Contents of Sola-Busca Tarot

The most fascinating aspect of the Sola-Busca Tarot  is its content.

The Trumps depict Kings and heroes of Greco-Roman Antiquities and of Biblical history. Numeral cards and figures have fantastic scenes mixed with alchemical allegories and representations of daily life.

Even the symbols are modified: Discs for the Coins, Club for Wands; Amphorae for Cups; Swords remain Swords.

In a book titled Ancient enlightened Tarot. Alchemy in Sola-Busca Tarot (“Antichi Tarocchi illuminati. L’alchimia nei Tarocchi Sola-Busca”, Turin, 1995, with prefaction by Giordano Berti), the scholar Sofia Di Vincenzo proved the 78 cards of the Sola-Busca Tarot relate to the alchemical tought of the Renaissance.

ANTICHI TAROCCHI ILLUMINATI
Introduction by Giordano Berti
Text by Sofia Di Vincenzo
Appendix by Marisa Chiesa

Unfortunately, the arguments expressed by Sofia Di Vincenzo were not based on quotations from alchemical texts or images; for this reason, his research has gone almost unnoticed.

Just a few years after the death of Di Vincenzo, Giordano Berti published an article on Journal of Mysteries (“Il Giornale dei Misteri” 2001) where he showed the similarity between some images of the Sola-Busca and alchemical iconography.

So, you can clearly recognize some parts of the “Great Work”: Nigredo, Putrefactio, Solutio, Rubedo, Albedo, etc.

Is under preparation a study by Giordano Berti on alchemical meanings of Sola-Busca cards, with precise references to the art and esoteric literature.

Concerning this topic, go to page: SOLA-BUSCA & ALCHEMY.

Starting from a particular figure, 10 of Amphorae, you can assume a relationship between the SOLA-BUSCA TAROT AND THE KABBALAH. 

See the head of Adam Kadmon, the ancestral model from which, according to the medieval Kabbala, originated the terrestrial humanity. The ten sephiroth that shine in the head of Adam Kadmon may be arranged according to different geometries, not necessarily that become common since the 14th century.

In fact the sephiroth was arranged by medieval kabbalists following orders different from this, one of which is expressed on 10 of Amphorae, where emerges the ideal portrait of an ancient wise man of the Near East.

OTHER INFORMATION

giordano.berti@gmail.com