I realize that it may be presumptuous of me to think I can come up with a valid interpretive guideline for the Tarot de Marseille "pip" cards when the vast majority of my cartomantic experience over the last four-plus decades has been with the esoteric Thoth deck and more recently with the Waite-Smith tarot and … Continue reading A Pause to Reflect
Tarot
A Tarot de Marseille Thumbnail: 6 of Coins
You knew I would get back to the 6 of Coins sooner or later. Its conceptual leap beyond the 5 of Coins is remarkable. Where the Five is detached and barren, with the two triangles formed by the suit emblems converging in a shared apex at the center of the insular "womb," the Six is … Continue reading A Tarot de Marseille Thumbnail: 6 of Coins
A Tarot de Marseille “Pips” Overview: The Ambitious and Combative Batons
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
An Inevitable Conclusion
As much as I would love to be a highly successful tarot reader in a face-to-face professional environment (it's where I do my best work and offer the most value), I've come to realize that my true calling is undoubtedly as a writer. In all modesty, I haven't come across much modern writing on cartomantic … Continue reading An Inevitable Conclusion
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 Road Less Traveled
I've written on this topic before, but have since gained a number of fresh insights and decided that it's time for an update. My impression of modern English-speaking tarot culture is that casually curious beginners pick up one of the "easy tarot" kits (a deck and companion book such as those by Rosalind Simmons or … Continue reading A Road Less Traveled
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
