Cult of Tarot Forum

Marigold wrote: ↑26 Jun 2019, 16:47 Now, the language of the birds (le langage des oiseaux) was originally the secret language of the Troubadours (our Bateleur is a Troubadour!!). It's still explored today in literary circles and similar. The language of the birds is a play on words, more than just ordinary puns or mundane stuff (the word for "pun" in French is "jeu de mots"). Le language des oiseaux has deep layers - it's so magical, so poetical, so beautiful. I think one of the privileges of knowing French well is to be able to apprehend the beauty of this language of the birds. I swear, it's really as if you can hear the birds singing (I'm not kidding you). I would find it hard to believe that any other language could lend itself so perfectly to such expression.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_of_the_birds

I would like to share one example with you related to the Tarot. French tarologists have always found references to the language of the birds in the TdM. They seem to pop up all the time. It's considered part of the Tarot tradition.

So here is one which is rather curious, and which has nothing to do this time with the names of the cards or anything pictoral (as is often the case).

The proper name for Tarot cards in French is not "carte" (although this is used in more informal situations and is most common). However, the formal and proper name, used in the more studious contexts, is "lame". \ɑm\ .The word "carte" for the Tarot of Marseilles just never took off for some reason. To hear it pronounced : http://shtooka.net/listen/fra/l%27%C3%A2me.

A "lame" is the woodblock on which the original cards were engraved before being reproduced. Ordinary playing cards were also printed on "lames", but no-one ever has and never does ever refer to them as "lames" - they are just plain cartes / cards. Whatever type they are. Only the Tarot of Marseilles has retained this terminology.

Now Lame is, in the language of the birds, "L'ÂME". Which means "THE SOUL". I like that so much.

There's also a nice one regarding the Maison Dieu...

qndynes wrote: ↑27 Jun 2019, 16:14 Goodness, there's so much here, and yes the language of the birds, magical/poetic indeed. This also ties with the green language from a perspectivist approach. Thinking here with myths, and with the green world (non-human centric). Hm, I need to go sleuthing for things I've collated through the years regarding this... But do keep going! La maison dieu...

Marigold wrote: ↑27 Jun 2019, 17:21

qndynes wrote: ↑27 Jun 2019, 16:14 Goodness, there's so much here, and yes the language of the birds, magical/poetic indeed. This also ties with the green language from a perspectivist approach. Thinking here with myths, and with the green world (non-human centric). Hm, I need to go sleuthing for things I've collated through the years regarding this... But do keep going! La maison dieu...

Green language, huh ? Something new for me. But indeed on the wiki page on this subject it mentions this but I hadn't paid attention : In mythology, medieval literature and occultism, the language of the birds is postulated as a mystical, perfect divine language, green language, Adamic language, Enochian, angelic language or a mythical or magical language used by birds to communicate with the initiated.

I mentioned specifically the Troubadors due to the TdM and the time when it was created and developed. They played an important role in those days. But of course it's much more ancient than them.

Can you rephrase what you mean by a "perspectivist" approach ? I don't understand what this means.

Marigold wrote: ↑27 Jun 2019, 17:21
La Maison Dieu ? As you know, the arcanum XVI is not a Tower, but a Maison Dieu (house of god). At the time this would refer to either a sort of hospital, run by the church; or it could have some reference to the Knights Templars; or it could refer to a name given to the places where the crusaders could stop overnight for sustenance and rest. But in any case it's NOT a Tower and it has something to do with a House and God.

LA MAISON DIEU
L'ÂME ET SON DIEU which means "The Soul and its God".

Alternatively it can also be "L'AME EST SON DIEU" which would mean "The Soul IS its God." The two are pronounced the same. Both are therefore right because both sing as the birds do.

The Tarot loves to speak of the Soul, I've noticed. It's very beautiful.

_R_ wrote: ↑29 Jun 2019, 11:53 Hi Diana, if memory serves, the use of the term "lame" literally, "blade," goes back - along with "arcanes" - "arcana" - to Paul Christian/J.-B. Pitois and his books. I do not think it refers to woodblocks, although one could check d'Allemagne or any other reference work on cardmaking, just to be sure. Again, if my memory is correct, the idea was that the "original Egyptian" images were printed (or engraved?) on thin sheets of metal, rather than paper, hence the 'metallic' term used.

qndynes wrote: ↑28 Jun 2019, 15:38
In the meantime, perspectivism how I refer to it is tied to animism and an animist ontology and epistemology. I think I should have rephrased myself better. Very briefly and in non sophisticated language, hahaha, I'm no scholar! animism is a perspectivist approach to understanding and communicating with the world. What, to me, the language of the birds embodies in its multifaceted understanding is exactly that. A language that is understood in interdisciplinary ways. From different perspectives, not just the logical human 1+1=2 POV. Meaning that the language of the birds is an unfolding, where meaning is created through context(landscape, experience, moment) continually.

So in the case of tarot, as we experience the cards, read with the cards, meaning becomes a living experience where the cards and ourselves, within the context of the situation, the place, the time, etc., enter into an unfolding conversation. Where meaning, significations, and portents arise in the midst of.

I hope I make sense! I give this a lot of thought, especially since from a philosophical standpoint this is a huge area of interest for me.

qndynes wrote:not just the logical human 1+1=2 POV

qndynes wrote:a perspectivist approach to understanding and communicating with the world. What, to me, the language of the birds embodies in its multifaceted understanding is exactly that. A language that is understood in interdisciplinary ways. From different perspectives, not just the logical human 1+1=2 POV. Meaning that the language of the birds is an unfolding, where meaning is created through context(landscape, experience, moment) continually.

The Language of the Birds

A Magic of words and images

Before focusing directly on the subject at hand, let us review the history.

On October 13, 1307, the king of France, Philippe le Bel, ordered the arrest of the members of the Knights Templars. In the afternoon of March 19, 1314 the order of the Temple was definitively eliminated with Jacques de Molay's death at the stake on the l’Ile aux Juifs in Paris. It was on this critical afternoon that the masters of the builders' fraternities launched what the Companions traditionally call the Strike of the Cathedrals.

In three weeks the word spread over all the construction sites in provinces controlled by the king. All the workers, from master to apprentice, put down their tools and either left France or returned to their families. Medieval sacred society died in this strike and the emigration that followed. No church or chapel would ever again be built according to the rules of sacred construction, that art which uses stone to magnify the telluric forces of the wouïvre and confer this energy on the believers within. For Europe this signals the beginning of the Inquisition and the dictatorship of the church.

Those who stay on must leave their fraternities and, if they want to remain alive, melt into the anonymity of civil society.

Those who leave go for the most part to northern Italy, where they will generate the Renaissance in their work for the princes. Some fraternities go yet farther away: one from Poitou went as far as the Middle East, in the last Frankish (Christian) kingdom that still resisted Islam, that of the Lusignans of Cilicie, wedged between today's Syria and Turkey.

A small kingdom pledged to the Romano-Germanic emperor, Cilicie disappeared under the blows of the Marmelukes in 1375. The sons of those who participated in the cathedral strike returned to Christian lands, to the effervescence of Northern Italy where, known as "Sarrasins" they invested their knowledge, like a bottle thrown into the sea, in the tarot.

So when we speak of the "language of the birds" we must articulate two periods: before the Strike, when this "tongue" is spoken in the language of goth* art and is expressed in words and images on all the cathedral building sites, and after the Strike, when it goes underground.

The language of the birds functions through spontaneity and direct comprehension. A classic example, though late – probably 17th century – can be found in the names of old inns on old roads in France. There are many roadside inns bearing signs « au lion d’or » (at the golden lion), or « au cochon d’or »(at the golden pig).

What does the image mean? Nothing in particular; just a golden lion, often badly drawn, or a golden pig. Why then give such a seemingly stupid name to an inn? Because once "au lit on dort " (in bed one sleeps), or at the place where the coach stops (au coche) "on dort" (one sleeps). Coche was the name in old French for pig.

We find ourselves in the play on words which characterises this "language of the birds". Of course the people of this time did not just focus on such foolishness. Their jargon, as sons of Mother Goose*, subjects of the Queen Pédauque*, as men "pattés*" was that of baby geese (oisons) and not birds (oiseaux). We are in the tradition of "Maitre Jacque's children." For these magicians, as for certain Sufis of today, what counted above all was the creation of that magic instant of suspended time, this astonishment by which we are all connected with the divine. Their word plays must literally "take your breath away". The cagots of Southwestern France bore the last vestiges of this culture and wore, until around 1730, a goose's footprint in red cloth sewn on the left shoulder.

The language of goslings dating from the first period is perfectly direct, meant to be taken literally, at the instant.

At the Romanesque-Byzantine abbey built by Eléonore d’Aquitaine at Souillac (department of Lot), the capital of the 8th ambulatory pillar depicts doves putting their beaks in an owl's ear. This is Athena's owl of course, and represents access to knowledge. At Talmont in the Charente, it is a heron which relates to the owl. >

During one of my visits to Souillac I calmly pursued my labyrinth while paying special attention to the different images sculpted on the capitals in the choir. Coming to the 8th pillar and not understanding the image, I put my back against it and closed my eyes, creating as much stillness as I could, and waited. I was not disappointed. After some minutes of waiting and meditative idling, my ears were literally ripped apart by a terrible noise. Emerging from my torpor with a powerful shock and opening my eyes, I found that I was alone except for a tourist who was standing at the entrance in the process of putting a postcard in an envelope!!!

It was this infinitesimal sound which had, from sixty meters away, literally blown my head away. Since it was the third time that I had heard a sound of this type, I immediately understood that this was the sound's second harmonic, audible only from that specific spot. That is why the birds unstop the owl's ears and offer you access to what the ancients called the "third ear".

That is the language of the birds. Expression is direct: you are told to stand up against the pillar in order to have your subtle ear unblocked. If you try and fix on a "symbol" which explains this image you risk getting caught up in verbiage and entirely missing the event itself, and it is only this experience that interested the ancients.

Many are the images of this sort, and many are the astonishing experiences at our disposal if we manage to not analyse what we see; but just experiment. All European Romanesque churches and chapels are loaded with these images. It is up to you to see them and let them live within you. Back against the pillar, let yourself be "bewitched": that is goth* art.

Thus we see this language of the goslings already expressed on two levels: a game of words and images, a game of image and experimentation.

When the engraver Nicolas Conver places three dots on the breast of arcane XV, The Devil, one must read his message as simply as possible: Freemasonry is a Devil. That's all! All further explanation is superfluous.

After the Templars' extermination and the arrival of the Inquisition, the social life of Europe slipped back into the repression of the old sciences. Tens of thousands of fires were lit. Only certain professions retained their traditions over the centuries: doctors, apothecaries, builders and a few others. The language of the goslings, flown to other skies since March 19, 1314, becomes the language of the birds and goes underground to become the language of initiates. Its word plays become increasingly savant, even employing Greek.

As for the alchemists' image games, some are still understandable, but many must be approached with considerable erudition.

From time to time we meet individuals whose freshness and spontaneity of language create, like a blow to the plexus, that moment of astonishment. Each of them is, at that instant at least, The Fool who reactivates the language of the birds.

Jean-Claude Flornoy

January 6, 2004 at Sainte-Suzanne

art goth* : the least bad definition seems to stem from the Greek origin of the word goth: art of light, art of spirit
My Mother Goose*: traditional collection of oral teachings, later re-worked by Perrault.
Queen Pédauque* : legendary queen of the Romanesque people
pattés* : having the goose footprint in red cloth sewn on the left shoulder, as the Jews wore the yellow star

devin wrote: ↑02 Jul 2019, 06:44 What an interesting thread!

qndynes wrote:not just the logical human 1+1=2 POV

It has been said that, aside from being a sort of cloaking device, the language of the birds/green language in alchemical texts serves also to break down overly rational methods of thinking within the mind of the aspirant. In this sense, exposure to the language of the birds acts as a kind of ripening process for the of grasping higher truths, serving the same function as those little zen riddles, I suppose.

If you think about it, all experience mystical (from psychics to cartomancy to ufos) are pretty offensive to Aristotelian logic and the concept of binary oppositions (something is either A or not A) in particular. They're offensive to binary oppositions because they blur boundaries - dead/alive, imagined/real, internal/external, asleep/awake, etc.

Yes, this is what I was getting at.

And is not the ultimate goal of alchemy the uniting of opposites?

I don't know if that gets us any further down the road, but the above has always struck me as somehow important (even if I'm not sure why or how).

qndynes wrote:a perspectivist approach to understanding and communicating with the world. What, to me, the language of the birds embodies in its multifaceted understanding is exactly that. A language that is understood in interdisciplinary ways. From different perspectives, not just the logical human 1+1=2 POV. Meaning that the language of the birds is an unfolding, where meaning is created through context(landscape, experience, moment) continually.

When talking about culture and religion, Vine Deloria, the late anthropologist and North American Indian, drew a distinction between what he called spatial and temporal perspectives. I'm thinking along these spatial and temporal perspectives but also from the angle of personhood. This is me thinking with Kohn's How Forests Think: Toward and Anthropology Beyond the Human.In his view, indigenous folk approached the world from a spatial perspective - their culture and practices derived from, and orientated toward dealing with, a particular place. Whereas dominant world cultures are built around a temporal view of the world, focusing on process, evolution and destiny.

In my view, we are creatures located both spatially AND temporally. So I think a rounded position would probably include both perspectives.

One thing I think indigenous thought and the Abrahamic traditions at their best can agree on is a need to respect the world's creatures as fellow beings and individuals. So I'm a little wary of subsuming nature into an abstract meaning making machine. But perhaps I'm misrepresenting or misunderstanding your ideas on animism, qndynes. I'm thinking along the same lines as you, perhaps my wording is insufficient.

Anyway, in the spirit of my last paragraph, I leave it open that when tribal people speak of the language of the birds, they are being very literal, with no further speculation needed. Yes, exactly.

devin wrote: ↑02 Jul 2019, 09:35 @qndynes

You might find this blog interesting: http://aspiringanimist.com/

It's run by an Australian civil servant and chronicles (among other things) his quest to engage with the world animistically (he uses the term relational).

His masters thesis on animism (an interesting read) can be found here:

http://aspiringanimist.com/2018/07/09/i ... -chapters/
http://aspiringanimist.com/2018/07/09/t ... t-version/
http://aspiringanimist.com/2018/07/19/chapter-two/
http://aspiringanimist.com/2018/08/06/c ... ge-system/
http://aspiringanimist.com/2018/08/18/c ... ern-world/

In my experience, he's more than happy to correspond via email.

Peace,
Devin.

devin wrote: ↑30 Jul 2019, 07:09 I'm currently reading Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions and thought this passage was applicable to the current topic:

We also speak of the waayatan - the man of vision who can foretell events which will happen in the future, who has been given the power to see ahead. Things that have come true according to such a man's prediction are called wakinyanpi. This word also means the winged-ones, those who fly through the air, because the power to foretell the future comes from them.

katrinka wrote: ↑30 Jul 2019, 08:25

devin wrote: ↑30 Jul 2019, 07:09 I'm currently reading Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions and thought this passage was applicable to the current topic:

We also speak of the waayatan - the man of vision who can foretell events which will happen in the future, who has been given the power to see ahead. Things that have come true according to such a man's prediction are called wakinyanpi. This word also means the winged-ones, those who fly through the air, because the power to foretell the future comes from them.

(Warning - OT) Ha! That one is my favorite of the Erdos books. John Fire Lame Deer would have been fun to hang out with. "Sitting on Teddy Roosevelt's head." And he was right - that damn statue still isn't finished. Nor will it ever be.

katrinka wrote: ↑31 Jul 2019, 10:30 ... it's still just a face and a hole.

katrinka wrote: ↑31 Jul 2019, 10:30 It's not even pointing the way to the mens' room yet.

Marigold wrote: ↑19 Aug 2019, 14:37 Lucifall : What an absolutely beautiful and extraordinary allegory on the quest for the realisation of Oneness. I am printing out your post to use as a bookmark and will therefore read it often. Love has nothing to do with reason. Oh, how I love this. Nothing to do with reason. That's what I tell people all the time - I tell them to love without reason - but they don't listen. They say that love needs a reason and that they usually expect a return, either directly from the recipient or from the "universe" as they call it - as if love were an exchange of some sort instead of a gift. I often wish to give them a blown up poster of the Ace of Cups to put in their rooms in the hope that this will inspire them.

Lucifall wrote: ↑20 Aug 2019, 06:03
Years i was kind of convinced in the correspondences but now i more and more feel fe the Magician must be on the path from Kether to Chockmah. The way the magician on RWS is drawing the powers from above and pointing these powers downwards this posture fits in this path; not in the path Kether Binah, Magician as starting point. Somehow the fool on the path of Taw does not feel well for me.
Maybe it is time for me to study the TDM more intensively.