Etteilla Timeline and Etteilla card Variants - background

MikeH

Timeline to Etteilla followers

Ronald Decker's new book, The Esoteric Tarot (2013) has three chapters on Etteilla and his followers, including some information not present in Wicked Pack of Cards. Much of the new material can be arranged as a time-line about Etteilla's followers. Here I include information on Etteilla only as it directly relates to his followers. I give the page number in Decker's book as well as his source, when given. There are a few repetitions from Wicked Pack. I have not checked the accuracy of his information, but it is consistent with what I remember from other sources. This timeline derives only from Esoteric Tarot

1769-70. The Prussian national known only as Hisler studies with Etteilla in Paris. (Decker p. 191.)

1782. Etteilla publishes combination hislérique, Hisler's lotto system. (Decker p. 191.)

c. 1783. Charles Greille-Saint Leger de Bonrecueille (b. 1753) moves to Lyons and sets up a secret society known as the Temple of the Sun, whose members called themselves the "Unknown philosophers", following the lead of Louis-Claude de St. Martin (1743-1803), who referred to himself by the same term and had moved to Lyons in 1773. (Decker p. 191, from Robert Amadou, "Alchemie et Société Sécrète," L'Autre Monde, no. 98 (1985) pp. 24-29; no. 99 (1986) pp. 18-23, 57.)

1787. Melchior Montmignon d'Odoucet studies with Etteilla.

1788. Claude Hugand, a Lyons native, joins the Temple of the Sun; also joins Etteilla's group, Society of the Interpreters, founded that year. (Decker p. 191, from Amadou; on membership of the Society, Thierry Depaulis in Wicked Pack of Cards pp. 100-112.)

1788. Hisler visits Etteilla in Paris. (Decker p. 191.)

1788. Pierre Joseph Joubert de la Salette (1742-1833), in Grenoble, contacts Hugand and de Bonrecueille in Lyons, joins Etteilla's group. (Decker p. 192.)

1788. D'Odoucet becomes Etteilla's disciple. (Decker p. 192.)

1789. In Lyons Hugand writes a pamphlet Faites Mieux, J'y Consens, ou les Instructions d'Isis Divulguées par un Electeur de la Commune de Lyon, en l'Année 1789 (Do Better, I Agree, or the Instructions of Isis Revealed by a Voter of the Commune of Lyons, in the Year 1789). (Decker p. 191. For a translation and discussion of some of this pamphlet, see my post at http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=3200194&postcount=251.)

1789. Etteilla in an advertisement of his work mentions that lessons are available from d'Odoucet as well as from himself. (Decker p. 192.)

1790. De la Salette joins the Temple of the Sun. Reveals its existence to Etteilla, for which he is reprimanded for breaking the vow of secrecy. (Decker p. 192, Amadou 26ff.)

1790. D'Odoucet publishes Revolution Francaise in Paris, which contains a footnote critical of Etteilla and Hugand, although not mentioning their names. Etteilla is judged a neglectful husband and father, as well as a charlatan. Hugand is declared unskilled. (Decker p. 197, from Wicked Pack of Cards pp. 103-104.)

1790, summer. Etteilla founds the Nouvelle Ecole de Magie (New School of Magic). In the Apperçu sur La Nouvelle Ecole de Magie (Prospectus on the New School of Magic), he calls d'Odoucet "Dodo", which Decker says is equivalent to the infantile "goo goo" in English and not the name of the famously stupid bird. Adds that d'Odoucet is "ungrateful" and "despising in tone". (Decker p. 196.)

1790. Etteilla publishes Cours Théorique et Pratique du Livre de Thot (Theoretical and Practical Course on the Book of Thoth). (Decker pp. 196-197.) This book is said to have gone unfinished; Decker refers us to Dummett, The Game of Tarot, p. 109. (Decker p. 291.)

1790. De Bonrecueille, Hugand, and de la Salette have all begun to compile interpretations of individual cards. De Bonrecueille writes de la Salette: "Brother Hugand has indeed received your epistle on the synonyms of the Book of Thoth, but according to the announcement made by Monsieur Etteilla, we had presumed that you had composed something more complete about it." (Decker p. 197, from Amadou, p. 20.)

1791. Etteilla dies on December 12. (Decker p. 198.)

1791, February. De Bonrecueille writes to Etteilla, "You will find here enclosed the manuscript of our estimable competitor Monsieur de la Salette. There are many synonyms [for individual Tarot cards] whose fortunate conjunctions I have admired. However, there are many others that I do not think are at their natural places. Either he is wrong or I am; but it is true that the work is very helpful, and--for fear it would not be printed--I made a copy of it." (Decker p. 213, from Wicked Pack, p. 110.)

1791. Hugand in Lyons publishes de la Salette's Dictionnaire Synonimique du Livre de Thot. (Decker p. 197.)

1791. De Bonrecueille, a government bureaucrat, is transferred from Lyons to Toulon. At his urging Hugand is now "first pilot" of the Temple of the Sun. In Lyons Hugand publishes a 12 page pamphlet entitled Cartomancie, ou l'Art de Développer la Chaine des Evénements de la Vie. Récreations Astrologique par le Livre de Thot (Cartomancy, or the Art of Developing the Succession of Life's Events: Astrological Recreation through the Book of Thoth. (Decker pp. 198-199.)

March 1792. De Bonreceuille reports that d'Odoucet has seized Etteilla's private papers and is usurping Etteilla's role. He is also selling Etteilla's merchandise, as evidenced by the 40 cards of the original first edition of Etteilla's Tarot that Thierry Depaulis owns, where on the Eight of Batons, Etteilla has obliterated the engraving and used a pen to insert his own name and address. (Decker p. 199, from Wicked Pack, p. 91.)

1792. Hugand moves to Paris and collaborates with d'Odoucet until 1794, running a small press with him. Hugand, like Etteilla, is a supporter of the Revolution. D'Odoucet is a Royalist. (Decker p. 199.)

1794. Hugand, under the name Jéjalel, publishes his Course Complet: Théorique et Pratique du Livre de Thot; no further information about Hugand after this publication (Decker p. 199). The book extends Etteilla's Cours Théorique et Pratique and unlike that one "is truly complete' (Decker p. 291 n20), It includes a list of synonyms (Decker p. 244). On p. 6 Hugand mentions that the Alexis from whom Etteilla learned about the Egyptian tarot was a "descendant" of the famous "Alexis Piémontese" (Decker, p. 191; his real name, Decker says, following Depaulis, Wicked Pack p. 272 n16, was Girolomo Ruscelli, 1520-1566). Hugand also says (p. 72 of his book) that the name Jéjalel is from a Table of the 72 Cabalist Angels in the Zodiacus Vitae of Palingenius, where it is number 40; this is in contrast to its usual number, Decker says (p. 215), which is 58; I myself have found no such Table in either the French or the Latin editions of Palingenius that appear online. For more on this book see the thread "Palingenio's Zodiacus Vita, 1535 Venice" at http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=854)

1804 and after. D'Odoucet publishes the 3 volume Science des Signes: Médecine de l''Esprit (Science of Signs: Medicine for the Mind). Vol. 1 draws on Etteilla's Cours Theorique et Pratique. Vol. 2 condenses the Dictionnaire Synonimique. Vol. 3 does not include the tarot but discusses other matters occult and Masonic. Disappears from history in 1808 when the Prefect at Lille orders a warrant for his arrest. (Decker pp. 199-200.)
 

Teheuti

Thank you, Mike. This is another really helpful post for understanding the spread and influence of Etteilla's ideas.

Here's what I found when looking up Girolamo Ruscelli. Note that one of the pages is labeled "The Secrets of Alexis" and in the other he is identified as "Alexis of Piedmont."

http://antiquecannabisbook.com/chap2B/West/Ruscelli1569.htm

and

http://www.artfact.com/auction-lot/alexis-of-piedmont.-pseudonym-of-girolamo-ruscel-4-c-d8a7893cd9

http://books.google.com/books?id=Jzc6AAAAcAAJ Click on the book to read through the whole thing.

However, this book of Emblems may have been even more influential:
http://museum.cornell.edu/earthlyparadise/ruscelli.html

The whole book is here: http://openlibrary.org/books/OL24143882M/Le_imprese_illustri See especially pages 92 & 96 (among many others).

Here's an article in English - that while emphasizing Impresa ("Emblems") for women - gives an overview in English of the whole subject.
http://www.academia.edu/884644/_Six..._and_Girolamo_Ruscellis_Le_imprese_illustri._
 

MikeH

Thanks, Mary. Sorry for taking so long. I've been very busy on another Forum.

That emblem book you linked to is extremely interesting. What I especially liked was the lady on the right side of the article's Fig. 7. Justice is on the left, and I assume Temperance on the right, but I've never seen her pouring the contents of two jugs onto the ground, like the lady on the TdM Star card.

On the "grandson" of Alexis Piemontese, allegedly telling Etteilla much of what he knew, there is one detail of his cards that I don't think he would have known relates to Italy. 13 wasn't considered unlucky, but 17 was, as Ross Caldwell points out at http://ludustriumphorum.blogspot.com/2009/02/number-13-and-death-card.html).

In the First Cahier Etteilla says that 13 is the number of destruction and death (pp. 41 and 43 at http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k622723/f45.image.r=etteilla). In the Second Cahier (p. 28), however, he says that 17 and not 13 is connected with Death (quoted by Jacques Holbronn in Recherches sur L'Histoire d'Astrologie et du Tarot p. 31, found there and translated by Ross Caldwell at above link).
The false savants have said that the number or sign of death was 13, and in consequence they assigned Death 13. But this Book takes man in his creation, and it is recognized that Adam was in no way subject to death at the number 13 but at that of 17.
Eteilla adds (left out by Holbronn) "comme j'explique d'ailleurs" (as I explain elsewhere), and that is all. I have no idea where "ailleurs" is. His 1789 Death card, unlike every tarot before his, is number 17. Number 13 is Marriage.

In fact most of Etteilla's trump card interpretations do not match up with the number interpretations in the First Cahier. It's as though the keywords on the cards came from somewhere else and not out of Etteilla's head.

On p. 30 (http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k622723/f34.image.r=etteilla) he gives very standard Pythagorean interpretations for the first 10 numbers (except the one for 8, which I don't know), to which he adds two more, which derive from Christianity (Augustine for one). Next to each I put Etteilla's keywords for the card of that number:

One is God..............Keywords:.............Etteilla/Questionnant (Male Querent)
Two is male and female...............Eclaircissement (Enlightenment), Feu (Fire)
Three is the three principle, Mercury, Salt and Sulphur...Propos (design)/Eau (Water)
Four is the four elements, or better, the Universe...Depouillement (Privation)/Air
Five is the sacred.............................Voyage/Terre (Earth)
Six is the first perfect number............Nuit (Night)/Jour (Day)
Seven is Science and Human Wisdom...Appui (Support)/Protection
Eight is multiplication, extension.......Etteilla/Questionnante (Female Querent)
Nine is the perfection of the simple man, following nature, or knowing results....Justice/Legiste (Jurist)
Ten is the divine circle. .....................Temperance/Le Pretre (Priest)
Eleven is discord, defectiveness.........Force (Strength), Souverain (Sovereign)
Twelve is Call (Appel) and reunion......Prudence/Le Peuple (The People)

On p. 41 he has a reformulation of 10-12: 10 is not only the number of the circle of divinity, but the creator; 11 is the number weakness (foiblesse), and 12 is the creature, the human circle (http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k622723/f45.image.r=etteilla).

On p. 57 (http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k622723/f61.image.r=etteilla) he adds that St. Augustine says rightly that 11 is the sign of sin. He notes that 11 is 5 + 6, and 56 is the number of cards devoted to the life of the sinner.

Perhaps it is a return to the creator in 12 that gives it the interpretation, "call" and "reunion".

Seven, being the key to all the sciences, the number of wisdom, is such that if the first seven numbers are added together, the result is 28, the second perfect number (p. 33, at http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k622723/f37.image.r=etteilla).

But none of this has anything to do with his keywords.
 

kwaw

Here the phrase I translate literally, “that it gives its jet,” is qu’elle donne son jet. It should be a quote from Genesis, concerning the third day. I can’t find anything like it in my King James.

You're looking in the wrong Bible, you need to look in a French one ;)

jet may mean a current of water, or jet of water coming from a spring (or fountain), or to throw (the dice, or down one's cards), or to cast (one's net), but in this case it means 'shoots', as in shoots of growth/vegetation (sa pousse). That gives its shoots or 'brings forth its shoots' or 'produces its shoots'. I suspect he used the Martin Bible (or perhaps he just liked the pun between currents of water and shoots of vegetation):

quote
La terre donc produisit son jet, [savoir] de l'herbe portant de la semence selon son espèce; et des arbres portant du fruit, qui avaient leur semence en eux-mêmes, selon leur espèce; et Dieu vit que cela était bon.

The land thus produced its shoots (jet), [namely] the herb yielding seed after its kind; and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

The phrase is thus used in a book on plants thus:

De sorte que toute la greffe faite à la premiere séve, avant la S. Jean est à œil poussant, c'est-à-dire qu'elle donne son jet, ou sa pousse dès la même année, & en peu de temps.

...that is to say, it gives its jet, or its shoot (growth, sprout, blade)...
 

MikeH

Thanks Kwaw. Yes, of course, a French Bible!. And not just any French Bible (all the ones on the "Bible Gateway" site say "Que la terre produise de la verdure", but the right one. I guess I have to learn how to use Google more creatively.

Interestingly, this translation uses "jet" twice, not only in verse 12, but also verse 11, which has

"Puis Dieu dit: Que la terre pousse son jet,..." That seems to parallel Etteilla a little better, because of the "que". :

"that the earth grow [or push up?], its shoots."

"Donner" can mean "produce" "yield", as in "Le potager commence à donner des légumes." (The garden begins to yield its vegetables), an example at http://www.wordreference.com/fren/donner. But I like "gives forth".


King James has "Let the earth bring forth grass."


So the whole sentence would be

No 3. The third sheet has for allegory the Moon, and bears the number 3 for the third day of creation; that it give forth its shoots; and thus the number 1 Water, first element.

Except that it doesn't follow from "give forth its shoots" that the Moon is correlated with water. (To be sure, the Moon is in astrology has water as its element, but that isn't said.)

So perhaps it is indeed a pun, as you suggest. So we have:

No 3. The third sheet has for allegory the Moon, and bears the number 3 for the third day of creation; that it give forth its shoots [jet, also, meaning jets of water]; and thus the number 1 Water, first element.

That's pretty forced, but then much of Etteilla is like that.
 

kwaw

I don't think you have to strive to get the potential pun in (that Etteilla may or may not have intended) - the result is stiff and awkward (forced, as you said). I think 'bring/give forth its shoots' is better, it has the biblical feel of the KJV that English people are more likely to be familiar with. Fresh shoots spring up after rain, so I think the association with water is there without being explicit about it. Also that quote from the plant book makes it sound as if the phrase is somewhat idiomatic or obscure (he basically says the same thing twice, with another synonym for 'shoots' as if he needs to clarify the meaning of 'jet') so too literal a translation won't achieve the same sense anyway.
 

MikeH

At the end of the 6th sermon of Jung's "Seven Sermons of the Dead" (The Red Book[/], p. 533 of the Reader's Edition), Philomon says,in the English translation:
It is accomplished, but not fulfilled. Fruit of the earth, sprout, rise up - and Heaven, pour out the water of life.
I suspect that, for "sprouts" (or whatever it is in German) Jung had in mind that passage from Genesis. But the other part is what comes down from Heaven, the water of life, which in Etteilla, is "given up" by the Moon, or so I imagine. The word "jet" encompasses both ideas, water coming down (on the traditional card, there were droplets in the air) and the fruit of the earth sprouting up.

I don't mind inserting possible double meanings into translations; that is part of the job of translation, I think. In that connection, you might enjoy the English translation of Pulci's "minchiate" poems, done several decades before there was such a game, according to the experts; I assume it was a word used to describe the tarot, until "tarocchi" came along, meaning the same thing. Andrea just inserted these translations into the English version of his essay at http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=338&lng=ENG. We worked on them, very pleasantly, for weeks.
 

ONDINE

Philosophie des hautes sciences by ETTEILA

Hello,

I read your post about ETTEILA and his book La philosophie des hautes sciences.
I try to make a link with the 72 angels with the descriptions of Robert AMBELAIN in LA KABBALE PRATIQUE. But i find the keywords aren't exactly the sames.
It's impossible to find the book of ETTEILA, only with a devil price.
I have read the pages 75 and 76 that we can find on the forum with the 6 first angels. The definitions are very important for me.
Have you the other pages with the descriptions of the 72 angels ?

Sorry for my English, I speak and rarely write, it's a pity !

Cécile