RWS Minors as continual narrative

Le Fanu

This passage from Kaplan Vol I (p272) has long fascinated me:

Interestingly both the The Rider-Waite tarot pack and the Royal Fez tarot pack designed by Michael Hobdell, that closely follows the Smith-Waite designs, present a continuous story through the sequence of the cards in each suit. The three highest court cards in the suit of swords comprise a family of father, mother and eldest son. The King of Swords is the father, the Queen is the mother and the son is the Knight. A young lad in servitude to the knight appears as the page. In the Ten of Swords the son is killed and the Nine of Swords shows a grieving sister sitting up in bed after a dream has revealed to her the terrible fate of her brother. The sister seeks to revenge, her brother's death, and in the Eight of Swords she is shown bound and blinfolded. In the Seven of Swords, the page appears with swords symbolizing that help is on its way, and in the Six of Swords the sister and her young son are rescued by the page, who is also her lover. The page is now a warrior and in the Five of Swords he is shown with the swords of his craft. In time, the page is also stricken by the sword and killed, (Four of Swords), which causes much sadness as evidenced by the broken heart pierced by three swords in the Three of Swords. The Two of Swords shows the widow in mourning with swords of defiance and her eyes blindfolded to the way of peace, for she seeks revenge. The Ace of Swords emerges from a cloud, claiming that those who live by the sword are apt to die by it.

The suit of staves or clubs depicts the story of a family divided between the traditional ways and modern methods. Its moral is that harmony and progress are best attained when the old and the new work together. The suit of cups reveals the path to happiness and the search of two brothers for companionship. The suit of coins relates the story of a wealthy family and the temptations and alternatives afforded them by the luxuries of wealth.

Did he get this from Waite? I don't remember it. And why does nobody else ever talk of the RWS Minors as a continual narrative, with each suit telling a story? Surely if this theory were true, it should influence all those RWS clones out there which don't feature characters from the same family in their Minors...

Does anyone else find this as intriguing as I? Or maybe you're all too busy interpreting the Minors as a continual family saga and I'm the odd one out.
 

Glitterbird

This is very interesting, I will have to dig out my book, and study deeper into this, Thanks for bringing it up. :)
 

rwcarter

I know that Mary Greer has discussed this both here in the RWS forum and in the 2006 Llewellyn Reader. Her narratives go from Ace to 10, unlike Mr. Kaplan's which goes from 10 to Ace.

There's this thread here at Aeclectic that covers the same excerpt that you've listed Le Fanu, but if I indexed Mary's post(s), I don't remember what I indexed them under.

Rodney
 

bluecaffeine

Hajo Banzhaf had written sth from Ace to 10 and vice versa for each suit. Well, I have the book in German. Don`t know, if someone has the English Version?
 

Le Fanu

rwcarter said:
I know that Mary Greer has discussed this both here in the RWS forum and in the 2006 Llewellyn Reader. Her narratives go from Ace to 10, unlike Mr. Kaplan's which goes from 10 to Ace.

There's this thread here at Aeclectic that covers the same excerpt that you've listed Le Fanu, but if I indexed Mary's post(s), I don't remember what I indexed them under.

Rodney
Thank you. I did a search but it's quite a vague subject to track down... I now see that Cerulean includes that exact same quote. But it is odd how this isn't taken as more fundamental for an understanding of the Minors.
 

rwcarter

bluecaffeine,

I have a number of Banzhaf's books in English. What is the title of the one you're talking about? Or, since it's probably in German, what does the subject matter deal with?

Rodney
 

rwcarter

In summary, Mary narrates the following stories through each of the Minor Arcana suits:

Cups - Joseph of Arimathea carrying the Grail out of Israel
Wands - the story of Perceval
Pentacles - freemasonry as "(t)he story of the erection of an external building veiled (in?) a divine mystery"
Swords - three "referents":
  • Galahad's failure to bring the Grail "back into the world"
  • the unbelievers in Joseph of Arimathea's band who were banished from the Grail table
  • "the failure, within Masonry, to ask the questions that would lead to an understanding of the deeper significance of the story of the Master Builder who is killed by his jealous brethren"