The Major Arcana of the Tarot & Astrology - Article

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In a previous post in a topic on the relationship between astrology and the Tarot, [ http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=268174 ] I mentioned an interesting article by a French author which I proposed to translate. It is only now that I have finally had the time to once again translate this article, the first draft having disappeared into the digital ether some weeks ago. In any case, revisiting the text, as well as reading through some of the author’s other articles, has been quite a fruitful endeavour, and I hope readers will find it both interesting and useful.

I have included some paraphrases or additional information in square brackets, some endnotes where necessary, along with a brief introductory piece. I have mostly translated the titles of the cards into English, but have left some in French.

I do not know for certain to which “Marseilles” Tarot deck Rougier refers, but readers may consult Yves Le Marseillais’ website and look at the decks there: http://www.tarot-de-marseille-heritage.com/galerie_tarots_historiques.html

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Translator's Introduction to the Article

Golden Dawn and GD-inspired authors aside, there is little consensus on the analogies and connections between the Tarot and Astrology. Many of the attributions provided by various writers appear quite arbitrary, if not forced, at times, much like the cabbalistic correspondences, for that matter.

And yet, this is a very interesting topic, which has been sadly under-studied in its deeper implications: a thorough and coherent astronomical-astrological basis to the Tarot has not, to the best of my knowledge, yet been put forth, much less an examination of any calendrical correspondences.

One French author posed these questions one hundred years ago, and they still have not been satisfactorily answered. The article in question may be found here, for those who read French (Part V): http://livres-mystiques.com/partieTEXTES/Rougier/tarot.html

This author, Antoine Rougier, a professor of law, like his contemporary Joseph Maxwell, was acquainted with many of the noted fin-de-siècle occultists, although he seems to have remained rather discrete and removed from the intestine quarrels which plagued that milieu, preferring to write articles pseudonymously for some of the occultist journals of the day, and occasionally giving lectures on various metaphysical topics. A selection of these wide-ranging articles was collected and published posthumously, and I note that this hard-to-find work is once again in print as of early 2017.

It is one of these articles, “The Major Arcana of the Tarot”, to which we now turn. In this prescient article, first published in 1920 in Le Voile d’Isis, a journal founded by Papus, Rougier examines and diplomatically debunks most of the occultist claims to the antiquity of the Tarot, as well as their fanciful interpretations. Although he was not the first to do so, he does so in a reasoned, systematic manner which leaves little room for dispute. Compare for example, with the manner in which Waite’s sober analysis is stymied by his own mystical bent and taste for supposedly initiatory secrecy…

Furthermore, Rougier makes a case for the astrological origins of the Tarot in a tentative manner, and one which is highly instructive: by proceeding in a way which employs analogical reasoning, the reader may observe many useful techniques by which a theory might be more closely examined. In this, Rougier was possibly one of the first to read the Tarot as an “optical language”, although he does so as a means, not an end in itself.

The article is divided into six parts, along with a brief introduction. The first part deals with the history of the Tarot such as was then known from the documentary evidence, the second deals with the occultist interpretations thereof, chiefly cabalistic, and the third presents the author’s conclusions as to the validity of this last. The final three parts deal with the connection between astrology and the Tarot, and these are the parts which I have translated below.

Incidentally, although the Voile d’Isis did publish a special issue devoted to the Tarot, and many of the occultist journals of the time also had articles on this theme, not one of these mentions Rougier’s article, nor do they, for that matter, even begin to address some of the historical and symbolic problems which he posed. Considering the fractious and often litigious nature of their usual exchanges, this is somewhat surprising at first, but perhaps not so surprising if we consider that a great many folk, then as now, prefer the realm of fantasy and speculation to research and reasoning, even were it inductive…

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IV

Aside from the cabalistic interpretation, a number of other systematic explanations of the Tarot are conceivable. One of those which most naturally comes to mind while contemplating a supposedly ancient monument [such as the Tarot] is the astronomical, astrological or mythological interpretation. Some authors have opined that the Tarot could be some sort of calendar, but without finding the key to its construction.

Papus, in the first edition of his book [The Tarot of the Bohemians] mentions the possible analogy between the Major Arcana and the Zodiac. Dr Fugairon, in a thorough and erudite study [Interprétation des vingt-deux arcanes majeurs du Tarot, L’Initiation, 1893-1894], attempts to find in the 22 Arcana the symbols of the planets and the Zodiac. Unfortunately, rather than allowing himself to be guided by analogy in this undertaking, Dr Fugairon bases himself on the preconceived idea of the cabalistic interpretation. He thus divides the 22 letters into 3 groups: the 3 Mothers, the 7 Doubles, and the 12 Simples. The first, with which he seems a little awkward, would have a general or philosophical sense; the second would represent the 7 planets; and the third, the 12 signs of the Zodiac. By drawing correspondences between the cards and the letters, we may establish the following significations:

Wisdom [La Papesse]: The Moon
The Empress: Venus
The Emperor: Jupiter
La Force: Mars
Le Jugement: Saturn
The Stars: Mercury
The World: The Sun
The Pope: Aries
The Lover: Taurus
The Chariot: Gemini
Justice: Cancer
The Hermit: Leo
The Wheel of Fortune: Virgo
The Hanged Man: Libra
Temperance: Scorpio
La Maison-Dieu: Sagittarius
The Devil: Capricorn
The Moon: Aquarius
The Sun: Pisces

With the exception of two or three striking coincidences, (Emperor = Jupiter; Devil = Capricorn), the table of correspondences drawn by Fugairon is entirely arbitrary, and could not be otherwise, since it stems from an a priori base. In order to determine whether the Tarot possesses an astrological meaning, the cabalistic interpretation must be left aside, and we ought to let ourselves be guided by the direct meanings of the images themselves.
 

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V

Casting a glance over the 22 Arcana of the tarot, and ignoring the usual hieroglyphic correspondences and sequences, we were struck that almost all the cards present a noticeable and sometimes quite obvious analogy with the planetary and zodiacal symbols. Let us examine these resemblances beginning with the most obvious ones.

First of all, two cards stand out - the Sun and the Moon. The first quite precisely depicts the Sun in the sign of Gemini, a radiant sun overlooks and shines down on a pair of scantily-clad, similar-looking young children who are embracing each other.

The second no less precisely depicts the Moon in the sign of Cancer. At the bottom of the image is a crayfish (or Cancer) in the middle of a stream. Above are two towers, a symbol by means of which the ancients designated the solstices, which mark the boundaries of the sun’s path (we know that Cancer marks the Summer Solstice). Near the two towers, we find two dogs. Court de Gébelin maintained that the Egyptians symbolised the tropics by dogs. If this is true, then we find a repetition of the concept expressed by the towers. In the sky shines the Moon, whose astrological domicile is justly the sign of Cancer.

For these two images, the astrological sense appears quite obvious, and it offers an altogether clearer explanation than the correspondences of the Hebrew letters.

Next, we find seven cards bearing a zodiacal symbol as detail, rather than being the chief element of the composition. The sign is visible and recognisable, but it is clearly not to the fore. They are:

La Force, wherein is depicted a lion [Leo] with its jaws clamped shut by a young woman;

The World, representing a naked virgin [Virgo] running within a circle marked by the four poles of the year (the sign of Virgo marks the sixth month, the middle of the year);

Justice, holding a set of scales [Libra];

Le Feu du Ciel [lit. “heavenly fire”, i.e. La Foudre, or La Maison-Dieu], which would correspond to Scorpio. Note that the bolt of lightning striking the tower is in the shape of a crooked stinger which ends and characterises the sign of Scorpio. Note also that Scorpio, domicile of nocturnal Mars, is a fateful sign which portends ruin and demolition. We may also wonder other this card is not also a play on words: the ancients called certain fortress-demolishing siege engines ‘scorpions’.

The Lover depicts Cupid under the traits of Sagittarius, readying himself to loose an arrow into the lover’s heart;

The Devil, with his horns and goat’s feet, represents Capricorn. He bears two chains, along with two devil-imps, to mark the Winter Solstice, just as the towers of the Moon mark that of Summer.

The Star represents a goddess crowned with stars pouring the contents of her urn onto the ground full of flowers. We recognise therein the classical allegory of Aquarius, spreading on the ground the fluids of life which revive sleeping nature.
 

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Three more cards could be interpreted as depicting zodiacal signs, but the analogy becomes indirect and vague.

Temperance offers a certain resemblance with the sign of Pisces. The latter is usually depicted as two fish linked together by their heads. The astrological symbol is but a hieroglyph of this image. The two vases, united by a stream of liquid, such as the designer of the Tarot has placed in the hands of the Angel of Temperance, reproduces a similar diagram to that of the zodiacal Pisces.

The Wheel of Fortune, it seems, represents Aries, or better yet, the Spring Equinox. A wheel is balanced between two fantastic creatures, one ascending, the other descending, symbols of life appearing and life disappearing, of the creative force and of the destructive force. It is the point of equilibrium between Summer and Winter, the moment of the equality of day and night. The wheel symbolises the year or the ecliptic: it has six spokes, divided each into two parts. A crowned creature bearing a sceptre occupies the point of equilibrium at the top of the wheel. It is difficult to say with certainty what kind of animal it represents exactly as the engraving is rather crude. Etteilla saw a monkey, E[liphas] Levi a sphinx. We could just as well consider it to be a ram [Aries].

The Chariot would be Taurus. Two reasons are in favour of this interpretation. The first is that there are flowers growing beneath the victor’s chariot, which would indicate a sign of Spring (Taurus corresponds to April-May and is the astrological domicile of Venus).

The second is that the young victor bears a singular and quite characteristic detail on his armour, namely, a lunar crescent on both shoulders. In astrology, the Moon is in exaltation in the sign of Taurus. As regards the animals drawing the chariot, just as with the ram, they are crudely drawn and have rather bovine features instead of looking like horses. There is nothing to say that they are not, in fact, two bulls.

On the front of the chariot is a heraldic shield which most exegetes of the Tarot replace with a lingham. If this version is well-founded, it reinforces our interpretation, the lingham as symbol of love and fertility being a symbol of the terrestrial Venus, whose domicile is in the sign of Taurus.
 

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Let us admit, for a moment, that the foregoing hypotheses are correct, and that the Tarot does, in fact, contain twelve cards bearing zodiacal symbols. Ten cards thus remain. What could they signify? These ten cards present certain analogies which allow us to group them, two by two, into five pairs, thusly:

The Pope and the Emperor; La Papesse and the Empress; Le Bateleur and Le Mat; the Hermit and the Hanged Man; Death and the Resurrection [Le Jugement].

Let us recall that two of the seven planets, the two luminaries, the Sun and the Moon, are already represented among the twelve zodiacal cards. Let us also bear in mind that in astrology, each of the other five planets have two domiciles, one diurnal and the other nocturnal, and that the influence of the diurnal planet does not have the same quality as that of the nocturnal planet.

The idea thus naturally comes to mind to examine whether there is a link between the five planets in their ten domiciles and the ten remaining cards.

Le Bateleur is a symbol of diurnal Mercury, god of skill and cunning, of commerce, eloquence, and protector of charlatans.

Le Mat expresses the negative influence of nocturnal Mercury, which warps one’s reason and one’s heart, and which makes thieves, madmen, eccentrics and neurotics, etc.

La Papesse represents diurnal Venus, or Venus-Urania, goddess of Science, Wisdom, and of ideal Love.

The Empress corresponds to nocturnal Venus or Aphrodite, queen of men and gods by the power of love, creator of all vegetal and animal forms.

The Resurrection and Death are the two aspects of diurnal and nocturnal Mars, creator and destructor. Astrologically, Mars is fire. This vital fire descends to Earth in the Spring (Aries) and awakens all sleeping life, and raises the dead from their tombs. In the Autumn (Scorpio), the vital fire returns to the heavens, destroying all created forms: it is the death of nature. Note the the hands and heads reaped by Death on the thirteenth card of the Tarot seem to be growing out of the earth, which could indicate vegetal productions.

The Pope and the Emperor are two allegories of diurnal and nocturnal Jupiter, that is, the spiritual royalty, and the temporal royalty. This last resemblance is so striking that all exegetes of the Tarot have accepted it, along with that of Venus-Urania - La Papesse.

The Hermit expresses the qualities usually attributed to diurnal Saturn: wisdom, prudence, religiosity, isolation. Perhaps we ought to see in the holy man’s cloak and lantern an allusion to the fact that diurnal Saturn corresponds to Aquarius, at the end of the month of January, when it is cold and the days are short.

As to the Hanged Man, he is a victim of nocturnal Saturn, the great malefic, who threatens humans with catastrophes, death, tribulations and the overthrowing of the social order. Death by hanging is a saturnine end, and death by hanging upside-down is, so to say, a doubly saturnine end. But beyond the mythological sense, the allegory of the Hanged Man has a very precise astronomical meaning. Let us recall that the nocturnal house of Saturn is Capricorn, which corresponds to the Winter Solstice, and we will immediately grasp that the chief victim of Saturn is the Sun itself, having reached the lowest point of its path, in a way hanging upside-down, beneath the reign of Saturn. We then understand why the engraver of the Tarot has given the Hanged Man the splendid [blonde] hair of Phoebus and placed him in a gibbet of twelve cut branches. [see notes]
 

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VII*

We will refrain from drawing hasty conclusions from the foregoing similarities, and which, to the best of our knowledge, have not yet been pointed out. In order to profitably discuss them and make them the basis of a system of interpretation, the scope of the problem must be widened to research the origins and signification of zodiacal and planetary symbolism, a delicate and arduous task which has already exhausted the efforts of many great minds.

It is only by recovering the key to the astrological symbolism that we might usefully compare the Zodiac and the Tarot, and if this comparison were to lead to a positively established relation [between these two systems], only then might we move onto the next question: Is there a relationship between the Minor Arcana of the Tarot and the calendar?

-1920-

[* There is no section numbered VI, nor is it to be found in the original printed article. It must be a typo.]
 

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Note: Le Pendu

Notes:

Earlier in the article, Rougier briefly mentions the Hanged Man:

“In the Tarot of Marseille, the Hanged Man has a splendid head of hair, which inevitably makes one think of Apollo, and the gallows is set across two branches which each have six stumps where branches have been cut off. This may signify the sun at the Winter Solstice, the twelfth month of the year.”

In another, later, article, “Sol Stat”, [ http://livres-mystiques.com/partieTEXTES/Rougier/solstat.html ] Rougier expands on this interpretation of the Hanged Man, the Winter Solstice, and the connection with Saturn:

“There is a Tarot card which illustrates this mystery [the spiritual dimension of the Winter Solstice], the twelfth card, called the Hanged Man. Between two tree trunks, each having six stumps where branches have been cut off, swings a hanged man from a gallows, head downwards. Most of the tarot decks give him a splendid head of blonde hair shining forth, and it is possible to see him as the god Phoebus, of whom the sun is one form.

On the material level, we can see in this image the astronomical symbol of the Winter Solstice, since it depicts the sun at its lowest point (head downwards), and at the end of the twelfth month of its course (the twelve cut branches).

But Phoebus or Apollo is not only the Sun, he is above all the manifestation of the Spirit. In this way, the twelfth card expresses the idea of the Spirit crucified by the power of Destiny, or sacrificed to Destiny, to the power of evil, say, to Saturn, to stay within the Greco-Roman mythology.”
 

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From the Introductory Paragraph

The Major Arcana of the Tarot

The object of the present study is to draw the reader’s attention to some singular resemblances which may be observed between the Major Arcana of the Tarot and the symbols of Astrology such as we know them beneath the veil of Greco-Roman myths.

[…]

[sorry - this got left out in the first round of copying & pasting]
 

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Some Remarks

I would point out that, with one exception - the latest one (Arnoult-Lequart) - all of the decks on Yves' website linked to above have blonde-headed Hanged Men.

And the Chariot in the deck by Bernardin Suzanne bears a glyph which does have a resemblance to a lingham, or at least what the later occultists put on the heraldic shield instead. Was this deck the source of that particular device?