Kingdubrock
Close, I dont know if you looked through those links, but IMO, especially between Flornoy and Houdouin it becomes pretty difficult to hold on to the idea that the merseille doesnt run deeper than is currently held by certain historians. It doesnt have to have had the whole "came from Ancient Egypt" or conform to some teachings in a magic grimoire or whatever to run much much deeper than what is currently fashionable to believe.
The evidence against a deeper meaning to the trumps comes primarily from the assertion that the "images would have been familiar to everyone" (as if a specific sequence of iconic images holds no semantic value, simply because we cant necessarily decipher it definitively) - and evidence of pre-marseille sources such as the apparently mundane nature of the Mamluk Cards and of some of the aristocratic Visconti style decks which lack some of the cards and features found in the marseille decks. This in no way negates the refinement and canonization that occurred in specific guilds in specific locations. Flornoy's research into the Compagnons for example is not pulled out of thin air. As well, the sacred/Vitruvian-type geometric grids that have been revealed by Houdouin and certain instances of masonic symbols in the "type 2" decks are pretty hard to brush off.
The correspondences with astrology which is more overt than any cabalistic conformity, is again, hard to brush off. Astrology doesnt necessarily make it occult, but the way it, and other symbols and eye movements and so on interact still resonate with what Crowley also said about crossword puzzles.
Its also possible that certain occultists would rather the marseille have no deeper meaning, claiming it to be arbitrary, than for it to have a deeper meaning and to have gotten it tragically wrong.
The evidence against a deeper meaning to the trumps comes primarily from the assertion that the "images would have been familiar to everyone" (as if a specific sequence of iconic images holds no semantic value, simply because we cant necessarily decipher it definitively) - and evidence of pre-marseille sources such as the apparently mundane nature of the Mamluk Cards and of some of the aristocratic Visconti style decks which lack some of the cards and features found in the marseille decks. This in no way negates the refinement and canonization that occurred in specific guilds in specific locations. Flornoy's research into the Compagnons for example is not pulled out of thin air. As well, the sacred/Vitruvian-type geometric grids that have been revealed by Houdouin and certain instances of masonic symbols in the "type 2" decks are pretty hard to brush off.
The correspondences with astrology which is more overt than any cabalistic conformity, is again, hard to brush off. Astrology doesnt necessarily make it occult, but the way it, and other symbols and eye movements and so on interact still resonate with what Crowley also said about crossword puzzles.
Its also possible that certain occultists would rather the marseille have no deeper meaning, claiming it to be arbitrary, than for it to have a deeper meaning and to have gotten it tragically wrong.