Very glad to hear that Centaur and lunakasha may also soon enjoy a Marseille deck.
For what it's worth, some of my experiences with people around Melbourne who first come into contact with the Marseille is a little similar to those who first come into contact with Tarot generally:
'but how am I ever going to get use to these and understand them?'
Whereas other decks have images which are more common to our imaginations, the Marseilles has numerous lines which give the image certain ambiguities. Despite these ambiguities, the Marseille has an established pattern which makes it a Marseille, and not, for example, a Schaffhouse.
Additionally, and importantly, there is very much a sense that its specific pattern provides the characteristics as to whether a deck is a 'genuine' Tarot deck or not. The levels of deviations from the Marseille are where some have differing views. For example, if ordering is taken to be unalterable as an indicator of Tarot, the RWCS, and the Eteilla, fall out. If pip card scenes become such that their imagery become dominant over 'instrument' depictions, again some may view it as falling outside of 'proper' Tarot, and here again the RWCS and Sola Busca fall out.
Others will include those deviated decks as Tarot and see the close rapport between those modifications and the un-expressed pattern of the
Ür-Tarot, or unmanifest archetypal Tarot - a pattern which many of us consider has its closest 'incarnation' in the varieties of Marseille decks.
So how does one begin? Aoife wrote a
wonderful post two pages back which is well worth re-reading. To begin and to
play with the cards, with their images, with how pairs may or may not relate...
To re-organise them in rows of two, of three, of four, ... or in pairs, in threes, ...in fives, etc, and begin to see how they relate.
To ask and seek to provisionally give
one's own answer to questions such as:
What is 'globally' different betweent the first ten numbered cards and the last ten numbered cards (of the major arcana)?
If one just looks at the pips of the suit of cups, how many are there all together?
If the sixteen court cards are placed sequentially, what becomes striking?
These are some from amongst the numerous ways which may help in beginning to see into the Marseille (and other Tarot inspired decks, of course).
With regards to K.N. Newman's
The Tarot: a myth of male initiation (which I read a number of years ago, and do not properly recall all its details), there is certainly much of worth. Specifically, the cards' images are also compared in terms of numerous other depictions which occur in various other instances. Where I do not go along with the book is in its specifically Jungian
analysis as to its psychological '
meaning'... but then again, I find Jungian analysis generally wanting, in that it seeks to reduce the spiritual to mere psychological 'pressures' - thus negating its proper ontology.
Another book which may be of worth, and which pops up regularly in second-hand places, is R. Cavendish's
Tarot. Though it does not deal specifically with the Marseille's iconography, it does address Tarot's imagery generally, and thus
includes the Marseille's.
). It's helping alot with the card meanings and throwing up meanings I hadn't thought of. I would say its's worth getting, if for nothing else - it's in English!
