JM DoW: Sola Busca again!

[Joan Marie]

Without apology, I am retuning to the deck I used just the week before last, the Sola Busca because I need some of that quirky weird energy this week.

And we start with Lentulo, tugging his long white beard while entranced with a flame.

This card is about (according to the guide) rituals and ceremony and adhering to them.

As I have stated before though, this deck is shrouded in mystery and no one really knows knows, what any of the cards mean.

I suspect this beard tugging business has some significance but since i don't have a beard (yet) it's hard for me to guess what this gesture could signify.

if anyone out there has a long white beard, maybe you could tell me what mood strikes you to make you tug at it.

Ah! I just found an entry about this card in the big book of Sola Busca, Game of Saturn.

..so it's 5 minutes later now and I am not sure if I can/should share with you what I just read.

Well, let's just see if anyone is reading these posts, shall we?

The way the man is dressed is a clear indication of the festival of Saturnalia, so it's party time.
The beard tugging does have significance (I knew it!!) and it refers to..another common type of, ahem..tugging.

Let me just say this card has a strong sexual component. A sexual component that is closely tied to ceremony, ritual and partying with wild abandon.

Or as some of us call it, Monday.

[Rachelcat]

Oh, we're reading!

Interesting that they had specific outfits for Saturnalia, and we know about it! (Note I'm quickly changing the subject . . .)

[Rekaj]

Yes it's hard to beard tug being a woman not yet into the flush of her own mustache. But not so hard to let the metaphor work its charm. Didn't realise the Sola Busca was so quirky. I hopped on here because I read the latest newsletter and liked seeing the pic of Joan - sometimes it's nice to see a face behind the postings, especially as you do so much for this group - which I often try to avoid because it's too tempting to want to purchase new decks!

[Joan Marie]

sometimes it's nice to see a face behind the postings, especially as you do so much for this group -

Thank you so much!

[Joan Marie]

I took this photo of today's card, the King of Discs, sitting atop my book, The Game of Saturn, a book that attempts the herculean task of understanding, something, anything, about this deck.

It makes the point that after the grotesqueries and violence of the Trumps, the Court cards are deceptively sedate.

This king, surrounded with symbols of peace, seems to be sending a message about keeping cool, acting with restraint to hold onto power.

A little deeper digging though shows that Filipo (this king) was the father of Alexander the Great, or maybe not since he was likely a cuckold to a literal snake that appeared to his wife in a dream and impregnated her. That's what she said. Literally, that was her story.

I guess we'll never know!

Looking into this book, which I read cover-to-cover a couple of years ago, I feel like I'd like to read it again and this time maybe report on it, play-by-play somewhere here on the forum.

This is exactly one of the things I love so much about the Tarot. You dig into a deck like this and it just takes you on this wild ride through history and the occult and politics, religion, and power family intrigue, etc. It's just mind blowing and fun.

[KoyDeli]

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While 'beard-pulling' was, I as I remember pointing out to Peter Adams several years ago on another forum, sometimes a symbol of masturbation, there are other possibilities.

Here is an 11th-century marble relief that was part of a lectern in the Cathedral of St Fosca on the island of Torcello in Venice; on the left of Kairos [the figure standing on winged globes - an allegorical figure of the 'opportune moment'] is a young man who has grasped him by his forelock, on the right an old man, pulling his beard, has missed him, the sorrowful woman with her head in her hand is Metanoia -- afterthought, or regret that follows in the wake of Kairos.

[KoyDeli]

A later type of this figure was Occassio, often confused with Fortuna.

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Quote
"Who are you? - I am the moment of seized opportunity that governs all. - Why do you stand on points? - I am always whirling about. - Why do you have winged sandals on your feet? - The fickle breeze bears me in all directions. - Tell us, what is the reason for the sharp razor in your right hand? - This sign indicates that I am keener than any cutting edge. - Why is there a lock of hair on your brow? - So that I may be seized as I run towards you. - But come, tell us now, why ever is the back of your head bald? - So that if any person once lets me depart on my winged feet, I may not thereafter be caught by having my hair seized. It was for your sake, stranger, that the craftsman produced me with such art, and, so that I should warn all, it is an open portico that holds me."

{Emblemata, Alciato}

[KoyDeli]

The hat of Venturio maybe seen as akin to the bald head and long forward forelock of Kairos/Occassio; and we have the winged boots too:

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[KoyDeli]

Venturio means 'lucky', 'good luck' and is a form of Venturo 'forthcoming, next, the time to come'. It numeration too might link it with other patterns in which 'X' is the number of the Wheel of Fortune.

Kairos is not just 'this moment' but 'the right moment', the opportune moment, the pregnant moment - the peak moment of time to grasp, to act - the time to sow and the time to reap. It is not only knowing the right thing to say or do, but recognizing the right time to say it or to act.

The expression to 'take time by the forelock' is rooted in the language of the birds - in the wordplay between the greek word for 'time' 'kairos' and for hair 'kar' - that the idiomatic expression is also sometimes expressed as to 'take fortune by the forelock' relates to the common conflation of the opportune moment with fortune and the conflation of such with occassio, and in the similar emblematic representation of the two.

Hair and beard-pullers lead us to other possible Kairotic elements in the SB, to the moment seized, and the moment missed and passed:

[KoyDeli]

The way the man is dressed is a clear indication of the festival of Saturnalia...,

I presume you get this idea from Peter Adam's Game of Saturn.

It's a good idea I think to check Adam's description of the cards against the card itself. In several cases he appears to describe something as being in the cards, which as far as I can see is not actually there. A case in point here, he describes the figure as wearing a Phrygian cap - the figure it seems to me is clearly not wearing a Phrygian cap. As far as I can see it is a simple band. I have posted his head from one of the existing black and white versions in the post above, it is just his hair in the front and behind the band/ribbon; that has been coloured white in the painted version.

[Joan Marie]

Thank you KoyDeli for all this wonderful information.

I really appreciate it also for the fact that yesterday was a very very weird day for me and I wasn't able to get to my reading so I appreciate you making my wednesday entries!!!

So, what does the enigmatic Sola Busca have in store for me today?

Ace of Clubs

Two chubby cherubs raising a cudgel over an empty suit of armour.


I think this card speaks of an elevation of spirit. i can say already that is the case. Yesterday was a rough day for me but today already seems much better.

I really wonder what the "M" and "S" are about.

I know there is more here but I'm just going with my gut and saying that the message is today will be a better day.

[Joan Marie]

The way the man is dressed is a clear indication of the festival of Saturnalia...,

I presume you get this idea from Peter Adam's Game of Saturn.

It's a good idea I think to check Adam's description of the cards against the card itself. In several cases he appears to describe something as being in the cards, which as far as I can see is not actually there. A case in point here, he describes the figure as wearing a Phrygian cap - the figure it seems to me is clearly not wearing a Phrygian cap. As far as I can see it is a simple band. I have posted his head from one of the existing black and white versions in the post above, it is just his hair in the front and behind the band/ribbon; that has been coloured white in the painted version.

You are correct, I got this from the Game of Saturn.

What he says about the hat is this:

The strange arrangement of the head covering is suggestive of an ancient cap known as a pileus rather than hair.

He goes on to say that the pileus was also known as a "cap of Liberty which servants were not normally permitted to wear except during the festival of Saturnalia.

This of course, along with your comment, sent me googling and I found this:

From Phrygian to liberty cap
In late Republican Rome, a soft felt cap called the pileus served as a symbol of freemen (i.e. non-slaves), and was symbolically given to slaves upon manumission, thereby granting them not only their personal liberty, but also libertas— freedom as citizens, with the right to vote (if male). Following the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, Brutus and his co-conspirators instrumentalized this symbolism of the pileus to signify the end of Caesar's dictatorship and a return to the (Roman) republican system.[5]

These Roman associations of the pileus with liberty and republicanism were carried forward to the 18th-century, when the pileus was confused with the Phrygian cap, with the Phrygian cap then becoming a symbol of those values.[6]

hmmm.

The Pileus is described as a brimless felt hat. The greek version is a little pointy at the top but the Roman version was rounded and more fitted to the head.

I agree that it questionable if we are looking at a thin cap or actual hair on the head of Lentulo in this card.

But here is an interesting detail:
The Pileus, when it was presented, was placed on the freshly shaven head of the freed slave. This guy, if he is wearing a Pileus, it seems to be on top of a head of hair, which would also indicate Saturnalia time because if he were wearing it otherwise, his head would be shaved.

In the black and white version you posted it does look like hair for sure. but in the color version (this still is from the Mayer edition which is said to be very true to the originals color-wise, it's questionable.

.


In any case, I learn new things every day with this deck. That was fun to look into!

[KoyDeli]

Ah yes, a pilleus - I misremembered - I was thinking 'cap of liberty' and my mind went to Phygian cap rather than Pileus - I don't think it a Pilleus either. The uncoloured version it is clearer, but if the colourist wanted to intentionally change it to make it look like a pilleus, he could have made a little distinction between the cap and his hair and beard at least. Adams had reference to the uncoloured version, he uses it as better highlighting the serpent-headed like knot of his belt.

re: An association with Saturnalia, as I pointed out to Peter Adams:

"Saturnalia (coinciding with the winter solstice, the rebirth of the sun), Lentulo XVIII is an anagram of Vel Initio Lvx, or the beginning of the light."

{For the anagram, you use the letters of the number of the trump, XVIII, along with those of his name.]

The figure of Lentulo to me, looks more solemn than a party-goer!? Thereagain, some of the associated ceremonies were pretty grim.

Here is a Roman Mosaic of Odyseus wearing a pilleus, the cap is clearly distinguishable from his hair, which is more than you can say for our Lentulo:

[KoyDeli]

When I had discussions with him around August 2016, I think the book was in process to be published? [If memory serves me right, it was forthcoming in winter of 2016, but came out in early 2017?] - He had put up excerpts of a couple of chapters online. I have not read the book, only the pre-publication excerpts of those chapters. I have listened to his online interviews and had discussions with him shortly before the publication of his book.

At that time he wrote in response to me that:

"There are many puzzles that remain unexplained & others that have not even been identified - holding the beard in that curious way being just one of them. You mention various contexts - what are your references?.... "Overall the comments re underlying sexuality / auto-sexuality are, I believe, correct so your beard observation is on the money."

Which suggested to me that at that time he did not have an explanation for the pulling of the beard - but from what you have quoted there it is in the book, so I misunderstood him or he was joshing me.

The euphemism to me was obvious [as I wrote to him: "A beard as a symbol of manhood, pulling upon which was a euphemism for the obvious. It was also, however, a symbol of grieving for the dead, also of destruction through war, so there are other associations other than the common euphemism..."], so may he had already included its euphemistic meaning in the text, though it wasn't mentioned in the pre-publication excerpt.

The beard as a symbol of 'manhood' (as distinguishing between the sexes, rather than genitalia) can be found in Alcuin and early church fathers. For more on 'beard-pulling' and its euphemistic meaning, see for example "Sexuality in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times: New Approaches to a Fundamental Cultural-Historical and Literary-Anthropological Theme" by Albrecht Classen.

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[Joan Marie]

Page of Wands

A nice sedate image (rare in this deck) for my Friday.

This Page/Knave seems to be striking out on his own, putting his best foot forward. He seems unsure but on his way despite.

Totally relate.

It seems like everything I'm working on is just a gamble, just a guess if it will work at all. But here I go all the time anyway.
It's a weird idea that commitments can make you free. But I think it's true. Without promises and commitments I'm just floating around aimless. All this uncertainty and expectation gives a shape to the freedom I seek.

I still have trouble reconciling it all the time. Seems it would be so easy to walk away. But then what?

[Joan Marie]

What I always find funny about this card is how casual the guy seems despite the gruesome remains of his enemy leaking at his feet while he reads the newspaper scroll or whatever that is.

This is card 13 of the majors so in any remotely normal deck, this would be the Death card. But Sola Busca don't play that. This is Cato and the message is one of violence.
Or maybe just a sort of grim boredom with the general evil atmosphere. I can relate to that.

I seriously can't read the news today, or discuss it because I get wound up followed by a bit of depression at the sheer stupidity of it all.

I mean how many bleeding severed heads can a person honestly react to in a single day?

I'm sure I could get some more insight if I looked into the big Game of Saturn book but I think I'll skip that today and just go with my gut here.

Stay busy.

[Joan Marie]

last day with this deck for a while.

I really look forward to having time to pick up the book again.

So this is another relatively sedate card (I mean if you haven't seen this whole deck, there are some pretty crazy cards in it)

Here we have the 2 of coins.
So many little strings floating about it reminds me of connections and ties.

It's a good thing to remember that connections are really always mutual. Sometimes a person is made to feel dependent or beholding somehow. Or on the other side, sometimes one feels put-upon or used or as if they have "the upper hand". But I don't think that's true. And it's important to know and to remember that if we are going to manage our relationships effectively, fairly for everyone involved.

The two images represented here are the classic, Beauty and Wealth. Both are power, equally rare.