Did Pixie use a photocopy?

Debra

The question is, if Pixie modeled her own drawings on the Visconti cards, why switch left & right on some of them? My guess is, some kind of kabbalistic reasoning.
 

Yelell

Is it known what influenced Smith for each individual card? The lovers and magician in the visconti sforza and the cary yale visconti are mirrors images of each other. The shield of the empress is on one side in the visconti decks, and the other in the TdM and soprafino I think.

The devil and tower of the visconti sforza deck are not original to the deck - my 2 decks have completely different sets of replacement devil and tower cards. One tower has no lightening at all.
 

Zephyros

The question is, if Pixie modeled her own drawings on the Visconti cards, why switch left & right on some of them? My guess is, some kind of kabbalistic reasoning.

You're right. The entire deck is actually a mirror image, in my own strange theory. This is the Tree of Life. Notice the Fool and Magician up on top, their postures are similar but reversed. A nice visualization is to physically take the cards together with an Ace and switch their places so that Fool and Magician form a type of triangle (the Ace stays where is it). This fits visually but the cards are now in the wrong places... until we hold it up to a mirror. Then we have our triangle, showing what I believe is the Kabbalistic idea of the Adam Kadmon, that is, the inner workings of the individual. In essence the deck is a Kabbalistic map that emanates from the inside outwards.

Last time I raised this idea LRichard was kind enough to post an image from one of Waite's books, that would seem to suggest this.

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=203499

Whether or not this has any bearing on the discussion I don't know, though.

Is it known what influenced Smith for each individual card? The lovers and magician in the visconti sforza and the cary yale visconti are mirrors images of each other. The shield of the empress is on one side in the visconti decks, and the other in the TdM and soprafino I think.

Not each individual card, but one can make educated guesses. Some of the cards do show older influences from historical decks while some show more recent Golden Dawn influences. The Majors are easier to track down than the Minors that have a far wider range of influences, some coming from Smith herself while others bear Waite's unmistakable mark.
 

Desecrated

The question is, if Pixie modeled her own drawings on the Visconti cards, why switch left & right on some of them? My guess is, some kind of kabbalistic reasoning.

Because that is the drawback of the machine they used. It mirror imaged everything. But if she didn't know that and just received them in the mail she would have thought that she drew it the right way.
 

Desecrated

Is it known what influenced Smith for each individual card? The lovers and magician in the visconti sforza and the cary yale visconti are mirrors images of each other. The shield of the empress is on one side in the visconti decks, and the other in the TdM and soprafino I think.

The devil and tower of the visconti sforza deck are not original to the deck - my 2 decks have completely different sets of replacement devil and tower cards. One tower has no lightening at all.

The cary yale wasn't known to the public until 1967.
 

Desecrated

The pierpoint-morgan deck was purchased in 1911....

So my theory is completely wrong.
 

gregory

The pierpoint-morgan deck was purchased in 1911....

So my theory is completely wrong.
So mine was right for all the wrong reasons :D Shame - I was coming here to say I was warming to your idea !
 

ravenest

Because that is the drawback of the machine they used. It mirror imaged everything. But if she didn't know that and just received them in the mail she would have thought that she drew it the right way.

Thats what I thought an earlier post said ?
 

ravenest

But it did inspire me to go looking at pics of old rectigraph machines ( I like old machinery kitch! ) ...

wait a minute .... I could swear, in one of those pics a woman that looks like Pixie is operating one :bugeyed: ... must be a coincidence ?
 

Teheuti

She was far more knowledgeable about the occult and had far more professional experience that they let on sometimes.

They say that she only had a fragmented part of the Book T from Waite, but she also had the complete book T from Yates and an unillustrated version from Matters. (According to Stuart Kaplan).
I don't remember Kaplan saying that and I don't know of any source contemporary to her that indicates Smith had a copy of Book T.

Both she and Aurthur Waite wrote that they spent at least 3 days in the museum sketching from the sola busca.
Your reference to Smith spending 3 days sketching in the museum is important information - can you give us a specific source?

Part of the problem is that a lot of people make unverified claims about what Smith knew and so the story gets all mixed up.