Tarot de Marseille
These are the original tarot cards, the wood cut playing cards of the 1600’s. I have no clue as to what games were popular in Italy and France back then (or was it Gaul? When did they become France?) but these were the cards used.
They were for card games, gambling and the like, not for fortune telling as they are today that happened later during the spiritualist movement of the late 1800’s. These depict everyday life in Renaissance Europe. This is the only style of deck I have yet to work with. The main issue is they’re not that popular and rather difficult to source, but as with nearly all my hobbies, the purists believe these are simply the cards to use! The Rider-Waite-Smith is looked down upon as a beginner deck, but while the Thoth is more in-depth with it’s occult symbology, it is the Marseille style that is life altering and that once you try it, you will never go back to those subpar decks.
I mean, ok?
I have wanted a Marseille deck for a while now, but instead of diving right in as I did with Thoth, big mistake there; I want to do a bit of research, I want to see what makes this deck so superior in the eyes of it’s readers. Publishers today have spent a great deal of time reconstructing these original decks wanting them to be as close to the original as possible. They are minimalist and only use a handful of colors due to the wood block printing to mass produce them at the time. Wealthy families owned hand painted decks. Artists would be commissioned to make a deck simply to show off to house guests. Those are the decks in museums today. I’ve seen some of them myself. They look awful, I could recreate them with my fountain pens on an index card and have the exact same result. You know, if I wasn’t so lazy and arthritic.
So, this time I’m going to read the book, or books first and then see what’s what. From there I shall decide if owning this style of deck is worth my time. The one I would really liked to get is the Trionfi Della Luna. It’s sick, it’s twisted and while it’s based on wood blocks it has a monstrous twist that I love, the only issue is the price. For less than half, I can get the CBD tarot which keeps coming up as the best on lists of such things. You know how the internet works, they collectively get together to promote one thing and leave even mention of anything else out. So I have no idea how many different decks there are because CBD and Jodorowsky are the only two names popping up and they say very mean things about the Jodorowsky guy. The only reason I know about the Trionfi Della Luna deck is because I used to have the artist’s first deck which was Deviant Moon, one of my most beloved decks that one day I shall replace!
Again, I mustn’t get too excited, book first, deck later. This is the way it has to be. Books are free (if you know where to look) and while I could print out the deck for free, I don’t own a printer nor good quality card stock. Otherwise, you know me, free is best!
If anything, this will be more tarot knowledge to cram into my already crammed skull.
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