ΤΗΙ ΚΑΛΛΙΣΤΗΙ

Yygdrasilian

♌

Ross Caldwell said:
On the face of it, the identification of the figure in the card seems certain - Hercules is a proverbial symbol of strength; this would be an appropriate figure for a Sforza, whose name means “force” or “strength”, or as an allegory of the name of the Duke of Ferrara. Moreover, Hercules is frequently depicted carrying his weapon of choice, a club. And indeed, a club figures in the first Labour, which depending on the version has Hercules vainly trying to kill the Lion with it (its skin proving impervious to arrows and blows) or chasing the Lion into a cave with it.

But while doubtlessly reasonable, there are some difficulties with this hypothesis. There are incongruities between the traditional depictions of the Labour, and the iconography of the card, as well as in the story itself. For instance, in the story Hercules, after vainly trying to kill the lion with arrows and then beating it with a club, succeeds finally only by using his superhuman physical strength to strangle it. The imagery of the Labour usually shows this victory, depicted as either grappling head-to-head with the lion, or wrestling with it, Hercules having a stranglehold around the lion's neck. Finally, after choking the Nemean Lion, Hercules henceforth wore its invulnerable skin, as depicted in the 1475 portrayal of Hercules’ second Labour, the Killing of the Lernean Hydra, by the artist Antonio Pollaiolo. Certainly Pollaiolo's dyanmic figure, with the lion's tail snapping out behind, is reminiscent of Hercules' billowing sash that lends movement to the Visconti-Sforza card. But if the intention of the card-painter were to show this particular triumph of Hercules, it would be odd to show him using one of the unsuccessful methods. Rather it may be that the image is a visual synecdoche, a representation of all that Hercules means in general.

http://www.trionfi.com/0/i/r/11.html
Herakles strikes a similar pose ‘over’ the constellation DRACO – an asterism seen to coil around Earth’s north celestial pole, yet bearing striking similarity to the astrological glyph for LEO, the lion. If you connect the ‘dots’, that is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draco_(constellation)

Perhaps, then, this clothed Force is more of an allusion to Herakles 11th Labor than his first.

The affiliation carries a particular poignancy if The Emperor's identity was indeed that of Sigismund I of Hungary, whose blessing Francesco Sforza may have needed to ascend from being strongest of the condottiero unto the ranks of nobility through his betrothal to the Duke of Milan's sole heir. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Visconti-sforza-04-emperor.jpg

While there is presumably no evidence for Tarot’s origins in the occult, it is interesting to note how the 3-ring emblem on Sigismund’s chest, a symbol inexorably linked to Bianca Visconti’s wedding dowry, does share a notable feature with the qabalah in locating Draco at “11” –though, to be fair, that ‘point’ ought really belong to the letter shaped more like Herakles’ billowing cape. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-REdC2F2JEIQ/U8CuZUQLwoI/AAAAAAAAAPY/p9dl97tojrA/s1600/7-11.jpg

Were Tarot’s 0-21 arcana meant to be used with Hebrew’s 22 letters, The Emperor would correlate to the Sepher Yetzirah’s simple letter, HEH, and thus ARES – a constellation depicting the golden-fleeced ram, Crios Chrysomallos. Despite the fact that this Milan pattern deck had no written names or numbers, the allusion would hold were the Greek word for “sheep” (melon) known to be the same as that for “apple”, as in the globus cruciger held within the Emperor's left hand - a 'golden apple' akin to the fabled fruit of Greek mythology that once grew from Hera’s orchard in the Garden of the Hesperides and was watched over by Ladon (Strong Flow), a sleepless mythological dragon which likewise kept guard of the golden fleece. After being slain by Herakles during his 11th labor it was immortalized by the goddess Hera (Air) among the stars as DRACO.

Posed as a “Regulus”, the Latin diminutive of rex meaning ‘little king’ (at least as compared to "Christ, the King"), the icon of The Emperor may also pun for a certain species of dragon mentioned in the ‘Psalm of Protection’ and known in Greek as a basilisk: "You will tread on the lion and the dragon, the asp and the basilisk you will trample under foot" [Psalms 91:13]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilisk

As ‘King of the Serpents’, the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund had a natural affiliation with dragons by virtue of his ancestral lineage to Sigurd, a hero of the Norse Volsunga Saga who’d obtained a great treasure of gold by slaying a dragon and eating its heart. http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=2498412&postcount=2

Notably, Regulus was also the name of the brightest star in Leo: the 'cor de leon' common to certain alchemical allegories of metallurgy in connection with a specific method for purifying the King of Metals, Gold, with Antimony – a fact not lost on most kings, no matter how small, upon minting the coins of their realm.

Although likely dead some years before they were painted, Sigismund’s appearance among these proto-Tarot cards may have heralded Francesco Sforza's allegiance to the Emperor’s Societas Draconostrum - possibly elaborated upon further with the Codex de Sphaera (1469). http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/De_Sphaera_-_Allegory_Sforza.JPG

As regards astrological lore, ARES and LEO share an affinity with Gold inasmuch as the Sun ‘rules’ LEO and is ‘exalted’ in ARES – attributions noted by Ptolemy in his Tetrabiblos. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essent...of_the_traditional_essential_dignities.5B2.5D

Yet, by the time Tarot begins to acquire a ‘standard’ form, LEO tends to take the place of LIBRA – an incongruity oft held as evidence against any said correlation to qabalah. However, insofar as the philosopher’s riddle of transmuting lead into gold was concerned with more than just metallurgy, there may be an edifying purpose served in transposing the Domicile of Gold (LEO) with Lead’s Exaltation (LIBRA). One perhaps furthered by adjusting the scales of Balance through the spell-ing of “God” (aleph-lamed). http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/3_al.html

Is it not feasible that the Milan-pattern influenced decks of Tarot drew from some older tradition familiar to certain members of the Dragon Order concerning the use of alphabets in signifying an ancient formula of ‘immortality’? Though one imagines that must have required some Promethean act of Forethought, it may simply have been a matter of knowing Saturn’s proper place upon the Tree. So, if you’ve a penchant for prospecting through geometric means, you might just find a “Golden” Apple growing there. But I suspect “Hera’s Glory” will need follow through with his swing on that Lion first.

11 ♎
 

Cartomancer

μῆλον τῆς Ἔριδος Apple of Discord?

♌
Herakles strikes a similar pose ‘over’ the constellation DRACO – an asterism seen to coil around Earth’s north celestial pole, yet bearing striking similarity to the astrological glyph for LEO, the lion. If you connect the ‘dots’, that is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draco_(constellation)

Perhaps, then, this clothed Force is more of an allusion to Herakles 11th Labor than his first.

The affiliation carries a particular poignancy if The Emperor's identity was indeed that of Sigismund I of Hungary, whose blessing Francesco Sforza may have needed to ascend from being strongest of the condottiero unto the ranks of nobility through his betrothal to the Duke of Milan's sole heir. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Visconti-sforza-04-emperor.jpg

While there is presumably no evidence for Tarot’s origins in the occult, it is interesting to note how the 3-ring emblem on Sigismund’s chest, a symbol inexorably linked to Bianca Visconti’s wedding dowry, does share a notable feature with the qabalah in locating Draco at “11” –though, to be fair, that ‘point’ ought really belong to the letter shaped more like Herakles’ billowing cape. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-REdC2F2JEIQ/U8CuZUQLwoI/AAAAAAAAAPY/p9dl97tojrA/s1600/7-11.jpg

Were Tarot’s 0-21 arcana meant to be used with Hebrew’s 22 letters, The Emperor would correlate to the Sepher Yetzirah’s simple letter, HEH, and thus ARES – a constellation depicting the golden-fleeced ram, Crios Chrysomallos. Despite the fact that this Milan pattern deck had no written names or numbers, the allusion would hold were the Greek word for “sheep” (melon) known to be the same as that for “apple”, as in the globus cruciger held within the Emperor's left hand - a 'golden apple' akin to the fabled fruit of Greek mythology that once grew from Hera’s orchard in the Garden of the Hesperides and was watched over by Ladon (Strong Flow), a sleepless mythological dragon which likewise kept guard of the golden fleece. After being slain by Herakles during his 11th labor it was immortalized by the goddess Hera (Air) among the stars as DRACO.

Posed as a “Regulus”, the Latin diminutive of rex meaning ‘little king’ (at least as compared to "Christ, the King"), the icon of The Emperor may also pun for a certain species of dragon mentioned in the ‘Psalm of Protection’ and known in Greek as a basilisk: "You will tread on the lion and the dragon, the asp and the basilisk you will trample under foot" [Psalms 91:13]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilisk

As ‘King of the Serpents’, the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund had a natural affiliation with dragons by virtue of his ancestral lineage to Sigurd, a hero of the Norse Volsunga Saga who’d obtained a great treasure of gold by slaying a dragon and eating its heart. http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=2498412&postcount=2

Notably, Regulus was also the name of the brightest star in Leo: the 'cor de leon' common to certain alchemical allegories of metallurgy in connection with a specific method for purifying the King of Metals, Gold, with Antimony – a fact not lost on most kings, no matter how small, upon minting the coins of their realm.

Although likely dead some years before they were painted, Sigismund’s appearance among these proto-Tarot cards may have heralded Francesco Sforza's allegiance to the Emperor’s Societas Draconostrum - possibly elaborated upon further with the Codex de Sphaera (1469). http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/De_Sphaera_-_Allegory_Sforza.JPG

As regards astrological lore, ARES and LEO share an affinity with Gold inasmuch as the Sun ‘rules’ LEO and is ‘exalted’ in ARES – attributions noted by Ptolemy in his Tetrabiblos. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essent...of_the_traditional_essential_dignities.5B2.5D

Yet, by the time Tarot begins to acquire a ‘standard’ form, LEO tends to take the place of LIBRA – an incongruity oft held as evidence against any said correlation to qabalah. However, insofar as the philosopher’s riddle of transmuting lead into gold was concerned with more than just metallurgy, there may be an edifying purpose served in transposing the Domicile of Gold (LEO) with Lead’s Exaltation (LIBRA). One perhaps furthered by adjusting the scales of Balance through the spell-ing of “God” (aleph-lamed). http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/3_al.html

Is it not feasible that the Milan-pattern influenced decks of Tarot drew from some older tradition familiar to certain members of the Dragon Order concerning the use of alphabets in signifying an ancient formula of ‘immortality’? Though one imagines that must have required some Promethean act of Forethought, it may simply have been a matter of knowing Saturn’s proper place upon the Tree. So, if you’ve a penchant for prospecting through geometric means, you might just find a “Golden” Apple growing there. But I suspect “Hera’s Glory” will need follow through with his swing on that Lion first.

11 ♎

It this apple of discord really a bone of contention?

It is evident that Ross Caldwell does indeed have a perfect match between the Strength card and and the legendary hero Hercules:
"We have a perfect match." - Ross Caldwell
"THE VISCONTI-SFORZA TAROCCHI depicts the trump "Force" or "Strength" in a unique way. Instead of the usual portrayal of the moral virtue of Fortitude, typically shown either as a woman taming a lion or a woman holding a cracked pillar, the Visconti-Sforza tarocchi shows a man with a raised club, about to beat a lion with it."
http://www.trionfi.com/0/i/r/11.html

This is "the depiction of the first of Hercules' Twelve Labours, the killing of the Nemean Lion", in the VISCONTI-SFORZA TAROCCHI, as being Strength or the moral virtue of Fortitude.

But what connects Strength with Draco or Leo? The symbol for Leo is similar to the shape of Draco, but those connections to Strength are weak, in my opinion. A simple explanation of the art is probably correct. I see the Sun card as more representative of the constellation Leo.

The Visconti-Sforza tarocchi is based on certain constellations in the original design, in my opinion, and is also the basis of the Tarot trump design for many later decks. The constellation Hercules became a unique portrayal of the Strength card because this family wanted to have their likeness placed in the stars and so relatives were portrayed as constellations. Franscesco Sforza's son Galeazzo Maria was likely portrayed as Hercules. Other early decks that portray Fortitude as Strength are not based on the earliest Tarot trumps, because of the unique depiction of Hercules with a club in the Visconti-Sforza tarocchi.

- Cartomancer (Lance Carter)
 

Huck

Just a question, why Hercules and not Samson? They're basically the same person, they both killed a lion, only it is specifically stated that Samson tore it apart

http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/thumbnail/342732/1/Samson-Slaying-The-Lion.jpg

Samson used either "bare hands" or the "jawbone of an ass" usually.

Samson_slaying_a_philistine.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Slaying_a_Philistine

Possibly the ass jaw-bone had religious dimensions. An ass makes an "I-ah" sound and Samson possibly stood for the Iahwe-cult, possibly in contrast to El or Elohim (associated to the bull cult).

Egyptians associated the people from the deserts with Seth, an ass-god fighting Osiris (possibly they also meant Jews with this, who arrived in Egyptia; for instance "Joseph" and his brothers). The wife of Osiris, Isis, was presented with a cow-head occasionally ...

seth-conspiring-with-72-disciples-against-osiris.jpg

http://arthuride.wordpress.com/2011/07/24/seth-the-bible-translations-interpretations-and-history/
Seth as an ass

03200.jpg

http://www.touregypt.net/afterlife2.htm
Isis with cow-head

Isis_Enthroned-Egyptian-650-BCE.jpg

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Isis
A common Isis with a human head, but with a crown with cow-horns.
 

Yygdrasilian

et in Arcadia ego

Ross Caldwell said:
On the face of it, the identification of the figure in the card seems certain - Hercules is a proverbial symbol of strength; this would be an appropriate figure for a Sforza, whose name means “force” or “strength”

But while doubtlessly reasonable, there are some difficulties with this hypothesis. There are incongruities between the traditional depictions of the Labour, and the iconography of the card, as well as in the story itself. …if the intention of the card-painter were to show this particular triumph of Hercules, it would be odd to show him using one of the unsuccessful methods. Rather it may be that the image is a visual synecdoche, a representation of all that Hercules means in general.

I agree.

And one way to make sense of the incongruity and see it as a triumph instead of a futile effort would be to craft a card signifying the constellations Hercules and Draco. For in that pose we find the hero, club raised high, having slain the dragon – a serpent coiled around the axis mundi, defeated by one who overcomes the ‘strong flow’ of time itself in order to gain the golden apples of immortality.

That it happens to sync up well with the symbolic use of letters in qabalah may be just another coincidence. Sort of like how numbering those letters 0-21 helps immensely in decrypting a distinct body of hidden knowledge too recursively structured to have happened by accident. Yet, even though that system requires a certain amount of study before one can really ‘see it’, to whoever possessed this deck of cards all that was really needed to fathom the triumph of Sforza was both a passing familiarity with the glyphs of the zodiac and an ability to look up at night round about the pole star.
 

Cartomancer

Just a question, why Hercules and not Samson? They're basically the same person, they both killed a lion, only it is specifically stated that Samson tore it apart

http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/thumbnail/342732/1/Samson-Slaying-The-Lion.jpg

Samson didn't make it into the heavens, but Hercules did.
Early illustrations of Hercules show similarities to the Strength card.

http://www.kristenlippincott.com/assets/Uploads/De-signis-cael11.pdf

But, the Chariot card is easily seen in the stars of Auriga, the Charioteer.
http://www.kristenlippincott.com/assets/Uploads/Auriga-Sept-2011.pdf

And who can ignore the Empress, who is seen in the stars of Queen Cassiopeia?
http://www.kristenlippincott.com/assets/Uploads/De-signis-caeli2.pdf

The Death card is seen in the stars of Sagittarius.
http://www.kristenlippincott.com/assets/Uploads/De-signis-caeli19.pdf

These aren't "lost constellations". These are in plain view in the night sky.
The Tarot trumps are simply pictures of constellations. Can you disprove that?

- Cartomancer (Lance Carter)
 

Zephyros

---------
 

Yygdrasilian

Prometheus Unbound

♌♏♍ The possibility of a correlation to Draco in the guise of Herakles’ Lion occurred to me recently while attempting to illustrate the integration of two complementary methods of manipulating the 22 Hebrew letters (numbered 0-21) within the lattice provided by the qabalah tree. Each involves partitioning the letter-symbols into distinct sets which then recombine within the tree, resulting in a kind of recursive map depicting the measure of time through certain geometric parallels to the mathematics of music. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-REdC2F2JEIQ/U8CuZUQLwoI/AAAAAAAAAPY/p9dl97tojrA/s1600/7-11.jpg

One method yields specific shapes relevant to the tree’s design through the figuration of numbers obtained by grouping them in accordance with their typology as described in the Sepher Yetzirah: 3 matrices (elements), 7 double (planets), 12 simple (zodiac). The other method partitions the letters by the digital root of their numerical ranking (ex: 2=11=20), thereby combining their corresponding symbols into the component pieces of a larger puzzle fit together within the qabalah tree’s scaffolding. Taken together, both methods align with the Great MER of Khnum-khufu through what appears to be an ancient exercise in ‘projective geometry’. One in which Draco does, in fact, dwell within an orchard of “golden” apples with ‘knowledge’ of the tree’s 11th point.

As I was working on a diagram to show, rather than tell, some of these features, it occurred to me that the constellation Draco traced out the shape of Leo’s astrological glyph – a fact which may account for the incongruity of clubbing the lion as opposed to strangling it. Whether the Duke of Milan, the painter of the deck, or the Dragon Emperor had any inkling of how to decrypt qabalah, the architecture underpinning the design of its ancient alphabet seems to have played a role in the craft of allegory and star lore in remote antiquity.

Given Tarot’s utility in decrypting the mechanics behind this codex of numbered letter-symbols, the question for me isn’t so much if its design was influenced by such a system, but rather when and how. But, then, my stumbling across it was triggered by Tarot, whose iconic puns elicited the epiphanies necessary to recognize the letters’ rearrangement into a map of The World and its music with the spheres. Tarot seems cleverly designed for it by the time it assumes the TdM format that would become standard. Having been derived from the Milan pattern decks, perhaps there were notable features about their particular structure and design which conformed best to this “occult” tradition.

Naturally, the case is harder to make with incomplete decks lacking names or numbers, but when I see features like the Borromean Rings or Herakles 11th labor, I find the prospect harder to refute outright. And, really, whether you agree with my overa11 hypothesis or not, can you dispute that the allusion to Draco within this Sforza Triumph heralds a far better omen than the hero making a futile effort at the onset of his labors?

For what it’s worth, I haven’t tossed an apple into this party to incite discord – though given my history with these forums that may be a foregone conclusion. Rather, I wonder more about Paris’ fateful judgment. Confronted by the decision of whether to be motivated by power, glory or beauty, what is the wiser path? Perhaps the trick to avoiding an otherwise fated conflict is in remembering where the apple came from instead, how the strongest Hero frees ‘Forethought’ from its agonizing daily torments in order to learn how ‘Suffering’ can be fooled into stealing those golden fruits of immortality from the garden of his children. Yet, for that Hero to slay the dragon and clear a way depends very much on seeing where it hides.

Do you? ☞☤
 

Cartomancer

Temperance in the stars of Draco

♌♏♍ The possibility of a correlation to Draco in the guise of Herakles’ Lion occurred to me recently while attempting to illustrate the integration of two complementary methods of manipulating the 22 Hebrew letters (numbered 0-21) within the lattice provided by the qabalah tree....

As I was working on a diagram to show, rather than tell, some of these features, it occurred to me that the constellation Draco traced out the shape of Leo’s astrological glyph – a fact which may account for the incongruity of clubbing the lion as opposed to strangling it. Whether the Duke of Milan, the painter of the deck, or the Dragon Emperor had any inkling of how to decrypt qabalah, the architecture underpinning the design of its ancient alphabet seems to have played a role in the craft of allegory and star lore in remote antiquity.
...
Naturally, the case is harder to make with incomplete decks lacking names or numbers, but when I see features like the Borromean Rings or Herakles 11th labor, I find the prospect harder to refute outright. And, really, whether you agree with my overa11 hypothesis or not, can you dispute that the allusion to Draco within this Sforza Triumph heralds a far better omen than the hero making a futile effort at the onset of his labors?
Yet, for that Hero to slay the dragon and clear a way depends very much on seeing where it hides.

Do you? ☞☤

Why yes, I do see where the dragon hides. I also see that the Tarot's Temperance card is hiding in the stars of Draco, when looking at Julius Schiller's Coelum Stellatum Christianum star map. Here is my illustration of the Archangel Michael over Draco using Schiller's star map. This is the prototype for the Temperance card. Christians may have seen this angel over this stars centuries earlier.

http://piecework.deviantart.com/art/Schiller-s-Draco-as-the-Tarot-s-TEMPERANCE-468254820

Julius Schiller (c. 1580 – 1627) was a lawyer from Augsburg, who like his fellow citizen and colleague Johann Bayer published a star atlas in celestial cartography (called Coelum Stellatum Christianum) which replaced pagan constellations with biblical and early Christian figures. -Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Schiller

My rendition of Strength would not fit over the stars of Draco, but works on Hercules:
http://piecework.deviantart.com/art/HERCULES-MS-5415-fol-222-v-STRENGTH-Large-393102673

I do agree that the "alphabet seems to have played a role in the craft of allegory and star lore in remote antiquity".

- Cartomancer (Lance Carter)
 

Yygdrasilian

Lancea et Clavus Domini

Why yes, I do see where the dragon hides. I also see that the Tarot's Temperance card is hiding in the stars of Draco, when looking at Julius Schiller's Coelum Stellatum Christianum star map. Here is my illustration of the Archangel Michael over Draco using Schiller's star map. This is the prototype for the Temperance card. Christians may have seen this angel over this stars centuries earlier.

Given the Scales & Sword, Schiller’s Draco looks more like Justice. Though I doubt it was the prototype for the portrayal of Temperance as a woman filling one jug with another, it is an interesting substitute for the dragon with respect to the apparent transposition of Leo and Libra characterizing the TdM pattern. Within the context of the two over-lapping methods for partitioning Hebrew’s 22 letters described in my previous post, correcting that transposition provides a means of completing the serpent’s coil around the tree while adjusting it into a more balanced symmetry. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-REdC2F2JEIQ/U8CuZUQLwoI/AAAAAAAAAPY/p9dl97tojrA/s1600/7-11.jpg

In that regard, Temperance does play something of a pivotal role inasmuch as it corresponds to Sagittarius (SAMEKH) in that it was an archer with a keen eye and a well-aimed arrow who slew the Draco of the Hesperides. Seen another way, the axis mundi points to the northern celestial pole, the hub upon which the heaven appear to turn. The ‘Strong Flow’ of LADON, being Time as it coils about the axis of the world - visible in the motions of stars and planets - is ‘slain’ precisely at that target: the point seemingly unchanged from night to night. So, as the world turns, the arrow of Sagittarius / prop of Samekh lies upon a line around which one day ‘pours’ into the next.

Of course, due to the mechanics of equinoctial precession, the celestial pole isn’t exactly fixed. When the Great Pyramid was built it pointed to the star Thuban in Draco, but ever since Kochab superseded it as the pole star, that point has roamed through Ursa Minor – a constellation known in ancient Greek mythology as the ‘Hesperides’. Taking a broader view of time, that points winds the other way from that of the turning sky. So perhaps truest is the arrow aimed at where the time’s coiling serpents meet. As the letters numbered 0-21 partition by digital root and recombine within the lattice of the tree, we are given various angles of perspective on how to build such a caduceus through the articulation of their corresponding astrological/alchemical glyphs. One might even get the impression that they were designed for that specific purpose.

It seems based upon a geometric rendering of the age-old riddle: How can something come from nothing? Proceeding from a point, by itself of zero dimension, to a line, the projection of that point through space, there is a fish-shaped vessel created once each point is used to circumscribe one circle around the other. This, in turn, defines 2 more points where the circles intersect, allowing for another vesica piscis. And though this recursive process could continue ad infintum, its kernel of reiteration is that of one fish poised within a larger fish as if the something out of nothing to answer this riddle were an Eye.

Yet, like the initial point in this parable, its perspective lacks ‘dimension’ without an other to see. So it looks but will not find until sees with that other’s Eye. Though the qabalah tree obscures this vision somewhat – planted, as it were, between these two points of view – one may come to see past its shadows when looking at it from a ‘higher’ dimension. The partitioning & recombination of the 0-21 letters enables this while abiding by a numerical logic in accord with the proportions and symmetry of ‘something’ ex nihilo.

In keeping with the measure of the fish [265/153 ≈√3], the digital root partitions of 2, 6 and 5 fit together along the central axis of the tree in proportion to the major axis of a vesica piscis, in between the 1st point (kether: crown) of the tree and the 9th (yesod: foundation): the breadth of that first Eye. As with the ‘creation’ of a 3rd form out of two points, this 2-6-5 axis describes the ‘distance’ between 2 = 20 = △ and 3 = 12 = ▽

Like a light shining down upon the waters below, the gaze of heaven falls upon its own reflection, becoming ‘embodied’ in its own image, so-to-speak. In truth, we’re really just manipulating symbols with numbers…
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4LLMY7JXN...AAAIw/XfJrDQ-kBds/s1600/digit+roots,+brah.jpg

…and numbers with symbols…
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=3714473&postcount=1

…to carry the geometric rendering of the riddle ex nihilo further. And in that respect the transposition of Lamed=Libra 8:11 Leo=Teth provides a useful catalyst once ‘corrected’. One might even call it an ‘act of God’ inasmuch as aleph+lamed = EL, the Hebrew word for “God”, by moving the Ox Goad (lamed) to compel an Ox (aleph).
Being the ‘cipher’ of the deck, the Fool’s zero is akin to that initial point of no dimension. Coming into contact with 8=2³Lamed=Libra on its way to complete the symmetry of the tree at the 11th point. Yet, when partitioning the letters by digital root, zero has no other unless one considers it as also being 22nd in series numbered 0-21. In which case the Ox being goaded is grouped: (0=22)=13=4=2² = □
Notably, here we find another Fish=13=Nun, only this time it alludes to a proportion within the cube once a square is goaded through the “Air”. In this respect, it is helpful to consider that the diagonal of a square to one of its sides = √2 ≈ 17/12

17 Tzaddi = Fishhook
12 Mem = Water

The “measure of the fish” ≈√3 = the space diagonal of a cube to one its sides. So, in effect, goading the Ox triggers a catch of Fish once one recognizes how to move the geometric riddle from ex nihilo into 3 dimensions. Similarly, the archer encrypted within Temperance points the way to where a square’s twin sits upon the opposite side of a cube – like filling one container from another. As 14 = 5 = ♉ VAU = Peg, it is also fixed to the ‘foundation’ at that point where the Serpent ♌ coils around the base of the tree. To help the archer’s aim: 7/5 ≈√2

As “balance” is restored to its proper place within this schema, “EL” moves the square along a continuum. By articulating the letter-symbols partitioned to the digital root of 7=16 to those of 5=14, “God” is provided a ‘MER-KA-BA’, or Chariot, for ascending ‘The Tower’ ♋♂ unto the point of the Prop=SAMEKH, where it meets an Eye.

Just as EL and a fishing motif run across several letters, the letter of Temperance belongs to a group of letters domestically related:

Beyt: Tent
Daleth: Door
Vau: Tent Peg
Cheth: Wall
Samekh: Tent Prop

Thus, Samekh=14 and 5=Vau, joined together, make a kind lance, or spear, that is planted into the Earth as it raises the roof of one’s Tent: ☿= ☤ In so doing one may open an Eye capable of seeing how all the pieces of this puzzle fit together in a ‘higher’ dimension.
Curiously, there was a strikingly similar talisman within the Dragon Emperor Sigismund’s reliquary – one intimately tied to the origins his own name – which had reputedly pierced the “Son” upon his “Cross”: http://www.liv.ac.uk/~spmr02/rings/cremona1.jpg