You can see the trump cards from twelve decks in his online gallery. So far, he’s produced facsimiles of the 1736 Chosson deck and the Pierre Madenié deck published in Dijon in 1709. He only shows the 22 trump cards in his gallery, but his decks have all 78 cards.

I intended to buy the Chosson deck, since it’s the template for today’s standard TdM, but after looking over all the decks in his gallery, I changed my mind and got the Madenié. It’s the oldest complete TdM in existence, and I’m a pushover for the first, the original or the oldest of anything. Also, the rich colors really grabbed me – Deep ruby, forest green, dark royal blue and antique gold.

The cards are 2.5 x 4.75 inches, with a light coating that make them very nice to handle and shuffle. The deck is housed in a sturdy box and packaged with a reproduction of the original wrapper, which is a nice touch. A card with historical background information and the deck’s number out of an edition of 3000 is also included.

I found the Madenié to be one of the most pleasing TdMs I’ve ever seen. It has subtle details and flourishes you don’t find on most decks, and the lines are graceful and delicately carved. TdM figures often seem grumpy or depressed. Madenié’s faces are open and friendly and the eyes are well-delineated and lively. Even the Sun and Moon have happier faces than most other TdMs.

After I compared this deck with two Conver decks from 1760, I found they were nearly identical except for a few small details. For example:

The Madenié Lover has a zig-zag pattern on the bottom of his tunic instead of plain stripes, and the flowers in the young maiden’s garland have neatly articulated petals instead of just being a cluster of circles, as on the Conver. The Madenié Bateleur holds a small round object, while in the Conver deck he holds what seems to be a crumpled handkerchief, perhaps to hide what’s in his hand. Several court figures have patterns on their robes, or ruffles and ribbons not found in the Conver deck, showing the extra care that went into carving the blocks for this deck.

As I flipped through my newly-arrived deck, I was startled to see a shadowy Bateleur hovering behind the Queen of Batons. Then I noticed that all the Baton court cards have shadow figures behind them. Not only that, there’s a shadowy Lovers behind the Fool, and the Emperor has a ghostly orb and cross floating behind his helmet.

Most court cards and lower-numbered trumps have ghostly traces of another card, in reverse, hovering in the background. Many more cards have smoky-gray smudges. These ghost images are all bordered by thin vertical stripes where two cards abutted on the printing block.

Playing cards were printed on large sheets of paper with twenty to thirty cards to a sheet. It seems that someone in the Madenié workshop pulled a freshly printed sheet off the press, and before the ink was dry laid it face down on another piece of paper, transferring the ink as a ghostly reverse image slightly off-kilter.

This raises several questions:

• Was it common practice to dry sheets this way? I don’t think so, since it seems a waste of paper, and I’ve seen pictures of old print shops with printed sheets hanging up to dry.
• Was this done as an experiment, or was it a mistake by an untrained apprentice?
• We know sheets with mistakes were used as end papers and filler for books — that’s how some of the sheets of cards from about 1500 were preserved. But to deliberately print on top of them? Are there any other examples of this being done?
• Were decks commonly printed on flawed or recycled paper to sell at bargain prices? Or was Madenie so hard up he had to print on used paper?
• Has the deck been so well-preserved over the years because no one wanted to use it?

Rather than ruining the deck for me, these ghostly images are an intriguing trace of a specific day over 400 years ago in the Madenié print shop.

NOTE:  Bertrand, who produces tarot decks in Paris, just added a comment below with a link to a fascinating article telling us that the ghost images are created during the gluing process when printed sheets are stacked face to face, the glue moistens the ink, and the cards leave kiss marks on each other. How French!!

The Madenié family were three generations of card makers active in Dijon, France in the first half of the 18^th century. Two of their decks still exist, the one reproduced by Reynaud and one from 1736. The 1709 deck is important because it demonstrates that the classic TdM II pattern was already in place by the early 18^th century and probably has deep roots in the previous century. It existed simultaneously with the earlier TdM I pattern exemplified by the Noblet of 1650 and the 1704 Dodal deck.

For more background on the development of the TdM and its varieties see my pages on the forerunners of the TdM and the TdM and its offshoots.

With the exchange rate and shipping to the USA, the deck cost $51, and took two weeks to travel from Marseilles to California. If the tarot community supports Reynaud by purchasing his decks, he’ll be able to continue making these rare decks available to us. Visit his gallery of TdMs and make your purchase through Paypal at Tarot-de-Marseille-Heritage.

The two videos are separated by geography rather than time. Tarology gives us a tour of Enrique’s New York City with visits to the homes and studios of Robert Place, Rachel Pollack and other East Coast tarot luminaries. The 1988 video features prominent Bay Area tarot practitioners of the 70s and 80s like James Wanless, Angeles Arrien, and Vicki Noble. Mary Greer transcended time and geography as the only person to appear in both videos. In 1988, she was interviewed extensively in her San Francisco studio about her first three books: Tarot for Yourself, Tarot Constellations, and Tarot Mirrors.

The 1988 video celebrates California’s contribution to tarot. Jack Hurley, the publisher of Tarot Network News, was interviewed extensively about his breakthrough deck, The New Tarot, created at Esalen with John Horler when they both lived there from 1966 to 1970. Also featured in the 1988 video are James Wanless and his Voyager deck, Vicky Nobel and the Motherpeace deck, and Chuck Apel who photographed the original oil paintings by Frieda Harris for Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot.

The only deck given special attention in the 2012 video, aside from the Jean Noblet Tarot de Marseille that Enriquez reads with, was Rachel Pollack’s Shining Tribe deck. We’re taken to her home in rural New York where she shows us her original paintings as she talks about the cards’ symbolism.

The youngest person interviewed in the 2012 video had harsh words for the freewheeling, counter-culture generation featured in the older video. Shawn Nacol sees the 1970s as rife with group-think and pop psychology that resulted in superficial “strip mall tarot”. He mocks the view that any interpretation of a card or symbol is valid because we each have our own truth; and he asserts that card interpretations by people with limited worldviews has given us a lot of fluff.

In 1988, everyone said the most influential decks were the Rider Waite, Case’s BOTA deck, and Crowley’s Thoth Tarot. In an interview with Diane Wilkes in 2002 posted on tarotpassages.com, Gary Ross said the tarot community used to be polarized between the Rider Waite Smith and Thoth decks; but to his surprise, none of his students at the 2002 Bay Area Tarot Symposium used decks based on these patterns. I had the opposite experience at BATS in 2011 and 2012, where the RWS deck seemed to be the default paradigm and workshop presenters assumed everyone had Waite Smith images stored in their mental file cabinets. It seems the recent flood of RWS knock-offs and beginners’ books illustrated with these decks has created a RWS monoculture.

Both videos advise tarot readers to simply describe the cards, tell a story, and let the recipients make connections to their own lives. You’re told you don’t need an overlay of theory — just be present to the image and observe what comes up. Enriquez uses this reading style with the Tarot de Marseille, and it’s identical to the “Projective” reading style discussed at length in the 1988 video. Tarot Network News featured this technique throughout the 1980s, advising readers to just “see a picture – tell a story.” This freer, more intuitive reading style was revolutionary in the 1980s, and had to be explained and defended. Three decades later, it’s the accepted paradigm and old-style fortune tellers are on the defensive (although you can find them sneaking in the back door wielding Lenormand decks).

Here’s a link to the Youtube trailer for Enriquez’ Tarology video.

For historical context on the projective reading style, check out this page in the history section.

Here are my guidelines for a well-rounded collection comprised of decks that are affordable and readily available. The collection falls into five broad categories: Fifteenth century, Tarot de Marseilles, Occult, Rider-Waite-Smith, and contemporary decks. The basic collection has the oldest examples of each category. I’ve given suggestions for filling out the basic collection with additional essential decks; then I provide a shopping list at the end of the article.

The Visconti-Sforza is the only mainstream fifteenth-century deck that’s reasonably complete. Lo Scarabeo cleaned up the chipped paint and applied gold foil, restoring the deck to its original shimmering glory. Expand your collection with a photo-reproduction of this deck in its present condition (US Games and Dal Negro versions are the original size). Top off the 15^th century with a one-of-a-kind deck like the Boiardo, Sola Busca or Estensi.

Our collection jumps to the mid-eighteenth century with a photo-reproduction of the classic Tarot de Marseille printed by Nicolas Conver in 1760. Your collection should also include Europe’s most popular deck, the Grimaud Tarot de Marseille, Paul Marteau’s version of the 1760 Conver deck.

Expand your TdM collection with a pre-Conver Tarot de Marseille like Jean-Claude Flornoy’s reproduction of the Dodal or Noblet Tarot; then add a TdM that doesn’t follow Conver exactly, such as decks by Giacomo Zoni or Claude Burdel. Consider adding a regional deck like the Soprafino or Bolognese, a deck that substitutes the Pope and Popesse, and a modern re-colored update.

Etteilla designed the first occult deck in the 1780s. The Falconnier-Wegener Egyptian design is historically important as the inspiration for many early twentieth century occult decks. Your basic collection should contain one of these. Expand the collection with your choice of another occult deck: Oswald Wirth, Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot, or a Golden Dawn deck.

U.S. Games’ The Rider-Waite Tarot Deck in the yellow box isn’t the oldest version of the Waite Smith deck, but it has dominated the market since the mid twentieth century and should be part of the basic collection. The second half of the 20^th century was defined by a thriving industry in re-coloring, re-drawing and re-visioning the RWS deck. Your basic collection should contain the oldest re-colored RWS, the Albano Waite Tarot, plus one of the early mass-market RWS spin-offs from the 1970s or 80s. Expand this part of your collection with a RWS deck that’s faithful to the earliest printings of 1909 and 1910.

A modern deck used for game playing and a Tarock deck would be nice additions to your collection.

Round off your basic collection with one or two contemporary decks. Pick a category and do research to find the first deck of its type. Some suggested categories:

Media – collage, photography, computer art, water color

Artistic Style – gothic, anime, cartoon, black and white, fantasy, round decks

Subject Matter – Arthurian, animals, gay, pagan, feminist, Norse, Native American

Go with what you love and create the nucleus of a focused collection.

Have I skipped any important categories, or given too much space to certain types? What does your deck collection look like? I’d love to hear from you.

 Shopping List

 Fifteenth Century

• Visconti Tarot Deck, Lo Scarabeo (the gold foil version)
• Visconti Sforza Tarocchi by U.S. Games, Inc., and I Tarocchi di Visconti by Dal Negro are photo-reproductions of the deck as it exists now in its original size. Il Meneghello’s I Tarocchi Visconti-Sforza is smaller.

Other 15^th Century decks

•  Matteo Maria Boiardo Tarocchi, Editore Tosi of Ferrara
•  Ancient Enlightened Tarot (Sola Busca), Llewellyn
• Golden Tarot of the Renaissance (Estensi), Lo Scarabeo. (Several missing trumps are replaced by modern reproductions and the illustrated minor arcana are based on a 15^th century fresco)

Tarot de Marseilles

• Tarot de Marseille, Heron (photo-reproduction of a deck in the Bibliotheque Nationale)
• Ancien Tarot de Marseille, Grimaud/France Cartes or Dusserre (Paul Marteau’s 20^th century version)

Pre-Conver/TdM I style

• The Jean Noblet Tarot by Jean-Claude Flornoy
• Jean Dodal Tarot, by Jean-Claude Flornoy
• Tarot de Marseilles Pierre Madenié 1709 (facsimile of a museum deck) by Tarot of Marseilles Heritage.

Non-Conver 18^th and 19^th Century TdMs close to the Conver pattern

• Tarots of Bologna, Lo Scarabeo
• Tarot de Marseille by Claude Burdel, Lo Scarabeo
• Classico Tarocco di Marsiglia, Il Meneghello

Regional TdM

• Bolognese: Tarocco Bolognese by Il Meneghello (Mitelli’s deck); Tarocchi di G. M. Mitelli, by Dal Negro
• Milanese: Tarocco Italiano Fabbrica Dotti 1845, Il Meneghello; Ancient Italian Tarot, Lo Scarabeo (a soprafino variant)
• Dellarocca’s Soprafino style:  Classical Italian Tarot, Lo Scarabeo; Soprafino Tarot, Il Meneghello
• Flemish style: Tarot Jacques Vieville, Heron-Boechat (photo-reproduction from a deck in the Bibliotheque Nationale)

Papesse/Pope replaced

• 1JJ, AGMuller/U.S. Games
• Vandenborre Bacchus Tarot, U.S. Games/Carta Mundi

Modern TdM

• Le Tarot de Marseille, Fournier
• Universal Marseille Tarot, Lo Scarabeo (re-colored Burdel)
• Major Tom’s Tarot of Marseille
• Le Nouveau Tarot de Marseille by Colette Silvestre-Haeberle, FJP

 Occult Decks

• Grand Etteilla, Grimaud/France Cartes (Many decks use the Etteilla name – this one is closest to his original designs.)
• Egyptian Tarot, U.S. Games, Inc. (Falconnier-Wegener’s design)
• Ibis Tarot, U.S. Games, Inc (a colored version of Falconnier-Wegener’s design)
• Oswald Wirth’s deck is very important, but all publications seem to be out-of-print except for Lo Scarabeo which is not faithful to the original.
• Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot: Swiss Crowley Thoth Tarot Deck, or Crowley-Thoth Premier Edition, both by U.S. Games, Inc.
• Paul Foster Case’s B.O.T.A. (Builder’s of the Adytum) official deck
• C. Z. Zain’s Brotherhood of Light deck
• A choice of Golden Dawn decks: the Golden Dawn Magical Tarot by Sandra and Chic Cicero, Llewellyn; The Golden Dawn Tarot designed by Robert Wang and Israel Regardie; the Hermetic Tarot by Godfrey Dowson, U.S. Games, Inc.,

 Rider-Waite-Smith

• Rider-Waite Tarot Deck, U.S. Games, Inc.
• Albano-Waite, U.S. Games, Inc. (the first re-colored RWS)
• Other re-colored RWS decks: Universal Waite, The Golden Rider, Radiant Rider-Waite Tarot, all by U.S. Games, Inc.
• Early RWS spin-offs: Aquarian Tarot by David Palladini, Morgan-Greer Tarot, Hanson-Roberts Tarot, all by U.S. Games, Inc.
• Facsimiles of early 20^th century RWS decks by U.S. Games, Inc: The Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Set and The Original Rider-Waite Tarot Set

 Game Decks

• Tarocco Bolognese by Dal Negro or Modiano.
• Tarocchino Milanese by Masenghini
• Tarocchi Poliplastiche by Masenghini
• Tarocco Piemontese by Modiano
• Any Tarock deck

 The Cartomancy Resources page has links for purchasing decks. 

The first stop on our tour of new productions is Japan and the Institute of Study on Initiation and Symbolism (ISIS).  Examples of founder Tadahiro Onuma’s deck are scattered throughout his class descriptions. There’s a link on the Home page to a shopping cart for purchasing either a majors only or a 78-card deck.         

Next, we’ll go half way around the globe to Israel where Yoav Ben-Dov has revitalized the 1760 Convers deck with a faithful-to-the-original update known as the CBD TdM.

Naturellement, France, the home of the TdM, offers the largest selection of decks.

The majors-only Millenium Tarot was created by Wilfried Houdouin as the quintessential TdM after he spent years carefully analyzing 18th-century decks in Europe’s museums. He’s written a gorgeously illustrated book to accompany the deck, Le Code Sacre du Tarot, that discusses tarot in light of sacred geometry and number and color symbolism. I’ve heard an English version is in the works. He shares a gallery of historic decks with the next website.

The only deck listed here that isn’t a modern re-creation is a photo reproduction of the Pierre Madenie deck by Yves Renaud. This 1709 deck published in Dijon and now in the Swiss National Museum of Zurich is a direct ancestor of the 1760 Convers TdM. Renaud plans to issue more photo facsimiles of early 17^th cent decks in coming years. The website gallery has scans and historical background of several rare museum decks that most of us will never have the opportunity to see in person.

Let’s not forget the Noblet and Dodal decks lovingly restored several years ago by the late Jean-Claude Flornoy. These decks are direct ancestors of the Convers TdM and a bridge between whatever went before and the standard TdM we use today.

Philippe Camoin, a direct descendant of Convers, has done a couple of re-creations of his ancestor’s TdM. The easiest to obtain is the version he did with Alexandre Jodorowsky in 1997.

All of these decks are limited editions that can be purchased directly from the creator. Many of the deck creators participate in the “Marseilles and Other Early Decks” forum at Aeclectic’s Tarotforum where you can read the reactions of deck owners. As far as I know, everyone is very pleased with the beauty and quality of all these decks.

I hope you’ll browse these websites and maybe even purchase a little Tarot de Marseilles magic for yourself.

The Card of the Week is a column that is intended to serve as a resource for people beginning a relationship with the Tarot, as well as for those who just have an appreciation and enthusiasm for the Tarot, wanting to understand the process an intuitive uses to read the cards (I explain to clients that every Tarot reader approaches and reads the cards differently, and explain my process).

the Tell-Me Tarot Deck, U. S. Games, 2008.

I am continuing to use my go-to deck for this column, The Tell-Me Tarot Deck. The cards in this deck have the meanings written at the bottom of the cards, which I think can be useful to a beginner Tarot consultant.

Once again, I am asking the question that has become the standard for the column: “What does the Tarot wish to share with us for the column this week?”

This week, the card drawn a card from the Minor Arcana, the 5 of Cups. Some of you may recall that last week’s card was also from the Minor Arcana, and also from the suit of Cups. The Minor Arcana speaks to our everyday way of living; Cups is the suit that is connected to our hearts, our feelings, emotions, and all manner of relationships. This is what is on the card:

Five of Cups-Melancholy (-): You feel depressed as you focus on the negative.

Recognize the positive aspects and you will feel better.

There is one thing I’d like to mention, with regard to the Minor Arcana, for those of you considering to take up the study of Tarot; it is a bit of advice I like to give to my students and

the 5 of Cups, from the Tarot de Marseiiles--an example of a non-scenic, pip card

budding readers. There are two types of Minor Arcana decks when considering purchasing a deck. One type is what we called Pip cards, or non-scenic cards. Using our card for the week, a non-scenic 5 of Cups will just have five cups arranged on the card, and the reader is left to determine what that arrangement might mean. The other type (and the one I recommend) is what is known as scenic cards. If you look at our 5 of Cups from the Tell-Me Tarot Deck, you will see an illustration, something going on in the picture. This makes reading the card much easier, as there is more visual information to gather.

And since we are talking about pictures, let’s take a look at what’s going on in the picture on our card this week. In the picture, a man gazes at a table that has three overturned cups, their contents spilling all over the tablecloth. He has one hand on the table, and the other against his head, as if he is upset that he could not save the contents of the cups. Meanwhile, behind him, sunlight shines through an open window, onto a shelf that is holding two more cups the man seems to not notice.

Just as the card states, the man is focusing on the negative, which is what has been lost from the cups. I interpret this to mean that something has been lost, and it cannot be recovered (the spillage). The man is wasting his energy focusing on this loss, because that won’t get it back. It’s gone and he can’t change it. So, a question to consider, with this card, is What have you lost that you can’t get back? Remember, too, that Cups rule the emotions, so consider the emotions that might be attached to this. Typically, it’s sadness, pain, hurt, disappointment, regret or remorse. When this card comes up, an individual may be mourning or grieving some kind of loss, unable to really let it go, which would be something connected to the past.

Focus on what you have, not on what you no longer possess

There is another aspect of this card to consider. What about the cups on the shelf? This can imply that there is something else the man still possesses, and he would realize it, if only he changed his focus. The message here is to look at what one still has instead on what is gone. The past is the past, and that can’t be changed; there is still the present (and the future) to consider. It’s all a matter of what we focus on, where we place our attention. Are we going to focus on the past or the present and the possibility of the future? We get to decide.

As always, I like to present some affirmations for your consideration for the week:

• I release the things I cannot change.
• I am changing my focus from the negative to the positive.
• I learn from the past, and then let it go.
• I no longer hold on to the past.
• I embrace the present, and all it has to offer.
• I am grateful for what I have in life.
• I no longer cry over spilled milk.
• What I focus on, I get more of.

The question I leave you with, to consider for the week, is: What are you placing your focus/attention on, the negative or the positive? Either way, you’re going to get more of it.

If you enjoyed viewing the 5 of Cups card from the Tell-Me Tarot, you can gain more information about the deck at amazon.com.

See you next week with another card of the week!

Helping you to shift your focus,

James

I was poised to write up the next installment of my favourite decks when a new treasure landed on my doorstep like a meteor this week and I find that I cannot think of anything else except this beauty. It is number 232 of a 3,000 limited edition print run by Yves Reynaud and Wilfried Houdouin of an unknown Tarot de Marseilles, the earliest of the so-called Tarot de Marseilles, type II. There is one copy, (from which this deck was reproduced) complete with original wrapper, in the Schweizerisches Landesmuseum, Zurich (see Kaplan, Encyclopedia of Tarot, Volume II, p 314-315) and there is another similar copy  – which may or may not be the exact same deck – lacking the Trumps, and housed in The British Museum. This is a facsimilie reproduction and apparently one of a series of historic decks which researcher Yves Reynaud and graphic designer/technician Wilfried Houdouin (who corrected and adapted the images) plan on issuing over the next few years. They have recently launched their elegant and informative website where a number of the proposed decks can now be seen. I knew absolutely nothing about this deck but when I opened it up I had the sense that this must be the most (not “one of”) beautiful and beautifully produced historic deck reproduction that I have ever seen. The sturdy two part box depicting vibrantly-coloured Bateleur (a taste of the riches to come) are soon upstaged once you lift off the lid and – like a trumpet fanfare – the baroque angels on the delicately reproduced paper wrapper announce the arrival of something very special indeed; “Fine Tarot Cards, made by Pierre Madenié, working near the cemetery of Notre Dame at Dijon, cardmaker for the Lord Duke, Governor of the Province of Burgundy.” Think of this as the overture to something fabulous.

It was one of those memorable tarot days I shall remember forever, when the arrival of a beautiful and rare deck spread its magic throughout the rest of the day. All afternoon at work I caught myself thinking of the sumptuousness that awaited me, eager to rush home, package clutched to chest, and wallow in tarot history undisturbed, maybe spread out some of my other favourite Tarot de Marseilles decks across the bed and throw myself at the High Altar of Historic Deck Comparison (one of my favourite pastime). This is one of those decks where, as one of the earliest decks of its type (approximately half a century before the Conver Marseilles) and replete with curious details, you continually pounce on things to decipher and wonder whether these details are in fact tantalising references to even earlier themes and motifs that might, just might, provide a missing link with even earlier decks (the Jacques Vieville Tarot – with its exotic flounces –  has this same kind of magic for me, and there is something about the engraver’s line in this deck that reminds me of the Jacques Vieville Tarot).

For example, one of the things that first jumped out at me was the headpiece of the “Cavalier de Denier”. I have never seen one like this before. Is it made of fabric? Why the cross on the front? It immediately made me think of the Templar Knights, and also links the symbol to the gloves of le Pape. Also, I notice that one of the bells from le Mat’s cape has detached itself and rolled onto the ground. Why on earth should that be? I know of no other version of the card like this. Maybe it was always there and gradually got obscured by blotches of printers’ ink until finally, one engraver simply forgot to include it? The Valet of Cups, tip-toeing over barren ground, has a bejewelled headband with ribbons fluttering – as do the ribbons of his garters –  in the breeze, (different from the same valets in the Dodal and the Conver who sport a simple crown of flowers.)

The faces on this deck are very sharp and expressive – with some of the characters smiling slightly -  something which endears them across the centuries. The refined lines in the Pierre Madenié Tarot de Marseilles make some of its cousins (like the Dodal) look rather brutish and rough. This is one of those rare things, a warm historic deck, not austere and remote; it has a weathered humanity, softened brows, gentle peerings and dimples. It is quite something for a historic deck to feel this immediate, this alive and yet not to be a cleaned up version of a historic deck with all the faces scrubbed and tweaked. The reproduction captures the age of the deck, but the rich ochre and red, along with the sharpness of the engraver’s line, lift the characters off from the gentle, creamy background and make them seem full of life and stories. Eyes for me are the key to a historic deck which I can use to read with and you sense that the focus of the gazes in the Pierre Madenié Tarot de Marseilles is explicitly beyond the card frames, so this deck will be perfect for the kind of reading where cards interact with each other, court cards beckon to each other across pips and establish a single, concise line of vision. I love how many of these cards bear the ghosts of other cards. I imagined this deck stored in a pile in the Swiss archives and the outline images of cards have bled into the neighbouring cards; we see the ghost of the Roy de Denier peeping over the shoulder of the Reyne de Denier as she tries to keep her concentration fixed on the coin. We see a phantom vision of Trump VI, Lamoureux, reenacted behind Le Mat. We see the ghost of the Bateleur peering over the shoulder of the Queen of Wands, like those spirit photographs where the ghostly form of a relative appears peeping over someone’s shoulder in a family snap taken a week after they passed away. These eerie imprints run throughout the deck and create a captivating binding effect as you start to recognise faces from other cards and wonder which valet it is that you can make out in the background. Yves in correspondence told me the following;

“Regarding “ghost traces,” Wilfried and I discussed this matter during our research and we conclude that this could not be a bleeding of one card to another as you suppose. We prefer to think about a more economical reason: As papers were rather expensive and more specifically the top paper used for figures of cards (and the back of cards too), cardmakers decided to re-use some pieces of paper already printed in black only but which were maybe wrongly cut or with minor defaults. So they decided (not only Pierre Madenié but also some other Master cardmakers) to place this piece of paper printed inside the card and glue the correct top paper onto it, this top paper being later colored in by stencil technique. Up to 3 or 4 pieces of paper were used inside the card as to hide details of figures (they were black colored for this) and so players didn’t know details of the game of the other gamers. It would also increase the rigidity and weight of the card. Our theory is only a theory of course…” 

Every single aspect of this deck is flawless; the colouring, the cardstock, the packaging, the faultlessly centred cards; not a single card has slightly off-set borders as often happens with these historic decks. The backs have that unintrusive, standardised, geometric pattern and, like the front of the cards, have a slightly off-white background. It is extremely rare to receive a deck that thrills us in every criteria we can think of and more besides. The cardstock is the perfect thickness and yet the deck as a whole feels quite light and it shuffles beautifully. The corners are square and each card measures 6.5 cm x 12.2 cm plus there are two extra cards which tell a brief history of the deck – one in French, one in English – and which bear the number of the deck, plus an additional card advertising the book Le Code Sacré du Tarot by Wilfried Houdouin. How often do we see a deck this beautiful reproduced to such a high standard? There is usually something that niggles, that we wish was slightly different, but not here. With this deck, those angels triumphantly holding crest aloft really do herald jubilation and crown a Tarot de Marseilles deck that I am sure will now be up there with the best of them.

My New Year’s Day card was the Ace of Swords – the perfect talisman for someone who has just resolved to do more writing and blogging in 2012. So far this week I’ve used two of my favorite techniques with this card.

I shuffled just the minor arcana of the Soprafino deck while asking for a message about how I can support Ace of Swords energy in my life during the week. When the deck felt well-shuffled, I went through it card by card until I found the Ace of Swords, and pulled it out along with the cards on either side of it. This gave me a spread where the cards work together synergistically rather than being compartmentalized into separate spread positions. Then I took the sum of the three cards (10) and found the corresponding trump card (Wheel of Fortune) to give me the theme of the reading.

The Ace of swords look like it’s emerging from the Six of Cups – a background of steady emotional energy and deep commitment. The intellectual inspiration of the Ace is carrying me toward the Three of Swords where I work happily on various writing projects.

I was a bit mortified to find myself identifying with the fox on the wheel frantically trying to keep up with all his tasks and deadlines while chasing after material rewards. But then I saw the wheel balanced on the sword tip in place of the crown, reminding me it’s better to be at the center of the wheel instead of spinning around on the rim; better to choose how I spend my time instead of just reacting to whatever task or opportunity is in my face at the moment.

The Wheel of Fortune is also about lucky breaks and sudden opportunities. I’ve gotten lots of little insights and creative inspirations this week, but I really want the skies to part and a thunderbolt hit me with a major inspiration. That sounds like a topic for another reading with the Wheel of Fortune as the significator!

To sum up the techniques:

• Decide on a card to signify your question. Shuffle then pull the significator out of the deck with the two flanking cards. Read as a unified story.
• Add up the sum of the cards and read the corresponding major arcana card to give a larger view, a theme, or wise counsel.

On another note, I’d like to mention one of my favorite tarot and astrology resources. I’ve been reading cards for myself for about forty years and think I can do it better than most anyone since I know myself better. But if I want an incredibly insightful and down-to-earth reading from a pro I call on Rebecca at Enchanted Spirit.com. Subscribers to this site get an amazing amount of astrological and tarot information every week. I couldn’t live without her reminders of the planetary transits several times a week. She also sends out a tarot card for the day and the week, a weekly reading, and an in-depth reading every month with your choice of spreads. If I feel like giving myself a reading but I’m at a loss for what topic to explore, I often use her emailed readings as a jumping off point for my own explorations. If you’re a tarot reader interested in astrology, this website is a wonderful resource.

Early 19th Century Italian Tarot

The game of Tarot experienced a revolutionary change in the late 1700s when players turned their backs on the traditional Tarot de Marseilles in favor of the Tarock deck, or Tarot Nouveau, as it’s called in France. In this deck, the four suits are ordinary playing card pips of hearts, spades, diamonds and clubs; while the twenty-two trumps have decorative and fanciful images completely unrelated to traditional Italian tarot.

Northern Italy was dominated by France politically and economically for centuries; then in the early 19th century it was tossed back and forth between France and Austria like a political volleyball. Because of French cultural and political dominance, Italians were forced to play traditional Italian card games with the French Tarot de Marseilles (TdM). Card printers dealt with complex tax regulations that constantly changed with the political climate. Specific cards had to have a special tax stamp which was re-designed with every regime change. Card makers applied to the government for a license, and the lucky few were given monopolies as long as they kept up with the constantly changing regulations. At times, printers were told what style of tarot deck to print, and at one point cards had to be printed on specially watermarked paper supplied by the government.

By the 19th century, the tarot game’s popularity was diminishing in France, so the decks were no longer considered an important commodity. Regulations and design requirements became less burdensome, allowing Italian card makers to innovate or revert to more traditional designs such as the Italian suits of Coins, Cups, Swords and Batons.

The rising middle class created a market for reasonably priced prints, illustrated books and lavishly illustrated playing cards. Copper engraving was favored because it gave detailed, refined images that suited the tastes of the time. Wood block printing became associated with cheaper, lower-quality products. Southern Germany, especially Nuremberg and Augsburg, was the center of the printing industry. Most innovations originated there, and the region produced the highest quality engravings.

Gumppenberg and Dellarocca

Ferdinand Gumppenberg was trained in German print shops before immigrating to Milan in 1809. His attempts to convert conservative Italians to the new tarock deck fell flat; but he was able to introduce the German tradition of commissioning decks from well-known illustrators and engravers. In 1835 he commissioned a tarot deck from the engraver Carlo Dellarocca.

Dellarocca was a highly regarded Milanese engraver/illustrator who learned his craft from Giuseppe Longhi, a prominent engraver and professor of art. Dellarocca was not as famous as his teacher, so his life has not been well documented. We don’t know his birth date, and most references say he died some time after 1824, so it’s possible that the plates he engraved for his tarot cards were not used until after his death. The DeYoung Museum in San Francisco, CA owns Dellarocca’s engraving Christ Bound to the Cross after Ercole Procaccini. His book illustrations can be seen in auction catalogs when these books come up for sale.

Gumppenberg/Dellarocca Deck

Dellarocca created several unique tarot images that have no precedent in other decks. In his article Exploring the Alphabetical Tarot, Mark Filipas theorizes that objects appeared in Tarot de Marseilles trump cards because their name starts with the letter of the Hebrew alphabet associated with that card. He claims that the presence of most of the objects unique to Dellarocca’s cards can be explained with this theory.

Unique features of Dellarocca’s deck design:

• The Bagatto is a cobbler standing in front of a work table strewn with the tools of his trade. There’s a jug on the table and the cobbler hoists a large glass of wine.
• The Lover stands between his sweetheart and a king who rests his hand on his shoulder. The young man’s clothing announces his divided loyalties. He wears tights and pouffy pants, but also a helmet and armored corselet. He seems to be torn between love and duty – following Cupid’s call or the demands of his king, who may also be his father.
• Justice’s body is tilted slightly, as is her sword and scales. She has an eye in the center of her collar.
• The Hermit carries a little open flame in a holder instead of a lantern.
• The Strength card is more dynamic than the traditional Tarot de Marseilles image. The woman straddles the lion with a fierce expression on her face. One of her bare feet presses down on the lion’s back. The lion’s front leg is raised and he is resisting her efforts to pry his jaws open.
• The skeleton on the Death card is sweeping up symbols of human pride and vanity like jewelry, a bishop’s miter, books, artist’s palette, weapons, and medals. The card is labeled Il Tredici (Thirteen) to avoid using the word “Death”.
• The Devil card has several symbols commonly associated with him: the trident, ass’s ears, snaky hair, a furry skirt, clawed feet, monsters and hell fire.
• The Moon retains the towers and dogs from the TdM, but the scene is an estuary and one of the towers is a lighthouse. The dogs seem to be in a walled garden, and a boiled lobster rests on a large silver platter on the ground.
• On the Sun card, a carefree young couple dances in a walled garden under a bright sun that is burning away the last of the clouds.
• The pip cards are delicate and refined. The court cards conform to tradition, but they have more individuality and personality than most decks. The tax stamp and Gumppenberg’s and Dellarocca’s names are on the King of Rods card.

Contemporary Reproductions

Gumppenberg

The most authentic reproduction of the original Gumppenberg deck was produced by Il Meneghello in 1992 in an edition of 2,000 called Il Tarocco Soprafino of F. Gumppenberg. Lo Scarabeo produced a photo-reproduction in 1999 called the Classical Tarot which is still in print. The Lo Scarabeo cards are larger and brighter, making it easier to see the details. The background is lighter and the age marks and stains are cleaned up. But their appearance is marred by Lo Scarabeo’s typical wide left border with the card name repeated in several languages.

Bordoni reprinted Gumppenberg’s deck in 1889. Then in 1981, Il Solleone reproduced Bordoni’s deck in an edition of 2,500 called the Tarocchino Lombardo.

Dotti

In 1847, Gummppenberg turned his workshop over to his son-in-law, Lamperti, who ran it from 1848 to 1861. About this same time, Teodoro Dotti set up a competing print shop. He may have been a former employee of Gumppenberg who went out on his own. He printed knock-offs of Dellarocca’s design, as well as the traditional French TdM, and decks that blended design elements from Dellarocca and the TdM. We don’t know if Gumppenberg authorized Dotti to use Dellarocca’s designs, or if Dotti pirated design elements to incorporate into his own decks. The Dotti firm was operated by various family members until about 1883 when it was acquired by E. Colombo who continued to print the same decks for many years.

Il Meneghello has reproduced two Dotti decks that borrow design elements from Dellarocca.

In 1985, Il Meneghello reproduced an 1845 Dotti deck, the Tarocco Italiano. This deck is very similar to Dellarocca’s original engravings, but is even more delicate and refined and has cleaner, simpler lines. The Devil card is like the Tarot de Marseilles, and Temperance is called L’Intemperanza, a detail found on many Dotti decks. De Vecchi Editore produced a large version of this deck with a booklet by Laura Tuan.

The Gioco di Tarocchi is Il Meneghello’s reproduction of an 1850 deck. The accompanying booklet gives a history of the Dotti firm, implying that this is a Dotti deck. The booklet also says this deck was the standard Milanese Tarot until the end of 19th century. This is a fairly crude wood block deck that mostly conforms to the Tarot de Marseilles pattern with touches of Dellarocca’s design: a king on the Lover’s card, Strength wrestling with the lion, and a couple dancing on the Sun card. A unique feature is Death labeled Ugualianza (Equality).

In the mid-1800s, Dellarocca’s design innovations were adopted by numerous printers such as Dotti, Milese, Lamperti, and Negri. Some printers created a hybrid of the Tarot de Marseilles and Dellarocca, while others just used a few details from Dellarocca. The most popular design elements incorporated into these decks were Justice’s tilted body, the Bagatto’s wine cup, and the dancing couple on the Sun card. These hybrid decks have not been reproduced but can be seen in Stuart Kaplan’s Encyclopedia of Tarot Volume II, pages 360 to 368.

Avondo Brothers

A version of Dellarocca’s deck was produced in 1880 by the Avondo Brothers of Serravalle-Sesia, a small town known for its card production. It was reproduced in 2001 by Lo Scarabeo and is still in print as the Ancient Italian Tarot. This deck has enough unique features to put it in its own niche.

The Trumps are nearly identical to the Dellarocca/Gumppenberg deck except for having Arabic numbers in the corners as well as roman numerals top center. The Emperor and most kings have beards and longer hair than in Dellarocca’s designs, giving them a more mature appearance. The lines are less refined and the images are more robust.

The Avondo Brothers gave the pip cards some unique features. The Ace of Cups is unlike that of any other deck. A cherub sits in a window cut in the side of a large chalice that has dolphins at the base. The cups in the rest of the suit have blue jewels on their bowls. The suit of Batons is decorated with gold plaques, red hearts and filigrees instead of the usual flowers and leaves. The center enclosure in the even numbered swords cards has an oak or laurel branch instead of a flower as in most decks. The Ace of Coins has the tax stamp and Winged Mercury in the center of the coin. The vegetation throughout the pip cards is heavier and more lavish than in any other deck.

Game Decks

Dellarocca’s designs have infiltrated modern game decks. Modiano publishes a double-headed Tarocco Piemontese that has a few Dellarocca flourishes: The Bagatto hoists a wine cup and the king appears on the Lovers card.

The Tarocchino Milanese printed by Masenghini is a reprint of an inexpensive woodblock deck Masenghini published in the late 19th century. The deck follows Dellarocca closely except for the Moon which is in the Tarot de Marseilles style. The pip cards have minimal decoration.

The double-headed Tarot Genoves produced by Fratelli Armanini in 1887 is a unique blend of Dellarocca and the Avondo Brothers. The double-headed trump cards and two suits follow Dellarocca closely, while the suits of coins and swords are taken from the Avondo Brothers’ design.

Purchasing Information

Llewellyn is the American distributor of Lo Scarabeo decks. The Tarot Garden carries some Il Meneghello decks. The best source for Il Meneghello’s decks is Alida.

References

Depaulis, Thierry. Il Tarocco Piemontese, in Il Castello dei Tarocchi. Andrea Vitali, editor. Torino: Lo Scarabeo, 2010.

Kaplan, Stuart. Encyclopedia of Tarot, Volumes I, II, III and IV.

For more information on the historical context of these decks see the Tarot de Marseilles page in the History section of this website.

A complete Avondo Brothers deck (The Ancient Italian Tarot published by Lo Scarabeo) has been uploaded to the Tarot-Heritage Facebook page.

U.S. Games Systems, Inc, which holds the copyright for the Rider Waite Smith deck, has some kind of link with the playing card publisher AGMuller. AGM published the 1JJ deck and is a European distributor of U.S. Games decks. I think someone at U.S. Games told AGMuller they needed to include a “Little White Book” (LWB) with their deck for people who planned to use it for divination, then suggested they just translate the Rider Waite Smith booklet.

The translator obviously didn’t bother to look at the 1JJ deck. As in all TdM’s, the Fool and Magician cards are labeled Le Mat and Le Bateleur. The LWB lists the first major arcana card as Le Bateleur, but gives divinatory meanings like folly, lack of discipline and delirium, that obviously refer to the Fool/Le Mat. Then, the divinatory meanings that belong to Le Bateleur are attributed to a card called Le Mage, a term which does not exist in any Tarot de Marseilles deck, but is a direct translation of The Magician from the RWS booklet.

In its favor, the card meanings for the major arcana and the court cards in the 1JJ booklet are fleshed out more than in the Waite Smith booklet and they don’t follow the Waite Smith meanings slavishly. But things fall apart with the divinatory meanings for the pip cards.

Here’s what the Rider Waite Smith booklet says about the Eight of Wands: “a flight of wands through an open country. Activity in undertakings, swiftness, an express messenger, great haste.” You can see that in the card.

Here’s what the 1JJ booklet says about the same card: “Diligent activity, swiftness, decisions made rapidly.” Sorry, but I just don’t see anything swift or rapid in that heavy mass of crossed rods that are locked together in the center.

Bottom line: You can’t count on the booklet that comes with your deck to tell you anything relevant about your cards. In fact, it may very well lead you astray.

Does anyone have another candidate for worst LWB?

Gettings’ method is all about analyzing the underlying structure of each card. When you reduce an image to its basic geometric shapes you can see how the parts relate to the whole and read astrological or alchemical symbols into the image, adding layers of meaning.

Lay a sheet of tracing paper or vellum over a card and draw the basic outlines. It’s easy to get caught up in tracing more details than you need, so I stood as far from the paper as I could and squinted my eyes to make the card even blurrier. Here’s what I got by tracing the Justice card from a standard red, white and blue Tarot de Marseilles. I was surprised to see the sword blend into the upright post of the chair and the scales recede into the background. The two most iconic details of the card quickly lost their prominence. The pans of the scale reduce to crescent moons, and the gold chain around the figure’s neck pops out. There’s something rather insect-like about the position of the chair back and her arms.

Gettings emphasized the curve of the top of the chair back and he drew the figure’s body as one large circle, making it into the symbol for Taurus (see the image at the top of the article). This is an outstanding example of emphasizing some details and suppressing others to get the result you’re looking for.

It’s even more fun to do this technique with the pips. Here’s the Nine of Coins from three different decks. The first example on the left is traced from the same standard Tarot de Marseilles as the Justice card above. The central coin is completely enclosed. Is it being protected, or smothered, or is it emerging from a cave or birth canal? The middle image is traced from an 1804 Swiss Tarot de Marseilles. It’s completely plain with just coins and no extra decoration. The central coin seems to oscillate between the two groups of four coins, or maybe it’s being tossed back and forth like a beach ball. Something new has entered the world of the Eight of Coins and they don’t know what to do with it. In the Soprafino card on the right, two stalks of vegetation aim at the central coin, setting it apart from the two squares of four coins each, making it seem special.

I didn’t see any hidden code or astrological symbols in my tracings, but this exercise helped me see card details in a new light and encouraged me to think more creatively about what those details might mean.

If you experiment with this technique, I’d love to hear what you learned from it.

First and foremost, you need to be able to relate to the court cards as living personalities. Interpreting the court cards is hard enough without having to deal with stiff, archaic figures that don’t resemble anyone in your universe. Can you make up stories about the court cards in your deck? Can you picture them interacting with each other in various situations? In my opinion, most traditional TdMs are too flat and stylized (see the 1761 TdM in the upper right of the photo). Most of the court cards in the Visconti-Sforza deck are generic International Gothic types with round white faces, vacant eyes, and tight yellow curls. Some of the most expressive court cards are in the 1835 Soprafino deck by Carlo Della Rocca (lower right) and the Tarot 1JJ (lower left). French and Spanish publishers like Fournier and France Jeux have been coming out with updated cards that have a casual, contemporary feel (upper left).

 I have a few “touchstone” trump cards that have a special, personal significance. If these cards don’t work for me, it ruins the entire deck, no matter how wonderful the rest of the cards are. The Visconti-Sforza deck is a no-go because of the guy on the Strength card who appears to be whacking a lion with his club. But I love the Strength figure in the Soprafino deck with that crazed, maniacal look in her eyes. She’s in mortal combat with the lion, who’s fighting back, not standing like a passive pussycat as in so many other decks.

Is there a trump card you especially identify with? You’ll want to look at that card in numerous decks to see what works for you. Some cards, like the Sun, Moon and Tower have radically different imagery, depending on the deck; while some like the Empress and Hanged Man changed very little from the 15^th to 19^th centuries.

Unless you’re going to rely on numerology or geometry to interpret the pip cards, you probably want something with a little more personality than just the bare-naked suit symbols, like the Neoclassical card at the far left. You’d be amazed how far a few leaves and flowers can go in helping to interpret the pips. My vote for the pips with the most personality: The Universal Tarot de Marseille (a re-colored 1751 Burdel Tarot de Marseilles), the Soprafino, and the Tarot 1JJ, shown above in that order.

Have you purchased a historic deck recently? Why were you were attracted to it? What are your favorite trumps or court cards?

Let’s see this technique in action with a one-card reading for someone who has been dragging his feet on an important project and is wondering why it’s taking so long to accomplish anything. I pulled the Four of Cups from my favorite soprafino deck, then pulled out the corresponding card from a Tarot de Marseilles and Giovanni Vacchetta’s deck. (Complete deck information at the bottom of the page).

The first thing I do is look closely at each card to get its individual message.

The four cups in the Soprafino deck are off in their own corners and not interacting with each other. The two little red flowers have their backs to us, while the large blue flowers are held protectively in the curved leaves and seem rather shy and afraid to come out in public. The large red bulb at the bottom of the stalk shows strong emotional energy, but I don’t see it being expressed in the rest of the card.

In the Tarot de Marseilles, the two upper cups are about to fly off the top of the card. The large leaves hovering protectively over the two lower cups seem to be stifling them and not letting anything in or out. The top and bottom of the card seem disconnected.

The woman on Vacchetta’s card is burdened with a huge bowl on her head and she seems to be responsible for three other overly-large vases or tureens. She either has too much of a good thing, or she’s taken on much more than she can handle.

Next, I look for a core message that unites all the cards. In these three cards I see emotional reticence and inhibition. But each card has its own angle that opens up various paths to explore. The soprafino card tells me the Seeker really wants to do this project but may be sabotaging himself out of fear of success. He may be afraid to expose his ideas to public scrutiny and is hanging onto them protectively. I see a lack of support from friends and colleagues in the Tarot de Marseilles. Vachetta’s deck suggests that the project is big and complicated and needs to be broken down into manageable chunks. The three voices with their diverse but complementary opinions offer plenty of inspiration for brainstorming solutions to the problem.

Do you see something different in these cards? Let us hear about it.

I love reading for myself with the comparative method when I have extra time to really contemplate the cards. It feels like brainstorming with several friends who are all focused on my issue with their own unique perspectives.

The comparative method of card reading was invented by Valeri Sim and discussed at length in her book Tarot Outside the Box published by Llewellyn in 2004. There’s a Yahoogroups discussion list dedicated to comparing the same cards from different decks, and a Comparative Tarot deck that gives you four cards in one for an instant comparative reading.

The three decks used in this reading were published by Lo Scarabeo:

Universal Tarot of Marseille (recoloring of Claude Burdel’s 1751 deck)

Ancient Italian Tarot (Soprafino tarot designed by Carlo Della Rocca in 1835)

Tarot of the Master (I Naibi di Giovanni Vacchetta, 1893)

Is anyone here on the Comparative Tarot list? I participated for several years until life got too hectic and I had to drop out. But I still miss the friendly, casual atmosphere.

If you try this technique, I’d love to hear how it works for you.