Umbrae
“…Where were we...discussing journaling…what deck to you have there?
“…Oh this is a grand deck…a Marseilles …which reminds me…as you progress in tarot, people will take it upon themselves to educate you; tell you that you are doing it all wrong…so what I have to tell you today is important…
“Now this is a deck with history, which is relevant. Later, people will provide you with revisionist history. Most books on Tarot devote chapters on card meanings, authors base their writings on the supposed history of the Tarot, which is a lovely fiction.
“As an example, historians tell us that the Silk Road started in 650 AD; that the beginnings of trade between Europe and China didn’t exist before the Silk Road opened. This fly’s in the face of archeological evidence, which places trade occurring as early as four thousand years before the Common Era.
“Now understand, a pure historical interpretive view of Tarot holds little value in today’s world. However there is always room for an understanding of how we got from there to here.
“I view Tarot and Tarot Archetypal interpretive theory as going through three stages. The original era of deck creation (1350-1450), the divinatory beginnings (1780-1880), and post Golden Dawn (1909-present).
“I never felt comfortable with either of the latter periods.
“When we look at the Major Arcana, I like to turn back the clock to the 1300’s. The place is Europe. In 1347, the plague was imported from China to Italy. It killed one third of Europe’s population. From 1347-1352, 25 million people died. Florence lost three quarters of its population.
”These years were turning points for ‘western civilization’. Prior, all knowledge was held by the clergy. The populous was not allowed to read or write.
”It is upon this backdrop that the creation of the first Tarot packs were brought forth.
”During the plague years, the clergy was afraid to leave their safe confines to give last rites, so Lay Persons were taught to read so that they could perform last rites…and the cat was out of the bag (or…the toothpaste was out of the tube…with no way to put it back in).
”The ability to acquire knowledge was now in the grasp of the common man…
”From 1378-1409 there were two popes, both excommunicated the other…Further, the last pope of the fifteenth century was Alexander Borgia. History has shown that he was far more concerned with his son Caesar Borgia, than with the church. Martin Luther did his thing in 1517, and in 1534 King Henry VIII divorced himself from Rome…Church reform was on its way.
”So when the very first decks were created – what was the archetype…at that time…modern writers, and I include Carl Jung in this group, love to discuss archetypes, with complete disregard for history…issuing opinions based on illusion.
”In the game of Tarocchi for which Tarot cards were invented, and which precedes divination, Le Mat - The Fool, is a non-trump trump; it frees you from the obligation of having to play a trump or follow suit – but cannot win any tricks.
“When I look at the old ‘Le Mat’, ‘Il Matto’, or ‘Le Fou’, he is pictured as being ‘on the road’. This was homage to the trickster deity and not the innocent or idiot as viewed today – an innocent or an idiot would be in a village or a castle. Every non or pre Christian culture, has its trickster deity. Loki, Raven, Coyote, Eshu, Legba, Hermes, Manannan Mac Lir, Krishna, Crow, Hare, Spider……Europe had theirs prior to the Christian influx, but during the post plague years, there was an uncertainty amongst peoples not recognized in modern history. Hermes was re-written and allocated duties that the early Greeks never considered.
”See how on your deck the Fool is on the road? Trickster is about moving upon the roads, remember – the world, and culture used to be agrarian, most folks lived in villages and tribes, The Trickster exists in the doorway leading out, the crossroads at the edge of town, he is of strangers and thieves. He lives on the spirit road between the living and the dead, a messenger of the gods, and a guide for the dead; he is the boundary crosser and the boundary creator, clown, keeper of the gates, ferryman, lord of apples, lord of the other-world, voracious, cunning, sly, wise, and lord of those in-between-gray-places; he does not live near the hearth. If he was the innocent or the idiot as modern interpretive theory tells us, he would not have been pictured on the road. He is the boundary crosser and mover; he alters internal social distinctions.
“I see Le Mat as the spot between heaven and earth, the moment the sun reverses itself; he creates a distance only he can span. They set others at odds, or place boundary markers in new an unusual places…what will happen when the fool in other decks, gets to the cliff? He is Chaos…
“Le Bateleur in its original context, was a ‘Penn and Teller’ type magician, a juggler, sideshow barker, comedian, and not a ceremonial magician as he is currently viewed.
“Some will always tell you that The Popess was Joan even though she has no baby and Joan is always pictured with the child – always always always.
“For me, once those three cards changed, an alteration began for the rest of the majors.
“You will be told that this card means that…you will be told you are wrong…
“Meanings are not set in stone, that's the problem with books, the writer attempts to lock your meaning into their world-view.
“I took my views and advanced them into modern times as opposed to leaving them in to decay in the past.
“Move the clock forward. Your interpretations will be different than mine.
“If you begin with a Waite-Coleman Smith deck, you will look at the pictures. What do they say to you? Write down your thoughts.
“If you learn nothing else, hear this…you need to learn what each card means – to you. You and the cards, your meanings…
Since you own a Marseilles deck, where the pips are devoid of artwork, you will be learning the meanings of the numbers.
“Most folks learn by suits, they learn the meaning of the swords, the wands…
“I want you to learn by numbers. Why are all four of the two’s similar? Why are they dissimilar. The three of swords is very similar to the three of cups…why and why not? They share the same concepts!
“When you lay down to sleep at night, take a number and meditate on it before sleep comes. Every night.
“And everything, you will write in your journal.
“Why not use a computer?
“Good question.
“Because it’s passive. You sit and type. Let me get something to show you…
“These are letters my Great Aunt wrote to her mother from 1911 until 1916 when her and Walker lived on the homestead. They’re great. They convey emotion. People used to put time and effort into writing letters.
“Think about how in the internet, an innocent message is taken as flaming. People do not write the same at a keyboard, as they do with a pencil. There is a degree of care missing at a keyboard.
“Think about using a pencil, sure – it fades, my journals are thirty years old – you can still read them – but ink runs, pencil does not…and there is the act of sharpening a pencil…the smell…
“There is something that occurs when writing by hand that does not occur on a keyboard…the words tend to resonate more within…
“Remember how I said that composing on your computer is passive? The meanings in your book must be so fixed in your mind that there is no time to think, between the recognizing what the card is and what it symbolizes. That moment of thought is what will bring thinking into the process. Thought carries with it, bias.
“When you have you meanings so fixed, there is no thought. Your Intuitive Muscle takes over. You don’t see a Six of Wands, you see whatever it means to you...
“That’s all for today…Perhaps later we can move onto the process of reading…
“…Oh this is a grand deck…a Marseilles …which reminds me…as you progress in tarot, people will take it upon themselves to educate you; tell you that you are doing it all wrong…so what I have to tell you today is important…
“Now this is a deck with history, which is relevant. Later, people will provide you with revisionist history. Most books on Tarot devote chapters on card meanings, authors base their writings on the supposed history of the Tarot, which is a lovely fiction.
“As an example, historians tell us that the Silk Road started in 650 AD; that the beginnings of trade between Europe and China didn’t exist before the Silk Road opened. This fly’s in the face of archeological evidence, which places trade occurring as early as four thousand years before the Common Era.
“Now understand, a pure historical interpretive view of Tarot holds little value in today’s world. However there is always room for an understanding of how we got from there to here.
“I view Tarot and Tarot Archetypal interpretive theory as going through three stages. The original era of deck creation (1350-1450), the divinatory beginnings (1780-1880), and post Golden Dawn (1909-present).
“I never felt comfortable with either of the latter periods.
“When we look at the Major Arcana, I like to turn back the clock to the 1300’s. The place is Europe. In 1347, the plague was imported from China to Italy. It killed one third of Europe’s population. From 1347-1352, 25 million people died. Florence lost three quarters of its population.
”These years were turning points for ‘western civilization’. Prior, all knowledge was held by the clergy. The populous was not allowed to read or write.
”It is upon this backdrop that the creation of the first Tarot packs were brought forth.
”During the plague years, the clergy was afraid to leave their safe confines to give last rites, so Lay Persons were taught to read so that they could perform last rites…and the cat was out of the bag (or…the toothpaste was out of the tube…with no way to put it back in).
”The ability to acquire knowledge was now in the grasp of the common man…
”From 1378-1409 there were two popes, both excommunicated the other…Further, the last pope of the fifteenth century was Alexander Borgia. History has shown that he was far more concerned with his son Caesar Borgia, than with the church. Martin Luther did his thing in 1517, and in 1534 King Henry VIII divorced himself from Rome…Church reform was on its way.
”So when the very first decks were created – what was the archetype…at that time…modern writers, and I include Carl Jung in this group, love to discuss archetypes, with complete disregard for history…issuing opinions based on illusion.
”In the game of Tarocchi for which Tarot cards were invented, and which precedes divination, Le Mat - The Fool, is a non-trump trump; it frees you from the obligation of having to play a trump or follow suit – but cannot win any tricks.
“When I look at the old ‘Le Mat’, ‘Il Matto’, or ‘Le Fou’, he is pictured as being ‘on the road’. This was homage to the trickster deity and not the innocent or idiot as viewed today – an innocent or an idiot would be in a village or a castle. Every non or pre Christian culture, has its trickster deity. Loki, Raven, Coyote, Eshu, Legba, Hermes, Manannan Mac Lir, Krishna, Crow, Hare, Spider……Europe had theirs prior to the Christian influx, but during the post plague years, there was an uncertainty amongst peoples not recognized in modern history. Hermes was re-written and allocated duties that the early Greeks never considered.
”See how on your deck the Fool is on the road? Trickster is about moving upon the roads, remember – the world, and culture used to be agrarian, most folks lived in villages and tribes, The Trickster exists in the doorway leading out, the crossroads at the edge of town, he is of strangers and thieves. He lives on the spirit road between the living and the dead, a messenger of the gods, and a guide for the dead; he is the boundary crosser and the boundary creator, clown, keeper of the gates, ferryman, lord of apples, lord of the other-world, voracious, cunning, sly, wise, and lord of those in-between-gray-places; he does not live near the hearth. If he was the innocent or the idiot as modern interpretive theory tells us, he would not have been pictured on the road. He is the boundary crosser and mover; he alters internal social distinctions.
“I see Le Mat as the spot between heaven and earth, the moment the sun reverses itself; he creates a distance only he can span. They set others at odds, or place boundary markers in new an unusual places…what will happen when the fool in other decks, gets to the cliff? He is Chaos…
“Le Bateleur in its original context, was a ‘Penn and Teller’ type magician, a juggler, sideshow barker, comedian, and not a ceremonial magician as he is currently viewed.
“Some will always tell you that The Popess was Joan even though she has no baby and Joan is always pictured with the child – always always always.
“For me, once those three cards changed, an alteration began for the rest of the majors.
“You will be told that this card means that…you will be told you are wrong…
“Meanings are not set in stone, that's the problem with books, the writer attempts to lock your meaning into their world-view.
“I took my views and advanced them into modern times as opposed to leaving them in to decay in the past.
“Move the clock forward. Your interpretations will be different than mine.
“If you begin with a Waite-Coleman Smith deck, you will look at the pictures. What do they say to you? Write down your thoughts.
“If you learn nothing else, hear this…you need to learn what each card means – to you. You and the cards, your meanings…
Since you own a Marseilles deck, where the pips are devoid of artwork, you will be learning the meanings of the numbers.
“Most folks learn by suits, they learn the meaning of the swords, the wands…
“I want you to learn by numbers. Why are all four of the two’s similar? Why are they dissimilar. The three of swords is very similar to the three of cups…why and why not? They share the same concepts!
“When you lay down to sleep at night, take a number and meditate on it before sleep comes. Every night.
“And everything, you will write in your journal.
“Why not use a computer?
“Good question.
“Because it’s passive. You sit and type. Let me get something to show you…
“These are letters my Great Aunt wrote to her mother from 1911 until 1916 when her and Walker lived on the homestead. They’re great. They convey emotion. People used to put time and effort into writing letters.
“Think about how in the internet, an innocent message is taken as flaming. People do not write the same at a keyboard, as they do with a pencil. There is a degree of care missing at a keyboard.
“Think about using a pencil, sure – it fades, my journals are thirty years old – you can still read them – but ink runs, pencil does not…and there is the act of sharpening a pencil…the smell…
“There is something that occurs when writing by hand that does not occur on a keyboard…the words tend to resonate more within…
“Remember how I said that composing on your computer is passive? The meanings in your book must be so fixed in your mind that there is no time to think, between the recognizing what the card is and what it symbolizes. That moment of thought is what will bring thinking into the process. Thought carries with it, bias.
“When you have you meanings so fixed, there is no thought. Your Intuitive Muscle takes over. You don’t see a Six of Wands, you see whatever it means to you...
“That’s all for today…Perhaps later we can move onto the process of reading…
you will only pry my beloved fountain pen out of my cold dead hands!!!
I feel the same connection you do with your pencil, and I have journals from my teens with no runs at all perceivable. 