In this 'Aeclectic' world, swirling with hundreds tarots, it is a privilege to assist in this study group from time to time.
1. Firstly I'd like to point out that there are several typos in the book and other places where the London editors missed the context altogether. These things are being corrected for the second edition St. Martin's Press. But I'd be happy to correct any confusion that may have arisen from those mistakes.
2. Premise - It is necessary to understand that the TDP did not begin as an idea to produce a tarot. Nor was it conceived as a 'theme deck'. (In 1981 the market for new tarots was still quite small.) Also all the images required that they be 'discovered' by walking around in a city, Paris, where I had never lived or previously visited (at least not this lifetime. The only way the project was fulfilled was to ‘open’ myself to what the city had to offer and then invent ways of getting lost in it to allow ‘active randomness’ to intuitively direct me to the locations and statues.
3. Spirits – As I wrote in the book, Paris is animated by the magnitude of its sculptural diversity. The ‘Spirits’ embody and encourage that animating force. They are not concerned with the ramifications of their animations. They stimulate situations when they appear. Their appearance is the ‘message’.
4. Quiz? - There is a graphic mistake in one of the numbered minor cards. This has now already been corrected in the reissued cards. Only one clue……….when counting the suit symbols in each card………….there is one too many in the group? Anyone who finds it gets an 11x14 art print of any card in the deck they choose. Go for it!
Thanks for the B’day messages!
I’m off to Japan for a month of workshops, readings and lectures.
Aloha,
*jpt