Order and Grouping of the Trumps

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 14 Sep 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

gonkulator	14 Sep 2003
[i gained most of this information from: [url]http://www.tarothermit.com/index.htm[/url] Which I reccomend to all as a great source on Tarot history...] Tarot emerged originally as a card game sort of like bridge. In general, the ranking of the images in the set of trump cards allowed players to "trump" or take groups of cards which had been played, which in turn translated to accumulated points, and ultimately to winning or losing the game. What I found most interesting in looking at photos of the earliest decks is that the trump cards were not numbered. Perhaps there were accompanying rules either written or part of folklore culture. But, my point is that players had a much more intuitive realization that one image out-trumped another. Let's take a look at the ranking and how the trumps group: FOOL: Can Trump anything, but cannot take any cards but itself MAGICIAN (Juggler, Battelier, Cobbler): Can be out-trumped by any of the other major arcana PAPESS, EMPRESS, EMPEROR, POPE: From my research I am disappointed at the High Priestess and Heirophant appellations of modern decks. Clearly this is a collection of two spiritual adpets and two political adepts. I think they should be labelled, "Priestess, Empress, Emperor, and Priest," and I think they should all have equal trump value (as apparently they did in some areas of Italy). CHARIOT: This card sort of defies categories -- is it really Conquest? This would out-trump any of the four below. I have seen suggestions that it could be Conquest/Vanquished, which makes interpretation even more interesting. Four Virtues: LOVE, JUSTICE, FORTITUDE, and TEMPERENCE Four Human Conditions/Foibles: TIME (the Hermit), WHEEL, TRAITOR (Hanged Man), and DEATH According to my research these two groups of four are historically represented in all kinds of different rankings and groupings. I think the archetypal meaning of most is clear. However, to me THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE is terribly corrputed in the Waite deck. The earliest images of this card show a torture-like device. I see this card as FATE, or perhaps MISFORTUNE. The Hanged Man is also mysterious. TRAITOR is its original title, but this card is so compelling to so many. I wonder if it does not also represent "the consequences of free thinking" or perhaps "the consequences of going against the status quo. LOVE (not originally titled THE LOVERS) also has some interesting evolution of images in various historic decks. In some it represents the choice of "sexiest" v. "wisest" choice in a mate. Other representations suggest CHASTITY. THE DEVIL and The TOWER (Hell, House of The Devil, Fire, The Arrow) strike me as grouped, but are to me the most mysterious of the trumps. Why are they given such a high rank? The ranking of STAR, MOON, SUN, ANGEL (Judgement) are intuitive I think, with the WORLD being the top trump card (though the Fool can at least negate The World in the game). This does suggest an Earth-centric perspective on the universe. Are these archetypal symbols we all experience and respond to? Your comments are sought.

Cerulean	15 Sep 2003
1. I'm sorry, I never thought the historical trumps ordering were intuitive. Not even the earliest cards, which may or may not be the Visconti gilded images. But I enjoyed learning about them, as art history. 2. The poetry and literature available in Latin and the vernacular of the Visconti and Ferarra courts did favor a certain ranking of the universe, and the concepts of 'trumps.' These were medieval concepts that were well known by the courts of Northern Italy. Dante (exiled politician) by 1300 and Petrach (1304-1374--travelling cleric) wrote about these things in Tuscan, I believe. 3. A very good discussion of Tarot Trumps, trump by trump, is in the History and Iconography section at Aeclectic., under the table of contents. 4. If you have time to research further, Bob O Neill's discussion of iconography (www.tarot.com) , as well as Tom Tadforlittle and Andy's Playing Cards will introduce you to history of the cards--they are free sites and many people have enjoyed finding the historical aspects of the playing cards. In order not to be confusing, the first page link below does go to the 'classic order' of the trumps--but the order of the trumps differed, even in the early games, according to the design of the game in the region. http://l-pollett.tripod.com/cards3.htm http://l-pollett.tripod.com/cards26.htm 5. As Tom Tadforlittle and others pointed out, the trumps and processional idea of Petrach's Trump poem, especially "Love Conquers All" seems to be directly related to some favored ordering of the trumps. Other contributions of literature of the Vices and Virtues from Dante's Divine Comedy and procession in Purgatory. On Andy's Playing Card site, the earlier 50 card design of the "Mantegna" from Ferarra will also show medieval thinking on ranks of humanities and heavenly spheres. Another literature point, in relation to the game of trumps AND suited cards together to is Matteo Maria Boiardo's Tarocchi poem prior to his death in 1494. --------------------------------------------------------- A sample of Bob O' Neill's analysis on the Wheel of Fortune or Fortuna:-- www.tarot.com has a sample of the Visconti Sforza Wheel, which is similar to Brambilla tarocchi, according to historian Michael Dummett (I looked this up for you, as you expressed curiousity about the Wheel): ICONOLOGICAL ANALYSIS: There is another representation of ‘Fortuna’ that was common during the Middle Ages, and appears to have become dominant in the late Renaissance and later periods. This symbol shows ‘Fortuna’ as a blindflooded woman, standing balanced on an unstable sphere. This image is often with a sail depicting the ‘winds of fortune’. This is the image that appears on the so-called Tarocchi de Mantegna print of Fortune (Wind 1958, fig. 53). This representation of the Roman goddess of Fortune may have replaced the Wheel image because it better conveyed the later Humanist Renaissance desire to incorporate classical imagery. Example of the ‘Fortuna’ symbol can be seen at: monika.univ.gda.pl/~literat/grafika/fortuna.htm www.kfki.hu/keptar/tours/masterms/fortuna.html The 15th century card-player would have had another mental association with the image of a wheel, that is, the wheel as an instrument of torture. See, for example, www.godecookery.com/macabre/gallery5/macbr149.htm This association might have occurred to some, but it is doubtful that it was the primary referrent. It is likely that the card-player would have seen the symbol of the Wheel of Fortune or the goddess ‘Fortuna’ associated and contrasted with related symbols. Figure 7 contrasts fortune with astrology. Fortune is blindfolded and standing on an unstable sphere. Astrology is represented as knowledge standing on a stable cube. The implication is that knowledge of the natural world through astrology permits one to escape fickle fortune. Notice that Figure 7 also contains images of a Tower, Stars, Moon, Sun, and the Empress as wisdom atop the tower of knowledge. We will see a similar gathering of Tarot symbols in many contemporary images which indicates that the card-player would have seen the Tarot trumps as related to each other, rather than as a random miscellany. ------------------------------------------------ I hope this helps you...I'm trying to explain Western History and Art from my earliest childhood was fascinating--but it wasn't intuitive. Neither was Eastern art and history, although I was raised and schooled a little in a mix of both cultural areas. Best wishes, Mari Hoshizaki

jmd	15 Sep 2003
Manly P. Hall, in his great little Essay on the Tarot, includes a 15th century woodcut of the Wheel of Fortune depicting the seven stages of life (as epitomised, rather melancholically, in Shakespeare's As You Like It). On that particular woodcut, clear Tarot images are also seen - I'll see if I can find a scanned image, for I have again no scanning access. Also, in the thread on La Roue de Fortune, I attached an astrological depiction of the Wheel, which I also note was reproduced in Irene Gad's Tarot & Individuation (though I earlier obtained it from an astrological book). These, amongst other Wheels of the middle ages, also show that here was a common image, used to depict not only various allegories, but applied to various undertakings - whether to understand life cycle, or the planetary ones, and there influence upon human fortune. I comment on this card only at this stage, and note well that some quite early series were indeed un-numbered. Tarot, as Tarot, seems to have emerged from variations of various decks of a similar family, with the Marseilles sequence.

Diana	15 Sep 2003
Quote: Originally posted by gonkulator [b] [tarot emerged originally as a card game sort of like bridge. [/b] That is only the opinion of some historians. There is little doubt that the minors were a game. But there is no evidence anywhere that has convinced me even in the tiniest way, that the Majors were originally intended for gaming. My conviction is that the Major Arcana were never a part of the original Tarot game played in taverns and inns.

The Order and Grouping of the Trumps thread was originally posted on 14 Sep 2003 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.