Friday, October 15, 2021

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.

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