My internet has been down for the past 24 hours... and I've been working on a big data collation thing that I'll try to post here tomorrow. But I stumbled across something critical I want to share.
After rooting around in primary texts all yesterday, I seem to have stumbled acrosss something critical:
Polaris is NOT a Behenian star. Alkaid (Ursa Minor Alpha) is the star, according to the Hermetis, Agrippa, etc.
Polaris (Ursa Major Alpha) seems to have been misattributed by Robson and it stuck, turning up on Wikipedia and other common internet sites without being properly checked... then repeated in the way of all misinformation on the net. I'm still checking but I haven't been able to get online for the past day so more data to follow. Just wanted to throw this into the mix. What would the shift to Alkaid do to our climbing beehive dome?
Kwaw, that Heliacal chart is fantastic and thought-provoking. My next question of course is does the same heliacal lineup occur for the other cards in a meaningful pattern?
As for your "why of the stars" question Rosanne, Behenian seems to have been used to mean "Arabic" in a slangy way. In the same way people used to refer to Muslim as Mohammedan or Saracen. The 15 Behenian stars come from the Greeks via the Arabs. But these 15 are designated as somehow significantly powerful as magical bodies. The centrality of the Hermetis and Agrippa figured them as important by the mid 14th century... just in time for those trumps to get cooking. I'm still working my way through a PILE of academic articles from JSTOR on the topic, so maybe I'll have a better answer for your excellent questionshortly.
Re: Corvi=Devil & Algol/Sun... I'm still vexed by this one. I just can't figure out why Algol, known universally as the most "evil" of the fixed stars and named variously as the Ghoul, the Demon's Head and the Head of the Devil wouldn't be Trump 15... but again, that may just be too damn literal. And if it IS 15, what are the other attributions. I want to collate all this data and see if a preliminary order presents itself, even skeletally...
WHat I most want is a categoric speculative pattern. EVen if its a big mess and we can all shred it and revise. I know it will be speculation, but I'm hoping for a pattern (or patterns) to image that is meaningful, even if it isn't provable. It's the possible
pattern that intrigues me, more than the one offs. Having said that I know the one-offs are the starting point. Which is why the Algol is so attractive, because it initially seems suvh an easy match: demon/devil... The more fool !.
This is making my head churn in a wonderful way! Off to dinner, will try to post properly tomorrow.
Scion