The RWS 'stage cards'

Teheuti

I write on my blog about Waite's tarot chapter from The Hidden Church of the Holy Grail and how in his revised The Holy Grail most of it ended up in a chapter called "The Ritual Hypothesis." Here Waite speculates on the Grail myths as the basis for ritual pageants that he says he is well-qualified to devise. I think Waite envisioned the Minor Arcana as a quaternity of these ritual pageants. This is further substantiated by the Minor Arcana scenes that appear to be set on a stage or platform. Here is Waite’s description from HCHG of such a pageant taken from an early Grail romance. It obviously showcases the Court Cards:

“When the questing knight pays his first visit. . . . The procession enters the hall in single file, and consists in succession of a page, or squire, who carries the mysterious Sword which will break in one danger only, of another squire who bears the Sacred Lance from which the blood issues, and then of two squires together, each supporting a ten-branched candlestick. Between these there walks the gentle and beautiful maiden who lifts up the Holy Graal in her two hands; she is followed by another maiden, who carries the Silver Dish. The procession passes twice before the couch on which the King of the Castle reclines.” HCHG, p. 139.

http://marygreer.wordpress.com/2009/02/07/the-grail-and-the-minor-arcana-the-evidence/
 

Rosanne

Thank you very much Mary for listing your blog- I have it now on Bookmark.
Such a wealth of excellent and readable information!

I have cut this bit from your blog...
Mary Greer said:
Below is A.E. Waite’s retelling of this late 12th century story compiled from a couple of different sections of his book on the Grail. Waite explained: “The root-matter of the story can be expressed in a few words, and may be so offered to simplify the issues which are important to our purpose.” I believe the following will demonstrate that he gave these “few words” to Pamela Coleman Smith who was professionally trained to illustrate stories. Her task was to integrate this Grail Romance with the divinatory meanings that Waite had compiled from several other sources (Etteilla, Mathers, Golden Dawn, Chambers, etc.)—a job she completed masterfully.

So it would seem that Pamela condensed the important bits down even further in Cups 2-5-8-10 by using the stage cards- almost like emboldening the message.

2.Christ came to Joseph in the tower, brought him the Sacred Vessel and communicated to him certain secret words which were the grace and power thereof. Joseph remained for forty years in his prison and was sustained by the Blessed Vessel as if in a condition of ecstasy.

5. The result was a famine in the company.

8.The Divine voice of the Graal directed that Brons should repair to a certain water and there angle for a fish.

10. The vessel was invoked, and it separated the good from the evil within the ranks of the people.

Now finally the stage cards make sense.

(all information for this post is from Mary Greer's Blog)

~Rosanne
 

Bernice

Oooh! you've been solving the stage cards while I slept - wonderful! The Grail story.

But there's a hitch (I think...). I've been looking closely at the images and am now unsure which cards are 'stage' cards.

If they are defined by having a clear foreground (the ground) divided from the backdrop by a thin double line, then there are only 12 'stage' cards. A few other contenders do not have this clear-cut feature. These 12 cards are;

Cups:........ Page; 2.
Coins:....... 2; 4; 6; 8.
Wands:......4; 9; 10.
Swords:......2; 5; 7.

(And there is a fellow in a pinny = 8 Coins.)

The Page Cups reminds me of "... the cup is not the contents". He is staring directly at the contents, a fish (christian symbol thingy), he's very aware of the 'contents'.


Bee :)
 

Curtis Penfold

I don't know that much about these stage cards. But I will mention that, as an actor, at times I think there's these moments in our lives that have been scripted. Deja-vu, you know. It's like, we've gone through it a million times before, and not just us, thousands, millions of people have gone through the exact same scene that we are.

Maybe these cards are meant to show us a scene at the core, with minimal props and scenery, revealing the act for what it is. And these scenes, they're played by a million actors all over the world.
 

Kosmoran

Curtis Penfold said:
I don't know that much about these stage cards. But I will mention that, as an actor, at times I think there's these moments in our lives that have been scripted. Deja-vu, you know. It's like, we've gone through it a million times before, and not just us, thousands, millions of people have gone through the exact same scene that we are.

Maybe these cards are meant to show us a scene at the core, with minimal props and scenery, revealing the act for what it is. And these scenes, they're played by a million actors all over the world.

Really interesting. They could then represent experiences/feelings/situations that are kind of universal.
Besides, if you see all the RWS Minor Arcana as telling a story, the stage cards could also be seen as milestones in the path, or special/preeminent scenes or situations that deserve more attention.
 

Kosmoran

In 1909, Pamela Smith joined the movement for the vote for women. She contributed with posters and other artwork to the cause. This is one of the postcards she made.

http://home.comcast.net/~pamela-c-smith/Images/Photos/SuffragePoster.jpg

Does anyone see any resemblance with the stage cards? The background of the images has two horizontal lines that could be compared to the background lines in the stage cards. Would that be some kind of artistic resource? Note that this image is supposed to be an isolated scene, or something to be displayed, rather than the part of a story. A poster/postcard has to convey all the message it's supposed to pass in a single image - like Tarot cards.

Below is one of the paintings she made while listening to classical music. This one in particular was painted to the sound of Beethoven's Sonata Pathétique. It reminds me of some tarot cards, like the Three of Wands and the Five of Cups...

http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/strand04.jpg
 

Curtis Penfold

Kosmoran said:
Does anyone see any resemblance with the stage cards? The background of the images has two horizontal lines that could be compared to the background lines in the stage cards. Would that be some kind of artistic resource? Note that this image is supposed to be an isolated scene, or something to be displayed, rather than the part of a story. A poster/postcard has to convey all the message it's supposed to pass in a single image - like Tarot cards.

Interesting. Maybe those "staged" scenes are moments where everything connects, where there seems to be a reason why you're at where you're at. It's almost like there's a director and you're on stage. The beauty of presentation is the symbols that occur, the foreshadowing, where every line, every image is important to the plot.
 

alca

There's another one. The 10 of Pentacles has lines near the top of the card. Does anyone have any ideas about that or is it not a 'stage card'?
 

bogiesan

There's another one. The 10 of Pentacles has lines near the top of the card. Does anyone have any ideas about that or is it not a 'stage card'?

Those seem to simply setting off a section of the image to hold the "X." Depending on your version of the Waite-Smith deck and who published it those lines and the area they enclose can be quite different. The stage lines tend to be on the horizon and simulate or emulate the line where a painted backdrop might intersect the floor of a theatre's stage.
 

alca

Thanks

Ok, yeah, I was looking at the original RWS deck.