I love my new/old Grimaud Marseille deck

[mary ventura]

A very dear friend gave me a Grimaud Marseille deck shortly before he passed away at the age of 93. He got the deck in the early 70's, and it's definitely a well-loved deck because the box & LBW are very worn. The cards are are in great shape -- they definitely look used, but none are bent or otherwise defaced. The deck is so thick, it's like trying to shuffle bricks, so I don't riffle.

Thanks to the exhaustive research in this forum, I figured out exactly which version of Grimaud's zillions of Marseille decks it is. Here's a post, (by someone way smarter than I am) describing my deck:

http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=787393

I have only been studying tarot for about a year, and so far, strictly RWS. I'm getting pretty comfortable with it. I had pretty much decided that reading Marseille is beyond my abilities, because most of the threads I've read here go over my somewhat thick head.

I do love the look and the classic feel of these decks, so I bought a Noblet deck but I didn't even know how to start. So I didn't start. But now, with this deck from my friend, I'm motivated to learn how to use it. Last night I read a bunch of posts here (till about 3 am) and I think maybe I can do this.

I'll be lurking around the Marseille discussions, and I want you all to know that I am grateful for the enthusiasm of this group, and for the culture of sharing knowledge.

Here are pictures of some of the cards.

http://hex52mountain.com/tarot/GrimKingTwoLWB.jpg

http://hex52mountain.com/tarot/GrimMajors.jpg (the little paws you see in the lower right corner belong to my Sadie, my goofy but loyal chihuahua.)

And here's one of Sadie contemplating the Ace of Money.

http://hex52mountain.com/tarot/GrimaudAndSadie.png


Mary V

 

[Sophie]

What a lovely bequest! You have a special deck, Mary. Grimaud changed its colouring some time in the 1980s, so that edition is OOP - and to my eyes, more beautiful. The blue is not so harsh, the black lines more subtle.

Of course you'll manage to read with it! We all started somewhere, and after scratching our heads in the early days, took off.

Happy discovery!

 

[Moonbow]

Hi Mary

Welcome to the world of the Grimaud Marseilles deck! I can't think of a lovelier present for someone to leave you. I also have a 1969 version (mine is number 19 in the thread) and I absolutely love the thickness of the cards, they are built to last. I also have a more recent, 1977 France Cartes Grimaud which a friend sent to me from Switzerland and its my main reading deck. Not my favourite Marseilles to study or even look at, but by far the best to read, I am so familiar with it now. You will also become familiar with yours but make sure you use it, study it and play with it often so that it becomes a favourite tool.

As you have realised, coredil is our resident Grimaud expert. So glad you found your deck in his list.

 

[mary ventura]

What a lovely bequest! You have a special deck, Mary. Grimaud changed its colouring some time in the 1980s, so that edition is OOP - and to my eyes, more beautiful. The blue is not so harsh, the black lines more subtle. Happy discovery!

It is a beautiful deck, a delight to my eyes. It's funny, the box is quite tattered and worn, and then when I pull out the cards, they are so clean-looking and bright, and full of possibilities

As you have realised, coredil is our resident Grimaud expert. So glad you found your deck in his list.

When I found coredil's thread, I was stunned at the depth and detail of his research. It was obvious to me that it was a true labor of love.

You will also become familiar with yours but make sure you use it, study it and play with it often so that it becomes a favourite tool.

Yes, my plan is to use it every day, either a daily draw, or a practice reading from current events, or just meditating on a card. The cards feel so alive in my hands.

Mary V

 

[venicebard]

I am probably alone in this, but it is my studied opinion that the coloring of the Grimaud TdM is actually the original, correct coloring. It is built out of the three primary colors plus flesh, and when arranged about the round in the way I am certain its creators intended--using Keltic tree-calendar and bardic letter-numeration informed by the Judaic Sefer Yetzirah--the pattern of large blue-and-white figures contrasting with smaller flesh-colored ones shows its original intent (as does the tree symbolism embodied in them). But I, of course, am considered a radical wing-nut in these parts, so there is no reason to take what I say seriously (except for the fact that I just happen to be right).

Salient points showing Grimaud's correctness are:

The uncanny way in which the hangings above II Papess resemble a couple about to copulate (the erect member being what fastens her cloak in front), since by bardic numeration 2 is E, which in Hebrew is the heh added to Abram to make Abraham to symbolize circumcision (the aforesaid erect member being circumcised): it originally stood at the eighth sign, scorpio, as evidenced by circumcision being performed on the 8th day (of life).

The white beard of V Pope, since 5 is white-barked beth, the birch.

The yellow surrounding and emphasizing Justice's head, since VIII Justice is the head and at the same time represents the sprouting up towards the head of the Corn Spirit in spring; for it is bardic fearn, the alder (month of spring equinox), but Hebrew samekh, the head (only Hebrew letter shaped like a head). For bards saw it as the f sound sprouting out beyond the tongue to symbolize corn sprouting out beyond the seed, whereas Hebrew keeps it on the tongue (samekh, an s sound).

The yellow staff of VIIII Hermit, since by bardic numeration it is kaf the kidneys (meaning the staff is actually meant to also suggest a urine stream).

[Also, the careful way in which the Grimaud has the trumpet in XX Judgement come up only to the angel's throat, not all the way to its mouth, since this is tzaddi the throat (and the atomic number of calcium, controlled by parathyroids in the throat), meaning taurus. (Modern tradition, beginning with the Semitic alphabet's reordering of the letters from their original tree-calendar order, has it as aquarius, but the shapes of the letters show that the order of the simple letters, starting at aries, was samekh-tzaddi-cheyt-vav-ayin-qof-teyt-heh-zayin-yod-lamedh-nun, not the currently accepted heh-vav-zayin-cheyt-teyt-yod-lamedh-nun-samekh-ayin-tzaddi-qof.) (I know, too much information. I'll shut up now.)]

 

[mary ventura]

But I, of course, am considered a radical wing-nut in these parts, so there is no reason to take what I say seriously (except for the fact that I just happen to be right).

Nice to meet you, Mr. Wingnut

Since I'm a complete TdM novice, you could tell me pretty much anything . . . and I would just have to nod and say "Oh, OK"

(I know, too much information. I'll shut up now.)

No, don't worry, I think too much information would just kind of spill over when my brain gets too full.

On another subject, what's up with the faces on the shoulders of the Chariot, and the King and Knight of Swords? Actually the Knight only has one face, on his left shoulder. I read somewhere that lower ranking officers only wear one epaulette (not sure of the spelling).

I do love this deck, especialy since I know it's been lovingly used for years, although the English titles are kind of jarring. (the Pope and the High Priestess ??)

Mary V

 

[venicebard]

On another subject, what's up with the faces on the shoulders of the Chariot, and the King and Knight of Swords? Actually the Knight only has one face, on his left shoulder. I read somewhere that lower ranking officers only wear one epaulette (not sure of the spelling).

As to King and Knight, it probably is merely as you say, a symbol of relative rank (they are just epaulette boards, as I recall). But as for VII LeChariot, there is a deeper explanation. For the driver therein has epaulette faces, and they represent the masks of comedy and tragedy. For this trump's number represents the stages or steps of initiation and is applied in bardic lore to the letter P, peith the water elder, which I connect to the term peithynen, an archaic Welsh term meaning divination by a wheel on whose spokes maxims are carved (a term I learned from Ellis’s The Druids, p. 224). Since runic P is shaped like a rune-cup or rune-bag on its side (i.e. having disgorged its divinitory rune-dice), and for many other reasons (including 7 being the atomic number of nitrogen, 4/5 of the air and thus the substance of speech), I take P and its trump to represent the poetic or prophetic mysteries themselves. As the chief division thereof is between the heroic and the satiric (for example, the Iliad vs. the Odyssey), the latter being the weapon of the poet (against inhospitable chiefs, for instance), the masks on his shoulders must stand for tragedy and comedy.

I do love this deck, especially since I know it's been lovingly used for years, although the English titles are kind of jarring. (the Pope and the High Priestess ??)

I believe the Grimaud I have that has English titles calls LaPapesse the Female Pope (2 being the atomic number of helium, the only atom-type on inhaling which a Pope might be mistaken for female). At any rate, my reverence for the Grimaud makes it inevitable that your love of it warm my heart.

Nice to meet you, wingnut-tolerator.

 

[mary ventura]

I believe the Grimaud I have that has English titles calls LaPapesse the Female Pope (2 being the atomic number of helium, the only atom-type on inhaling which a Pope might be mistaken for female).

 

[venicebard]

I wasn't joking, though I'm glad you got a laugh out of it. No, I take the atomic numbers of the trumps as part of their meaning, since I do not place artificial limits on the knowledge behind tarot, whereupon it becomes obvious there is some connection: XVII (Star) chlorine is pouring some in her pool; X (Wheel) neon is Las Vegas!; XVI (Tower) sulfur shows what a gunpowder-driven canonball does to a tower (sulfur being a key ingredient); V (Pope) boron, whose ore is borax, shows blessing or cleansing; IIII (Emperor) beryllium has him wearing a beryl on his chest! (another indication of Grimaud's correct coloration); VI (Lover) carbon symbolizes carbon's ability to combine with its own kind in the chains or vines (in bardic terms, it is muin the vine) that form the basis of all organic molecules; VII (Chariot) nitrogen is the only trump showing someone going fast enough to feel the wind (4/5 nitrogen) in his face; VIII (Justice) oxygen shows the balance one attains with it that one does not attain without it; XII (Hanged Man) magnesium, used in signal lamps (it burns with highly actinic light), is the inverted image on the back of the eye; XIII aluminum shows the nearest thing to pure aluminum's lightness-combined-with-strength that exists in nature, namely bone (a skeleton); XV (Devil) phosphorus references the fact that Phosphorus is another name for Lucifer (the Morning Star); XVIII (Moon) argon is what the lightbulbs filled with argon imitate (and are oft confused with, causing me to turn my head to see if a streetlamp is the moon or just a streetlamp); XX (Judgement) calcium references a time when all that will remain of us to be resurrected is the calcium in our bones (as well as holding the trumpet up to the parathyroids' throat, not the mouth). And those I omitted were only omitted because they require a slightly more complicated explication. (And I do not buy the current popular paradigm that man was a primitive brute till he managed to claw his way up to our level for the first time: what a load of huey.)

We now return control of your eyeballs to you (this is meant to be a joke).

 

[flying black kat]

Hi! mary ventura.

Because of some of the comments by those in the Marseille's threads I got interested in these type of cards. Welcome to an interesting new passion.

When I read that thinbudda was making a set of Jean Payen from 1743, I just had to have a set. I wish now that I would have bought more than 1.

I have since spent many, many hours searching the old TDM threads. I have learned so much, some of witch I don't understand. There are some TdM's I own that take me to a different time and place.

Happy learning.

Kathy