The hand in the aces?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 03 Oct 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Page	03 Oct 2002
Hi I’m just wondering if anybody knows the symbolic meaning behind the hand in the aces. Is this a hand of God or higher power???? Any info would be useful Thanks AG :)

ihcoyc	03 Oct 2002
The hand comes from the Marseilles tradition. In the Marseilles decks, the hand appears brandishing the Sword and the Club on the aces of those suits. No hand appears on Coins or Cups. Waite adds the hand to each of the aces, and depicts the suit emblem as being a gift from the Divine. Again, in the Marseilles tradition, various shapes appear on the aces of Swords and Clubs which have been interpreted as "yods," a Hebrew letter symbolizing divine fire, the first letter of the Holy Name. No such shapes appear on Coins or Cups in the Marseilles tradition. The RWS deck adds yods to the ace of Cups, but not to his ace of Pentacles. The hand probably originated as a decoration. Other old decks used different devices to make them distinctive. The seventeenth century Parisian tarot, for instance, puts the suit emblem of the Aces on a banner being waved by heraldic animals: a unicorn, eagle, lion, or gryphon.

Page	03 Oct 2002
Big Thanks Ihcoyc!!!:) i found your info very helpful. AG

The The hand in the aces? thread was originally posted on 03 Oct 2002 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.