The Four Humours

Not sure if this is the right spot for this, anyway i found this old Tarot book,pages fell out when i picked it up...Has an illustration from 15 century of the Four Humours, i dont know if this has been discussed before,--and can't find with my rubbish computer skills.

So this theory is medical and attached to forms of the varied bloodletting of the medieval times, but also early psychological/personality assessment,still used in theory sometimes today .

I was wondering how others see how these types would fit the suits of Tarot?
or just certain cards?

1. Sanguine: Cheerful,may have too much energy,people person,spontaneous,fun loving ,loves to entertain can be day dreamy impulsive acting on whims unpredictable.

2. Choleric: A doer ,a leader ,could be military or political, charismatic ,ambitious has energy and passion although easily angered.

3. Melancholic: Reflective, loner, can be unsatisfied with abilities-perfectionist,creative especially Art , poetry,writing -can be depressive.

4. Phlegmatic: has many friends,dependable rational,curious,can be relaxed to lazy.

Thought this was quite interesting--Any thoughts ideas welcome!

Hi Gypsyspell

I think that you could easily associate the four suits with the four humours. After all I think the minors are about the human world and about human experiences, so why not add personality profiles to that?

My personal take would be:
~ sanguine = wands
~ choleric = swords (although this gives a rather negative pov, without the sword suit's positive associations like intellect and reason)
~ melancholic = cups (again, a bit too much on the negative part for my liking, there are happy emotions as well in this world)
~ phlegmatic = pentacles

The problem with only assigning certain cards to the four humours is, what to do with the rest of the deck? Leave them unassigned? Doesn't seem fair to me. At all. (Sorry, I'm an all or nothing gal. Either associate all of them or none of them.)

Astraea Aurora

Hi, Yes your right ,they do not have alot of depth ,the specific four-abit all or nothing , positive and negative personality types....It does break down further though, ---into cross breeds - lol , sanguine/choleric and various mixes ...
Your take on the suits is like my own ,thanks for input,

There's a wikipedia page on the topic. It provides a chart on associations as well (which humour to what element): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humors

There's quite a bit about this in the Marseilles & Other Early Decks forum I've been mining through that lately. Didn't actually note much about it as I was looking for pips information (and trying not to get distracted) so just read it in passing - one snippet I did note the link for that may be of interest:

The Temerament Experiment
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=83952

They way I learned it is
Choleric = Fire
Sanguinic = Air
Melancholic = Water
Phlegmatic = Earth.

Lately I have come across several books where melancholic and phlegmatic associations with Water and Earth are switched, so I'm a bit confused.

Hi,

The earliest known written connection between card suits and the four elements is in La Signification de l’ancien jeu des chartes pythagorique (1582) by Jean Gosselin.


Tiles ...............Batons..........Earth = Melancholic

Clover .............Coins.............Water = Phlegmatic

Hearts .............Cups.............Air = Sanguinic

Pikes ...............Swords..........Fire = Choleric

There's also an early woodcut that depicts them with these associations.

A complete sytem for reading all the cards with these elements cum temperaments can be found here:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=112327&page=1&pp=10

Bee

Thanks to all, for all this information and the links, Melancholic has put so much thought and effort into this! Thanks for that!
I can see now more clearly how the Humours can be applied ,the information i found in my book is brief and personalities type attributes need expanding on, -i am still intrigued by this method and researching it.

Adding elements can of course add to the confusion especially as they can be viewed differently by each individual .

My personal take would break with tradition--but this (so far )is just what makes the most sense to me:

Hearts/cups ---Water----------Spring------------Melancholic

Clubs/Wands----Fire-------------Summer----------Sanguine

Spade/Swords---Air--------------Winter-----------Choleric

Diamond/Pents---Earth----------Autumn-----------Phlegmatic

Here is original 15the century engraving from my book, The elemental correlations are made to signs of the zodiac.

The Tetramorph also represents many other quaternities, such as the four heads of Brahma (Cooper s.v. tetramorph), the four virtues (Biedermann s.v. evangelists), the four humors (via the elements or qualities), and the four letters of the Quadriliterum (via the elements; see the court cards in the Minor Arcana).

Quinta Essentia picture

Images very similar to 21. World are common in the Renaissance. For examples, in Leonhard Thurneysser's Quinta essentia (1524) the alchemical androgyne (male on our right, female on our left) is surrounded by the zodiac. Its right hand holds a flask up, from which a bird ascends; its left holds a flask down, from which a bird descends. A woodcut by Durer (the title page of Conrad Celtis' Quatuor Libri Amorum, 1502) shows Lady Philosophia enthroned and surrounded by a wreath; outside it, in the corners, the heads of the four winds blow, and the elements and humors are represented. (Heninger 23, 30; Zolla 68- 9) Moakley (112) observes that the World was a common feature of Renaissance Triumphs, sometimes taking the form of a giant globe.

Here's the woodcut depicting the suits & Temperaments;

We also have a direct period associations to at least three of the tarot suit emblems in a 15th century woodcut, published by Nicholas Le Rouge, Troyes, c1495.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x172/melanchollic_photos/Humourbeasts.jpg

Click to expand...

Taken from:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=1620790&postcount=97

Bee