I was looking at the
Cary Sheet again today.
What caught my eye was the partial character next to Bateleur, who I have always assumed to be The Hermit.
And I started thinking of the right to left pattern that seems to me to run through these cards.
And then I thought.. maybe it's The Fool?
So with fresh eyes I wondered what would that mean? Immediately, I noticed the falling legging... or at least that's how it appears to me. And then maybe what might be the leg of the animal at the bottom right. Now, I know it's hard to make out for sure.. but the more I thought of it, the more it seemed at least as likely to me that I was looking at the Fool, not the hermit.
So that put a whole new light on the right to left sequence.
Maybe, maybe the cards on the Cary Sheet aren't as out of sequence, at least to themselves, as we might think they are?
The first row is a bit odd.. right to left (and I'm guessing on the partials) we would have;
Justice, Lovers, Chariot, Wheel, Hanged Man.
Okay, that's a bit odd.
Next line:
Pope/Popess, Empress, Emperor, Pope/Popess, Strength.
The Pope/Popess issue is a bit to sort out in general, and Strength is a bit unusual.
Next line:
Fool, Bateleur, Star, Moon, Sun
Sure, there should be a big break between the Bateleur and the Star.. but I'm willing to go with it.
Then the bottom of the sheet:
8 Batons, 7 Batons, Temperance, Devil, Tower
Temperance Devil and Tower are fine.. but how odd that the Batons are there, and the sequence for them is backwards.
So anyway, I started fidgeting with this, and wondering where the four missing cards might go in the order.. they would be Hermit, Death, Angel, and World.
So I saw that my good friend JMD was on line, so we chatted a bit about some possibilities, and we discussed the "border" lines as well. Then he rudely left to go enjoy his life while I sat there staring at the cards a bit longer.
And the Batons kept bothering me. Not just because they were "out of order", but because they were there at all. And graphically, something seems wrong.
Looking a bit more closely, I noticed that the "border" that separates the cards (which is kind of an odd thing anyway isn't it? Why would that be there? Cutting lines? Or maybe JMD has another idea?) was really odd when I look at the Batons. It looks like it has been PIECED into the rest of the sheet. The borders look cut. There is discoloration at the bottom right of Temperance, that suddenly disappears on the batons, as does the border. The border between the Fool and the 8 of Batons looks like it is split down the middle.. again, to my eye looking like a patch job has occurred here. This is the section that I am referring to:
Does anyone know?
So, play the game with me, won't you? I know this is just a string of IFs and MAYBEs, but let's keep playing.
What if, there were two different cards there originally, and the Batons were patched in at some point. What would go before Temperance? What's missing? Death. Leaving the last space to the Hermit most likely.
So now let's take more jumps, and allow that for some reason, the sequence breaks between the Bateleur and the Star, but generally.. we should try to piece the "strips" together.. we might get something like:
0. Fool
1. Bateleur
2. Pope/Popess
3. Empress
4. Emperor
5. Pope/Popess
6. Strength
7. Justice
8. Lovers
9. Chariot
10. Wheel
11. Hanged Man
12. Hermit
13. Death
14. Temperance
15. Devil
16. Tower
17. Star
18. Moon
19. Sun
Thoughts?
Anyone find anything interesting about this sequence?
Sure, it's just play.. but sometimes play can lead to wonderful things, (and sometimes it can be just play).