A Walk in the Wood...cuts, the Marseilles

And here's an example where "love the one you're with" is either incest all the way, or...well, look. Isn't that the same person in three different bodies?

Here's my rather over-developed take on LAmovrevx:

Many are quick to read individuation as the heart of this image : Youth stepping out beyond the safety and security of home, the Court of the Mother, into the new world of the Spouse or of adult living—certainly a terribly important threshold to cross. Others will focus on the rich allegorical potentialities arising from a discussion of the Herculean choice between Virtue and Vice.

For me, this is an image about love and fulfillment in love and relationship. The love of a spouse, of a friend, of a country, of an ideal, of a trade or creative endeavor, the image reminds us that love, while always an expression of emotion or passion, is also a choice and associated with that choice, there are always consequences. This choice may play havoc with your current plans, goals, achievements, but it may be the very Life of your life.

The blind Cupid can remind us that sometimes it is not so much ourselves that choose Love ; but it is Love that chooses us—taking us beyond ourselves for weal or woe.

We may not get to choose whom or what we love—or what or whom we may cease to love, but we do get to choose how we will respond to Love and to the responsibilities that arise from it. Will you choose Love over duty ; Love over comfort ; Love over desire ; Love over respectability? Will you nurture Love or reject it? And when you have chosen Love, will you own-up to the responsibilities that flow from that choice? This last may be the challenge that the image lays before each of us!

On the other hand, the Pope reminds us that there are things in this life more important than position, power, family. . . Perhaps LOVE provides a clue to what that might be, or a path towards its attainment.

CED

conversus said:

On the other hand, the Pope reminds us that there are things in this life more important than position, power, family. . . Perhaps LOVE provides a clue to what that might be, or a path towards its attainment.

CED

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Great post thanks...

Would not Love trump that if this was in a game being the higher card? Do we know the 'correct' sequence of the cards?

nicky said:

Do we know the 'correct' sequence of the cards?

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In all known sequences, love trumps the pope. There is no reason to suppose that any one sequential variation is particularly more 'correct' than any other; only that some are older than others. The chronology of the different sequences, and that which may considered the oldest of the remaining known, is still a matter of debate.

Thanks Kwaw...

Most of the controversy I have seen in my books seems to be the ordering and/or renaming of the virtures ...

Has anyone read the book Tarot Decoder by Kathleen McCormack? I friend of mine showed it to me at our tarot meet up. It's a basic volume about how to read the tarot but she uses the TdM as the deck to show you with and goes into the meaning and symbols...

Hi Starlightexp, the book by Kathleen McCormack comes up a number of times in the Tarot Books & Media forum, here's one of the threads that discuss it,

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=25475

After seaching the said forum it seems that there are divided views about it.


Bee

Le Fanu said:

It took me a while to get the Noblet - and a year or so before I really started using it in earnest - but like conversus, I wouldn't be seperated from it for the world now. It is definitely in my Top 5 - Hell, top 3 - historic decks.

It is so beautiful and clear and mysterious and tantalising and dinky and portable.

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i have a Noblet on the way!!! [via Tarot Garden] [and thanks to a trade with our Bee, i also have a Dodal winging its way to the USA. ] Regarding the Noblet, though, i have been on the fence for so long my backside has splinters!!!

Seriously folks, the Noblet has felt so much like an Ice Princess to me when i've looked at the images on line... but i respect the opinions of so many of you in regards to historical/TdM decks, that i decided to bite the bullet and just ORDER it!
What a relief to pull those splinters out!
i am quite unexpectedly excited and have a strange feeling we are going to become quite good friends!
i have heard really good things about the LWB, as well...sooo.
Now i wait...

Hugs,
MoonGypsyxxx

Debra said:

What a great post, CED.

Just piping up to add that the 3-legged table is a tradition for Marseille decks. If I see one with four legs, I get angry and then run away.

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what about no legs?

nicky said:

what about no legs?

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Not exactly a wood-cut! But recognisably marseille-style.



Bee