Which Way is Upright?

cadillacmom

Which Way

I am working with the Marseilles deck. I am new and I still do not understand some things. The Minor Arcana cards, I have a problem determining if the card is right or reversed as with the pentacles and some of the wand cards. Is there something on the card? I have a book but it does not show pictures of the Minor Arcana cards like the Major. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 

Shalott

What's a pentacle? ;)

LOL, this is actually a problem a few of us have had! Kind of depends on the deck. Some (like Fournier) may have tiny little numerals at the bottom. The photoreproduction of the Dodal has tiny little Museum stamps at the bottom (at least this is the marker I'm using!). Hadar: blue is at the top and right hand side, red at the bottom and left had side, except swords, see what jmd said to me about this:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29296

Others, I don't know them all yet but others here do.

For other resources on Marseille minors, one newbie to another! check out: http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/OM/BA/PT/PT.html#minor which from the book to the Pythgorean tarot, about the 87 thousandth time I've posted this link but I never would have learned these pips without it, it's from a whole other deck but teaches the concept of suit + number very well.

Rusty Neon posted this one somewhere else, on Medieval numerology:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.geometry/unit8/unit8.html
See also: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.geometry/unit4/unit4.html

I panned Joseph Maxwell's book "The Tarot" a while back, but in the last couple of days I dusted it off and discovered his treatment of the minors to be pretty fair (although I'm still a little confused by his ideas on the majors!).

There's also Kris Hadar's wedsite with great info on numerology and Tarologie, and an English mirror. http://krishadar.com/

And of course there's always right here!!! (Hear the chants from Marseille corner: Join us!!! Join us!!! ) :D
 

punchinella

Shalott said:
The photoreproduction of the Dodal has tiny little Museum stamps at the bottom (at least this is the marker I'm using!).
Except sometimes they're at the top. At least in relation to the card backs, which are non-reversible.

:confused:
 

Shalott

punchinella said:
Except sometimes they're at the top. At least in relation to the card backs, which are non-reversible.

:confused:


Ahhhh. I didn't even think about looking at the backs for that purpose!!
 

Rusty Neon

Re: Which Way

cadillacmom said:
The Minor Arcana cards, I have a problem determining if the card is right or reversed as with the pentacles and some of the wand cards.

Hi cadillacmom

Welcome to Marseilleland

Which Marseille deck are you using?

Here's a link to a site that shows scans of all the cards from a Marseilles deck (the Camoin Bicentennial). I haven't fully vetted the up/down placements, but the scans there should be able to help you orient up vs. down as a starting point.

I don't agree with the downward-placed sword in the 3 of Swords; I think all central swords should face upwards. As well, certain cards are essentially symmetrical (e.g. 2 to 10 of Batons, 5, 8 9, 10 of Coins) - save for differences in a top flower vs. a bottom flower which can't be decisive for up/down placement - are anyone's subjective view as to which is up vs. which is down; for such cards, you may have to go with your own views, subject to what indicative marks (e.g., copyright indications, museum stamps) are on the card. In the case of those indications, they will distract you into following them even if you believe the indications are incorrect.

http://www.byzant.com/tarot/structureminor.asp
To see all the minor arcana of any particular suit, click on the Ace card of that particular suit. Eek! That site calls Batons/Rods/Staves by the name Wands, and calls Coins by the name Pentacles.

If there's any other up/down placement at that link (besides the aforemented 3 of Swords) that you don't agree with, please holler and we'll try to help out.
 

Shalott

Rusty Neon said:
And what's a wand? ;)

D'oh!

I hope cadillacmom comes back...I suppose some ppl have real lives, tho! LOL

cadillacmom: If you have Rider-Waite books and a Marseille deck, well, we can help make it easier!

Rusty, you have awesome links!
 

Rusty Neon

Shalott said:
I hope cadillacmom comes back...I suppose some ppl have real lives, tho! LOL

But aren't our lives here in the matrix also real? ;)
 

Shalott

Rusty Neon said:
But aren't our lives here in the matrix also real? ;)

Good morning, Neal, erm, Neon...
 

Shalott

I agree with swords with the sword in the middle all being upright too.

Maybe it's time for a poll? ;)