Philippe
The thing is, unlike GD or Thoth, there is *no* definitive French *tradition* as such
I completely agree with you.
The thing is, unlike GD or Thoth, there is *no* definitive French *tradition* as such
The real gold is to be found in obscure books and old journal articles, and it is a great pity that no one seems to be really interested in this stuff, not even in France.
Well I AM interested in it and open to your welcome suggestions.
I find Papus boring and uninspired, his tarot ugly, Wirth convoluted, I prefer Maxwell unoriginal in his approach to esotericism but a very good eye-opener to the real details of the cards as Barleywine justly remarked.
I'd like to add another one (The Tarot by Joseph Maxwell) that I always thought of as primarily an analysis of esoteric number theory and its relevance to the tarot, but recently discovered that the interpretive text at the back - especially for the minor cards - is built almost entirely upon the TdM as understood by Maxwell.
I have the french original text before me and I must say it's pretty different than your quotation, as if the translator felt the need to paraphrase and summarize this original (2 pages for the 7 of cups). Did Maxwell translate his own work or was it someone else ?
When reading attentively the considerations about colours you understand that he uses the ThunderBay or Octopus edition (ie a deck existing in the late XIXth century similar in colours to the Camoin bicentennial). He finds it rough but prefers it to the tarot d'Arnoult. Curiously he is unaware of the Bibliothèque Nationale's Conver(s).