To avoid charges of blasphemy and being burned at the stake tarot makers of Belgian tradition have replaced the Pope (Hierophant) and Papesse (High Priestess) with Bacchus and Captain Fracasse respectively.
When I discovered and fell in love with Belgian decks – Adam C de Hautot , Gerard Bodet and Vandenborre – I wondered if I would interpret Bacchus as Pope. After all a drunk monk was a part of folklore from the times immemorial, and wine represented spirituality quite often in poetry and fairy tales.
But looking at the card I can’t help but smile. He is funny. And that’s the keyword my mentor Elias gave me for this card – Silly.
Does astrology enrich the meaning of Tarot cards or does it distract from the self sufficient complete system that can stand on its own very well, thank you? Perhaps the baby gets thrown out with the bath water in both extremes I believe. I prefer my cards not “peppered” especially when I disagree with given associations. Similarly, most of the time I read with cards as I see them and let them speak for themselves. Can they speak for themselves and stand on their own? Sure! But they are not necessarily isolated. Archetypes overlap considerably. Case in point – Moon. Do we really imagine highly educated artists and engravers unaware of the astrological (call it poetic or psychological ) moon? Like “looney”, “lunatic”, moody? Feminine (yin, magnetic, inner bound)? Luminous? Caring? Silent? To study astrological moon one would do good to themselves to read Japanese poetry, for example. Japanese has the word Ma which used to be spelled as Moon shining thru the (opening in the ) door and means the space or time or silence (in which things reside or sounds or notes are played). And so this is not diminishing the beauty of the Moon card, it adds to that. Is Tarot Moon identical to astrological Moon – it doesn’t have to be. Was Moon card (some say depicting an eclipse, another astrologically significant indicator) in part inspired by all the lore around the Moon (including astrology) – most definitely. I think part of the issue is that centuries ago astrology was baked into everyday life. Not every farmer was an astrologer of course, but perhaps many read the farmers almanac. Great William Lilly used to write for farmer’s almanac in-between readings for royalty and writing astrological treatises. I rest my case. As you can see I love both astrology and tarot and it pains me when one is misused or denied altogether 🙂
Tarotoria 