Reading the Pips - through observation and logic
Posted: 16 Jan 2020, 21:07
I am going to propose a series of threads which will address the numbered minors. Referred as the pips. The etymology of the word pip dates back to 1797, to mean "seed of an apple. It's a shortened form of pipin "seed of a fleshy fruit", which dates back to the early 14th century. But it comes from the Old French pepin (13th century).
Etymology can be very helpful when one is studying the Tarot of Marseilles. The English language is very lucky to have etymology.com - such a fine website. https://www.etymonline.com/. Superior to the wiki. I refer to it ever day, several times. The French speakers don't have such a fine resource and I regret it very much because the French language is so important when it comes to the Tarot of Marseilles. I sometimes have to search in several places and even then, I'm often dissatisfied.
Back to the pips.
The approach that I want to take here is to learn the cards through SELF DISCOVERY instead of starting out with already a tried and tested method. I want to let the cards grow - like seeds grow into apples. It's a long but beautiful process and one cannot hurry it. A bit like when one watches a rose slowly open.
So this implies that all we would have to start out with is a card with a picture on it (for let no-one say that these cards are unillustrated, this is absurd. Those cards are little paintings with things drawn on them and written. If that's not an illustration, then I must be living in another galaxy
).
What we have on the picture seems little at first - but there are a few things that are irrefutable and which are common to all the pips.
1) They have a number
2) They have an instrument of some sort
3) The instrument represents an element
4) There are floral elements and occasionally not
5) They don't have names
6) etc. etc.
So where do go with all this ? If we are to see the seed growing slowly, perhaps we should not make too much haste either. And see what is revealed slowly but inexorably. We'll be able to draw on some of the lessons we learned from the Majors - as without them, the pips would have no raison d'Γͺtre and vice versa only differently. The Majors need some form of expression after all. Otherwise they're just sort of concepts. The Majors are our teachers, our gurus. But gurus wouldn't be gurus without their disciples.
I'm thinking of starting out with numbers and elements. I suspect that this will quite rapidly and naturally start including other aspects, those mentioned above including the etc., etc. which will have to include of course a comparison of the cards. But one has to start somewhere and as the association of numbers and elements is for me a very useful tool when reading the cards and that I don't actually know how I could read without this aspect, I'm going to start there. There are a number of pips with which I am still rather shaky, and I look forward to a bit of revision and a bit more clarity.
The association number/element does I believe form the foundation of how I've learned to read the pips. I didn't learn it from anyone or any book. It just seemed to me the most logical place to start. It helped me also question some authors' interpretations which seemed to have rather uncertain and fantasy origins.
I'll write my first post on this over the weekend when I have the appropriate time. I just wanted to give a sort of introduction here.
Etymology can be very helpful when one is studying the Tarot of Marseilles. The English language is very lucky to have etymology.com - such a fine website. https://www.etymonline.com/. Superior to the wiki. I refer to it ever day, several times. The French speakers don't have such a fine resource and I regret it very much because the French language is so important when it comes to the Tarot of Marseilles. I sometimes have to search in several places and even then, I'm often dissatisfied.
Back to the pips.
The approach that I want to take here is to learn the cards through SELF DISCOVERY instead of starting out with already a tried and tested method. I want to let the cards grow - like seeds grow into apples. It's a long but beautiful process and one cannot hurry it. A bit like when one watches a rose slowly open.
So this implies that all we would have to start out with is a card with a picture on it (for let no-one say that these cards are unillustrated, this is absurd. Those cards are little paintings with things drawn on them and written. If that's not an illustration, then I must be living in another galaxy
What we have on the picture seems little at first - but there are a few things that are irrefutable and which are common to all the pips.
1) They have a number
2) They have an instrument of some sort
3) The instrument represents an element
4) There are floral elements and occasionally not
5) They don't have names
6) etc. etc.
So where do go with all this ? If we are to see the seed growing slowly, perhaps we should not make too much haste either. And see what is revealed slowly but inexorably. We'll be able to draw on some of the lessons we learned from the Majors - as without them, the pips would have no raison d'Γͺtre and vice versa only differently. The Majors need some form of expression after all. Otherwise they're just sort of concepts. The Majors are our teachers, our gurus. But gurus wouldn't be gurus without their disciples.
I'm thinking of starting out with numbers and elements. I suspect that this will quite rapidly and naturally start including other aspects, those mentioned above including the etc., etc. which will have to include of course a comparison of the cards. But one has to start somewhere and as the association of numbers and elements is for me a very useful tool when reading the cards and that I don't actually know how I could read without this aspect, I'm going to start there. There are a number of pips with which I am still rather shaky, and I look forward to a bit of revision and a bit more clarity.
The association number/element does I believe form the foundation of how I've learned to read the pips. I didn't learn it from anyone or any book. It just seemed to me the most logical place to start. It helped me also question some authors' interpretations which seemed to have rather uncertain and fantasy origins.
I'll write my first post on this over the weekend when I have the appropriate time. I just wanted to give a sort of introduction here.