XVII Letoille

[venicebard]

Also there is a possible Neoplatonic slant on this card in which the female figure is a river-nymph, a Naiad and the imagery links up with Porphyry's tract 'De Antro Nympharum' (’On the Cave of the Nymphs‘), a mystical reading of the ‘cavern of the nymphs’ in the land of Ithaca described in chapter 13 of Homer’s ‘Odyssey’:

“…a cavern that offers welcome shade and is sacred to the Nymphs we call Naiads. This cave contains a number of stone basins and two-handled jars…and there are springs whose water never fails. It has two mouths. The one that looks north is the way down for men. The other, facing south, is meant for the gods.”
(The Odyssey, trans. E.V. Rieu)

Porphyry presents this mythos as an allegory of the passage of the soul into incarnation and mortality and its journey to liberation. Souls enter into the realm of generation via the northern Gate of the Moon, Cancer; they discarnate via the southern Gate of the Sun, Capricorn, which opens onto transcendence and the path to ‘bright Olympus’. The nude Naiad is the ‘Nymph of the Springs’ pouring a stream of glittering waters onto the earth, symbolic of the souls entering into the mortal state through the Gate of Man.

It is true that these are the sun’s northern and southern limits, but dynamically it is in aries that the sun is hurrying north fastest, in libra that it is hurrying south fastest, and indeed we still speak of north as up (towards aries-the-head), south as down (towards libra-the-loins). Yet it is true that cancer is the beginning of manifestation (breath) and capricorn the end of manifestation (self-knowledge), since it is the lower half of things that is manifested.

The eighth heaven was regarded by the mediaeval cosmologists as the realm of the fixed stars, according to Platonist teaching the sphere of Divine Mind (Nous), the Mind of God which as Cornelius Agrippa correlates with the ‘starry heaven, where he fabricateth so many figures as he hath Ideas in himself.’

Yet the ‘eighth heaven’ would be the second emanation in Lurianic Kabbalah, that is, associated with the number 2 or first deviation from Unity (in the physical or fourth world). This emanation (in the fourth world), by the way, corresponds to the cycle of precession (~26,000 years).

Regarding the numerological symbolism here we might note that John Heydon in his book ‘The Holy Guide’ (1662) says: ‘The number Seventeen is called of R. Lully, a Number of Victory…’ which I suppose would be the fulfilment of a hope.

I think of XXI LeMonde as ‘victory’, since it is the world (the palm tree, by bardic reckoning) and XVII L’Etoille as ‘consummation’ or ‘coming of age’ (I repeat: she is the mixing of the elixirs in love’s consummation, and the trump even shows the soul-in-the-form-of-a-bird awaiting the conception of that which is to be its body). XXI symbolizes victory because it is that which follows upon XX, or the presence of two competing ten-fingereds or graspings (desire in two individuals)—namely, the victory of one of them (actually of both of them, for in a fair fight BOTH win honor).

One last thing. You might consider where your analysis takes us if, as I maintain, the Odyssey is in essence satirical: not heroic like the Iliad (forged in battle), but anti-heroic (forged in hospitality versus the inhospitable).

 

[kwaw]

But, why dusk? Is there a reason it should be dusk, rather than dawn? Or, is it simply the magical "in between time" that is being shown here?

'Founder of the star-studded universe, resting on Thine eternal throne whence Thou turnest the swiftly rolling sky, and bindest the stars to keep Thy law; at Thy word the moon now shines brightly with full face, ever turned to her brother's light, and so she dims the lesser lights; or now she is herself obscured, for nearer to the sun her beams shew her pale horns alone. Cool rises the evening star at night's first drawing nigh: the same is the morning star who casts off the harness that she bore before, and paling meets the rising sun.

Boethius: The consolation of philosophy.

In homage to Boethius, who references both evening and morning star, I would say both dusk and dawn. You may also note the order of lights in the above quotation: star - moon - sun.

Kwaw

 

[Sophie]

'Founder of the star-studded universe, resting on Thine eternal throne whence Thou turnest the swiftly rolling sky, and bindest the stars to keep Thy law; at Thy word the moon now shines brightly with full face, ever turned to her brother's light, and so she dims the lesser lights; or now she is herself obscured, for nearer to the sun her beams shew her pale horns alone. Cool rises the evening star at night's first drawing nigh: the same is the morning star who casts off the harness that she bore before, and paling meets the rising sun.

Thank you for that quote, Kwaw, which sets off so well that most beautiful & mysterious of cards.

 

[prudence]

'Founder of the star-studded universe, resting on Thine eternal throne whence Thou turnest the swiftly rolling sky, and bindest the stars to keep Thy law; at Thy word the moon now shines brightly with full face, ever turned to her brother's light, and so she dims the lesser lights; or now she is herself obscured, for nearer to the sun her beams shew her pale horns alone. Cool rises the evening star at night's first drawing nigh: the same is the morning star who casts off the harness that she bore before, and paling meets the rising sun.

Boethius: The consolation of philosophy.

In homage to Boethius, who references both evening and morning star, I would say both dusk and dawn. You may also note the order of lights in the above quotation: star - moon - sun.

Kwaw

Thank you kindly, kwaw. This is very beautiful and now you have guided me toward something I would not have come across on my own. Must read up on Boethius.

 

[le pendu]

While waiting for some cards to scan for the The Star/Le Toille - Contrasting the Dodal and Conver thread, I decided it might be interesting to do a google search for "water-bearer".

I came across this information on the Egytian god Hapi:
http://members.aol.com/egyptart/hapi.html

here's what it says, bold emphasis mine:

Cult Center: Throughout Egypt.

Attributes: Hapi was a very important deity to anyone living in the Nile valley. He was the god of the Nile, particularly the inundation, His followers worshipped him even above Ra. After all, without the sun the Egyptians would have lived in darkness, but without the Nile the Egyptians would have perished. It was believed that Hapi's source was two whirlpools in the caves on Elephantine island. On his journey he was thought to flow through the Underworld, through the heavens, and then through Egypt. He was responsible for watering the meadows and bringing the dew. But most importantly he brought the fertile inundation. He provided food and water for nourishment and for offerings to the gods. As a fertility god he is associated with Osiris.

Representation: A bearded man coloured blue or green, with female breasts, indicating his powers of nourishment. As god of the Northern Nile he wears papyrus plants on his head, and as god of the southern Nile he wears lotus plants. He is often seen carrying offerings of food or giving libations of water from a vase. Sometimes he is pictured offering two plants and two vases, which represented the upper and lower Nile.

Here are two images of Hapi, and The Star from the Cary Sheet:

A little more about him:
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/hapi.htm

I just thought this was kind of wonderful.

best,
robert

 

[jmd]

Fascinating reference, le pendu!

I must admit that when we looked at the Star card in the past in light of the possible flooding of the Nile, the references were all to Sirius (Cf Sanctum Sanctorum).

Hapi seems one of those gods that is a little more difficult to grasp - perhaps because of his very close association with water!

Still, here is another possible connection with not only the Nile, but something that allows for a masculine-feminine reconcialation of depiction...

Hapi with breasts​

This, if there is any connection to the card at all, also gives some indication as to there being two pouring vases, and, significantly, often two plants!

 

[Moonbow]

It also seems that he is depicted with a large belly, as a representation of nourishment, as the Star card does.

Here is another interesting excerpt from the net:

HAPI (Hapy)

Symbols: running water

Hapi is the ancient Egyptian god of the Nile. He is ancient not only to us of the modern world, but to the Egyptians as well. In fact, "hep", the root of Hapi's name is probably an ancient name for the Nile.

"Hapi was portrayed as a man with women's breasts and protruding belly. The full breasts and stomach indicate fertility and his ability to nourish the land through the Nile's annual floods. Just as Egypt was divided into two parts (the north and the south) so was Hapi's domain, the Nile. As a god of the northern Nile, Hapi was depicted wearing papyrus plants, a symbol of Lower Egypt, on his head. In this form, he was called "Hap-Meht". The Nile-god of Upper Egypt was "Hap-Reset" and wore lotus plants (a symbol of the south) on his head. When an artist was attempting to portray Hapi as a god of the entire Nile, he holds both lotus and papyrus plants in his hands or two vases."

So, his name was derived from the 'hep' root, a little like 'hope' don't you think?

 

[venicebard]

Interesting that the Nile flood is a summer phenomenon, yet the sign of the water-bearer is opposite that, middle of winter (back of the shoulders, where the pole goes, or ankles, which have to support the weight and need circulation themselves). But I seem to recall that in Egypt they thought more in terms of where the full moon was than where the sun was, and in my reconstruction of the distribution of hieroglyphic equivalents of Semitic letters, the hieroglyph at aquarius (lamedh) was the recumbent lion--for full moon in leo, no doubt.

I see the card Temperence as aquarius. The Star I see as cancer the breasts, since she's naked and has a pair of jugs (fogive the crudeness). That and it's the letter vav, which in old Semitic is a breast pouring forth milk. Interesting that since vav corresponds to the beginning of summer, it may BE the breast of Hapi. Since virgo is the hieroglyph of a hill-slope and corresponds to quert-the-apple and thus a refuge (from the hounds, bardically), this outlines summer as what begins in flood (hopefully) and ends on the refuge of high ground. The sign in between was a forearm, for what that's worth.

That's my two cents (one for each paragraph).

 

[venicebard]

PS. About the belly. Dalet-D is the 'double letter' (in Hebrew) that corresponds to vav's sign cancer (outer rim) on the half-circle of the Cauldron ('bowl' from outer horizon to inner horizon). In both our alphabet (a western Greek one) and runes (originally), it is the giant's girth, its runic name being 'giant' (*thurisaz). Again, this is the beginning of summer, season of Nile flood. Dalet, of course, is the oaken door, duir-the-oak being lightning's tree, thus presaging rain in temperate climates.

 

[le pendu]

venicebard,

That's 3 cents.

; )

robert