Xul Solar: esoteric paintings

Tarot, Astrology, esoterism and several symbolisms in paintings inspired by different places and Ages.

Oscar Agustín Alejandro Schulz Solari, better known as Xul Solar (1887-1963, Sagittarius) was an Argentinian artist who displayed esoteric keys in his artworks. Mainly related to a kind of avant-gard expressionism and surrealism, he always worked in small formats, mostly in watercolour, tempera and just a few oils. His creatures are eclectic and anthropomorphic figures, some of them inspired by Egyptian and Precolombine cultures and, in some cases, seem to be portraits of people he knew in his life.

Odd zodiacal signs (1953)

Even zodiacal signs (1953)

Planets and rulers (1955)

Planetary masks (1953)

Mars and Saturn (1953)

Sagittaria portrait (1951)

Xul considered himself as the "…creationist of twelve pictorial techniques, some of a surrealistic kind and others bringing to canvas the sensorial world, emotional, causing in who hears a musical audition".

In Paris, he met the occultist Alesteir Crowley who tought him a method to achieve I Ching visions. Xul was also an astrologer and occultist, a lover of esoterism, and combined Astrology and Kabbalah in his artworks, renewed Tarot cards and even imagined a theatre for adults with characters such as Taurus, Scorpio and Death.

He drew a Tarot deck called Tarot with astrological correspondences. And he introduced the first twelve cards in the same order he displayed the signs in his Zodiac painting (1953). The representation starts in Gemini, follows in Taurus, then Aries, Pisces and so on until ending in Cancer, in a clockwise direction (which is the orientation of the Sun's translation across its orbit, or the esoteric point of view in Astrology).

Zodiac (1953)

Zodiac has not a circular shape but is conceived according to a horizontal axis of two levels. In the superior one, the odd signs of Air and Fire (usually represented by tall and thin figures). In the inferior level, the even signs of Earth and Water (usually represented by small and low figures). About the colors, he assigned blue to Air, yellow to Earth, red to Fire and green to Water.

Based on Zodiac painting, Xul introduced a Tarot deck of 2" x 4" cards painted with tempera on cardboards. The deck is composed by two series of 12 cards each, with the first one representing zodiacal signs, and the second one evoking the Marseille Tarot's medieval style, although leaving aside some of the classic characters. That's why we won't find The Fool, The Priestess, The Empress, Death, Temperance, The Devil, The Star or The World.

First series

• 1^st row: Scorpio - Aquarius - Virgo - Gemini.
• 2^nd row: Capricorn - Aries - Pisces - Sagittarius.
• 3^rd row: Libra - Taurus - Cancer - Leo.

Second series

• 1^st row: The Tower VII - The Chariot III - Pope V - The Lovers I.
• 2^nd row: The Hermit X - Strength (VIII) - Moon IV - Sun XI.
• 3^rd row: The Wheel of Fortune VI - The Magician II - The Emperor IX - Judgement (alluding to Angel - Pisces - XII).

Both series are related to each other since the cards hold inside character letters, planets and numbers associated to the zodiacal signs considered in different orientations. We can see several references in the artist's works converging around the astrological distribution of signs. For example, the classic differentiation of positive signs (male, even) and negative signs (female, odd), confluences after folding the wholeness, the opposites complementing each other, combinations of light and darkness, astrological mystic rectangles, and also the different perceptions we may achieve if changing our spatial location.

The following two graphs show signs associated to letters of the Spanish alphabet, in the two orientations to walk across the Zodiac. The artist dismissed vowels, there's no Air!, and the unfolding (starting) point is not represented. Among several things, it means his system provides a compact and strict ordering which doesn't allow variances for a reading.

On the left: the Spanish alphabet goes counter-clockwise and starts in Aries. On the right: the Zodiac goes clockwise and starts in Gemini.

In the search for equivalences, then we may gather signs. For example, letters h (t) gather Libra and Sagittarius, and the couple n (c) gathers Aries and Gemini. These four signs are part of a mystic rectangle, and there are three of them in each mandala.

odd signs

In this graph, the external circle of signs is that of Xul's Zodiac painting (here XS), the solar one, the luminary making darkness disappear. And a way to represent it is by placing signs of the Southern Hemisphere of the artist's work upon the Northern Hemisphere of our geocentric Western charts. So, Gemini is combined with Libra. And mystic patterns gather the odd signs.

even signs

This graph inverts the previous one according to esoteric principles (or the previous one invertes this one since we have to take into account there's no South or North orientation, they're just conventions to share a common spatial reference). We gather here negative signs, with Taurus and Scorpio converging in both orientations. Previously, Leo and Aquarius did it. It means that, in XS's distribution, the fixated signs are very important.

If you're interested in these symbols and associations, you may consider the signs of those mystic rectangles and associate them either to those of the rulerships mentioned in Esoteric Astrology by A. Bailey (esoteric and hierarchic ones) .

I don't know the references XS used for his designs or if he had any, either. But those associations to be desciphered by following the aspect relations in mystic rectangles take to those rulerships. (About them, Bailey mentioned in some of the books that she/he took part in The Secret Doctrine by H.P.B).

If you're particularly interested in XS's cards, the symbols also refer to different orientations, rulerships, inversions of perspective and letter characters confluences. For example, an opposite relation associates IX and V cards. The Pope figure (V) holds a crown and is associated to Leo (f letter in even signs), whereas in card IX (recalling The Emperor of the Egyptian deck), the fingers are turned horizontally. The planet (Pluto) and number 9 are associated to Sagittarius (counter-clockwise orientation, exaltation), and Jupiter (ruler) is the esoteric ruler of Aquarius (Leo’s opposite sign) and hierarchical of Virgo (S letter in the same orientation).

card V (2^nd series)

card IX (2^nd series)

Letter characters games emphazise a system that is strict and eclectic, at the same time. For example, the figure in arcane X reminds of the classic representation of Capricorn, the tenth sign in the counter-clockwise orientation. Letter k associates the card to Sagittarius, and the card also displays the astrological symbol of planet Earth (esoteric ruler of the archer). The inverted symbol is Venus, the esoteric ruler of the opposite sign (Gemini), which is represented in the arcane, too. At the same time, Venus (Libra's astral ruler) is included in Sagittarius card (number 7 in the clockwise orientation) although indirectly. This card includes the Spanish letter elle, although inversed, so it talks about changing the perspective in the orientation (Libra = Sagittarius in the ordering of rectangles for even signs).

card X (2^nd series)

card VII (1^st series)

Have you found more strange relations? There're many others! Personally, I've never met someone using Tarot with astrological correspondences for an oracular reading. It's quite complicated! But the figures and designs lead to meditate on basic and fascinating esoteric subjects to include in any divinatory practice.

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Sources: Xul Solar, Instituto de Estudios Históricos San Fernando Buena Vista (removed page), Documents.