How many decks belong to the French tradition?

I know that all so called 'Wirth' decks and Knapp-Hall Tarot belong to the French tradition. Stairs of Gold seem to be some sort of hybrid version. How many decks are there out there which follows the French tradition (influenced by Paul Christian)?

Welcome to Aeclectic, Frater Benedict!

Can you better define what you're considering to be "the French tradition"? Not everyone is familiar with Paul Cristian or his influence.

With 'French tradition' I mean a deck which hold one, several or all of the following characteristics:

1. The Hebrew alphabet starts with 1. Aleph. Magician. and ends with 22. Taw. The World.

2. The Empress is surrounded by twelve stars, the Emperor stands close to or sits on a cubic stone, Temperance wears a symbol for the Sun, and the Fool is threatened by a crocodile or alligator.

3. At least the nine initial Trumps (sometimes all 22) are decorated with polygrams or polygons or other geometrical symbols.

4. Ace-nine in each suit correspond to the decans, counted from the beginning of Aries. There might exist variations of this structure – and I think that Christian actually didn't use the same structure as Papus.

I know about a so called 'Papus Tarot' in hideous colours produced by US Games in the 1970's (I think), but I didn't mention it in my initial post, since the colouring is – well, unnerving.

The influence on this trajectory is not limited to Paul Christian. Wirth and Papus each influenced what happened, and Grand Tarot Belline must belong to this trajectory as well.

I don't know about the rest, but:

- Sun Moon Tarot has an crocodile or alligator in the water below the fool
- Bonfire Tarot and Pearl of Wisdom has a cube in each of their Emperor cards, although none of them are sitting on one
- Bonfire Tarot has its Empress with 12 stars and Temperance with Sun around its head

I recall the cube in a variety of other Emperor cards in a variety of decks, the Emperor isn't always sitting on it, but it is often featured. Can't remember which decks those were off the top of my head though.

I thought the twelve stars around the Empress is pretty common? That is, can be found on most decks?

The Happy Squirrel said:

I thought the twelve stars around the Empress is pretty common? That is, can be found on most decks?

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Thank you so very much for the decks you mentioned. I will take a look on them.

When it comes to the stars on the Empress trump, they are – as far as I know – unheard of before 1870, the year Paul Christian published 'History of Magic'. Has anyone seen them before Wirth painted his trumps in 1889? They are not on the Belline version of the Empress, so it might be an idea of Wirth's.

Strangely enough, a sphinx-drawn Chariot is not an entirely Post-Levi development. Although most decks before Levi and Christian depict the Chariot with horses, Jacques Vieville depicted the Chariot as drawn by sphinx-like creatures about 1650, so there's precedent for sphinxes in non-occult tarot.

Ah. Looks like I am over my head with this one. The decks I mentioned were created in the last few years.

I am google-ing the stuff you mentioned. How fascinating.

This might be a good question for the Tarot History & Development section.

The Happy Squirrel said:

The decks I mentioned were created in the last few years.

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Yes, but that was exactly what I asked for: I am interested in to which extent the French tradition is still alive and producing new decks in accordance to its history. The old decks from 1889, 1909 and 1929 am I already aware of. I am curious about any new from the same tree. Although belonging to a common family, Belline, Wirth, Papus and Knapp-Hall are not entirely identical, and it wold be very interesting to see modern intermixings between them, and further debate on the decan issue. It would also be very interesting if any deck combined Paul Christian's symbolic titles of the trumps and the emanationist philosophy expressed by Papus in 'The Qabalah' page 110-111.

The Happy Squirrel said:

I am google-ing the stuff you mentioned. How fascinating.

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Yes. I find it fascinating too. Otherwise I wouldn't have started this thread. There are more to Tarot than Waite-clones, Thoth-clones and quickly forgotten decks of the 'Chrystal-Egyptian Wellbeing-Inspiration Manga-Cat Tarot of Ancient Lemuria' variety (only produced because the game companies want to earn easy money).

Falconnier, Ibis, Eclectic, Sphinx, Tarot of the ages, De Lasenic, Balbi, El gran tarot esoterico ...

mrpants said:

This might be a good question for the Tarot History & Development section.

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I am not so sure of that. My question does not regard the early development of Tarot in the 15th-17th centuries, but the intentional Continental 'occultification' of Tarot in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Let me assure you, that I don't believe that Italian artists of the 15th century adhered to ideas synthesised* and emerging in 19th century France. These French ideas may be useful for some persons regardless of when they emerged. Oranges and apples ought to be kept in their own boxes. Some old things are useful. Some useful things are old. But that doesn't mean that every useful thing is old.

* I use the word 'synthesised', since some bricks of the French system-building is of course older: The flagrant Neo-Platonism, for instance. Kabbalah was slightly misinterpreted, but that happened on both sides the Channel, and was not an exclusively French vice. The concept of an 'Abyss' is unknown in original Jewish kabbalah, for instance, and that idea was introduced by Britons.