It may be a while before I purchase another tarot book as my most recent was quite expensive. I must say it was also quite worth it. The book is “Reading the Marseille Tarot” by J-M David. The book is approx 538 pages, weighs as much as a college textbook and has roughly the same dimensions. I ordered it from Lulu.com which was a fairly simple process, having first purchased the pdf version and deciding I wanted the physical copy. The paper is of high quality and the book is heavily illustrated with a great variety of art pieces, though the specific deck used is the Noblet.
I am going to keep the info on the content brief. If you want more, I will happily provide. This book was the result of an online course taught by the author and will most certainly enhance your Marseille experience. For now I wanted to share one simple exercise that was recommended by the author. I don’t tend to be a card tosser but he suggests throwing the cards one at a time onto a tablecloth, to determine if you can distinguish trumps from the other suits. I knew I could do this but have been extremely open minded regarding the Marseilles and gave it a go...substituting a bedspread for the prescribed tablecloth. The deck was facedown and well shuffled so I had no idea what I was flicking. Here is the result...
I found it very interesting the way the cards situated themselves. I allowed myself to be intrigued by which cards decided to show their faces and which did not. When I placed the cards back in order, I left the fool out as he exists outside the deck in a way. This gave spark to me coming up with my own exercise.
I placed the fool between each ace in turn. First I noticed the blue on his sleeves was like the blue on the sleeve of the ace of batons. This baton could have been the stick held by the fool. I noticed the shade of green the two cards shared. The ace of coupes shared a pretty consistent color scheme with the unnumbered trump. Moving on to the ace of deniers, I couldn’t help but notice that the color of the denier was the color the fool wore the least of. I see the connection as it is safe to assume that this traveler has very little money or has to exert himself to get it....right arm (active) is where the yellow is. This also gave me an insight into how the fool demonstrates how much we need of what to actually live. Continue my little experiment, if you like, on to the ace of epees. In this case I looked at how color transitioned between each form but this could easily be done with shapes, etc.
This is one ting I enjoy about engaging with a good piece of writing...it sparks my own creativity. When working with these remarkable systems, the best education ends up the result of experience. Thanks for perusing my bit of Babble and happy reading to you.
