LixiPixi

Hi all, anyone with the Bruegel deck know what the round ball-like thing is that is found in SOOO many of the cards? It has a cross looking thing on it and is obviously (so I assume) some sort of religious item. The King of Chalices has 2 of them. The Empress has one in her hand. The man in the Moon has one too. There are others, but these are three easy ones to locate. I'm sure this must represent something! All I can think of so far is the astrological symbol of Venus. Second thought is the incense thing that you would see a Catholic Priest waving during a church service.

Would love any insight to this object if you could.

Thanks!

LP~

__________________
LixiPixi

"If you look only at what is,
you might never attain what could be."

greycats

It's an orb, which represents the world. The cross on its top is a symbol of the ruler of the world: Christ, who must rule through an intermediary--the local king, duke, whoever. So, the combination of globe and cross is called "The Orb of Sovereignity" or "The Sovereign's Orb, or the "Globus Cruciger." It's very commonly seen in the Emperor card, usually in his hand. In Brugel's tarot, we see it in the Empress' hand. Indeed, she's spinning with it. So who's ruler of that household, do you suppose? There was a proverb that went something like, "the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." It may be that some similar proverb lies behind the Empress using the Globus Cruciger as a spindle. But I don't know what it is.

Anyway, Brugel used symbols (well known ones, or at least they were well known in his time) in his paintings. Sometimes he illustrated proverbs with them, sometimes they're almost like a joke. Sometimes they're very serious. Context is everything.

Short story: read "rulership" where you see one of these objects. Ex: the King of Chalices is sort of bowed down under the weight of that orb. He must find being a ruler to be a burden. At least, he takes his obligation seriously.

The Moon: in the LWB, is the line :all cats are alike at night. Another way to say that is "at night all cats are grey."

Yours truly,
Greycats