Discovering Gébelin!!

firemaiden

Oh my goodness, am I the last one to learn this? I just found online a website reproducing, in its original un-doctored 18th century French, Monsieur Antoine Court de Gébelin's Du Jeu des Tarots, 1781.

I'm reading it, and am fascinated by his introduction to tarot - how he happened to be invited over to meet some friends, and found a lady very engaged playing cards - and what were they playing?

I quote and translate
Invited a few years ago to a lady friends house, to meet a lady, Madame la C. d'H, who had just come from Germany or Switzerland, we found her busy playing this game with some other people. We play a game which you surely dont know... or perhaps you do; what game is it? The game of tarot. I had once the opportunity to see this game when I was very young, but I didn't know anything about it... it is a rhapsody of the most bizarre and extravagant figures: here is one, for example, I took care to chose the most amazing of these figures, and one which has no relationship to its title - it is the World. I glance at the card, and immediately I recognise the Allegory: everyone leaves his game immediately to come and see this marvelous card where I perceived something they had never seen before, and then each one showed me another, and in a quarter of an hour, I had seen the whole game, explained and declared it was Egyptian...

So he right away recognised the World card as an "Egyptian" allegory. Why is that? Is there an Egyptian allegory? Was he comparing it specifically to something Egyptian being discovered at that time?

And then -- any idea exactly which deck it is he would have run into? His description of the fool shows him with a tiger. (!)
One could not mistake the Fool in this Card, by his Fool's stick [marotte*] and his peasant blouse [hoqueton] decorated with shells and whistles: he walks very fast, like the madman [fou] that he is, carrying behind him his little package, and imagining that he is escaping this way from a tiger who is biting his backside [croupe]: whereas in fact, [quant au fac] it is the emblem of all his faults that he doesn't want to see, and this Tiger is all of his regrets which follow him gallopping and jumping onto his backside behind him.

* from the Wikipedia: "a "marotte" is a prop stick or scepter with a carved head on it. Typically carried by a jester or harlequin, the miniature head will often reflect the costume of the jester who carries it. Modern marottes typically have music boxes or other machinery built into the head. Older marottes may utilize swivel heads with bells."

I'd love to study this text with some folks...
 

firemaiden

As I was telling Aoifie in live chat, it was really something to read this guy's own words. I mean we hear a lot about Gébelin this in that in all the texts on tarot (jmd feel free to move this non-scholarly thread to another forum) - but it was just so startling to read his own words, in his own archaic French, and feel oh my a blast from the past!

Such a lively style, so colloquial, I felt like he had just pulled me a chair and poured me glass of wine. "let me tell you about this nifty deck of cards, shall I? I mean its really amazing, let me show you, you want to see?"

I was really amazed to why he said the Fool was zero:

Quant à cet Atout, nous l'appellons Zero, quoiqu'on le place dans le jeu après le XXI, parce qu'il ne compte point quand il est seul, & qu'il n'a de valeur que celle qu'il donne aux autres, précisément comme notre zero: montrant ainsi que rien n'existe sans sa folie.

I translate:
"As for this Trump, we call him "Zero" even though he is placed in the game after the XXI, because he doesn't count at all when he is alone, and he has no other value than what he gives to others, precisely like our zero, showing also that nothing exists without his madness.

It is also amazing to me to think that here he was at a party to meet friends, you know that lady from Switzerland or Germany (funny he couldn't remember) and there they were playing some card game he hardly knew, and how astonished he was to see the Trumps. It was like the world came crashing down on him, it seems, with a sudden AHA and he immediately "read" with them - giving them philosophical meanings (like "nothing exists without the fools madness", and the tiger represents his remorse/regrets, etc.)

It reminds me of how my mother immediately read with the tarot cards, having previously known absolutely nothing about them.

It gives me to think it would have been next to impossible to look at the tarot Trumps and not read with them, if one had his kind sensitive, fanciful mind.
 

Lee

firemaiden said:
So he right away recognised the World card as an "Egyptian" allegory. Why is that? Is there an Egyptian allegory? Was he comparing it specifically to something Egyptian being discovered at that time?

And then -- any idea exactly which deck it is he would have run into? His description of the fool shows him with a tiger. (!)
I'm no scholar, but the impression I've gotten from things I've read is that very little or nothing was known about Egyptian culture or mythology, because the Rosetta Stone had not yet been decoded at that time, and so Egyptian writings were a complete mystery.

It's my opinion that the unexplained, the occult, the mysterious, the obscure, and philosophical musings which hinted at an underlying reality different than the evidence of one's eyes, were all thought of and classified as "Egyptian," merely because the Egyptians were mysterious as well.

When Gebelin sees a tiger, I don't think he was looking at any particularly unusual deck. I think he was looking at a Marseille. The animal is sort of ambiguous anyway, and I think he liked to imagine it was a tiger because for him, tigers were "Egyptian."

I don't mean to sound like I'm denigrating him. His thinking was perfectly in line with and understandable from the perspective of his time and place. His brilliance was in taking the current lines of thought and making the inuitive leap by applying those lines of thought to something (i.e. the tarot) that they hadn't been applied to before but with which they fit in a fascinating way. If he hadn't, I doubt we would all be here on this forum!

-- Lee
 

firemaiden

Oh Lee, I am so happy to have your response. Now that's interesting, and makes a lot of sense. I immediately wondered if he had been seeing a variant of Marseille fresh from Germany or Switzerland (like the lady) which might have depicted a tiger rather than the usual cat-dog thing. (wouldn't it be cool if we could find such a thing). LOL.
 

firemaiden

what he says about the Bateleur

No. I.
The Player of Goblets, or Bateleur.

The first of all the Trumps when rising in number, or the last, when descending, is a player of Goblets; we recognise him by his table covered with dice, with goblets, knives, balls, and other things, by his Jacob's stick, or the wand of the Magi, by the ball which he holds between his hands, and which he is about to make disappear.

We call him "Bâteleur" as he is named by the Cardmakers: it is the colloquial name for persons in this state, is it necessary to say that it comes from the word "bâton"?

The leader of all the states (of being) that follow, he indicates that all of life is nothing but a dream, a conjuring trick [escamotage]; that it is like a perpetual game of chance, or the coming together [choc] of thousand circumstances which never depend upon us; and which are greatly influenced by outside interference. ([administration générale]

Between the madman and the conjurer, isn't man doing well?​

No. I.
Le Jouer de Gobelets, ou Bateleur.
[...]
Le premier de tous les Atous en remontant, ou le dernier en descendant, est un Joueur de Gobelet; on le reconnoît à sa table couverte de dés, de gobelets, de couteaux, de bales, &c. A son bâton de Jacob ou verge des Mages, à la bale qu'il tient entre deux doigts & qu'il va escamoter.

On l'appelle Bâteleur dans la dénomination des Cartiers: c'est le nom vulgaire des personnes de cet état: est-il nécessaire de dire qu'il vient de baste, bâton ?

A la tête de tous les Etats, il indique que la vie entiere n'est qu'un songe, qu'un escamotage: qu'elle est comme un jeu perpétuel du hasard ou du choc de mille circonstances qui ne dépenditent jamais de nous, & sur lequel influe nécessairement pour beaucoup toute administration générale.

Mais entre le Fou & le Bateleur, l'Homme n'est-il pas bien?

From a modern (my) perspective, Gebelin's text sounds like a "reading" of the tarot such as any AT member might post. "I think the bateleur is telling us that all of life is a big conjuring trick". It gets wackier later on. I am fascinated by his take.
 

Lee

firemaiden said:
The leader of all the states (of being) that follow, he indicates that all of life is nothing but a dream, a conjuring trick [escamotage];
This is really interesting. This sentence brings to mind tarot author Gail Fairfield's interpretation of the Magician as someone who is able to manipulate or to easily pass between different realities.
that it is like a perpetual game of chance
, or the coming together [choc] of thousand circumstances which never depend upon us;
And this line reminds me of Juliet Sharman-Burke's interpretation of the card as representing Hermes, guiding us with coincidences and opportunities.
Between the madman and the conjurer, isn't man doing well?
And this sarcastic comment makes me think of Robert O'Neill's contention that both the Fool and the Bateleur were seen in mostly negative terms by people at the time of the tarot's creation.

It's as if Gebelin's writings encapsulate the whole range of future tarot interpretation!

Thanks for providing these translations, firemaiden, it's very intriguing.

-- Lee
 

firemaiden

Fascinating comparisons Lee, thank you!

Some of the other trumps get a really surprising (for me surprising) interpretation - such as the Star as Sirius ("La Canicule"). I'm looking forward to translating more.
 

firemaiden

What he says for II, III, IV, V

Gébelin on the Emperor and Empress, Pope and Popess.

I translate:
Numbers II, III, IV, V.
Leaders of Society.

Numbers II & III represent two women: Numbers IV and V, their husbands: these are the worldly and spiritual leaders of society.

King and Queen
.
Number IV. représents the King, and III. the Queen. They both have the Eagle as insignia on a shield, and their scepter is topped by a "thautified" globe, or crowned with a cross, called "Tau" a sign, par excellence.

The King is shown in profile, the Queen face on. They both are seated on a throne, the Queen wears a long dress with a train, the back of her throne is high. The King is like in a gondola or a chair in form of a shell, his legs are crossed. His crown is in a half circle, topped with a pearl cross.

The Queens crown ends in a point. The King bears a Knight's commission [ordre de chevalerie].


The High Priest and High Priestess

Number V. represents the leader of the Hiérophants or the High Priest; and Number II. the High Priestess or his wife: we know that the Egyptian leaders of the Sacerdoce were married. If these cards were of modern invention, we certainly wouldn't see a High Priestess here, and still less would we see her under the name of "Popess", as the German card makers have ridiculously named her.

The High Priestess is seated in an armchair: she wears a long dress with a sort of veil behind her head which comes and crosses her at the stomach; she has a double crown with two horns like the one Isis wore: she holds a book open on her knees; two scarves decorated with crosses cross her chest and form an X.

The High Priest wears a long garment with a great cloak fastened with a clasp. He wears the triple Tiara: with one hand, he leans on a scepter with a triple cross, and with the other, he gives a two fingered blessing to two characters seen at his feet.

The Italian or German cardmakers who adapted the deck to their knowledge, made of these two characters -- which the Ancients named Mother and Father, as one would say Abbot and Abbess, Eastern words which mean the same thing -- they made of them, I say, a Pope and a Popess.

As for the Scepter with the triple cross, it is an absolutely Egyptian momument. One sees it on the table of Isis, under the Letter TT; a precious monument which we have already had engraved in its full length to give it one day to the public. The triple cross relates to the triple phallus which was paraded in the famous Pamylia festival which celebrated the return of Osiris, and where it symbolised the regeneration of plants and of all of Nature.​

He's funny. He really thinks the "cardmakers" got it wrong with the appelations, and they weren't the French cardmakers of course, but the Italian or the German ones. (ROFL).
 

Pipistrelle

Firemaiden,

I've just stumbled across this thread. What a great find! Thank you for your translations. I've downloaded the text and I'm going to have a go at reading parts of it with what little French remains in my brain from my schooldays :)

I don't own a Marseilles deck but I'm recognising a lot of what he describes in my two Italian decks - the Classic and the Vacchetta - which have similar features to the Marseilles.

Very interesting stuff! Just wanted you to know I'm following along and maybe I'll post more when I've had a chance to study the text more.

Thanks for posting it,

Pip
 

firemaiden

Fascinating take on the Hanged Man

Re: Justice, Strength, the Hanged Man and Temperance (numbered XIII and the number corrected by him later)

I translate:
Numbers. VIII. XI. XII. XIII.
The Four Cardinal Virtues.

The figures we have reunited on this sheet [I assume an illustration sheet was attached] relate to the four Cardinal Virtues.

No. XI. This one represents Fortitude. She is a woman who has become mistress of a lion, and who opens his snout with as much ease as she might open the mouth of a little spaniel. She wears on her head the hat of a Sheperdess.

No. XIII. La Tempérance [rectified: XIV]. This is a winged woman who pours water from one vase into another to temper the liquid it holds.

No. VIII. La Justice. This is a queen, she's Astraea seated on her throne, holding in one hand a dagger, and in the other hand a pair of scales.

No. XII. Prudence is one of the four cardinal virtues. Could the Egyptians have forgotten her in this painting of Human Life? (No) Neverthess, we don't find her in this deck. We see in her place, under the number XII, between Fortitude and Temperance, a man hung by his feet: but what is this hanged man doing there? It is the work of a miserable presumptuous cardmaker, who didn't understand the beauty of the allegory enclosed in this tableau, and took it upon himself to correct her, and thereby defigure her entirely.

Prudence could only be sensibly respresented by a man standing up, who having one foot posed, advances the other, and holds it suspended, examining the place where he would put it surely. The title of this card was therefore a man with a suspended foot "pede suspenso": the cardmaker not understanding what this was supposed to mean, made of him a man hung by his feet.

And then, we it has been asked, why a hanged man in this game? and the opportunity has not been missed to say, it is the just punishment for the inventer of the Game for having represented a "popess".

But placed between La Force, La Tempérance, and La Justice, who could not see that it is Prudence which was intended and probably was represented earlier ? [primitivement].

I have to admit I find his idea about the Hanged Man as "Pede suspenso" - the suspended foot - meaning being careful - prudent - about where to step next - instead of "suspended by the feet" - almost convincing.