Plato and the 22 Arcana

Having read Catboxer in our Tarot origins thread, I learned that the 22 trionfi are thought to have originally illustrated neo-platonic ideas.

Aside from the obvious -- Plato's Allegory of the Chariot for the Chariot, has anyone ever gone through the major Arcana and related them to Platos ideas, or Renaissance Neo-Platonic ideas?

Dante

Quaere to what extent the Major Arcana of the LS Dante Tarot could be useful in this exercise. -- Probably not much if at all, but I'm throwing this into the mix anyways.

The Major Arcana in that deck are apparently based on Dante's philosophical work _Convivio_.

In that deck, the Major Arcana from Fool to World are renamed: Necessity, Intellect, Philosophy, Knowledge, Government, Hope, Love, Direction, Fortitude (card 11), Prudence, Fortune, Justice (card 8), Charity, Death, Temperance, Authority, Virtue, Thrones, Angels, Dominations, Archangels, Principalities

http://www.learntarot.com/dndesc.htm

HI Rusty Neon, I have that deck.
hmmm, I 'was wondering more of Plato himself, and specifically of the Renaissance era tarot decks.

I was going to try to create a Philosoper's Tarot, and in it, the Moon would be Plato's allegory of the Cave... (Found in the Republic)

I'm not a fan of Plato, but his allegory of the Cave is a perfect Moon card, or at least Moon -> Sun card!

Kiama

Gosh, Kiama, I was thinking of the Allegory of the Cave for le Pendu!

Many aspects of the allegory of the Cave fit various cards... if one considers its meaning, another card which, to my mind at any rate, illustrates a similar awakening is XX Judgement.

For what it's worth, I did consider a while back how various cards may be connected to some of Plato's works - especially, given its contents, the Timaeus and The seventh Letter (which, in my opinion, is one of those classical texts which esotericists need to at least be familiar with!).

Apart from the Chariot (which has such a wonderfully direct image equivalence - though the references here are other than the Timaeus), and possibly considerations of the sequence of the Star, Moon and Sun, and also, maybe, the Soul of the World as XXI the World (though the image is quite distant from the description), it seems that the stretching is a little wide...

Nonetheless, it would certainly be a wonderful exercise to complete - and would be such an enriching adventure to engage in!

jmd, from your reply, I am beginning to think that no one has done this yet!! I was rather hoping you would say that in O'Neill's book all the answers are to be found. If not, perhaps there is another book to write

The Virtues

Well, okay, Plato's four virtues, wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice are easy to place in the tarot, of course, as The HP, Strength, Temperance and Justice.

These together with the the three Theological Virtues-- Faith, Hope, Charity -- make up the Seven Virtues, the depiction of which was common in thirteenth and fourteenth century chapel decor. See Giotto's frescoes of the Seven Virtues. 1306

I learned from Adam McClean's site on Mantegna that the seven virtues figure in the Mantegna sort-of-tarot.

I guess faith would be the Hierophant, and Hope would be the Star, but Charity? The Empress?

Firemaiden:

This is a great idea for a thread, and rather than reproducing it here, I'll refer you to my essay on this subject on my website (tarotseeker.com) at http://tarotseeker.com/Renaissance.html

(There isn't very much to the site yet. It's under construction, but I hope to have it up and running this summer.)

Neoplatonism is a tricky subject, because it wasn't so much a formal school of philosophy as a synthesizing and harmonizing tendency. In that respect, it was kind of like the modern term, "New Age," another attribution that signifies a tendency rather than a specific philosophy that one can pin down.

But there are certain generalizations about Neoplatonism that hold true, and I've attempted to deal with them in my essay. I'm also convinced that Neoplatonism was THE philosophical engine that produced the esoteric content of the early tarot cards. I know some people here think that I believe tarot was originally "just a game," but that's not so. The trumps, at least, have esoteric content in abundance -- in spades, you might say.

I am equally convinced, however, that tarot was never the vehicle for the transmission of a secret doctrine of some sort. Neoplatonism was anything but secret, and the symbols it and the early trumps employed were part of a universal, pan-European vocabulary of images. It was the common currency of these images which, in part, lent the early tarot its spiritual power.

Plato believed that reality is indecipherable to the majority of people who encounter it, but as far as I know he did not believe that the cryptic nature of phenomena could be unlocked by any secret doctrine. Plato simply believed that most observers were unable to penetrate the veil of surface appearances which the Hindus call Maya. Neoplatonism, like many other religio-spiritualist approaches, aims at piercing the veil. But you don't need to know any secret handshake to be able to do that. All that's required is superior insight.

Anyway, why would someone use universally comprehensible symbols to transmit a secret doctrine? The idea is ridiculous. It kind of reminds me of what one comedian once said: "I got home last night, and somebody had stolen my house. I guess I shouldn't have left it out in the open."

Catboxer for President!

Fascinating, Catboxer. I love what you said about Plato.

Thank you for pointing me to this wonderful essay. I think you are on to something big! (Like, as big as a house!) Perhaps we are not seeing the origins of the tarot precisely because, like the Purloined Letter, they are in plain sight.