Marseille-inspired deck rec: the Crystal Tarot (split fr. Marseille to TdM thread)

[fyreflye]

I should mention, though we're wandering away from the Crystal to Spanish Tarots, that I recently picked up Maritxu de Guler's HTF Tarot Mitico Vasco which, like her Euskalherria Tarot, is based on images from myths of the Basque country. Neither of these tarots have any discernible astrological, kabbalistic or esoteric references, so apparently the Eudes Picard influence extends only to the Spanish Tarots mentioned already, the Crystal Tarot, and perhaps the Tarot of the Ages which I haven't seen.

 

[Cerulean]

Well, Fyreflye & Christine Payne Tower (CPT) found resemblances

Fyreflye kindly let me know he read CPT, and CPT found resemblances visually between the El Gran Esoterico and Tarot of the Ages in her essay of the Spanish school. She did not have Crystals Tarots to compare at the time of her essay.

But for all those who have scans or cards or interest, Crystals, El Gran Esoterico and maybe Tarot of the Ages have similar astrological and kabbalistic assignments.

Here are all cards of the Tarot of Ages:
http://www.gambler.ru/sukhty/decks05/d02426/d02426.htm

Here is the online essay to the Continental Spanish School of Tarots:
http://www.tarot.com/about-tarot/library/essays/spanish

Click on the chart, enlarge it and see on the left both the El Gran Esoterico and Tarot of the Ages are compared in the glyphs.

Happy reading...got a week's worth right here!

Cerulean

 

[RedMaple]

I just did a reading with my Crystal di Vetro deck, and found it very easy to see meanings, once I let go of the RWS meanings. Small details came out, swirls arranged themselves into human bodies -- very interesting and different way to read. I enjoyed it, though it did seem a bit like cloud-gazing.
Or actually more like some experiences I've had while meditating, when seemingly abstract designs suddenly revealed a Buddha or other meaningful image. I was taught in Zen meditation to ignore these as "makyo", "little devils" that distract our attention and delay enlightenment.

I'll have to see if there's accuracy in these readings. Certainly I saw a few things that I "know" but didn't put together in quite the way presented by the cards.

 

[Fulgour]

P.S. I like that Christine Payne Tower also mentions the Dali Tarot as a modern deck coming out of the regional Spanish School of Continental Tarots.

Christine Payne Towler seems like a nice person, and she did
write a little book that you can only get directly from her sect.
She has a habit of being so comprehensive, the subject is lost.
I liked her work on the "Tarot Magic" interactive reading game.

 

[fyreflye]

Christine Payne Towler seems like a nice person, and she did write a little book that you can only get directly from her sect.
She has a habit of being so comprehensive, the subject is lost.
I liked her work on the "Tarot Magic" interactive reading game.

I got my copy of her book from Amazon.com. Since there are unacknowledged errors on every page, and since she has fallen for the Mary-Magdalene-as-Holy-Grail nonsense currently in vogue, I checked all her statements of fact relevant to the Esoterico (e.g. the attributions of the Gra Version) with the cited source material (e.g. Aryeh Kaplan The Sefir Yetzirah) and found them accurate as far as they go.

 

[Sophie]

she has fallen for the Mary-Magdalene-as-Holy-Grail nonsense currently in vogue

Which nonsense are you referring to? Surely not the well-known ancient stories of Mary Magdelen carrying the Cup of Christ's Blood to Provence from Palestine? It is pretty well attested you know (in legend, I mean). If it's something else (e.g. from the Dan Brown book which I've not read), please enlighten me

Does the Crystal Tarot make the link between the Cup of Christ's Blood as brought by Mary Magdalen and the Grail? I'm not sure we can say if any tarot deck does that but the viewers of the Tarot in the past might - Grail literature grew out of many sources, including ancient celtic myth and the story of Mary Magdalen and the Cup. I'd have thought a modern deck like the Crystal would have integrated all these - as inded they were integrated by the 12th century!

 

[fyreflye]

Which nonsense are you referring to? Surely not the well-known ancient stories of Mary Magdelen carrying the Cup of Christ's Blood to Provence from Palestine? It is pretty well attested you know (in legend, I mean).

Many entertaining ideas are attested to in legend. Historical evidence is something else.

 

[Cerulean]

Hello Helvetica's question/ CPT reference for Di Vetro

Helvetica asks:
If it's something else (e.g. from the Dan Brown book which I've not read), please enlighten me

CPT's essay is more highlighting many many diverse threads and she does enjoy Margaret Starbird's book such as Woman with the Alabaster Jar. I saw it in an airport recently and read it:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1879181037/ref=nosim/aeclectic/

I've written elsewhere about it, it's also a sweeping essay done from the standpoint of someone writing from her belief system. Unfortunately for me, Starbird lacks the detail of solid tarot reference citings and exploreable references that I found best for me from playing card historians such as Michael Dummett, Ronald Decker, lecturers devoted to histories of humanistic subjects such as C.S. Lewis or regional historians such as Edmund Garrett Gardner or Werner Gundersheimer or Thomas Tuohy for Ferarra.

I explored Starbird's tarot references and to give her credit, she readily admits it's only by accident she found a Brian Innes book in a bargain bin. I suspected she doesn't know that card fans would be taking the modernized card samples as old actual card prints, even if she knew they came from a modern reprint. Because of the popularity of the "Davinci Code", others would have begin re-reading her graduate thesis of her faith and thoughts the 1980's as a factual reference twenty years later.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
CPT's work, on the other hand, does allow for others to explore her findings, as her suggested tarots and she has written that her observations are meant to introduced ideas and encourages the reader to really explore the backgrounds of the tarots they choose. When CPT shows the tarot cards, she will write the source, publisher, and card in a way that the reader can explore. That's my take on the difference in the two books for tarot background.

Let's get back to the Di Vetro or Crystal Tarots: I really haven't found much correspondence between the majors of the El Gran Tarocco and Di Vetro/Crystals, but I'm very much a beginner on the linking of these Tree of Life corrrespondences--I would use the CPT work as a start and have ordered a used version of a book that uses Eudes Picard's writings of correspondences...will report back later.

Cerulean

Best wishes.

Regards,

Cerulean

 

[Sophie]

Many entertaining ideas are attested to in legend. Historical evidence is something else.

We are talking about two different things. The wealth of Grail literature is a rich heritage of European culture. Whether the holy Grail is historical or legend is besides the point. The Grail exists since it has given birth to great works of art, to ideals and to a spiritual path. To call it merely "entertaining" is to travesty all that heritage.

 

[Sophie]

When CPT shows the tarot cards, she will write the source, publisher, and card in a way that the reader can explore. That's my take on the difference in the two books for tarot background.

Thanks very much Cerulean!