Currently there are many postings of a document by Michael Poe describing
an Italian archeological description of images from a Serapian temple in Italy
now under water. The images corresponds exactly to modern trumps, with Veiled
Isis taking the position for the Popess or High Priestess, etc. I have been
unable to contact Poe, so I contacted the Italian archeological museum in
charge of the sunken Temple of Serapis at Pozzuoli and asked for any
information, as this is the only Serapian temple in Italy I know that is under
water. As of this writing, I have no response. But if Poe's information is
correct, we would have an excellent possible source for the earliest Italian
Tarocchi images, devoid of Egyptian dress.
by Lewis Keizer, Ph.D.
The Michael Poe document is at: http://www.oakgrove.org/GreenPages/bos/2034.txt
Unfortunately,
though Michael Poe has some very fecund ideas, the documentation leaves much
to be desired. For example he writes:
"Bernard
Bromage, in his book, which I can't recall the exact title of (it
was years
ago), but is something like The Secret Wisdom of the Egyptians (I'll
look it up). Basically the book is fairly uninteresting as it
relates to how ancient Egyptian traditions really worked. But there
was, in one paragraph, something that struck my eye. In discussing,
I believe, the Tarot he says (and despite not remembering the title,
I do remember the sentence) "The Tarot, of course, originated from the Temple of Serapis in Naples,
Italy." "
The
book in question is:
Bernard
Bromage,
The
Occult Arts of Ancient Egypt,
The Aquarian Press, London, 1945.
"Certainly there is good evidence for asserting that the
figures which adorn the twenty-two "Major Arcana" of the Tarot
were first discerned as frescoes painted in the Cave of Serapis near ancient
Naples and were interpreted as forming part of an Ancient Egyptian Book of
Thoth, a compendium in allegorical form of the primordial wisdom of the
Egyptians..." p. 198-199.
"As basis of the entire structure there was an alphabet
in which all the letters represented separate gods. With these god-emblems went
ideas; these, in there turn, having numbers attached to them, these latter being
perfect signs."
Mr. Bromage does not give the sources for this
"good evidence", for his assertation. Michael Poe in turn,
traced an archaeological report on the Temple of Serapis:
"The
French Institute of Archaeology
in Cairo found the report for me and sent me a translation of the
illustrations found on the wall. The report consisted of, among other
things not particularly germane here, of descriptions of the
illustrations, and a statue standing in the entrance. There are 20
illustrations that were on the wall prior to their destruction during
WWII."
He then proceeds to give a description of these images.
Michael J. Hurst has done a thorough demolition job on the
authenticity of the Michael Poe material at:
THE
TAROT TEMPLE OF SERAPIS
And The
French Institute of Archaeology
in Cairo in Online at:
Institut
français d’archéologie orientale du Caire
Bearing the above facts in mind, we can now move on to the IAMBLICHUS
CONNECTION.
RESOURCES
Here is a short section on SERAPIS from: Charles
King, The Gnostics and Their Remains
And a
few pictures of:
THE TEMPLE OF SERAPIS
which
is actually at POZZUOLI ( Puteoli) on the Bay of Naples. You can orientate
yourself with this Italian site:
Charles
King, The Gnostics and Their Remains
THE
WORSHIP OF SERAPIS.
I.
THE FIGURED REPRESENTATIONS OF SERAPIS.
The next great series of monuments to be considered are those emanating
from the worship of Serapis, that mysterious deity, who, under his varying
forms, had, during the second and third centuries
of our era, completely usurped the sovereignty of his brother Jupiter, and
reduced him to the rank of a mere
planetary Genius. Unlike the generality of the deities who figure upon the
Gnostic stones, the Alexandrian Serapis does not belong to the primitive
mythology of Egypt.* His worship may be said to be only coeval with the rise of
Alexandria, into which city it was introduced
from Sinope by the first Ptolemy, in consequence of the command (and
repeated threats, in case of neglect)
of a vision which had appeared to him. After
three years of ineffectual negotiation, Ptolemy
at last obtained the god from Scythotherius, king of Sinope; but when the
citizens still refused to part with
their idol, a report was spread, that it had spontaneously found its way from
the temple down to the Egyptian
ships lying in the harbour.
The prevalent opinion amongst the Greeks was that the figure represented
Jupiter Dis (Aidoneus) and
the one by his side, Proserpine. This latter the envoys were ordered by the same
divine messenger, to leave in its native shrine. Another story, also mentioned
by Tacitus, 2 made the statue to
have been brought from Seleucia by Ptolemy III, but this rested on slighter
authority. It is, however, a curious confirmation of this last tradition that
Serapis is named by Plutarch ("Alexander,") as the chief deity of Babylon
(Seleucia in later times) at the date of the Macedonian Conquest—a proof
that
*
The difference between him and the ancient Theban Serapis (as the Greeks
translated his title "Osor-Api"), shall be pointed out farther on.
2
Who narrates the whole affair at great length—a proof of the influence
of the religion in his day—in his History, iv, 84.
p.161
This brings us to that most
wondrous identification of all, which Hadrian mentions in a letter to his
brother-in-law Servianus, preserved by the historian Vopiscus in his Life of the Tyrant Saturnius. “Those who
worship Serapis are likewise Christians; even those who style themselves the
bishops of Christ are devoted to Serapis. The very Patriarch himself, * when he
comes to Egypt, is forced by some to adore Serapis, by others to worship
Christ. There is but one God for them all, Him do the Christians, Him do the
Jews, Him do the Gentiles, all alike worship.”
Severus Alexander, too, who daily paid his devotions to Christ and
Abraham, did none the less expend large sums in decorating the temples of Serapis
and Isis “with statues, couches, and
all things pertaining to the Mysteries,” ± whilst he left the other gods of
Rome to take care of themselves.
* The Patriarch of Tiberias, head of the Jewish religion, after
the destruction of Jerusalem.
± A very favourite representation of Isis upon our taismans
shows her reclining upon a couch.