Here is the [III] or [Empress] that you couldn't find >
1. Sorry it seems I didn't make it clear, I found the empress image she just doesn't have a cross. That was assuming it was important that these 4 cards are connected to the world/island 4 crosses by depicting a cross in them.
BUT: the crosses here on the rectangle with the 2 messengers bear only meaning when a "reader" of this depiction has come to the conclusion himself - going all the way + has made it here ... gazing at the island in the dangerous distance + longing to get there - to the island of bliss ...
I guess that means i was wrong to look for crosses on the images and make a connection.
2. The rug is fascinating, shows the temple of Solomon and the two lines equivalent to the angels >via.
Its also interesting how the raised arms of the angels create a similar shape like in the rug, something like Laetitia.
3. The double square that forms an 8-pointed star on the geomantic pictures, forms an octagon inside. If we would fold the triangles inside 90 degrees we would also have 8 outer towers, just like in the floating island.
Im also curious if it would still be possible to make the geomantic connections if one only had access to Tarot de Marseille. Its hard for example to find puer in its version of strength since there is no man but a woman. The Cary Yale also shows a woman in the strength card but i still dont get it.
4. Ive been thinking about possibilities for the 9 pairs-18 cards.
-The new pair could be emperor-empress.
I was thinking that the extra pair cant be new personalities, the geomantic theory should have covered all of them. What if the new pair is a perfected one?
Rebis is such a pair
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebis
Maybe Hieros gamos is an equivalent of that
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieros_gamos
The link shows a picture of the sacred marriage of Hera/Juno and Zeus/Jupiter. We have decks using them as replacements for the Emperor but not the Empress, its the Popess instead, and she is already used in geomancy as Albus.
-Star and moon. Very similar, a girl holding a stellar object. The chariot (of the sun, a well known story from Greek Mythology) could also be a stellar object though making them three. The chariot(Sun) and moon could also be a pair based on Rebis.
-Another possibility i thought, could be the 4 cards in the corners in ouroboros, but again, the Popess is used already in Geomancy.
-Another idea is the enneagram, a sufi symbol. Not sure what to make of it yet.
5. In the link about Rubaiyat-e-Ganjifa
viewtopic.php?p=21328#p21328
that you gave earlier, you also link to a pdf with irreligious verses in the masnavi
https://aalequtub.files.wordpress.com/2 ... verses.pdf
My first thought was, these people (who wrote the pdf) only think their religion is worthwhile, and they reject anything that gives any value to anything else.
As i continued reading, my thoughts changed to, these westerners shamelessly modify ancient texts for their own agenda. Later you say
Remember the supposedly wrong Rumi quote ...
"We have picked the essence of the Koran, throwing away the skin to the dogs."
Take it now as a “working hypothesis” that only the first 78 surahs are of importance for the much later conception of the Tarot.
I think you mean that the first 78 surahs are the essense of the Koran, and the rest is the skin to throw to the dogs, and that these fake verses in Masnavi are not (all?) fake. Curiously the verses after 78 are really short, so by removing them you dont miss much of the books volume. Just like throwing away the skin to the dogs, and keeping the bones and marrow.
23 Al-Mu’minoun (the Believers) should be the Ace of Cups ...
37 As-saffat should be Ace of Swords right? And 51 Adh-Dhariyat should be Ace of Wands.
30 Ar-Rum (the Romans) is about the importance of remembering - so that the future may be revealed - similar to the assumption that the 6 of Cups refers to the past and the consequences in the present ...
And shouldnt 30 be Eight of Cups? Or are they not in perfect order?
The pips are not easy to connect to some meaning since they just show shapes, how would one approach this problem?
6.
obviously bc AEW also swapped VIII & XI without any real reason other than his own personal ones which he kept a secret.
According to Paul Foster Case, his (Waite's) reason was astrological. By putting Strength on 8 you have Leo, followed by Virgo/Hermit as 9. 10 would be connected with planet Jupiter and a double hebrew letter, then 11 Justice/Libra so you create a chain of successive Zodiac signs. This system of connection (with hebrew letters, zodiacs, planets and letter words) does not seem coherent overall to my eyes, some connections-explanations seem very weak or non existent.
You may be implying that AEW swapped the cards for another reason altogether.