Re: The Star
Posted: 09 Apr 2012, 06:24
Yes they do. I have little doubt that the iconography of the Tarot de Marseille passed trough Aquarius. Let me continue to ignore the Sforza Castle(for reasons, I hope, I will soon explain). The Cary Sheet is the closest deck of Tarot de Marseille and it probably shows Aquarius. But Aquarius is a boy. On Tarot de Marseille we have a girl. How O'Neill accounts for a female Aquarius on Tarot de Marseille?Marco wrote:
Do these two images look similar to you? The one on the left is Aquarius from one of those almanacs, posted by Pen at the beginning of this thread.
Could you please post some XV century example of the iconography of Alcyone and the Plaiades?
And, why the Pleiades on the Star, of all constellations?
The most simple explanation for me is that someone, seeing a effeminated Aquarius picture created our naked girl by mistake.
If the above is correct, we have two options:
1)The girl is only a mistake and means nothing. It does not means Aquarius anymore, and it does not means anything else new. Life is tough and the world not always make sense.
2)We could guess that it was not only a copy mistake, but a mistake on the understanding of the picture. So the girl meant something for the artist. But what?
The only image that fits is a Water Nymph. And Huck was kind enough to provide an example for me. I've found some dressed nymphs pouring water (like the Nymphes of la Fontaine des Innocents - 1547) and some naked nymphs (like the Nymph of Fontainebleau ca. 1545–54). But Huck provided the only naked pouring water nymph I could find so far.
It looks like a Water Nymph: a naked-pouring water-female. And I could find nothing else that could fit. We may stop here.
But I have a tendency to create stories. Why the Pleiades on the Star, of all constellations? Because if the artist did not just copied wrong but understood wrongly I may try to answer "how?". Why a water nymph on a Star card? So I started looking for water nymphs on the Sky. Ideally one with some form of 7+1 stars schema that the card shows.
I've found two candidates. Both on Taurus. The Hyades and the Pleiades. As is common on the Greek Mythology, their tales mixed up. They are both seven sisters of Atlas with a Water Nymphs. But the Pleiades are better known, they are closer to Atlas on the sky and there is the delicious possibility of the mixing Alcyones ( that would give a explanation for the bird). It is just a story. It fits, but you are free to just dismiss it without need for argumentation. I know now that I don't have much to back me up. The best explanation is number (1) the girl is just a mistake and means nothing.
On the other hand. Aquarius is a boy. The Sun astrologically governs Leo, Gemini is governed by Mercury. So of the associations: Star-Aquarius; Moon-Cancer; Sun-Gemini; only the middle one makes any astrological sense. And the Sun figures does not seem like twins on Noblet. They do only on later decks. Actually, on the damned Sforza Castle Sun Card, they look like a boy and a girl (since my teens, when I see breaths I think of girls).
Happy St. Casilda day ( as Easter is over am out of good endings for my posts)