Books on Etteilla?

Thank you very much

Does anyone know if any of Etteilla's own books have been published in English?

If so, where can I find them?

Thanks!

A Wicked Pack of Cards has the most comprehensive info on Etteilla the man. Huson's book explains his system and lists his meanings for the pips only, along with the meanings from other sources. Etteilla re-designed and re-ordered the trumps, so Huson completely disregards Etteilla's interpretation of them. Since Etteilla's pip meanings seem to have come from European tradition, and as he was the earliest person to document them, Huson treats his pip interpretations quite seriously. Huson also occasionally marries the Etteilla meanings with the later Waite/GD materials — as with the five of coins meaning "love", but also "poverty".

Huson's work, including Dame Fortune's Wheel Tarot, is only derived from Etteilla's work as far as the pips are concerned. If you want to take in all of Etteilla's system, I'd purchase one of the Etteilla decks and see how you like it. The trumps only bear a passing resemblance to the traditional models, and many have been completely renamed and redesigned. He was attempting to "reconstruct" the supposed "original" tarot which he assumed, wrongly, came from ancient Egypt. Practically nothing was known about the religions of the ancient Egyptians, and so Etteilla's trumps are psuedo-mystical flights of fancy, really.

Listen to Greg.

Plus - if you're lucky - the Esoteric Ancient Tarots (HTF and OOP) - has meanings written on the cards, if you can overcome feelings of the cards being "polluted" by writing. But it does help. I occasionally use this deck for readings and shamelessly read the words on the cards.

Wouldn't dare do this in front of querents (of course). The shame.

Thanks, to both of you, for the advice

Greg,
Unfortunately, it appears that A Wicked Pack of Cards is long out of print and the cheapest used copies sell for around $90. Bummer.

To which Huson book are you referring? Mystical Origins of the Tarot? I have that on my wish list. If that's the book you are talking about, I'll have to move it to the top of my list.

I recently purchased Dussere's Tarot Egyptien (the one in the green box) and have been looking for something educational to read about this deck, especially about its history and symbolism.

Le Fanu,
I'll have to keep my eye out for that deck. I do have it written on my list of decks to get some day, but it was a low priority as I did find all of the writing to be a bit of an eyesore. Are they Eteilla's original meanings, or were they chosen by another author?

Also, do either of you know which deck is closest to Etteilla's original deck, or is that not known? Would the Dussere deck I have be closest, or would the Esoteric Ancient Tarot or Egyptian Gypsies Tarot be more accurate?

I must admit I was drawn to this deck solely because of the fool card, but I do love studying historical decks and know so little about non-TdM decks.

Do either of you know if the LWB that comes with the Dussere deck agrees with Etteilla's card meanings? It was written by Julia Orsini.

I guess I was lucky, cause I found a like-new copy of Wicked Pack of Cards in a used bookstore 2 or 3 years ago for only $35.

I know an Aeclectic member who's been on something of an Etteilla kick lately. I'll have to point them to this thread.

Rodney

Huson and Revak took their Etteilla meanings from Papus' Tarot Divinatoire. The whole book was translated into English by Beryl Stockman and published as The Divinatory Tarot by Papus (London: Aeon Books, 2008). The text was totally reordered, which makes it a little difficult to tell what is Etteilla's and what is from other sources - especially since the illustrations are from the Papus-Goulinat deck and not an Etteilla one. For instance, the Hierophant and Lovers interpretations don't make much sense unless you understand that they were commentaries on entirely different designs.

Just print out Revak's translations, and check the Etteilla threads in Historical Research.

Thanks Teheuti,
Do you recommend reading the Divinatory Tarot book? Or should I just read the Revak translations that you mentioned? (and where can I find those?)

Penthasilia recently compiled all the available Etteilla meanings (from the various lwbs) and correspondences into a very very helpful word document. I'm sure if you pm her, she would be willing to pass it along.

garmonbozia said:

Thanks Teheuti,
Do you recommend reading the Divinatory Tarot book? Or should I just read the Revak translations that you mentioned? (and where can I find those?)

Click to expand...

See Ross Caldwell's post above for the links to Revak and other sites:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=2971221&postcount=10

The Divinatory Tarot book is not absolutely necessary if that is all you want, but there's other interesting material in it and the Papus-Goulinat deck is very interesting in its own right.