Marseilles Oracle (LoS)

Le Fanu

I've never seen any posts on this little deck, published by Lo Scarabeo.

It is a 19th Century French, 32-card Oracle which Ive had in my collection for a while (I bought it cheap on the flea market) and only today took it out for a very particular reading. It gave such a concise reading, I was quite taken aback. The symbols are slightly Lenormand-ish, but the images are starker.

There is a bird singing in a cage; meaning Love
There is a particularly scarey looking saw; meaning gasps!
There is an Anchor, meaning friendship
There is a cut-throat razor meaning; deceit

There are others and each symbol is so vivid for the thing it describes.

But nobody ever mentions it here. Maybe nobody will even reply to this! Am I the only person who has it?

I'm tempted to use it more. I thought of offering some readings in the reading exchange with it to get myself more acquainted with its language...

I love it.
 

MareSaturni

Sorry Le Fanu...I don't own this deck, but i think it's funny how LS has those mysterious decks that no one ever talks about. I have two: the Mother Nature Oracle (which is sorta common) and the Romantic Oracle

This Marseilles oracle must be one of the "unknown"! So you probably won't find many people who use it. Most of them are only kept for collection purpouses, i guess.

Personally, i love those mysterious decks. They usually have this antique look about them. I wish i could find others, but i only come across them by sheer luck!

I've took some pictures of the "L'Oracolo Romantico", so you can see how it is (sorry about the quality). CLICK HERE

Pictures of the Mother Nature Oracle can be seen here.

The two decks i own were released by Orbis-Fabbri (a spanish company that publishes LS oracles, i guess).

I really liked the look of your Marseilles Oracle...me and my attraction for antique-looking things...
 

Le Fanu

Interestingly, I bought the Marseilles Oracle from someone who had brought lots of these LoS / Fabbri decks from Brazil, and my Marseilles Oracle is in the same type of box as your Romantic Oracle, same graphics, same style, though Ive never seen yours published as only a LoS deck. I think Fabbri published what they call a fasciculo in Portuguese ( (series?) of different oracle and tarot decks in Brazil and Portugal. Ive seen various here; I-Ching, Nostradamus, Sibilla Italiana. Plus some tarots.

I could kick myself because when my tarot interest was at a lull some time ago, I saw a seller on the flea market who had the complete set, all laid out at 1 euro each, and I thought "nah..." and left them all there, and I now see that the fabbri/LoS editions have a thicker cardstock than the LoS ones! Plus there are some - like your Romantic Oracle - which Ive never seen as solely a LoS edition...

But I love this Marseilles Oracle more and more...
 

Bernice

I've looked at this little marseilles oracle deck time & time again - been very tempted to buy it. But I've never found any reviews about it, and as it has less cards than the Lenormand (which I love), I've held off.

Le Fanu, have you done readings with it?

Bee :)
 

Le Fanu

Bernice said:
Le Fanu, have you done readings with it?
Yes I have and it spoke loud and clear.

I did a reading yesterday for a friend who was worried about business and whether things will get better.

I did a 5 card spread;

Situation; The hacksaw ("gasps"!) and the Steam Train ("progress")

Advice; A picture of a cauldren on the hearth ("home") and the bird in a cage ("Love")

Outcome: guy drinking in a bar ("confirmation")

I saw this as saying that although there are current anxieties and worries, progress is being made and things are going forward.

Advice; enjoy home life, enjoy a stable loving relationship to take your mind off things. There is someone there to support you and help you. Remember this.

Outcome; confirmation, The most ambiguous of the cards; I guess it is a confirmation of what he thinks. Confirming worst fears or confirming hopes? I tend to go for the more optimistic interpretation!
 

emmsma

Oh man! I'm not supposed to get anything new til I downsize!

Are these readily available?

Anybody want my Navigators of the Mystic SEA?
 

Le Fanu

emmsma said:
Anybody want my Navigators of the Mystic SEA?
Me!!

Im at work right now, but later I shall post here all the names of the cards which make up this Marseilles Oracle deck so that those who are Lenormand/Sibilla/ Mystisches Kipper/whatever, can decide whether this is a system they could work with...

It's a little bit different from all of these other systems, but the starkness of the images makes it - IMO - very easy and immediate to decipher and read with.
 

MareSaturni

Le Fanu said:
Interestingly, I bought the Marseilles Oracle from someone who had brought lots of these LoS / Fabbri decks from Brazil, and my Marseilles Oracle is in the same type of box as your Romantic Oracle, same graphics, same style, though Ive never seen yours published as only a LoS deck. I think Fabbri published what they call a fasciculo in Portuguese ( (series?) of different oracle and tarot decks in Brazil and Portugal. Ive seen various here; I-Ching, Nostradamus, Sibilla Italiana. Plus some tarots.

Oh man, i didn't get my decks in this collection you mentioned. I got both from two Argentinian ATers! Maybe those "fascículos" where published in spanish-speaking countries, not in Brazil?

The card stock of those Fabbri decks is amazing. They shuffle like heaven, and they are small, which is perfect for my hands. I really like both this decks and i have been trying to find others that are from this same collection. So far, i haven't been very successful.

Le Fanu, you gotta go back to that flea market see if they still have anything left :bugeyed:! I guess i'll ask for a plane ticket to Portugal as a gradutation gift, so i can visit all those flea markets myself :laugh:

I'm happy to see your like your Marseilles Oracle. You know, when i first got the Oraculo Romantico, i didn't give it much attention. But it grew on me. Same with the Mother Nature. :)

ETA: A-ha! I found for sale in the Italian Ebay the "fascicoli" collection from which these Fabbri decks apparently came from. They must have released them in Italy too. You can see it here. Look at the picture of the boxes - look just like our decks.
 

Le Fanu

Marina said:
I found for sale in the Italian Ebay the "fascicoli" collection from which these Fabbri decks apparently came from
:bugeyed: 70 Oracle decks! Blimey, that really disturbs the completist in me. Why did you have to show me that? I had no idea there were 70. When I said the complete set, I thought there were about 20 of them...

Call me obsessive, but every day I pass the news stands here and scan all the papers and magazines hoping that the set is reissued! They first came out here in 2001. I missed them, and it's quite probable you got them from Argentina as the ones I have in this series - such as this Marseilles one - only have the titles in Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. No English. There is, however, a LoS version of the Marseilles Oracle which has titles in these three languages plus English & German.
 

Le Fanu

For those interested, here are the titles of the cards in the Marseilles Oracle, plus a description of the symbol:

(these are my translations as my edition does not have English titles, but the standard LoS one does)

1. A sentry box; (meaning) protection
2. Bellows; passion
3. A canary in a cage; love
4. A cauldron on a hearth; home
5. An anchor; friendship
6. A bottle of wine; happiness
7. A hot air balloon; fantasies
8. A Bicycle; prudence
9. A watering can; constancy
10. A pair of boots; business
11. A worker; laboriousness
12. A steam train; progress
13. A ship; communications
14. A Key; secrets
15. A geometric compass; clarifications
16. A clock; destiny
17. A bar; success
18. A barrel; luck
19. A gentleman drinking; well-being
20. Spectacles on a book; wisdom
21. A lantern; inspiration
22. Scales; law
23. A wine glass, events
24. A Chair; reflections
25. A hunting horn; presentiments (?), augury (?)
26. A candle snuffer; something disconcerting
27. A man with a wooden leg drinking and laughing; nostalgia
28. A cut-throat razor; deceit
29. A rapier/sword; fight
30. A hack-saw; gasps
31. A whip; correction/ castigation (?)
32. weirdly, the same image as card 19, a gentleman drinking, but with a French address at the bottom of the card (St Denis in Paris, not - interestingly - Marseilles!) It is called "Confirmation" and the image is outlined with yellow. I don't have instructions for this deck. Maybe this card is a card for answering questions? Looking for confirmation or something?