Although the Tarot de Marseille suit of Batons (our modern Wands) has similarities to the Swords in that both are considered "hard" suits, there are flourishes of a more nuanced individuality in the pip cards that the Swords pips lack. Alone among the suits, the Batons have a very limited "inner landscape;" their agenda involves … Continue reading A Tarot de Marseille “Pips” Overview: The Ambitious and Combative Batons
Pips
A Tarot de Marseille “Pips” Overview: The Exclamatory and Meditative Swords
The suit of Swords in the Tarot de Marseille doesn't really benefit from a card-by-card analysis of the pips the way I've done with the Coins and will do with the Cups (and, to a lesser extent, the Batons). There are really only two basic "flavors:" those cards with a vertical sword at their center … Continue reading A Tarot de Marseille “Pips” Overview: The Exclamatory and Meditative Swords
A Tarot de Marseille Thumbnail: 3 of Coins
The 3 of Coins is one of the TdM cards that display a "womb-like" arrangement of foliage enclosing a suit emblem. Because the foliage appears to be encircling the emblem in a protective and nurturing way, the implication is that of gestation of the "seed" principle of the suit. The other "incubator" cards in the … Continue reading A Tarot de Marseille Thumbnail: 3 of Coins
A Tarot de Marseille Thumbnail: 2 of Coins
There is an interesting convergence of ideas between this card and the RWS 2 of Pentacles. Here we have two coins tightly wrapped in what appears to be a ribbon with a decorative floral fringe, while the RWS card shows an off-balance juggler trying to keep two balls in the air (and not a very … Continue reading A Tarot de Marseille Thumbnail: 2 of Coins
A Tarot de Marseille Thumbnail: 5 of Coins
The 5 of Coins is the obvious next stop in this series of TdM "thumbnails," showing as it does an interesting departure from the 4 of Coins. Here the encirclement of the central emblem (formerly a shield) has now been completed and, lo and behold, we have another coin (or fruit, or seed) at the … Continue reading A Tarot de Marseille Thumbnail: 5 of Coins
A Tarot de Marseille Thumbnail: 4 of Coins
The 4 of Coins is fascinating in that it is the only one of the Coins pip cards to display a fabricated artifact (other than the coins themselves, which in fact could be seen as fruit or seeds). There is a shield with an abstract central blossom on it separating the two sets of coins … Continue reading A Tarot de Marseille Thumbnail: 4 of Coins
A Tarot de Marseille Thumbnail: 7 of Coins
Here is a kind of "trial balloon" floating some of the ideas I've been talking about in my most recent posts. The image in the Conver 7 of Coins suggests a trellis bearing ripe fruit, some of which have fallen (or are in the act of falling) to the ground. It shows the harvest at … Continue reading A Tarot de Marseille Thumbnail: 7 of Coins
Stone Soup
I think it's time I start getting serious about bringing cartomantic (that is, playing-card) meanings into my approach to the numbered - or "pip" - cards when reading. The RWS minor cards with their built-in narrative vignettes are like "canned soup," the semi-scenic small cards of the Thoth deck are closer to "home-made soup" that you start with store-bought … Continue reading Stone Soup
Tarot 101, My Way – Minor Arcana: The Tens
Plato considered Ten to be a perfect number when viewed from a philosophical rather than a mathematical perspective (in the second case, the term has an entirely different derivation attributed to Euclid). In the qabalistic model of the Universe, Ten delivers the "last gasp" of an elemental energy in its increasingly encumbered progress down the Tree of Life. The original, largely spiritual, force … Continue reading Tarot 101, My Way – Minor Arcana: The Tens
The “Just Folks” Personality Profile Spread
I don't do much personality profiling with the tarot because I think it works best as an action-and-event-oriented approach to divination (the "situational awareness and developmental insight" thing I'm always on about). But when I do it, I tend to be comprehensive. Here is a spread that is aimed at examining the multiple personae that an … Continue reading The “Just Folks” Personality Profile Spread
