Rosanne
I have been puzzling over the Cary Yale so called 'Strength' card.
It seems to me that this card is the earliest depiction of a female sitting on a lion holding it's mouth open or shut. The next time we have this depiction in common usage is in the Tdm styled decks and it has become the most common depiction right down to today of what is been called 'Strength' or 'Force'.
I am beginning to think the original intent (remember originally unnamed) may not be strength in the usual sense at all.
Mater Turrita- great Nature Goddess
Magna Mater- The great Mother
Alma Mater- The nourishing Mother
all conflated into Cybele whose totems or symbols were especially wild Lions and wild Bees.
Roman devotion to Cybele ran deep. Not coincidentally, when a Christian basilica was built over the site of a temple to Cybele to occupy the site, the sanctuary was rededicated to the Mother of God, as the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.
At the time of the cards birth (Cary Yale) there was this strong desire to overcome the Pagan ideas, covering them with Christianity.
I wonder if this card is depicting Mary the Mother of God taming the Pagan Cybele?
~Rosanne
It seems to me that this card is the earliest depiction of a female sitting on a lion holding it's mouth open or shut. The next time we have this depiction in common usage is in the Tdm styled decks and it has become the most common depiction right down to today of what is been called 'Strength' or 'Force'.
I am beginning to think the original intent (remember originally unnamed) may not be strength in the usual sense at all.
Mater Turrita- great Nature Goddess
Magna Mater- The great Mother
Alma Mater- The nourishing Mother
all conflated into Cybele whose totems or symbols were especially wild Lions and wild Bees.
Roman devotion to Cybele ran deep. Not coincidentally, when a Christian basilica was built over the site of a temple to Cybele to occupy the site, the sanctuary was rededicated to the Mother of God, as the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.
At the time of the cards birth (Cary Yale) there was this strong desire to overcome the Pagan ideas, covering them with Christianity.
I wonder if this card is depicting Mary the Mother of God taming the Pagan Cybele?
~Rosanne