Alchemical birds in the Tarot

There are several symbolic sets or schemata which the Tarot incorporates into its imagery, but incompletely. For example, a few of the signs of the zodiac are clearly alluded to, but only a few. There are trumps for three of the four classical virtues -- Justice, Fortitude (so in Italian; Force in French and Strength in English), and Temperance -- but none for Prudence. The three virtues are even regularly spaced -- 8, 11, 14 -- so that we would expect Prudence to be either 5 or 17, but neither fits the bill. (Those who insist that there must be a Prudence trump generally press the Hermit into service, breaking the pattern.)

"The Birds in Alchemy," a 1979 Hermetic Journal article by Adam McLean, discusses a sequence of five symbolic birds "which occurs in various sources: Black Crow - White Swan - Peacock - Pelican - Phoenix." I find that, like the set of four virtues, this sequence is implicitly present in the Tarot, and in a clear numerical pattern, but only incompletely so.

Trump 19 is the Sun. See "Red crows of the Sun" for a discussion of the Solar Crow and its links to the Tarot.

Trump 20 is the Judgment. As discussed in "The dragon and the subterranean swan," Oswald Wirth (and, independently, my sister Kat) associated the swan with this trump.

Trump 21 is the World. "The Throne and the World" details how this image ultimately derives from biblical visions of creatures that are "full of eyes" like Argus, or like the peacock into which Argus was transformed.

All the links are indirect and implicit -- no crows, swans, or peacocks are actually shown on the cards -- but they are non-arbitrary, and the sequence is exactly right. The Pelican and the Phoenix ought to come next, but of course there are no more trumps after 21.

Arcanum 19 and Revelation 19

An arcanum is something hidden or concealed (etymologically, something shut up in an ark). Revelation has the opposite meaning. Is it a coincidence that Revelation is the 22nd epistle of the New Testament and comprises 22 chapters?

I didn't have this in mind when I first made the connection between Arcanum 19 (The Sun) and Revelation 19. Rather, I was thinking about the rider on a white horse that appears on the Rider-Waite version of the card. I had previously identified it with the first of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse:

And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer (Rev. 6:2).

I had connected this with the global coup of 2020 -- a connection which is even clearer if you read the Vulgate.

Et vidi: et ecce equus albus, et qui sedebat super illum, habebat arcum, et data est ei corona, et exivit vincens ut vinceret.

The horseman of the Rider-Waite, unlike the Jacques Viéville figure on which he is based, wears a "crown" of flowers. (No bow appears on the Tarot card, but that weapon is so closely associated with far-darting Apollo, god of the Sun, and with Robin Hood, that we may consider it to be implicitly present.)

There is another rider on a white horse in Revelation, though: the one in Chapter 19.

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself (Rev. 19:11-12).

The crown on the Rider-Waite figure is actually "many crowns," being made up of several golden circlets.

And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God (Rev. 19:13).

The Rider-Waite figure is not clothed, but the blood-red flag he bears calls to mind the "vesture dipped in blood."

And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King Of Kings, And Lord Of Lords (Rev. 19:14-16).

Like the other rider on a white horse, he goes forth conquering, and to conquer.

And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, "Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great" (Rev. 19:17-18).

Immediately after this, we have a reference to the Sun and an implied reference to crows.