Major Arcana titles: La Pances

jmd

In the thread on II La Papesse, I mention in my second entry that the card has on occasions been named 'La Pances', and relate this to a word at times used in more mediaeval French to the belly (especially in connection with Jonas and the Whale).

Given that I personally also tend to connect this card with iconographic representations of the annunciation, indicating the belly, or womb, is appropriate.

I wonder, however, what new insights are forthcoming on this rarer and strange title... :)
 

catlin

It still reminds me of the Papesse card in the Tarot des Templiers which depicts Pope Joanna giving birth to a child.
 

Ross G Caldwell

As Jean-Michel points out, it seems to mean "belly" and is thus related to our word "paunch" i.e.-

"paunch

\Paunch\, n. [OF. panch, pance, F. panse, L. pantex, panticis.] 1. (Anat.) The belly and its contents; the abdomen; also, the first stomach, or rumen, of ruminants. See Rumen.

2. (Naut.) A paunch mat; -- called also panch.

3. The thickened rim of a bell, struck by the clapper.

Paunch mat (Naut.), a thick mat made of strands of rope, used to prevent the yard or rigging from chafing."

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=paunch

It is puzzling, that by this entry we would assume "pances" to be the plural form - but the card title is *singular*. We should expect "les pances" and "la pance".

I should like to get the "Tresor de la Langue Française" (TLF) entry on it, when the libraries re-open next week.

There is also the FEW (Franzoisches Etymologisches Handwörterbuch) to check, which might tell us if there is another meaning entirely.

Ross
 

Ross G Caldwell

Found a couple of instances of the form "la panses" - perhaps there is the same ambiguity as our "gut" and "guts" - the choice of whether to use the plural form is more often one of custom than semantic rigour.

"...ce sont les assiettes à moitié vides et encore fumantes abandonnées par les vaincus, les troués de la panses. "

...the(se) are the plates half empty and still smoking abandoned by the defeated, holes in the guts. (?)

http://membres.lycos.fr/antidata/pates/db1.html
(badly written, maybe not reliable - but the titles on many of the woodcut decks are also often very badly written, or, since written before standarization of spelling, quasi-phonetic).

And someone wrote -

"Remplis-toi bien la panses à Noel !"

Fill your belly well at Christmas!
(or, more poetically - "Fill well your belly at Noel!")
http://www.aufeminin.com/world/communaute/forum/forum2.asp?forum=Actu1&m=8125

Ross
 

firemaiden

Cool discoveries, Ross!

In addition to Pance/Panse = ventre,
there is also:
Panser
1. penser
2. soigner, s'occuper de ==> mod. = panser -- ( panser la plaie)
 

John Meador

"la panses" as Mary?

Is Panses in this context a possible reference to Mary, Mother of Jesus, as the Tabernacle?

"Mary is the new Temple or tabernacle of the presence of God! She is the first to be a "Temple of the Holy Spirit" and at Great Vespers the cantor chants: Today let us, the faithful, dance for joy, singing to the Lord with Psalms and hymns, venerating His hollowed Tabernacle, the living Ark, that contained the Word who cannot be contained. For she, a young child in the flesh, is offered in wondrous fashion to the Lord, and with rejoicing Zacharias the Great High Priest receives her as the dwelling of God."
http://www.melkite.org/Feast2.html

Noting the single key held in the left hand of the Papesses in Rosenwald sheets and Catelin Geofroy, is this a reference to the Key of David spoken of in scripture, rather than the "keys of Peter"? (I don't think we find a key or keys held by a Papesse card again until Wirth who gives her two)

Amos 9:11 promise of the restoration of the
Tabernacle of David... (11) On that day I will raise up the Tabernacle of David, which was fallen down, and repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the
days of old.

Rev. 3:7 Key of David is the restoration of the Tabernacle of David; of Davidic prayer, praise and worship....and that it is the key that will open up that Revelation 4:1 door of revelation.

And the Key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
Isaiah 22.22

"...the Protoevangelium of James(a copy of it was brought from the Middle East by Guillaume Postel ) tells us that Mary's parents were named Joachim and Anna of Bethlehem. *
* See chap. I. v. i; chap. II. V. i; chap. V. v. 9.
The importance of this piece of information is that Joachim is a
shortened form of Eliakim (see, for example, 2 Chron. 36:4). Subsequently the name Eliakim seems to have been shortened to Eli/Heli. The two lines of tradition therefore appear to converge in their testimony to the fact that Mary was indeed the daughter of Heli and thus continued in her body the seed line of David. The early Church was almost unanimous in making this assumption
and the form in which Luke's genealogy appears is entirely concordant with what we know of Jewish practices in such matters."
http://custance.org/old/seed/ch22s.html

"Isaiah remarks, that the Eliakim should wear his key upon his shoulder, as a mark of office, of his power to open and shut with authority; thereby indicating that he is the Grand Master and Chief of the House of David. Callimachus says, that Ceres carried a key upon her shoulder; a custom that appears very strange to us; but the ancients had large keys in the form of a sickle, and which from their weight and shape, could not otherwise be carried conveniently.

Thus, the Spirit-Man who was dead and is living as the Holy One and the True God, in speaking to the Star-Angel in Philadelphia, and through them to all the ecclesias, declares that he is the Eliakim; and that the government of the kingdom of David is with him; and that holding the keys, he will "set it up as in the days of old."
http://www.antipas.org/eureka/eureka_1/eu_chapter3/c3_s2_2.html

(Maphtay'ach, Key) = 528 = 22 x 24 mem, peh,tav, he.
Isaiah 22.22 declares that the *Eliakim* has the power to open or shut - that is, he has power to seal and unseal -
the Key is the product of the number of letters in the Hebrew (22) and Greek (24) alphabets,
The ancient Rabbinical tradition calls Tav the Seal of God, the Seal of Truth, and the Seal of Creation. the seal as truth (, emet), spelt with the first, middle, and last of the sacred letters aleph,mem,tav.

On "Panses" and Jonas:

Marion L. Kuntz in: "Guillaume Postel Prophet of the Restitution",1981, p. 128; decsribes how Postel wrote of the double nature of the Leviathan, both good and evil, and says: "God smiles in regard to the good Leviathan Christ and mocks in regard to the evil Leviathan."
 

Diana

I tend to think that "pances" is definitely a reference to the belly, or rather... to the womb. Whether it's plural or singular, well, spelling was not fixed in those days, and variations in spelling of words are often found. So even if there is an "s" here, it doesn't mean it's necessarily plural.

I agree with John Meador that it refers to Mary. In a book I have from the library, called "Le Graal, Quête d'éternité" by John Matthews (the original English version is The Grail, Quest for the eternal", he points out that in the Litanies of Lorette (these are, according to a Google search I did, Catholic litanies), the Virgin Mary is called the:

vas spirituale (spiritual vase)
vas honorable (honorable vase)
vas insigne devotionis (vase of devotion?)

Mary was the "vase", (the pances, the womb, the belly) in which Divinity manifested itself.

BUT, it could also refer to Mary Magdalene, who gave birth to Jesus' lineage, and so also holds in her "pances" the spiritual essence of the Christ (and, as John Meador points out, the lineage of David).

Because of my belief that the Tarot was used to transmit heretical beliefs, I would like to believe that it is Mary Magdelene, but I would also be happy to accept that the Pances refers to both Marys - the mother and the wife.
 

kwaw

La Pances and Mary as Intercessor

There was a popular medieval folk tale of a man Theophilus who sold his soul to the devil. Regretting his actions he prayed to Mary for help, she wrests his blood signed deed from the devil and gives it him back, pardoning him. In a play of Le Miracle de Theophile by the jongleur Rutebeuf when Mary pins down the devil and seizes the contract from his claw the Virgin Mary cries out: "Et je te foulerai la pance" (And I'll trample on your gut).

source: Marina Warner relates the tale, its influence on religuous art and architecture in 'Alone of all her sex' and quotes this line from the play by Rutebeuf on p.323-4.

There is a wikipedia entry on Rutebeuf here:

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

The popularity of the Virgin Mary as Madonna della Misericordia, the Mother of Mercy, became very popular, especially after the black death of the late 1340's, when "she became the most popular votive figure on her own"; much of the literature and imagery inspired was heretical and iconography which implied the Virgin's autonomous sovereignty was banned by the Council of Trent. [Warner]

It is possible I think that the popesse represents a heterodox version of Mary: as Mother of the Church she represents the church itself, and wears the triple crown as not only the throne of the trinity, but as a crown over three dominions she has rule being Queen of Heaven, Vicar and mistress of all the World, and Empress of Hell [by which titles she was called in medieval poems and plays]. However, it is difficult to reconsile such a 'high' ranking figure with the lowly rank of the image in the sequence of the tarot.

Kwaw
 

kwaw

kwaw said:
the throne of the trinity, but as a crown over three dominions she has rule being Queen of Heaven, Vicar and mistress of all the World, and Empress of Hell [by which titles she was called in medieval poems and plays]. However, it is difficult to reconsile such a 'high' ranking figure with the lowly rank of the image in the sequence of the tarot.

Kwaw

Probably also difficult for modern sensibilities to enter into the medieval mindset in which the Virgin Mary is pictured as the Empress of Hell trampling on the devil's guts;)

Kwaw
 

kwaw

La Papesse may also be taken as emblematic of the Church : in light of which we may note another verse of Rutebeuf's:

J'ai touz jors engraisse ma pance
D'autrui chateil, d'autrui sustance:
Ci a boen clerc, a miex mentir!

All my days I have filled my belly
With others' wealth, with others' goods:
An honest cleric, and best of liars!

La Repentance Rutebeuf, 13th cent.