firemaiden said:
Some have claimed also that the trumps could potentially have served as a teaching board for the heresy...
I have not found a direct link between teaching boards and tarots (especially the Major Arcana). The implied connection is from watching and listening to Masonic Degree lectures, and looking at teaching boards in use today, some of which are quite old. Observing the imagery, the layout of the imagery, how the lecture is constructed, and used with the teaching board. Freemasons of today still use teaching boards and oral histories for each of the degree 'lectures' (lasting about 45 min each, memorized verbatim for hundreds of years)...
I don’t have a current bibliography handy, but I remember reading that Osiris sects, the Essenes and the Ebionim used teaching boards.
Teaching boards were in common usage in all initiatory sects, and as such went hand in hand with oral traditions.
I believe it was Michael Costen in “The Cathars and the Albigensian Crusade” who posited that the Cathar teachings were handed down from St. John the Evangelist. We know that the Cathars were an initiatory sect which revered the secret Gospel of St. John (Simon de Vries, Cathars, Customs and Castles); which preached JC was a teacher and not a redeemer. It was their message that they had knowledge handed down from Egypt to the Therapeutae, the Essenes, John the Baptist, James the Just, and finally to the Cathars.
We know that teaching boards are a commonality between successful initiatory sects; the teaching boards help retain continuity.
Ties between the Cathars and the Bogomil in Bulgaria are suspected.
The Albigensian Crusade aftermath would have destroyed any firm evidence of historical worth.
And what if...just what if...the images on the Tarot began, as teaching board illustrations - for a doctrine that had to be hidden from the church under pain of heresy...?
Unless (wild assed theory here) we physically cut the remaining teaching board up into (24 +1) pieces and hid them…in a deck of playing cards…and perhaps…invented a game…
Now I understand there are conclusions drawn by many who paint history with a broad brush. And I doubt that there will be any firm proof (for that is the beauty of a teaching board…they were the glue that held together an oral tradition).
Why does the Major Arcana resonate so much? Because it should - it is a lesson - it carries the underground stream of wisdom and knowledge that has flowed throughout our early history..
But there are so many threads leading to a tapestry woven with this picture…
Sorry to ramble on…
To address some of your questions
firemaiden said:
If indeed the tarot was a teaching board, what would/could the cards teach? which cards taught what?
Which card might represent MM?
Which card might represent Sarah? Which card might show the brother of Christ?
Which card the boat ride to France?
Do we include the court cards and the Aces as participating in the story board?
Is the non-death, and the physical survival of Christ after crucifixion thought to be represented here?
Teaching boards and their accompanying lectures (Oral Tradition) are divided in groups. Usually three parts. The section that you concerned with would be the beginning of the lecture. The Parts Two and Three would be the teachings.
0 Le Mat J.C. The Dead/yet Un-Dead (Resuscitated versus Resurrected).
1 Le Bateleur Son
2 Le Papesse Daughter (The Black Madonna – Sara the Egyptian or Sara Kali)
3 Empress Mary Magdalene (who accompanied Sara)
4 Emperor Joseph of Arimathea (who accompanied JC jr.)
5 La Pope The False Pope (on the Throne of Peter)