Skip to content

Posts tagged ‘Tarot de Marseille’

Jul 18

The Jean Dodali Tarot Recreated by Sullivan Hismans

The Dodal/Dodali Tarot, one of the earliest and most historically important Tarot de Marseille (TdM) decks, has been beautifully recreated by Sullivan Hismans at Tarot Sheet Revival, after two years of painstaking craftsmanship. Hismans, who gave us recreations of the Budapest and Rosenwald sheets, is a visual artist fascinated by the physical reality of tarot cards and the craft of card making. His process is the same with all his decks – he examines different versions of the cards available in museum databases, takes the elements apart, then alchemically recombines them to create a transformed, but historically accurate deck. Read more

Jan 15

Tarot des Aux Arcs 10 Swords and 2 Cups
2 Comments

Tarot des Aux Arcs

The deck’s name had me puzzled for a while. It looks French but makes no sense in that language. Then I checked out the creator’s website — Aux Arcs in French is pronounced Ozark, the mountains where the artist lives. Read more

Dec 17

Tarot Hes two of cups

Tarot Hes 1750

When we think of historic tarot decks, the French Tarot de Marseille and early Italian decks quickly come to mind. But I’m ashamed to say that in my nearly twenty years of deck collecting it never occurred to me to think about German tarot decks. Read more

Nov 1

Untold Tarot book cover
7 Comments

Untold Tarot by Caitlín Matthews – Book Review

This book is destined to become a classic, along with books on the same topic by the likes of Jodorowsky and Ben Dov (to whom the book is dedicated). Three kinds of people need this book:

  • People who are curious about reading with the Tarot de Marseille (TdM) or other historic decks, but are put off by the thought of reading cards that don’t have fully illustrated scenes.
  • People who dove into intuitive reading feet-first and now feel the need for grounding in systematic study.
  • People like me who have been immersed in historic decks for years and think they know just about everything. The book gives lots of new techniques to try as well as fresh insights into the cards.

Read more

Aug 10

Four Swords cards from Tarot de Marseille
11 Comments

Divinatory Meanings for the Tarot de Marseille

At the bottom of an old carton, I recently found a file folder stuffed with divinatory meanings (DMs) for the Tarot de Marseille (TdM) pip cards. When I began reading with historic decks about 20 years ago, I bought European TdM books, snapped up English language books when they became available, and downloaded lists of card meanings online. Then I took copious notes and made charts comparing various authors’ meanings.

I pulled the 4 of Swords out of a deck at random and listed the DMs for that card given by the eleven authors in my folder: Read more

Mar 6

Lovers Payen tarot
2 Comments

J-P Payen and the Tarot de Marseille Type I

Yves Reynaud has produced facsimiles of historically important decks like the Madenié, Burdel and Conver. Now he’s done it again with a recreation of the 1713 Jean-Pierre Payen Tarot, one of the few Tarot de Marseille Type I decks available to purchase. If you’re familiar with any of Reynaud’s decks, the Payen is the same high-quality, limited-edition production housed in a sturdy box. Let’s put this deck in context with the Tarot de Marseille tradition. Read more

Oct 11

Conver 1760 Tarot de Marseille Two of Coins
3 Comments

1760 Nicolas Conver Tarot de Marseille Restored by Yves Reynaud

Yves Reynaud, who has given new life to historically important TdMs like the Burdel, Payen and Madenié, just issued his restoration of the 1760 Conver deck in a limited edition of 1500. A decade ago, the only historically correct version of this deck on the market was a photo-facsimile of a deck housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, published by Heron around 1980. Reynaud has based his restoration on this deck. Read more

Feb 27

Fool Pierre Madenie
9 Comments

The Two Madenié Decks

If you bought the first edition of the Pierre Madenié deck produced by Yves Reynaud in 2013, do you need to get the second edition as well? Yes, you probably do.

Even though it’s my number one reading deck, I initially felt a second copy was an unnecessary indulgence. Besides, I was afraid the newer, cleaned-up version might be too pristine. I prefer historical facsimiles that preserve the original intact; so I shudder at the thought of someone touching up historic cards to conform to their arbitrary criteria of perfection. But a fellow collector convinced me the second edition was even more beautiful than the first, so I succumbed to temptation. I’m very glad I did. Read more

Jan 28

6 Comments

A Jumbo Tarot de Marseille

I’ve been wanting an oversized Tarot de Marseille for a long time but wasn’t sure one even existed. When someone on Facebook posted a link to such a deck on Amazon, I clicked the “buy now” button sight-unseen.

When the deck arrived, I was delighted to discover it’s a facsimile of a 1760 Conver deck originally printed in Marseille and reproduced by Bounty Books. Read more

Aug 13

Chariot and Five of Batons Madenie deck

Living the Tarot: Chariot and Mars

New Moon in Leo and my Mars Return on the same day.** I just pulled my morning trump and suit card combination and was astonished to see Mars in Leo staring me in the face disguised as the Chariot and Five of Batons.

I know, those of you who use the Golden Dawn system are saying, “Stop! The Chariot is Cancer.” And those using the continental system are saying “Stop! The Chariot is Gemini.” Read more

« Older Entries