Tchalai Unger Notes

Tchalai Unger
Dit is een (deel van de ) vertaling van "The Tarot, Why, How, Where" van Tchalai Unger.
Deze auteur is één van de weinigen die de tarot op traditionele wijze interpreert. Zij schijnt dezelfde leraar gehad te hebben als Jodorowski, er wordt zelfs beweerd dat zij de leraar was van Jodorowski. Ook vertoont haar benadering wel erg veel overeenkomsten met die van Camoin. Er is weinig bekend van deze leraar. Op internet is (bijna) niets te vinden over haar. Deze leraar heeft te weinig aandacht gekregen, vandaar deze "ode".

To look , and to SEE

Tarot is there to be seen, to be contemplated, to be lived, to be experienced. First with the eye (all characters in tarot have their ears covered, except the angel (?) in XX, who has ears-wings; but all of them have eyes -even the blind ones...).

Try to perceive tarot just as it is, not as you think it is. Not as you have been told it is, nor how you would like for it to be. Don't put any name to arcane XIII nor any number to Le Mat, don't call him "the fool", call Temperance by its name, because it isn't the Temperance; and LA ROVE DE FORTUNE (the same as an spare tire) is not LA ROVE DE LA FORTUNE (nor the wheel of glory). Read! Later on you will un-read, and the delirium will come.

Take into account all the details. Example: the cap, or chapeau, of the Reyne de Coupe carries a crown adorned with half of a red circle that signals the cap's middle point, but not the crown's middle point. This half circle seem to determine a luminous zone above the crown's yellow band. This band shows six dots, and to the left, a rhomboid. The rhomboid remind us the heraldic (its represents a furniture in a shield, or the iron of a spear). On her skirt she has some sort of V (on the red zone) and a blue sign, identical to the one we find in Le Mat's tights, in the shape of a flame (red zone of the skirt).

Later on, we will put together all these details to create the card's "base model" or "energetic imprint". This concept will be fundamental in our work.

In the meantime, register all this. Register the card with your eyes closed. Play with it the game of Kim. (Rudyard Kipling said that this game served to train secret agents. The person looked at 10 or 20 objects gathered around a room, and then, he had to recall their exact position while having his eyes closed)

Use the "crossed type" procedure. Hunt one single detail in all the cards. Example: what is green? and then another one. (What is human, mineral, vegetable?) There will never be a mistake in the drawings. That is one of the principles in our work. Look at each thing at the right place where it is. If this disturb your pre-conceived ideas (the Hermit is a wise man who search for a way in the obscurity), change your ideas, because tarot won't change. (L'Hermite is a pensive man holding a deaf lantern, who isn't putting any weight in what is not a staff; and even so, look closely at his right hand and you will discover that he is detained by an excuse that he creates himself).

Other group of details: examine each character's feet. Where are they? (La Force have them above the ground, and all the horses are gliding, except the Denier's horse). How many of them are shown? How many are symmetrical? (Roy de Baton). Are they complete? (Roy D'Epee). In which position are they? (Go over the Valet D'Epee and Denier and you will notice that isn't possible to determine if their feet and legs are looking forward or backwards). Look at the size of these feet. Look at the color. Look at the relationship between the feet and the ground (are they firmly planted, or not?) What kind of shoes are they wearing? Consider the feet o all the knight, and the moving landscapes in which they are posed. Are these ballerina slippers adequate to step down? (They can't dismount with these shoes). Look at L'Empereur shoes, like in a "starking box" position, ready to jump.

Where is the balance center in the character's bodies? Where does the strength of these bodies reside? Imitate the character's movement. Evaluate it. Sit like La Papesse, L'Imperatrice, La Justice, the Roys... (what does differentiate them?). Feel where is the energy located on these bodies, and how does they move. (Temperance's arms, parabolic movement, or accordion-like movement?). Look at Le Mat's head. It seems like it was put sideways, over a neck-less torso. His left hand seems to be above the right side of his back; and it is holding a staff (which ends on a spoon) that goes across the right side, to the left side. Is it dislocated? Admire Justice's right hand, a masterpiece of balance. Her thumb alone keeps the sword balanced. What would happen if she let her thumb go? How it is called this position in fencing?

Pay special attention to the landscape. It is filled, or not? What kind of vegetation does it shows? (The green cavity in arcane XX, is natural, or man made?). What kind of importance does the vegetation has? (Moist like Le Toille, white, as soon as we go beyond it, like in Le Mat? Absent, like in Le Soleil?) Don't you think that the flesh-colored landscape under the Valet de Denier feet looks like the profile of a lying body?
_________________
"If you cut yourself, bandage the knife."

Portraits of authors:

Tchalaï UNGER. Born in 1934 on the edges of a brook in the West, Tchalaï Unger devoted her life to be lived and she undertook many impassioned activities: violonist at the age of four , music criticique with Parisian Libéré at the age of nineteen, then journalist for many magazines (France-Soir, Paris Match, Coévolution, le Fig Mag, l'Ecran Fantastique, Psychologies and foreign magazines), specialized in interviews with actors (Brando, Delon) “ou de réalisateurs sur tournage: or realizers on turning” (of Spielberg with George Miller, Ridley Scott and in Gus Van Sant), film criticism, scenario reading during several years for a large house of production, etc.

At the same time she studied various psychological schools and philosophical groups, carry out it to receive as a therapeutist with the confluence of the movements Eriksonien and Transpersonnel. She published several works on the Code-Memories.

Introduction to The De-dusting of the Myths, The Marvellous Lovers, The Invisible Prints (M.A. Editions), Prayers Unknown, The Sex of Dreams (Éditions du Prieuré), The True Tarot Gypsy (Librairie de l'Inconnu), etc. She gives seminars for executive officers throughout the world.

She created the Tarot Tzigane (republished at FJP), the Tarot of Chamanes and works with a iconograph on the Answer of the Saints; with an expert futuristic painter, she invented the Oracle of Santa-Fé.

In 1981, her notes The Tarot, Why, How, Where? accompanied the Ancient Tarot of Marseilles (Paul Marteau’s 1930 version), edited for Grimaud, was distributed in more than a million copies throughout the world. She presents an original and particularly innovative approach of the Tarot of Marseilles.

In an extraordinary book, the Theorem of Rodrigue, she explores a natural approach of the 4th sensory dimension. These various activities have everything to do with her essential passion, the Collective Memories.

As a translator, she met high level scientists (Stanislav Grof, Rupert Sheldrake, David Bohm). She has translated, among other publications, La plénitude de l'Univers (Wholeness and the implicate order) by David Bohm (Monaco, Éditions Le Rocher, 1987).

Her last book Secrets of the Gipsies was published by Editions Trajectory in 2002.Source: Biography resulting from the booklet “Les amants merveilleux ou le mythe de la fusion” (Marvellous lovers or the myth of fusion), distributed at the time of the seminars with the same title in 1990, 92, 94, 95.

Become a "Voyeur"

Pay special attention to each character's sexual features, this is, their external, manifest, polarity. (Aren't the devil's attributes too overwhelming? He shows male genitals under her blue underwear, but in the other hand, he has female breast. These tits look like if they were sustained by a corset. Is he trying to be taken for androgynous? Compare his features with the timid sexuality of the two smiling individuals he is dominating. Use this opportunity to pay attention to their root-like feet, and also, to that rope made of flesh that is tying them up, without strangling them... We can't see their hands, therefore they cannot manipulate the situation. Neither can do it Le Pendu, he is also tied by a rope).

If, as it is said, it was a young man (the same one as Saint Anne's Saint John), the one who posed for La Gioconda, have fun looking for the true men, the true women, and the undecided. How many surprises!

Dedicate part of your work to examine/compare the character's eyes, (size, expression, direction of the gaze; who can see and who cannot? Who is blind? There is also a mute and a deaf one in arcane X). Also the hands (which finger is L'Hermite missing?). Look for each finger attributes and symbolism, from the thumb, which by opposing the other fingers reinforces them, to the "auricular", the fairies' finger. The only one thin enough to fit inside the ear's cavity, isolating it from the external world; so you can hear the intense noise of your inner voice, your knowing-all intuition.

Keep an eye on the left hand of all kings and queens. They give their secrets away; some of them are minuscule (Roy de Denier), others, extremely huge (Reyne de Denier), other one are like hooks, like animal -or demonic?- hands (Roy D'epee, Reyne de Coupe).

Again, pay attention to the objects; in L'Imperatrice's scepter (similar to L'Empereur, but kind of reversed). Le Pendu's rope (turn the card upside down: he floats, sustained to a golden rectangle by a hand-shaped cord; he cannot get asphyxiated, his neck is too strong. He is tied by the heel, a critical point where energy emerges. You will also remember Achilles' death). Le Bateleur's table (follow the perspective and complete the unseen portion of it). Arcane XIII's scythe, ( its square-shaped handle isn't practical for gardening. The proverb says "rounded like a shovel's handle." Look at the only way the blade can function: like a broom... "it is a robot that rows", a little kid would say. The most dangerous blade... won't be the one hidden below La Justice's heavy skirt?).

Don't ignore the character's size.

Would be OK if these characters in XV remain little? But Le Papesse fills the entire card. She even surpasses it.

Take a look at the buildings. Measure La Maison Diev, and then, Le Soleil's wall. Compare them with La Lune's two buildings.

Look at the sky. When does it appears in the major arcana? Or more precisely, when does the "cosmic sign" appears? (Arcane XVI), but, wasn't it suggested in the bat-like wings of arcane XV? And in the flesh-colored wings of XIIII? After XVI the "cosmic sign" invades more and more the cards, until it totally occupies the space in XXI.

The colors of what is tangible

Trying to interpret tarot by its color symbolism will conduct us to a dead end, since the fundamental analogies have been truncated by all the ego-oriented interpretations.

Tarot's colors are violent. On the long run, they increasingly act over the body's metabolism.

They conjunct provokes a deep internal re-balancing, but in order to make sense of them, in order of assign a value to them, within our objective study, we can only have one certainty: the tangible world.

Lets look in nature for a few yellow things, and lets try to find their common denominator. Refined gold, some fruits that are ripe (skin, flesh, or both), honey, the sun, all of them are yellow. Refined gold shows the result of man workings. In nature, ripe fruits manifest the work of maturity, honey represents the work of bees, and the sun goes through several layers of gas-like elements to reach us. The common denominator would then be the idea of work, of time and space, of metamorphosis (shape shifting due to the transformation of certain elements), giving as a result something that is mature, this is, something that can be used by men.

Look at the Deniers, the sun, the scepters, the animal (is he hiding another animal?) in arcane XI.

Red evokes fire, and above all, blood. Which ones are blood's qualities? It is fluid, warm, violent, rhythmical, indispensable to life.

All these qualities remain only if blood remains inside the body. A wound shows how blood looses fluidity (gets coagulated), it loses movement, and color (becomes black), and cools off. We find ourselves faced with the notion of "something that is internal and should be kept internal"; something particular to each person, but common to all. Something necessary, and something motor-like.

Take a look at the place red occupies in the character's clothes, specially how does it complements the color blue. Which one overlaps the other one? Which one is below the other? Which place does it occupies in the Baton? What about the Reyne De'Epee's sword?

Intense blue, in Tarot, a little bit lighter than ultramarine blue, but more alive than that dark blue we find in the womb of the tangible world, the color of the abyss: the sea, the sky (all the mobile elements) when we look at them from afar and our sight gets lost in the infinite, as if the color would be revealing to itself.

But if you take a cubic centimeter of water from that dark blue sea you are looking at, you will notice that (contrary to blood, whose smallest particle is red), this little sample of sea has no color at all. This blue is made with an infinite superimposition of transparencies, if you fragment it, it disappears. This blue, so ethereal, is as external to men as blood is internal. We can easily oppose it to red (intimate, warm, pulsating, vicious). Blue movements, if it has movements at all, are subtle and hardly noticeable. Tarot's blue manifests certain impersonality, certain stagnation, certain permanence, and even so, nature gets slowly clearer or darker due to the light, it is never still. Its matter is mellow and subtle at once. For Jungians, this blue would seem more or less analogous to the collective unconscious' characters. Why do we find this blue on the hair, leafs, rays, and clouds of some figures?

Tarot's somber green is the color of vegetation, but not just any vegetation. It isn't the color of parsley, but the somber color of the perennial trees, or of these trees who win the battle for light in the jungle. This manifest an extreme vitality over time (perennial leaves), or space (the jungle). This is the strength of the vegetable fluid -not the one that returns with every Spring, but the one that animates nature irresistibly and without stopping, remaining green through the four seasons. We can, then, establish an analogy between this green an the brute force of nature.

Why do we see this green in the herbs, (and on Le Toile's handsome trees), and also in some sections of the clothes, and the furniture?

To black, in nature, we attribute all what is buried and rich at once, from where we can get light and nourishment: coal, for example, that feeds fire; the tchernoziom, the famous "Russian black soil" which is the most fertile for wheat. Hulla and Al Khemya -the Egyptian soil that gave origin to the world "alchemy"- belongs to the Otchonian world, to what is below the visible reality, the world's womb.

Black is the color that reigns in a place (in a cave, hence its importance in certain iniciatic rites) where light hasn't penetrated and nothing can be seen, we cannot know what is inside, yet. This is the black of Ali Babá's cave when he isn 't carrying a lantern. It is easy to get scared. This isn't the profundity of the external space, like the sky or the sea, who seduces us and have us dreaming. This is the profundity of the unknown, full of promise sif we are brave and active. The profundity that fascinates by generating panic, or, at least, it does provokes a repugnance. Look at XII, XV, XVII.

The snow-like white, specific of some flowers (all of them are in Tarot), seems to have as common denominator the rarity and fragility. Snow, once mixed because we step on it, or because the sun warms it up, melts down, it gets degraded and looses what we like about it. White isn't immaculate (giving time, nothing in nature is). The flower's white petals, once one touches them gets marked and rotten. The whiteness disappears when they get withered. No doubt this is the origin, in our culture, of our fascination about white's virginal purity, rare, shinning, and fragile. But white also remind us the color of common paper, the one that, with an ivory-like tone, was also the paper used when Nicolas Conver draw the Marseille Tarot. White let us with an election: it is the part that remains objectively pure, because these two notions are complementary: virginity is the absence of imprint.

As Tarot's natural background, white presents some enigmas about the left side of Le Papesse 's back, or under the flower on the VI D'Epees; below L'Hermite's left arm, on La Lune's rays, between Temperance's jars, on Le Bateleur's neck, below Le Mat, below the angel in Le Monde, at L'Empereur's feet, below La Maison Diev; and in several parts of the minor arcana.

Finale, we call "flesh" to Tarot's seven color, in reference to the color of flesh in Tarot's country. Often misinterpreted (paled, colorless) it hasn't the vivacity of animated life, nor the wax-like aspect of withered life. Somehow, it gives us the sensation of being inert. It colors most of the faces, hands, some bodies, and also some hair, wings, and objects; like Le Bateleur's table, Le Papesse's book; without forgetting the entire character on arcane XIII, Le Maison Diev , and what VIII holds so gently on her left hand... etc. We will find this color again when we study the horses in the Honors -go, take a look at Cavalier de Baton horse's sublime dress.

An Essential Operation: To Group Details

This operation is essential since it is the one whop will get us closer to tarot's essence. It also constitutes the articulation of all our work.

So far you have recognized and identified many of Tarot's details. This world of shapes, colors, sensations and reactions gets animated with increasing precision. (At the same time, you have been tracing your own self-portrait).

Maybe you believe you already know Tarot by memory. You have slipped into each one of the characters, you have fought against them (La Reyne De Baton's, always nagging! but, how strong one feels when she is with you! just as it is indicated by the arrow she has on the inferior part of her skirt). You have started to live with all these characters. You get identified with one or more of them, and later on you identified with other ones! You have settled some issues with some of them, specially sentimental issues; but even so, you still keep a little bit of tenderness, or a little bit of hostility, towards this or that card. Assume this without anxiety nor excitement. Besides, all these colors are operating an hormonal regulation, strengthening you up. Your love and your dreams are becoming more enjoyable. Your comprehension of human behavior and events is increasing too. Instead of an aggressive reaction, you now offer a smile of complicity and indulgence. You have started feeling that an incredibly complex organization manifest in the universe; and you want to get closer to its coherence. This self-analysis could, and must, continue; but now that you have noted, and compared, a good amount of elements in the cards, the time for synthesizing them has come.

This delicate phase will conform your understanding of Tarot, and by analogy, will have you discovering its underlying structure. After putting all the pieces on the table, we must understand how do they fit together, how do they repeat themselves, how they precede each other, how do they announce each other; and how do they complement each other to create our model of reality.

Your attention will be centered on the words, the shapes, the details.

Giving a Name: Giving Life

Things without a name can exist outside men's perception, it can even been perceived. But without concepts, instrumentality cannot progress. For example, it is the concept of "vision" what have made possible to improve the possibilities of the ocular apparatus, through all the external contraptions (glasses, magnifying tools), or with the adequate exercise.

In the Bible, the Holly One creates by naming. In the same way, suppressing or substituting a person's name is one of magic's basis. Suppressing or substituting a Tarot card's name is like trying to annul, modify or distort an important part of the entire model. All pieces are important. No piece can be substituted.

For example, calling Arcane XIII "Death" represents a careless disrespect toward Tarot; an unforgivable act for someone pretending to approach Tarot with humility. It equals the act of creating something that isn't real. (Arcane XIII has no name, nor a box where to write its name. It shouldn't' be named).

If you entertain the idea of arcane XIII being Death, you would be narrowing your vision, and cutting your wings. That way, you will never get what Transformation is about -the natural elimination process that permits to build up new parts of the self: look at the character's back bone, and you will see roots, a bulb, a four petals flower.

Calling "The Fool" to the card known as Le Mat have us missing a very rich source of information, (count the more frequent letters in all the names, what word do they create?). Besides, this is like freezing the card meaning, suppressing all the depth that our subconscious concede to all homophony games. In fact, this name doesn't act only at a visual level, but also through its sound. Le Mat, from the Arabic "mat", death, is only pronounced in chess when referring to the king, who at that point can't leave his place without being captured. Besides, Le Mat has no number, no place, he is outside of the tangible order of things. And even so, he is leaving. This apparent paradox gets enriched by other possible meanings: le matte is a mix of iron sulphur and copper. A matte (from the Latin mattus) object lacks bright. The mat, a ship's mast, which is perpendicular to the ship's surface, allows the veils to be displayed. Therefore, it allows the ship to advance, and allow the sailors to climb upwards and look at the horizon. For the blacksmith finishing ( rematar) a piece is the final operation that brings cohesion to the entire conjunct by a local fusion. "Rematar" (killing) is like breaking a person (look at Le Mat's body).

La Justice, arcane VIII, is a simple, heavy, rigid figure that fills the entire card. Le Iugement, second to the last card, shows a very complex image, and reunites very different actions. In this card, the cosmic sign is very important. The deserted landscape has some relationship with the six-wings character -three pairs of two- is defined in angel- ology as a seraph, whose main attribute is the purifying fire, since the word comes from the Hebrew "saraph", to burn. (You will find many things if you use a good dictionary).

It seems like if, from La Justice to Le Iugement, we go from a very heavy, almost tribal, image, to an image that is rich in symbols about immanence. Examine this hypothesis, contrast it with the rest of the details: Justice's beret is more developed to the left (hypertrophy of the left hemisphere?). The seraph's halo is announced by La Justice's beret, but it is more balanced.

Shapes and Metamorphosis

We must now focus on working with shapes. For example, the mandorla surrounding the main character in XXI, very similar to the one you may have seen in many cathedrals, has been hinted in previous arcana. What do you think? Would it be in arcana XII, in which the main character is also captive, and he also has one leg crossed behind the other one, just like arcane XXI? But, which leg is it? Would it be in arcane XV, in which two characters with mandrake-like legs are united by a cord that forms... what? But, do you think that there are still more relationships that can be drawn among these three cards? We have already seen how, in arcane XII and also in arcane XV, the characters have no visible hands, and they are tied up. Continue this work by yourself.

Search for the intangible. We have seen how the second law of the Intangible Universe shows a cycle of four elements or periods. You could ask: "why not seven? After all, there are seven colors, seven planets in Judiciary Astrology, seven genies in Egyptian Teogony, seven capital sins, seven sacraments, seven plagues in Egypt, seven arms in Jerusalem's temple chandelier, seven days in a week, seven seals in the Apocalypse, seven musical names, seven doors for a human face, right?" But if you look at all this series, you will notice that, except for the human face, all of them are human-made. It feels as if for human beings this division in seven where somehow natural, or spontaneous. There should be, somewhere, a shape whose name is seven.

We can call this an "energetic imprint", since the word imprint is used by American scientists to define a charge of information, no matter in which matter does it manifest. This way we arrive by other means to the notion of "codification."

On the series, we will see in action the four different materials which are coupes, epees, deniers, and batons. We will see in action number 7's energetic imprint, but also, II to X respective energetic imprints. We will determine will high precision this imprint by comparing its incarnation, its materialization, in the four different materials, since they are the instruments we will rely on in order to evolve.

Looking for "Cuaternidades" (Spanish word to define sets of four elements)

Lets go back to the scheme, to number four's energetic imprint, which manifest itself at the second law of the intangible. How are you going to check its action in the major Arcana? By finding four times four in arcane III, of course! But in a m ore organic way, you will do this by identify groups of cards four by four.

Are we going to start by I? We would have then a first set of four: Le Bateleur, La Papesse, L'imperatrice, L'empereur. Then a second set of four: Le Pape, Lamorevx, Le Chariot, La Justice. So far we can see two failures: it doesn't seems fair to divide the group formed by La Papesse-L'imperatrice-L'empereur-Le Pape. It seems obvious that Le Bateleur can't form a couple with Le Papesse. Th second failure is that the fifth group of four will go beyond XX, leaving XXI floating alone. And where are going to place Le Mat?

This grouping makes no sense. Lets look at a new hypothesis. In order to do that, lets go back at our study of the major arcana, noticing details that so far may have been overlooking. We can see that only two cards have as a particular feature to exceed the dimensions of the card's surface, overlapping the band where the card's number is written: Le Papesse II, and Le Monde XXI. Lets formulate as hypothesis that these two extension of the image's world in men's world (archetypes? what a compromise!) mark the limits, as in the entire route of a race. II would be the starting point, and XXI would be the finishing line... But in a race, the runner exists before the race. We can also say that I shows the unity, but no movements is possible if there is no separation from one of the elements of that unity. Still, by definition the unity marks the whole, it cannot be divided without compromising its essence. Lets look at Le Bateleur, does he confirms this idea?

Le Bateleur indicates a suspended motion, indeed. Therefore, such movements is impossible (a full stop means the end of movement). Also, the position of the character's hand are physically impossible. Check this out by trying to put imitate the position of his hands with yours. Try to grab a wand, and a coin, exactly as he does. The objects will fall down, since the pressure exerted by the hands in that position isn't strong enough. It looks as if he were manipulating these objects, but an objective observation indicates that this is not so. We can then keep the hypothesis that says that movements hasn't started in I. All series starts at II!

This doesn't solves the problem presented by Le Mat. Where to put it? Lets start our examination over again. Lets use details that we haven't considered so far. We know that one card has no name (XIII). Lets compare them. Aha! Done? Have you already noticed that both cards can be superimposed? They have the same attitude.

Well done!

What if, instead of two arcana, we are looking at two aspects or stages of one same operation that we can call, for now, "sweeping" and "departing"? What do you think? We have encountered one of the fundamental aspects of tangible nature: nature tireless destroys so it can create again and improved version of what was destroyed, so it can reach even further. At each given moment we can count the destruction and creation of new cells. Lets keep this hypothesis: we have an arcane with one number and one name (which doesn't implies that Le Mat is still positionless, and XIII nameless). We have now one arcane in two persons, so to speak.

Now, our systems of four by four groups applies wonderfully. We define I as the content of everything that is going to happen, as absolute potential, and has at his disposition cups,coins, swords, wands, and also dice and a yellow bag. The first group of four will be La Papesse, L'Imperatrice, L'Empereur, Le Pape. The second group of four will be Lamorevx, Le Chariot, La Justice, L'Hermite. The third group of four (the one in the middle) will be La Rove De Fortvne, La Force, Le Pendu, the two-person arcane. The fourth group of four will be: Temperance, Le Diable, La Maison Diev, Le'Toille. The fifth group: La Lune, Le Soleil, Le Iugement, Le Monde. The race is over. Lets adopt our hypothesis (until a new piece of information force us to reject them). Notice how this division of the major arcana permits a more fruitful study of Tarot's periodicity: each cycle of four contains its own evolution, and we can compare the first, second, third, and fourth stages.

You just did a research job on tarot's structures that responds to scientific criteria. At the same time, it multiplies the possibilities for relationships, which enrich our understanding of the cards. It won't be necessary to add that you can compare the cards in couples, groups of three, etc. In fact, we must compare each card with the other 77.

The geometrical scheme that I include here (Sorry Paul, I have no scanner. let me see how can I solve this), is intended for you to copy it in a piece of paper, so you can super-impose it to all the arcana. (This is Roberte Laboreau's idea).

You will notice that each image is slightly off-center, avoiding the architectonic ideal. This careful unbalance remind us that life is constantly adjusting its elements. There is no much symmetry in nature. There is still a study we haven't done, regarding the corporal structure of each arcana, minors included. have you done so? Bravo!

Don't forget anything of what you have learned so far, when you attempt to synthesize everything. For example, while looking at XVI remember that gravitation is the principal cause for the stability of a celestial body. This allow us to separate in the card the elements that are under gravity's action (The tower, the vegetation), and what is not. (What isn't affected by gravity floats, don't fall). Since we are doing this, lets compare XVI, XVII, and XVIII. Where is the gravitational center? Which elements go up, or down, or remain suspended? What kind of motions are manifested in these cards?

Tarot, a Matrix for the Cosmos?

Tarot is structured following the brain's model, with its very same relationships of order, selections, inductions, and projections, relative equivalences, finite series (II to X); a conjunct that expresses all the situations of any possible cycle, and therefore, all the situations of what is closer to us: of all evolutionary cycle.

Tarot itself teach you how to choose. It forms you, by impregnating you.

From this perspective, we can say about tarot what Dominique Aubier says about the Hebraic alphabet: "the 22 letters from the square Hebrew are studied here inside its matrix: in the cortical matter's hole, in the brain subjugated to language and surrendered to language's actions. To learn the alphabet is at once to learn the functioning of the Spirit."

And also this:

"The necessary knowledge for the heightening of consciousness cannot pass unnoticed, even if certain agendas would like to have it reduced to silence. Without this knowledge, humanism goes mute, and the world's intellectual and spiritual evolution comes to a stop, weakened. Nothing rules over thought: in vain, here and there, a call to language is launched. Invoked in the wrong way, language responds in a wrong way."

Therefore, when we take a living and up to date look at Tarot, we discover in it the same structures, schemes, or energetic imprints, that we can find in all the other codes of knowledge that bring us information about the Universe.

Lets go a little bit further, getting into the holonomic theory. What is it?

Our brain construct reality by mathematically interpreting frequencies that comes from "another dimension," a field of significant reality, mainly archetypal, which transcends time and space. David Bohm proposes the existence of a "developed order" and a "implicit order" in the universe. Holograms share a common and unsettling property with the brain, which is the distribution of the information along the entire system. Each fragment is codified to reproduce the information from the whole. In the same way that an hologram reproduces an original, the brain reproduces universe's original, the one that we can then imagine as a matrix that generates our concrete reality.

Tarot is a concrete reflexion of such matrix. A very precise reflexion. It allow us a privileged relationship between our modified states of consciousness and the modified states of the nervous system. Tarot allow us to interact with reality, by permitting a direct interaction with the archetypes, or energetic imprints, who constitute the matrix for the Universe. (NOTE: Paul, this paragraph always reminds me of Susan Vaughan "The Talking Cure").

Reality's appearances are extracted, or abstracted, from an invisible flow whose parts cannot be divided, and that cannot be described but as an estate of inseparable interconnection that we have already approached in this book.

So far, man attitude towards a world that surpasses him is to try to break this world into pieces. Today, the pressure of the intangible world, manifested both through collective conscious and unconscious movements, is leading man to try at conciliate and reunite the Universe's diverse elements. Our models for the micro cosmos and macro cosmos have more and more similarities. The universe let us perceive its connection-coherence.

Following these impulses, we won't try to explain Tarot, but we are going to try to describe it the most precise terms. This description, by itself, adheres to reality and put us in contact with the matrix. We cannot explain the Universe, but we can observe it. This take us back to our starting point. Tarot, of course, belong to the "developed order", but it is very close to the "entangled order" if you allow me that expression. Let us get implicated in Tarot!

All the work we have done so far didn't intended to explain Tarot, but look at it like it is, in order to open for you some pathways to access it, that are virtually impossible to discover by yourself. My ambition isn't to "drive" this fabulous prototype for you, but to suggest to you how to approach it, how to "board" it, reminding you of the basic principles of conduct; For example, don't try to go straight from zero to full speed ( divinatory speed).

Have still a little bit more patience. We are going to explore the structure of the minor arcana. Then we will "see" with the eyes of the future. How far...? Ready? Go!

Tarot. How far?

Practical studies

To start, lets keep always in mind that we are exploring the intangible. We are looking to generate in ourselves spontaneous responses, or more precisely, to let them happen without blocking them with the limitations of our values, or our ego. In order to get spontaneous responses, our ego, otherwise very useful for our functioning in society, must get temporarily disconnected. Direct contact with Tarot, which has been purposely designed for this purpose, will facilitate this disconnection.

Our aim isn't to interpret a farce. Therefore, playing the guru role could be fun for the one playing the role, but it compromises all the aspect of his life very quick, without he even noticing. Very soon he behaves, talks, eats, sleeps, like a guru. His relationship with the intangible will be blocked by that ego-guru. The spontaneous response can only be produced outside our scale of moral-ethical values: we are, therefore, open to endlessly challenge it.

The problem of ego is a dilemma in any spiritual path.

My main use of the tarot is to do a type of magic. This magic is called divination. I am using the cards to make predictions about the future. This has always been my main 'thang' with the cards. Over the years, by keeping in touch with querents, studying the 'mechanics' of many kinds of divination, and searching for and honing techniques that work, I've reached a level of accuracy with the cards that I'm happy with. What I do not do is give the querents advice. I tell them what the cards predict and they are free to do with the information as they please. I'm also not going to be someone's 'shoulder to cry on', unless they are someone I personally know well.

I believe tarot works as a kind of Magia Naturalis. By this I mean it works through properties inherent to itself, and not through higher intelligences. Like herbs, gem stones, metals, and the like, the tarot has natural 'sympathy' and correspondence with, well, everything else. Personally I believe to truly 'connect' these correspondences requires an understanding of the symbolic nature of celestial energies (the planets), the elemental energies, the nature of numbers, the nature of letters, and the esoteric properties of geometry. Of course, these energies and tendencies operate throughout nature. They just reflect particularly well in the tarot due to its contained structure and symbolic nature.

So what does this have to do with ego?

Simply put, this approach discourages ego.

Compare this view with the tarot reader who reads via intuition. Intuition is just a contemporary way of saying 'special powers'. "I look at the cards, and I intuit the meaning with my intuition." This is a very selfish approach. From this view point the tarot has little or no inherent natural power in and of itself. The reader's 'intuition' is what defines the meaning of a reading, and the inherent 'natural' meaning and structure of the deck is subjected to this intuition. The querents question is also subjected to this intuition. And it is here that bias and opinion can slip in, especially if you are in the habit of advising people what to do. (If, like Paul however, you are a trained counselor, and are using the tarot as a counseling tool, this is a different situation obviously.) I wouldn't dare tell someone what to do about a cheating husband or a daughter with a drug problem, or anything else. I'm not a therapist. I'm an old fashioned fortune teller, and proud of it!!!

By developing and honing our technical proficiency, we reduce ourselves merely to the interpreter. We have no 'power' at all. We surrender ourselves to the tarot's natural structure and power. We are only a catalyst for the tarot to operate according to its own internal correspondences and sympathies. Hence we are freed from the 'ego trap'.

Cheers,

RaH

I think there are some “laws” whose acknowledgement can help us defuse our ego. I am not talking about any intrinsic, animistic, natural, or supernatural law; but about the artistic laws taken into account when the cards were drawn: The Law of Proportion, Law of Balance, Law of Diversity within Unity, Law of the Golden Section... All these laws are in use in the Marseille deck, as well as in all art creation of the time period in which the Marseille was created. These laws are the grammar of any optical language. All these laws are used so the image can cause an specific effect, and communicate certain things, in the person who looks at them. I am not talking about arcane messages, but about pure energetic imprints.

Look at the composition of each one of the cards, and see how it reflex the qualities of the character depicted on the card: Lamorevx composed in a way that suggest an unresolvable, ambiguous, direction; yet some detail in the superior half of the card indicates that such indecision can, and will, be broken. A card like Le Bateleur is composed in a way that suggest a more resolute balance than Lamorevx, yet this balance, even when it doesn't indicates direction, but presence "here and now", feels precarious. His eyes direct us to the left, but the table's perspective direct us to the right. The way the character's body has been drawn is consistent with the idea of someone young, forced to put his act together to move forward, who hesitates and still looks back at "mom." The way the character's body has been drawn is also consistent with the idea of an illusionist, who is somewhere else" but is pretending to be "here". Cards like Le Mat, and Le Pape, are composed to indicate motion towards the right, which accordingly with the way we read in Western civilization, means "forward". Look at how, if we prolong both of Le Mat's staffs until they cross each other, they will be defining a point in the horizon, right where the man is looking. The card's composition is outlined as a huge arrow towards the left. But here again, the composition of each card makes clear that one character will move forward, while the other one is just giving permission for something or someone to move forward. Look at how these two acolytes at Le Pape's feet are basically anchoring the image in its place: motion is granted, but not executed.

Look at how the arch drawn by Le’Etoile’s back reinforces the directionality of the water pured by her on the stream. Look at how the lion at La Force’s feet is drawn so the lion’s mane is integrated to the woman’s skirt, and the lion’s mouth seems an over sized navel.

I am not talking about some sort of voodoo, but about the experience of art. Pure craftsmanship. Those cardmakers, those artisans, knew how to create images capable to compose emotional estates. So, by acknowledging the fact that they gave us that gift, we can only claim to be tour guides in a process whose authorship doesn’t belong to us.

Best,

EE

The story is told in the Bible at Genesis 4 and in the Qur'an at 5:27-32.

Just looking at the faces, we would never have known this man was jealous, enraged, or in the process of smashing his brother's skull into mush, would we.

The idea of using facial expression to convey meaning had yet to catch on, with the exception of a few notable geniuses who were 'ahead of their time. (Durer and Holbein come to mind!) Even on the commissioned hand painted decks like the Visconti, which were created by a higher grade of artist than the lowly printed decks, the facial expressions are nil.

So, when we read about how the Empress has 'a look' of authority, or the Papess looks wise, or how the hanged man is so calm and serene, these are completely subjective interpretations, and most likely incorrect.

Many tarot people fail to research the actual history of their subject, and either install an anachronistic 'esoteric' system of meaning into Tarot (insert the letters 'G' and 'D' here), rather than look for what might already be there (and I believe there is an illuminating meaning to be found), or, being "completely clean of such knowledge", come to a totally subjective meaning via 'free-association' making highly personal speculations that are completely worthless to anyone outside themselves and their therapist. (Not that this is a bad thing, for it can be helpful for those in therapy.)

It just saddens me to see something that I believe can be a tool for spiritual understanding and wisdom reduced to a Jungian 'prop' that could just as well be done with a handful of plastic animals, as Paul nicely illustrated elsewhere.

Even at its most literal, Tarot is a spiritual allegory, a visual summa of salvation. The moral (tropological or homiletic) layer of meaning takes the appropriate form of a medieval Christian sermon based around the Cardinal Virtues, in the exact order of precedence from St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologia. The overall allegory is based upon the teachings of the New Testament that were dear to the medieval Christian mentality: the corruption of this world; the example set by Jesus; and the imminent Second Coming. Once this (for some unfortunate) reality is accepted, then the anagogic, or mystical layer of meaning that is present can be explore. Reflections of hieros gamos (mystical wedding) symbolism (personal union with God), alchemical insights, neo-platonic and pythagorean sub-structures, parallels to astrology and sacred alphabets pop up everywhere. How intentional the inclusion of these profound teaching were is irrelevant, for a deep mystic path has clearly been revealed. I do hold the seemingly unpopular belief however that to truly understand both the homiletic and anagogic layers of meaning, one must swallow his modern hubris and crack a few books! Cool

My apologies if I seem argumentative E.E. (and Paul), but I do love a lively debate.. Former Debate Club member you see. Very Happy

Cheers,

R
a
H

The Wedding Game

Once you feel familiar with kings and queens, have fun with a passionated experience. First, notice how in each family there is a character who is carrying two objects: they are the Reyne De Coupes, the Roy de Epees and the Chevalier de deniers. But in the batons, both Valet and Roy seem to carry an utensil. What does this indicate?

Ask the most intuitive of your friend to try and match the four queens and the four kings. Obviously, not with those belonging to they same series (This game will tech you that queens and kings from a same family are more like brothers and sisters than husband and wife).

With a minimal margin for error, he will "marry" Mr. Deniers with Mrs. Baton; Mr. Coupes with Mrs. Epees; Mr. Batons with Mrs. Deniers; Mr. Epees with Mrs. Coupe.

And... he won't be able to explain why. He won't be able to give but subjective impressions. He will have perceived the energetic imprint of the couples, but he can't justify it by looking at the objective details. He would have noticed two kind of relationships: Deniers-Baton, Epees-Coupe. Any other association won't take into account the model, and won't be better.

Where are the details that allow us to confirm these intuitive weddings? Such delicate work can hardly be described in a method.

Even so, if you have worked as we have indicated here, you will have in your power all the elements to find these details, which can openly be seen in the images. In order to give you a little bit of help, here are some indiscretions.

A queen and a king make a very evident gesture, and they are the only ones who make such gesture in Tarot. They pull up part of their garments. Why? There is no need for an explanation. Another one has an utensil that looks like... what? a needle? a pen? and is pointing this utensil to the heel. He is going to get hurt unless he can use the tip of his utensil to put into motion one of the queen's the utensil.

Have you ever seen a peonza in motion? (NOTE: Sorry Paul, I don't know a translation for "peonza", a kids wooden toy that spins). Another king maintains both parts of his (broken?) utensil; but one of the queens utensils (dangerous BTW) can provide with an armor to who may need it, and at the same time, it can protect him. Finally, look at the left hands of the remaining king and queens. Where are these hands coming from? What a surprise...

These details may no be enough to reveal the weddings that we have made. But let no forget that Tarot is the only true teacher, and we keep learning. Each king and queen, for example, manifests a psychological type, and a historic, heroic, figure; and subsequent incarnations of the same energetic imprint. Lets look at the alliances that Tarot show us, lets look at the associations, the kind of weddings that surround us. The most efficient alliance are those who permit to combine the advantages and disadvantages of both partners. Which what character do you identify? Which one do you like to be like? Be Jungian: which one is his animus or anima? Which one is the partner that will bring what is missing, or vice versa? Tarot is showing you. And through this game we have a deeper access to the energetic imprint... without forgetting that energetics imprints can be combined. We can be a little like the Roy de Batons, a little bit like the Roy de Deniers; and also, sometimes Reyne de Coupes, sometimes Reyne de Epees. Let's admire here the combinations and permutations from within our model for the Universe, the Marseille Tarot.

The Four Horsemen

You already know them well. You have already noticed that one horse has a cat head, another one a dog head, another one a cow head, and another one, an unicorn head. (Why?) Well, because it has a horn in the middle of its head. You have memorized all their details. To classify them in a significant conjunct will give the key for the Minor Arcana.

Which procedure would be follow?

Which horse is the smallest one? It is also the one with less armor, the one with the more rigid body. In this horse, the rider is not quite sitting. Which one is the biggest horse? It is also the more dressed one (a tunic made of skin? Like whom in the Bible?) the more dynamic, which seems to form a centaur wit his rider. Lets organize them in that sense, with the other two horses filling the gaps, from the smaller horse to the bigger horse.

We get: Chavalier de Coupe, Chavalier de Deniers, Chavalier deEpee, Chavalier de Baton. Can you confirm our hypothesis in its details? Indeed. Chavalier de Coupe is holding in his left hand the reins of his flesh-like mount. Chavalier de seems to guide it from the tip of his staff, even though the horse has reins. Chavalier de Epees doesn't seems to be guiding anything, even though the reins of his horse seems to end at the tip of his sword. Finally, Chavalier de Baton cannot even guide it. he has no reins. At the beginning of the series, the first horse looks like a wooden toy. The last horse seem to have become one with his rider. In then other hand, Chavalier de Coupe has two arms, Chavalier de Deniers one and a half, Chavalier de Epees one arm and a quarter, and Chavalier de Batons only one arm. Chavalier de Coupes carries a strange burden on his back, something very heavy, and has his head uncovered. Chavalier de deniers is better sit on his horse, more balanced. His he covered by a hood? We can see how there is an order between the Chevaliers. Chavalier de Epees is well sit over his horse, he is wearing a helmet that may be a little bit heavy. Chavalier de batons is dancing with his horse, both are going around in a swift moment, full of grace; and his hat remind us Le Bateleur's lemniscate.

Several other details confirm this hypothesis. It is up to you to discover them... The most interesting has to do with the utensils: Chavalier de Coupe isn't touching it. His utensil is floating over his hand. Chavalier de Deniers is holding his utensil... with his gaze. Chavalier de Epees is holding his sword tight, but is holding even more tighter the small curved knife hidden in is horse's armor. Chavalier de Baton is looking at the way his utensil is penetrating his hand. He is the only one who has integrated his utensil.

So, we can say that there is an order between the horseman, based on objective details. In the other hand, this study is just an example. If you prefer to thin k that the Chevalier de Coupe is the more evolved, that is up to you.

Lets stop a little bit on the Deniers. Does it represents a coin? Money? Naturally, that is part of its energetic imprint. But if we compare the size of all the other utensils, we will see that the cups, swords and wands are proportioned to the figures holding them. Therefore, if the Deniers represents a coin, it is quite disproportionate. Maybe we need to look at it from another perspective. Objectively, the Deniers signals a circular organization, that starts, or ends, in a center. In the Valet we see two different Deniers (the upper one has a bigger black part). The one in the Reyne has a black dot in the middle (signaling a place to put the tip of the Roy de Baton's utensil). The one on the Roy looks like the one on the Valet, except for the fact that the second row of yellow elements adds to 12 (or 11), and not to 10. The one on the Chevalier lead us to a revelation.

Yes. Earth's rotation axis has an angle of 23º 27': the movement that precedes the equinox. This determination is linked to earth's elliptical shaped, and to the way mater is organized in its interior... Earth is a fluid nucleus with an elastic cover. Lets make memory: if the sun is a fat grapefruit, Earth is a pin head at 11.8 meters, and Jupiter a grape at 61.4 meters.

What does the link between the chevalier's gaze and this Deniers suggests? Could it be our gaze what attacks Earth? It isn't given the entire structure just by the gaze? Decide that by yourself, under the condition of acknowledging in the deniers the shape we use to organise the universe around us, and that we are the center: each one of us is the center of the world, since our nervous system can only perceive the world around us.

We have seen a man worried without apprehension over his utensil, burdened and badly sit, manage to control his little horse. Observe how the horse of Deniers (the only one, of course, whose four hoofs touch the ground.) gets animated on his body and face. There is also some sort of meaty thing dangling on its sides, like a protective contraption. And then, you can see how the horse of Epee awakes nervously, its eye much alive, its mouth open. Finally, the horse-unicorn of batons speaks and see from its whiteness, in a deep complicity with its rider. From dominion to free complicity, here is the path of the tangible body under the intangible rider's conduct. Dominion certainly is the dream of many men in their quest for evolution... That is what the Chevalier de Coupe is doing. There is a marvelous alliance between the horse and the rider of Baton. Discover it is one of tarot's biggest rewards, since it implies the possibility of making it happen... The ride made of flesh, the one we cannot abandon in this life, reveals its true nature, pure, inspired, winged (You probably already noticed the bird on its head...)

The Series' Austerity

Let put aside the splendors of the tangible-intangible alliance.

Lets get down again to the series, usually underestimated by Tarot adepts, or filled with authoritarian attributions that could leave one speechless. Thy represent a valuable step by step course on how to handle each utensil. Even so, read paul Marteaux valuable work.

It is necessary -and the only thing we need to use them- to observe their evolution. There are some structures draw -they are not just decorative motifs, even if they look like that to those who don't know how to see- For example, the series of Copupes shows two kind of structures: a vertical and a curved one. At an analogical level, which structures in the human body can be identified with them? What do we use a cup for? (The kings one is very uncomfortable, it can't be used to drink. The Valet's cup is very uninteresting, with very little cappacity. The queen has her onfiscated by its lead. But the chevaliers carries a very open one, solid... even if he isn't touching it.)

As an example, lets work on the Sword series from II to X. Curiously, the first card -the II- shows a floral composition, as it is the case on IIII, VI and VIII. We only see a sword on the III, V, VIII, VIIII, and suddenly, we see two swords on X, in the middle of some sort of mandorla (which you have of course compared with the one on Arcana XXI already! What have you found?) This mandorla, composed by two kinds of sables forms a fabric in both extremes of the mandorla. This fabric is reinforced following a rhythm: in II and III, a single cross. IIII and V, two elements are interlaced twice. VI and VII, three elements are interlaced. VIII and VIIII, four elements are interlaced.

What does this structure show us? Compared with the structure we see in the series of Batons, which reinforces the center, this one reinforces a polarity. This can be confirmed at a trivial level. The work with a baton (Kendo, etc...) reinforces the center of the body, the abdomen, while the word with the sword (Fencing) develops our attention both at eye and feet level.

Let's get back to the II of Swords. There are several details to follow, for example, the four flowers/bulbs in the four corners, which are bluer on VIII than in any other card. Let's focus on the central image... the "flower" on II looks quite strange. Objectively, it is impossible. Its petals are leafs disposed in a very unnatural way. Even so, is from this flower that some branches are born -white, without vital fluid- conducing us to some leaves with their extremes twisted, as those leafs we find in architecture, but that aren't similar to the leafs we find in nature. Exaggeratedly symmetrical, there is something as menacing about this artificial flower, as only something fictitious can be, too developed, and too different from nature.

III shows us a sword (it is time for you to finally examine all the sword handles...) of flesh color, posed over two branches which look lifeless, like the foliage we pick up at the beginning of Winter. But those branches have some yellow leafs, quite rigid, and some wrinkled fruits: those branches have been alive, they have produced a leave, and manifested some fruits.

In IIII we suddenly see two of these leafs and one of these little fruits grow over a flower that looks like a flower, even when its petals look a little bit undisciplined, and the red fruit look a little shadowy. Could that be the work of that sword on III?

Go ahead alone. The color of flesh, and the heavy shape in V gives us a clue about the role this sword plays. In VI, the flower is reinforced on its basis. It looks more straight and balanced than the one in IIII. The old yellow blade has disappeared, but even so, the small wrinkled fruit has come closer to the flower. The stem looks more natural, and the flower, open, is of a very bright red. If you were the flower, what kind of effect would have the sword had in you? And, how do you justify this transplant of lifeless elements?

A blue sword in VII: what does the blue remind us? And the blue flower on VIII, the definitive flower, picked up, true, with the color of what is universal. What does it have in common with the disorganized flower in II?

The sword, why is it yellow in VIIII? If yellow manifests the notion of work, can we say that the sword is working here? If, as a future mother, it shows a crack, would it be ready to get separated in two swords? In fact, X shows two swords, and one of them has a crack. Both of them are blue, they can be used at a collective level.

The swords work by transplanting the flowers. Find by yourself the detail that shows that the second sword on X, which is already giving life to another one, is not the first sword.

This work with the series of swords is given here only as an example. If you prefer to see in this series peace (the flower) and war (the sword), that is up to you. If you have identified the process consisting of transplanting oneself, bravo! You have found again the mystical sense of the sword in Arthur's cycle. The sword, utensil of life, is indispensable for the king who mediates between man and Nature. This is the legend of Excalibur, which sadly is passed on now to the lady at the lake (Anima) at the bottom of the waters (which can regenerate the collective unconscious). It is up to you to go and pick it up.

An now, feel happy. You have worked good? Do you know your prototype in all its details? Lest get to the divinatory speed.

Divination

You will have to understand this well. Only after using both subjective and objective methods, we can be sure that there will be no confusion between the subtle information, whose provenience is the Intangible, and the capable (NOTE: the word is "hábil" in Spanish) information , whose provenience is the EGO.

What is divination, but an intensive method to look at the intangible, forcing it to give us an answer? In a way or another one, it is the intangible what take us to divination, to force us evolve and become better, lighter... the man of the future, which is more fulfilled than us.

Marie Louise Von Franz also explains: "the instinctive harmonies with what everybody has to do, and with the circumstances of what everyone defines as his/her ideal state , the one in which the archetype sustains the individual and the group, so its faculties, and its members cooperate in a natural way. Human being has always known, lost, and tried to re-encounter this state."

Indeed, we are going towards divination when these questions emerge: "Where am I?" and, "what should I do?"

But the capable information, coming from the EGO, is useful sometimes, and is far from being always erroneous. But taking is as a subtle information is a common cause of disappointment. We can define it as false divination.

I) FALSE DIVINATION or analytical observation, is a very interesting technique which can occupy a privileged role in any tarot-therapy, or as I prefer to say, within an evolutionary work through Tarot.

False divination consist on asking the person to consciously choose the cards, instead of having her mixing the deck. A card or tow to define the person will be chosen, and then, several cards representing her mother, father, husband, son, etc will be consciously chosen too. The way the person display the cards will be a source of information. Does she place them close to her, or far from her? It will be good to give her a huge space, a huge table, or an entire room. Then, take a look at where does the person situates herself, within the conjunct.

The election, the way the person projects herself on the cards, to which she attributes a power of representation (this is, of her scale of values), allows her to have an idea of her internal structures, her childhood, or even the limits she assigns to her future.

Then, ask her to describe the cards. The difference between the cards energetic imprint and the level of representation the person has chosen will help you find the schemers that models her life.

For you is a game -but done seriously, since the person is trusting you- to deduce all this factors by rigorously deducing what is behind the person's choices. You will be looking at her portrait, a portrait that shows all weakness and beauty of a human being. Be sensitive, be humble. Don't exert any dominion. Simply show the person her portrait. become a conscious mirror.

Which are the basis we must never forget? Tarot cards represent the territory, an image of the archetypes -energetic imprints- whose combination define all possible situations. The totality of the arcana embraces the totality of human experience. We can say, based on the observation of schizophrenia that anti-psychiatric schools have done, that the conjunct of human psychological situations patterns humanity's path. This is, each man revives in its very own way the whole adventure of humankind; to what Tim Leary perceives as the Galactic Fusion (Cf. Neurologics, exo-psychology ed. Starssed Press).

The person's reactions to the cards have very simple motivations, but the descriptions made by the person will lead to complex personal experiences.

The cards the person chooses are the imprints she has integrated, the ones that give her security. The ones she avoids are the ones whose energetic imprint she hasn't lived yet. The violence of her reactions determines the proximity of these situations in her future. It can be an actual conflict, or something she has systematically rejected along her life. or it can be something she is still about to face.

The arcana the person prefers indicate these things she knows about herself. The ones she rejects, indicate these things she cannot, or not want to, accept. The situations she doesn't know yet, but that are so far away from her present that they don't evoke any unconscious defensive mechanism, nor a violent reaction; just a vague and moderate lack of affinity with the card.

The diagnose could be extremely precise, based only in her relationship with the cards: affinity, or independence from them. There is no collision -in the psycho-analytical sense- since the person never feels forced to verbalize her fundamental problem. Everything happens at an analogical level: working with tarot allow not to suppress the conflict's "energetic knot", what could lead to suppress also the arrive of joy, a mistake commonly made by most psychiatrists.

This work permits the person (and yourself, when you are at the beginning of your tarot studies) to assimilate an energetic imprint outside a crisis -before or after living it- and also to put all the archetypal experiences already lived into the frame of reference that Tarot represents.

Your role has to be limited to make the person describe the card as exact as possible, notice her reactions, and allow objectification. Tarot operates by giving such strength (be careful about the idea of "making conscious". Frequently one encounters a confusion between consciousness and spirit. Consciousness, a privilege of the ego, isn't the intangible, nor the spirit, even when our ego would like to think so), such a comprehension of reality, that the person gets and over-doze of vitality, and an spectacular regulation of energy.

This analytical observation, or capable information, or false divination, ask for a des-conditioning which Tarot, with its strong colors and sharp characters seems to bring by itself. Even so, we must practice a set of rules of common sense. Don't try to do this exercise in any place or time, nor with anybody. The querent's sincerity is as necessary as your own desire to help her. But once again, without dominating her, nor imposing your own scale of values...

Let the Ego be in peace. It has nothing to demonstrate.

II TRUE DIVINATION

True divinaton is an anticipation of the future, in which we direct our gaze to the universe's convergence points.

It is a calling to the intangible, a magical act, deep, exceptional, which demands, not only a dis-conditioning on the person, but a total disconnection from the EGO. This implies a purifying and preparation ritual: ablutions, rest, fasting, silence; and all other kind of actions intended to keep the ego in place, by activating all the energetic centers in the body. Methods like "alpha level" or "Mind Control" are good, but there are others more efficient.

True divination isn't done in public, to get some attention from time to time. It goes together by a general attitude about life tat excludes compromises, the quest for self-satisfaction, etc... It is very hard to keep. That is why gurus became gurus, experts in false divination, but lost about the true one.

True divination resides in the essence of a-causal connections. This Jungian expression develops the idea of "synchronicity", which establishes how two or more situations can co-exist without being linked by a cause-effect relation ship. These situations are connected (they depend one on the other one) but in a a-causal way.

THE ESSENCE OF A-CAUSAL CONNECTIONS

The essence of a-causal connections has been little explored, but it is simple: all situations that coincide at a synchronistic level (in the same temporal unity) share the same energetic imprint, but this imprint incarnates in each one of them at several different levels, (Including different levels of duration).

The basis for true divination is analogy. The world is perceived as a superimposition, or imbrication, of an analogical shape (This is, limited, analyzable, contrary to the symbolic shape, which is more vague and less describable outside its own symbolic system) in all levels that it can be reunited, based on our common denominator: the energetic imprint.

Such event is created into certain context, and this context will evolve and vary; but it will vary following certain lines of force. True divination aspires to find these lines of force that can allow us to project the future, BUT NOT TO PREDICT THE FUTURE.

We can bend these lines of forces to some extent, by immediately following them, or by immediate opposing them, like in a metanoia.

It is an illusion to think that we van modify a future that depends upon such lines of force. But true divination could modify itself based on the perceived lines of force.

Divination, whose objective is the identification of the lines of force which are the source of events in the universe (we could also say combinations: permutations/activations of the diverse energetic imprints) cannot predict trivial events. For divination to happen we need to set powerful energies into motion. The individual who calls for divination is only one little factor in the whole process.

How is this involuntary election -the choosing of the images that will show us our energetic imprint by means of an analogy- occurs, it is something that I don't know. It is an articulation between the tangible and the intangible but, since it happens without recurring to the ego, the ego cannot register what is receiving. It can only build a model after the facts... We know this process.

Lest assume that something (someone? angels? fate? this is, the intangible) hit the control panel of our computer/nervous system. A connection between the gesture that chooses the card (which must be facing down. This is why is so important to have a deck with a "tarotic" backs, that has to be optically neutral, so it don't crystallise any effect of the ego), and the card is produced. We can't go further than that.

But we know which conditions we need to get a pure result: the ritual (see above).

No authoritarian condition, carrier of unjustified prescriptions, must be followed. Once you have finished the slow work with Tarot that it has been suggested in this method, you will be transformed enough to define by yourself the right conditions for divination. You will define for yourself the right attitude to divine.

Trust. You are just a channel. Tarot only answer to the true question, the internal question, the one that truly worries you, the one that is in the center of your internal tensions, even if you haven't voiced it aloud; and even if you have asked a different question. But even so, pay attention to the question you ask: Tarot's answer are always exact. Try to put the less possible amount of words over the cards that you show to your querent (or to yourself). The ideal attitude would be: observe the cards that have emerged, and let them fill you. Let the energetic imprint make an imprint in you too, and keep these cars in your memory, so your thoughts and actions become one with them. Tarot will act as a corrector. It will rectify your behavior, if you let it do so. This is, of you don't try to understand the message at an intellectual level . If you don't add your pinch of sand. Be more humble than you have ever been, but be happy, because the future goes through you, and through your lucidity.Be all acceptance, don't put any barrier build from comments, vanity, etc (Crash! That little tension that comes from pride, and all falls apart. Maybe another time...).

Remember that a human level of consciousness doesn't means the Intangible. It can only manifest its own project, but not its full potential. And when it comes to the Spirit, the best portion of it is the WHOLENESS.

Here is the true divination: ask for the intangible, receive the image without arguing, accept the Universe's lines of force, become one with them, and have no personal desires. Become a lucid and joyful co-creator of your future, and of the future of humankind. This method is over. This is not a work on culture, moral, or history ABOUT Tarot. This is just a methodological FOR Tarot, and for you. Before applying it, and then throw the book out, go back to the lesson taught by the Chevalier de Baton: united to his horse (of flesh?) pure and triumphal, and free, he dances in his definitive lightness and wholeness. The energy manifested by the Baton that he receives and transmits penetrates his hand and, no doubt, also his entire body, down to his horse's hoofs... Look at how the horse quivers under the flesh-like garments. It is the glorified horse that reveals, in its unicorn-like winged face, the two letters G y F. Translate that yourself. I wish you Grace and Faith and/or Force and Gratefulness.

Let's get to work!


Tchalai

An Invitation to Tarot by Enrique Enriquez

Hello Daimon Link,

I rarely post here, but come to read the forum whenever I have time. This is an unique place. Your post got my attention because you are focusing on something very dear to me: the Tarot de Marseille. All the advise you have already received is very wise and useful. I just want to share with you something I wrote about it a while back. Nothing brilliant, nor new, but perhaps it could be useful for you right now.


An Invitation to Tarot

From time to time I like to do public, free, Tarot reading sessions. I do them at coffee shops, fashion stores, galleries or museums. It's a way of sharing what I love to do with those who aren't used to go to a cartomancer. It is also a way of helping others just because I can, and of course, a wonderful way of meeting interesting people and get to know their stories.

In these sessions I have met many incredible characters, from Jackson Pollock's drinking pal to a porn princess, a professional thief, a shoeless singer, a woman convinced that a herd of ghostly pigs pursued her family, and an old writer looking for the ending of his novel. Among all these people, I particularly remember a man on his 30's, quiet, clean, with no rings, no tattoos, no feathers, no leather, no tie, no suitcase... no pin on his lapel saying 'Lose Weight, Ask Me How"... nothing. The kind of person whose face you forget a second after you met him. This "average" man sat in front of me and voiced his question: "Will I ever see the Devil?"

You see? That's why I love people!

I started reassuring him, telling him that there wasn't any reason to fear such encounter, but he stopped me on my tracks. "No, no... I WANT to finally meet him. I am tired of speaking with lesser demons. I want the Big Boss now! Tell me, will I ever see him?"

I was about to pass the cards to the man, when one card accidentally fell over the table. Do I really need to tell you which one it was? I looked at the card, then, slowly, looked at the man in the eye, and said: "There you have your answer".

The card on the table drew a broad smile on the "average" man's face. "Thanks! That's all what I wanted to know", he said, leaving my table happy as a kid.


Divination is the art of drawing an analogy between Chance and our personal situation. "Divinare" means, literally, "being one with the Divine". The function of any oracle is helping us to tap into our inner wisdom, it doesn't matter where we think that inner wisdom comes from. Divination isn't about forecasting the future; but about understanding our present situation in a way that will prepare us for any challenge we may face at creating the future we want for ourselves.

Not what that T.V. psychic told you, right?

Tarot is the analogical system par excellence. As soon as you look at a card, your mind establishes a parallelism between the image depicted in it, and certain feelings, aspects or details of your personal situation. The card tells you something in a flash. That's exactly what happened with my "average" friend. Before any word was spoken, he KNEW.

It is a paradox that even when divination is an analogical process, most divination systems are mnemonic in nature. Each element in them, and the pattern these elements form, are linked to a set of meanings that need to be committed by memory. There is no insightful "flash" unless you know by heart what all the possible combinations mean. This makes most divinatory systems dependent of a "specialist", the diviner, who interprets the oracle's message and delivers it, for you to make then the analogy between her words and your life. Tarot is an exception, an empowering one, and it's particularity lies on it being capable of igniting that spark of intuition even if you have never had a previous contact with it's imagery.

If you want to learn the best method to read Tarot, you only have to accept all that you already know:

Look at the cards in a relaxed state and speak your mind.

That's it.

Go along with your intuition, and try to understand how the cards are connected with the problem or concern you are experiencing in your life. This isn't as simple as it sounds, nor as difficult as some people may think, but everyone can do it. It's certainly not as boring as forcing yourself to learn prefixed meanings for each card. At first, your readings will surely be short; but as long as you keep looking at the cards and training yourself on how to fuel your intuition with your imagination, your readings will become deeper and more powerful. Tarot can make you a better person, if you decided to understand it instead of memorizing it!

Besides, what are you going to memorize? Other people's opinions? There are thousand of books about Tarot. The best among these books invite us to think deeply, but even if they can teach us how to look our own reflexions in the cards, Tarot itself remains a mystery.

Tarot is a wonderful work of art, buried under tons of pseudo-esoteric noise. No one knows who invented it, or why, nor even why it is called Tarot. The only thing we know for sure is that those first Tarot packs didn't come with a little white booklet full of prefixed meanings. No one can tell you which was the intended meaning for each card when they were created, and it doesn't matter. Tarot is a spiritual exercise, a set of magical drawings, not because of an occult tradition, but because every drawing is magical by itself. We create Tarot every time we look at it.

True observation requires effort, the kind of effort our culture hasn't trained us for. When we face a magazine or a newspaper, we prefer to read the caption than looking at the image. We accept what others say is happening in the pictures instead of looking for ourselves. But there are no captions in Tarot. So, force your imagination to wake up from the anesthesia, and look at the cards!

First, put all the cards in a row following it's numerical order and look at the story they create. Starting with the Major Arcana only will be easier, and wiser, but don't dismiss the Minors! Just wait until you have more training to include them in the story. Tarot is like a car ride. The 22 Major arcana are the map. They will tell you were you are and were you are heading. The 56 Minor arcana are your control panel. They will help you check out your creative, intellectual, emotional and corporal "equipment", all along the way.

Now, were are you in that story? How does that story relate to your life? Do this for several days and notice how the story changes over the time, getting richer and diverse. If you feel depressed, the story will have a sad slant. If you are happy, the cards will offer you a joyful tale. Notice how the cards shapeshift in response to your emotions. After a few days mix the cards, rearrange them in a random order, and ask yourself the same questions... Do this again, and again... You will notice that the only way to really create a meaningful story is by not assigning a prefixed meaning to each card. Every time they will make sense in a different way. Use them in the way that fits best the story you see.

When you feel that you are comfortable creating stories with all the cards, zoom in. Try to go deeper into each card. Lay just one card on the table and look at it. Remember: Tarot is a system, all cards are interconnected, and every time you look at one card, you are really looking at three cards: the card that's laying on the table, plus the cards preceding and following that one. What stage represents the card you are looking at? How does your actual situation relate to that stage? Are you there yet? What do you need to get there? How do you feel about getting or being there? Do you want to be at that stage at all? In which way do you think you have surpassed the stage suggested on the card? How much of the preceding card reflects your actual situation? How much of the following one?

Look at the characters in the cards. Try to understand who that person is. Maybe it is somebody in your real life? Maybe someone from your past? An ideal? Look at the character's face, look at it's eyes, and the general expression of it's face. Is he happy? Is she sad? If so, why do you feel that is? Is the character really sad, or does it looks sad to you? If so, why is that? Look at the character's body, the position of the arms and legs. Where is she going? What is he facing? Are they sitting or standing? Does the character's body indicate movement, or stability instead? How does it relate with the characters in the contiguous cards? What are they holding? In which way do you need these objects they are holding? or... why do you think you don't need them?

Now, zoom in again. Don't look at the cards as a whole, but try to detect what section of the image relates better with the way you are feeling or where you are. Each card represents a stage, and every stage has different steps. You can't cover them all at once. Each card can be brief as a single letter or dense as a whole book. Let your intuition decide how much of the card you need at every specific situation. You will know that there is more in the card for you as soon as you see it.

Any lesson you will learn from the cards using this method will be unique, different from anybody's opinion on Tarot. They will be YOUR lessons. For time to time you will feel the urge of reading more about the origins, mythology, and occult symbolism of Tarot. Do it. It is fascinating. There is a lot of knowledge out there! Go, read all the books you can, talk to other people and share what you know. Most important, share your doubts. Then, go back to the cards. Do an amnesic act of humility and look at them again, trying to forget what you have read and all you have been told; and as soon as you stop looking for opinions, you will start receiving insights.

Tarot is a lifetime task, and I don't want to take too much of your time. You have a lot to do! I just want to give you the basics, the minimum necessary to get you going. The only book you really need to learn Tarot is the pack of cards, and still, If I were to tell you that everything you need is there, I would be lying. The cards are only the wick that ignites the fire. Everything you need to learn to read Tarot is IN YOU.

One last thing: don't be afraid of looking at Tarot. These cards are a tool for meditation, not a creepy toy for doomsayers. If we think that the "Future" is something that will happen to us, we will always be afraid of looking ahead; but if we see the future as something we do, something we create, then we will face it with excitement. Use tarot to envision the future you want for yourself. Choose a card that feels like you want to feel, a card that looks like that very thing you want to achieve, and look at it. Imagination precedes reality. Imagine your future through the card. As soon as that vision gets solid in your mind, zoom out, add more cards to create the story of the future you decided to work on. Envision that future in the most detailed way possible and let Tarot be your map.

Look at the cards, and as long as you remain honest, you will always be right. Just remember to keep at hand your common sense and your good humor. In the same way that many people see Tarot as an answering machine, I humbly submit that it is an endless source of questions. By pondering these questions we can learn a lot about ourselves, because we can only see in the cards what we already have inside. So, don't blame the cards if you decide to quit your job, leave your husband or abandon your cat; and take what you see with a pinch of salt. All what we can tell about Tarot, plus all of what Tarot can tell us, from generation to generation since the beginning of time, and forever and ever, has to be seen as a big, fat, "maybe"...

And isn't a "maybe" the best possible invitation to keep looking?

Best,

Enrique Enriquez

The Dilettante Among Symbols by Heinrich Zimmer

The Dilettante Among Symbols by desmontes on Scribd

Looking at the Marseilles Tarot by Enrique Enriquez

Marseilles Tarot by Renita Keith on Scribd

Spread: Papus' Rapid Process

I.--RAPID PROCESS:

What must we do if we wish to draw out the horoscope of any matter?

1. You should take the minor arcana and separate the suit of cards that refers to the kind of consultation you require.

If it is some business you are about to undertake, you must take the Sceptres or Diamonds. If it is a love affair, take the Cups or Hearts. For a law-suit, or any struggle, take Swords or Spades. In a money matter, the Pentacles or Clubs.

2. Shuffle the cards selected, then ask the Inquirer to cut them.

3. Take the four first cards from the top of the pack, and without looking at them place them in a cross ... , from left to right, as shown by the numbers (1-4).

4. Then take your major arcana (which should always be separated from the minor arcana), shuffle them, and let them be cut for you.

5. You then ask the Inquirer to draw out seven cards from the major arcana by chance, and to give them to you without looking at them.

6. Shuffle these seven cards, and when the Inquirer has cut them, take the three top cards, and without looking at them arrange them in a triangle, in the following order-- (I-II)

7. Take up the cards so that you can see them and read the oracles, noticing that the card placed at number 1 indicates the commencement. The card placed at number 2 indicates the apogee, at number 3 the obstacles, lastly, at number 4 the fall.

The major arcanum placed at I indicates the influences that have weighed in the affair during the Past. The major arcanum in II. indicates the influence exerted over the Present. The arcanum at number III. shows the influence which will affect and determine the Future.

These cards can be very rapidly deciphered when the habit is once acquired. But one important point should be noted, that when the rapid process is used for fortune-telling, the figures do not exclusively represent persons of especial complexion. The King represents a man, without any other distinction, the Queen a woman, the Knight a young man, and the Knave a child.

Spread: Foli's Grand Star

The Number of Cards may Vary.

There are various ways of telling fortunes with cards arranged in the form of a star, and whichever of these may be preferred, it will always be found necessary to use an uneven number of cards in addition to the one representing the inquirer. Some stars are done with thirteen cards, some with fifteen, and so on, but the real Grand Star must have twenty-one cards placed round the representative one.

The Method.

Suppose the inquirer be a fair man, the king of hearts would be the card selected to form the centre of the star. This representative card is placed face upwards on the table, and the remaining thirty-one cards of the pack (the twos, threes, fours, fives, and sixes having been previously removed) must then be shuffled, and cut with the left hand.

In the accompanying diagram the cards are numbered in the order that they are placed in upon the table, taking the representative as No. 1. The mode of withdrawing the cards from the pack is as follows: The first ten cards are thrown aside after the first cut, and the eleventh card is placed below No. 1; then cut out a second time, and place the top card of the pack on the table above No. 1; cut a third time, take the bottom card of the pack in the hand and place it to the left of No. s. The cards must be cut every time a card is to be

withdrawn, and they are taken alternately from the top and bottom of the pack as above directed. Great care should be observed in the placing of the cards in due order, as any deviation will affect the reading at a subsequent stage of the process. The last card, No. 22, is placed across the foot of the representative.

The Reading in Pairs.

When the Grand Star has been thus formed, the cards must read in pairs, taking the outside circle in this order: 14 and 16, 21 and 19, 15 and 17, 20 and 18. Then take the inner circle, moving from left to right thus: 6 and 10, 9 and 12, 8 and 13, 7 and 11; the four centre points are paired thus: 4 and 2, 5 and 3; and the last card, No. 22, is taken separately. The significations are, of course, taken with regard to the relative positions of the cards, and their special reference to the central figure of the inquirer. This is a picturesque and simple way of consulting the cards, and will probably be a favourite with most people.

Diagram of the Grand Star.

The central card, No. 1, represents the inquirer, and each card is numbered in the order in which it is taken from the pack.

Excerpted from "Fortune Telling by Cards" by P.R.S. Foli, 1915.

Reading Tips: The Transfer Process

Draw two cards at random and examine the details that are repeated or are changed from one card to the other: colors, objects, shapes, the direction the figures are looking ... The interpretation can vary depending on the order in which the cards are placed.

~ Jodorowsky

The Marseilles Tarot Ethos by Enrique Enriquez

QUESTION:

I've been a subscriber to your list for some time. I've come to really love the rich symbolism of the Rider-Waite deck, but I've also wanted to learn the Marseille's Eteilla symbolism and meanings. While I'm happy to listen to the cards for new meanings each time I read, my head gets a little jumbled automatically imposing the RWS meanings on cards whose images don't support those meanings.

If you had one tip for someone moving from the RWS system to the Marseille's system, what would it be? And while I know each deck has its aesthetic, if you had to describe the difference in ethos between the RWS system and Marseille's system, how would you do it?

Much Thanks,
Paul Sireci

P.S. - I don't read professionally, but I do use both decks daily.


ANSWER:

A description of the Marseille tarot's "ethos" may be tricky as the literature describing it amounts to a succession of the personal, subjective projections of its authors. How not to fall into the same trap?

I wouldn't say there is a Marseille tarot "method." I rather see it as a "tradition."

That tradition can be seen as having two distinctive moments. First there was a time when the image-makers were active, printing tarots. So far, we only have retrieved enough pieces of that puzzle to outline the passing on, generation after generation, of a set of images that have remained somehow consistent, from Jean Noblet (1650) to, perhaps, Nicolas Conver (1760). Sadly, no commentary about the images survived. We know nothing about what these image-makers were thinking when they printed these tarots. We only know the images are preserved with minimal alterations.

The commentary came later. In fact, I would say the second distinctive moment within the Marseille tradition came about in the 1930s, after Paul Marteau "rebranded" these French tarots sharing a similar pattern as "tarots de Marseille". With Marteau, the Marseille tarot became aware of itself. Most people agree that the first appearance of the "Marseille tarot" notion can be found in Papus, who was then referring to these decks either produced in the city of Marseille or exported to the world through the port of Marseille; but for all practical purposes it was Paul Marteau, head of the Grimaud printing house, who in the 1930s "coined" the "Tarot de Marseille" brand and made the deck available for sale. It is said that Marteau was reacting to the increasing popularity of the RWS deck.

In the last ten years we have seen what could perhaps be a third act in this narrative with the edition of decks that hope to "restore" the Marseille tarot images. Most notably we have Chris Haddar, Philippe Camoin and Alejandro Jodorowsky, Jean-Claude and Roxanne Flornoy, Yoav Ben-Dov and Wilfried Houdoin. While the theories and speculations of all these authors may diverge, the point that remains consistent is the preservation of the images. We still see minor additions or alterations, just as we observed among Noblet, Dodal, Chosson, etc. But the images remain the same.

If we observe what happened after the RWS became popular and we contrast it with what has happened to the Marseille tarot, that difference of ethos starts to emerge. For example, the post-RWS "star" is a symbol that stands for something other than a heavenly body. Once we are there, any star will do. Year after year, we see a proliferation of new decks in which the star-as-symbol takes new and different visual incarnations without stopping to clearly describe what The Star card symbolizes.

Within the Marseille tradition, The Star is that precise image of a naked woman pouring water "Ã la belle etoile" (under the night's sky). If we were to modify the image we would be stepping outside the lexicon of the Marseille tarot. I am using here the word "lexicon" with a precise intention, as the main characteristic of the Marseille tarot ethos, the only one on which all the commentators agree, is that we are in the presence of a visual language. It could be argued that all tarots are a visual language, but here we are talking about a language that requires no (symbolic) interpretation, as it manifests through direct comprehension, pretty much like street signs.

For example, we often hear or read how The Star card represents "hope". But hope is an abstract notion. In the Marseille tarot, Lestoile give us the experience of being naked (exposed) kneeling down (surrendered) pouring water (releasing, dropping, giving). The whole image amounts to a feeling of abandonment that we feel in our bodies, not with our heads, and therefore is physical, not intellectual.

If we were to modify the image we see in Arcane 17, switching it for whatever tickles our fancy, we won't experience these feelings. More important, once the image has been modified we won't be able to map its similarities with Temperance, an image in which a (winged) woman stands, holding the same vases we see in The Star. If we were to choose a different image for Temperance, we wouldn't be able to see these vases she is holding in the two twins embracing under The Sun. These twins can be mapped into the dogs we see in The Moon, the two minions in The Devil, the two persons falling from The Tower, or the two acolytes kneeling before The Pope.

If we change one image, the language collapses.

The commentators of the Marseille tradition (Marteau, Unger, Flornoy, Camoin, Jodorowsky, et. al) agree in a few directions:

- Regard the trumps as a whole, not as a series of individual images.
- Pay attention to the characters' gestures and glances.

In the Marseille tarot the gestures of the characters we see in the cards aren't independent occurrences. We see these gestures, details and elements, repeated from card to card in consistent patterns. The Marseille tarot is a tool for experience. In a sense, we could speak here of a kind of visual magic, based on two traditional strategies:

- Visual similarity
- Visual proximity

The Marseille tarot "spells" ideas by presenting us with the recurrence of signs. Elements that look the same are thought to be conceptually related. Elements that occupy the same position in the cards are thought to be conceptually related.

An additional direction which I personally find worth exploring but that has received very little attention is wordplay. Tchalai Unger writes about it with some detail, showing us how LE MAT (another name for The Fool) is a word that suggests "fool" but also "mast", "matte" and death (as in "check mate"). Jodorowsky also points out how some of the trumps names are actual puns, like LE PENDU, which in French can be heard equally as "the hanged one" or "hard bread."

Once we consider wordplay, we open a door to a rich French tradition of both verbal and visual punning that would take us far back, to Rabelais, Rene Marot, medieval heraldry and all of their successive heirs: Gerard de Nerval, Jean-Pierre Brisset, Alfred Jarry, Raymond Roussel, the Surrealists, the Oulipians, and also esoteric writers like Grasset de Orcet, Rene Guenon and the mythical Fulcanelli. All of them were very much aware of the nature of wordplay as an engine for meditation and thought. Understood within that lineage, the Marseille tarot becomes a tool to unlock the mind to the multiversality of signs.

All my Best,
enrique enriquez/hieroglyphic terrorism