CBD Tarot de Marseille - new Conver restoration

Yoav Ben-Dov

thank you all! i am happy and touched by all these nice comments.

i am especially happy that people who use the cards in reading find them communicative. this touches the deep rationale behind my restoration. my vision of the tarot is that the images have their own power - they make us bring forth ("project") content from our own inner world. this is the "magic" of the tarot, and you can try to understand it in mystical, or psychological, or artistic terms (no need to choose between them - these are not different realities, but different languages to describe the mysterious and complex reality of the tarot and its effect on humans).

in other words: the power of the cards does not come from the fact that they "stand for" something else and express it in symbolic language: something like, for example, "the ancient magic of egypt", or "the secrets of the cabbala", or "the true magickal theory of the universe", or anything symilar. the power of the tarot is in the images themselves. all the theories about egypt and cabbala etc. are not historical realities, but stories that the images of the tarot brought forth in the consciousness of specific writers and tarot scholars. so they are not "the truth" about tarot, but an expression of the power it holds on people's minds.

so, in my view, to read the tarot "in full power" you should not look for the right symbols and correspondences, or even for "the original intentions"of the card designer. these may be useful, but only to enrich your scope of possible interpretations. instead, look at the cards and let them tell you a story, or many stories on different levels, maybe a new story each time. i call this "open reading". i dont know if i am clear enough about it. but i am very happy to see that people who have the cards in their hands, and are not influenced beforehand by things i said (as are most people in israel who use marseille cards), arrive on their own to something similar. for me it shows that the cards "work".

these considerations are what motivated me to restore the conver deck in the first place: i was looking, in the history of tarot, for the deck that proved its power on people by being most seminal and influential (the RWS deck is surely very seminal and influential, but it stands for a history of 100 years, while the marseille represents more that 500 years. also, the RWS tradition does not stabilize into a single set of images that i could point at, but keeps producing more and more different versions. so its power is not focused in a single set of images that i could use in actual reading).

i would like also to explain my motivations about the face expressions and the color shades, where i had to make decisions and deviate from "simple restoration" - not because i think "this is the only right way to do it", but to have people understand why i did it in this way so that they can decide if they share my view or deviate from it. but this is a very complex issue, touching on the very concept of "genuineness" which is the focus of many debates. so i will do it in a later post.

ah, and one more thing - as closrapexa asked about it - to buy the cards in israel please go to my website www.bendov.info (as LRichard wrote above), and from other countries you can go directly here: http://www.bendov.info/tarot/buy.html.

have a beautiful day!
 

Sulis

Thanks for that post Yoav Ben-Dov :). I'm looking forward to your post about the facial expressions and colour shades.
I have to say that I'm hanging on your every word - I just love this deck so much. I've been reading tarot for over 10 years now and I've dipped my toe into the waters of the Tarot de Marseille a couple of times but I've always found my readings to be too logical and cerebral when using it. Not with this deck though; I think your deck has found me at just the right time in my tarot reading 'career'. The images seem so accessible and talkative and the readings I'm doing are flowing in a way that makes me think that this is it, this is how I'm going to read from now on.. No going back :).

Thank you so much for this deck, I feel like I've rediscovered tarot even though I wasn't really aware that it was in need of being rediscovered :). I think I'd come to a plateau and using the CBD Tarot has given me the push I needed to make one of those leaps forward that comes every now and then.
 

Debra

I have a question. Yoav, in the you-tube videos, it looks to me like you separated out the 22 trumps before you had your interviewers draw a card. Is that right? Do you read this deck with only the trumps?
 

Lee

I as well look forward to hearing more about the facial expressions. I do feel that the friendlier CBD faces can make the TdM more accessible, and that's a good thing.
 

Yoav Ben-Dov

Debra said:
I have a question. Yoav, in the you-tube videos, it looks to me like you separated out the 22 trumps before you had your interviewers draw a card. Is that right? Do you read this deck with only the trumps?
Click to expand...

hi debra - in short - i just sent you the cards, when you get them you will notice that the order is different than the standard - first the 22 majors, then the 4 aces, then the 16 courts, then the 36 numbers. this is because i try to base my methodology on the card designs. the designs of these four groups are very different, so i treat them differently. each may have its own uses, advantages and strengths.

as for the trumps - these are the heart of the tarot, and from jodorowsky i learned that a complete reading (1-2 hours sometimes) can be done with only 3 cards from the 22, provided it is marseille. as i do it today, i dont determine the roles of the cards beforehand (e.g. past present and future etc). instead i try to see the complete picture, and then understand the role of each card, object or figure. if you do it attentively and examine the details, the flow of lines and surfaces, the body language, the position of the figures and their relations - you can spend hours doing it, and still be surprised in the next time you see the same cards. they are amazingly rich.

so, many tiimes i do this - a basic spread, 3 cards from the 22, left to right. as i understand, many french readers do the same with marseille cards.

in complex situations i use the whole deck of 78 - but in a way that i end up with 3 of the 22 on top, and minor cards under them to give a story leading to the main cards. so it is an extension of the basic spread.

as for the 16 figures - i am discovering them just now, because they have no clear symbology, it is their human nature which they express. but this depends a lot on the composition, which previous versions did not notice as they were looking for something else. in fact if you compare cbd cards to other versions, the difference (emotional and visual) in the 16 figures is the most significant. btw, as jodorowsky is not interested in them, their design in the jodo-camoin deck was done mainly by philippe himself. i know that because i asked jodorowsky about them.

as for the tv show - well, this has its own rules. it needs to be visual and clear, with short and focused messages ("syncs"). so the best way to do it for me is one card of the 22, which can catch the camera's attention and give an impression of the richness and mystery of the cards (imagine that i would draw something like the 8 of coins.. the camera goes to sleep - visually dull, unless you look into the fine details which is not possible in a tv show).

well, this is the short answer.. i will post a description of my method of reading eith the full deck soon (excuse me, writing in english is not natural for me).

btw in the tv clip you linked to i was still using the jodo-camoin deck. the following was done just now with the cbd (still in hebrew). it starts with the philosophy of time and the mystery of numbers in nature, but then (4:25) we switch to tarot and the devil card.. and you can see how the emotional tone of the contact with the interviewer changes. of course this is the seductively anarchistic and wildly alive diable de marseille, we would not feel the same with the dark and evil RWS devil..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nbq_mhjp0s
 

Debra

Ah. I myself like to read with the 22 trumps and 4 aces. Thanks :) I'm excited to see your deck.
 

Yoav Ben-Dov

i would do that, but if an ace turns up i would put another one on top of it, otherwise it cuts the visual continuity. the ace underneath would stress and give energy to the card above it.
 

inanna_tarot

I heard about this deck a few months back when it was difficult to get hold of it worldwide...

and tonight on the 'book of facial features' our lovely Sulis reminded me about this deck! Wow and gorgeous and wow again! I love looking at the scans that are posted around the place.

Hopefully when I have some spare cash (and before they are all gone!) I need one of these decks to add to my little TdM altar that 2011 has given me!
 
Order of the Trumps.... The Belgian Tarot