JMD's Reading the Marseille Tarot- Chapter 3, The Pips

Rose Lalonde

Welcome to Week 3 / Chapter3 :)

Exercises in this chapter:

  • Flicking cards 1: Pips differentiated from courts & trumps --p45
  • Sequencing 1: Ace to King in various directions --p46
  • Batons: Which appear 'living' / floral details / 9 -- p47
  • Sequencing 2: Swords - 10 in the center with odds and evens --p53
  • Implements: Which hand holds what in pips and trumps? --p57
  • Flicking cards 2: Recurrences, gazes, cards as simultaneously both (upright & reversed) and as neither, connections. --p59
Some Issues Discussed:

  • Trumps as 'fifth suit'
  • Increase and decrease, and the various ways it can be considered
  • Batons as plants
  • Cups as containers (Ace as New Jerusalem)
  • Deniers as symbolic value (features of the 2 & 4)
  • Swords as weapons for combat / origin of hilts and decorations / (position of swords not held in hand)
  • Ace of Swords & Ace of Batons (heraldry)
  • Social classes represented

Index of study group threads
 

swedishfish612

Thanks so much for posting this for us! Be back to post tonight!
 

Rose Lalonde

increase/decrease

I've only done the "Flicking Cards 1" exercise so far (and noticed how the courts and trumps seem darker and denser than the pips in the Madenié), but until I do more, I'm stopping in to say that my favorite part of this chapter was the way he presents increase/decrease.

I like that he wants us to think about the different ways amounts and division can be considered for each suit rather than just assuming a higher number always equals more. Particularly his examples of how a higher number can mean an equal amount for Cups or even a decrease in dividing a finite whole for the Coins. Those possibilities weren't something that had occurred to me before; I was just assuming 10 is always going to be more than 2.
 

swedishfish612

I'm sorry I have been MIA this last week! I've been busy with kid stuff, as usual. lol

If no one minds, let's give this thread a few more days and I'll post the next one on Sunday night. I actually have done most of the exercises, but just haven't posted yet!
 

Pam O

Hi there,
Thanks for your posts. :) I don't have the book yet and I am wondering what the definition of "Flicking Cards" is? Is it tossing down the cards, and observing what you see? In order? Shuffled? Both?
 

Rose Lalonde

Hi there,
Thanks for your posts. :) I don't have the book yet and I am wondering what the definition of "Flicking Cards" is? Is it tossing down the cards, and observing what you see? In order? Shuffled? Both?

He doesn't say anything about shuffling, but his intent is clearly not an ordered sequence. At the beginning of the chapter, the first flicking exercise is to throw the cards out onto a table cloth (doesn't matter is some land with the back of the card facing up). Are there overall patterns? How are pips different from trumps/courts?

At the end of the chapter, the second says to do the same until a "broadish number" land, and look at it like a 'spread', noticing gazes and directions. He compares it to a painted ceiling, rather than strict upright or reversed, necessarily. Observe from a variety of distances. Do more than once, perhaps photographing. Are there links that appear to be made? Are the cards creating a dialogue? He references past exercises and imagining being in the scene, as discussed in Chapter 2.

I think he repeats the flicking at the end of the chapter to take into account the topics the chapter brings up in between, so it may be a bit harder to see a difference between the two exercises until you have a copy of the book. Still, the question should be useful regardless. :)
 

Pam O

... his intent is clearly not an ordered sequence. At the beginning of the chapter, the first flicking exercise is to throw the cards out onto a table cloth (doesn't matter is some land with the back of the card facing up). :)

Thank you so much!!
(I am planning to relinquish the $50 soon. I just have to push myself over the edge and do it!) :cool:

I can see how the backs facing up might show unconscious forces at work to influance different patterns and situations...

I actually have asked a series of questions and thrown cards upright for readings. It can be fun because an card that shows up in response to a question can instigate a series of question, and the reading can become really dynamic. What you describe seems a bit different since the cards are "flicked", then interpreted when the flicking is complete. I like that too.
 

alanemeriel

I like that he wants us to think about the different ways amounts and division can be considered for each suit rather than just assuming a higher number always equals more. Particularly his examples of how a higher number can mean an equal amount for Cups or even a decrease in dividing a finite whole for the Coins. Those possibilities weren't something that had occurred to me before; I was just assuming 10 is always going to be more than 2.

Rose, I have the same idea when I read the chapter.