Diana
It's when I'm cooking that I ponder often about the Tarot. Because I feel a little bit like a Bateleur. I have my table (mine has four legs though). I have my Sword (knives), I have my Cups (recipients), I have my Coins (ingredients) and I have my Batons (the stove. Heat, fire... get it? ).
And this is what I was thinking today whilst preparing a most delicious salad (lettuce, warm feta cheese, nuts, olives, raisins, bananas and apples).
If one is looking for pre-set meanings for the Tarot of Marseille, and particularly its minors, then one is barking up the wrong tree. If one asks: "What does a 5 of Cups mean" (for instance) and one expects to find a list of meanings, such as in books entitled "Tarot in nine and half minutes", or "The Tarot of Marseilles in 78 Easy Steps", one is going to end up disappointed.... These books exist and they have their value, but they are insufficient.
Why? Because the Tarot of Marseille does not concern itself with Pre-Divination. It concerns itself with Divination. In order to divine (what a lovely word), and not to pre-divine the minors, one needs to impregnate oneself and bathe oneself with the Essence of the Numbers and the Elements. Because these are the two principal building blocks that the Tarot gives us in a concrete manner. (Two? already a number here.....) First one needs to study separately the Elements and the Numbers, and then combine the two.
This cannot be mastered in a few days, weeks, months or even years. It is the work of a life-time. The Tarot of Marseilles, the Ur-Tarot, is of an initiatory nature. And this is no mean task. When one starts bathing in numbers and elements, one can get dizzy with the greatness of it all. And I often stop to wonder: "What did I do to deserve to be allowed to attempt to touch the hem of this Wonder?"
Those were my musings for today.
The salad was Wonderful too. And while I am on the topic of food. I wish we didn't call those minors "pips". Seeds would be so much more appropriate.
And this is what I was thinking today whilst preparing a most delicious salad (lettuce, warm feta cheese, nuts, olives, raisins, bananas and apples).
If one is looking for pre-set meanings for the Tarot of Marseille, and particularly its minors, then one is barking up the wrong tree. If one asks: "What does a 5 of Cups mean" (for instance) and one expects to find a list of meanings, such as in books entitled "Tarot in nine and half minutes", or "The Tarot of Marseilles in 78 Easy Steps", one is going to end up disappointed.... These books exist and they have their value, but they are insufficient.
Why? Because the Tarot of Marseille does not concern itself with Pre-Divination. It concerns itself with Divination. In order to divine (what a lovely word), and not to pre-divine the minors, one needs to impregnate oneself and bathe oneself with the Essence of the Numbers and the Elements. Because these are the two principal building blocks that the Tarot gives us in a concrete manner. (Two? already a number here.....) First one needs to study separately the Elements and the Numbers, and then combine the two.
This cannot be mastered in a few days, weeks, months or even years. It is the work of a life-time. The Tarot of Marseilles, the Ur-Tarot, is of an initiatory nature. And this is no mean task. When one starts bathing in numbers and elements, one can get dizzy with the greatness of it all. And I often stop to wonder: "What did I do to deserve to be allowed to attempt to touch the hem of this Wonder?"
Those were my musings for today.
The salad was Wonderful too. And while I am on the topic of food. I wish we didn't call those minors "pips". Seeds would be so much more appropriate.