I hope and trust that even given its apparent distance from Marseille, discussions will ensue in lively fashion.
I am personally particularly interested in three aspects with regards to comments made so far.
The first is whether the astrological/elemental attributions which you (ie, Falgour) make are based on isolating the Phoenician roots of the Hebrew, and then allocating essentially similar 'values' or qualities which may have come from much
later considerations (probably in late antiquity, and probably to first Greek or Hebrew letters). Hence, the seven double letters are allocated the seven planets, the three 'mother' letters elements, and the twelve singles the twelve signs of the zodiac.
This, however, seems to me to come from not Phoenician, but rather from Hellenised Hebrew considerations.
At most, it seems that the Phoenician, which may certainly be related in some manner to certain Egyptian hieroglyphic script, may have had the
meanings (ox, house, sticks, etc) through either initial ('a is for apple' type), homophony ('t is tea'), or transformed pictogramme ('H for a human being').
This is a step away from the alphabet into areas of particular merit - but fail to see how it is different to Hebrew letter correlations as made in the
Sefer Yetzirah.
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The second, which I find fascinating and is perhaps
not alphabetical at all - or at least I still fail to see its alphabetic correlation except by way of Hellenistic Hebrew considerations - is by further considering not just straightforward astrological or zodiacal correlations but rather, as indicated, other and different ones, such as exaltations.
With regards to the list of exaltations given, it is also interesting to note that more modern views place the exaltation of Mercury in Aquarius... and have personally been somewhat puzzled by early placements of both rulership and exaltation of Mercury in the same sign (ie, Virgo - but that is another matter).
If I understand the suggestion, then, the 'single' letters are allocated, as per the previous section, zodiacal signs, and then a note is made as to which planet (if any) is exalted therein.
Why not, by the same token, list its rulership?
If we do this, we have the following list
- Aries - r[ulership of] Mars; e[xaltation of] Sun;
- Taurus - r. Venus; e. Moon;
- Gemini - r. Mercury; e. Rahu (north node)/or no exaltation;
- Cancer - r. Moon; e. Jupiter
- Leo - r. Sun; [color= silver]e. none normally given[/color];
- Virgo - r. Mercury; [color= silver]e. [trad.] Mercury or [modern] none given[/color];
- Libra - r. Venus; e. Saturn;
- Scorpio - r. Mars; [color= silver]e. none normally given[/color];
- Sagittarius - r. Jupiter; [color= silver]e. Ketu (south node)/or no exaltation[/color];
- Capricorn - r. Saturn; e. Mars;
- Aquarius - r. Saturn; [color= silver]e. [modern] Mercury or [trad.] none given[/color];
- Pisces - r. Jupiter; e. Venus.
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If one now takes the
nineteenth letter (on its ordering as given), and makes the correlations suggested by Fulgour, then indeed what results is
Pisces, which is traditionally ruled by
Jupiter (and hence harkens back, according to the same letter ordering/attribution to the
twentieth letter whose correlation to the planet is likewise made), and in the sign of which Venus is exalted (thus harking back to the
third letter similarly attributed that planet).
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To relink it to Tarot's nineteenth card
named the Sun, with the particular letter correlations suggested by Fulgour, the planet indeed links to the seventeenth letter 'Pe' - all these cross-currents of considerations, by the way, may indeed also have been made during at least
some particular deck production, including the Marseille, though it does seem to me, and at this stage, to be unlikely (possibly because I have not thought about these suggestions sufficiently).
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Fulgour mentioning Lyon around 1701, one cannot avoid but bringing to mind the Dodal Marseille - yet still continue to fail to see how, however intriguing these reflections are - the
depictions upon the Marseille (or another deck) are either a clear or metaphorical reflections of either rulership or exaltation of planet in sign given by letter (whether Phoenician, Hebrew or Greek) zodiacal correlation.
If there is another reason for the 1701 date and Lyon being specifically mentioned, I missed the reference (which I could easily, of course, miss).