{The Mantelpiece (2)}[21st December 1987]

[Redbook4:246-249][19871221:0000b]{The Mantelpiece (2)}[21st December 1987]

19871221

[continued]

The Mantelpiece analysis* does raise problems. I can accept that each Circle of Knights and Queens is basically a whole Circle from and to +C†I~, while at the same time it can be perceived as one or other of the sections, TVIII to TXIV and TXV to TXXI, which form the original posts or pillars of the Mantelpiece. I can also accept T0 as the end, [the whole] King's 'Circle', as I have never been satisfied that a simple repeat of Queen's Circle was likely sufficiently to describe that stage. (I can also speculate and accept that as T0 is the beginning and the end of the Greater Trumps, so kings may represent the beginning as well as the end of the process – just as the Ace can (I understand) out-number or outrank all other Number and Court Cards,** and as the Joker (T0 translated for the game card sector) can pop up anywhere at any value.***

But Knaves ['Circle']**** is difficult. Try as I may, I cannot exchange TII and TV with TIII and TIV, even if I leave all Archetypes, Attributes and Qualities unchanged: despite the Eagles on TIII and TIV (I debated this in my mind some years ago), despite the original identification of xS with the Pythoness of Delphi on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, despite the unnerving tendency of a book called “The Empress of Cambridge”# to stop being about xP and and end up about xS#* – I cannot see how the Priests can be with A~ (Separation), and the Emperors with +C†I~ (Union).

The latter is easier to take than the former; there are reasons to reverse them, but the reasons for leaving them as they are seem, now as then, to far outweigh the reasons for exchange. Transformation (and Prophecy) are essentially Priestly roles; Imperial power is above all a matter of territory (whereas Kingship is first and foremost a matter of people – and thus Royal rather than Imperial).

*ref. [[Redbook4:241-244][19871219:1055h]{The Mantelpiece (1)}[19th December 1987],] 241.

**in some games – [W] confirms this.

***in a few games.

****[See next entry, first sentence.]

#[originally; Now '[2]' – Book II in the series 0, I, II,.... <930630>

#*(but this may be due to the writer's station at the time of writing) (See III) <871221>

(Despite also my recollected hesitation over xS's self-description as '...High Priestess... of the Most High' ([in] [2]).)

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