15th Century Tarot

Matteo Boiardo's late 15th century poem on 11 pairs of virtues and vices

2008-10-01T19:24:00.000-07:00

Matteo Boiardo, older cousin of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, wrote a poem that seems to describe, or perhaps propose, a tarot deck with four suits plus 22 triumph cards. Particularly challenging are Boiardo's 22 verses at the end, each of which describes a person from the Bible or from Greco-Roman myth or history, relating him or her to a particular virtue or vice.

Tarot researchers at Trionfi have attempted to link these verses with the 10 Sephiroth of Kabbalah. Tarotpedia has the poem as a whole, both original and translation, on one web page at http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Boiardo. Trionfi itself has the poem as well, but in less accessible form (http://trionfi.com/0/h/, click on the 10-1 for the trumps). I will quote the relevant 20 stanzas from the poem later in this post. Trionfi also has a mapping of the virtues and evils onto the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, at http://www.geocities.com/autorbis/boiardo.html

Here I will identify another possible source for Boiardo's pairings of virtues and evils in his poem, developing a suggestion by Trionfi on their website. This source, we shall see, is none other than Pico's 900 Theses, but not in its Kabbalistic theses but rather in its Hermetic ones.

But first back to Trionfi's suggestion. Trionfi mentions a division between 10 "good Sephiroth" and 10 "bad kelipoi." These, I think, are the Kabbalist equivalent of archetypal virtues and vices, the virtues as aspects of God in the celestial realm and the kelipoi as demonic husks or shells in this world. One must metaphorically peel off the shell to get to the spiritual kernel.

The interpretative problem is how to relate the specific pairings that Boiardo uses to the sephiroth: the Jewish descriptions husks are all pretty general, and the descriptions of sephiroth aren't much better, for generating the pairings that Boiardo has.

My theory is that Boiardo's pairings actually derive from Pico's 9th and 10th theses on Hermes Trismegistus. These refer to a list of vices in Tractate XIII of the Corpus Hermeticum, a very widely read ancient text reputed to be by the sage Hermes Trimegistus. Pico attempts to relate this list to "10 evil leaders in Cabala." In Tractate XiII there is also a corresponding list of virtues, which are said to drive out the vices. These two lists, I believe, provide the structure for Boiardo's poem.

Pico's 900 Theses were published on either 8 November or 8 December 1486. Trionfi estimates that tBairdo's poem was written shortly before a wedding in Ferrara in January of 1487. I hope to show that it is quite likely that Boiardo's poem was inspired by Pico's book.

What Pico wrote in his section on "Hermes the Egyptian" is as follows:

27.9. Within each thing there exist ten punishers: ignorance, sorrow, inconstancy, greed, injustice, lustfulness, envy, fraud, anger, malice.

27.10. A profound contemplator will see that the ten punishers, of which the preceding conclusion spoke according to Mercury, correspond to the evil order of ten in the Cabala and its leaders, of whom I have proposed nothing in my Cabalistic conclusions, because it is secret.(Farmer, Syncretism in the West, p. 343).

Pico's reference in Thesis 27.9 is to Corpus Hermeticum XIII.7-8. (an old translation, not the one I will be using, is at http://www.gnosis.org/library/hermes13.html). A dialogue is occurring between a student, Tat, and Hermes Trismegistus:

"Do I have tormenters within me?”
“More than a few, my child; they are many and frightful.”
“I am ignorant of them, father.”
“This ignorance, my child, is the first torment; the second is grief; the third is incontinence; the fourth, lust; the fifth, injustice; the sixth, greed; the seventh, deceit; the eighth, envy; the ninth, treachery; the tenth, anger; the eleventh, recklessness; the twelfth, malice. These are twelve in number, but under them are many more besides, my child, and they use the prison of the body to torture the inward person with the sufferings of sense." (Hermetica, Copenhaver translation,
p. 51)

Here Hermes lists 12 “tormentors." What Pico has done is to reduce the 12 of the Tractate to 10, so as to correspond to the 10 punishers he has read about in Kabbalah. Farmer says this reduction is "forced." Yet there is a justification for such a reduction later in the Tractate. For Hermes Trismegistus goes on to say:

...To mankind’s confusion, there are disjunctions among the twelve, my child, though they are unified when they act. (Recklessness is not separable from anger; they are indistinguishable.) Strictly speaking, then, it is likely that the twelve retreat when the ten powers (the decad, that is) drive them away. (Hermetica, Copenhaver translation, p. 52)

So at least some of the powers appear as "disjunctions," meaning "either this or that." So recklessness and anger are two expressions of the same power, which can be driven out by the same good power. No other examples are given. Pico probably assumed that two other of the last four evil powers also make up one disjunction, treachery and malice being inseparable. Thus 12 in one system, considered 12 because of the zodiac, can be considered 10 as well. Another pair of similar powers are Incontinence and Lust; but instead of removing one, Pico interprets Incontinence as Inconstancy, with the corresponding virtue not Continence but Constancy.

Now let us compare these powers to Boiardo's. Ignorance corresponds to Boiardo's Error or Doubt; Sorrow corresponds to Secrecy (the verse is about a man's secret love); both Incontinence and Lust correspond to Desire; Pico's Inconstancy corresponds to Error; Greed corresponds to Chance (the Wheel of Fortune mentioned in the poem); Injustice corresponds to Disdain (Herod's unjust killing of Mariamne) or Peril (the assassination of Julius Caesar); Envy doesn't correspond; Fraud or Deceit is the same as Boiardo's Deception; Anger/Recklessness corresponds to Disdain (Herod's anger against the one he loved, resulting in his overhasty murder of her); Treachery/Malice is what was involved in Caesar's assassination, Boiardo's Peril. Two remaining Boiardo evils are Idleness and Time; neither matches any "punishers" in Pico, although they are standard Renaissance motifs. At the same time, we have matched two of Boairdo's tormentors, Peril and Disdain, to four of Pico and Hermes'. But overall the match-up is fairly good, 8 or so out of 10.

Having enumerated the 12 tormentors, Hermes describes how they may be driven out by 10 powers of God, described in a manner similar to Kabbalistic descriptions of the Sephiroth. Then the soul will be capable of rebirth:

“To us has come knowledge of god, and when it comes, my child, ignorance has been dispelled. To us has come knowledge of joy, and when it arrives, grief will fly off to those who give way to it. The power than I summon after joy is continence. O sweetest power! Let us receive her too, most gladly, child. As soon as she arrives, how she has repulsed incontinence! Now in fourth place I summon perseverance, the power opposed to lust. This next level, my child, is the seat of justice. See how she has expelled injustice, without a judgment. With injustice gone, my child, we have been made just. The sixth power that I summon to us is the one opposed to greed – liberality. And when greed has departed, I summon another, truth, who puts deceit to flight. And truth arrives. See how the good has been fulfilled, my child, when truth arrives. For envy has withdrawn from us, but the good, together with life and light, has followed after truth, and no torment any longer attacks from the darkness. Vanquished, they have flown away in a flapping of wings.” (Hermetica, Copenhaver translation, pp. 51-52.)

The 10 good powers are knowledge of god, joy, continence, perseverance, justice, liberality, truth, the good, life and light.

Now I think we can be more precise about the correspondences. between Corpus Hermeticum XIII and Boiardo's poem, regarding their pairs of virtues and torments.

Of Hermes’ virtues, (1) Knowledge of God corresponds to Boiardo's Faith, driving out Hermes' Ignorance and Boiardo's Doubt; (2) Continence corresponds to Boairdo’s Reason, driving out Boairdo’s Desire and Hermes' Incontinence. (In Hermes, Lust is driven out by something else.) (3) Joy corresponds to Boiardo’s Grace, driving out the Sorrow entailed by Boiardo’s Secrecy. (4) Perseverence corresponds to Perseverence in Boiardo, but what is driven out in Hermes is Lust, while in Boiardo it is Error. (5) What Justice corresponds to in Boiardo is not clear. (6) Generosity, corresponding to Boiardo's Modesty, drives out Hermes' Greed and Boiardo's Chance. (7) Truth, corresponding to Boiardo's Wisdom, drives out Deceit. (8) What Good, driving out Envy, corresponds to is not clear. (9) Life, corresponding to Boiardo's Experience, drives out Treachery/Malice, corresponding to Boiardo's Peril. (10) Light, corresponding to Boiardo's Patience, drives out Recklessness/Anger.

Two of Hermes' virtues and vices don't correspond: Justice driving out Injustice and Good driving out Envy. In Boiardo, the virtues that don't correspond to Hermes are Endurance, driving out Laziness, and Oblivion, driving out Time. So again the match is about 8 out of 10.

Here is the line-up again, this time going stanza by stanza through the Boiardo poem. The translation here is Trionfi's, which they admit is rough and not professional in quality.

(1) Lazyness kept Sardanapolis idle between feathers,
Lustful concubines and banquet,
For so long that he lost the habit of reigning.
Hyppolita endured such efforts, that she is the only [one]
Of the amazons who is crowned by merit:
And her name still flies in Scythia and in Greece.

Boiardo's Endurance opposing Laziness does not correspond to anything in Hermes or Pico.

(2) Actheon was inflamed of love for an heavenly
Person, so much that he was transformed in[to a] deer:
So a man should not put his desire too high.
Reason made Laura triumph over the perverted
Child Cupidus, because she never moved
Her eye from virtue nor misplaced her foot.

Boiardo's Reason driving out Desire corresponds to Pico's unspecified virtue driving out Lustfulness, or Hermes' Perseverence driving out Lust. There is also Hermes' Continence driving out Incontinence.

(3) Antiochus was so secret, that he almost
Died for his love for Stratonica.
But the kind physician helped him effectively.
Grace does not go by chance, but with reason,
To the discreet and wise, for in love can be proud
He that hides his strongest passion.

Boiardo's Grace driving out Secrecy corresponds to Hermes' Joy driving out Sorrow. In the poem Secrecy is a source of Sorrow. I think the sense of the last line and a half of the 2nd stanza is, "...for with love can be pride, /With him who hides the strongest passion" ("ché con amore ha il vanto /Colui che asconde le passion piu forte.")

(4) Anger filled king Herod so much
That he ordered to kill Mariamne than
He calls her, and crying suffers with love.

Psyche was patient in what happened to her,
And because of that she found help in her troubles,
And in the end she was made a Goddess, so that she can be an example for us.

Boiardo's Patience driving out Anger corresponds to Hermes' Light driving out Recklessness/Anger. Psyche, who surreptitiously viewed Cupid at night, is a symbol of Hermetic Light. The 1st stanza, starting in the 2nd line, would read better as "...That he ordered the killing of Mariamne; then /He calls to her..." (Che fatta occider Marianna, poi /La chiama").

(5) An error make Jabob [Jacob] a slave for seven years,
Because he did not speak of Rachel to Laban;
But time repaired all his damage.

In Penelopes [Penelope] there was such perseverance,
That, by weaving and undoing her web,
She deserved to rejoin her beloved Ulysses.

Boiardo's Perseverence driving out Error corresponds to an unspecified virtue in Pico, certainly Constancy, driving out Inconstancy, or less well, Hermes' Continence driving out Incontinence (mixed with Perseverence driving out Lust). Penelope's suitors' Error was in thinking Ulysses dead. Jacob and Penelope did not succumb to Error, but overcame it by remaining Constant and Persevering.

(6) Egeus made for himself a cruel doubt,
So that he was quick to seek death in the sea,
As soon as he saw Theseus come back with black sails.

Sophonisba was faithful to Massinissa
Beyond doubt, because she promised to drink poison
If she were forced to follow the triumph.

Boiardo's Faith driving out Doubt corresponds to Hermes' Knowledge of God driving out Ignorance. (Boiardo can't talk about Hermetic Gnosis, knowledge by direct experience, as that would smack of heresy. He can only speak of good Christian Faith.)

(7) Nesso deceived when he said to Dianira:
Give this cloth with blood to Hercules,
If it ever happens that you have to fight for love.

In Hipermestra, as in a cunning snake,
There was wisdom because wearing the clothes of a woman
She saved her husband who was bloodless with fear.

Boiardo's Wisdom driving out Deception corresponds to Hermes' Truth driving out Deceit.

(8) Chance fell on Pompeyus, that for many years
Had seated at the top of the wheel,
But in the end fortune submerged him with troubles.

Emilia, the faithful wife of Scipio, showed
Modesty; because when she found him with a maid,
He did not talk of his sin not to make it public.

Boiardo's Modesty driving out Chance corresponds to Hermes' Generosity driving out Greed. Aemelia meets Scipio's taking of his opportunity, and her own opportunity for vengeance, with a modest, silent Generosity. In the last line, I would prefer "Because, when she found him with a maid, /She did not talk of his sin in order not to make it public" ("..ché, trovato con l'ancilla, /Tacque el peccato per non dargli nota"). That translation fits the classical source and the point of the stanza. See Wikipedia article on Aemilia Tertia. In the translation, "Aemilia" should probably be left with that spelling, as in the original, since references to her in English are spelled that way. "Pompeyus," however, in English is usually spelled "Pompey.")

(9) A spark brings danger of a big fire:
See how Caesar was killed in the senate
By only two people; after he survived the anger of Silla [Sulla].

Experience was in Rhea, who after hiding
Jove in mount Ida, ordered to make noise [noise-making]
So that he could not be found because of his crying.

Boiardo's Experience driving out Peril corresponds, in the context of his examples, to Hermes' Life driving out Treachery/Malice. The person called "Scilla" in the original in English is called either "Scilla" or, more commonly, "Sulla."

(10) Time, you that hurry men to death,
You saved Nestor, and if in the end he came to an end,
It seems impossible to think of such a life.

Oblivion, you are the end and boundary
Of all, you took to Lethe Elice and Dido,
And among your ruins you have fame and time.

Boiardo's Oblivion driving out Time does not correspond to anything in Hermes.

Hermes' Good driving out Envy doesn't correspond to anything in Boiardo. Hermes' Justice driving out Injustice doesn't correspond to anything specifically in Boairdo, although it could apply generally to both 4 and 9.

Then in Boiardo there is an 11th torment and virtue at the beginning and end of the section: Fortitude, Boiardo's last virtue, may or may not drive out the World, his first torment. These don't correspond to anything in Hermes or Pico.

Since Boiardo in every case follows Pico's changes to Hermes, it seems reasonable to conclude that Boiardo's poem, at least in its final form, came after Pico's Theses, which he wrote in 1486 and published in that year on either 7 November (Grofton Black, Pico's Heptaplus and Biblical Hermeneutics 2006, p. 7) or 7 December (Farmer, Syncretism in the West 1998, p. 3).

Thus there is a fairly close match up between the torments in Hermes/Pico and the evils in Boiardo. The general idea of powers of God driving out torments comes from Hermes, and about 8 out 10 of the actual correspondences, allowing for the difference between Hermetic virtues and Christian ones. Boiardo is adapting Hermes to the Christian setting of his particular time and place.

From Pico’s hints, it is possible that Boiardo was also be intending an allusion to Kabbalah. There are 10 Sephorith. Trionfi assigns stanzas to sephiroth at http://www.geocities.con/autorbis/boiardo.htm. However the question remains whether Boiardo actually intended such assignments. If we match up the 10 pairings to the names of the 10 sephiroth, which sometimes contain the names of virtues, the results are not promising, as the table below indicates.

Another possibility, also explored in the table below, is a correlation between the pairings and the planets associated with the sephiroth. Since planets are associated with Greco-Roman gods who have various virtues and vices embedded in their myths, such assignments give us more flexibility. The problem here is that there are many different possible orderings of the planetary spheres of traditional Ptolemaic astronomy.

One is the sequence used by Christian sources such as Dante's Paradiso (c. 1320) and the author of the "tarocchi of Mantegna"(c. 1470). There are 10 "spheres": first, the Empyrian, next the Primum Mobile or "first moved," then the Firmament of fixed stars, and then the 7 planets from Saturn to the Moon.

Another is the Jewish Kabbalistic sequence found on most Kabbala websites today; I have not found documentation of how old it is, but presumably it goes back to medieval times. It starts with the Primum Mobile, or "First Moved," followed by the Firmament, then the 7 planets, and endis with the Earth. I assume that the Aristotelian version of God, the Unmoved Mover, corresponds to the Kabbalistic En Sof, but the websites do not sayso.

A third possibility is Pico's: the first 3 are the same as the Christian sequence, but then the planets start with Jupiter, and go down in order except that Saturn is between the Sun and Venus. This sequence ends with the Moon.

In addition, Jewish alchemists had other sequences that included the metals (in Scholem, Alchemie und Kabbala, pp. 84-88). For the present let us work with just the three most relevant ones, whose orders are given below.

Here I have tentatively assigned the two left-over pairings in Pico and Hermes to the remaining two in Boiardo that don't correlate. Envy is traditionally associated with Luna and Justice with God.

Looking in Jewish sources for medieval correspondences between sephiroth and planets, all I could find was Tifereth to the Sun and Malkuth as both the Moon and the Earth. This suggests that medieval Jewish Kabbalah may have used both the "Jewish" order and something like Pico's, but definitely not the "Christian," because in that system Tifereth would correlate to Mars.

For each Boiardo pairing, I give in the first line the Sephira name & meaning. In the next line I have the Boiardo pairing, and the Pico/Hermes pairing. In the third line h I give first the "Christian" planetary sphere, then the "Jewish" one, and finally Pico's. After that I discuss the appropriateness of each of the three correspondences to the pairings.

In assessing the appropriateness, one basis I use is the assignment of vices given in Tractate I of the Corpus Hermeticum. This essay was probably the most widely read of all the Hermetic writings. This list imagines the soul at death rising to each sphere in turn and depositing there the appropriate vice, thus lightening its load and ascnending to the next sphere. First is "the energy of increase and decrease," which I interpret as fortune and its vice of envy; 2nd, "evil machination," i.e. Plotting; 3rd, "the illusion of longing," i.e. Lust; 4th, "the ruler's arrogance"; 5th, "unholy presumption and daring recklessness"; 6th, "the evil impulses that come from wealth," i.e. Greed; and 7th, "the deceit that lies in ambush" (Copenhaver, Hermetica, p. 6). All of these vices are repeated in Tractate XIII except arrogance.

At the end I add up the total number of appropriate Christian correspondences, Jewish correspondences, and Pico correspondences, to see which fits best overall.

(1) Kether, Crown.

Boiardo: Laziness vs. effort, Pico/Hermes, possibly Justice vs. Injustice.

Christian sphere: Empyrian; Jewish sphere: Primum Mobile; Pico's sphere: Empyrian.

Laziness suggests lack of motion, a property of the Empyrian, as the Aristotelian Unmoved Mover. The Empyrian, the level of God, is also the source of final Justice, in contrast to earthly injustice. Since motion characterizes the Primum Mobile,or "first moved," that one fits less well. So this one favors Pico and the Christians.

(2) Hokmah, Wisdom;

Boiardo: Desire vs. Wisdom, Pico/Hermes: Lust vs. Perseverence.

Christian sphere: Primum Mobile. Jewish: Firmament or Fixed Stars. Pico's: Prmum Mobile.

Desire is what makes the Aristotelian First Moved move: the desire to attain God's perfection, the archetypes toward which all things strive. Such striving is the essence of Wisdom. In Boiardo's poem it is a man who suffers from Desire, and it is a masculine sephira. Again, Pico and the Christians correlate better.

(3) Binah, Understanding.

Boiardo: Secrecy/Sorrow vs. Grace. Pico/Hermes: Grief vs. Joy.

Christian sphere: Firmament. Jewish: Saturn. Pico's: Firmament.

This level in Christian astrology is also called the Ogdoad, the Eighth. It is the place we strive to attain in order to see the divine beyond. It is the place of Paradise, hence of Joy. However negatively, Saturn was known for secrecy in the Renaissance; h was "evil lying in wait"; he was also the source of hidden Wisdom. However Binah is also a feminine sephira, as are Grace and Joy (Voluptas). Pico and the Christians have a slight edge, so I give them a full point and the Jews half a point.

(4) Hesod, Love.

Boiardo: Anger vs. Patience. Pico/Hermes: Anger vs. Light.

Christian sphere: Saturn. Jewish: Jupiter. Pico's: Jupiter.

Love and Mercy are characteristics of Jupiter rather than Saturn. Anger is best represented in Mars, but it is also Jupiter's lightning-bolt. Pico and the Jews win here.

(5) Gevurah, Judgment.

Boiardo: Error vs. Perseverence. Pico/Hermes: Inconstancy vs. Constancy.

Christian aphere: Jupiter. Jewish: Mars. Pico's: Mars.

Judgment and Power are the sword of Mars, and also an attribute of Jupiter as ruler. But Perseverence is a soldier's virtue, inconstancy his vice. So Pico and the Jews win here.

(6) Tifereth, Beauty, Compassion.

Boairdo: Doubt vs. Faith. Pico'Hermes: Ignorance vs. Knowledge of God.

Christian sphere: Mars. Jewish: Sun. Pico: Sun.

Beauty is the attribute of Apollo, leader of the Muses, as opposed to warlike Mars. The Sun as a symbol of God correlates with Hermes' Knowledge of God and Boiardo's Faith, as well as the Jewish Compassion. Again, we have Pico and the Jews.

(7) Netsah, Endurance.

Boiardo: Deceit vs. Wisdom. Pico/Hermes: Fraud vs. Truth.

Christian sphere: Sun. Jewish: Venus. Pico's: Saturn.

Endurance is a quality of the Sun as ever-recurring. of Venus as the source of the generations, and of Saturn as an old man. Deceit is a quality of both Venus and Saturn. Pico and the Jews get a full point, Christians half a point.

(8) Hod, Majesty.

Boiardo: Chance vs. Modesty. Pico/Hermes: Greed vs. Generosity.

Christian sphere: Venus. Jewish: Mercury. Pico's: Venus.

In Boiardo's second story we are dealing with the opportunity to satisfy lust, and the wife's generosity, It is the sphere of Venus. Mercury, who hates Venus's temptations, would not be so generous! What correlates is Pico and the Christians. The Moon, as the governor of Fortune, fits Boiardo's first story, but it is not an option here.

(9) Yesod, Foundation.

Boiardo: Danger vs. Experience. Pico/Hermes: Treachery vs. Life.

Christian sphere: Mercury. Jewish: Moon. Pico: Mercury.

In Boiardo's stories, Caesar loses because of Fortune more than Inexperience. However Rhea wins out over danger because of her cleverness and experience. If the Moon governs Fortune and Mercury governs cleverness, we have a draw here.

(10) Malkuth, Kingdom.

Boiardo: Time vs. Oblivion. Pico/Hermes: possibly Envy vs. Good.

Christian sphere: Moon. Jewish: Earth. Pico: Moon.

If envy is the vice, then the Moon is the planet that correlates. However we cannot assume that without further argument, and I don't see any. Earth is the domain of the Shekinah, as the presence of God in the world and the protector of Israel; yet as the Shulamite of the Song of Songs, she is the dark Moon to her beloved's bright Sun. In Christianity, too, she is the Moon, identified with Diana and the Virgin, to Christ's Sun. This one is a toss-up.

If we count the toss-ups as counting for all three, then the score is Christians 6.5, Jews 6.5, and Pico 10. Pico 's project is to show the Christianity hidden in Kabbalah. So far he is doing a good job of distorting each equally and arriving at something in between.

I conclude that Boiardo probably based himself on Pico's assignment of the planets and extra-planetary spheres.

Pico's "Cabalistic Conclusions" and the tarot

2008-08-29T12:36:00.000-07:00

It may be of interest to see what correlations there are between Pico's presentation of Christian Cabala, of which he is the first known exponent, and the tarot of that time, 1486 and the years closely following. Even if Pico had no direct influence on the cards, he might have influenced how informed esotericists in the 16^th and 17^th centuries interpreted them. According to scholars today, his work was highly influential well into the 18^th century.

In the years around 1486, when Pico published his “Cabalistic Conclusions” as part of his 900 Theses, it is not clear how many triumphs there were or what their precise order was. The “Steele Sermon,” from some time in the latter half of the 15^th century, lists 22, in an order that departs from the familiar one in several instances (http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sermones_de_Ludo_Cum_Aliis). Early 16^th century orderings offer other alternatives (http://tarothermit.com/ordering.htm).

Another possible number of triumphs then is 21, based on the numbers that were written after they were made on some cards in some decks (http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=28920&page=1&pp=10). In one deck, the Sun is numbered 18 and the World 19, leaving the Angel as the last numbered triumph, 20. However the decks could have expanded to 22 shortly after these numbers were added. I will apply Pico’s work in a spirit of flexibility, seeking the order and cards that fit his work rather than any preconceived arrangement of the cards.

For interpreting Pico, we are fortunate since 1998 in having S.A. Farmer's Syncretism in the West: Pico's 900 Theses (1486), a translation accompanied by concise and helpful notes. It is a welcome addition to the meager comments by E.A. Waite (in his Holy Kabbalah) and Eliphas Levi (cited in Waite).

There are two Kabbalist sections in the 900 theses. The first set contains 47 conclusions “according to the secret doctrine of the Hebrew Cabalist Wisemen.” The second set has 72, his own opinions, "confirming the Christian religion using the Hebrew Wisemen's own principles."

Farmer's notes on these sections benefit from the ground-breaking 1989 study by Chaim Wieszubski, Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism. Wieszubski in turn was following the lead of a 17^th century commentary on Pico, by Jacques Gafferel in 1651. He used sources mentioned by Reuchlin in his 1517 Art of Kabbalah. Reuchlin in turn had actual contact with Pico. I will say more about these earlier understandings of Pico at the end of this essay.

One thing is clear: Pico did not think in terms of paths between sephiroth. He did mention “32 paths,” 10 for the sephiroth and 22 for the letters (Syncretism 345). He nowhere had a systematic account of the letters. And when he did mention particular letters, it was in connection with specific Hebrew words; e.g. he associated Beth with Binah, which begins with that letter. He gave no indication of assigning letters to paths between sephiroth. His Tree may not even have had such lines. Moreover, his work shows no knowledge of the Sefer Yetzirah or the Zohar, although he would have known of them.

Here is my version of Pico’s Tree. The numbers, Hebrew letters, and first word or phrase are from Farmer, adapting Scholem (Kabbalah, 1974). The other words, after the semi-colon, are from Pico or his sources, which I will document and expand on in what follows and use later for correlations to the tarot cards.

1 Keter (crown; Father)

3 Binah (intelligence; upper woman, mother of world) 2 Hokhmah (wisdom; intellect, upper Christ)

5 Din (judgment; Mars, demons) 4 Hesed (love/piety in Pico; Abraham, Jupiter)

6 Tifnet (beauty; inferior Christ, Sun, combiner of fire and water, “shining mirror,”)

8 Hod (majesty; Venus, inferior conversion ) 7 Nezah (endurance; Saturn, superior conversion)

9 Yesod (foundation; Mercury, generation, redeemer “sold for silver”)

10 Malkhut (kingdom; Moon, “lower woman,” “unshining mirror”)

The first three of Pico's sefiroth are the "superior" ones. The 1^st is Crown, Father, Ehyweh (Syncretism 523), Empyrian (541), and the indwelling (545).

The 2^nd is Wisdom, Christ, Intellect, Bereshit, procession, and the primum mobile (Syn. 349, 356, 536f, 541).

The 3^rd is Intelligence, repentance (Syn 355, 533), Reason (549), the firmament (541), the “great north wind” (348f), the “great jubilee” (351), “mother of the world” (351), "green line" (532), and the "upper woman" (353), who unites with 6, Tiferet, and by whom the realms below are created. The “great jubilee” is a reference to the apocalypse, according to Farmer.

The 4^th is Piety, Love, Abraham, water (all Syn. 538), the southern water (355), and Jupiter (541). We are now in the “inferior sephiroth,” to which Pico assigns names of planets.

The 5^th is Judgment, North Wind, Magical Power, Mars, superior anger, northern fire, and also demons like Satan and Lilith, who come when judgment is too harsh or a Cabalist errs in his work (Syn. 354f, 525, 539, 541).

The 6^th is the Ineffable Name, clemency, Christ in the inferior world, Beauty, the Sun, the shining mirror, free choice, procession, Heaven, and the combining of water and fire (Syn. 347, 541, 542, 545, 539, 549).

The 7^th is the North, to whom is addressed petitions to be granted (Syn. 541; for Wirszubski, p. 146f, this echoes Isaiah 43:6). It is also Endurance, Eternity and Saturn; it effects the conversion to superior things (Syn. 541, 549).

The 8^th is the South, to whom petitions are addressed not to prohibit something; it is also Majesty, Venus, and the conversion to inferior things. (Syn. 541, 549)

The 9^th is Mercury, which is a mixture of inferior and superior. It is also Foundation, the organ of generation by which souls enter the world (Syn. 358), the “gathering of the waters” (357), and the “just,” the redeemer "sold for silver" and "carrying his cross" (529).

The 10^th is Kingdom, the Kingdom of David (Syn. 357), the Keneset Israel, the Moon, Adonai, the Holy Spirit (523), "universalized bride," (Syn. 358f), night (354), "lower woman" (353), the “daughter of the voice” (362), and the “sea to which all rivers run,” the Shekhinah (357f). It is also the "unshining mirror" (355), cut off from the other sephiroth by Adam’s sin (347), whose goal is mystical unity with the 6th sephiroth, Christ, the “shining mirror” (542f).

Pico also has correspondences between the Sephiroth and the 10 commandments and the 9 beatitudes (for Sephiroth 2-10), things later Kabbalists and tarot theorists have not paid much attention to (Syn. 541).

Now for correlations to the cards. I will go through assignments by taking the easiest first and then placing the ones that are left. After all 22, I have a chart illustrating them, two per sephira and two for the En Soph. Feel free to consult the chart at any point. The general movement through the Sephiroth is first down and then back up. This type of movement is typical of Platonic descriptions of a descent through the planets at birth followed by an ascent after death, or after a mystical leaving of the body to commune with the divine. As we have seen, Pico was the sephiroth in terms of the planets and the 3 higher spheres.

In Pico's scheme there are two marriages, 3-6 and 10-6. There are also two oppositions that are resolved in a third: 4-5 (love or piety and judgment) resolved in 6 (beauty), and 7-8 (north and south, Saturn and Venus), resolved in 9 (foundation, redeemer).

I would expect the card-makers to be afraid that the idea of 6 marrying both 3 and 10 might be interpreted as bigamy on the part of Christ. There is also the problem that if everything below Binah comes from her, she should be impregnated by a consort on her level, not one of her children. What Waite says is that “the fruitful union on the Tree of Life in Kabbalism is between Chokmah and Binah” (Waite, Holy Kabbalah, 447), i.e. 2 and 3. Similarly in tarot the higher marriage would be between the Emperor and Empress, who are the corresponding high couple in the secular world. Sephira 2, the Christ above, is, after all, the King of Kings and Wisdom, both attributes appropriate to the Emperor; and then 3, the "upper woman," still marries Christ, but one on her own level rather than of inferior status.

So we have sephira 2 as the Emperor and sephira 3 as the Empress, son and daughter of the Father, sephira 1, and mother and father of those below. For now I will skip the other marriage, between 6 and 10.

The first opposition is between 4 and 5, Love or Piety and Judgment. These, it seems to me, would be the Love card and the Justice card. Love is one of Pico’s names for 4. Abraham, the figure for sephira 4, is torn between love of God and love of his son. It is a dilemma due to love. Justice is the agent of Judgment, with a scales for making decisions and a sword for carrying them out. It is the conflict between Justice and Mercy in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, with a scales to weigh the pound of flesh. It is Solomon offering to divide the baby between the two women who claim it. I can see two cards that might express their resolution. One is Temperance, who often appears in this vicinity in the early card sequences. The red and blue jars or sides of her dress are Pico's fire and water, combined in Christ. However the personality on that card is female, and Christ is male, albeit sometimes androgynously. The other possibility I see—and the one I tentatively favor--is the Chariot, with its two horses that must pull in the proper direction. In the early cards, the person on top of the chariot is female, and those leading the horses are male. That would be a good allegory for the soul following the lead of Christ rather than Satan (who in later decks, starting in the Cary Sheet, gets the feet of one horse to go in the opposite direction from the other, but not its head).

The second opposition is between 7 and 8, i.e. Saturn and Venus. Saturn is eternity and endurance, and the one who grants access to higher realms. He is obviously the Hunchback. Venus on this lower level is material love, transient and ephemeral. I see her here as Fortuna, goddess of transience. Their resolution is 9, Generation, Redeemer, i.e. the eternity of generations physically, and ever-evolving new life spiritually. In the tarot the male Generator is the Bateleur, with his phallic wand and daggers. On the Pierpont-Morgan-Bergamo card, half his table is covered by a cloth, as on a communion altar. He wears the broad hat and red outfit of a Roman Catholic cardinal. I also envision him as Jesus, from his initial turning of water into wine to his last trick, “Hoc est corpus,” later corrupted to “Hocus Pocus.” He makes holy things descend from above, even the suits of the tarot.

What is left are the top and bottom of the tree, God the Father and the Bride. My inclination would be to put the Pope on top, the Papa representing the Father. In the sephiroth, the higher in the hierarchy the lower the number; in tarot it is often the reverse. So we put the highest of the first 5 tarot cards on top. For the bottom, my inclination is the Popess, as the "lower woman," the fallen Bride, who is to be redeemed by the "shining mirror" of the middle Christ. She is the female Generatrix, after which descending souls enter the world.

What we end up with is three males on the right, three females on the left, a male on top, and a female on the bottom. For the two middles, there is an image of Christ in both the 9th position and the 6th. All is in accord with Pico’s Tree of Life.

We now have all 10 sepiroth corresponding to the first 10 triumphs. As for the Fool. I would make him the En-sof, off the tree in the way the fool is unnumbered, out of the hierarchy, like Pico’s God both everywhere and nowhere.

Pico’s interpretation of the sephiroth can also generate the next 11 cards. Here I will try as much as possible to keep females on the left and bottom, males on the right and top, and Christ in the middle.

Having reached the bottom, the soul ascends. 10, the lower woman, needs to have courage in dealing with the demons that will confront her. She is Fortitude. Then 9, the one sold for silver, is Christ as the Hanged Man. 7, the Old Man and Saturn, becomes Death. 8, Venus, now is Temperance, the moderation and evenness that befits her positive side. 5, Judgment, becomes the Devil in its negative aspect. 6, the middle Christ, is now the Star, of Bethlehem and the Apocalypse. 4, Love, takes its other meaning of Piety and becomes the Moon, seen as an image of Faith in the midst of a dark world. 2, Christ as Intelligence, becomes the Sun. 3, The “grand jubilee,” “mother of the world,” becomes the World. 1, Father, becomes the Angel, returning us to his bosom.

16, the Arrow, Fire, or Lightning-Bolt, can be associated with any of several sepiroth. It is the judgment against the Devil's work, 5; it is the repentance of the reprobate, 3. But the figures on the Lightning-Bolt card are male, and these places on the tree are female. In a sense, the lightning-bolt is the whole tree, everywhere on it, because in Kaballah the lightning-bolt passes through the whole tre. I do not find this observation in Pico, only that God is everywhere and nowhere. As the Fool, God is nowhere; as the Lightning-Bolt, God is everywhere.

Here is a diagram of both results. The numbers refer to sephiroth, not tarot cards:

Fool/Lightning Bolt

1/Pope/Angel

3/Empress/World 2/Emperor/Sun

5/Justice/Devil 4/Love/Moon

6/Chariot/Star

8/Fortune/Temperance 7/Hunchback/Death

9/Bateleur/HangedMan

10/Popess/Fortitude

The second set of correspondences climbs the ladder in precise consecutive order, and almost in the same order as the cards. I would feel better if 6 were on the same level as 5 and 4, mediating between them in both directions, rather than just below.

The end of the sequence—Sun, World, Angel—matches the numbers on the d’Este and Charles VI cards exactly (and Dummett’s Category A). The virtues were all over the place in the early orderings (see http://it.geocities.com/a_pollett/cards26.htm), and they tend to be here, although what fits most naturally is the Marseille order, with Justice first, Fortitude second, and Temperance third. That is Dummett’s Category C; in Category A, the order is the reverse.

In many early orderings, Temperance and Fortitude were included in the first ten cards, and Justice was put near the end, just the reverse of what I have done in my application of Pico. I cannot see Justice being anywhere else than where it is. But Temperance and Fortitude could be put in the first 10, if Chariot and Temperance traded places and Fortitude and Fortune traded places. In that case Chariot would have the meaning of "fame," as in the Petrarch poem and in Alciati's 16th century name for the card. The result is still not any historical order. Chariot is not usually so far along in the sequence. As Fame, however, that is where it would go in the Petrarch poem, after Death and before Eternity.

All in all, however, I think the correspondences I have provided in the chart above do show how Pico's Christian Kabbalah of 1486 can generate all 22 tarot triumphs. Yet the correspondences are not precise; moreover, I find few visual indicators of the sephiroth in the cards (except for the Bateleur, with his phallic wand, other phallic objects, and his groups of three). And the orders of the cards at that time, despite some similarity, do not correspond closely to the order of Pico's sephiroth. So for now I have to say that the cards themselves probably were not influenced by his work. The correspondences are more likely due to a common heritage in ancient and medieval Neoplatonism. At the same time people influenced by Pico--with more and less informed views of what he meant--would have looked for Pico's sephiroth and attached meanings to the cards accordingly, just as I have done.

Then there is the question of whether people in those days would have had the same understanding of Pico as the one I have presented. I think the answer is generally affirmative, up to the end of the 17th century. In the early 16^th century, the main work developing Pico was Reuchlin’s The Art of Kabbalah, 1517. He had something like Pico’s understanding of the sephiroth, although greatly simplified. One could not get to the tarot from Reuchlin alone. However the Jewish works he enumerated were much the same ones that Farmer cites. So using Reuchlin as a guide, one could theoretically get to the interpretation that I have summarized. There was also Agrippa, who probably based his summary on Reuchlin.

In the 17^th century, the main commentary on Pico was the one by J. Gafferel, Richilieu's librarian, published in Paris, 1651 (Syncretism, 344). He used the same Hebrew source, in the same Latin translation, that Wieszubski used in his interpretation (and which Reuchlin mentions in other contexts), namely Recanti’s 14^th century Commentary on the Pentateuch, which was Pico’s main source in his “Conclusiones.” (There remains the issue of whether Pico read Recanti in the original or relied only on the imprecise Latin translation known today only from Gafferel. This issue affects details only.)

Also in the 17th century was the important work by van Helmont, Alphabet of Nature, and von Rosenroth, Kabbala Denuta. But these, while engaged in the same project as Pico, do not seem to have dealt with his work. However I have only read secondary material on them so far, material not dealing with Pico. From what I have read, they used the planetary sequence found in the Sefer Yetzirah, the traditional Ptolemaic one with Saturn on top instead of lower down. That one does not fit the tarot as well as Pico's. It was the Sefer Yetzirah that influenced later generations applying Kabbalah to the tarot.

I suspect that Gafferel, as well as Agrippa, Reuchlin, and Pico himself, were more influential on tarot interpreters before the 18th century than van Helmont and Rosenroth. Unfortunately (according to WorldCat) Gafferel currently is accessible only in Latin and only in a few libraries.

I have not examined to what extent Eliphas Levi might have been influenced by this tradition of understanding Pico. As for Waite, his comments on Pico are too brief to reveal much. He dismisses Gafferel out of hand, and then only deals with Pico’s first 47 Conclusions, ignoring the more important second 72.