Tarot de Marseille - Color Symbols

While i was researching information about the Cary Yale deck I stumble upon this and I just thought I would share it, I am not sure If someone has already posted this information, so I am taking a chance.

Oswald Wirth (1860-1943) color symbolism. Wirth presents the following choices.

Red = Spirit
Yellow = Body
Blue = Soul
Green = Bodily Soul
Purple = Spiritual Soul
Orange = Bodily Spirit

Purple = Majestic Jupiter = Wirth's Spiritual Soul
Blue = Mercury = Wirths Soul
Green = Sacred to Venus

further colors were given planets:
Golden Sun
Silvery Moon
reddish Mars
Black Saturn = Death
White = purity
Wirth consistently used his color symbolism in his trumps.

Alternatively, Joseph Maxwell presented the following color symbolism in his book "The Tarot", page28:

White: purity, absence of ego
Yellow: spirit, animation, intelligence
Blue: instinctive desire, will, yearning
Red: creative, generative, formative energy
Green: life, life force
Black: the vanities of the world of appearances, the illusion of material phenomena

I'm sure there are others, but these have been helpful for me....

Camoin claims symbolic importance for the Conver Marseille deck colors but I have my doubts. The Marseille woodblock decks were printed with a few primary colors for technical (and perhaps cost) reasons. I've seen printings from the same blocks with differing color schemes.

Yes indeed. I feel sure much of the colour variations with very old decks is from printers rather than from symbolism. I have four reprints of one "English" Marseille whose original is in the British Museum - in: all four primary colours, in blue, red and yellow, in green, red and yellow and in pink and green (which is very strange !) One of these days I really must go and see which colour scheme the original is - but it really made me think about how we, today, actually have no idea why certain colours were used !

Colored people

gregory said:

Yes indeed. I feel sure much of the colour variations with very old decks is from printers rather than from symbolism. I have four reprints of one "English" Marseille whose original is in the British Museum - in: all four primary colours, in blue, red and yellow, in green, red and yellow and in pink and green (which is very strange !) One of these days I really must go and see which colour scheme the original is - but it really made me think about how we, today, actually have no idea why certain colours were used !

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Hello all,

Colors in Tarot of Marseille Pattern are a great deal of conflicts.

My questionning is as following:

When TdM Type II were made (end of 17th century and beginning of 18th century) did cardmakers used colors symbolism from their time , let's say 1650 to 1800; or did they used color symbolism form another period: 12th 13th 14th 15th centurys or even older periods ?

Color symbolism evoluated during times (and still evoluate) and this point is crucial amongst some other points such as clothes, shoes, swords, chairs ect...
In fact all details of a card may indiquate a place in time.

All this things deserves researches and historical datas.

Best from Marseille France

YLM

I couldn't agree more, Yves - not to mention that in many cases we don't actually know what the colour symbolism of any given time WAS !

gregory said:

I couldn't agree more, Yves - not to mention that in many cases we don't actually know what the colour symbolism of any given time WAS !

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I am also with you all, hmmm here's an idea, why don't we all post up historical Color reference from different Authors like Levi, Agrippa, etc. keeping it factual to historical reference, and we must include dates, we then may start to see a pattern, then we could put together, however this will take a group of people in order to do this, so shall we, historians lets give it ago. and see what we come up with, would be very interesting.

Edit: we could even touch on the printing the whys, what and how's, with dates. ( what were the original colors were to what they turned out to be after printing) now that would be very interesting too.

LIS:....why don't we all post up historical Color reference from different Authors like Levi, Agrippa, etc.

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The problem with this is that Levi, Agrippa etc. (the esoteric tarot people) are all much more recent. I've wondered if the early printers only had those colours available. Not a lot of choice.....


Bee

Bernice said:

The problem with this is that Levi, Agrippa etc. (the esoteric tarot people) are all much more recent. I've wondered if the early printers only had those colours available. Not a lot of choice.....


Bee

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Yeah very true, hmm we may have to go as far back as lets say the Mamluk cards, Egyptian and others, even the Cary Yale,, as why did they choose to use certain colors, where did these color symbol/meanings evolve from? I have found that the color symbol meaning change depending on who painted them etc.

Debra said:

Camoin claims symbolic importance for the Conver Marseille deck colors but I have my doubts. The Marseille woodblock decks were printed with a few primary colors for technical (and perhaps cost) reasons. I've seen printings from the same blocks with differing color schemes.

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My thoughts exactly. Limited technical options along with budget restraints. In that context not so different from today. I have often felt that the numerous variety of reasons that later Tarot writers have attributed to the use of color are more a case of over romantic seeing what they want to see, and then supporting that with historical rational. But when you consider the diverse meaning and symbolism that color has had in different cultures and at different points in history, its not too difficult to find and propose some "deep" meaning, that probably was not really intended.

I had this conversation, with a local reader, who in turn referenced my comments when she made a presentation at a tarot group meeting. Their reaction was that I was talking rubbish. The tarot community can be very set in its ways on occasions and doesn't respond well to the their core tenants being questioned. Not always the best approach to getting a better grasp of the truth.