and "strength" .But the lady on the card has moral strength rather than physical strength.

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." The name was still "fortezza", now clearly in a sense that includes physical as well as moral "strength".

The later Marseille style tarot, 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 merely 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

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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

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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):

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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 called Hecate, 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 also seems to make an appearance. In one verse, Hecate announces to the theurgist

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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/result...ate%22&start=0). In one Roman coin on the web (http://numismatics.org/search/result...te%22&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.

THE PMB TEMPERANCE CARD

The only one of the six added cards in the PMB I have not addressed specifically is Temperance. The image is the typical medieval one of a lady pouring the contents of one jug into another; so the Oracles cannot account for anything in the image itself. However a Chaldean perspective can give a new interpretation for why it is after Death and before the Devil, something other interpretations have a hard time doing.

If the act of pouring serves either to dilute the contents of the lower jug, or decrease the contents of the upper jug, either way inducing moderation in the consumption of wine, how does that, or any such practice of Moderation, conduct one from Death to the Devil? Another interpretation of the card has it that it depicts the act of mixing water with wine in the Eucharist. But how does the Eucharist lead to the Devil? Some commentators simply say that there is no transition to be made: the Devil card starts a new sequence of images, one of supra-human entities. That is possible; but in fact the image on the Temperance card does make a meaningful transition to the Devil.

In the Oracles, the soul flows down channels from the Intelligible World to our world; the same channels lead one upward. Plethon's edition starts out:

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Inquire after the channel of the soul wherefrom, in what order, Having served the body, to that order from which you flowed You shall rise again, combining the act with the sacred word. (lines 1-3, Woodhouse p. 51)

But if Death precedes the Temperance card, and the Devil follows it, it is not the channel from above that the Temperance card concerns. The soul also descends below this world, if it is too attached to matter, to a realm below the earth. Plethon's verses continue:

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Incline not downwards: below the earth lies a precipice That drags down beneath the sevenfold steps, below which Is the throne of dread Necessity. Your vessel shall be occupied by the beasts of the earth. Do not enlarge your Fate. (lines 4-8)

By the "sevenfold steps" is meant the planets, which the soul passed on the way to its incarnation on earth. But souls can descend even further, to the "throne of dread Necessity," i.e. Persephone and Hades, where one becomes even more of a slave than one is on earth, dragged there by infernal forces

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Then from the depths of the earth leap forth the dogs of the underworld Showing no true sign to mortal man. (lines 32-33)

The dogs (seen on the "Marseille" Moon card) are agents of Hecate on her sublunar side. "Necessity" is symbolized by the ropes to which the small devils are attached on the Marseille Devil card. Addiction to alcohol or other material attachments, i.e. Intemperance, is a precursor to that enslavement after death. Even the body can be saved, at least to the extent to which it is the "liquescent body":

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Do not leave behind the dung of matter for the precipice. Do not draw it forth, that it may not suffer in going out. By extending the fiery intellect To the act of piety, you shall also save the liquescent body. (lines 28-31)

From this perspective, the card shows the consequence of lack of Temperance, in which the soul flows downward from Death to the Devil, under the influence of Hecate's sublunar aspect.

We don't know whether the Milanese tarot had a Devil card or not. None of the many extant PMB decks has one, or a Tower card, strongly suggesting that these hand-painted luxury decks did not include that figure. That exclusion may have been a personal preference of the Sforza family to remove a figure already present in the popular deck of that time (the 1460s or 1470s); it does exist in the Cary Sheet, a woodblock deck thought to be from pre-1500 Milan. Also, the Temperance card may well not have been between Death and the Devil: all 15th century accounts of Temperance have it much earlier in the sequence. Yet none of these accounts is from Milan; and it does seem on other grounds that the "Marseille" cards developed out of the Milanese decks (Dummet's "type C" order). Also, there is a very pronounced precipice on the card (as indeed the Star, Moon, and Sun as well), as though to illustrate the hazards of Intemperance.