Welcome to the Midsummer
Blog hop! If you've happened here by chance, then you are in for a
treat if you follow the links below to all the other blog hoppers who
are providing a chain that runs from 0 The Fool through to XXI The
World.
My card of choice is
Strength.
Most decks published today show
Strength as Major Arcana VIII, however this wasn't always the case.
In older Marseille-style decks Justice is found at position
VIII.
So why the switch? Well, Back in the early 1900s, The Golden Dawn's
A
E Waite (the creator of the Rider Waite Smith Tarot) was keen to add
astrological references to the Major Arcana. But if Strength (Leo),
kept her position at Major XI, then pesky Justice (Libra) would disrupt
their plan to show all the Astrological trumps in their correct
order.
And Lo! The switch was made! Righting some ancient Tarot wrong, no doubt :)
Aleister Crowley, another but more notorious member of the Golden Dawn, stuck resolutely to the traditional
numbering for his Thoth deck. But changed the names of the cards - Strength became Lust. Contrary ol' coot!
Does this order-switching matter? Probably
not really, because back in the day, the old decks didn't have numbered
Major Arcana cards.
Why were numbers added? I fondly imagine that the various City States of Italy – each more powerful and vainglorious than the
next – ended up with different cards in different orders. It's easy to imagine courtly gents in tights arguing heatedly about whether Temperance scored more points than Justice in their card game. That's the sort of argument that can get you run through with a rapier....
But I digress, what I REALLY wanted to share with you is the evolution
of the image:
 |
| Visconti Sforza - 1451 Hercules giving the Ebil Nemean lion a jolly good thrashing. Pretty danged violent to our contemporary eyes, isn't it? |
 |
| The Sola Busca Tarot - 1491 A completely different viewpoint from a completely unique deck. This is Tulio, meditating on the night Don't mix up card VIII which shows a child being dismembered over a fire by Nero - that's Justice, not Strength! This is a deck crammed with alchemical symbolism :) |
 |
| Tarot del Mantegna - 1470(ll Meneghello version) A woman holds a club and wears a lion's mask. There is also a lion behind her and a broken column. The broken column is traditionally the symbol for Forteza. BTW - this deck doesn't actually have anything to do with Mantegna :) |
 |
| The Rider Waite Smith - 1909 The combination of lion, woman and physicality that we strongly associate with this card makes an appearance. |
 |
| Tarot Sophistique - 2014 A contemporary version of a Marseille Tarot image Woman and Lion we can see the nascent leminscate of the RWS in the circle of her hat. |
The other virtues are Prudence (The High Priestess), Temperance and Justice (represented by, erm, Temperance and Justice).
I like the virtue of Fortitude being part of the Tarot deck. But Fortitude and Strength have slightly differing meanings:
Fortitude means courage in
pain or adversary.
Strength means:
a) the
quality or state of being physically strong
b) the capacity of an
object or substance to withstand great force or pressure
The subtle difference is that Fortitude brings a moral strength, a valour (indeed a Virtue!) to the heart of the card, which Strength alone does not.
And there endeth the Lesson on Strength!
Hope you're ready to hop onwards to the next card?
