Le Fanu said:
Having just vowed to dedicate myself to the Vieville deck (see my thread on "Help Im Becoming an Addict!"), Im enjoying absorbing myself in this deck. Is this thread up for reviving? I mean, can I post my thoughts on this deck here? Im seeing so many extraordinary things in this deck. I followed this thread avidly before ordering it from Alida. Then when it arrived I wasnt disappointed...
For starters, all three figures on The Lovers card look male. No other women in the deck have hair cropped that short...Fascinating....
Hi Le Fanu, welcome to the History section!
I read the addiction thread you mentioned; and am delighted that you've chosen the Vieville, it is my personal favorite of all the tarots. I hope you find it to be as lively, funny, revealing, and interesting as I have over the years. It's wonderful that you've chosen to study it, and it exclusively, through the month of March 2008.
I'd love to aid you and join in when and how I can, in any method that best suits your personal style of study. How would you like to spend the month studying? What would help maintain your interest and bring you excitement and joy as you study the deck?
If you'd like to read what others have said about the deck, I can give you a few links; or you might prefer to spend some time on your own with it before being too influenced by other's thoughts, and "history", that's fine too.
May I recommend that you try to leave your preconceptions of what a particular card "means" behind for this experiment? Instead, look at the Vieville with, as Debra would say, "beginner's eyes". Let each card introduce itself to you. The courts on the Vieville are particularly wonderful. Look at the faces, look at the postures, look at the clothes... THEN try to decide what the personality of the card is... rather than thinking something like "swords = thoughts, Valets=messengers", or such. Let each card tell you who they are instead, let their personalities speak!
I love looking at the details on this deck. Look at the buttons on the clothes, look at the ruffles, and brocades, and metalwork of the crowns. Each one one is different. Lay out all the courts together. Ask yourself about the kings. Who is most fair? who is most fearsome? who is most trustworthy? What about the queens? Which looks best suited to rule in times of war? Who would make the best Queen were her king to fall? Look at the helmets on the Knights, what do they tell you? Look at the stances of the horses, what are their motions? Look at the Valets, with what are they occupied?
If each of these courts represented a different kingdom, which kingdom would you want to live in? Imagine a map and place the kingdoms on the map... who would you put where? what would you name their lands? how close and distant are the lands to each other. Are there alliances between certain courts? Animosity?
Now with the Trumps... lay them out in the order (and orientation!) that Vieville did. Notice that the unusual sequence of Lovers, Justice, Chariot, Strength, Wheel, Hermit, Hanged Man. Notice the orientation of the hanged man if you turn him upside down so that the number is correct, did Vieville really see the card this way instead? Look at all the differences are in this deck to what we would ordinarily find... often little things.. but often telling us a bit about how Vieville saw the meaning of each card.
I realize that in some ways the way that Vieville cut the characters gives them a strange, angular look; but once you "get into" his quirky style, the "intention" of each of them starts to become more obvious... I guess it's becoming familiar with a graphic language.
I hope you love the deck, and the experience of studying it for a month. Good luck, and ENJOY!