View Full Version : Bruegel Tarot
firemaiden
13-11-2003, 04:31
Received from Alida store yesterday: I Tarocchi di Bruegel. Art by Guido Zibordi Marchesi, in the style of Pieter Bruegel, "The Elder" 1525-1569, scenes from sixteenth century country life,
It is charming. Some of the cards are a bit gruesome... but gruesome in a funny way. The four of swords shows a man sitting in the stocks without feet. In the background, a man is leaving with the disembodied feet on a pole... the guy is obviously not going anywhere for a while. ROFL. I think I'll take it as a metaphor.
Strength shows two smiling woman, placidly tying up a horned and toothy demon, using sheets and bits of string. Though a vicious serpent bares his fangs in protest, he only elicits gentle, calm amusement from the women.
The Eight of Wands shows a baby being boiled for soup. He doesn't seem to mind it, however.
In the Two of Wands a tiny winged penis with legs, arrives --perhaps with a message-- for two peasant craftsmen with mallets and chisels. They don't don't look in the least surprised...
The Tower looks wonderfully like Bruegel's famous Tower of Babel.
Sometimes one thirsts for the real Bruegel rather than the imitation. The 10 of cups recalls a famous interior scene, where a gentlemen is to be seen warming his genitals by the fire. Alas, in this deck, the gentleman is quite covered up.
The LWB attaches proverbs to every card, a hats off the the real Bruegel whose paintings were inspired by popular sayings. For the purpose of divination, the proverbs, though charming, can, I think, be safely disregarded...
Anyhow, the colours are beautiful, the scenes are most evocative, and ...er...very different. I shall enjoy this deck.
I got mine yesterday and I also like it very much.
firemaiden
13-11-2003, 05:52
Many of the cards, (including Strength, with the devil being tied up with string) are adapted from Bruegel's Netherlandish Proverbs (1559) (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/bruegel/proverbs.jpg)
Here is a site with many paintings: Web Museum: Bruegel, Pieter the Elder (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/bruegel/). I cannot find the painting I am thinking of with the gentlemen warming themselves by the fire, perhaps I imagined it...
firemaiden
16-11-2003, 11:36
I've spent a little more time with this deck and really love it. Here is a three card reading done with it: Reading with the Bruegel Tarot (http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=203610#post203610)
spoonbender
16-11-2003, 16:36
Hmm... can't believe I missed this thread! The deck sounds really funny, I sooo want it now (want to see that winged penis with my own eyes :))! *idea* Only 20 more days and it's SintNiklaas, that would be a nice occasion to get it!
Thanks Firemaiden for informing us (and good luck with that apartement issue)!
Spoonbender
firemaiden
30-11-2003, 16:42
bump
I can see this isn't the most popular deck, but it seems I am drawn to decks like that. I have, among others, the Hudes, Victoria Regina, and The Master Tarot, all of which seem to appeal to a limited number of tarot enthusiasts.
But I love this deck! It's very complex images confused me a little at first because the scenes on the pips didn't seem to align with traditional tarot meanings, at least not at my first look. Then I read that the illustrations were depicting proverbs that, more or less, go with the traditional meanings. I was charmed. :)
I can see this is more of an intuitive reading deck, unless one is intimately familiar with Bruegal symbolism, on which I plan to educate myself immediately. I thought it was interesting that this deck equates Cups with winter and Swords with spring. I usually think of them in the opposite. So that takes a bit of an adjustment for me, but not a difficult one.
Haven't read much with them yet, I'm still familiarizing myself with this interesting and complex deck. :)
~Mercy
And scroll down...one of my favorite readings...
http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=28908&highlight=bruegel
done with the Bruegel...just before I retired.
I love this deck, too.
Also,
What about those little blue orbs??? We had a separate thread on them?
terri
Well, because those orbs look to me like the orbs kings and emperors hold in portraits, I assumed they meant rulership?
~Mercy
leapylees
26-05-2005, 08:20
The Bruegel Tarot was one of the first decks I fell for. I love it though I can see why a lot of people might not like it. It's a really fun deck and I've had soem useful and interesting readings with it. Love the cards, find the LWB most unhelpful though.
I am really enjoying this deck. I am finding that the figures in the cards tend to illustrate the various meanings of the card. For example, as I was studying the 6 of pentacles I noticed that the man crossing the footbridge was trying very hard to keep his balance. He is laden down with stuff which might throw him off balance. Also he is stepping over a paintbrush, a symbol of art and creativity. He couldn't pick it up without dropping something and thereby throwing himself off balance and off the bridge. Well, in the RWS versions, balance is a key theme to this card. Balance is depicted elsewhere in the scene by showing a man with a fish in a sack, looking at a ball. To me it was indicating a balance between work and play, once you've done your work, then you can play. On the other hand, another figure is playing with dice and his fishing kreel is empty, lying on the ground. There is a man playing bagpipes. (Some say the fish like it and others say it scares the fish -- who knows?) Dice also represent luck and chance, and fishing, while a skill, is also very much dependent on luck. You're lucky is the two dice balance out with doubles. You're lucky if you can balance your life between work and play, creativity and practical concerns. The proverb was about balancing art and measure in one's life.
While many RWS decks show this card as "generosity" -- a rich person giving money in measure to others in need, I have seen other RWS based decks that focus more on the issue of measure and balance, such as the Hudes deck, which stresses more of someone needing to reach an inner balance.
Anyway, I am really enjoying figuring out all the different cards.
~Mercy
I've been a fan of Bruegal's art since my teens (I'm in my 50's), so I got this deck about a year ago. The guy in the 'Haunted Bookshop' here in Melbourne (please note conference goer's ... got a great selection of stuff). A friend had given him a book (huge) on Bruegel's artwork, but he didn't feel the shop was the place to sell it. So, he gave it to me for the few dollars (about $3) I had left in my wallet. Mind you, I had bought two decks and two books already LOL.
But, it was a find. I haven't attempted to read with the deck ... just slobber all over the cards, delighted by the imagery. Love it!
mythos
Also.....the LWB has some real gems in terms of the proverbs for each card....
Worth a read...I'll stop by later and post a few of them.
terri
Now I want to get a book on Bruegel's art so I can decode the symbolism. LOL. :)
~Mercy
NightWing
28-05-2005, 15:09
I am so glad to see that others are discovering the charms of the LS Bruegel Tarot! When I first got it, no one else seemed to have even heard of it. The crowded little scenes are so full of imagery and symbolism that it may take me years to "unpack" it all. I actually enjoyed having to use a magnifying glass on them. The images are real jewels to contemplate! The artist of the deck really has captured the Bruegel style, IMHO.
I hope to be able to do some serious study of these cards as tarot someday.
If you are feeling a little mechanized in your readings then--try the Bruegel Tarot. It is a dark tarot which as much humor. I love the five of swords--a severed top of a skull with a brain floating out. I guess one can loose their brain while gambling!
I love that card! It just screams, "What stupid thing are you considering now??"
Sometimes I get a card and I'm just completely befuddled. What on earth? So what I do is just start describing the scene and as I do, meanings start popping up all over the place. The 4 of pentacles was like that for me yesterday. I clearly saw the man up to his neck in water begging for drink as pretty much in line with the traditional RWS meaning of being shortsighted about what one has, thinking one is lacking when one really isn't. I mean, what does he want, to drown? And he probably should let go of the cup so he can save himself and get out of the water. The "fool" figure pointing at the moon suddenly showed me the foolishness of being so nearsighted that you can't see your own situation while you beg for more of what you already have. But his pointing at the moon (saying, "you're looney!") also said that the answer may lie in releasing oneself to the changing rhythms, the tides, of life. Don't cling, it's like trying to cling to the ocean tides.
These cards just keep talking and talking and talking the more you look at them.
~Mercy
priscilla
26-02-2006, 01:42
i have difficulities in Bruegel card, it seems that d cards don't get into me. it's my fiancee who loved them so much