A Tail and Six Toes.

Kingdubrock

Hi there,
I know this has been discussed before but everything I have found seems to date back to 2009, and the threads that mention it reflect what at the time appeared to be ongoing confusion.
I only recently discovered Jodorowsky's book (which im still working on, but it quickly triggered a re-kindled interest in the Tarot and the TDM). I recently bought the Jodo-Camoin deck and noticed many of the same things that others have and which have been discussed at length. I have located many of the unfamiliar attributes in early decks and find Jodorowskys insights and sensibilities (from the book) *mostly* inspiring.
But I have to admit Im having trouble getting past the fact that he reads 6 toes into La Force and a tail on the human figure in Le Soleil. For me they are distracting and awkward.

Looking at my old Piatnik deck I see the bump on the side of the foot but it seems to me to clearly just be the side of the foot with an exagerated curve outward from the baby toe (sort of like a Matisse sketch or something). And while I have noticed the line they translated into a tail on certain early decks, it just seems to me that by the same logic the adjacent figure should have multiple tails as it seems to have multiple similar (although strangely placed) flesh folds. The traces of "animal nature" explanation is interesting, but unless they know something they arent sharing, it feels to me like a leap.
Problem is now, every time I look at these cards either in their deck or others, I scan it for evidence of tail or toe lines. In other words I cant unsee it.

Everything else, the egg, the door, the stars, the "ramp", the back legs and so on, are ok with me (as they seem to have precedents) and have had an interesting effect on me. But the toes and tail... Not so much.

Has there ever been any clarification on their (Jodo and Camoin's) decision to put those features in so explicitly?
 

Tyldwick

I had the same question about La Force. On some cards it is more abstract, but at least the Chosson & Conver decks seem to clearly show six toes on her foot. Significantly, Yoav Ben-Dov makes the same decision to depict them explicitly in his CBD Tarot. For the curious, there is an explanation of the meaning of the sixth toe in Jodorowski's book, The Way of Tarot:

"She takes support from her single visible foot, whose six toes correspond to the six red points on her hat, the six black teeth of the animal, and the six fingers on the hand of The Magician."
 

_R_

See if you can find the camel (or dromedary) in La Lune, and the rabbit in La Force, at least in the classic Grimaud deck, and get back to us!

All decks have such quirks, whether intentional (as with Jodorowsky & Camoin) or not, sometimes it's difficult if not impossible to tell, and frankly, it's just as easy to avoid reading too much into it as it is to do so. It just takes a bit of practice!

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/f7/d1/8b/f7d18beb07ff08f2337aba786555301d.jpg

http://www.divinatix.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/11-force.jpg
 

Tyldwick

Ha ha, once I started looking for a rabbit I saw one right away... or is it a duck?? It is true, especially with the historical decks, that there's no way to be certain if many such details were deliberately included for their esoteric importance or if it's all so much pataphysical pareidolia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit–duck_illusion