The Divinatory Tarot

Very good and rare vintage literature on the Tarot in English with a new translation from French. Interesting info for the novice and adept alike. Divinatory meanings and draws and spreads. Interesting section on the interplay of the Arcana and numbers, as well as an astrological spread using 33 cards. Recommended for those interested in the Etteila style of decks and vintage French cartomancy. Image of each card included but not the same as on the cover, little different. Kinda wish the same images on the cover were used as illustrations in the book or that a reprint of the deck shown on the cover will be reprinted.

The messages given by the book will make the reader both RWS and traditional TdM readers face the new meaning and way to read tarot.

Of interest only to students of cartomancy remembering that this was practiced in a time radically different than the present time. With that said, as in his book Tarot of the Bohemians, there is information here available to those who seriously study the occult arts, contrary to what other supposedly experts may opinion on the matter.

This book isn't anything to brag about. The Tarot has been veiled in mysteries for a long time, however this book appears to be more of describing spreads than actual facts about the art of divination. It's okay...

People buy books on the tarot for guidance on interpretation and suggestions for spreads. The meanings offered here are the barest of keywords: the Devil is force majeure or sickness; the Seven of Coins is money or worry when reversed. Similarly, he describes half a dozen spreads in a dozen pages.So what do you get? When this book was published in 1909, the only tarots you could buy were a double-ended Piedmontese pack (the Hanged Man as 2 pairs of legs, joined at the waist) or an Etteilla pack (the Empress as a landscape full of reptiles). Papus wasn't able to organise the printing of a pack of cards, but he had his designs placed at the back of his book on plates: you could detach them, paste them on card, and cut them out. These designs have been enlarged to give 78 full-page pictures of cards that you don't need and can't buy. Opposite them we have interpretations by Etteilla and (for the trumps) Paul Christian. These were originally in an appendix, for good reason: they do not apply to many of Papus's cards. Christian took Love as choice or indecision, Papus as love. Etteilla used the Magician for sickness, Papus for the male querent.We also get sections copied from earlier writers on divination with the piquet pack of 32 ordinary cards. The last chapter deals with selected combinations of minors, like 3 queens or 2 tens. This is given in terms of tarot suits, but the absence of the knights and pips 3-6 shows that it was written for the piquet pack. Statements like "3 queens on the left" only make sense in terms of a full-pack spread, of the sort used with 32 or 36-card packs.This book may interest students of tarot history (a little), but it has little to contribute to actually using the cards today.

Je découvre papus, beaucoup de similitudes avec etteilla ... Gros travail de traduction, mais je ne regrette pas du tout mon achat ! Une grande aide dans mon apprentissage du tarot ! Je le conseille!