Rusty Neon said:
I haven't seen the Klea book at the stores yet (.........) Does this book cover the minor arcana in any great detail? Does Klea list and discuss in detail the pictorial details of the pips?
Rusty Neon: Klea does something rather odd in his book (although he explains why in his preface). He starts with the Minors, and ends with the Majors.
His whole book is strange.... I have never read a book quite like it. It is wonderful though (although sometimes it has had me scratching my head or grimacing a wee bit).
The way he describes the Minors at first made me wonder if I hadn't wasted my money. He describes them in detail. Example, le Valet De Baton, Arcane 26 (he gives numbers to all the Arcana):
"Sa coiffe renfleé vers le bas et coupée par le bord supérieur de la carte, est composée d'une toque au rouge striée, bordée de deux rubans jaune et blanc, qui évoque une transmutation mentale.
Ses cheveux bien coiffés en boucles spiralées d'inégales longueurs, sont de couleur chair et peignés en frange au-dessus de son front. Aucun autre Valet n'a de coiffure semblable.
(...............)
Ses grands yeux sont de la même couleur chair, comme si son visage étiat moulé dans de la cire; ils sont ourlés de paupières épaisses et un de ses sourcils est relevé. Il ne regarde pas son Bâton, mais, au-delà de lui, ceux de la Reyne, du Roy et du Cavalier. Orienté vers l'est et la lumière solaire, il transmet son Feu à la Terre".
And this goes on for a couple of pages for each Minor Arcana.
At first I found this really odd. But when I took out my Grimaud cards (he uses the Grimaud obviously - he's French
), and started studying them at the same time as I read his descriptions, suddenly whole new worlds seemed to open up for me. It was very strange, very wonderful and quite unbalancing.
When he gets to the Majors, he goes into more detail as to symbolism. Example, one paragraph from Temperance: (Temperance takes up about 13 pages of interpretation, plus about 6 or 7 pages of Divinatory meanings divided into sections such as Symbolic, Spiritual, Mental, Emotional, Family, Creativity, Social, Concrete, Therapeutic (psychic and physic).)
"C'est ce que raconte le fluide qui transmute la vie terrestre en vie spirituelle en donnant la réponse à l'angoissante question de l'être périssable: "Au-delà de la Mort, que se passe-t-il?" Et l'Ange prépare le nectar et l'ambroiserie qui nourrissent l'âme, offre son aide et sa protection pour la délicate transition, pose l'échelle qui donne accès au monde invisible et montre comment la gravir. Tempérance est cette Lumière qui brillait à l'autre bout de la dure épreuve de l'Arcane XIII, puissante sans être aveuglante et chaude de tout son amour. (.................)"
(This is to give you an idea of his prose.)
It is not what I would call an indispensable book. But I would call it a book that it is a pity not to have.
