Tarot II

         Tarot II, the Temple and the Sts. John of Jerusalem

Meet the Rider-Waite Golden Dawn Tarot II (2), circa 1910 - the High Priestess/Papesse card and the third card of the Major Arcana.  It consists, amongst other things, of a lady twixt the black B and white-ish/grey J pillars. If the B and J on these pillars accord with Freemasonry, then B stands for Boaz and J for Jachin.  In the Rider-Waite version (top left), the accreted backdrop appears to be the Tree of Life of Emanation (ToL) of the mystical Jewish Kabbalah, with the head of the High Priestess as Da'ath/Da'at, knowledge.  The 2nd pic. in, shows the ten ToL pomegranate sephirah as circles, and the 3rd ToL includes Da'at as the broken circle. It is hard to make out, but top centre of the Rider-Waite version is II (2 - but also curiously like the two pillars themselves as well as Gemini, the Heavenly Twins).

Firstly, notice two ToL versions.  The first (pic. 2) has 1 path from the bottom, the others have 3.  The idea of the sepiroth (pl.) and paths can be dated to C1 AD and possibly beyond, but the ideas were organised and dare-I-say both edited and developed/expanded in the Middle Ages. The above versions date from the C16th-C17th as does the idea of a geometrical base.  The one above (top right) is an ancient pattern now known as the Flower Of Life.  It can be found, say, at Abydos, Egypt.  That, in turn, is a "nest" of Seeds of Life (7 interlocking circles).  The actual terms Seed/Flower (of life) are NOT ancient, but recent.  But you are looking at the geometry of hexagons and hexagrams (as well as the Platonic solids, Metatron's Cube, the Merkaba ...):  

Eventually someone got the bright idea of colouring the sephiroth in (pic. 4).  I've no way of knowing (currently) whether Rider-Waite Tarot II informed or received from this kind of idea as regards the pillars.  The black feminine/dark left B/Boaz pillar is Justice/Severity (Kabbalah) and Strength whilst the masculine/white J/Jachin pillar is Mercy (Kabbalah) and Beauty.  However the author notes : "Interestingly, different authors name their sides differently."                                                                                                   

The Rider-Waite Tarot II above seems to place Boaz (B) on the left on the way into a "mystery".  This corresponds with the Tree of Life (ToL) as pomegranatedly illustrated: feminine principle on our left and masculine on our right, like the Kabbalah.  If we were looking out (from the mystery) then it would be the other way round:  Boaz would be on the right and Jachin on the left.  With the Temple of Solomon, whose Holy of Holies was in the west, things were different.  Looking east, out of the temple, Jachin was on your right and in the south.  This is because Hebrews orientated things from an eastward perspective:

 "... two pillars, guarding the entrance to the Sanctuary. They were erected by the Tyrian craftsman Hiram Abi ... He named the pillar situated on the right hand Jachin, and the pillar on the left hand Boaz. The language of Josephus (in the part of the Antiquities where he describes the Temple) betrays his opinion that Jachin was situated towards the South, and Boaz towards the North...

... Jachin, we see that it is placed at the right, which is to the south in this case. This cardinal direction corresponds to the season of summer, and by extension to the summer solstice. This then connects to the masculine element of fire (and the sun), and by extension air (for air is only the ‘crystallisation’ of fire). It is the ‘active’ element, which the Jews connect to the pillar of Mercy in their Tree of Life, and which the Masons call the pillar of Beauty.

On the other side, the left one, we have Boaz, which is placed on the north side. This direction corresponds to winter, and a fortiori to the winter solstice. The feminine elements of water (and the moon), and thus also earth (because earth is simply the ‘coagulation’ of water), are connected to it. It is ‘passive’, and the kabbalists associate it with the pillar of Justice or Severity, and the freemasons name it the pillar of Strength." https://esoterictraditionalism.wordpress.com/2021/01/06/on-boaz-and-jachin/

(Wisdom, Strength and Beauty are known as the "Lesser Lights" in freemasonry, I gather).

Most bibles place Jachin in the south, with some others carrying "on the right" instead, as did the noted masonic source, Albert Pike (Morals and Dogma ..., 1871), who clearly stated Jachin is both south and on-the-right with Boaz north and on-the-left at the eastern entry to Solomon's Temple (and he denies the association some make with the Sts John of Jersusalem solstices - of which more below).  But how can something be on your right at the temple entrance (and one Masonic source says the biblical use of the word "entrance" alone means you are clearly going in and not out so Jachin is in the north)?  The only answer is that you are looking out, not in. There is no bible that places Jachin in the north.  Not one.  So what of:

These are two (more) examples of a cultural problem.  David Jay Jordan (left), John Pratt (right) and so many et al (see more below) seem to impose our own modern western ideas and understandings on the Hebrew.  To Jordan and Pratt, Jachin has to be in the north because it is on on our right.  Here's another (Brad Newton): http://www.mastersjewel.com/masons/symbols/2plrs.htm    Instead of looking out, the assumption is made that we are going in.  But - as we now know - we're not.  So, something more like this (remembering the Holy of Holies is in the west and this is the east end):

Jachin on the left going in (towards the west).  What of the freemasons?  Judge for yourself:

J left/north going in (towards the east).  I read: "Although speculative craft freemasonry closely follows most of the symbolic precedents established by the ancient Israelites and adopted in lodges of operative freemasons, the orientation of speculative lodges is the reverse of their operative counterparts, so that the entrance is in the west and the master is seated in the east. It is not known when this reversal took place."
http://www.themasonictrowel.com/books/the_square_and_compasses_falconer/files/chapter_16.htm

This below appears to be the modern kind of layout (although obviously this is/was not always the case).  It's got Jachin in south and on the right on the way in (whilst the temple is Jachin right and in the south on the way out). This is utterly at odds with the previous lodge  but accords with the Rider-Waite Tarot II distribution of the two pillars north-south.  Conclusion?  It is the modern lodge and not the ancient temple that informed Rider-Waite.

This is the colouring-book version of the C18th Rosicrucian Compass of the Wise:

There's quite a lot going on here.  We appear to be looking out here - and, if so, there is a correspondence with the Rider-Waite Tarot II.   J is now on our left.  Note the symbolism: J sun-pater-white/grey-alchemical fire (the triangle pointing up) and B as moon-mater-black-water (the triangle pointing down). Because of their birthdays, it is possible to assign the two Sts John of Jerusalem to the pillars.  And some do:

"Using the symbols associated with Alchemy, which is generally considered an early part of Freemasonry, Saint John the Baptist can be viewed as the pyramid pointing up symbolizing fire ... Saint John the Evangelist may be viewed as the inverted pyramid or the symbol for water ... Together both represent the interlocked star of Solomon, or the Square and Compass". https://taughtbydegree.wordpress.com/2015/07/04/esoteric-symbolism-of-the-masonic-two-st-johns-saint-john-the-baptist-and-saint-john-the-evangelist/

Or, there again:

"Saint John the Baptist, represented as the inverted pyramid, the Alchemical sign for water ...  St. John the Evangelist, represented as the pyramid pointing up symbolizing fire ... When placed together, they symbolize the perfect balance of darkness and light, life and death, passion and constraint, will and emotion, winter and summer.  Together both represent the interlocked star of Solomon, or the Square and Compass" http://www.freemasoninformation.com/masonic-education/esoterica/the-holy-saints-john-duality-in-the-construct-of-one

So which is it?  Then there's Art Inspired by Steiner (Rettich), noting both hexagram and point in circle:

Here's Steiner:  red (oxygenated blood) on sea ... blue (carbonated blood) on land ...red angel of the north ... blue angel of the south ... blue pillar on the left ... red on the right ... two gateways: Jachin ... Dawn, the Gate of Life; Boaz ... Twilight, the Gate into the Spiritual World ... "they represent (together ... mutual action) the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life" - (Rettich), ART INSPIRED BY RUDOLF STEINER ,  John Fletcher, pp. 6-7, 1987. The heavenly bodies of the Compass of the Wise have been replaced by the rainbow - in each case 7.  Visually, J is on the left and yet it is called north and right.   J in north does not conform to the Temple of Solomon.

Opposites again is a theme: red v violet (the spectrum), water v land.  But look at the pointing finger on J.  That's known as the John (Baptist) gesture - and some recognise "finger magic" in the gesture, the index finger indicating fire: https://www.eyeofthepsychic.com.  Jachin is clearly identified with the Baptist but it stands on water.  And isn't that rainbow wrong (red should be top, not bottom)?  The book indicates looking in, so this is the opposite of Tarot II.

Now the Baptist and Evangelist have clearly been seen by some seen as two complementary/balanced/ opposite halves of the year, the solstices, the 2 tropics, Cancer and Capricorn (though Albert Pike rubbishes this idea). They can also possibly be seen as male-female, black-white or red-violet (as above, Rider-Waite/Compass of the Wise/Rettich etc.), lux-nox, hot-cold, dry-wet, celestial-terrestrial, etc. And perhaps this is why some art (like Da Vinci's Last Supper) displays the "beloved disciple" Evangelist as rather feminine?  There is a tradition that the tropic of Cancer is the gate of fire and, that of Capricorn, water - http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/illustrated_history_of_freemasonry.htm    See p.57-58, item 2.  Some, as seen up top,  place (the) two pillars on the ToL, itself, as the feminine left side and the masculine right, with a balanced/completed hermaphrodite/androgyne central third, where the High Priestess herself is on Tarot II. 

As regards the terrestrial-celestial spheres freemasonry associates with the JB pillars: "The matter of which sphere is associated with which column and where these columns are located seems a confusing issue.  From Kings I and II and Chronicles it may be deduced that the Temple entrance was in the east, the left or south column was Boaz and the column on the right or the north was Jachin. Josephus states that the left or south pillar was Boaz as one entered the temple, travelling from east to west. Mackey (1921) contradicts this and states that Jachin was on the right or south when facing east. Form what I can gather, most Grand Jurisdictions consider Boaz to have the terrestrial sphere and it is located on the left when one passes through the columns or faces the Junior Warden". http://www.mastersjewel.com/masons/symbols/2plrs.htm

But that's not what Josephus actually wrote and Jachin is not north - again the cultural misunderstanding: "According to the first-century Romano-Jewish scholar Josephus' ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS, Boaz (Hebrew bo?az "in him/it [is] strength stood on the left on the portico of Solomon's Temple, while Jachin (Hebrew yakin "He/it will establish") stood on the right."  There's nothing about "entering" here - nothing at all.

Much of the imagery attached to the two pillars - opposites/complements etc. - also has been attached to the Gemini twins II.  Gemini is the third sign of the zodiac whilst Tarot II is the third card of the tarot deck.   In Coptic tradition, one twin was even female and, in another, these twins were lovers.  And, again, one was immortal and the other mortal ... opposites.  See for instance:

http://www.myastrologybook.com/Johfra-Bosschart.htm

Note the two pillars here correspond to Tarot II except the High Priestess is now a caduceus (Staff of Hermes/Mercury).  Some liken this to the spine and brain and talk of a kundalini enlightenment.  We're talking Hindu chakras and a coiled snake (or two).  Knight and Lomas, THE HIRAM KEY, liken Boaz to Judah (south) and Jachin to Israel (north) in the same way as the two pillars of Egypt, Lower and Upper,and the theme of unity.  See also http://grandlodgeofiowa.org/docs/Symbolism

Gary Osborn also makes this identification: south-winter solstice-Capricorn-Boaz-John the Evangelist-Isis and north-summer solstice-Cancer-Jachin-John the Baptist-Osiris (on his Facebook page - extract published here with my thanks).  Another with Jachin in the north:

A few incidentals here:

1.  That angle between the solstices at the equator is about 47 degrees.  That's J+O+H+N in our alphabet (noting Jesus is 74).  They are mirrors - of a kind.  In the context of our 2 pillars, perhaps, here's JOHN, 3.30 quoting John the Baptist (Midsummer birthday) on Jesus (Midwinter birthday): "I baptise you with water ... but he that comes after me... he will baptise you with ... fire".   Now the J in both didn't exist until after 1524 and wasn't current in Britain until the C17th-C18th AD.  The two names can almost be seen as made to order?  There's a little "game" possible here, too: 4 + 7 and 7 + 4 = 11.  11 x 11 = 121.  47 + 74 = 121.  It is a curious fact that the Sts John of Jerusalem as the two tropics are  separated by the "John" angle, 47.  74, on the other hand, lends itself to 666 (74 x 9) he phren, the mind below. Frank C Higgins, An Introduction to Masonic Archeology, 1916, writes of 47 - and 23.5 - as a "Cosmic numbers" https://www.academia.edu/6591500/The_Beginning_of_Masonry_by_Frank_C_Higgins

And then there's the 3-4-5 right-angled triangle, Euclid 47

https://www.google.com/search?q=euclid+47+proposition&rlz=1C1CHBF_enGB908GB908&oq=euclid+47&aqs=chrome.0.0i512j69i57j0i22i30l8.5720j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

2.  Freemasonry, tropics and the Sts. John of Jerusalem:

These are billed, variously as the dualism of St John and,on at least one site, the Sts John the Baptist on another.  You see the well-dressed Evangelist and the scruffy Baptist.  Notice the one on the right is at variance with the two on the left.   I carried this earlier: "the south ... this cardinal direction corresponds to the season of summer, and by extension  to the summer solstice."  https://freemasoninformation.com/masonic-education/esoterica/the-holy-saints-john-duality-in-the-construct-of-one/  Now this site identifies the Baptist with midsummer fires - "the setting of the watch".  But I also find "Cultures around the world have long held feasts and celebrated holidays around the winter solstice.  Fire and light are traditional symbols of celebrations held on the darkest day of the year." https://www.history.com/topics/natural-disasters-and-environment/winter-solstice But, there again, the midsummer solstice was a Festival of fire and water" https://bewitch.design/en/summer-solstice-magical-festival-of-fire-and-water/   I'm fairly simple: if I thought Baptist, I'd think water ...

And why equate the south with summer?  Albert Pike to one side, the identification is made with the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.  Summer is currently near/at Cancer.  But that is the northern tropic.  Winter is Capricorn, the sun near/at south.  And note the inconsistent placings of the Sts. John.  Or are they?  Where some see sexual connotations in the circle and dot, others see the precession of the zodiac.  Cancer and Capricorn are NOT fixed points of reference.  13000 years ago (or so) they were the other way round visually - Capricorn was in the north.  My thanks to Julian Haynes, GHMB, for this valuable point.

3.  As they left Egypt, the Hebrews were guided by two pillars: fire and cloud.  That's fire by night (nox) and cloud (?water) by day (lux).

4.  Remarkably similar imagery (Durer engraving, left, and a church window right):

In the early C16th Durer, we (barely) see Adam and Eve, a couple of fig leaves, the tree (?of knowledge), a snake and the 4 "humours" (the animals at the bottom).  The serpent is more obvious in the church window.  Can Adam and Eve be seen as the 2 pillars (and the snake as the mystery-wisdom/Tol/High Priestess/book)?  And why are their positions reversed?

And finally a draft layout of the Golden Dawn's temple c1895 (and note you can move the plan on the link around here to see more clearly): entry appears to have been from the east.  And there are two pillars nearby: a white/fire one and a black/water one.  The black pillar is north of the white one.  This fits to the Rider-Waite Tarot II and some versions of the Lodge: https://www.mediastorehouse.com/fine-art-finder/official-diagram-layout-golden-dawn-temple-22354792.html?prodid=73045

And this concludes part 1.

geoffss@aol.com

Additional notes: Flower of Life geometry +. Metatron's Cube, 3-D Merkaba(h)/Tetramorph and Rider-Waite's The World and the Wheel of Fortune.  Note the symbolism of ox, eagle, lion and angel = Taurus, Scorpio, Leo and Aquarius (and the 4 gospellers); north-south-east-west; Judah, Ephraim, Dan and Reuben; Fire-Water-Earth-Air.  And are the lady's two sticks Jachin and Boaz?  Lastly, the Long Man of Wilmington with two more sticks.  Nordic power walking?  (And don't forget Samson chained).

The Four Royal Watchers/Fixed Stars: 4000 years or so ago the Summer Solstice was in Leo (the lion) with the star Regulus as the lion's heart/north.  In the east was the Taurean bull, Aldebaran.  In the south was Fomalhaut (associated with, but not in Aquarius).  This was the Water-Bearer. Lastly, in the west was Antares in Scorpio, both eagle and serpent/scorpion.

These strongly resemble the banners of the marching Hebrews in the wilderness and the visionary Lion, Calf/Ox, Man/Angel and Eagle.  Together these can be expressed as the Tetramorph (above, on the Merkabah), Fig. 2, and they are found in both Revelation and Ezekiel.  They have been identified with the four rivers flowing out of Eden and the four evangelists.  How strange that Rosemary E, Guiley, Encyclopedia of Magic ... , p.88, writes of Earth-Taurus-North, Water-Scorpio-West, Air-Aquarius-East and Fire-Leo-South!

In 1945 an article was published in Popular Astronomy by George A. Davis Jnr. claiming the idea of the Persian Royal Watchers was of modern invention based on misreading. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_stars

La Papesse (Tarot II).  I thought this was Bembo, circa 1450 AD, but can't (currently) source it.  You are looking at Pope John VIII - the female pope, apparently.  Firstly, note the John gesture finger and the yarnwinder.  Now the internet often carries the caption "Pope Joan" - but that's a nonsense.  The legend is of a woman - eventually pregnant - who got to be pope pretending to be a man.  Since then there's a story that certain bits of a new pope are checked before that person are installed.  The imagery, though, is clearly the Baptist.  I notice the similarity to an old navigation at sea device, Jacob's Staff (and people using it tended to go blind).  https://www.stronghold-nation.com/history/ref/jacobs-staff

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_of_the_Yarnwinder#Buccleuch_Madonna