Paul Christian, birth name Jean-Baptist Pitois, lived
from 1811 to 1877, mainly in Paris. He is of considerable importance as a
contributor to the occult tarot as initiated by Eliphas Levi, whose neighbor and follower he was. This blog is an attempt to explore his sources and influence.He is best known for a 50 page section in his 1870 book L'Histoire de la Magie (History of Magic) describing an initiation in vaults under the Great Pyramid in Egypt, including the viewing of a gallery of 22 images, clearly those of the tarot although in that book he never used the word. This part of the narrative inspired several tarot decks and was quoted or paraphrased by other theorists such as Papus and C. C. Zain. I will get to that initiation in my second post in this series.
In this post I want to deal with the astrological assignments he gave to the cards, focusing on his first presentation of his ideas in 1863, and in particular its astrology, which he presents in a hermetic framework that he proposes is Egyptian in origin.
You might wonder why, in a blog about Egypt in the tarot, would I put a discussion of astrology first. If you wish, in fact, you can skip directly to the second post in this series without having to read this one. But there are several reasons, all having to do with Egypt,.for starting with the astrology.
First, Christian's particular brand of astrology is different from most before him (with some Renaissance exceptions) in that it included the decans, 36 of them, 3 for each of the 12 zodiacal signs. These were originally gods of the 36 districts in which Egypt was divided, and also of each of the 10 day weeks, 3 to a month, that made up the Egyptian year, together with 5 "intercalary" days. At some point, after Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great, they became a late addition to astrology, a combination of zodiacal sign and planet, starting with Aries and Mars and going in sequence. Decans came into particular focus with the arrival in Paris of a circular astronomical ceiling (about which more later) taken from a temple in Egypt near the village of Denderah, where there were figures around the circumference representing the 36 decans .
Second, Christian's mentor Eliphas Levi (himself an ex-seminarian, birth name Alphonse Constant) had proposed an interpretation of the tarot based on the Hebrew alphabet, the names of God, and some traditional texts, one of which, the Sefer Yetzirah, assigned an element, planet, or zodiacal sign to each of the 22 Hebrew letters. But if the tarot was originally Egyptian, these assignments would have been originally Egyptian, too. Christian therefore proposed an Egyptian alphabet of 22 letters, in shape similar to the Hebrew, and astrological assignments, following Levi, similar to those of the Sefer Yetzirah. He even attributed the ten Sefiroth to Egypt, as we will see. Christian did not address whether the tarot had a Jewish phase. Perhaps, knowing that Jews were prohibited from making images of God, he thought that they discarded that part and kept only the assignments to planets, zodiacal constellations, and elements (fire, water, air). Christian saw his job as that of reconstructing the Egyptian tarot, inferring Egypt from the Jewish structure identified by Levi. As such, let me make clear, he did not propose that the Egyptians actually used cards. In his first version, they are on gold tablets, as Etteilla had asserted. In his second version, Christian referred to frescoes on temple walls. He did not speculate on how they came to be on cards. Also, he hardly ever used the word "tarot". He does not seem to have supposed an Egyptian derivation for the word.
Third, the astrological associations that Christian proposed then came to be on the cards inspired by his work. To know the rationale of the assignments is part of understanding those cards. In addition, they were also adopted by Papus, in toto for the majors and in a simpler form for the minors. With further modifications, they then entered the English tradition through the Golden Dawn. It may well be that the rationale for these astrological assignments is based on nothing historically prior to themselves in the context of their times. If so, it is first necessary to see what that history and rationale actually was, so far as can be verified. While Decker, Depaulis and Dummett, in their 1996 Wicked Pack of Cards (DDD henceforth), presented Christian's system accurately, they did not get far enough into the rationale, in my opinion.
Fourth, Christian's ultimate source (although perhaps via an intermediary) for interpreting the decans was a text also used, in all probability, as inspiration for one 15th century tarot card, the Strength card of the deck known as the "Visconti-Sforza" or "PMB" (for the Pierpont-Morgan Library and the Brera Gallery, where the cards are now), one of six cards done by a different artist than the others. If so, it is worth exploring the commonality between the two and their shared inspiration.
1. About Paul Christian
Paul Christian was destined by his family to become a priest. He studied with the Trappists but decided not to take up a religious vocation. His documentation in print then begins in 1838, as one of three writers of Paris Historique. Promenade, looking at particular streets from a historical perspective; his contribution was a general account of the history of the city. It is also good evidence that he actually did work as a librarian for the Ministry of Public and Parochial Education, as he claimed under his name in later years, because the main author of the three volume work was Charles Nodier, librarian at the Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal and a member of the prestigious Academie Francaise. I have enlarged the relevant captions below, plus the publication data of his next work, a translation of Machiavelli which I show next.
He did not work as a librarian very long, it seems. In 1843 he was engaged as secretary to a commander of French forces in Algeria, and wrote the commander's memoir of that time for him (above left). In that work he is listed as "former private secretary of the Marshall".Then he wrote a series of novels and histories as well as editing Catholic journals, according to DDD. His writing on the tarot came near the end of a long and successful career.
Christian's astrological interests, begun according to him as a librarian discovering old but interesting astrological works, finally came to the attention of Paris in 1856. DDD tell the story, pp. 195-196. In 1854 Christian had submitted two ingenious poems to Napoleon III and his wife Eugenie, predicting to the latter the birth of a son and heir, despite her barreness up to then, a son who "will have for cradle the chariot of victory", meaning a successful conclusion to the war in Crimea. In 1856 both predictions came true, the military victory in February and the birth in March. In the same year Christian published a book about his miracle (at left below, with the date enlarged at upper right). Of course we might wonder how many other predictions of his failed to come true but were not mentioned. But with Christian's powers confirmed, there would be a demand from the public for an exposition of his system.
The book that appeared was L'Homme Rouge des Tuileries (The Red Man of the Tuileries), in which he also capitalized on the legend of a mysterious man in red who had appeared at the Tuileries Palace, the royal residence, at regular intervals since the time of Catherine de' Medici, to predict, to their faces, the fates of the occupants. This legend is first documented in 1814, pertaining to Napoleon (DDD), and had become well known through a book by the famous fortune teller Marie Anne LeNormand (above, lower right). He was said to have appeared more than once to Napoleon Bonaparte and to have been a kind of secret weapon behind his successes, whose later cautions he ignored.
According to Christian, the secret was not only him but a manuscript he possessed. Christian relates, in the form of a novel, how a papyrus scroll written in Hebrew but with many Egyptian characters, was found in a Vatican attic encased in cedar. Pope Clement XIV in the mid-18th century entrusted it to a certain French Benedictine prior, who with an expert orientalist friend translated it into French. Eventually it gets to another Benedictine named Bonaventure Guyon, who is the mysterious man in red. After a visit from a mysterious young man who will not give his name (although he is obviously Napoleon Bonaparte), the manuscript itself appears for our inspection.
As you can see, the manuscript starts squarely in Egypt, with the famous saying found in Ficino's translation of Plutarch's Of Isis and Osiris, in English "I am all that is, all that has been, and all that will be, and no mortal shall uncover my veil." The supposed manuscript, of course, will penetrate that veil. You will notice at the bottom of the page a series of italicized words suspiciously like the names of the sefiroth. Christian believes in starting at the beginning. But first I have a few preliminaries of my own.
Despite its first page, L'Homme Rouge's primary subject is astrology, at great length, in its supposed highest development in Alexandrian Egypt. Hence the cover illustration on one edition, showing an old astrologer consulting his books. The manuscript quickly gets to the 78 cards of the tarot, but in a form integrated with astrology. Christian thus combines two of his interests. He had originally been a fan of Etteilla's system, DDD say, but with Eliphas Levi as a neighbor, he changed to Levi's approach. He ends up saying much more on the subject than Levi ever did, at least in print.
In L'Homme Rouge he never says there really was such an old scholar or any real manuscript. In a second book, the 1870 Histoire de la Magie (History of Magic), he presents the same material again, with many additions, this time as histoire. That is a word that can mean both "history" and "story"; as in fiction, but the presentation is clearly as history. That perhaps added to its sales and lasting interest.
In Histoire Christian judiciously put the astrology at the end of his book, and no longer as part of a Hebrew manuscript (now quietly forgotten). But in both books the astrology is essentially the same; only its examples are different. In particular the second book judiciously removed all the post-1863 predictions made in the previous book (notably that of predicting for Emperor III a long and entirely successful life; he was very ill at the time). Thus cleansed, its application to the tarot remained highly influential. The assignments for the major arcana (a term he was the first to use) were adopted by Papus in his well known Tarot des Bohemiens of 1889 and again in his 1910 Tarot Divinitoire. There was also Robert Falconnier in 1896, the latter noteworthy for the cards done to his design by artist Maurice Otto Wegener, son of a famous society photographer. These cards, together with some of their astrological assignments, were then adopted by C. C. Zain in the U.S. His "Brotherhood of Light" still sells these cards, with slight modifications and now in color.
Christian was not the first to use the planets and zodiacal signs; Etteilla did that, in his Quatrieme Cahier of around 1786. But Christian's method, using the Sefer Yetzirah as read by Levi, was to prove more attractive, and in addition he used the 36 decans--three for each zodiacal sign--for interpreting the minor arcana, an innovation all his own that continued in the occult tarot. All of this fit his view that these assignments were originally Egyptian.
2. How the tarot fits into Christian's vision of the cosmos.
In the 1863 Homme Rouge (which has not been translated) the manuscript of "Guyon", on its second page,presents us with a mysterious image, which describes as a cross superimposed on a series of overlapping circles all enclosed in a big circle (at right). It is a translation into Arabic numerals and Latin letters of a symbol that of course would have been originally in Egyptian characters. Christian will present that emblem in his next book, but let us take advantage of 1863's greater comprehensability.The nine circles, all numbered, intersect in a way that is reminiscent of the petals of a rose. If you look carefully, you will see three such intersections, forming three sets of figures bounded by two arcs of two
circles. These form three circular rows of eight figures each. In addition there are the circles themselves, eight of which touch the big circle. The whole array is reminiscent of the petals of a rose. he in fact calls it the "Rose-Cross".Thus Christian co-opts a mysterious symbol of the legendary "Rosicruceans", of which the best known realization, at right, is that of Robert Fludd in his 1629 Summum Bonum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Fludd; the motto is "The Rose Gives Honey to the Bees"). This in turn was inspired by the mysterious "Roscrucian Manifesto" of 1618.
The term "rose-cross" goes back
further back than that. Unlike Fludd's image, where the cross is below the rose, the image was usually either a rose in a cross or a cross in a rose. My guess is that it was inspired by, or perhaps inspired, the famous rose-windows in medieval cathedrals, which sometimes had an image of Christ in the center (at right, the southern window at Chartres, 13th century).In Christian's image, the rose and the cross are superimposed upon each other. There are actually two crosses, one vertical and horizontal and the other diagonal. The diagonal one is the important one, because of the letters at its extremeties: I, N. R, and I. The unity of God is divided into four, which Christian conceives as follows (my translation, with some additional comments of mine in brackets), each designated by a different Egyptian letter.
1 ° JAMIN (1), symbolizes the active creative principle, and the manifestation of power which fertilizes substance [i.e. matter].
2 ° NAIN (N), symbolizes the passive principle, mold of all the forms that the substance assumes. [In Histoire he leaves out the last four words.]
3 ° IRON (R), symbolizes the eternal transformation of the modes of life. [In Histoire he says, "the union of these two principles and the perpetual transformation of created things.]
4 ° JAMIN (1), symbolizes again, by its return, the active creative principle to which the creative force emanating from it is constantly rising. [In L'Histoire, it is "...symbolizes again the divine creative principle, signifying that the creative force which is emanated from it ceaselessly returns to it and springs from it again", as published in the English translation.]
The sequence of these four hierograms expresses the idea contained in the DIVINE UNITY, and their circular evolution: INRI .. NRI ... NRI ... etc., represents the perpetual movement that creates the infinite of the possible.
The same idea is represented by the numbers of the four terms of the creation of all things: 1, the creative spirit; 2, matter; 3, union of spirit with matter, and 4, the form created.
The sequence of these numbers produces the symbolic decade: 1+2+3+4=10, which are the circles of the Rose-Cross.My comments: (1) First paragraph: Christian has in mind God, but also man and perhaps any life-form. It is something he elaborates further in describing the first four major arcana. The Magician is the creative principle, the High Priestess the passive principle, the Empress the union of the two, and the Emperor the active principle again, on a new level. .
(2) Second paragraph: Christian does not need to tell his audience that in Latin the letters INRI also (no doubt an act of providence) indicate another name of God, "Jesus King of the Jews" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus,_King_of_the_Jews). An occult significance for these initials had been suggested by his teacher Levi in Rituel et Dogme de l'Haute Magie, 1856 (pp. 58-60 of Greer-Mikituk translation). The source for his four stage process I would think is basic Platonism, as in Plato's Timaeus or Republic. That it conforms to the Christian "INRI" is of course simply a projection of Christianity onto ancient Egypt.
This account parallels Papus's discussion of the Hebrew letters "Yod He Vau He" in his 1889 Tarot des Bohemiens. The only problem is that with YHVH the second letter repeats, whereas in Christian's it is the first letter. The former emphasizes matter, the latter, form. It seems to me only a matter of emphasis.
(3) Third paragraph. This is a restatement of the first paragraph in terms of the material universe. Pre-existing spirit (1) acts on pre-existing matter to produce the combination of the two, which is a new thing, the form in actuality as opposed to potentiality. This form in matter then takes on a life of its own as a new active principle.
I am not sure what pre-existing source corresponds to Christian's metaphysics here. Plato's Timaeus and Aristotle's Physics and Metaphysics come to mind. But perhaps there is something more succinct and closer to Christian's language.
(4) Fourth paragraph. They are actually not just circles, because the Rose-Cross has three dimensions: "length, width, and depth", hence probably spheres. But "circles" will do. They have names as well as numbers, which the Magi put in a sentence (my translation):
GOD, SUPREME POWER (1), balanced by PERPETUALLY ACTIVE INTELLIGENCE (2), ABSOLUTE WISDOM (3), INFINITE LOVE (4) and ABSOLUTE JUSTICE (5), is the resplendence of all BEAUTY (6) emerging and radiating from the hearth of all life, to REIGN (7) ETERNALLY (8) on the works that its UNIVERSAL FERTILITY. (9) manifests and multiplies to infinity in the circle of RELATIVE OR CREATED BEINGS (10).The capitalized words are of course the ten sefiroth of the Kabbalah. But there are a few changes. The 2nd and 3rd have switched places compared to the usual order, and some of the names are slightly different. This is the Egyptian version, after all, before the Jewish one. In the diagram that Christian supplies, most of the numbers are even put on the circles in a way that suggests the Kabbalists' sefirotic "tree". The exception is number 6, but that could just as easily been put lower down. It is not clear to me where circle 10 is supposed to be. Later (p. 86) he uses the label "CERCLE EXTÉRIEUR" for the 10th circle. Whether that means the large circle enclosing all the others, or a circle exterior to the diagram, I do not know.
There are four circular rows of "petals" in Christian's image (as opposed to six in Fludd's, about which more later). We could imagine these circles in the cosmos as a globe divided in half at the equator. Then God might be at the highest point of the top hemisphere.
In looking for earlier models for Christian's image, I found a couple of others of interest. One is the "rose windows" of the medieval cathedrals, in particular that of the south window at Chartres, devoted to Christ.
Another example, much earlier, the Denderah astronomical ceiling from the temple of Hathor in Denderah, Egypt. The French ripped it out of its temple (with the permission of Egypt's ruler) and brought it to Paris in 1821, where it was installed in the Louvre. While the paint has worn off the original, below is a reconstruction restoring the colors and a few missing pieces.
Here we can compare the layout of the zodiacal signs for the four evangelists with their layout in the Rose Window. The lion and bull are in the same corners as in the window. The eagle, which is not in the zodiac as we know it, is replaced by Scorpio and on the upper left; then the man, Aquarius, is on the right. (I thank my more astrologically minded friends who attended a talk of mine on this subject for pointing out this placement.)The resemblance between this ceiling and Christian's Rose-Cross is even more striking when it is compared to his 1870 version, with letters of his imagined Egyptian alphabet instead of the Roman letters and Arabic numerals he had earlier. In relation to the Denderah ceiling, instead of the four goddesses (Hathors?), he has the four arms of the cross, and instead of the four pairs of falcon-gods (the 8 sons of Horus?), he has the "four animals" that he associates with the Sphinx.
Here is the key to the "Egyptian" lettering. As in Hebrew, the letters do double duty as numbers, in the same order as the alphabet, going from right to left and top to bottom:
For each of his smaller "circles", Christian says, there is a "hierarchy" that transmits the divine influence from the divine source in its ten aspects to the zodiacal signs, planets, and the sublunary world. These are the (1) Seraphim, (2) Cherubim, (3) Thrones, (4) Dominions, (5) Powers, (6) Virtues, (7) Principalities, (8),Archangels, and (9) Angels of pseudo-Dionysius (in Histoire, p. 67, he actually names "Dionysius the Areopagite" as his source). The tenth, transmitting to the sublunary world, does not have a ps.-Dionysian hierarchy; instead, it is "religion" (L'Homme Rouge p. 85), I presume a religious hierarchy such as the "Egyptian Magi". For Christian these "hierarchies" are neither Jewish nor Christian, but Egyptian, with precisely the same names. These transmit the divine influence to the heavens of, respectively, the first moved (1), the fixed stars (2), Saturn (3), Jupiter (4), Mars (5), the Sun (6), Venus (7), Mercury (8), the Moon (9), plus, for the beings of the last circle, the "natural world", apparently not part of the Rose-Cross itself.
Finally, each of these heavens has an "intelligence" which transmits an aspect of the divine essence to what is below. The Seraphim through the first moved influence "all beings". The Cherubim through the fixes stars impress the ideas which precede the forms. The Thrones through Saturn and its genius Oriphael bring the dead to the bosom of God. Jupiter has its genius Zachariel, who presides over the government of created forms. Mars has its governor Samael, who presides over the chastisement of beings. The sun has its genius Michael, who presides over "the generation of all things through the fecundation of the elements". Venus has Anael, who presides over "the harmonies of vegetable nature". Mercury has Raphael, who presides over "the generation of animals". The Moon has Gabriel, who presides over "the increase and decrease of all sublunary beings". Finally, in the natural world the "divine essence communicates to us by religion and speaks to us by the voice of conscience."
In addition, below the seven geniuses of the planets are a second hierarchy, composed of the 36 decans, in groups of three presiding over 10 degrees of the 30 degrees assigned to each of the signs of the zodiac. Below them, as additional assistants, are the 360 "intelligences" of the degrees themselves.
I am not sure where all this comes from. Part of it may be Christian's own invention. The correspondences between sefiroth, hierarchies, and heavens can be found in Agrippa's Three Books on Occult Philosophy, Book 2, Chapter 13, "Of the Number Ten", written in the 1530s (http://www.esotericarchives.com/agrippa/agripp2b.htm in particular the table entitled "The Scale of the Number Ten". Below is my scan from Tyson's edition of the 18th century English translation (if this is too small for your eyes, try here).
It would be of interest, too, to know where Agrippa got his assignments of sefiroth to planets. Pico della Mirandola in his 900 Theses held that the seven planets belonged to the seven lower sefiroth, starting with Jupiter at the 4th sefira and ending with the Moon at the 10th. Saturn went in the 7th spot (Conclusiones 11>48); however he began that thesis by saying "Whatever other Cabalists say...", suggesting that there were also other views. In the 17th century, Kircher followed Pico, except for putting Saturn in the 8th position, as can be seen in the "tree of life" he produced, reproduced in several places on the Web.
The only source I know before Agrippa that starts by assigning Saturn to the 3rd sefira is Pico's friend Yohanan Alemanno, in the 1490s (Moshe Idel, Kabbalah in Italy, p. 188 at https://archive.org/stream/MosheIdelKabbalahInItaly/Moshe-Idel-Kabbalah-in-Italy_djvu.txt). Among Florentine Jewish Kabbalists he may have started the tradition reflected in Agrippa. It also may have existed before Alemanno. If so, it is not likely much earlier, because despite diligent search I do not find a Saturn-Binah connection in the Zohar. In its "supernal palaces" section, moreover, it is clear that the lowest level, or palace, is associated with the Moon.
It is perhaps because Saturn was associated with wisdom that Christian made Wisdom the 3rd rather than 2nd sefira. Then, with Saturn linked to this 3rd safira, the 10th is freed to correspond to "our natural world" rather than to the Moon.
After the heavens, Christian starts to veer from Agrippa. Christian's "geniuses" correspond to Agrippa's "ruling angels" (i.e. Archangels), but some of their names and which heavens they belong to are different. And what is below them is completely different. I do not recognize Christian's assignments at all. It is possible that there is a Renaissance source, as Botticelli's La Primavera shows Venus presiding over a world that, besides the Graces, is thoroughly vegetable. Also, the Poimandres, the first book of the Corpus Hermeticum, speaks of Luna as governing "increase and decrease"; but the rest of its assignments are different.
All of these entities are somehow included in the Rose-Cross. The 10th circle, Christian says, is the "exterior" one. That one has 78 compartments, and his manuscript will give us the keys. Each has an associated Egyptian letter, a symbolic title, and a hieroglyph, i.e. a symbolic image. They correspond, of course, to the tarot deck. Most of the hieroglyphs also have an associated astrological entity or entities, one or both of a planet and either a zodiacal sign or a decan of that sign (I will explain decans in the next section).
From this introduction he proceeds directly to the 78 "compartments". He begins each one with a characterization in each of three "worlds", the "divine world, the "intellectual world", and the "physical world". The "physical world" must be the "natural world" of "men and things" which the various planetary geniuses govern. The "intellectual world" would be that of the "intelligences". I am not sure how high that goes: certainly as far up as the heavens. The Seraphim, Cherubim, etc., down to the Angels, would seem to be in the divine world, on the other hand, they might be considered "intelligences". I would imagine that the sefiroth and above would be in the divine world.
Here it might help to go back to Fludd's Rose-Croix and decipher its six circular rows of petals. In his work Utriusque Cosmi, vol. 1, 1621, there is an image that seems to identify them. I put it next to the rose.
This diagram, left above, can be seen in two ways. On the one hand, letters A-F correspond to the six circular rows in Fludd's rose. On the other hand, Fludd's diagram gives another way of making a division: the thick lines divide the levels in the diagram into three. Fludd called these lines the division between three heavens: the "Empyrean", the "celestial", and the "elemental". Are these Christian's "divine", "intellectual", and "physical"? The only problem is that Fludd uses the word "intellect" in his accounts of all of B through D, and "mens", meaning "mind, in A and E. To the left of his diagram I give a translation of the Latin (as best I can).
There are three intelligible worlds, which correspond to each other through a hierarchical analogy: the natural or physical world, the spiritual [or mental] or metaphysical world, and the divine or religious world.And a couple of pages further (p. 53)
All words have three meanings, all actions a threefold result, all forms a threefold idea, because the absolute corresponds from world to world with its forms. Every resolution of human will modifies nature, interests philosophy, and is written in heaven.By "philosophy", read primarily "hermetic philosophy". This is clear further on (p. 55):
All of science rests on three principles, just like a syllogism with three terms. There are also three distinct classes, or three original and natural ranks, among men, who are all called to climb from the lowest to the highest rank. The Hebrews call these series or degrees of progress of the spirit, Assiah, Yetzirah, and Briah. The Gnostics, who were the Christian Cabalists, called them Hyle, Psyche and Gnosis; the supreme circle was called Atziluth by the Hebrews and Pleroma by the gnostics.Here Assiah means "making", Yetzirah means "formation" Briah means "creation", and Atziluth means, "emanation". Assiah corresponds to the physical world, Yetzirah to the celestial world, Briah to the 9 levels of angels plus the saints and heroes, and Atziluth to the sefiroth. Their contents correspond nicely to the three levels of Christian's account, starting down from the 10 sefiroth, to the Seraphim etc., down to the Angels and religions hiarachy, then to the "first moved" etc., down to the degrees, and finally to the physical world of the 78 compartments.
But it is still not clear that this division corresponds to Christian's, because the celestial world is, after all, part of the physical world, even if inaccessible directly by human "making".
For further clarification, it might help to see what Christian actually says in the particular cases of the 22 "hieroglyphs" of the tarot, about their meaning in each of the three worlds. Actually, he only gives the three for the first 19. Although it is quite a mouthful, here they are. For readers not familiar with the tarot, I have given the relevant imagery in brackets:
1. [Magus, at a table with coin, sword, and cup on it, his hand with the wand raised and the other lowered] ...expresses in the divine world the absolute Being who contains and from whom flows the infinity of all possible things: in the intellectual world, Unity, the principle and synthesis of numbers; the Will, principle of action: in the physical world, Man, the highest of all living creatures, called upon to raise himself, by a perpetual expansion of his faculties, into the concentric spheres of the Absolute.
2. [High Priestess, with curtain behind her supporting two columns):... expresses, in the divine world, the consciousness of the absolute Being who embraces the three periods of all manifestations: the past, the present and the future. In the intellectual world, the Binary, reflection of Unity; Knowledge, perception of visible and invisible things: in the physical world, Woman, the matrix of Man, who joins herself with him in a similar destiny.
3. [Empress, with eagle on her hand, moon at feet, 12 stars around her head] expresses, in the divine world, the supreme Power balanced by the eternally active Mind and by absolute Wisdom: in the intellectual world, the universal fecundity of the supreme Being: in the physical world, Nature in labour, the germination of the acts that are to spring from the Will.I interrupt this sequence to advance a hypothesis. The divine world is that of God in various aspects seen as absolutes or perfections:. "Mind", "Wisdom", "hierarchical realization", all of time, absolute Justice, etc. The physical world is mostly that of embodied, conscious human beings in their imperfect strivings toward the Good. However sometimes they are simply physical bodies, not taking consciousness into account. The intellectual world is between the other two, in the form of abstract philosophical and ethical concepts from a rational perspective not dependent on faith. In other words, Christian's concepts are much like Levi's in one way Levi formulated them, namely, theologically ("written in heaven"), philosophically ("of interest to philosophy"), and practically ("modifies nature"). . .
4. [Emperor, sitting on cubic stone on which an eagle is engraved] expresses, in the divine world, the perpetual and hierarchical realization of the virtues contained in the absolute Being: in the intellectual world, the realization of the ideas of the contingent Being by the quadruple effort of the spirit : Affirmation, Negation, Discussion Solution : in the physical world, the realization of the actions directed by the knowledge of Truth, the love of Justice, the strength of the Will and the work of the Organs.
5. [High Priest, with two acolytes below, one in white and the other in black] expresses, in the divine world, universal Law, regulating the infinite manifestations of the Being in the unity of substance: in the intellectual world, Religion, the relationship of Absolute to relative Being, the Infinite to the Finite: in the physical world, inspiration; the test of man by liberty of action in the closed circle of the universal law.
6. [man between two women] expresses in the divine world the knowledge of Good and Evil: in the intellectual world, the balance of Necessity and Liberty: in the physical world, the antagonism of natural forces, the chain of cause and effect.
7. [man in chariot] expresses in the divine world the Septenary, the domination of Spirit over Nature : in the intellectual world, the Priesthood and the Empire: in the physical world, the submission of the elements and the forces of matter to the Intelligence and to the labours of Man.
8. [woman with scales and sword] expresses in the divine world absolute Justice; in the intellectual world Attraction and Repulsion : in the physical world the relative, fallible and narrow Justice which is man's.
9. [hermit with lamp] expresses in the divine world absolute Wisdom: in the intellectual world Prudence, governor of the Will: in the physical world circumspection, guide to Action.
10. [wheel of fortune] expresses in the divine world the active principle that animates all beings: in the intellectual world ruling Authority: in the physical world good or evil Fortune.
Here is the rest of the sequence. See what you think:
11. [woman with lion] expresses in the divine world the Principle of all strength, spiritual or material: in the intellectual world moral Force: in the physical world organic Force.
12. [man hanging upside down from one foot] expresses in the divine world the revelation of the Law: in the intellectual world the teaching of Duty: in the physical world Sacrifice.
13. [Skeleton with scythe] expresses in the divine world the perpetual movement of creation, destruction and renewal: in the intellectual world the ascent of the Spirit into the divine spheres in the physical world death, that is, the transformation of human nature on reaching the end of its organic term.
14. [angel pouring from one jug to another] expresses in the divine world the perpetual movement of life: in the intellectual world the combination of the ideas that create morality: in the physical world the combination of the forces of Nature.
15.[devil with two chained figures beneath] expresses in the divine world predestination: in the intellectual world Mystery : in the physical world the Unforeseen, Fatality.
16. [tower hit by lightning, two figures falling] expresses in the divine world the punishment of pride: in the intellectual world the downfall of the Spirit [or Mind] that attempts to discover the mystery of God: in the physical world reversals of fortune.
17. [woman under stars pouring water from 2 jugs] expresses in the divine world Immortality; in the intellectual world the Inner Light that illuminates the Spirit; in the physical world Hope.
18. [moonlit night, two towers, two barking dogs, crayfish in pond] expresses in the divine world the abysses of the Infinite: in the intellectual world the darkness that cloaks the Spirit when it submits itself to the power of the instincts: in the physical world, deceptions and hidden enemies.
19. [two children holding hands] expresses in the divine world the supreme Heaven: in the intellectual world sacred Truth: in the physical world peaceful Happiness. After that, apparently, the soul is no longer in the physical, but in either the divine world or intellectual world (I am not sure which), or simply dissolved into the physical.I think my general characterization works.
There is another aspect of his astrological framework to examine, namely his application of the Sefer Yetzirah as the link between the "intelligences" of the astrological owrld and the 78 "compartments" in the "natural world".
2. Christian's application of Levi's Sefer Yetzirah to the Major Arcana.
The first 22 of the "keys" form a group different from the others, in that it sets a pattern of which the others are variations. One letter is assigned to each of the 22, and the astrological entities are only planets and zodiacal signs.
As will be apparent in the list he gives (I'll show it later), Christian's assignments of Hebrew letters to planets and zodiacal signs come from Levi's account of the Sefer Yetzirah in his 1861 Clef des Grands Mysteres (pp. 199-200, scanned online in Gallica to be reproduced later in this post). His assignments of letters to major arcana comes from Levi's earlier work, Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, 1856 (Vol. 2, Ch. XXII, pp.136-138 of Waite's translation at http://www.hermetics.org/pdf/magic/DogmaEtRituel_Part_II.pdf).
An appeal to the Sefer Yetzirah is not arbitrary here, because it is itself a map of the cosmos. Let us go back again to the bowl of the stars revolving around a point approximated by the Pole Star. We must now imagine that on the other side of that bowl are the unseen forces of the sefiroth, influencing the courses of the stars, in particular the 7 planets and 12 zodiacal signs that revolve around the ecliptic, plus the 3 spheres of fire, air, and water between the moon and the earth. The 10 sefiroth beam energy to all 22 of these entities, which in turn beam energy down to us.
First there are the sefiroth themselves. The Sefer Yetzirah describes them:
1:5 Ten Sefirot of Nothingness: Their measure is ten which have no end. A depth of beginning, a depth of end; a depth of good, a depth of evil; a depth of above, a depth below; a depth east, a depth west; a depth north, a depth south. The singular Master, God faithful King, dominates them all from His holy dwelling until eternity of eternities.Just imagine, there is a sefira here for "depth of evil"! They are five pairs of opposites: two for time, two for value, two for above/below, two for north/south, two for east/west. Together they create, or perhaps just energize, a cosmos. For these purposes the easiest way to conceive them is in terms of a cube in space plus two other dimensions Each of the six faces of the cube defines a different direction. Then we have to imagine the cube existing in time and with a varying value on a scale of good and evil.
:However this diagram is not precisely what the SY describes. The sefiroth for the six directions are not precisely the whole face of a cube, but just the direction, i.e. the imaginary--from our point of view-- end of a line from where one is standing, in other words, the points of an octohedron. So I have redrawn the above diagram using that shape, at the right below.
The SY later asks us to imagine the 7 double letters of the Hebrew letters--letters that stand for two sounds--as somehow "paralleling" these six directions plus one in the middle, and also the 7 planets of ancient astrology.
4.3. Seven Doubles, BGDKPRT, parallel the seven extremities. These are the six extremities: up, down, east, west, north, south. And the Holy Palace precisely in the middle upholds them all.In sections 5 through 11 of the same chapter the SY assigns a planet to each of the letters. So somehow the sefirot connect to the planets as well. In the diagram above left, I have placed specific planets attached to specific directions. My argument for these assignments is not important here.If you would like to see it, go to my blog post at http://latinsefiroth.blogspot.com/2015/08/paths-planets-and-golden-dawn.html, where I go over all this material in much more detail, as well as showing how this diagram could have developed into the more familiar "sefirotic tree" of later Kabbalah. You can already see it in outline above. The only change that needs to be made is to drop the "moon" sefira to below the "jupiter" one, and the "saturn" sefira to where the "moon" was.
In Chapter 5 the SY adds the zodiacal signs, this time by way of the "simple" letters, letters that correspond in Hebrew to only one sound, 12 of them. They are the "diagonal boundaries", the SY says, also describing them as "the arms of the universe". Each is given two of the six directions, so we may imagine them as connecting the corresponding two vertices. They are then associated with each of the zodiacal signs. The planets are Up, North, etc.; the zodiacal signs are upper north (UN), north-east (NE), etc.
The 3 remaining letters, corresponding to air, water, and fire, are imagined as the two pans of a scales and the part in between that measures one against the other (SY Short Version 3.1). These do not fit easily into the geometrical model. Since they are presented first, I imagine them as above the figure, as a kind of triangular array (below, left-hand diagram. They play no role in Christian's system.
In the above diagram, the lines are not all diagonals: two are vertical and two are horizontal. To solve this prolem, we just have to tilt the octohedron a little. Then, admittedly, "up" won't be directly above us. But that's OK. Up is where Heaven is, and on our star map that is the point around which the stars revolve, near the North Star, which is not exactly "up" from us either. Here by "us" we have to mean people in the land of Israel, or Egypt, or wherever the Sefer Yetzirah comes from.
Now all we have to do is to connect this diagram (on the left) with the cosmos as portrayed in the Denderah ceiling. Just imagine looking up on a clear night away from city lights. The sefiroth, outside the "intellectual world' of the cosmos, connect to the indicated astrological entities via the 9 "hierarchies"--the Seraphim--etc.Then the planets connect to them, and the signs of the zodiac connect to the lines joining the sefiroth. Then just above the horizon are the decans, connected to the zodiacal the planets. The planets and zodiacal signs in turn.connect to us, our bodies souls, and spirits. The Sefer Yetzirah spells out some of the connections: to parts of the body and conditions of life. In Christian's vision they produce the 78 compartments that are on the "exterior circle", the one constituting the horizon, the place at which heaven and hell meet.The 22 majors and 56 minors represent these compartments.
The remaining detail is how the sefiroth and the lines between them connect to particular planets and zodiacal sings. How is it determined which sefiroth get which astrological entity? In the SY, it is by means of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. They divide into 3 "mothers", 7 "doubles", and 12 "simples", based on properties of the sounds represented by each. It was by observing this division of the alphabet into three parts that God created the 3 celestial elements, the 7 planets, and the 12 zodiacal signs, in the order they appear in the heavens, a letter assigned to each in alphabetical order. So Saturn would get the first double letter, Beth, and so on down to the Moon at Tau. Aries would get the first simple letter, and so on down to Pisces at Resh. The elements were in the order breath, water, fire: God's breath (corresponding to "depth of Good" in the SY) was warm and wet, separating into water for the beginning of the world (the higher and lower waters of Genesis, and the "depth of beginnning") and fire for the end. This is how it works in all verified versions of the SY, including the one translated by Papus into French in 1890.
It remains to assign tarot arcana to the letters. That was the easy part. In Hebrew the letters of the alphabet correspond to numbers. It was just a matter of assigning the first one to aleph and so on, in ordinal order. Since aleph would be 1, that would be the Magician and Air, 2 would be the Priestess and Saturn, and so on. However there is immediately a problem. Astrology had 4 elements, not 3. Another problem was that while Saturn, planet of Wisdom, might fit the Priestess, Jupiter did not fit the Empres, who would more logically be Venus. Also Aries is not exactly the Pope, nor Taurus the Lover or "Two Paths). And so on.
Here is what Levi did. We ave to bear in mind that he was the first person to even attempt to deal with this issue, or even recognize it as such. I give it in French downloaded from Gallica; followed by Crowley's translation, p. 85, of Key of the Mysteries, online).
Of these, only the seven doubles are assigned to clear astrological entities, as follows.
BETH = 2nd, High Priestess, MoonThat Levi gave no astrological assignments to the mother letters carries over into Christian's not giving the corresponding cards any either; it was not possible, given that four elements are required. (That is just as well, since he included Yod as a mother letter, omitting Aleph.) But for the 12 simples, there are too many to ignore. Christian simply used those in the Sefer Yetzirah as then available, starting with Aries as the "Master of the Arcana" (Pope, Hierophant) and ending with Pisces as the Sun card. .
GIMEL = 3rd, Empress, Venus
DALETH = 4th, Emperor, Jupiter
KAPH = 11th, Strength, Mars
PE = 17th, Star, Mercury
RESH = 20th, Judgment, Saturn
TAU = 22nd,World, Sun
Note that for the planets Levi's assignments are not the same as in any independently known version of the Sefer Yetzirah. At that time there was no French translation of that famous work. Papus later did one. and the planets are listed in the same order as in the all the standard versions authenticated today: namely, starting with Beth as Saturn, then Gimel as Jupiter, and so on, down to Tau as the moon. However that results in the awkward result that the Empress gets Jupiter. Frankly, the order looks fine to me; I mean, whyy not make the Empress the ruler of the universe? If she is Isis, that is her role. Then the Emperor can be Mars, Strength (with its solar animal) the Sun, the Star as Venus, Judgment as Mercury (in his Christian manifestation as Christ), and the Moon as the World (i.e. the ruler of the sublunary world) But Levi had other ideas. So he presented a more correct, in his view, version of the Sefer Yetzirah.
I surmise that the same was true for Westcott , in his English translation of the SY. In his case, the letter assignments to cards started with Aleph as the Fool and ended with Tau as the World. That made the first double letter, Beth, that of the Magician. Westcott thought that the Magician should get the planet Mercury. So he had the SY say that Beth corresponded to Mercury. Then if Gimel gets the Moon and Daleth gets Venus, the assignments to the cards will work out the same as for Levi, the Moon for the High Priestess, and Venus for the Empress. And so on. The Golden Dawn did Christian one better by changing the order of the tarot sequence, interchanging Justice and Strength, for a better fit to the zodiacal signs, once Aleph is assigned to the Fool. The presumption seems to be that the Greco- Egyptians, or whoever invented the system, would have wanted the most sensible correlations between what was pictured on the cards and the astrological assignments. I do not know which is more sensible, Taurus as Pope or as Lover, but it is all in the name of improving the reconstruction or, if you wish, recapturing what has remained in the unseen realms so long.
So Christian gets the following. Here I have added in red translations on the right and the relationship to the Sefer Yetzirah on the left: The names for the major arcana are Christian's own, explained in another section of the book. Hopefully the card numbers and order will be sufficient, as the standard order of the Tarot of Marseille (TdM) except for the placement of the Fool (here "the Crocodile", for the Fool's fate). The numbers correspond to the value of the letters in Hebrew: the number 11 is written "yod aleph", i.e. "10 + 1", rather than "kaph" which instead is assigned to the Arabic numeral 20. The same principle applies to the hundreds. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_numerals.
These assignments are repeated faithfully by Papus, in both of his books on the tarot (Tarot des Bohemiens and Le Tarot Divinitoire) Like Christian, Papus made no assignments to the Magus (Magician), Reaper (Death), and Crocodile (Fool). When Christian gives the number to the right of each title, he is giving the actual Arabic equivalent of the value of the corresponding Hebrew letter (which in Christian's system, of course, have exact Egyptian equivalents, some of which I will show in another post. No system of actual Egyptian letters had 22, nor do they resemble any actual Egyptian phonetic symbols, as opposed to the corresponding Hebrew letters which supposedly resulted from them. They are merely his inventions, rather brazen considering that the actual symbols had already been deciphered by de Lessop in 1822.
DDD recognized that the assignments derive from Levi in Keys to the Mystery (in fact, that's how I found them). They simply didn't spell it out as I have, with the part on the left in red.
3. Christian's astrological assignments to the Minor Arcana
Christian calls the Batons "Scepters", and the Coins "Shekels". Also, instead of kings he has "masters", for Queens "mistresses", for Knights "Combatants" and for Pages "Slaves". Here are his assignments, from two pages, 495 and 496 of the French 1870 original (I did this before I had a copy of the 1863 book; the 1863 is the same, except that for "Royal Star" he has "Cardinal Point".). I put in as much as I understand in red; my explanation that follows. I do not understand the function of the planets that are attached to the decans, or how he assigned numbers to court cards.
For the Kings ("maitres"), Christian is using the 4 "Royal Stars", as indicated by their associated signs.They are, per DDD, p. 211, Regulus for Leo, Aldebaran for Taurus, Sadalmelik for Aquarius and Antares for Scorpio. Sadelmelik, the brightest star in Aquarius, might be controversial, as astrology pages on the Web list Fomalhaut instead, which although in Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish, is depicted on old star maps as "drinking the water that flows from the.Water Bearer's urn", per http://www.crystalwind.ca/astrology-basics/the-four-royal-stars. According to Wikipedia Fomalhaut and Sadalmelik share the same longitude. These four stars each rule a different season: Aldabaran (Taurus) the spring equinox, Regulus (Leo) the summer solstice, Antares (Scorpio) the fall equinox, and Sadelmelik/Fomlhaut (Aquarius) the winter solstice. I do not know why Christian has them in the reverse temporal order Leo, Taurus, Aquarius, and Scorpio.
Then for the rest of the court cards (Mistress, Combattant, and Slave) Christian uses the zodiacal signs divided by season. For Scepters, it is the spring signs. then for Cups, the summer signs, Swords, the autumn signs, and Shekels, the winter signs. But instead of the zodiacal signs themselves, he uses their decans In each of the 7 lists, the Mistress of Scepters gets the 1st decan of the assigned sign, the Combattant gets the 2nd decan of the 2nd sign, and the Slave the 3rd decan of the 3rd sign. Then for the other three suits the order goes Mistress 2nd decan, Combattant 3rd decan, Slave 1st decan. I have no idea why this is.
In not working out these details, DDD failed to recognize that the assignments for the court cards divide by seasons; as a result, they complain that the numbers assigned to the court cards are "entirely arbitrary" (p. 211), when they are not at all. Also, I do not know why they say that Christian "pretends" that each zodiacal sign divides into thirds (p. 210). That is how it works, astrologically. A more reasonable complaint is that by repeating numbers three times Christian introduces ambiguity when it comes to correlating numbers with cards.(p. 211). Since I do not understand, even from Christian's examples, how it works, I cannot answer that objection.
In his 1863 book Christian assigned decans to cards on a different principle. The Scepters get the 1st decans, and the other three suits the 2nd decans. I do not know why he switches from 2st decans to 2nd decans. What differentiates the assignments for the different suits is the planetary influences added to the decans, which vary also from birth year to birth year. I do not understand the principle behind these variations, if any.
In the 1863 book, in addition to astrological assignments he actually gives interpretations for each of the minor arcana.
For the courts they are as follows:
In Scepters, the astrological assignments are Leo Royal Star plus spring first decans with Mars, Mercury, Jupiter. And also (missing from 1870) the interpretations:
Master: search for a powerful male protector
Queen: search for a powerful female protector
Combattant: your future depends on much labor, good if good, evil if evil
Slave: efforts will not bear fruit. Enslavement to egoist interests or passions of others.
In Cups: Taurus Royal Star plus summer 2nd decans with Mercury, Jupiter, Venus
Master: you can count on the friendship and good will of a powerful man
Mistress: liaison with a loving woman, discreet, worthy of all affection, resulting in happiness.
Combattant: rivalry in love, deceptions in matters of interest.
Slave: betrayals of all kinds, one can trust neither friends nor strangers.
In Blades: Aquarius Royal Star plus autumn 2nd decans with Saturn, Sun, Moon)
Master: good fortune in military or judicial career; formidable enemies; union of a woman with a widower or old man.
Mistress: dangerous hatred on the part of one or several women; union of a man with a widow or old woman.
Combattant: active, fierce, hate, always ready to hurt.
Slave: plots of wickedness, peril of ambush, of murder in public.
For Shekels: Scorpio Royal Star plus winter 2nd decans with Mars, Mercury, Jupiter):
Master: fortune procured by goodwill of a rich and powerful man
Mistress: fortune coming by the influence of a woman
Combattant: pursuit of fortune through alternatives of success and setbacks.
Slave: dissipation, prodigality, inclination to do anything for gold.
These divinatory meanings clearly have nothing to do with the associated decans or planets. They simply derive from the titles of the respective ranks in relation to the area of concern in each suit.
For the number cards, as can be seen from the chart above, he repeats the same sequence of planetary and zodiacal associations from the Sefer Yetzirah that he has already used for the triumph sequence, using either Arcana I-X (in Scepters and Blades) or Arcana XI-XX (in Cups and Shekels), but assigning decans instead of the signs themselves, and including a planetary influence as well. He doesn't use the Fool or the World.
Four of the minors have no astrological association, where Arcanum I and XIII would be, both of which correspond to mother letters in the Sefer Yetzirah, repeated since he goes through the sequence twice In the case of planets, there is no equivalent substitute, so for them he simply inserts the appropriate planets.
The list above is actually the first of seven such lists, each governed by a different planet. The others, while following the same zodiacal decans, insert different planets next to them. As Christian sees it, every birth-year is governed by a different planet, repeating every seven years. The seven lists are exactly the same as far as the correspondences to the SY go, but the extra parts, the planets attached to the zodiacal decans, vary. One would think it would be the planet associated with that decan, but that is not usually true. I cannot detect a pattern.
By repeating in the Minors the same pattern as in the Majors, the effect is that the astrological assignments of the Sefer Yetzirah permeate the tarot in all five suits. No other system I know of, before or since, can make that claim. There is a formidable price, however, namely how to use this system to generate a reading, as we will see.
In 1863 Christian gave explicit interpretations of each of the number cards, just as he did for the courts.
The general category for each suit is announced with the Ace. Scepters have to do with "creative power", Cups with "loving intelligence", Blades with "militant intelligence", and Shekels with "fortune".
In Scepters, the Ace says all the elements for success are present; 2 (Moon) says there is support; 3 promises initial action; 4, realization; 5 (Aries, Sun) more support; 6 indecision and obstacles; 7, the means for success; 8 equilibrium; 9 recommends prudence; and 10, voyages and influences from surrounding signs (in other words, a kind of zero).
In Cups, the Ace is a love that overpowers one's reason; 2 is a union of devotion, 3 is blossoming affection, 4 is "approaching great joy"; 5 (Mercury), is "chances favoring love"; 6 is inconstancy, rupture; 7 is happiness in love; 8 is "happy union";. 9 recommends prudence; and 10 is either good or bad, depending on surrounding cards.
In Blades the Ace is "enterprises realized in spite of obstacles", 2 is "protection against enemies", 3 is "sadness which begins or approaches", 4 is "perils on all sides"; 5 (Venus) is "peril endangered by unreflective inspiration or impetuous first move"; 6 is "great struggles against adversity"; 7 is "imminent ill fortune"; 8 is "consolation in affliction or deliverance from enemies"; 9 is "powerful secret enemies"; 10 is "complete misfortune, unless tempered by surrounding signs".
In Shekels the Ace is "great fortune, limited only by the will of the consultant". 2 is "support for fortune"; 3 is "chances of fortune"; 4 is "acquisition of goods"; 5 (Saturn) is "disordered life, paralyzing fortune, with later repentance". 6 is "fortune in peril"; 7 is "constant pursuit of fortune", 8 is "great hope of fortune, mediocre results"; 9 is "prudence, not to lose one's fortune", and 10 "realization or loss of fortune, depending on neighboring signs".
Here we see that the Scepters all have to do with the course of enterprises; the Cups with the course of love and happiness; the Blades with enemies and sadness; and the Shekels with material fortune.
It seems to me that the main influence is the keyword he announced for corresponding major arcanum, from 1 to 10 (see list below, from p. 476 of L'Homme Rouge). However in Cups and Shekels he also seems to draw on his keywords for the second ten, such as Hope. In the list below, the keywords are often the same in English as in French. Where there might be doubt for someone innocent of French, I have put in the corresponding English word in red. It begins
The first Arcana of the 10th circle of the Rose-Cross correspond to a chain of absolute ideas, in which are incorporated the principles of original morality, and this chain is formed of the following rings.
It is true that he removed these interpretations from his 1870 book and thus complicated the interpretations, making them somehow dependent on an extra planet as well as a decan. But enough people must have had the 1863, because it is this methodology that survived him, even if the application may have varied. I will give a few examples in the next section.
3. How to get a "reading" from Christian's astrological correspondences and explicit interpretations
Christian's system when applied to the tarot starts with the letters in a person's name and just the year he or she was born in. The name must first be spelled in the language natural to it. So "Johann Engel" would be "Johannes Angelus". Then each letter gets a number, and there is a series of reductions that generate a series of numbers. He gives several examples; the rationale for his choices is neither explained nor obvious. These both constitute a "horoscope" for the person of that name and birth year; they also correspond to the numbers in front of the titles of the cards. To go to the right list, however, it is necessary to determine the planet governing that birth-year. So the year has to be divided by seven, and the remainder tells you what list to consult. We need not get into the details, because they died with Christian, and I can't follow it anyway. The process is both too complicated and too arbitrary for me.
The principle about decans is that they follow the planet they are assigned to as well as the zodiacal sign under which they are subsumed. So for example the first decan of Aries is Mars, the second the Sun, and the third Venus. To indicate the Egyptian origin of the decans, he has an Egyptian-sounding name for the "protector god" for each. The names derive from "Scalinger", in the list that Wikipedia gives (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decans). I think they mean Scaliger, but I am not sure which one, as there are two of them, both 16th century French scholars. These particular names for the decans of Areis are also in the 4th century Roman astrologer Julius Fermicus Maternus, according to Wikipedia's list. They bear no resemblance to what modern scholarship says were the Egyptian names, or even the Greco-Egyptian ones.
Here is Christian, pp. 139-141 of Homme Rouge (he puts them with the degrees, so I had to cut and paste to get just the decans). Below it I put his later wording, p. 507 of Histoire de la Magie, with the published English translation.
Anger befits Mars, nobility the Sun, and love of pleasure Venus. The translator has made a mistake, it seems to me, in translating "supplesse" as "quickness"; it should be "flexibility", thus "flexible spirit" rather than "quick brain".
These three decans come up in Christian's tarot assignments in three places: the Mistress of Scepters, the 5 of Scepters, and the 5 of Shekels. The Mistress gets the 1st decan, the first 5 the 2nd decan, and the second 5 the 3rd decan. There is also a planet assigned to each of these three cards, which varies from birth year to birth year. In the first year of the seven year cycle, that of Saturn, the order is Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars. In the second year, that of Jupiter, it is Jupiter, Mars, Sun. And so forth. It is not at all clear how these planets affect the reading, as he gives no examples.
In the 1863 book, besides these three assignments, he also has a fourth, which is given for the cards themselves along with an interpretation. The decans are the same; the planets are in the order Mars, Sun, Venus. These are of course the planets associated with those decans of Aries. There is also an interpretation for each, as follows:
Mistress of Scepters: Your future depends on the power of a woman; you will find this woman, if you know to search for her. (Ton avenir dépend de la puissance d'une femme; tu trouveras cette famme, si tu sais la chercher.)For the Mistress, since it is a court card, I do not think he is using astrology at all. "Power" here is in the sense of ability to make one's way in the world, not anything martial; the prediction is determined by the suit and rank only. In the other two, I think it is possible to see the influence of the decan, and the corresponding planet, on the prediction, in each of the two areas, enterprises and of fortune. So "inspiration" (the major arcanum keyword) is supportive (the Sun) in Scepters and unreflective (Venus) in Shekels.
5 of Scepters: In the horoscope, this arcanum presages support of chances favorable to the success of the enterprises. (Dans l"horoscope, cet arcane présage concours de chances favorables au succès des enterprises.)
5 of Shekels. In the horoscope, this arcanum presages peril of losing oneself by obeying an unreflective inspiration, or by the impetuosity of a first movement. (Dans l'horoscope, cet arcane présage péril de se perdre en obéissant à une inspiration irréfléchie, ou à l'emportement d'un premier mouvement.)
It is true that he removed the interpretations for the minors from his 1870 book. But enough people must have had the 1863, because this methodology, combining predictions based on the decans with language from the corresponding majors, seems to have survived him. The Golden Dawn used both the sefiroth and the decans in their system for the number cards.
4. Sources for Christian's interpretations of the decans and degrees
When we look to works interpreting the decans, the problem is that there are two that fit, even though each is different from the other. The best known is probably Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy, written around 1530. Here is the 18th century English translation (http://www.esotericarchives.com/agrippa/agripp2c.htm, ch. xxxvii; my image is from the print edition edited by Tyson). I have underlined the parts that correspond to Christian's text:
The descriptions of the images correspond to two sets of actual pictures. For Agrippa's the most famous versions are at the Schifanoia Palace in Ferrara, done around 1470.
Since 1470 is earlier than Agrippa's descriptions, it is clear that the artist, Francesco del Cossa, did not base his work on Agrippa. Nor, as will be evident if you compare the images with those of Engel, are they based on the Astrolabium. In fact they follow a widely copied illustrated manuscript known as the Picatrix. Here are the corresponding illustrations in one copy of the manuscript. There are a few differences, but not many.
The Picatrix was originally in Arabic, translated into Castilian in the 13th century and then into Latin for the rest of Europe. The Castilian translation was done for Alfonso the Wise; the translator for the Latin has not been identified. Here is the Latin text of the Picatrix, describing the three decans of Aries (https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/pdf/fbh295b2205454.pdf, pp. 75-76).
Here is a rough translation. Latin is not a language I have studied, so there are sure to be errors. I hope that it is close enough for our purposes.3. Prima facies Arietis est Martis, et ascendit in ea secundum opinionem magni sapientis istius sciencie forma hominis nigri, inquieti et magni corporis, rubeos oculos habentis et in eius manu ascionem incidentem tenentis, panno albo precincti; et est magni precii in se. Et hec facies est fortitudinis. altitudinis et precii absque verecundia. Et hec est eius forma.
[start p. 76]
4. Et ascendit in secunda facie Arietis mulier viridibus pannis induta et una tibia carens. Et hec facies est altitudinis, nobilitatis, precii et regni. Et hec est eius forma.
[p.127] Et in tercia facie Arietis ascendit vir inquietus, in manibus auream armillam tenens et pannis rubeis indutus, cupiens facere bonum et non potest. Et hec facies est subtilitatis et subtilium magisteriorum et rerum novarum et instrumentorum et istis similium. Et hec est eius forma.
3. The first face of Aries is in Mars, and there ascends, in the opinion of great men of this science, the image of a black man, of restlessness and great size, red eyes, and having a hand ascionem incidentem (?) holding a white cloth near him; And there is great good in it. And this is the face of strength, loftiness, and good, without shame. And this is its image.
[Start p. 76] 4. And in the second face of Aries is a woman wearing green [or youthful] clothes and separated leg. And this face is lofty, noble, and regal. And this is its image.
It should be evident that the Picatrix is the source both for the Schifanoia decans and Agrippa's account of them. It is curious how "without shame" becomes "shamelessness" in the translation of Agrippa, "immodesty" in the translation of Engel/d'Abano, and "obstination", i.e. obstinacy, in Christian.[P.127] and the third face of Aries is of a restless man, in his hands holding a golden bracelet and dressed in red clothing, wanting to do good but not being able to. And this face is of keenness and of subtle teaching and a thing of newness and usefulness and the like. And this is its image.
Engel's book, like the Picatrix's manuscript, had pictures to accompany the text. Here are Engel's pictures. As you can see, they match his text but are quite different from the images as the Schifanoia. For convenience I will repeat the English translation.
The Astrolabium is based on an earlier source, namely a section of a longer work by Pietro d'Albano, the Conciliator differentiarum quae inter philosophos et medicos versantur, by Pietro d'Abano. He was born around 1257 and became Professor of Medicine at Padua. He died in 1315 or 1316 while on trial for heresy. It is thought that he got the material from a Latin translation of aan 8th century Persian astrologer. That work was first printed in Mantua of 1472, as given by WorldCat.
Conclusion: Christian's source for his interpretations of the degrees (which do not enter into his tarot assignments), was PIetro d'Abano, via some intermediary. If it was Johann Engel, it was a version lacking his images.
For the decans, it is not possible distinguish between Engel and Agrippa, or d'Abano and Picatrix. However it may not be any of these. Christian says his source included the name of the Egyptian god associated with each decan. Neither Engel nor Agrippa does so. So either these names are part of the pretense, or he had a source that did contani these names. I have no idea what it could be.
5. The Influence of Christian's astrological assignments on later writers on the tarot
In his Tarot des Bohemiens of 1889, Papus used Christian's system for the majors precisely as Christian left it. For the minors, Papus gave the zodiacal signs themselves to the court cards and the decans to the number cards. Christian had done soemthing like that in practice, but his formal system was based on the Sefer Yetzirah.
Papus used the spring decans for the 1-9 of Batons, the summer ones for Cups, and so on. This is not only easier to remember than Christian's rather complex system, and also makes the cards suitable for reflecting the four worlds of Kabbalah. The King, Queen, and Knight took the seasonal zodiacal signs themselves, while the Pages and 10s were transitions to the next series and left unassigned (Tarot of the Bohemians pp. 235-237 of Waite translation). In contrast, Christian had the Kings assigned to the Royal Stars, and two of the Aces, and two of the 3s unassigned. It seems to me to make the most sense to leave the Aces and Kings unassigned, the Aces as major exemplars of the characteristics of a particular suit, and the Kings as masculine exemplars.
The Sefer Yetzirah thus for Papus had no application to the minors. The Golden Dawn adapted Papus, in both the majors and minors, to their own ideas. They used the sefiroth as their model for the number cards, repeated in the four worlds, or perhaps echoes of the four worlds, since they are at the level of the decans. They thus reflect only the first ten of the majors, taken as reflections of the same sefiroth. This same principle seems to have been at work in Christians 1863 explicit interpretations, although only on the "mundane" level of enterprises, affections, combats, and money as opposed to Kabbalist "four worlds".
6. A 15th century tarot card in relation to d'Abano's 26th degree of Leo.
In L'Homme Rouge, Christian gave both the image and personality descriptions for the 360 degrees. In this case the images are definitely from Pietro d'Abano by way of Johann Engel. Degree gods had been part of the Egyptian religion, one for each day of the year except the 5 "intercalary" days devoted to Isis, Osiris, Seth, Nephthys, and Horus. Like the decans the gods of the degrees would have been Hellenized as "faces" into general astrology, although I do not know what astrological principles would govern their nature. The interesting thing is that although Christian didn't use them in relation to the tarot, someone in 15th century Italy did, even if only one of them. The relevant one is the 26th degree of Libra.
.The 23rd through 26th degrees of Libra are on one page of the Astrolabium (http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k591202/f136.item). On the left is Engel 1494; on the right the 1655 translation. Below that I give Christian's version of the same degrees, from L'Homme Rouge (p. 156).
You can see how Christian's formulation derives from the words in Engel. But it does not derive from Engel'' pictures. The dragon becomes a serpent, symbol of cunning, and the peacock is now fanning his tail, unlike what is pictured. Christian himself does not mention either Engel or d'Abano. I would guess that his immediate source simply presented them without crediting any authority.
For the 26th, in the lower right of Engel's page, what is of interest is its relationship to the Strength card of the Visconti-Sforza tarot deck (also called the Pierpont-Morgan-Bergamo, or PMB). Some time ago tarot researcher Ross Caldwell wrote about it, after reviewing and rejecting several other sources that have been considered (http://www.trionfi.com/0/i/r/11.html):
The correspondence is to the image when reversed, as Ross showed:Another possible interpretation of the card is that it represents an image from the astrological tradition, so beloved of the Renaissance, including the courts of Pavia and Ferrara. When Iohannis Angelus published Petrus de Abano’s images of the decans and degrees in his Astrolabium Planum in 1494, he depicted the 26th degree of Libra as "Victor Belli", The Victor in War. The translations and original works of Petrus de Abano (1250-1316), are considered the sources of the astrological imagery in the Palazzo della Ragione in Padua and the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara. Angelus' depiction of the symbol for 26 Libra is remarkably similar to the VS [Visconti-Sforza] card, both in the overall simplicity of its design and in such details as the shape of the man's garments and the lion's tail between its legs.
This correspondence is to me quite impressive. The accompanying sentences, "Man beating a lion with a staff" and "He will be a conqueror in war" suggest that it commemorates Francesco Sforza in his successful separation of himself and Milan from the clutches of Venice, which was associated with Lion of St. Mark.
For the degrees, as Ross points out, Agrippa cites "Petrus de Abano" but only gives a few of the images, without saying which degrees they are for. That for Hercules, as Ross notes, "giveth victory in war" (http://www.esotericarchives.com/agrippa/agripp2c.htm#chap37), Agrippa says, without mentioning the lion. The Schifanoia does not have illustrations of the degrees.
A problem with Ross's presentation is that he assumes that the Schifanoia Palace used d'Abano's text as inspiration for the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara. Actually, as we have seen, d'Abano's descriptions do not fit the Scifanoia images for the decans there. That Angelus's book was first published.in 1488 suggests a dating for the card after that date.
It remains possible that the card was based on d'Abano's text alone rather than Angelus's combination of text and images, just as Christian's source seems to have done, since the larger work was printed in 1472 Mantua and surely was available to some in manuscript before that. Since the decans had already been used as a source for pictorial art, and d'Abano's text was a source not only for decan images but also for the degrees, it is possible that someone might have looked at the text and come up with the Visconti-Sforza design independently of Angelus's image. But the fit is so close that the other seems more likely. Moreover, a set of pictures is more likely to capture the eye of someone looking for inspiration than a set of short descriptions in a foreign language buried in a much larger work.
Since most art historians (all, in fact, that I am aware of, most recently Bandera in "Quelle carte de triumphi che se fanno a Cremona": I tarocchi dei Bembo, 2013, p. 50) attribute the PMB 2nd artist cards to Amtonio Cigognara, a painter documented from 1480 to 1515, this conclusion is not out of line. Had Engel's images been available for use on the Schifanoia in Ferrara, one mght have expected them to have been used instead of the Picatrix's, as a local product (Padua) as opposed to one from elsewhere (Spain). Ross says that it is generally understood that they were used; if so, he has to say which decans in particular; Aries doesn't work.
7. The Schifanoia and a passage in Manilius's Astronomica quoted (without attribution) by Christian
Besides the Picatrix, the Schifanoia's other main source is the Astronomica of Manilius, as Aby Warburg showed in a famous lecture of 1912. Manilius wrote in Latin in the first century b.c. He associated a different Olympian god with each of the 12 signs of the zodiac. That is the explanation for why so many gods which are not planetary gods are at the top of the 12 sections of the walls in the room. For example, the presiding deity over Aries is Athena. Manilius says (pp. 117-119, Goold translation):
The Cytherean is Venus; the Mother of the Gods is Cybele. She was never an Olympian, but it doesn't matter because Jupiter is also assigned to Leo.Pallas is protectress of the Ram, the Cytherean of the Bull, and Phoebus of the comely Twins; you, Mercury, rule the Crab and you, Jupiter, as well as the Mother of the Gods, the Lion; the Virgin with her sheaf belongs to Ceres, and the Balance to Vulcan who wrought it; bellicose Scorpion clings to Mars; Diana cherishes the hunter, a man to be sure, but a horse in his other half, and Vesta the cramped stars of Capricorn; opposite Jupiter Juno has the sign of Aquarius, and Neptune acknowledges the Fishes as his own for all that they are in heaven.
Besides influencing the Schifanoia, it has been speculated that the prominence of these Olympians in Manilius might have contributed to the formation of the first known deck with a permanent fifth suit, that of Marziano in Milan c. 1420, inasmuch as Poggio, who had found the manuscript in a monastery near Basel in 1417, passed through Milan with the papal entourage in 1418.
There is the difficulty that Manilius's list is not exactly the same as Marziano's (compare at http://trionfi.com/martiano-da-tortona-tractatus-de-deificatione-16-heroum). Notably, Vulcan is missing from Marziano, while Bacchus is missing from Manilius. In fact all 13 were members of the 12 at one time or another: it was held that Dionysus replaced Vesta, who preferred not to be at Olympus. Marziano, for his scheme to work, needed 4 virgins and 4 gods of pleasure. Both pleasure-loving Baccjis and virginal Vesta were useful for that purpose, but not dour and married Vulcan.
Besides the Schifanoia in Ferrara only one other fresco cycle was influenced by Manilius, the Room of the Winds at the Palazzo Te in Mantua, done for a ruler who was also the son of Isabella d'Este (Kristen Lippincott, p. 96 at http://www.kristenlippincott.com/assets/Uploads/1990-The-Iconography.pdf). In Florence, however, Ficino repeats Manilius's associations of gods with zodiacal signs in his famous De Amore, with important additions. There Ficino says (quoted by Lippincott on p. 103)
So in the Schifanoia, we have for Aries Athena and friends:...Pallas, through Aries, teaches the art of weaving; Vulcan, through Libra, teaches bronze-working; and the others teach the rest of the arts.
It was Ficino, in this work on Plato's Symposium published in 1484, who spelled out the gods' gifts to humanity in so many words. But someone (Ficino or some other) had already made both the connection to Manilius and that of the gods to the various arts, because Cybele is featured prominently at the Schifanoia in connection with Leo but not mentioned by Ficino (see Lippincott note 3).
Finally, Agrippa quotes Manilius (http://www.esotericarchives.com/agrippa/agripp2d.htm, ch. LVIII) in c. 1530 to describe the rulers of the zodiacal signs:
You will have noticed that he left out the Mother of the Gods. After Agrippa these sources were not exactly lost (Manilius in particular was never lost, contrary to what Tyson says in his note 3 to Book 3, chapter LIV, of his edition of Agrippa), but also did not much influence the practice of astrology. Who would use a book that failed to discus the astrological role of the planets?Pallas doth rule the Ram, Venus the Bull,
Phebus the Twins, and Mercury doth rule
The Cancer, and the Lyon [The Lion, i.e. Leo] guides doth Jove,
Ceres doth Virgo, Vulcan Libra move.
For Scorpion Mars; for Sagittarius faire
Diana cares; for Capricorn doth care
Vesta; Aquarius Juno doth protect;
And Neptune Pisces -----
Yet strikingly Manilius's set of correspondences between Olympians and Zodiacal signs is given quite precisely by Christian.
blurb (here) refers us to L'Homme Rouge des Tulieries. Thus the suggestion seems to be that Saliger is a possible intermediary between Manilius and Christian. It does seem that in the 16th century the famous French Latinist J. J. Scaliger did an edition of Manilius, with commentary (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Justus_Scaliger) . However the "Calendier Thebaiques", the decans and degrees, is something else.8. Conclusion
We have seen the origin of the use of the Sefer Yetzirah in providing astrological assignments to tarot cards: it is in Levi's assignment of Hebrew letters to the Major Arcana and his presentation of the Sefer Yetzirah, with the planetary assignments somewhat adjusted as though to fit the corresponding cards. Christian then explictly applied these innovations to the cards, adopted without change by Papus. The Golden Dawn, so as to present itself as something new and better, merely changed the letter assignments, by one, and adjusted the Sefer Yetzirah translation accordingly. Christian also applied the same system to the Minor Arcana, but introducing decans into the mix. Papus kept the use of decans but simplified their application. The Golden Dawn took over Papus's simplification.
For years I wondered if there was any connection between the use of the decans at Schifanoia Palace and that four centuries later by the Golden Dawn. I think the foregoing makes a case for a relationship although, rather roundabout. First is the discovery of Manilius in c. 1418 by Poggio. Manilius is used as one source for the Schifanoia, c. 1470, with the other being the Picatrix for the decans there. That work arouses enough interest in decans to prompt a printing of Engel's Astrolabium in Italy, 1494. These works, or their substance, get transmitted to France, possibly through the astrological interests of Catherine de' Medici. From there they were discovered by Paul Christian in the jumble of duplicate copies he was sorting, or perhaps in a more normal manner. He applied the decans to the Minor Arcana cards. His particular method was simplified by Papus, and from there they went to the Golden Dawn. No help from "ascended masters" is required.
So what are we to make of Christian's project of an astrological version of the 78 cards of the tarot? Is it all slight of hand, or accidents of Hebrew letter pronunciation? The 7 planets, 3 elements, and 12 zodiacal signs are in fact most of the basic building blocks of astrology quite independent of language. The problem is that the particular sequence of elements, planets, and zodiacal signs dictated by the Hebrew alphabet's division into mothers, doubles, and simples does not reflect anything in the heavens as described by the Sefer Yetzirah. Planets, zodiacal signs, and elements do not appear in the heavens arranged in the order given by the Hebrew letters assigned to them. There is no "as above, so below" to correlate with, when it comes to that specific alphabetical order. Only if the tarot were made with the Sefer Yetzirah in mind would there be any rationale for a fit. Even then, there is no precise fit, unless one altered the Sefer Yetzirah or the tarot order in various ways.
This is not to say that there cannot be analogies made between the astrological symbolism and the symbolism of the tarot. It is just that if there are, they are independent of both the astronomical relationships of the Ptolemaic universe and the Sefer Yetzirah assignments. For that reason we are free not to follow the Sefer Yetzirah if it is inconvenient symbolically to do so. Likewise there may be symbolic comparisons to be made between climbing the sefirotic tree and ascending the tarot sequence. If so, they may well be worth finding, or inventing, for our edification and entertainment, regardless of the previous intentions of those who used either system. The results may then be used for divination if desired. That system is as good or bad as the story it is set in and the wisdom contained there.
I do not see where Christian's astrology affected his divinatory meanings much at all. His minors are influenced by his majors from 1 to 10. His majors are influenced primarily by Levi, de Gebelin and other traditions, not the Sefer Yetzirah assignments, except in those cases, i.e. the planets, where Levi departed from the Sefer Yetzirah to suit his own conceptions. Those after him, such as the Golden Dawn, did the same.
More likely, the astrological assignments were meant as a source of other meanings, unrelated to the theme of the card, in a reading or "horoscope". It never hurts to have a few more, apparently. And to the extent that astrology contains wisdom, it may do some good. What is bad, in my view, is when it is used to predict what will happen, or even probably happen, or what will happen if the consultant does x or y. If they just used astrology or tarot as a source of new ideas to think about, it wouldn't be so bad. The problem is that people interpret what they gets as justification for action that they were already contemplating, reckless behavior endangering themselves and others now legitimized. It is like Macbeth with the three witches. Even if what they say in some sense comes true, they know that their prediction will not be taken in that sense, but in a different sense causing nothing but disaster. Paul Christian himself will furnish similar examples.
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