Diana said:
"Why do those people who believe that the Tarot of Marseilles is the Ur-Tarot, believe this?"
It is because of my direct experience of using the Tarot of Marseilles that I am starting to think of it as the Ur-Tarot.
I spent a long time making the decision to buy a Tarot of Marseilles deck. I was expecting it to be really hard work. I was expecting to have to read incomprehensible academic essays about numerology and history to even have a hope of reading with the deck. But, I like an intellectual challenge
So I decided to go ahead and buy the Hadar deck because it had pretty colours.
I was kind of thinking too that it would add something to my tarot studies to be able to explore the history of it all. I thought the early decks would help me understand about the symbolism and imagery I'd become accoustomed to seeing on other decks.
So my deck arrived and I decided to do a quick 3 card "new deck spread" to find out a bit more about what I was letting myself in for, and it turned out to be the most amazing experience I'd ever had with tarot in all my 13 years of studying.
I can't describe it properly... I was literally shaking at the end of the reading. Not out of fear, (and not because it was cold outside or I had a fever either!) but out of, dare I say it, Awe. The thread I posted of that reading is still around somewhere, I've forgotten a lot of what I'd written at the time. But I think the most important thing that I learned is that I'd had it all wrong. The Tarot of Marseilles isn't about an intellectual challenge. Its about connecting to my heart and my humanity. And I don't have to work hard to speak its language. I'm already fluent. Somehow.
In the few days after that first reading I realised for the first time that there is a big difference between the Tarot and tarot cards........
Tarot cards are, I think, a physical representation of what Tarot is. They are a tool we use to access the Tarot. They aren't Tarot itself. I think they are kind of like the key to Tarot. I cannot put into words what I beleive Tarot is. I'm not even sure I know exactly, to be honest.
But when I began using the Tarot of Marseilles, I felt like I made a switch from reading with tarot cards, to acctually reading and accessing Tarot. I beleive that this switch happened for me because I was finnally using the right "key".
I describe the Tarot of Marseilles as the Essence of Tarot because I feel it to be the most accurate relection I have found of what Tarot is. The two things are like mirrors of each other..... As above, so below.
This is not a good explanation. Its acctually really difficult to explain in written words!! But the question is an important one, so I wanted to at least attempt an answer.