XXI - Le Monde

punchinella

With regards to this androgeny of Christ . . . well, I was brought up by a protestant 'fundamentalist' obsessed with the idea of resurrection, & his argument would be (I've heard it so many times :rolleyes: ) that a resurrected being becomes androgenous, like an angel, at the moment that s/he becomes immortal. --Sexuality & procreation being functions of mortality made superfluous by immortality.

In spite of the fact that he (my dad) would be horrified at the thought of anybody applying his argument to tarot ( }) ) it might shed some light on why a resurrected man > a woman -- ???

I've never heard of Christ the (living) person being androgenous. Must be a Catholic thing :confused:
 

tmgrl2

jmd said:
The image surrounding the central (and possibly androgenous) figure is certainly reminiscent of the vesica piscis - better known as a mandorla, or almond. I wonder if there wasn't a play on words here between 'al mondo' ('the world') and 'mandorla'. In French, this same play would have been between 'L'amande' and 'Le Monde'. If we also consider that this homophonic 'play' was also considered important by certain alchemists (and termed the 'language of the birds' - La Langues d'oiseaux), then 'the World' suddenly becomes something of far greater and deeper significance, for the almond was certainly considered the fruit of the sacred Tree of Life amongst the Phrygians (& others).

As I read this piece of your post, jmd, the Mandala also came to mind...in the link I added one can click on the right links and it will highlight elements of the Mandala...something to reflect upon.

http://www.artsmia.org/arts-of-asia/tibet/interpretation/

terri
 

Yatima

New Jerusalem

Ross, in the meantime, I have done some research on the question whether the World as depicted in the Pierpont-Morgan could be the New Jerusalem. (I am taking over this discussion from the thread on "Star, Moon, Sun", in order to not blow it up even more - although, since the recent incident, this discussion is lost there.)

Some of the reasons, you rejected this thesis were (1) that it was consistently called World and never New Jerusalem, (2) that this World-trump does not match the iconography of the New Jerusalem found elsewhere in the 14th and 15th century, and (3) that the grounding of the Tarot imaginary in the Book of Revelations does not fit close enough the historical knowledge with its connection to the triumphal tradition. So, for you, the whole "system" of the trumps exhibits not a religious end in a Heavenly City but "Everything" (= World) as in relation to the Juggler's "little things" (This is what I remember…).

I will first explain my overall thesis, which includes the interpretation of the World as New Jerusalem. Then, I will answer your objections. Altogether, I think, it cannot be proven that the World definitely is the New Jerusalem but if we take together all the circumstantial elements as part of a puzzle, a dense picture can arise that could allow us to see some intelligibility and even probability for this thesis.

For other sources, I refer to the iconographical of Bob O'Neill and the contention of Michael Hurst, both explaining the Christian background of the trumps by invoking the Books of Revelation and its close fitness to explain the background of the trumps. Further, the thesis that the Tarot is somehow connected to the Black Death and traditions in the wake of it like the Dance of Death, the Triumph of Death and its importance in spirituality, reflection and art after 1351 (see also the thread "Tarot and Black Death" - it now seems to be erased totally; so I will install it again soon). Then, historical research on the Bembo-deck and its extensions of which one is the World and also its setting within the triumphal tradition of the Visconti-court as well as other facts on the early trionfi-Tradition on this court.

I. The Thesis of the New Jerusalem

1. Presumably, the Bembo-deck is one of the earliest or even a role-model for the further development of the Tarot structure and imaginary. It had only 14 cards, later 6 additional cards and no Devil and Tower. It was probably (and fittingly) part of the triumphal tradition of the Visconi-court, and may have been produced in the aftermath of the inheritance of Petrarch's trionfi and to accompany a real triumph as court-event of the early 15th century. It was not, however, the first triumphal deck but one within a tradition from which we know the Michelino-deck to have been the first (known) deck, called "trionfi", but depicting 16 gods instead of the later standardized Tarot-trump subjects.

2. In the Bembo-deck, a peculiar order visualizes a relation of its subjects to the Black Death and its reflection in literature, art, spirituality, and power in Northern Italy after its most violent outbreak between 1347 and 1351. Since (1) the Bembo features Death and Judgment as its last two cards, they seem to represent the aim of the triumphal steps of all 14 cards and (2) the depiction of Death as decomposing corps with a scythe seems to be caused by reflection on the Black Death in art – it cannot be found earlier than about 1370 and connects visually to the all-presence of death in this era and thereafter – it is probable to understand the 14 pictures as symbolic representation of a life under the immediate threat of the Black Death and the divine Judgment on a sinful life that was felt to be the reason for the appearance of the Black Death.

3. Since almost all of the 14 cards can be connected to the Black Death smoothly – like the Fool and St. Roch or the Tower and St. Barbara of the 14 Nothelfer, related intensely with the great plague, or Emperor and Pope with the Dance of Death-tradition – it is natural to assume the Bembo-trumps to represent a "spiritual icon" of life between the futility of earthly matters and the eschatological end of one's life or the apocalyptic aim of the world under the sin.

As a cultural background, we find an apocalyptic atmosphere manifesting in movements, flourishing in this time, like the Spiritual Franciscans, the follower of Joachim of Fiore's vision of the spiritual aeon (of the Spirit) to come soon, the confraternities (especially committed to the dying and dead in the wake of the Black Death), and the Triumph of Death-tradition. All this makes it likely that the Book of Revelations played a major role in interpreting this apocalyptic scenario, intended in the final Bembo-trumps.

The immense material of religious and profane art depicting apocalyptic imaginary based on the visions of the Books of Revelation could also substantiate this claim easily.

4. If the apocalyptic horizon of the Bembo-deck with Death and Judgment as the end and aim of the deck, then the later extension of cosmological subjects (like Star, Moon and Sun), placed "between" Death and Judgment, and a city in a cosmic sphere as new final end in the World card should also be understandable from this apocalyptic context and especially from the first and major source for its depiction at this time, namely the Book of Revelations.

Indeed, we find both the cosmological subjects as presenting signs of the coming end (I have developed this I several directions in the thread "Star, Moon, Sun" - although maybe lost now), and (now we see) the "logical" outcome (regarding Rev 21-22) of this apocalyptic Judgment to be a New Creation with the New Jerusalem as its center.

So, it is quite natural, thereby following the "theologically correct" order, to top Judgment with its depiction of the resurrection of the dead by the New Creation, symbolized as the New Jerusalem.

The new final end of the extended Bembo-deck widens the "spiritual icon" in the wake of the Black Death to a vision of a new life as reward for all the pain of this world.

5. If it is true that, in the triumphal tradition that led to exceptional hand-painted card-games with trumps, the Bembo-trumps were NOT the first "subject" of trionfi-cards, rather the 16 gods of the Michelino-deck, then I presume that the creation of a new deck with other trumps, namely the 14 Bembo-trumps, is evidence for the thesis that THIS (special) "spiritual/apocalyptic icon" came into the triumphal tradition later without being the original and only idea of the creation of a deck of trumps.

So the subjects and their combination could have existed in any other form as an eschatological icon in the wake of the Black Death independently from this triumphal tradition, e.g. as series of paintings or cards like the 14 Nothelfer (as suggested by some in the thread "Tarot and Black Death" - who hopefully will state this connection again when the thread is installed newly).

Someone at the Visconti-court has picked them up and has recreated them in order to function as series of trumps in the already existing trionfi-tradition.

Later, probably related to another event, the extensions of the Bembo-deck were produced, thereby also changing slightly the "original" theme – Death and Resurrection – by adding the eschatologically "logical" aim of New Jerusalem.


II. Evidence for the New Jerusalem

1. Let me begin with the counterargument that the World never was named New Jerusalem.

This is true. BUT since only early cards present a comic sphere that contains a city, and since, from this time, no names are given, we don’t know, really. Motif and meaning might have changed or paralleled other meanings then prevalent when we find the name "World".

But even if the Pierpont-Morgan World was named World, we have other examples that make such mismatching in names understandable: So Judgment was never named for what it was depicting. It had variable names like Trumpet or Angel, but never that of Resurrection; but that is what it invariably depicts. So, why not having New Jerusalem named World although it shows the New Jerusalem?

In believing that the extended Bembo-deck exhibits Dummett's order C with World as last card, there is a theologically correct order of Death, Resurrection, and New Jerusalem. Dummett's order B by elevating Justice between Judgment and New Jerusalem underlines that they have understood that Judgment did NOT depict the Last Judgment but the Resurrection of the Dead in order to let Last Judgment (= Justice) happen. That in order A, which you prefer, Judgment is last, only shows that the New Jerusalem was not understood everywhere or could change its meaning - as Justice could change its meaning from a cardinal virtue to the Last Judgment. So, the name is not really an obstacle for the thesis.

2. Another counterargument of yours is much more effective: Why do we not find New Jerusalem depicted iconographically correct as it was presented in Rev 21 and surrounding art?

Indeed, I could not find any depiction of a city in a sphere held by angels/putti meaning New Jerusalem. This is a point for you. BUT, nor could I find any depiction of the "world" as a city in a cosmic sphere held by angels!

So, your argument is a double-edged sword: Neither New Jerusalem nor the World can be said to have been painted or drawn in a way the Pierpont-Morgan World surprises us with.

In the logic of your argumentation, this would have the backlash that if the world has not been depicted this way, it cannot mean the world…

Instead, I take the iconology of the Pierpont-Morgan World to be an invention that draws on several traditions including those depicting the world AND the New Jerusalem.

I could, indeed, find paintings that combine any given elements of the Pierpont-Morgan World relating to either the world (= everything, the cosmos) or the New Jerusalem (some of them have been shown by O'Neill at tarot.com and were quoted in the thread on "Star, Moon, Sun"):

a) We can find the cosmic sphere held by God Father or by angels or even by putti (against one of your arguments).

b) We see the New Jerusalem surrounded by water as a late medieval city and not in the correct iconological proportions as visioned by Rev 21 (against another of your arguments).

c) There is a parallel of the depiction of the falling Babylon as a medieval city upside down, surrounded by figures functioning like the putti in our deck as witnesses.

d) We do find description and descriptions of the New Jerusalem as surrounded by the four rivers of life like the supposed sea surrounding the city in our deck.

So, in my opinion, from this follows that "a city in the cosmic sphere held by putti" is a combination of several motifs, exhibiting New Jerusalem.

This means, indeed, as you say, the world (not earth) with its elements (water, earth, air, heaven), but with a city in its center. It means a cosmic city that in relation to Resurrection must be seen as the New Jerusalem.

3. As to the contemporariness of the New Jerusalem in the early 15th century I found astonishing material.

a) While in earlier times (before the 13th century) the vision of the Heaven was mostly related to the regained Paradise and, hence, was understood, depicted, and described mostly in terms of a garden, since the rising importance of the medieval city as "third place" besides courts and the countryside, as a place of ever growing freedom from the feudal system and of the invention of the "middle class" of "free agents" in economy, Heaven began to be depicted more as a city, picking up the vision of Rev 21.

b) This was mediated by the new orders, who saw their existence as foreshadowing of the New Jerusalem, directed spirituality directly to the New Jerusalem as visual aim of the journey of the world, as e.g., in the vision of Bernard of Cluny (c.1100–c.1150).

"Jerusalem the golden
With milk and honey blessed,
Beneath thy contemplation
Sink heart and voice oppressed.
I know not, O, I know not
What joys await us there,
What radiancy of glory,
What bliss beyond compare."

c) It was precisely the next centuries and the flourishing and growing of the cities in the early Renaissance that lead to depictions of the Heaven as New Jerusalem.

Some of the Northern Italian cities, like Florence, even understood their "entity" to be a as glorious as the old Roman cities, thereby giving "evidence" for the new hype with the Heaven or New Creation (= the World under grace) as New Jerusalem. And these cities were precisely the new model for depicting New Jerusalem as can be seen, e.g., in the visionary writings of Gerardesca of Pisa (1212–69), which describes heaven as a city surrounded by seven castles and other minor fortresses, enfolded within a vast unin-habited parkland.

d) Popular was the way the New Jerusalem was depicted in the famous “Apocalypse
tapestries” (castle of Angers, the capital of the ancient province of Anjou). In 1373, the French King, Charles V, lent his brother, the duke of Anjou, an illustrated copy of the Apoca-lypse. The duke, impressed by this illustrations, commissioned Nicholas Bataille to produce a massive tapestry, to include as many of these scenes as possible (105 apocalyptic vignettes in 144 meters of tapestry). One is an illustration of the New Jerusalem, which depicts the city as a classic medieval castle, complete with moat, walls, gate, and towers.

e) The liturgy of the time gave the New Jerusalem a special place for internalisation as main symbol of what will happen after Resurrection: It was envisioned as end of the Mass. The final part of that Mass – “In Paradisum deducant te Angeli,” usually abbreviated simply to “In Paradisum” – celebrated the hope of the New Jerusalem after earth’s struggles and sorrows:

"May angels lead you to paradise;
May martyrs welcome you on your arrival;
May they guide you to the holy city of Jerusalem."

So spiritually it was a very present metaphor!

Finally, as far as we know, the New Jerusalem was never seen as "Earth", but as the aim of the Cosmos in the symbol of one of its most favourable places: the city. So, it is natural to have seen New Jerusalem as an central expression of the New World, New Creation, New Earth and Heavens, as presented in the Book of Revelations.

4. To top this evidence, there are many poems or "otherworldly journeys" from the 11th century on that aim at the New Jerusalem. Especially one of them is interesting here: "The Visions of the Knight Tondal," written in Latin around 1150 by Marcus, an Irish monk in Regensburg, later translated into 15 languages. It tells the story of a wealthy Irish knight, whose soul goes on a journey through hell to paradise with an angel for a guide – leading to Heavenly Jerusalem. By some it is seen as an anticipation of Dante’s "Divine Comedy." The story became rapidly one of the most popular in a long tradition of visionary and moralizing literature.

5. Finally, let me see the greater picture by relating the New Jerusalem back to theme of the Bembo-deck. There is literature that makes understandable how medieval spirituality, Black Death and New Jerusalem relate in the Pierpont-Morgan deck.

I found the poem "Pelerinage de Vie Humaine" (“Pilgrimage of Human Life”), written by Guillaume de Deguileville in 1330–1, that opens with a vision of the New Jerusalem as the goal of life. The poem envisions human life as a pilgrimage from birth to death, that is, it focuses particularly on the role of the “three summoners” – age, illness, and death –before reaching Resurrection, Judgment, and New Jerusalem. Obviously, these three figures played an important role in the popular devotional literature of the Middle Ages as they are viewed as harbingers of final divine judgment, forcing individuals to evaluate their spiritual states and make appropriate adjustments. The vision of the New Jerusalem thus becomes a stimulus for personal repentance and renewal.

Precisely this seems to be present in the Bembo-deck: We find Death and Time (Old Age) as harbingers of the Judgment. Illness might – after the Black Death be all-present - be found in the Fool as St. Roch or a figure actually inflicted by the pestilence (as put forward by roppo in the threads "Le Mat" and "Tarot and the Black Death").

--------------------

So, I think there ARE good reasons, to see the iconography of the extended Bembo-deck, not only depicted this spiritual allegory of a life in light of (Black) Death, Resurrection, and Judgment, but also quite naturally aiming at the New Creation of which the New Jesusalem was an important image spiritually present at the time of the invention of the Bembo-subjects.

Yatima
 

tmgrl2

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all of these posts.

My reference to the Mandala is not as appropriate as jmd's to the
wreath-shaped mandorla. This shape plus the androgynous figure in its center are key to me. In more universal terms without alluding to a particular religion, I like to think of the mandorla as containing a representation of a "holy" figure that stands for the union of heaven and earth.

It could be nirvana, paradise found, return to the infinite, spirit-matter, soul-body.

Silvie Simon further elaborates on this idea in The Tarot:

This garland is also the egg in which Brahma
was born, the forebear of humanity according to the Rig Veda. The cosmic egg is a universal symbol of the world and its creation. We find the alchemical egg in the card of the Sun, at the same time the seat and the subject of transmutation. The first place of the Mutus Liber orSecret Book of alchemy, published in 1677, is illustrted with a wreath very like that in the World.

Simon later discusses the cosmic dance of Shiva, a reference I love. She elaborates on this dance as one of a universe that is engaged in infinite motion...the dance of particles, of subatomic matter.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna speaks:
If I do mot
act, the worlds will perish.
(quoted in Simon)

So, it seems, the references could be universal themes present across "religions." Just wanted to add these on to the above references in the other posts.

Whatever the background is that one brings to this card, it is certainly a most important Trump, since following the review of ones life in the Judgment, we can look forward to a resurrection, a reunion and have faith in the eternal process of generation and regeneration.

Whether this card represents the resolution of a particular conflict or phase in life, or stands forth as the banner for what we hope to achieve on this plane, the World is always a marvelous card to draw, one of achievement and completion.
 

kwaw

Re: New Jerusalem

Yatima said:
Ross, in the meantime, I have done some research on the question whether the World as depicted in the Pierpont-Morgan could be the New Jerusalem. (I am taking over this discussion from the thread on "Star, Moon, Sun", in order to not blow it up even more - although, since the recent incident, this discussion is lost there.)

Some of the reasons, you rejected this thesis were (1) that it was consistently called World and never New Jerusalem,
Yatima

The name 'The World', following 'Judgement', could still have an eschatalogical meaning in terms of Jewish tradition, in which arises post 'judgement' not 'the new Jerusalem' but 'the world to come.'

Kwaw
 

firemaiden

the two strawberries...

I've noticed this for the first time -- in my Camoin version of the World, in between the cow and the lion, are two enormous strawberries. Are they meant to be strawberies? or is it my spoof vision tricking me? Is there a precedent for this?

I'm also wondering if the drape - red in front and blue in back, is sometimes unicoloured, and if the colours are considered to be significant.

Is it significant that she is standing on a red pillow (or is it the red sea?)

Not meaning to be irreverant, but the bird in the upper right corner looks like a chicken. Is it supposed to be an eagle? A yellow eagle? or is it a phoenix?
 

Tarotphelia

Phanes, anyone??

http://www.phanes.com/phanes.html

Phanes is thought to be both sexes.


More:

http://www.archaeonia.com/religion/cults/orphic.htm

http://www.piney.com/Orphic.html

As for the particular image in the Marseilles deck, I do not believe it represents either Christ or an hermaphrodite.It is the Devil who is depicted clearly as the hermaphrodite, and the artist knows exactly how to do it and is not shy about doing so. Both sets of sexual characteristics revealed. Shapeless body and face. The woman in the World on the Marseilles deck may be the same woman on the Star card as Whitley Strieber indicates. And if she is pregnant with a son, she could be seen to embody both sexes at once.
 

le pendu

Thanks for the fantastic links Dark Inquisitor!

Very informative and convincing!

robert
 

smleite

Dark Inquisitor said:
And if she is pregnant with a son, she could be seen to embody both sexes at once.

I like this idea. For me, one of the most important meanings of Le Monde is the human body (and all material bodies), seen as a microcosm. Contrary to everything I’ve ever read about Tarot and Kabalah, and realizing that I myself know almost noting about this subject, I still consider Le Monde to be placed in Malkuth (The Kingdom), and therefore see this image as a representation of the cabalistic Bride.
 

Tarotphelia

le pendu said:
Thanks for the fantastic links Dark Inquisitor!

Very informative and convincing!

robert


<Dies of shock>