Marseilles Tarot

Looking At The Marseilles Tarot

Notes On Tarot’s Optical Language

by Enrique Enriquez

COPYRIGHT © 2007 All rights reserved. Reproduction or utilization of this work in any form, by any means now known or hereinafter invented, including, but not limited to, xerography, photocopying and recording, and in any information storage and retrieval system, is forbidden without written permission from the copyright holder.

For more information: Pro Shop Publishing P.O. Box 807 Colchester, VT 05446 www.mevproshop.com This Copy Belongs To

Craig Rovinsky Dallas, Dallas, TX

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Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... 4 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 5 Tarot de Marseille... Why? .............................................................................................. 7 The Experience of Tarot.................................................................................................. 9 Forget About Meanings and Look for Messages........................................................... 11 The Exercises ............................................................................................................... 15 Final Thoughts .............................................................................................................. 33

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Acknowledgements

The compilation of these notes is the result of the inspiration and help I received from certain people. Paul Williams gave me my first Jean Noblet Tarot. Roxanne and Jean-Claude Flornoy have honored me with their friendship, opening for me a doorway to one of the most truthful Tarot traditions. As I write these notes, Le Pèlegrinage des Bateleurs, Jean-Claude’s book on Tarot is being printed. Believe me when I tell you that there is a lot to look forward for in that book! In our always rich discussions, Bill Cushman coined the term ‘Irresistible Illusion’, providing me with a perfect label to define in part my understanding of Tarot. My good friend Les Cross was kind enough to proof-read the notes for me. That's why you may notice a slight British accent in the text. Finally, there are those whose writings on Tarot have resonated in me: Tchalai Unger's book Tarot and Answer from the Future, and Alejandro Jodorowsky's book La Vía del Tarot remain among my true favorites. The Bantu people from Africa have a saying: “It is only through you that I can really be myself.” My biggest thanks go to all those people who have sat with me for a Tarot session. For me, experiencing Tarot is only possible because of them. To all of you, thanks! Enrique Enriquez

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Introduction A few weeks ago a woman sat with me for a reading. I perceived a certain reluctance, or suspicion, on her part. She looked at me, not knowing what to make of me, and asked, “What is the meaning of Tarot?” This caught me off-guard. I was hoping for a question about her boyfriend! I thought for a second, and remembered a story I read a while ago, a story that probably isn't a historical fact, but that I like anyway. It is a story about one occasion when the young Beethoven finished playing a melody on the piano. A woman (who I always imagine to be fat even if this also may not be historical fact) asked, “That was beautiful but, what does it mean?” Beethoven replied, “It means this . . .” and played the entire piece again. So I looked at the woman while taking the whole deck with my left hand and told her “Tarot mean this . . .” while passing the cards from one hand to the other, letting her see them, one by one. There are hundreds of books written about Tarot. I would love to tell you what these books are about, but I can’t. Every time I open one of them, I end up closing it again after reading a couple of paragraphs that feel far removed from me. It is not that these books are badly written, or that I necessarily disagree with the author’s point of view. It is just that they feel to me like rational approaches to something that can only be perceived at an experiential level. My interest in Tarot isn’t historical, so I won’t be bothering you by trying to prove any theory about its origin. Neither does my interest in Tarot come from an interest in the ‘occult’. I respect people who are thrilled about finding all kinds of obscure connections between Tarot, astrology, alchemy and the Kabbala, and are able to trace elaborate conspiracy theories by exploring all of the above. I simply don’t share such excitement. I just find Tarot cards to be beautiful. Looking at them makes me feel like a better person and provides me with a deep sense of joy. It is this sense of joy that I hope to convey to those for whom I read the cards. But even so, there is in Tarot a basic symbolism and iconography, featuring the Christian myth of redemption, as it was understood in Christian Europe, that we cannot ignore nor reject. There is a verse from medieval times, attributed to Nicholas de Lyra, which accounts for the four levels in which a text could be interpreted: “Littera gesta docet, quid credas allegoria, Moralis quid agas, quo tendas anagogia”. The translation for this is: “The letter teaches the actions, the allegory teaches what you believe, the moral teaches you how you act, and the anagogy teaches where you are going.”

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Like this concept from Medieval Christian Europe, the same four levels of interpretation must be acknowledged in Tarot. For the purpose of this lecture we will focus on the last level, the anagogical, as the one which “teaches you where you are going.” Anagogical comes from the word ‘anagoge’, and refers to “the mystical interpretation of a text beyond the literal, allegorical or moral sense.” Anagoge represents that moment when the invisible is declared by means of a visible fact. In Tarot’s case, we can see how looking at the cards as tangible events prompts in us a revelation. It is by means of that revelation that our possibilities as human beings become clear. I suggest that such epiphany is a cognitive process which happens by means of our analogical thinking, and it is under that hypothesis that my understanding of Tarot evolves. I am interested in Tarot as a magical tool. By ‘magical’ I mean “the purposeful use of symbols to engage the mind in a process of transformation.” Within these parameters I find Tarot offers extraordinary possibilities. I like to think of Tarot as a poetic device, a generator of narratives that we perceive as messages. I am using the word ‘perceive’ here intentionally, since I suspect Tarot to be an illusion, indeed an irresistible one. This illusion is based on the fact that our brain cannot handle random patterns. Our mind is designed to enable us to interpret everything that happens around us as being causal, as if it was intended to be that way by something, or someone. Our minds are also inclined to apply human qualities to all kinds of objects, beings, and events. The experience of Tarot simply makes use of that natural way the mind works. When we look at the cards, we weave a tale about us. The experience has our mind engaging in all the same processes we experience when presented with any narrative: a search for personal relevance based on projective identification, association/dissociation, subjective validation and so on. Tarot is a powerful illusion, and today’s neuroscientists suspect that illusion plays an important role in the construction of the self. Could Tarot then help us reshape our selfimage? The latest findings in neuroscience suggest that our neural connections reshape themselves in response to repeated patterns of activity (this is termed ‘neuroplasticity’). In other words, the way we think changes our brains. For me, finding out if Tarot (as a cognitive process) can affect our brain’s physical form is a fascinating question that has me approaching each Tarot session with excitement, passion, and renewed faith in the magic of the mind. But I am getting ahead of myself! For the purposes of this lecture, let’s just say that looking at the cards, and I mean really looking at the cards, can make us feel better by giving us a better understanding of our situation and our possibilities. There is a place to start looking at the cards, and that place is “here and now.”

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Tarot de Marseille... Why? For me, Tarot exists here and now. I can only look at Tarot from the perspective of a person living in the 21st century. I can only look at Tarot by taking into account our current understanding of semiotics, psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, hypnotherapy, and lots of ‘et cetera’. It may then seem perverse that when I talk about Tarot I shall be referring to the Marseille Tarot, the oldest and most classical of all Tarot decks. And even more so, that when I think of Tarot, the images conjured in my mind are those of the Jean Noblet Tarot, the oldest Marseille Tarot known, dating from 1650! The reasons I favor the Marseille Tarot are aesthetic as well as technical: I think the Marseille Tarot is a beautiful work of art. It has also been widely misunderstood. In any of its versions, the Marseille Tarot is perfect. A lot of knowledge was put into it. I am not talking about occult knowledge, but about craftsmanship in the pure artistic sense. The Marseille Tarot comes from a time long gone, in which artists and artisans were able to use the techniques available to them in order to create a specific effect in the viewer. There was no need, in my opinion, to “refine” or “improve” it. And as I said before, there is also a technical reason for it – the Marseille Tarot has the highest level of iconicity of all the Tarot decks. Iconicity is a concept used in the study of signs and symbols known as semiotics. It accounts for the conceived similarity or analogy between the form of a sign and its meaning. Thus the images from the Marseille Tarot are more iconic than the images from any other Tarot design, and offer the shortest path between the image and the concepts they represent. They are open enough to represent any of us, taking very few detours in the process. Tarot cards represent a spiritual geography, a myth of redemption that is somehow foundational in Western culture and presents life as the art of soul-making. The main character in the Tarot narrative isn't The Fool or The Magician, but you and me and the person who is looking at the cards. Being more iconic than most Tarot decks, the Marseille Tarot is the deck best suited to transmit this spiritual geography without deviating us from . . . well, ourselves. By being generic, the images in the Marseille Tarot claim very little attention themselves, but instead turn our attention back to us. Now, let’s suppose for the moment that instead of the Marseille Tarot, we were looking, for instance, at the “Ernest Borgnine Tarot”. In the Ernest Borgnine Tarot, our attention is directed to . . . Ernest Borgnine! ‘Le Bateleur’ is represented by the character portrayed by Ernest Borgnine in the movie, “Marty.” As such, the card takes us on a long detour that has us considering bits of information that are irrelevant in regard to our own spiritual geography. We aren't talking just about redemption anymore, but we are pointed to the fact that the character of Marty was Ernest Borgnine’s first main role, an Italian-American This copy of Looking At The Marseilles Tarot belongs to Craig Rovinsky Looking At The Marseilles Tarot -7Enrique Enriquez

butcher who lived in the Bronx with his mother. The same thing happens with every other Tarot deck: the additional layer added by its creators takes us away from the original spiritual geography, introducing information that claims attention for itself. And taking us away from the original spiritual geography equals taking us away from ourselves. Tarot’s tale shouldn't be about Swedish elves, macrobiotic dragons, or Klingon maids, but about us. Years ago I read a survey about which plot-lines were most appealing to American audiences. The most appealing plot was the tale of a soulless being who wants to become human, as in Pinocchio, or Spielberg's A.I. The second place in the survey went to ‘conspiracy theories’, such as in The Da Vinci Code. I am always amazed at how, when it comes to Tarot, most people tend to go for the second option, when in truth Tarot may be a closer example of the first plot – a tale about how to become fully human. I suspect that many people approach Tarot as a way to channel their love for fantasy and science fiction, and not through an appreciation of Tarot of and for itself. An important point I want to convey is this: if you want to experience Tarot, try to experience Tarot as it is before you try to experiment with any of the variations and hybrids. Objectively speaking, Tarot comprises a deck of cards featuring very specific imagery that comes from a more or less specific historical period in Western civilization. So, let’s look at that before assuming it needs improvement. Look at it this way. If you wanted to have sushi, you would take your time and try to find a good sushi restaurant. You certainly would try to have the closest experience to sushi as it is enjoyed by the average person in Tokyo. You would probably instantly suspect any place called “Sushi & Chicken”, for example. You wouldn’t try sushi by placing all the little rolls between two pieces of bread, because that is just not how you eat sushi. You wouldn’t eat sushi that way any more than you would dip pizza into curry sauce. You may find exquisite flavours at mixing and matching things, yet one can hardly label these experiments as true sushi, or pizza experiences. For the purposes of this lecture, we will be focusing on the imagery of the Jean Noblet Tarot. After being out of print for about 350 years, this deck is now available to us thanks to Jean Claude Flornoy, who reprinted a full version of it. Because of his efforts, we can look at a Marseille Tarot that looks exactly as it looked in the 17th century, without any subsequent alteration made in order to ensure someone has the copyright, or to push the personal theories of any particular author. For more information, please visit http://tarot-history.com/.

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The Experience of Tarot As the main divination system in Western culture, Tarot has a unique quality – it is a visual event. Unlike other divination systems, Tarot can be experienced by anybody. It is simply a matter of looking at the cards. It is my belief that no special gift is needed to experience or use Tarot – only a pair of eyes, and what Zen masters call a ‘beginner’s mind.’ I like to see Tarot as a meditation tool. It has us turning our attention inward so we can utilize all of the potential of our experiential leanings. The insights we obtain while meditating on the cards can be used to redefine our relationship with our problems, or they can be shared with others, if we are reading for someone else. The earliest historical account mentioning the use of Tarot for something other than traditional card games describes an analogical game. In this game, a group of people will contrast their personalities and situations with the character depicted in the card they got. We can see today how this parlor game underlines the logic behind what happens naturally when we look at Tarot. The “Experience of Tarot” is the experience of having our mind taken from the logic of the conscious mind, to the analogic of the unconscious. Tarot is a doorway to analogical thinking. The experience of Tarot occurs because we assume that the tale featured in the cards we are looking at resembles, by analogy, our own personal story. Analogical thinking opens our mind to all kind of connections that aren’t readily available by means of logical thinking. That is why engaging with the cards both visually and emotionally is crucial. There are two fundamental processes taking place in our mind while we experience Tarot: poïesis and anamnesis. The word ‘poïesis’ means “to make” in ancient Greek (creation, from the original ποιέω, to make). This word, the root of our modern word ‘poetry’, was first a verb meaning, “an action that transforms and continues the world.” The word ‘anamnesis’ means “recollection, reminiscence” in Greek, a recalling to mind. The experience of Tarot can be described then as a creative act of memory. By perceiving a message in Tarot cards, we create a new meaning for the cards every time we observe them, taking “an action that transforms and continues the world”, or poiesis. When we regurgitate a predefined meaning for each card, we aren’t looking, but merely assuming that we know what is happening, leaving no room for poiesis. In this way, no creative act takes place. If, instead, we project ourselves into the narrative generated by the cards, our analogical thinking will then kick in.

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What is the source of our analogies? Our memory! Actively experiencing Tarot means we perform a memory search that takes us to those moments in which we have felt what the card is describing (anamnesis). Here, we must remember, that an up-to-date notion of memory doesn’t stop at the concept of the mere filing and recollection of past experiences. We now suspect that by calling upon a memory we are actually creating it again. We now conceive remembering as regenerating. The very process of creating messages has us reshaping our memories and therefore our personal narrative. That is powerful magic. We must therefore allow poiesis and anamnesis to happen! I invite you to consider these ideas and, by doing so, to realize how the elicitation of poiesis and anamnesis leaves the necessity of memorizing predetermined meanings for the cards automatically out of the picture. It is for this reason that I don’t feel comfortable providing a list of meanings for each Tarot card – I honestly find that useless.

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Forget About Meanings and Look for Messages I am less concerned with the meaning of each card by itself than with the message the individual cards may have for us every specific time we look at them. It is my belief that as meditation tools, Tarot cards aren’t supposed to be understood by studying or memorizing anything. Their meaning must be grasped by looking at them in a process involving both our conscious and our unconscious mind. I also believe that we get the cards’ message instantaneously – literally as soon as we look at them. The message is sharp, quick, and direct. The only real difficulty lies in putting that understanding into words, because only then are they useful to us. Here, then, is a key to facilitate this process so we can detect the message in each card (and eventually a whole spread), thereby enabling us to verbalize it. It consists of asking ourselves these two questions while we are looking at a card or group of cards: What is happening? How does this feel? In this way, the card’s message at that given time becomes evident. We create meaning by reaching back in our memories and projecting into the cards the personal experiences that, by analogy, feel similar to those which the card illustrates. We look, we feel, we know. We change, because our life’s outlook changes, and the cards change, too. Let’s explore each question individually. What is happening? The first question concerns the idea of poiesis. We perceive a message by means of a creative act. We do this by contrasting our personal subjectivity with the image in the card. The resultant spark between our self and the cards is what gives each reading its unique quality. That is why no two Tarot readers will give you exactly the same reading! But since each card is a meditation on a very specific signpost of human condition, and we are human beings, that spark generated by our initial contact with the card will always be inscribed within the realm of human experience. This is also why, even when no two Tarot readers will give you exactly the same reading, you will find that more often than not they will both agree in their overall assessment. In this first question, we look at the card with our mind as free as possible of any preconception or symbolic agenda, and ask ourselves, “What is happening?” This should lead to a more or less objective description of the image. By “objective” I mean consistent with our current emotional state. Today, some particular detail in the card will feel more relevant than others, or we will This copy of Looking At The Marseilles Tarot belongs to Craig Rovinsky Looking At The Marseilles Tarot - 11 Enrique Enriquez

see the situation happening more in one way than another, while tomorrow we may perceive the situation happening the other way around. Ideally, we should look at the cards as if we were looking at them for the first time, even if we are very familiar with Tarot. Remember, the foundation of all creative acts lies in being able to look at the same things with new eyes. Let’s take an example. Look at ‘Le Fou’ (The Fool):

A man walks towards the right, facing the horizon, while an animal is walking on two legs behind him. The landscape is quite barren, only a couple of bushes visible. The man holds a staff in his right hand and carries another staff with a bag hanging from it. He wears the clothes of a juggler and seems young even though his beard is white. We could notice the colors he is wearing, or where each color is. We could notice that while his face is of the color of flesh, his hands are white. In addition, and depending on our awareness level, cultural heritage, social environment, knowledge, etc., we will instantaneously charge that perception with references. As long as these references don’t freeze our perception of the card, fixing in it only one meaning forever, they may be useful. The key rests in looking, instead of assuming. But, what is happening? Is that animal scratching the guy’s genitals? Does it want to take them off, or is it giving them to the man and saying, “Here, don't forget these!” Is it a dog, or a cat? Is it an enemy or an ally? Is it bothering the guy, holding him back, or forcing him to speed up? Is he trying to retrieve its small puppies or kittens held captive inside the man’s bag? Is the man going to throw them into the river, or is he going to the river to wash his underwear? Is that cat your This copy of Looking At The Marseilles Tarot belongs to Craig Rovinsky Looking At The Marseilles Tarot - 12 Enrique Enriquez

mother-in-law? Or is that man your mother-in-law and you the cat? The right answer is, of course, “All of the above.” Every time we look at ‘Le Fou’ we will see something different happening. Depending on our point of view, the card contains several different narratives. Each new glance at the card may bring us a different grasp of the situation, and by analogy, that day’s answer will connect us with a specific event, or situation in our lives. Every time we look at ‘Le Fou’, ‘Le Fou’ takes us back to... us. How does this feel? The second question concerns the idea of anamnesis. By means of analogies, we search our memories for those moments of our life that can be illustrated by the card’s image. We ask ourselves, “How does this feel?”, but we shouldn’t answer with our intellect. We answer with our memory. We don’t need to look anywhere else, for we already know. We have been there. One or more times during our lives we have experienced the same thing we feel while looking at the card. These feelings are the ones we recall. When we look at ‘Le Fov’, we notice the animal and note its sharp claws close to ‘Le Fov's’ genitals and we ask ourselves. “How does this feel?”, and we remember . . . that bothersome cousin always making fun of our projects; the husband who won’t let us take that trip; the wife that won’t support our desire to leave the company and start our own thing; that overseas provider who has us “grabbed by the balls”; the grandmother always supportive, telling us to “remember who you are!”; that freaking cat lady from next door who will end up forcing us to move . . .

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I remember one occasion when I was showing the cards to a young woman. Suddenly she froze, and pointing at ‘Lermite’, she said, “I hate that card!” I asked her if she had seen it before, and she said, “No.” I placed the card on the table, and asked her, “Where is your father?” “Always working.” “And your mother?” “Working, always working.” “Where are you?” She replied, “I am always alone!” Was it “hate at first sight”? Not so. It was a perfect example of anamnesis. The card elicited in her a flow of memories linked to the idea of feeling like a “Hermit”, memories of being left alone at home while their parents were working. One of the most prevalent feelings in her entire life was there, represented by one single image. I also have a regular client who picks cards which help her remember positive things. These were things she had experienced in her life and which she would like to feel again. She chooses two or three cards, memorizes them, and takes them “with her”, using these cards as “cognitive talismans” through the week. If at any given time she feels upset, depressed or weak, she will recall one of these cards, and the card will connect her with these previous experiences in her life when she felt triumphant, fulfilled and strong. With her, I don’t do readings, I am just her . . . symbols dealer! This process won’t necessarily happen with the same intensity for all of us. In fact, we won’t experience this with the same intensity every time we look at every card. Asking ourselves “How does this feel?” will help us to get the process going, though. In summary, these two questions, “What is happening?” and “How does this feel?” are intended to ensure a process which is natural, but which is also dependent on our current mood and subjective experiences. It can be repeated as often as we wish and will always bringing the desired result of perceiving a message in the cards.

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The Exercises The previous two questions define the coordinates to help us look at the whole deck. Try working your way through the exercises listed below, in the following order: Exercise #1: Look at the 22 major Arcana, displayed in a single row. Exercise #2: Look at each one of the 22 major Arcana, one by one. Exercise #3: Look at the court cards individually, grouped as a family, grouped by peers, and in ‘society’. Exercise #4: Look at the Minor Arcana, grouped from Ace to Ten, in each suit one at a time. Exercise #5: Look at the four suits together: Deniers, Batons, Epees, Coupes. Exercise #6: Look at two random cards placed together. Exercise #7: Look at three random cards placed together. Exercises 1 through 6 deserve all the time you are willing to give to them: hours, days, weeks or months. They may be something you only do once in your life-time, but I suspect that sooner or later you will notice how helpful it is to go back to them once in a while. In any case, for our immediate purposes we will take a brief glance at them. By contrast, Exercise 7 is the actual act of reading the cards, and I think it will be more useful for us if we focus mainly on this. But before we get there, let’s make some observations about the previous exercises: Exercise #1: Look at the 22 major Arcana, displayed on a single row. Answering our two key questions while looking at all of the Majors together gives us an understanding of Tarot’s main narrative as an ongoing process. What is more important, understanding the process allows us to place each card in its proper context. This opens the possibility for us to ask two more questions, every time we look at one of the major Arcana: What happened before?, and What is going to happen next? In this way, we introduce into the process the notions of past, present, and future! Here, a clarification note is in order. These questions aren’t intended to see into the past or predict the future of a person, but rather to project the natural tendencies within the narrative. With Tarot, we transform a person into a tale. By means of the cards, we don’t This copy of Looking At The Marseilles Tarot belongs to Craig Rovinsky Looking At The Marseilles Tarot - 15 Enrique Enriquez

talk about literal events anymore – we talk about metaphors. We use the cards to address the querent’s concerns indirectly, by means of a therapeutic metaphor. These metaphors can be transformed and twisted in a way that can be later applied to the person’s real life. By healing with metaphor, we are helping the person by performing a cognitive magic act. After completing this exercise we will be in the position of understanding our place within the narrative just by looking at any single card. Each card is part of an imaginary storyline, so for each individual card we see on the table, there are three cards – the card that comes before the one we are seeing, and the card that comes after. Look at ‘Lamoreux’, for example.

If you are familiar with the overall story sequence of the Major Arcana, you know that ‘Le Pape’ comes before ‘Lamoreux’, and ‘Le Chariot’ comes after. Each card defines a moment, and that moment is the bridge between the previous and the following moments. Tarot’s sequential order simply mimics the idea of life as an ongoing narrative. It is important to note that instead of telling you what I see in the cards, (and therefore suggesting you should see), I would prefer it if you looked at the cards and defined the storyline you see. The Tarot working as a projective tool comes from the time when Court De Gebbelin ‘rediscovered’ the cards. While seeing the cards being used in a game, he realized he could project and interpret his occult knowledge via the cards. By interpreting the Tarot in this way, he paved the way for every other author to tell us what is to be seen in Tarot.

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Exercise #2: Look at each one of the 22 major Arcana, one by one. Just as we can see the Major Arcana’s progressive succession as an ongoing process, we can see each single Major Arcana as a process within itself. This is useful because in our reallife experience we don’t experience an entire process at once. Take love, for example. When we are with someone we like, we flirt and we are filled with that warm feeling of anticipation and excitement. We talk, we laugh, we kiss, we make love, we make commitments, we argue, we get married, we compromise, we may lose our love, we miss our loved one. As a process, love is not one single thing we experience, but a succession of things. In other words, it is a storyline within our life’s main narrative. The same thing can be experienced with the cards. Continuing with the romantic theme, we have ‘Lamoreux’, the Lovers: What is happening? In the card, a young man is in the middle of two women. One woman has flowers in her hair, while the other has a crown made of something that could be laurel. The engraving’s composition suggests something is about to be exchanged. Maybe the man has to choose between the two women. Maybe he is introducing his fiancée to his mother and they are exchanging greetings. Maybe we are in a party and the three of them have just met, so they exchange jokes, comments, greetings and glances. Maybe they are two actresses casting for the same part in a play, and they are smiling at the director while showing their ‘fangs’ at each other. Above them, an angel is aiming with his bow and arrow. Is this angel Fate? Is he the party host? Is he Cupid? Or is he a homicide detective trying to make up his mind as he watches two cops interrogate a suspect? How does this feel? Well, it depends on which part of the process you are experiencing. Sometimes we find ourselves in the young man’s shoes. Sometimes, we find ourselves playing the role of these two women, either because we are competing against someone else, or because we are scanning the same territory that other person is exploring. Sometimes we are guests at the party, and sometimes we are the ones throwing the party. More often than not we find ourselves bow and arrow in hand, and it is up to us to change the course of the events. Sometimes we are the bow, sometimes the arrow . . . It would be tempting to suggest here the possibility of a new question: Who am I in the picture? This may be of use for some people. In my experience, we find our place in the picture as soon as we look at the card, and some feelings or impressions become prevalent over others. If, at any given moment, the feeling of being left for another woman stings harder than any other feeling elicited by the card, we know our place in the image. If, on another This copy of Looking At The Marseilles Tarot belongs to Craig Rovinsky Looking At The Marseilles Tarot - 17 Enrique Enriquez

day, the anguish of not knowing what path to take weighs more heavily on us than any other feeling elicited by the card, we know our place in the image. In this way we know which stage of the process represented by that specific card we are living. Exercise #3: Look at the court cards individually, grouped as a family, grouped by peers, and in ‘society’. People tend to group themselves into families. A person looks and behaves in one way when they are alone, but in a very different way when they are with friends or family. A person can be four (or more) different persons: an individual, a family member, a colleague, or part of a crowd. Families can share the same blood, or the same ideals. Two men of the same age and profession may have nothing in common. A couple may be together only for the sake of appearances. Look at each one of the court cards at these three levels: standing alone, within the context of its same suit, with its peers: Roys with Roys, Reynnes with Reynnes. Finally, throw a party. Is the Reyne of Deniers flirting with the Roy de Batons? Is the Roy de Coupes drunk? If so, what is he telling to the Reynne de Epees? Let them go crazy, while you remain calm, asking yourself: “What is happening. How does this feel?” Along your life, you have been all of them. Exercise #4: Look at the minor Arcana, grouped from Ace to ten, each suit at a time. The Minor Arcana cards are of great importance due to their graphic, non-illustrative nature. The subtle way in which each series evolves demands from us a sincere act of attention. They constitute a true school of gaze, a profound lesson in the art of looking at things, and the source of unlimited analogical processes. Look at the 3 de Coupes, for example.

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What is happening? At the bottom of the cards, we have two cups standing up in perfect symmetry. A third cup appears on top of them. It doesn’t feel like a pyramid because between the two cups at the bottom and the cup on top there is a floral element that gives sense and direction to the whole picture. The cup on top is being presented to us as something special, something that comes to break the balance between the other two cups, creating a new balance. How does this feel? Several things might come to mind: the arrival of a third brother; a new guest who joins the party and proposes a toast; that annoying new co-worker, pretending to stand on top of everybody else. Soon we see how the seemingly abstract nature of the cards doesn’t prevent us from finding analogies with situations and events from our life. Still, making sense of the significance of these elements can be hard, and there is a reason for this – we are missing the whole picture! The most important thing to understand is this: systems are always about the relationship between the unity and the whole. I invite you not to look at the pips in the Marseille Tarot as individual concepts, but as levels of achievement, as a scale. It is for this reason that we cannot understand the value of one single card without contrasting it with the rest of its series. When we look at the entire suit in one sweep, we discover a progression that is only hinted at by the numerical value assigned to the card. And, it is a lot richer than this sole number. The evolution of the elements that are common to each card, plus the alternative appearance of the elements, sets up a narrative we can easily follow. In each suit we can see a progressive rhythm that goes on and off in a binary way, from active to receptive. For the reading to be useful, we need to understand each card in relationship to the rest of the series. And just as that happens with the Major Arcana cards, understanding the narrative allows us to look at any single card among the Minor Arcana and ask ourselves, “What happened before?” and “What is going to happen next?” Obviously, we can also project any knowledge we have of numerology on to the cards, and enrich our readings with it. But in my opinion, the narrative of the Minors, as well as the narrative of the Majors, stands by itself. Now, having said that the evolution of the series defines levels of achievement, we need to define what is being achieved. If we simply look at the cards, we will notice four distinctive elements:

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● A coin (Deniers) ● A branch (Batons) ● A sword (Epées) ● A cup (Coupes) A coin can be immediately related to money, and if you look at it with modern eyes, it can be associated with cells. Either way, the growth of this biological/monetary unit gives us a sense of physical matter. A branch is natural, untamed by men. That is why Batons are often linked with sexual energy, the energy of creation or of unconscious processes. Swords are crafted by men by transforming nature. That is why we often link Epées to will, thought and conscious processes. Cups hold water or wine. They are receptive, and they are also used in ceremonies or celebrations, events that warm our hearts. That is why we often link the suit of Coupes to emotions. That gives us an initial range of meanings for the minors. And even when we eventually see how these meanings can be reshaped and redefined by the combination of several cards together, we can now give a theme to the tale we see evolving in each series. Exercise #5: Look at the four suits together: Deniers, Batons, Epées and Coupes. When we look at the four suits together, forty cards in total, the binary progression becomes a drama in four acts. For example, we will notice how one of these four elements becomes a recurrent presence that permeates the other three. I am talking about the floral element that we see in the wands, but that, in fact, starts manifesting in the Ace of Coins. That ‘vine’ spreads itself all over the 56 Minor Arcana! Now, how does it behave? If we follow its behavior, we start seeing a story evolve, just as we can see a story evolving in the 22 Major Arcana. The vine starts at the Ace of Coins when four branches pop out from the golden mandala, animating it like Cinderella’s pumpkin right before it turns into a carriage. From that point on we will see the vine behaving in the same way luxurious nature manifests in reality – it starts crawling over everything!

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The Two of Coins shows us how that vine reaches out and embraces a new coin that appears within the card’s area. When a third coin appears, in the Three of Coins, the vine will reach out and encircle it, establishing a pattern. Every time a new element (coin) makes its appearance, the vine reaches out and embraces it. It is almost as if the vine (I like to see it as the creative principle that lives behind all things) is creating reality by agglutinating cells or molecules. As a bodily process, we see how the vine reaches out in the odd cards and gets stabilized in the even cards. In other words, it expands while active and finds balance by becoming passive and/or receptive. How does this vine behave in the Wands? It does what creativity needs to do in order to grow stronger – it looks for a structure. From Two to Ten, the Wands multiply themselves, creating a fence very similar to the one we see in porches, trellises and in restaurants, so that the vine can climb up. Here, we detect an alternative pattern. There are only leaves in the odd numbers and flowers in the even numbers. How does our vine appear in the Sword series? Something interesting happens here. There is no wild vine anymore. It gets ‘trimmed’ by the Swords and organized in concentric ellipses. In fact, we will see how there are Swords on the odd cards and flowers on the even ones. That is, the intellect flourishes when it is receptive to new ideas. When is active, it has to take action, adjusting and reshaping our useful thoughts, and cutting off the poisonous ones. The intellect is the ‘gardener’ of our creative impulse. Now, we all know how dry thoughts can be. They only have us reaching true excitement when we sprinkle some emotions on them. That is why we have to add water – and we’ve got plenty of water in the suit of Cups. When I see the way our vine behaves along the Cups series, I see a harmonious garden. Flowers and vases are arranged in a progression that ends up when the vine dies, as shown on the Nine of Cups. A trimmed vine, intended to be put in display (just as our emotions are intended to be shared with others), dies when it has served its purpose. In other words, a creative urge disappears when it is fulfilled. But here is the thing to realize: an empty vase, like the one we see on the Ten of Coupes, is open and ready to receive a seed, like the one we see on the Ace of Deniers. And so, the cycle starts over again. This is only one possible narrative, of course. Look at the cards and you will certainly find many others.

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Exercise #6: Look at two random cards together. By placing two cards together we are finally starting to express Tarot’s optical language as a vocabulary. One single card makes a certain sense, but as soon as we place a second card beside it the landscape expands and the storyline gets reconfigured. One card affects the other one, automatically redefining its meaning. Usually, detecting a message when we are looking at two or more Major Arcana cards is very easy. It may be useful to remember that certain cultural conventions, inherent to the act of reading, apply here: ● We read from left to right ● We read from top to bottom Suppose we start with two cards, ‘Le Fou’ and ‘La Maison Dieu’.

Having ‘Le Fou’ preceding ‘La Maison Dieu’ gives us a very different message than if we have ‘La Maison Dieu’ preceding ‘Le Fou’. ‘Le Fou’ + ‘La Maison Dieu’: Ask yourself, “What is happening?” A young man is walking straight into a tower in flames. “How does this feel?” Can you remember any occasion in which you felt like this? Perhaps, once upon a time, you found yourself walking directly into a disaster? Perhaps the combination of cards conjures in your memory a time in which you felt so full of yourself that you thought you could get away with anything. Or perhaps you will be reminded of that time in which you knew that you had to help someone in distress, even though helping that person could put you in danger. Or perhaps it will remind This copy of Looking At The Marseilles Tarot belongs to Craig Rovinsky Looking At The Marseilles Tarot - 22 Enrique Enriquez

you of the time in which you moved to the house of your dreams even though your friends thought you were making a bad investment. In any case, that would be very different than looking at ‘La Maison Dieu’ + ‘Le Fou’: “What is happening?” A young man is walking away from a tower in flames. “How does this feel?” Can you remember an occasion in which you felt like this? Perhaps that time when your parents were arguing and you left the house; or that tumultuous relationship that felt so right half of the time and so wrong the other half that you ended up walking away from it? Or maybe you feel it was ‘Le Fou’ who destroyed the tower, so he could roam free. “How does this feel?” Perhaps it feels like that time you left the field of medicine and went on to study quantum physics, even though everybody in your family thought you were crazy. Again, there are as many possible messages as there are life experiences. One may feel that things get a little bit more complicated if we mix Majors with Minors. Sometimes, you might feel that reading the cards from right to left isn’t the right thing to do. That’s fine. There is another hierarchy we can follow, if that is more useful. It goes like this: Majors-Court Cards-Minors. When we are looking at two or more cards, our initial response could be reading them from left to right, but sometimes we could find a more appealing message by looking at them from right to left. Always look for the Major in the landscape and see if it can direct the narrative in one way or the other. If there are no Majors, look for court cards. The rule of thumb is this: look for the characters in the story. Again, this gets very simple if we look at the two cards as a landscape or scene and we ask ourselves “What is happening?”. In this way, the direction of the reading, and hence the implicit message, becomes evident.

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Suppose we look at ‘Lermite’ and the Seven of Deniers.

The human figure in ‘Lermite’ will immediately impose itself by means of the visual hierarchy. “What is happening?” An old man is searching for something, yet we see that there are seven coins behind his back. If we look at the coins, it seems that there are six coins in a very stable position, with a seventh coin emerging from the centre of the card. The floral ornament in the card suggest that this is new. A coin is being offered to someone willing to take it, but there is no one to grab it because the man is looking somewhere else. “How does this feel?” Well, sometime in our lives, we have all been in that position, searching for a solution to our problems in the wrong place. We have missed a business opportunity for lack of vision, or left an orange at home for a whole week while we were travelling, so the orange became rotten before we could eat it. Personally, this combination reminds me of a time when I was standing in the middle of the street, worrying about money. I was staring at the ground, waiting for a friend, totally absorbed by my own thoughts, all of them regarding financial stability. Suddenly, a Chinese man walked towards me, bent over, and picked something up from the street. It was a twenty dollar bill which had been there all the time, a few inches from my own foot, but I hadn’t noticed it because I was busy worrying about money.

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And, of course, a very different message would come from looking at the cards if we have the Seven of Deniers preceding ‘Lermite’.

Look at the cards: What is happening? Exercise #7: Look at three random cards placed together. Once we place two or more cards together we can see the cards ‘talking’ and now, for the first time, the cards give us a complete narrative, with a beginning, middle and end. You have been training for this all your life. You have experienced countless stories, you have told several stories, and you have an intrinsic understanding about how stories work. You have been consciously and subconsciously exposed to the effect of narratives. Your life itself is a story, and you can recognize a story in any event you witness – including in other people’s lives. What is even more important is that as part of Western culture you have been in contact with the characters depicted in the Tarot cards since you were born. They conform to our imagination not just as archetypes, but as popular characters whose diverse renditions populate our myths, novels, popular tales, movies and even the news. You are ready for this!

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Using our two key questions (“What is happening?” and “How does this feel?”), we can read any three cards as a sentence that gives us an immediate message. The key here is not to look at the cards as separate events, but to look at the whole scene created by the three cards together. For example, consider these three cards:

What is happening? A devilish figure seems to be waving ‘goodbye’ to three characters that are stuck in a wheel. Beside the devilish figure, a man in a chariot seems to be waiting for him. It seems to me as if the devil is saying goodbye to these characters so he can go away in the chariot. I interpret this as a cycle indicated by the Wheel, as well as the idea of being tied up which is suggested by the two characters standing beside the Devil. But the horses attached to the chariot seem impatient. The first and third cards suggest movement, but the second card seems stationary or paralyzed in some way. Thus, a theme emerges – breaking from a cycle. “How does this feel?” It feels as if it is time to break from that particular routine that has us stuck in the same place, so we can move forward. We might remember those times in which we realized that we didn’t have the energy to put up with the excessive gossip in a work environment; or the time when we decided to take a retreat from a group of friends who refused to grow. Have you ever felt detached from reality because you felt you didn’t belong to it anymore? It may This copy of Looking At The Marseilles Tarot belongs to Craig Rovinsky Looking At The Marseilles Tarot - 26 Enrique Enriquez

remind us that we can keep doing the same old things or that it might be time to be more daring, to break some rules and aim for higher goals. But the message, regardless of the specific situation, is the same: “Stop acting as if you are possessed! Get out of there! Move on!” We can apply that to any situation we are experiencing in our lives at the moment of looking at the cards. Now, let’s take stock. Keep in mind that in all of these examples I am telling you what I see, not what you should see. You will probably have a different insight about what is happening and about how the story in the cards feels to you. That is great, and how it should be. Those will be your readings, not mine. At first, the identity of each card becomes less important than the ‘energetic pattern’ it evokes through its composition. In some cards, the composition will suggest movement. In others, the composition will suggest a halt. Among the cards suggesting movement, some suggest moving forward while others will suggest going back. (Remember, we read from left to right). By detecting the energetic pattern suggested by the card’s composition we can detect rhythms and patterns in the whole ‘sentence’. In the example above, we could say that we had an alternative rhythm to the ‘movestop-move’. If we look deeper at what is happening, we see that the first card moves backwards, while the last card moves forward. So the general tendency takes us from a backwards movement to a forward movement, with a halt in between. This rhythm hints at a message for us. While looking at the whole picture, no card has an individual or compartmentalized meaning. Each character’s ‘identity’ slips to a second plane, if you will. They are part of a whole and their inherent meaning gets reshaped and modified depending on the cards surrounding them. If we were to perceive that ‘Le Diable’ didn’t feel right for some reason, we must acknowledge that feeling. We don’t need to fill the cards with Halloween-esque meanings, but we cannot be indifferent to the uneasiness the images in certain cards produce in us. The cards serve to help us access our vast store of unconscious knowledge, and this includes the elicitation of troubling feelings. These feelings are part of the message. Now, suppose that the same cards where arranged in a different order:

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See how everything changes? What is happening? Two cards suggesting movement are followed by a card suggesting a halt. This is a different rhythm. Even the Devil’s hand feels different now. It seems to indicate that everything must “Stop!” Let’s look at the whole scene. A man in a chariot seems hesitant about accepting the invitation that the little king on top of the wheel is extending to the young man to “join the party.” Behind the little king, the Devil seems to be telling our young man, “Don't!” Now, look at how this feeling seems to be reinforced by what is happening between the two other characters on the wheel, and the two characters standing beside the Devil. These strange figures on the wheel are part human, part animal and they seem to be part wheel, too! Perhaps they lost their limbs in the wheel. They are stuck. See how that is also happening in ‘Le Diable’? The two little figures are human-like, yet they have horns and tails. Their arms may be tied behind their back, bound within that green and red fabric that is wrapping the character’s bodies. In any case, they are limbless and tied up. If we go back to ‘Le Chariot’ and see how powerful the legs of these two horses feel, how heavy their hoofs are, we can see that moving ahead doesn’t look very promising for our young man! The Devil may be telling us to stop, or he may be epitomising the sense of being stuck itself. In any case, the message seems clear: “Don’t go there!”

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But something is missing here. Something doesn’t feel right, or complete. The man in the chariot is looking at the left. We seem to be more interested on the path ahead than he is. Even his horses are looking backwards. He is not ready to accept the little king’s invitation, nor to acknowledge the Devil’s warning. What is he looking at? There is only one way to know. We need to place a card in front of ‘Le Chariot’, so we can see what he is looking at. (NOTE: In my work with Tarot, it became evident at some point that the character’s gaze must be followed and acknowledged. That is why I was very excited when I eventually found out that several authors, like Paul Marteaux, Tchalai Unger, Philippe Camoin and Alejandro Jodorowsky, all took this into account). Following the gaze therefore expands the spreads accordingly. Taking another card from the pack, I place ‘Lemperatrise’ in front of ‘Le Chariot’, and the story now reads as follows:

What is happening? Everything seems to make more sense now. We now have a pattern that goes like this: “stop-move-move-stop”. The young man cannot move forward because he is still looking at a woman who seems to be annoyed. How does this feel? It feels as if he has to go back and make peace with that woman. Otherwise he will be stuck, unable to really evolve, and forced to repeat himself over and over. Leaving that woman behind seems to imply that he will be leaving a matter pending. That’s why, no matter how exciting that little king’s invitation may be, the Devil is giving us a warning. How many times have we felt like that? We can find analogies between this storyline and several different events which share the same energetic imprint. The story in the cards This copy of Looking At The Marseilles Tarot belongs to Craig Rovinsky Looking At The Marseilles Tarot - 29 Enrique Enriquez

perhaps reminds us of the time when we broke up from a relationship but we weren’t able to really detach ourselves emotionally from it. It could also account for the time we left home, leaving so many things unsaid between ourselves and our parents. It could remind us of that lousy plumbing job we did at that woman’s house and how she is now bad-mouthing us so no one else in the neighbourhood will give us a job. It could also account for those times in which we aren’t ready to face our dreams and we perceive the distressed looks of our loved ones, concerned about the reckless act we are about to commit. Only you know what the message means to you. Only you can make the analogies. Let’s continue our stock-taking. The same three cards, arranged in a different order, give us a different message. This may seem obvious but it is important to stress how any new message redefines the individual meaning of each card in the storyline. We shouldn’t leave any loose ends. When a card indicates, by gaze or direction, the need for an additional card, we oblige by adding it to the spread. In this way, the storyline can be enriched with as many cards as necessary until we feel it is complete. The cards’ composition sets a pattern, and that pattern can give us a theme. That theme gives structure to the message we perceive, and can be by itself an answer to the question we may be posing to the cards. You can see how a mood can be attributed to a graphic character. I said earlier that the Empress was ‘annoyed’. This mood is obviously a projection of mine. In different circumstances, and surrounded by different cards, I could see ‘Lemperatrise’ as being doubtful, indifferent, or even happy. Don’t be afraid of projecting yourself into the cards. As a friend of mine put it, at the anagogical level, “one plus one equals three”. The cards are there to elicit a revelation in us, and that revelation only occurs when what is visible in the cards calls upon what is invisible in us. Finally, let’s see another example, this time from real life. A woman wants to know if she is going to take a trip. She is supposed to go to Vienna to meet her son’s future wife, but she is having some sort of legal problem she needs to solve for the trip to happen. She gets ‘Le Fou’ (The Fool), ‘Lermite’ (The Hermit), ‘Le Pape’ (The Pope), and ‘Lamoreux’ (The Lovers ).

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What is happening? A young man is travelling (‘Le Fou’) towards a family reunion that we can see happening at the end (‘Lamoreux’). But in the middle of the spread we have an old man stopping the traveller (‘Lermite’) and finally the old man granting passage (‘Le Pape’). If we look at the dynamics between ‘Le Fou’ and ‘Lermite’, we will see how ‘Lermite’ places the lantern in front of the Fool’s eyes. He is obstructing The Fool’s sight. How does this feel? Well, it feels as if these bureaucratic obstacles are so daunting that you cannot see past them. But on the lower part of both cards, something else is happening. Both ‘Le Fou’ and ‘Lermite’ have staffs that are suspiciously close to one another. It is as if ‘Lermite’s’ attitude with the lantern is a formality and he is open to ‘exchanging staffs’, i.e., reaching an agreement ‘under the table’. What is happening between ‘Lermite’ and ‘Le Pape’? We can see two old men so similar that they could be the same person. But while the first one stops the traveller, the second one seems to be blessing the family reunion. Another detail that catches my attention iss the fact that the first old man is dressed poorly, while the second old man has a tiara, a sceptre and luxurious clothes. In fact, there is a difference in styles between these two cards which is relevant. ‘Lermite’ is drawn in an elegant, yet harsh way, while ‘Le Pape’ shows more details, more rounded lines and the drawing feels softer. How does this feel? It feels as if the two men are one and the same, but that this person changes his attitude along the way, softening it and improving his wardrobe after getting what he wants from my client!

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In the actual reading, I took the entire thing to represent a positive outcome that would occur after my client got an authority figure to turn favorable to her. ‘Lermit’ becomes ‘Le Pape’, literally turning his body to let the Fool pass. Several things can be noticed in this example. The first thing I did was to try to find the analogy between my client’s question and the story shown by the cards. We always want to recognize our client in the cards so we can transform her into a narrative. I used the two key questions, What is happening? and How does this feel? to look at the whole ‘sentence’, but also when contrasting pairs of two cards, i.e., the first card with the third card, the first card with the second card, the second with the third card and the third card with the fourth card. My interest is to see what is happening between all these characters so I can understand the situation based not only in what my client tells me. I also need to base the reading on the pieces of information that the client isn’t volunteering but which the cards make evident. Following an analogical train of thought, the cards prompt a revelation. Usually, I use the What is happening? question while looking at two contiguous cards, with one exception. It is always good to look at the first and last cards in a row to understand the progression in the whole storyline. In the same fashion, I was asking myself How does this feel? all along the way. With practice this becomes automatic because, in truth, our two key questions are implicit in the act of seeing the cards. With only a little practice you will forget the conscious questions and start experiencing the card’s messages instantly. Practice by placing three or more cards in a row and finding the message in front of you. Use the two key questions to approach the cards until the perception of messages becomes second nature. You will see how this exercise contains all the previous exercises and reinforces them. There are several different spreads you can use to look at the cards. I tend to prefer those in which the cards can effectively ‘speak’, creating storylines. To be totally frank, three cards in a line, together with any expansion these cards may visually suggest, are all we need to get a message from the cards, answer our questions and project our possibilities. In my humble opinion, there is no need for more.

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Final Thoughts At the time of writing these notes, autumn is kicking in. A few days back, I was walking around the city with my kids. It was dark at six o'clock, and so I asked them, “The city feels different. Can you see it?” Emilio, my eight year-old son, replied, “Hmmm, I can see it. But I don’t know if the city is different because it has changed, or because I see it differently.” After picking my jaw off the ground, I told him that he had just noticed the essence of magic. To perceive is to create. If we look at the cards, we discover many things. And if we attentively look at the things we discover, we will notice that they say as much about ourselves as they say about Tarot. We keep this game of analogies alive by experiencing it with fresh, new eyes and by always remembering that knowing is not the same as understanding. What I am proposing here was hinted at centuries ago by Matteo María Boiardo and Teófilo Folengo. It has been explored to different extents by several contemporary authors like Paul Marteaux, Tchalai Unger, Philippe Camoin, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Encarnación Sánchez & Daniel Rodés, Robert M. Place and Jean-Claude Flornoy. Each one of them has a different approach to the idea of Tarot as an Optical Language. I invite you to read what they have to say about Tarot. I just want to suggest that if we use the two key questions: What is happening? and How does this feel? we will have a very productive first anagogical encounter with the Marseille Tarot. If we look at Tarot, its magic will reveal itself to us. This encounter is only a departure point. It shouldn’t prevent us from exploring the historical, allegorical and moral aspects of Tarot. But it guarantees that by asking these questions we will establish a feasible methodology to know the cards and perceive a message in them. A methodology that, once incorporated to our thought-patterns, will be of use to us for our entire lifetime. Keep on looking! Enrique Enriquez New York, October, 2007

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