Bateleur Enquiry (Universal Tarot of Marseille)

[spoonbender]

I'm reading the book Lee Bursten wrote as a guide to the Tarot of Marseilles (which I managed to get hold of after all!), and I was struck by his description of the Bateleur. Besides being irritated by the choice of the name 'Magician' instead of 'Bateleur', I was also somewhat bugged by the really negative characterisation, which Lee considers to be historical fact:

The Magician is an ambiguous subversive figure. As an itinerant entertainer, he would have been looked down upon even more than the Fool [who Lee calls a ‘homeless beggar or court jester’], since the Fool could not help himself, while the Magician was quite aware of what he was doing. Besides being considered immoral, he had the reputation of a con artist, someone who would as soon trick you out of your money as say hello.

It made me wonder if that’s really what people would have thought when they saw the Bateleur (who, judging from dictionary entries and threads here, seems to have been more than a magician) performing his tricks on the streets or the town square – would they have been excited to watch him perform and would they have sympathized with him, even admired him? Or would they been wary, considered him immoral and a thief who takes advantage from others, and have looked down on him even more than a homeless beggar? Perhaps the answer is a mixture of both, but I always thought it would have leaned more towards the first. However, I’m willing to accept that I was wrong, so I’d really like to hear your opinions on what Lee wrote and on the Bateleur’s (social) position!

Also, Lee writes that "there are numerous examples in secular art of the period showing street performers", which makes it sounds as if images such as that of the Bateleur were common, right? Was this the case? I honestly don’t know, because I was always under the impression that such images were rather rare, since I only know of a few examples.

Warm regards,

Spoon

 

[lark]

and yet we are drawn in by it...mezmerized by the slight of hand...walking by minding our own business whan the sound of his voice makes us drift in his direction to stand and watch and offer a piece of silver even though we know we will lose it...but there is always the possibility that we will win...isn't there?
Living in Wisconsin it reminds me so much of all the casinos we have here...I think they are sometimes the modern rendition of the Magician.

I know my post isn't helping...just an observation...I think we have in modern times given the Magician a totally different role in tarot...but I feel Lee is probably getting more at the real truth of how a Magician was seen.

He was a little titilation into a world of chance and magic...and so always seen as something naughty...
I think each class in the tarot either dabbled with him or shunned him....

 

[Fulgour]

Very early on in "Also sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen"
Friedrich Nietzsche presents us with a very believable Le Bateleur and
provides a perfect Le Fol at the same time... very much like real life.

 

[Umbrae]

I do believe it was Diana who explained that Bateleur translated from its origins in fact does carry negative connotations. Homeless, itinerant, and lacking the charm that a modern busker may carry. Not somebody you’d invite home to meet your family.

However they would carry news…

On one hand le Bateleur is amusing and entertaining, and on the other he is a tad scary, he’s far down the socio-economic scale of even us plebes who at least stay in the village and pay our taxes – he does neither!

I remember asking my relative Menya (who immigrated to Israel in 1948 from the Russian/Jewish community in Harbin) for the ‘old’ Russian word for Adventurer. He thought for a long time and said, “There isn’t one. To leave your town and family for an adventure was considered shameful – it was not done.”

When one looks at Le Bateleur, one must leave our modern judgment system and move backwards.

Lee’s absolutely correct in his assessment of him.

 

[Fulgour]

words and meanings

"Rasputin" (in Russian, literally: debauchee) became
a wanderer...but he was also a holyman, a starets.

In the Encyclopaedia Britannica, under 'Bateleur' is
an African hawk, also nicknamed... the tumbler.

 

[Fulgour]

Archetypes, not Personalities

On one hand le Bateleur is amusing and entertaining, and on the other he is a tad scary, he’s far down the socio-economic scale of even us plebes who at least stay in the village and pay our taxes – he does neither!

I think that without overdoing the psychological perspective,
the Tarot Majors may be considered in terms of Archetypes.

And really all we can know about an archetype is like seeing
a snow covered mountain: an outlined shape~ not revealed.

Elsewise, we might as well discuss their personal hygiene.

 

[venicebard]

Forgive me for any toes I step on, but I think the action itself is the key, more than who is performing it: LeBateleur unifies (being first). He gets everyone's attention at the same time. Also, he stands above the crowd, being what they are all watching. In this last, and in his ability to get everyone to lift their eyes his way, he embodies the bardic tree-letter numbered 1, the silver fir (A or ailm), which limits the lateral growth of its limbs so as to redirect that energy upwards. And since the stage magician's greatest trick is levitation, again the symbol refers to 'the uplifting', or that which upraises.

This is the meaning of the letter A -- numbered 1 in both bardic and Hebrew tradition -- in other alphabets as well. The Egyptian equivalent (used for alpha in Ptolemaic times and indeed originating as Egyptian's equivalent to bardic A in the first place, as I can, I believe, show) was the hieroglyph of an eagle (or Egyptian vulture), who rides thermals to a great height, while the ox that Hebrew/Phoenician alef represents was, at least in the arid Middle East, what powered the pump that raises water up from the water table to the surface of the land, for irrigation.

Since 1, the beginning, is analogous to sunrise, it would seem that this aspect of LeBateleur's activity, uplift or levitation, is the heart of this trump's meaning, as opposed to the socioeconomic status of the performer per se. Indeed part of its message is that skill can overcome such mundane considerations and raise up even the lowly to at least a temporarily exalted status.

 

[jmd]

There may have been people who either predominantly looked 'down' or 'up' at others, but would suggest that this is itself a far more modern common element itself projected.

As 'conjurer', tumbler and con-man or side-show, the Bateleur would not have been trusted, but his skills nonetheless tentalisingly admired. I would suggest that the Bateleur continues to have its modern equivalent in the travelling circus show, where each of the performers and characters are 'foreign' (at times literally), but certainly 'foreign' in terms of the everyday broad range of people most of us daily interact with.

I am not sure in what sense the term 'subversive' is here used, but would suggest that in its normal sense, the Bateleur is not so much subversive, but rather very much part of the enjoyed and tolerated 'fringe' population.

As with any book or presentation, I would suggest taking the content to reflect the views of the author at the time of writing, and with that in mind, enjoy reading his views and insights, without assuming either an absolute correctness, nor a finality.

 

[le pendu]

I read him as a trickster... a monteback.. NOT TO BE TRUSTED! This is not an "entertainer", this is not a "magician", this is someone out to separate your money from your wallet.

I always think of riding the bus in San Francisco when I see this card. Often there was someone on the bus trying to get people to play "the shell game". Usually, there was the main "trickster" and an "accomplice"... the accomplice would "win" a few rounds to get others interested in falling for the scheme. When I first arrived in the city.. I used to join in with others on the bus who would try to warn the gulible.. "no, don't play.. it's a trick".. but after a while.. I just learned to shut up and let the "newbie" learn the hard way.. $60 or so dollars lost in the distance of 3 or 4 blocks.

I'm with Lee on this one. The Bateleur has been whitewashed! He's the Fool alright.. but the dark side that makes us so self-confident and brings out the innocent/evil side in us that think WE can trick the trickster!!!

Beware!

 

[Debra]

I read him as a trickster... a monteback.. NOT TO BE TRUSTED! This is not an "entertainer", this is not a "magician", this is someone out to separate your money from your wallet.
........

I'm with Lee on this one. The Bateleur has been whitewashed! He's the Fool alright.. but the dark side that makes us so self-confident and brings out the innocent/evil side in us that think WE can trick the trickster!!!

Beware!

I second that emotion. Actually, I think this sums up the shadow of the Magician, too, even (maybe especially) in decks where it's clear that the artist sees magic(k) in the best possible way and admires the Magician figure.