Continuing on this theme of researching the Marseilles deck, it is becoming painfully clear to me that an understanding of the deck is more of a task than reading a few books and familiarizing myself with the basic decks. I knew this before I started this project actually, but just want to toss this concept out to our Tarot brotherhood. Thorough research is important and I wonder if some of those now researching the cards realize this study is holistic and not just about the cards. How can we understand them without knowing the history, the outer history of the times? And what people were reading, and what issues were relavent to them. It is a tough one, getting into the mindset of people who lived 400 years ago, or even 300 years ago, or even 200 years ago. Surely our advances cause us to look differently at the world, but it should be evident to any student of history that these earlier people (and historical periods way earlier than this) were highly intelligent with developed souls and minds. The Greek material is available to us and we can gain a peek at what was going on under the hood, so to speak. One 20th century alchemist, du Lubicz, dedicated his life to studying the Egyptian culture because he felt there was a life to the hieroglyphs that we all had missed in our archeological surveys of the period. He was a severe student of the occult arts.
In order to understand the Marseilles period of cards, we have to take that slice out of time and learn everything we can about it. I noted in an earlier post that some of the card personages are facing in other directions than is traditional, and it is difficult to decide if it was an accident, sloppy work on the part of the printer, or if there are clues to deeper levels of the cards.
I feel very fortunate with this group that I have been able to develop some thoughts along occult lines with the cards and not be blasted and labeled as an imbocile because if one studies the 'true' history of the cards, it should be evident that they were merely a game invented for the rich and famous of the time.
Thank you...and on with the research.