Advice for working with the Tarot Balbi?

minrice

Now I know I need to read these intuitively and figure out what this deck means to me. Yet this Tarot is very different from the others that I read with, even the Medieval Scapini (while different than a traditional RWS type deck the Scapini wasn't too much of a stretch for me because it is rich in pictures, objects, all kinds of visual cues etc. and the Balbi isn't like that).

The Balbi is a lot like a Marseille deck and I don't have any experience with that side of Tarot whatsoever. Do any of you have experience working with the Balbi, and any advice you could offer to get me started?
 

coredil

You may have a look to this post from Cerulean who was so kind to translate some meanings of Eudes Picard book.
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=434213&postcount=23

As the Crystal Tarot (illustrated by Elisabetta Trevisan), the Balbi is based on Eudes Picard pictures and meanings from his book: Manuel Synthétique et Pratique du TAROT (1909)
In particular the minors have a very distinct design.
Both Balbi and Elisabetta Trevisan made some modifications to the pictures.

I add some scans in order to compare Picards and Balbis pictures.

Best regards
 

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Le Fanu

Coredil gave the best advice. That's basically it.

All I have to add is that I love the Balbi. More and more. I think of this deck as one of my biggest treasures out of a collection of 200 or so, though Im not sure it is valuable in monetary terms.

But what a unique, friendly, vibrant, cheeky little Pop Art deck. I just read it like a Marseilles. Very bad of me, but I only found out about the different elements years later. Id just read it like any other deck, which is quite irresponsible of me, I guess. :D

It is also one of those decks (and there are only a few of them) which non-tarot people leap on and love. When my friends are over perusing my collection, they always love this one and think it is a masterpiece. Funny. I agree but I never thought it had that mass appeal. Maybe the style of artwork is now back in...
 

coredil

Le Fanu said:
I just read it like a Marseilles. Very bad of me, but I only found out about the different elements years later. Id just read it like any other deck, which is quite irresponsible of me, I guess. :D
I have to smile (friendly) reading this, because it sounds so easy.
I always found the minors of a TDM quite hard to read ;)

That is something quite interesting in Eudes Picards pictures, there are indeed illustrated minors with her own systematic.
The use of elements and symbols do have a signification that is not too hard to pictorially follow.
The contrast of two elements as background for the situation or showing the equilibrium between two elements (8 sceptres or 6 sceptres)
The direction of a symbol within the picture has also a meaning:
A fish lying on his back as if he is dead (3 epees), or two fishes pointing up as if they want to go out of their elements (9 epees).

With Picards explanations the Balbi and the Crystal become much easier to read.
Unfortunately (or maybe not unfortunately) Balbi and Trevisan did not exactly follow the design, so some pictures loose the precision they have by Picard.
But this must not be bad ;)

Best regards

BTW Kenji have uploaded Picards pictures on his blog.
You can find the links as well as the whole original text in french from Picards book about the minors in this thread:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=60038
 

moderndayruth

OT: Minrice, i just want to tell you that i envy you badly! :D I don't have Balbi (yet), but i hope to get it at some point of time, so i'll be following your progress with interest! That's - hopefully you'll post about it! :D
 

minrice

Thank you so much for your help Coredil! That was exactly what I was hoping for :love: There is quite a resemblence isn't there? Picard's tarot is lovely.
I'm glad to hear you love the Balbi Le Fanu, it came a couple weeks ago and I'm just starting to delve into it. It has yet to grow on me but I hope it does because I too like its cheekiness. It is a feisty one, a card shot out of the deck last night when I was reading with it.
MDR, if the Balbi doesn't click with me I'll let you know! I think I will post about the progress, since there isn't a lot of information on here about this deck...
 

morticia monroe

Best of luck, Min. I found mine on a fluke..got it for next to nothing.

I've enjoyed looking at it, goodness knows it's beautiful. But I can't get into it, it's far too shockingly bright (in a wierd way) for me. I'm an earth-tone lover, and it almost singes my retinas.

I figured I'd keep it anyway since it's rather hard to find, but pulled it out again last week and realized that it's one of those that I feel just begs to be discovered by someone who will give it the workout it seems to crave. So I'm trading it off to a fellow AT'er who will give it a run for it's money.
 

minrice

who was it if I may ask? Perhaps we can do a study together. If there was/is a study group for the Balbi it hasn't been revived for some time...
Personally I love the colors, I like earth tones too, what I can't stand are pastels ;)
 

SolSionnach

I :heart: the Balbi, but don't read with it at all. Thanks for that link, coredil - it's awesome... and helpful.

I was struck by something in Cerulean's linked post:
Three (Scepters)-They are arranged in a triangle. In the centre, the caduceus. At the top a dog's head. Around hazelnut tree.s All these are attributes of Mercury.
That's exactly the image from the Universal Wirth! So, does that deck use the Picard meanings, too? It looks like it does!
 

SolSionnach

Also, if you look at the linked 9 of Coins, you can see that the balbi is a mirror image - the astrological symbols are reversed, and also on the opposite side from teh Picard. However... the artist's signature is not!

Hidden esoteric meanings there, I'd bet...