Layouts for Studying Major Arcana

rwcarter

Melvis said:
Have you ever read "Tarot of the Bohemians" by Papus? It was first published in 1889 and is generally discounted (primarily because of the wild history Papus attributes to the tarot) but I've always enjoyed the first half of the book, which discusses applying the attributes of the letters of the name of God (Yod-Heh-Vau-Heh) to the cards. It's very complicated, but I liked how, in his system, cards corresponding to Yod were 'positive', Heh cards were 'negative', Vau was 'neutral' (a combination of the previous two), and the final Heh was a transition to the next set of three, or 'ternary'. He combined these 'ternaries' into 'septenaries' to cover the whole set of Majors.

I've pulled the book out and need to wrap my head around what he's trying to do.

Melvis said:
So, Papus' system placed in a Tree format looks like:

------0------
--1-------2--
------3------
--4-------5--
------6------
--7-------8--
------9------
-10------11--
-----12------
-13------14--
-----15------
-16------17--
-----18------
-19------20--
-----21------

The Pillar of Severity on the left is yin, positive, male, "creator"; the Pillar of Mercy on the right is yang, negative, female, "preserver"; the Pillar of balance in the center is neutral, "transforming". The Fool or 0 can really belong to any pillar, I suppose, but for symmetry's sake I like it in the center.

Since as far as I know, this is your creation Melvis, what would you call this layout? The Pillar Layout? The ToL Pillar Layout? Something else?

Melvis said:
I've never really done anything with this as far as developing a spread or anything like that, but I've always thought it was an interesting way to look at the cards and compare their relationships to each other.

Something that was done with the Majors-only Seven Stations Layout as a spread would probably work here. You would need to use two sets of Majors, preferably from different decks or different sizes of the same deck. Take the Majors from one deck and lay them out numerically according to the layout. Then shuffle the other set of Majors and take the first card from the top of the deck (or pick a first card from the fanned cards) and put that in position 0, next card in position 1, etc until the last card is put in position 22.

Starting from wherever the Fool card ends up, you would examine each card in relation to its "base" card. For instance, if the Fool ended up in position 7, you would read that as how Chariot-type situations are handled. If the Sun ended up in position 11, that would tell you how you handle Justice-type situations. We each handle situations differently and one person's way of handling it is no better or worse than another person's way. It's just different. Some people may handle Lovers-type situations in a Chariot manner while others handle it in a Temperance manner.

Any card that ended up in its base position would have an enhanced meaning. So if the Hierophant ended up in position 5, you would know that you're on track for how you handle Hierophant-type situations.

Other ways the cards could be interpreted are:
1) higher numbered cards in lower numbered positions could mean that you're trying to get ahead of yourself, and conversely lower numbered cards in higher numbered positions could mean you're lagging behind (If Judgment ended up in the Empress position, you're getting way ahead of yourself in how you handle Empress-type situations. If the Empress ended up in the Judgment position, you're not as far along in being able to handle Judgment type situations. But if Judgment appeared in the Tower position, you're pretty much on track.)
2) you could read the two cards elementally to see if your approach to the base position is friendly, neutral or antagonistic
3) you could just look at the figures on the cards and read them based on whether or not they're facing each other:
a) figures facing each other are at least trying to dialog (whether or not they're successing doing so would depend on the two cards)
b) figures facing away from each other aren't dialoging at all
c) figures that are both facing the Reader are asking you to choose between them
d) one figure is facing the other but the other figure is facing you asking you to mediate between the two
4) if you use reversals, any reversed cards would point you to where there are problems

So, as a spread, you could get a quick look at where problems lay by numerical differences, elemental interactions, orientation of the figures or reversals. Or you could compare each set of cards to get a complete overview of where you are at this point in your life.

Skysteel, I'm off to take a closer look at your layout next.

Rodney

rwcarter

Melvis said:
Have you ever read "Tarot of the Bohemians" by Papus?

Melvis,

I don't know whether to thank you or to curse you. I'm trying to wrap my brain around Papus' Figure Showing the Sense of Each of the 22 Major Arcana. That means I have to delve into his writings on the Symboligical Tarot in order to understand what he's trying to get at in the Figure.

Card 2 is the positive inverse (the book says reflex, but I'm guessing that's what it would mean in today's words) of card 1 while card 4 is the negative inverse of card 1. But 4 is a positive card and 2 is a negative card. My head hurts.... :bugeyed:

I'm going to look at Skysteel's layout and let Papus percolate in the back of my brain for awhile....

Rodney

rwcarter

Skysteel said:
Very interesting, Rodney, thanks for posting. I came up with this scheme:

00
01...02
03...04...05
06...07...08...09
10...11
12...13...14...15
16...17...18
19...20
21

At the half-way point we have the Wheel, the fulcrum around which everything is balanced, and the force that can stop the Wheel and break out of the former, mundane cycle.

Skysteel,

Just to verify, in your layout is Strength #8 or #11? From your description, it sounds like Strength is 11 since you're talking about force. I think I can see how limitations would apply to Justice, although that's not one of the first terms that comes to mind for me when I think of that card. If I'm right, then your system is Marseilles-based. I've yet to apply any layouts to Marseilles or Thoth-based decks. Hmmm. Guess I should rectify that.

It's a beautiful layout. But at first glance I'm not sure if it applies to decks which have renumbered some of the Majors, decks which have renumbered all of the Majors or decks that have more than 22 Majors.

In your layout, cards 3-5 are developmental stages. In the Navigators Tarot, those cards are the Moon, Aeon (Judgment) and the Devil. These cards loosely relate to pleasure-seeking, learning there are consequences for your actions and the effect that lies and deceit can have. Those seem more like lessons to me than developmental stages. In the Mythic Tarot, those cards are the Emperor, High Priestess and Hierophant, which misses by just this much what you're trying to get at in your layout.

It's a great layout for certain types of decks and I'll definitely use it when I can. But the kinds of layouts I'm looking for should be able to apply to more than one type of deck.

Rodney

Melvis

Hola,

Just back from a few days away...

I tend to ignore most of Papus and just steal the ideas that I find intriguing.

So the part that stuck with me the most was the "Positive - Negative - Neutral" idea. So in the layout I tend to look at the cards in groups of three, such as: 1-2-3, 4-5-6, up to 19-20-21. (Once again, the Fool 'floats' around the others.) I would probably read this as a spread that way, too. So I'd read the first three cards (excluding the Fool -- see below) together as the Empress trio.

The seven trios could be read in any number of ways, I suppose. A timeline comes to mind, or even a 'lifeline' of the querent's lifetime. Once the cards are laid out you can determine where they are right now, and thus can see what the future holds.

I think the card in the Fool's position would be laid out as the last card and would be read with each trio as a potential influence on the events of that trio.

Peace,

Melvis

Raya

What I like to do with the Major Arcana is reorder them all, making a new "Fool's Journey" except I can put any card first. Maybe I start with Justice, so you have Reason as a basis for the journey, then maybe I figure with Reason as a basis Temperance might come next, since on the journey the Justice figure would always take the Middle Path, so to speak, in everything he/she does. And I just go from there.

I think the book A Magical Course in Tarot is where I first saw it, but I did it just because I felt like the Fool's Journey didn't always make sense to me. The connections between cards felt forced sometimes. This way I make my own connections and progressions based on the way I understand the cards and their results. It's kind of a fun little exercise.

rachelcat

When I was first starting out, I learned alot from the Three Circles spread in the Motherpeace Tarot Playbook. I can't remember exactly how it goes, but it does follow the order of the cards, with the last three cards, Sun, Judgement, and World as the centers of the three circles. I seem to remember ascending and decending energy around the circle. (I will have to dig my book out of its box at some point to share it with you. Or if someone else has it . . .)

rwcarter

rachelcat said:
When I was first starting out, I learned alot from the Three Circles spread in the Motherpeace Tarot Playbook.

rachelcat,

That layout is reproduced in Mary K. Greer's Tarot for Your Self. Although I don't have the Motherpeace deck, I did manage to get one of the books. Hmmm. Let me go check something. I have Motherpeace: A Way to the Goddess. But the reproduction of the layout with the explanatory text gives me enough to go on.

Thanks.
Rodney

rwcarter

Mary K Greer is the BOMB!

Not quite full circle, but I've discovered in Tarot Mirrors that not only does MKG discuss the Motherpeace Majors in the Circles of Mind layout, she then pulls the Seven Levels out of the Circles of Mind, makes those into 7 triads and then looks into the 3x7 structure of the cards. As if that weren't enough, she then lays out the 7 triads in the manner of the Principle of Four, which looks very Papus-like, and relates the triads to the seven rays of creative expression and the seven chakras. She then goes on to talk about the Star System, which for all practical intents and purposes is Papus' Study of Symbolism chapter from Tarot of the Bohemians, but in an English that I'll probably be able to understand! :laugh:

And in Tarot For Your Self, she lays out the Majors in an Astrological Wheel, with the 12 signs on the outside of the wheel and the 10 ruling planets on the inside of the wheel. The copy I have of the book (softbound first edition, first printing from 1984) has the picture rotated 90 degrees to the right from where it should be. Confused me for some time until I realized why what I was seeing wasn't matching up to the text I was reading. This gives me some interactions to explore that I wouldn't have thought of otherwise. For example, Cancer is ruled by the Moon, so the Chariot is ruled by the High Priestess. Not a connection I would've thought of on my own. (I'm only mildly interested in Astrology and have paid very little attention to Astrological associations with the Majors.)

Rodney

rwcarter

Raya said:
What I like to do with the Major Arcana is reorder them all, making a new "Fool's Journey" except I can put any card first. Maybe I start with Justice, so you have Reason as a basis for the journey, then maybe I figure with Reason as a basis Temperance might come next, since on the journey the Justice figure would always take the Middle Path, so to speak, in everything he/she does. And I just go from there.

Raya,

Sorry, somehow I missed seeing your post. If I understand you correctly, you randomly(?) pick a card and then logically go from there assigning the next card in sequence as makes sense to you at the time? Is it just a coincidence that the two cards you mentioned above happen to meet on the Tree of Life or do you also try to follow some pattern along the ToL?

Raya said:
I think the book A Magical Course in Tarot is where I first saw it, but I did it just because I felt like the Fool's Journey didn't always make sense to me. The connections between cards felt forced sometimes. This way I make my own connections and progressions based on the way I understand the cards and their results. It's kind of a fun little exercise.

One of the few books I don't seem to have in my collection! :surprise:

Money's gonna be tight for awhile and I have enough to study already. But I'll have to keep an eye out for it at a discount.

Raya

rwcarter said:
Raya,

Sorry, somehow I missed seeing your post. If I understand you correctly, you randomly(?) pick a card and then logically go from there assigning the next card in sequence as makes sense to you at the time? Is it just a coincidence that the two cards you mentioned above happen to meet on the Tree of Life or do you also try to follow some pattern along the ToL?

One of the few books I don't seem to have in my collection! Money's gonna be tight for awhile and I have enough to study already. But I'll have to keep an eye out for it at a discount.

Sometimes I choose a card randomly or sometimes I pick one that seems to represent where I am in my life or in a specific situation. I don't actually know what the Tree of Life is. (Is it Crowely's Thoth-Kabbalah diagram?) So yeah, it's just coincidence. I could also put Judgement after Justice, since maybe in the journey sound reason leads to sound judgements. Or the Hermit, also a wise figure... whatever, really.

I learned the tarot with A Magical Course in Tarot. It teaches intuitive reading and has a lot of interesting little tips and tidbits. I rather like it.