First Principles Tarot - Interpreting Papus' "TotB"
Posted: 16 Apr 2021, 13:17
Hi All,
It has been quite some while since I have been around here. But I have missed this place
I haven been into Tarot too long, just some years and I really see myself still as a student.
About a year ago I took a step back from reading Tarot after I started reading extensively 'about' Tarot. Since then I have consumed books bij Levi, Papus, Agrippa, W.W. Atkinson, Hall, Blavatski, Waite, Crowley, Picatrix ..like really digging myself in the history of Tarot and it various ways, systems and schools.
Gradually there is emerging a thing in me that may be called a 'clue' to where to go for myself with reading. You see, choosing a system, way has always been a point for me that was difficult. Especially since I could not ignore the astrological aspects of many systems 'and their sometimes irreconcilable differences. Along the way I found out that I kept going back to Papus for various reasons. There is something elegant about his system of Ternaries, positive and negative, the Septenaries, again positive and negative, Papus' Cabalistic-numerological approach that struck something in me. Not being the final definitive go-to system of reading and interpreting but I like that up to a certain degree it is a closed system that works in itself.
Somewhere along the way I got hand on a Papus Tarot deck (I'm an avid collector of vintage and antique decks) But I was displeased to find out that the Truly remarkable uniqueness of Papus' explanation of his system did not really seep through in the deck. Especially his genius work: " Tarot Of The Bohemians", at least the feel of that keystone book, is not present in the deck. Dont know If it should be, but I would have liked it.
So Some months ago I started designing a deck that would incorporate my interpretation of Papus' line of thought from the book mentioned above.
I have come up with what I call a first draft, which is coming together bit by bit. The last part is always the hardest Im at a point where it would be good to share my work with the community here to see what this draft does out in the open.
So this deck is heavily abstract! I wont excuse myself for this fact. Papus inspired me to do just this, or at least his writing in "TotB" did. For those that do not know this work: the book opens with heavy, thick numerological matter, elaborate cabalistic correspondences and what not before going into the Majors meanings.. He does less go into the minors but I expanded my literature research and puzzled it more together. I wont go into the whole ternary/septenary explanation - Because you need a whole book to do that- but stick with an important distillate: there is rhyme with the layeredness of reality set out in the Kybalion (By W.W. Atkinson). Which is still one of the most important books in the world to me. Period.
So for now, I'll upload my work so far, the majors in 3 Septenaries and one final Ternary - and- one suit of minors (Yod-fire-wands) In the Majors there's 4-5 blank cards still. These majors up till now have yet to get a design that works for me, at least as a sketch/draft. I did not get into writing reference texts to each card, nor do I think I ever will. The system I cast into a deck is well explained in TotB by Papus, He himself actually offers very little conceptual meaning for each of the arcana, offers much more a key to seeing the thing as a whole and then self explore from there.
This will at some moment become a kickstarter deck/project so maybe I'll have to ship a TotB copy with each deck Dunno yet..
I'm interested what people think JUST seeing the cards without any explanation, hear what happens. Any critique is welcome, I'm also positively open to peoples suggestions here and there.
Enjoy:
Working title:
First Principles Tarot.
An Astronomical/Astrological Tarot inspired by Gerard Encausse a.k.a Papus and W.W. Atkinson
1st Positive Septenary - Yod - Positive: Arc 1-3 Negative: 4-6
2nd Negative Septenary - He - Positive: Arc 7-9 Negative: 10-12
3rd Neuter Septenary - Yod - Positive: Arc 13-15 Negative: 16-18
4th Transitory Ternary arc 19 pos - arc 20 neg - 21 neutr - and Le Fou 22 (transitory)
1st Half of suit of Fire - YOD - Wands
2nd Half of suit of Fire - YOD - Wands
Namaste
It has been quite some while since I have been around here. But I have missed this place
I haven been into Tarot too long, just some years and I really see myself still as a student.
About a year ago I took a step back from reading Tarot after I started reading extensively 'about' Tarot. Since then I have consumed books bij Levi, Papus, Agrippa, W.W. Atkinson, Hall, Blavatski, Waite, Crowley, Picatrix ..like really digging myself in the history of Tarot and it various ways, systems and schools.
Gradually there is emerging a thing in me that may be called a 'clue' to where to go for myself with reading. You see, choosing a system, way has always been a point for me that was difficult. Especially since I could not ignore the astrological aspects of many systems 'and their sometimes irreconcilable differences. Along the way I found out that I kept going back to Papus for various reasons. There is something elegant about his system of Ternaries, positive and negative, the Septenaries, again positive and negative, Papus' Cabalistic-numerological approach that struck something in me. Not being the final definitive go-to system of reading and interpreting but I like that up to a certain degree it is a closed system that works in itself.
Somewhere along the way I got hand on a Papus Tarot deck (I'm an avid collector of vintage and antique decks) But I was displeased to find out that the Truly remarkable uniqueness of Papus' explanation of his system did not really seep through in the deck. Especially his genius work: " Tarot Of The Bohemians", at least the feel of that keystone book, is not present in the deck. Dont know If it should be, but I would have liked it.
So Some months ago I started designing a deck that would incorporate my interpretation of Papus' line of thought from the book mentioned above.
I have come up with what I call a first draft, which is coming together bit by bit. The last part is always the hardest Im at a point where it would be good to share my work with the community here to see what this draft does out in the open.
So this deck is heavily abstract! I wont excuse myself for this fact. Papus inspired me to do just this, or at least his writing in "TotB" did. For those that do not know this work: the book opens with heavy, thick numerological matter, elaborate cabalistic correspondences and what not before going into the Majors meanings.. He does less go into the minors but I expanded my literature research and puzzled it more together. I wont go into the whole ternary/septenary explanation - Because you need a whole book to do that- but stick with an important distillate: there is rhyme with the layeredness of reality set out in the Kybalion (By W.W. Atkinson). Which is still one of the most important books in the world to me. Period.
So for now, I'll upload my work so far, the majors in 3 Septenaries and one final Ternary - and- one suit of minors (Yod-fire-wands) In the Majors there's 4-5 blank cards still. These majors up till now have yet to get a design that works for me, at least as a sketch/draft. I did not get into writing reference texts to each card, nor do I think I ever will. The system I cast into a deck is well explained in TotB by Papus, He himself actually offers very little conceptual meaning for each of the arcana, offers much more a key to seeing the thing as a whole and then self explore from there.
This will at some moment become a kickstarter deck/project so maybe I'll have to ship a TotB copy with each deck Dunno yet..
I'm interested what people think JUST seeing the cards without any explanation, hear what happens. Any critique is welcome, I'm also positively open to peoples suggestions here and there.
Enjoy:
Working title:
First Principles Tarot.
An Astronomical/Astrological Tarot inspired by Gerard Encausse a.k.a Papus and W.W. Atkinson
1st Positive Septenary - Yod - Positive: Arc 1-3 Negative: 4-6
2nd Negative Septenary - He - Positive: Arc 7-9 Negative: 10-12
3rd Neuter Septenary - Yod - Positive: Arc 13-15 Negative: 16-18
4th Transitory Ternary arc 19 pos - arc 20 neg - 21 neutr - and Le Fou 22 (transitory)
1st Half of suit of Fire - YOD - Wands
2nd Half of suit of Fire - YOD - Wands
Namaste