Thanks for the John Meador links, Christine. They are quite interesting. I'm studyin them. About Postel, one question I have is how disseminated his works were. I read one place that his translation of the Zohar was never published.
I don't understand at all the link which you folks attribute to "Michael", the one about ROTA and Levi. I certainly don't understand the relevance to Etteilla. But Postel is different. I don't know about Frankenberg.
Thank you very much for typing out all that French, Cerulean. Some of what the author says is de Gebelin, but some of it isn't, namely the part about the number 7. That's Pythagorean, as you say; I'm not sure if it's in Etteilla or not; perhaps. In any case, it was common parlance. I'll do some checking.
An unfinished piece for me on Etteilla is his influence on Le Normand. I have been re-reading Wicked Pack's chapter on her and trying to piece together something. Also, I have been trying to verify their conclusions and finding that they don't hold up. That's happened before.
Wicked Pack says that Le Normand didn't mention tarot in her books at all until 1817. I don't question that. I haven't read all her books before then. But they go on to say she used an ordinary 32 card Piquet deck without Etteilla's interpretations. This part I question. Here is Wicked Pack:
...She clearly always uses a piquet pack, i.e. a 32-card pack.. She cuts three times and deals the cards in eight piles. She then draws them and proceeds to read. Although she enumerates the cards she draws in her story, she does not trouble to give the meanings! (footnote 44)
Some lines further she at least offers some explanations: 'the King of Spades, together with the 8 of Diamonds, means that a skilful man has made trials to stop, if it is possible, the progression of illness... Fortunately the 9 of Hearts, which is coming on top, announces to me that you will quickly see the end of your cruel anxieties" (pp. 151-2). As one can see, her system seems very simple, without any planned theories. In any case it has nothing to do with Etteilla's system of meanings."
This last statement deserves to be challenged. My "Petit Etteilla" facsimile pack has "Chagrin" for the Reversed meaning of the 8 of Diamonds, easily interpreted as illness. The 9 of Hearts has "Victoire", certainly predicting the end of one's anxieties. And the King of Spades is "Homme de Robe", and under it "science," hence "man of science." Eteilla's 1773 book confirms these readings (although instead of "science" it has "non ces gens a intrigues du Palais qui n'ont aucune qualite"--in other words, only those who are men of quality, not the ones who engage in Palace intrigues). For the three cards, see pp. 10-12 at
http://books.google.com/ books?id=CI85AAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=etteilla&hl=en&ei=SigiTOf5D9SssAbxrv3lBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CE8Q6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
To know more about whether she used a Petit Etteilla before 1817, we'd have to look at other examples of card interpretation in her works, something I haven't done.. But Wicked Pack's dismissal of Etteilla influence is clearly unjustified.
Wicked Pack objects that she never mentions Etteilla once in her books. Well, she may not have known she was using Etteilla's system. The interpretations are on the cards. Or it could be that Etteilla had simply been reporting standard interpretations. Or, most likely, that many card producers by her time were copying Etteilla.
Then there is then the question of the Grand Etteilla. Wicked Pack (p. 138) quotes an an 1813 work by a Victor-Etienne Jouey, describing her methods
"past present and future will be exposed together under your eyes thanks to a simple pack of cards. However, it must be said that these cards are much larger than the others, patterned with heiroglyphs ['tarotee en forme d'hieroglyphes']. The enchantress shuffles them, meditating in a very edifying way, and matches them according to the skilful combinations of the Etteilla."
(footnote 74).
Well, these could fit a Grand Etteilla--or an ordinary Tarot de Marseille.
Another account is by a German, Karl August von Malchus, in memoirs published in 1895. He was an economist and no believer in fortune-telling. Nonetheless she consulted Le Normand between 1810 and 1814. According to him, she used German "tarokkarten",i.e. with German suit signs; "whistkarten", meaning regular decks with French suit signs; "Karten mit Himmelskorpern", i.e. cards with designs of celestial bodies]; Karten mit nekromantischen Figuren, cards with necromantic figures; etc. Then she would take cards from all the decks to do the reading.
So it appears that she did use tarot cards at least in the period 1810-1814. As for Etteilla's influence, Wicked Pack says that
many types of fortune-telling cards were being produced from the beginning of the XIX century. Most of these bore allegories borrowed from Grand Etteilla. A pack called 'Petitit Necromancien' had been produced by Robert around 1810. ([footnote] 76)
So probably Le Normand was influenced by Etteilla without knowing it.
In her books, according to Wicked Pack, she doesn't mention tarot per se until the same 1817 book in which she appears to use the Petit Etteille:
A great revelation awaits us on p. 159: the use of Tarot cards --actually spelled tharots--is at last mentioned by Mlle Le Normand. As usual, she remains very vague: three typical cards only are named. 'The Fol which I am discarding from youir hand means that your projects are intolerable', she says (p. 159), then, 'But I see the Devil in company with Death' (p. 160). No meaning is given, but since the consultant angrily banged on her desk and knocked over her '78 tharot cards', we may suppose it was no good news. The names of the Tarot cards mentioned by Mlle Le Normand cannot hve been found in a Grand Etteilla I, where these cards are called, respectively, Folie, Force majeure, and Mortalite. Fol, Diable and Mort are actually classical names in the Tarot de Marseille.
Then in an 1818 book, although having a chapter heading about "Tharot" she says nothing about them except that they are 'emblematic and hieroglyphic figures' (Wicked Pack p. 126) In an 1822 book she also mentions the "Tharots" but her answer deals with palmistry (p. 128).
I tentatively conclude that it is likely that by 1817 Le Normand was using a 33 card Petit Etteilla, and in addition regular packs, either of 32 cards or 52. More research is needed on this point. And she also a tarot pack fitting the description of the Tarot de Marseille, as well as other decks at least strongly influenced by Etteilla's Grand Etteilla.
Two years after Le Normand's death, a deck was published called the "Grand jeu de Mlle Lenormand". What is the relation of that deck to Le Normand and Etteilla? Well, that's another issue. Wicked Pack says, not much. Well, I'll have to take a closer look when I get a chance.
