Lameness

This symbolism is partly associated with the symbolism for feet and shoes.

Without ‘shoes’ [the body]  the Higher spirit is free of both its body and its soul, it is a pure Spirit.  By acquiring shoes it become grounded – of the Earth and thus no longer able to roam the aether level and be free of bodily problems.

Thus being given shoes symbolically is not a helpful asset and lameness can be simply an extension of this concept – the person has been made lame by having to wear shoes.  The Higher Spirit has acquired a body.

By extension lameness also shows the hobbling effect of intellect.  It is to be found principally in the Tarot cards but was used in Greek myth in relation to the Greek god Haephestus who was both a blacksmith and lame.  

In effect, by being intellectually creative as opposed to imaginatively and artistically creative, Hephaestus symbolised the hobbling effect of intellect on one’s ability to have a spiritual experience.

Below we see two old Tarot cards for the Hermit [then called the Hunchback]– an archetype of intellectual prowess.  In both cases the hermit is hobbled by his intellectual ability.  We also have only the right foot shown in the card on the left, so the symbolism incorporates the right foot and left brain [Brain split]  – intellect as the cause of not being able to ‘fly’.

These two Tarot cards [XI] illustrate the idea of being ‘hobbled’. 
The first card on the right is one of a pack produced in Florence in 1725; a stamp, whose text reads CARTE DI ETRURIA ("Etruria Cards"), is featured on trump number XXX, whence the name Minchiate Etruria now used for this edition.
The other Minchiate deck is a woodblock print coloured by means of stencils, printed in the late 18th century. A cartouche on the 4 of Coins features the text CARTE FINE ALL LEONE ("fine cards by Leone"), so that the conventional name of the deck is now Minchiate al Leone.

Notice also the arrow and the hourglass indicating that ‘flying’ was not allowed and the stag.

A rarer use for lameness is occasionally applied to the Intelligences.  It is an extension of the idea of castration. 

We saw that the Intelligence hierarchy could contain either an Intelligence with its Entity sub-types or an Intelligence with its copies of software.  Once an Intelligence has created sub-types, however, it can no longer produce copies of itself – symbolic ‘children’.  It has been symbolically castrated or ‘hobbled’ – lamed. 

In very very rare cases it may mean feet pointing backwards.

Observations

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