Showing posts with label Justice (Tarot). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Justice (Tarot). Show all posts

Sunday, November 10, 2019

The emperor and the broken chain

Wirth's version of the Emperor
I happened to see on TV a bit of a historical drama about the court of the Yongzheng Emperor (Qing dynasty). The Khan of Khans had visited the emperor and presented the court with a circular chain carved from a single piece of jade, challenging anyone to unlink its links. Finally a young girl solved the puzzle in the spirit of Alexander cutting the Gordian knot, by dashing the chain to the floor and shattering it.

About an hour later I read this in Oswald Wirth’s Tarot:
As sanction to the close links which bind [arcana] 4 to 8, a sign common to both decorates the Emperor and Justice: it is the necklace in the form of a plait, the emblem of the simple co-ordination of vital fibres which are linked by a cord which is stronger than a chain whose links are liable to break.
I should note that the Qing emperor, like all Chinese men of that period, wore a long plait, or queue.
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