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Tarot Study
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Contents
- Hints for investigating or studying tarot pictures on your own
- Studying the Marseilles tarot pictures
Supporting "well medleys" are
presupposed throughout:A historical Tarot deck investigated
Below is a source of much after-thought. The numbering of the images that follow, is the same as Dr Sigurd Agrell uses. [Agr] Others number them differently, and present some of the images in a different order.You may come to ask yourself, "What do these images mean?" That's a good question, and it has got a lot of answers in time too. Feel free to ponder it yourself. Here are some cues for it:
- The frame, that is, the setting or surroundings may explain things.
- Find out what these persons do and what they are up to.
- The posture and grimaces can be suggestive.
- Study the equipment and insignia each one has.
There is more to find out of too. In each picture you may find keys through a more or less detailed study of what these persons wear - and where.
- The "head-gear", if such a word exists. The prowess or hardest might could be represented through it. And prowess can make fit.
- The kind of collar or pendant (neck jewelry) is shown? Is it big, functional or impressive? What does it represent, in case?
- The shoulders. How are they? Are they fine, impressive or worse? What are they covered with, and how? Do they represent anything in particular, in your opinion?
- The breast(s), sides and the front part (biceps area) of the upper arms. The arms that carry something in them, show things through it. Tarot 4 shows a shield. It represents a need for coverage etc.
- The broad chest, the arms or hands and what they carry. The items that are held or carried, represent steady influence. The iconic figure of Tarot 5 carries a sceptre, which is a club, basically, and holds on to his belt. A shield is beside his throne. If good coverage or shielding is attained, one may focus on going for gold, which is shown by the items, and represents real, good value. "Get rich" is one of the finest messages from the items in the hands, how the hands are held, and what occupies or covers the chest.
- The thighs and hips and what is covering them, and what they suggest, all in all.
You may want to know more of this ancient 'iconography' for allround upright and hopefully successful living. If so, historical studies of tarot is fraught with difficulties, and thus may not be too helpful. Basic reasons for that are given below. And still, some over-arching grasp of what is known of the tarot history is fit, and will limit the study too.
Suggestive validations
The Marseilles pictures
Most tarot pictures that we show on this page, are from the old Marselles cards (drawn in the early 1700s) and originating in the 1400s in Italy, it is held. It means we lose track of handed-over tarot pictures in Venice or Italy at that time. The pictures we show are taken from one of the most popular versions, and have been "reconstructed" in that the pictures are made colourful in special ways, and there is more detail, for example by way of esoteric symbols.The Marseilles tarot pictures are among the oldest that are still in use. As mentioned, they originated in medieval times, where the earliest extant cards date from 15th century Italy. From that time and for several centuries, tarot cards were neither named nor numbered, and thus it is uncertain which pattern represents the original sequence of pictures.
Before the modern printing press, each town would have its own woodblock printer. "Each deck was made by hand from that printer's carved wood block designs. Everyone in a given town would have the same designs, however, another town would have a slightly different version." Thus, early manufacturers copied from each other; it was a process that allowed errors to creep in.
Early designs also reflect parts of a social hierarchy, virtues thought well of, Biblical and other allusions, astrology and perhaps even alchemy.
The Marseilles pictures were produced in Marseilles, and quite similar pictures in Lyon, and so on - they were two of several early variations of the picture series. Many of the Marseilles pictures echo the earliest designs from the 1400s.
The Waite-Smith pictures
By contrast, a certain Arthur Edward Waite (1910) did not just not go to the oldest known tarot pictures. Instead he conceived of his own pictures and had an artist, Pamela Colman Smith, help him draw them under his guidance. Waite writes: "The Tarot cards ["I refer to" ] have been drawn and coloured by Miss Pamela Colman Smith". Some would say that (1) he restored ancient ideas of the pictures. (2) Others might say he put a lot of new items and ideas into them by assertions. And some could say (3) there is a blend of (1) and (2).One aspect of what happened is easy to ascertain by comparing with the older tarot picture from the Marseilles deck. Waite and Smith put emblems and insignia and tokens of ideas into the images and shaped them anew. Many of their pictures from what is called the the minor arcana (a series of 22 pictures) do suggest an Egyptian ancestry at the bottom of the tarot.
The open question is how valid Waite-Smith's inclusive approach can be. It would depend on evidence of old too. However, we easily see he had many opinions - embodied them in his pictures - that is is really impossible to read into the older Marseilles pictures of the 1700s.
A variegated situation
Many beginner tarot books are written for the Waite-Smith (also called Rider-Waite) deck or one of its derivates, but the interpretations should apply to the much older Marseilles too, if one aim is reducing speculations put into the pictures. Now, books written before the appearance of the Waite-Smith (alias Rider-Waite) deck were usually written for the Marseilles deck.You may think the validation problem over a little bit; below are 22 old pictures from the Marseilles tarot picture in a series. There may be no easy answers to all the interesting topics at hand, but still food for thought. If so, it is a good thing to "live with that", keep some problems floating, that is, in suspense. That would be a mark of a mature being.
ONE MORE MENTION: I have learnt to prefer older Tarot pictures to over a hundred
different recent ones. Enjoy the incongruence! - TK.
Studying the Marseilles tarot pictures
1
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| 1 |
Waite-Smith (right) places the wanderer without his stick, but with intact
trousers, on a far more uneven path, or in a far more dangerous situation (scenery),
and puts butterfly wings into his attire. He holds a flower in his hand, not a
stick. A sun behind him and mountains are found too. Waite asserts: "Mysteries are
summarized in this card." According to him it shows someone full of intelligence in
operation.
2
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| 2 |
If you wish to study pictures better, here is a major approach: [LINK]
If you want to learn to study a picture "like a text", you may find some nuggets here: [LINK]
Here is basic help; reflect and suggest:
- What do you see? What is the man doing?
- What are his equipments?
- What sort of person could this be? What is he expressing or showing?
- Where is he - indoors or outdoors, for example?
- If you should conclude (neatly), what is it all about?
3
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| 3 |
A woman is seated, holding a book. There is a crown - presumably a golden crown studded with jewels, on her head. She is very well clothed, and there is a cloth behind her too. The focus that is suggested, may be on the book, or the book could signify the ability to read, and thus understand many things that are not there - not at the place.
Suggestions: Study the frame she is inside. Try to see what she is doing, and study her posture in that connection too. Find the potent things she carries or is surrounded by. They may hold the keys to better understanding.
We will now go into many problems surrounding Tarot pictures. First take a look at the picture to the left and see it has to do with STUDY in one form or another. Get a "feel" of it and what matters in it.
A. E. Waite:
"She has the lunar crescent at her feet, a horned diadem on her head, with a
globe in the middle place, and a large solar cross on her breast. The
scroll in her hands is inscribed with the word Tora, signifying the Greater
Law, the Secret Law and the second sense of the Word. It is partly covered by her
mantle, to shew that some things are implied and some spoken. She is seated
between the white and black pillars--J. and B.--of the mystic Temple, and the
veil [behind her] of the Temple is behind her: it is embroidered with
palms and pomegranates. The vestments are flowing and gauzy, and the mantle suggests
light--a shimmering radiance. She has been called occult Science on the threshold of
the Sanctuary of Isis, but she is really the Secret Church, the House which is of
God and man. She represents also the Second Marriage of the Prince who is no longer
of this world; she is the spiritual Bride and Mother, the daughter of the stars and
the Higher Garden of Eden. She is, in fine, the Queen of the borrowed light, but
this is the light of all. She is the Moon nourished by the milk of the Supernal
Mother.
In a manner, she is also the Supernal Mother herself--that is to say, she is
the bright reflection. It is in this sense of reflection that her truest and highest
name in bolism is Shekinah--the co-habiting glory. According to Kabalism, there is a
Shekinah both above and below. In the superior world it is called Binah, the
Supernal Understanding which reflects to the emanations that are beneath. In the
lower world it is MaIkuth--that world being, for this purpose, understood as a
blessed Kingdom that with which it is made blessed being the Indwelling Glory.
Mystically speaking, the Shekinah is the Spiritual [maybe] Bride of the just
man, and when he reads the Law she gives the Divine meaning. There are some
respects in which this card is the highest and holiest of the Greater Arcana."
Thus, Waite had a picture drawn and read into it much. What is underlined above, may
pertain to the old Marseilles picture too. The rest may in fact be a row of
transgressions. Think about it.
