Plea for advice from the experts....

[philebus]

Hi folks,

I’m here to ask a little help from the experts. First of all, I’ll explain what this is all about. I’m learning to use two animation programmes, one 2D and one 3D. I thought that a good project to learn from would be to create a series of programmes for You Tube, teaching some of my favourite tarot games.

However, given that the likely audience will only know tarot for fortune telling and occult associations, it makes sense to first introduce people to a little history. And this is where you come in. I'm a card player, not a historian and so I need your help.

The first thing I have to get sorted out is a script, once that is recorded it is going to be set in stone. What I would like to ask of the experts here is any input they can offer on this draft. This is going to be the first introduction many people will have to tarot as a card game, so it is important that I get it right – if I’ve made any big errors, or there is something you feel needs to be added or that should be said in a different way, please do let me know. I would also like to include some illustrations, particularly of the Malmuk cards, artworks featuring a Female Pope, and shame pictures. If you know of anything that would not be a copyright issue, I would be very grateful.

Once the script is finished, I can get to work on learning more of the animation process (I've worked with 3D for still images before but this side of things is a little new to me). I’ve managed to work out the lip synching but I’ve still got to learn about non-linear animation to start integrating gestures and expressions. Ultimately, I hope to have a cartoon lecturer standing or sitting to one side of the screen, with a display board on the other in a mock TV studio.

In scripting this, I have had to keep in mind the goal of the film, the likely audience, and the limits of my computer for rendering the animation. Once I’ve done the work of creating the animation, my computer will have to work hard while I’m away. I have decided to aim for 10 minutes running time at the most. I estimate that my computer can render 3 frames a minute at an OK-ish quality. Keeping to 24 frames per second, it works out at 14,400 frames, which will take my computer 80 hours to render. Leaving it to render while I’m at work means it could be doing about 7 hrs rendering a day. As I’ll need to use the computer during weekends, this means it will take about two and a half weeks for the computer to churn out the final film.

 

[philebus]

Well, here it is so far, at about 10 minutes.
Obviously, to keep to the running time and still do the job, there has had to be compromise, also, I have decided to avoid any judgement regarding divination itself – while I have views about this, they aren’t relevant to teaching the game. If you feel I’ve made any wrong decisions, then please, do let me know.

Welcome to the first of our programmes teaching tarocchi – the card games played with tarot. If this seems a strange, novel, or inappropriate use for tarot, then please listen further before making a final judgement.

Don’t forget to visit the associated web site ___________ and download your course book, featuring rules to a large selection of the tarot games.

These cards have been subject to many myths over the last two hundred years and so it is best that we begin the course by taking a very brief look at their history and origins. Naturally, it is seldom possible to give a certain account of the past but although there are many competing accounts of tarot’s history, this is one that I believe is best supported by the evidence. It may not be what you are expecting!

But let’s begin at the beginning in Europe...

Playing cards are first seen in Europe in the early 14th century, having reached us via Islamic trading partners in North Africa. They are thought to have descended from the Far East, ultimately from Chinese money games. Our earliest cards are distinctly Islamic in appearance and feature, as our modern packs, 52 cards made up from 4 suits, each with 10 pip cards and 3 court cards, being a King, a Rider, and a Footman. The suit symbols were Cups, Coins, Scimitars, and Polo Sticks. Polo was not played in Europe at that time, so this suit became Batons and that change created what we now call the Latin suits. Cards like these are still used today in countries such as Italy and Spain, and still with their all male courts.

Other countries have experimented with different suit signs, Germany still has its Hearts, Leaves, Acorns, and Bells, while the Swiss have Acorns, Shields, Leaves and Bells. These too, feature all male court cards. The suits that we are more familiar with in the English speaking world are the French suits of Hearts, Diamonds, Spades, and Clubs. These suits were first created in 16th century France and quickly became the dominant pattern. This dominance largely came about for economic reasons: while the Latin suits required costly wood blocks and hand colouring, which was labour intensive, the French suits required only a simple stencil to reproduce the pips, making production much cheaper.

The Queen has appears to have been independently invented on more than one occasion. It Italy there was a pack that featured 6 court cards in each suit, being a male and a female of each rank. Most of these extra cards were dropped but retaining the Queen in a 56 card pack, that for a time may have been a regional standard. It was to this pack that in the early to mid 15th century, a fifth suit of picture cards was added. These picture cards would appear to have taken as their theme a Christian triumph procession, hence their early name of trionfi, meaning triumphs and from which we get our word trump. It was the invention of tarot that marked the invention of trumps in card games. And this is what they were invented for, a family of card games that has spread throughout much of continental Europe and that continues to be played to this day.

As I’ve mentioned, the original name for tarot was trionfi but this was soon changed to tarocchi, probably to save confusion with another game of triumphs that was becoming popular. Perhaps the most plausible origin of this new name is the term tarochus, meaning ‘to play the fool’, The Fool having an important and unique role in the games. As the cards spread through Europe, this was name often truncated to Tarock, while France dropped the guttural at the end, to give us tarot.

Given the modern perception of tarot cards, it may seem hard to accept this. You are very likely to have read about the church suppressing tarot cards, and that they had to be used in secret because of their heretical images. However, this is not the case. Tarot games spread across the continent, being played openly, without opposition by the church all through the counter-reformation. This alone is reason to go back and question our initial thoughts. It might help to take a closer look at two cards that have been widely misunderstood.

The Female Pope, often renamed The High Priestess by modern occultists, is an excellent example. This must surely be heretical. But no, we are looking at the cards through modern eyes, with a vision coloured by popular myth. If we are to understand what the images represent, then we must look at them in the context of their origin – Renaissance Italy. If we look at the religious art of that time and place, we find that The Female Pope was an established figure in Christian art, being used to symbolize such things as The New Covenant and the Virtue of Faith. There was no heresy, which explains why there was no opposition.

Another card that is often cited as having esoteric meaning is The Hanged Man, perhaps because it is difficult to see just what overt and obvious meaning it could ever have had. What are we to make of a man suspended by one foot, often holding money bags? Some have suggested it be Judas, though he would have hung himself by the neck, others have suggested it to be the Virtue of Prudence, indeed, the list of offerings is long and varied. However if we again look at the card in context we find a different story and no mystery at all. The title of Hanged man was given to the card by French card makers but we know from written sources that in Italy it was called The Traitor – and little wonder, as this is how Italians used to execute traitors, suspended by one foot and left to die rather slowly and publicly. As for the money bags, we can find an explanation from another practice of the time, that of Shame Pictures. It was the practice to shame those who betrayed a trust by employing an artist to draw that person’s likeness hung as a traitor, which would then be publicly displayed – often this was done in the case of bad debtors, hence we can suppose the money bags.

The beginning of the 18th century saw a big change in tarot in many countries. At this time, German card makers began to produce French suited tarot cards that also gave up the traditional trumps in favour of a number of themes, such as animals, local scenes, and such like. This offered two advantages. Firstly, as we’ve noted, French suits were much cheaper to produce, giving these designs and economic edge. Secondly, by dropping the traditional trumps, the card makers could do more to show off their skills, as well as create cards with themes that might appeal more to their customers. Before long, what we now call the German Pattern, had become the dominant pattern in Europe.

Tarot’s occult associations do not arise until the end of the 18th century when a Parisian occultist, Antoine Court de Gebelin, published an article in his encyclopaedia declaring that the cards were of Ancient Egyptian origin, brought to us by Gypsies and codifying the lost knowledge of their priests. He did not present any evidence for his claims but he made them at a time when Egyptomania was popular and so his story captured the public imagination and caught on. He also published the first account of how the cards were to be used for divination. During the following 100 years, various French occultists took up the ideas of an occult origin and divinatory use and built upon them, developing still more elaborate myths. Until the end of the 19th century, these ideas were limited to just France but then a small number of British occultists began to import the cards and translate the French occultist writings about them. In the English speaking world, the cards seemed new and exotic, and the occultist accounts of the cards were the only ones known. During the next century, the myth of tarot gradually established itself in the public psyche, and towards the end of the 20th century, a whole industry built around tarot reading began to establish itself and to spread back across Europe.

Although there have been works of serious history about both the cards and the game published in English since 1980, they have tended to be of limited availability and of high cost. However, in recent years, thanks in large part to the internet, the history and the games are at last getting through to the English speaking public, people are discovering the games they have been missing. After all, something that has been played for nearly 600 years, and spread through a continent must have something good going for it!

In the next programme, we will take a closer look at the cards used to play tarot, at the terms and the conventions that are shared by most of the games. In the later programmes, we will present tutorials on how to play specific examples of tarot games, helping you to get started in playing them yourselves.

 

[Umbrae]

I like it. To the point, well written, and covers a lot of ground and a short amount of time.

But no, we are looking at the cards through modern eyes, with a vision coloured by popular myth.

Nicely done!

Full on applause.

 

[philebus]

Thank you Umbrae. I think my biggest concern it to keep the account honest in spite of the compromises that I have to make for time. At every stage of the account, there is so much more that can be said and an omission can be as good as lie - or unintentionally misleading at least. I can add a good bibliography and a list of sites in the credits which may help but with a subject for which there are so many different accounts competing for belief and with the strong feelings that the cards can provoke, I'm very keen to get the balance right.

 

[Ross G Caldwell]

Hi Philebus,

This sounds great. It is a very ambitious project... I can't wait to see the result (I assume you'll have lots of intriguing imagery to go along with the narrative).

I hate having to summarize so briefly - I know how you feel. I have to do it all the time for people who wonder what I am studying all the time.

Your account appears mostly accurate for the consensus views of today - maybe one or two things could be changed.

I'll post them next if you are interested. There is nothing too seriously misleading.

 

[Ross G Caldwell]

Playing cards are first seen in Europe in the early 14th century, having reached us via Islamic trading partners in North Africa.

I take the consensus rather to be in the 1360s, so not exactly "late" 14th century, but certainly not early.

They are thought to have descended from the Far East, ultimately from Chinese money games. Our earliest cards are distinctly Islamic in appearance and feature, as our modern packs, 52 cards made up from 4 suits, each with 10 pip cards and 3 court cards, being a King, a Rider, and a Footman.

The Mamluk courts were a King, a Deputy, and a Second Deputy (not a rider and footman). And of course they were not illustrated in any examples or accounts we know of, just named.

The Queen has appears to have been independently invented on more than one occasion. It Italy there was a pack that featured 6 court cards in each suit, being a male and a female of each rank.

Maybe you could say "In Italy there was a tarot pack that featured 6 court cards..." - just to make people realize it is tarot here.

Most of these extra cards were dropped but retaining the Queen in a 56 card pack, that for a time may have been a regional standard.
It was to this pack that in the early to mid 15th century, a fifth suit of picture cards was added. These picture cards would appear to have taken as their theme a Christian triumph procession, hence their early name of trionfi, meaning triumphs and from which we get our word trump. It was the invention of tarot that marked the invention of trumps in card games. And this is what they were invented for, a family of card games that has spread throughout much of continental Europe and that continues to be played to this day.

Brilliant and succinct, without courting controversy.

As I’ve mentioned, the original name for tarot was trionfi but this was soon changed to tarocchi, probably to save confusion with another game of triumphs that was becoming popular. Perhaps the most plausible origin of this new name is the term tarochus, meaning ‘to play the fool’, The Fool having an important and unique role in the games. As the cards spread through Europe, this was name often truncated to Tarock, while France dropped the guttural at the end, to give us tarot.

Again excellent. Is the /k/ sound really a "guttural" though? It's not said in the throat. It is a pure, hard /k/, what phonetics calls a "dorsal" consonant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorsal_consonant

Or maybe they'd call it a "velar plosive" -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_velar_plosive

At least, it is not "pharyngeal", which is what they call what is widely known as a gutturals (see the chart at the end of these articles for precise placements of consonantal sounds).

Given the modern perception of tarot cards, it may seem hard to accept this. You are very likely to have read about the church suppressing tarot cards, and that they had to be used in secret because of their heretical images. However, this is not the case. Tarot games spread across the continent, being played openly, without opposition by the church all through the counter-reformation. This alone is reason to go back and question our initial thoughts. It might help to take a closer look at two cards that have been widely misunderstood.

Broadly true, and perhaps better to leave it as you have said, but in Spain at least moralists and the Inquisition itself in the 16th century did take offense at the tarot images, viewing them as sacreligious (not heretical) - because of the Christian religion being reduced to a card game. This could partly explain why Tarot never became naturalized in Spain.

That's all - as you can see, it's not much! You've done an excellent summary, that is both informative and leaves open questions open.

Ross

 

[philebus]

Thanks Ross, I'm grateful for any advice on this. I shall make a start on modifying the script some this evening. In particular, I shall have to juggle things a little, but I do think it is worth including what you've said about Spain. I had thought of including details of the Bolognese pack but it would be hard to fit in the running time - and I can probably cover it in the second film.

At the moment, the imagry I have just consists of cards - but I remember there were some pictures posted here regarding the Female Pope and The Hanged Man, which could be useful.

 

[Bernice]

Excellent! Clarifys the 'tarot' orgins beautifully.

A good summation (plus more...) which lays a sound foundation for all those who are searching/researching the 'ancient tarot'.

As for occult/fortune telling, I suspect that people of all centuries have used whatever came to hand for such purposes.

Looking forward to the YouTube video!

Bee

P.S. I've downloaded your Word & PDF docs.

 

[Huck]

hi Philebus,

you wished a comment ...

Well, here it is so far, at about 10 minutes.
Obviously, to keep to the running time and still do the job, there has had to be compromise, also, I have decided to avoid any judgement regarding divination itself – while I have views about this, they aren’t relevant to teaching the game. If you feel I’ve made any wrong decisions, then please, do let me know.

Welcome to the first of our programmes teaching tarocchi – the card games played with tarot. If this seems a strange, novel, or inappropriate use for tarot, then please listen further before making a final judgement.

Don’t forget to visit the associated web site ___________ and download your course book, featuring rules to a large selection of the tarot games.

These cards have been subject to many myths over the last two hundred years and so it is best that we begin the course by taking a very brief look at their history and origins. Naturally, it is seldom possible to give a certain account of the past but although there are many competing accounts of tarot’s history, this is one that I believe is best supported by the evidence. It may not be what you are expecting!

But let’s begin at the beginning in Europe...

Playing cards are first seen in Europe in the early 14th century, having reached us via Islamic trading partners in North Africa.

... ... well, that's a farspread fiction of the development. Simple normal logic demands to reflect, that the considered time is a longer period of many years and that there surely had not only one opportunity, when playing cards entered Europe. And they probably entered not only by the way via the Islamic trading routes in North Africa ... this model simplifies the European trading connections.
Although ... probably it's likely, that playing cards with the Latin suit entered Europe by this way.

They are thought to have descended from the Far East, ultimately from Chinese money games. Our earliest cards are distinctly Islamic in appearance and feature ...

True for regions with the Latin suits only ...

... as our modern packs, 52 cards made up from 4 suits, each with 10 pip cards and 3 court cards, being a King, a Rider, and a Footman.

Rider and Footman are not necessarily the only model and I don't know, if it is remarked on the Mamluk cards, that one type of figure had a horse and the other not. Footman/Footman and Rider/Rider are also known. Even the Queen could ride a horse.

The suit symbols were Cups, Coins, Scimitars, and Polo Sticks. Polo was not played in Europe at that time, so this suit became Batons and that change created what we now call the Latin suits. Cards like these are still used today in countries such as Italy and Spain, and still with their all male courts.

Other countries have experimented with different suit signs, Germany still has its Hearts, Leaves, Acorns, and Bells, while the Swiss have Acorns, Shields, Leaves and Bells.

For the older time one has to state, that German cards had a lot of different suits ... as far the cards are known.

These too, feature all male court cards.

I don't understand this sentence ... what about the many appearing female court cards? Sure, the male versions have the majority, but ...

The suits that we are more familiar with in the English speaking world are the French suits of Hearts, Diamonds, Spades, and Clubs. These suits were first created in 16th century France ...

Starting already late 15th century I would say

... and quickly became the dominant pattern. This dominance largely came about for economic reasons: while the Latin suits required costly wood blocks and hand colouring, which was labour intensive, the French suits required only a simple stencil to reproduce the pips, making production much cheaper.

The Queen has appears to have been independently invented on more than one occasion.

Already present in the report of John of Rheinfelden 1377 ... in the first and oldest describing document. Actually this means, that to our knowledge there always had been examples of female court cards ... perhaps not in the Islamic world, which also hadn't a Queen in the chess game.

It Italy there was a pack that featured 6 court cards in each suit, being a male and a female of each rank. Most of these extra cards were dropped but retaining the Queen in a 56 card pack, that for a time may have been a regional standard. It was to this pack that in the early to mid 15th century, a fifth suit of picture cards was added. These picture cards would appear to have taken as their theme a Christian triumph procession, hence their early name of trionfi, meaning triumphs and from which we get our word trump.

One should consider, that the iconographical topic of the Trionfi cards could vary (for instance Roman gods as in the Michelino or heroes as in the Boiardo and Sola Busca Tarocchi.

It was the invention of tarot that marked the invention of trumps in card games.

... ... or should we perhaps say, that the invention of trumping caused the Tarot game ? ... ... always interesting, when the grandson suddenly looks like the grandfather

And this is what they were invented for, a family of card games that has spread throughout much of continental Europe and that continues to be played to this day.

As I’ve mentioned, the original name for tarot was trionfi ...

One should be careful with such statements, especially considering our few knowledhe about the rules of the early Trionfi game.

... but this was soon changed to tarocchi, probably to save confusion with another game of triumphs that was becoming popular. Perhaps the most plausible origin of this new name is the term tarochus, meaning ‘to play the fool’, The Fool having an important and unique role in the games. As the cards spread through Europe, this was name often truncated to Tarock, while France dropped the guttural at the end, to give us tarot.

We simply don't know, where and how this word developed. It's better to state, that to our knowledge the word appeared 1505 in France and Ferrara.

Given the modern perception of tarot cards, it may seem hard to accept this. You are very likely to have read about the church suppressing tarot cards, and that they had to be used in secret because of their heretical images. However, this is not the case. Tarot games spread across the continent, being played openly, without opposition by the church all through the counter-reformation. This alone is reason to go back and question our initial thoughts. It might help to take a closer look at two cards that have been widely misunderstood.

The Female Pope, often renamed The High Priestess by modern occultists, is an excellent example. This must surely be heretical. But no, we are looking at the cards through modern eyes, with a vision coloured by popular myth. If we are to understand what the images represent, then we must look at them in the context of their origin – Renaissance Italy. If we look at the religious art of that time and place, we find that The Female Pope was an established figure in Christian art, being used to symbolize such things as The New Covenant and the Virtue of Faith. There was no heresy, which explains why there was no opposition.

Another card that is often cited as having esoteric meaning is The Hanged Man, perhaps because it is difficult to see just what overt and obvious meaning it could ever have had. What are we to make of a man suspended by one foot, often holding money bags? Some have suggested it be Judas, though he would have hung himself by the neck, others have suggested it to be the Virtue of Prudence, indeed, the list of offerings is long and varied. However if we again look at the card in context we find a different story and no mystery at all. The title of Hanged man was given to the card by French card makers but we know from written sources that in Italy it was called The Traitor – and little wonder, as this is how Italians used to execute traitors, suspended by one foot and left to die rather slowly and publicly. As for the money bags, we can find an explanation from another practice of the time, that of Shame Pictures. It was the practice to shame those who betrayed a trust by employing an artist to draw that person’s likeness hung as a traitor, which would then be publicly displayed – often this was done in the case of bad debtors, hence we can suppose the money bags.

The beginning of the 18th century saw a big change in tarot in many countries. At this time, German card makers began to produce French suited tarot cards that also gave up the traditional trumps in favour of a number of themes, such as animals, local scenes, and such like.

What do you consider as the first example?

This offered two advantages. Firstly, as we’ve noted, French suits were much cheaper to produce, giving these designs and economic edge. Secondly, by dropping the traditional trumps, the card makers could do more to show off their skills, as well as create cards with themes that might appeal more to their customers. Before long, what we now call the German Pattern, had become the dominant pattern in Europe.

What do you define here as the German pattern, which was so dominant?

btw.
...
your project looks interesting

 

[philebus]

Thank you everyone. There is a lot for me to digest here and I'm clearly going to have to re-think the script more than I had thought. There is just so much more than I can fit into the 10 minutes and so, in order to keep the balance between saying enough to be truthful and the running time, I think that I may have to try and reduce the scope of what I'm saying even more. There may be a risk that it will lose some impact by doing so but that's the way it goes.

I think that perhaps I shall have to explicitly limit what I say about regular playing cards to the Latin suits pre-dating tarot. Trying to include more will be much more involved than I thought and would end up taking running time and drawing focus away from the principle subject.

One possibility that I'm considering is using the second programme to cover a little of this information. The intention for part two is to introduce the cards used to play the games, along with some terms and common conventions, so I can work in some details of the changes in suits then.

And here's a picture of the model I will be using. A modestly priced Poser model, not really intended for Carrara but with a little tweaking I should be able to get him working for my needs. I have managed to get him talking anyway.