Poll: Kaballah in Tarot

Do Kabala/Cabala/Qabalah explain iconography in Marseille & other early tarot decks?

  • Yes

    Votes: 2 6.9%
  • No

    Votes: 10 34.5%
  • I don't know

    Votes: 11 37.9%
  • I don't know and I don't care

    Votes: 6 20.7%

  • Total voters
    29

Rusty Neon

Another Rusty Neon poll!
 

smleite

Sorry, my intention is not to be obnoxious (though I may be so anyway), but what do you mean with “explain”? Is it “fully explain”?

And when you say “iconography”, do you mean the depictions as such, and are not referring to a possible (re) ordering of pre-existing images according to Cabala?

Thanks.
Silvia
 

jmd

Personally, I do not see any direct correlation between Kabalistic explanations and some early Tarot decks - except, and this is possibly important, in its possible role in stabilising iconographic details and ordering pattern in what has come to be referred to as the Marseille deck.

For example, I do not see correlations either as depicted in separate but possibly connected imagery on 12-13th century Cathedrals and the Kabbalah, nor have I found such on such decks as the Vieville or even the Noblet (except indirectly), but have personally found Filipas's thesis (in his Alphabetic Masquerade) of explanatory force in accounting for a definite patterning.

Thus, though I have previously found wanting the Kabalistically oriented remarks of De Gebelin, Comte de M*, Levi, the GD and its derivatives, perhaps an intrinsic Kabalistic connection to a pattern in the process of stabilisation does 'explain' its peculiar image-shapes and ordering.

I have therefore voted - against the grain - 'Yes', though with the qualifying comments I make above.