Tarot & Divination Decks with Robert M Place

I have told the story of how I was introduced to the Tarot and inspired to create The Alchemical Tarot many times, but I feel it is useful for me to go over the events again as I am now starting on the creation of a new version of my first deck, The Alchemical Tarot Reimagined.

Living in New Jersey in the summer of 1982, I was introduced to the Tarot in a dream. In the dream, I was told that I would receive an inheritance of great value. Shortly after that night, a friend came over with his new deck of Tarot cards. It was the famous deck designed in 1909 by Pamela Colman Smith, and my eyes were drawn to this deck as if they were no longer controlled by my brain. Although I was not unfamiliar with The Waite Smith Tarot, I now saw it in a new light—I knew that this was my inheritance. Within a few days another friend, without any prompting, gave me a copy of The Tarot of Marseilles. He just said, “I had a feeling that you needed a Tarot deck.” That was my first deck, but soon I went into Manhattan to also buy the Waite-Smith cards.

Naturally, I began to experiment with these two decks. Realizing that they were a gift from the dream world, I saw that they were tools for creating a message in pictures that could be interpreted as a dream—a waking dream. I decided I would try to learn more about the Tarot and see if anyone else was approaching the cards in this way. I was disappointed, however, with most of the books that I could find. They did not seem to share my insight and focused on associations for the cards that often had little to do with the actual images depicted on the cards. So, I decided that I would learn directly from the cards by interacting with their pictures. Eventually I realized that to go further I had to gather more information from various subjects that seemed to relate to the themes found in the illustrations.

I discovered that the artists, who first created these cards in the Renaissance, were heavily influenced by the revival of ancient mystical philosophies. Therefore, I began reading everything that I could find on Hermeticism, alchemy, Neoplatonism, and related subjects, and I found correlations and explanations for the Tarot’s images. I quickly filled a large hardbound notebook with charts, lists, and notes describing my observations. By 1987, stacks of books reaching toward the ceiling became a common sight in my workroom and living room, and my reading had become noticeably excessive to my wife and friends―as well as to myself. I was working as a craft-jeweler at that time and my work was beginning to suffer, but I knew I was onto something. It was just that I was unable to explain what inspired my obsession.

One afternoon, during that year, I was reading in the living room while a commentator on the radio was talking about the Harmonic Convergence. For weeks, I had been hearing about this exceptional alignment of planets that was said to mark the dawning of the New-Age, but I was not that impressed. I had decided that it was just another New-Age curiosity. But this time something the commentator said made me take notice; he said that during this period of spiritual transformation, sensitive individuals all over the world would be experiencing a flood of information on spiritual subjects. Finally, someone had an explanation for what was happening to me, and this announcement seemed to foretell that there was more to come.

Shortly after August 16, 1987, the date of the Convergence, I was reading Picture Museum of Sorcery, Magic, & Alchemy, by Emile Grillot de Givry, when I became fascinated by an alchemical hieroglyph representing the Philosopher’s Stone. It was one of a pair of engravings that represented the Stone as a type of mandala. The one I focused on depicted a heart surrounded by a thorny wreath and placed in the center of a cross that divided the background into four sections. Each section contained an image representing one of the four ancient elements: Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. The heart had five drops of blood on its surface and a rose bud sprouting from its top. Besides the obvious connection with the Sacred Heart, the five wounds of Christ, and the crown of thorns, the image had something else. It connected with something deeper.

In a flash of insight, I realized that the symbolism of the design was entirely interchangeable with the Tarot’s World card. The dancing nude on the World stood in the center of the wreath (although thornless) and could be interpreted, like the heart, as a symbol for the soul. The creatures representing the four evangelists in the corners of the World were also symbolically connected to the four elements through their Medieval correlation to the fixed signs of the zodiac: the bull to Earth, the eagle to Water, the angel to Air, and the lion to Fire. This realization was like a key that opened a lock to a forgotten door. I sat mesmerized as images poured out of this new portal in my mind. They formed a parade of alchemical illustrations that were spontaneously paired with Tarot trumps, and it became obvious that the trumps are alchemical, and that the series of trumps describes the alchemical Opus. This insight happened in seconds, but it began a long journey that led me deep into research that was both scholarly and intuitive, back into illustration work, and to the start of my career as a writer. It helped me to experience the Western tradition of meditation, and spiritual transformation, and led me to create The Alchemical Tarot.

From the beginning, this work has been guided by the spontaneous magical coincidences that the famous psychologist, Carl Jung, labeled synchronicity. Synchronicity guided me to my writing partner on the initial project, Rosemary Ellen Guiley, to my first publisher, HarperCollins, and has kept the deck in the public eye all these years. I have now published the sixth edition, 26 years after the first publication. During this time, the art for The Alchemical Tarot has been in museum exhibitions in Italy and California, appeared on the cover of the LA Times, and been included in several television shows. The first edition has risen in value—reaching in one instance the highest price paid at auction for a modern deck. When I was initially working on the deck, the magical ease with which I found a partner and a publisher led me to believe that the deck itself wanted to be published. I now believe that it is more accurate to credit the Anima Mundi with this flow of success. The Anima Mundi wanted The Alchemical Tarot to exist, and I was her artisan for the project. It is the Anima Mundi who speaks through the cards, not me.

Since the publication of The Alchemical Tarot, in 1995, I have created six versions of the deck, which I now publish through Hermes Publications, as well as 11 other Tarot decks and five oracle decks. For most of my Tarot creations, I have based my interpretations of the cards on the insights that I gained working on The Alchemical Tarot. You could say that The Alchemical Tarot is my archetype for the Tarot. It has been 29 years since the first edition of The Alchemical Tarot was published, and looking at it now, I began to wonder how I would interpret the themes now that my illustration style has evolved and matured. I began working on a new version called The Alchemical Tarot Reimagined. I have completed the trumps, and I am working on the minor suits.

Below are all the Reimagined trumps.

Web site:

https://tienda.laordendeayala.com/v-congreso-internacional-de-baraja-y-tarot?fbclid=IwAR284PzgWbEghi-IT5e7J9pjLJyi-wlqRDmGyBv3D-_zKcKoyVrzf9k4p3M

The Tarot: An Alchemical Trip a workshop I will be conducting at

the International Deck and Tarot Congress, Toledo, Spain,

October 20 and 21, 2023

From the Tarot Conference:

Practically in less than a month we will have the pleasure of knowing and enjoying the internationally recognized teacher and special guest Robert Place. Who will e travel from New York to give a conference and workshop in Toledo on October 21. It will be translated by our dear Ana Prescott.

Robert M. Place is an international visionary artist, whose works have been exhibited in galleries and museums and on the covers and pages of numerous books and magazines. He is known as the designer and author of more than twenty tarot and oracles decks, including the internationally acclaimed Alchemical Tarot, and two decks and books in which he collaborated with Rachel Pollack. His facsimile of a historic Italian tarot is included in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he regularly lectures on their collection of cards. He was the guest of honor at the inauguration in 2007 of the Tarot Museum in Riola, Italy. He healed the Tarot exhibition in 2010 at the Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum, and Booklist has said that his book, the Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination, may be the best book ever written on the subject.

Workshop title: “The Tarot: an alchemical trip”

This year the Congress has an Olympic Medal Do not tell you, vault it! All together, united by the Tarot! You can register at Congress ️ ️ ️ ️

Through: Telephone (0034) 600796447

Electronic Correo: laordendeayala@hotmail.com

Price:

face -to -face and online will be 149 Eur. Online more face -to -face recorded to be able to see them in deferred, 45 euros. In all versions of Congress, the 2023 Tarology Diploma will be granted. We wait for you!

Louis-Raphaël-Lucrèce de Fayolle, comte de Mellet, was born in 1727 in Périgueux, a city in the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, in southwestern France. His was a noble family and he inherited the title of chevalier (knight) along with extensive holdings of land and wealth. Later, his title was elevated to comte (count) as a reward for his service to the king. De Mellet’s military career included service as a musketeer, the chief of the corps of bodyguards for the king of Poland, knight of the Order of Saint Louis, officer of the corps of bodyguards for the king of France, governor of the French provinces of Maine and Perche, lieutenant general of the king’s armies, and field marshal to the king himself. The count was married to Élizabeth-Mélanie le Daulceur in 1763 and they had five children. When the French Revolution broke out in 1789, as an avid supporter of the king, de Mellet was compelled to flee the country. He went to Germany and his lands were confiscated, he died in1804. (Vine, 146-148) 

De Mellet had been a subscriber to de Gébelin’s Monde primitif at least since the publication of the third volume, in 1775. At that time, he began corresponding with deGébelin when he wrote to the esteemed savant to debate an issue on grammar. It seems that de Mellet’s maternal uncle, Henri-Léonard-Jean-Baptiste Bertin (1717-1794), may have provided the introduction to de Gébelin. Bertin was also a subscriber. Presumably he helped spark de Mellet’s interest in Chinese philosophy, which was a major influence on French intellectuals in the day. Bertin was considered an expert on Chinese philosophy and culture, having supported the French Jesuit mission in China, and was noted for his private collection of Chinese artifacts. In Article V of de Gébelin’s Tarot essay, he identifies Bertin as the person who brought to his attention a Chinese artifact with a series of images grouped in sets of fourteen and seven, like the divisions in a Tarot deck. Additionally, Bertin, de Mellet, and de Gébelin were all followers of the then-current economic movement known as physiocratie that promoted the centrality of agriculture as the route to national prosperity. We can see that both essayists associated the Tarot suit of Batons with agriculture and wealth. Both single out the Greek hero Hercules as an example of the virtue inherent in working the land. 

It is not clear how de Mellet’s essay came to be included in de Gébelin’s encyclopedic work. The two men could have been working together on theories concerning the origin of the Tarot in the course of their correspondence. Conversely, they may have developed similar ideas while working separately and later have compared notes. There are many places where they agree and yet, in other areas, the two men diverge. We are not sure who influenced whom. Perhaps they influenced each other. I feel that the fact that de Gébelin published an essay that disagreed with his own on a considerable number of points demonstrates his humility. It suggests that he did not think his was the final word on the subject. De Mellet was the only other author to be included in de Gébelin’s encyclopedia. De Gébelin repeatedly expressed his admiration for de Mellet’s ideas and admitted that de Mellet’s interpretation of the Tarot trumps was the completer and more coherent of the two men’s presentations. Having closely compared them, I came to agree, which influenced my decision to create the deck that the count described.

New: The First Occult Tarot

New: The First Occult Tarot

The First Occult Tarot, is a my Tarot creation based on an essay published in 1781, in Court de Gébelin’s eighth volume of his occult encyclopedia, Monde primitif. Not on the first article by Court de Gébelin, but on the second article, written by his contributor the comte de Mellet, whose article I believe offers a more complete interpretation of the Tarot. I feel that his interpretations of the cards are closer to the way that these images would have been viewed in the Renaissance. He clearly sees that each of the three groups of seven trumps has a distinct character, different from the other groups, and his overall interpretation is well founded in Hermetic philosophy.

At this time, I have completed all of the cards and the book which is was edited by my translator David Vine. For this article I want to focus on how I visualized the cards in the minor suits. I have based them as much as possible on the comte de Mellet’s descriptions. His discussion of the imagery and list of meanings for the pips and court cards, however, is random and incomplete. Where he has neglected to supply meanings, I have completed my list by researching traditional 18^th– and 19^th-century explanations associated with playing card divination, as found in L’art de tirer les cartes, “The Art of Reading Cards,” published in 1843 by Joahannès Trismégiste, an author who was either influenced by de Mellet or who was working from the same model. I was also able to gain insights by examining the imagery on the Besançon Tarot and Aluette playing cards, the decks on which de Mellet based his observations. The imagery on my pips is greatly based on the Aluette cards, especially the cards in that deck which display characters other than the suits symbols, and that may be imply divinatory meanings.  

In his 1781 article, the comte de Mellet wrote that he derived the meanings for the cards of the minor suits from card readers who were using the regular four-suit playing card deck with French suit symbols. To apply their card meanings to the Tarot, which uses Italian suits symbols, he equated Clubs to Coins, Hearts to Cups, Swords to Spades, and Diamonds to Batons. This is the same system of correlation that is found in Père C. F. Menestrier’s essay on playing cards, published in 1704. Menestrier was a French priest who has been called “the father of playing card research.” His correlations differ from most modern ones in that he pairs Diamonds with Coins, and Clubs with Batons, but his system became the accepted norm in 18^th-century France, when de Mellet was writing. Perhaps the Club symbol was thought to relate to the four-petaled flower on the Italian Coins, and the pattern of overlapping Batons on the Italian cards suggested the Diamond shape. Tarot historian Ron Decker speculates that the meanings that French card readers employed were derived from those current among Italian readers using the Italian suits in the first place. So, I have also researched traditional Italian card interpretations in elaborating the method of reading this deck. 

The count described the general areas of consideration the four suits as follows:

The SWORD stood for Royalty and Earthly Authorities.

The Priests made use of Canopic Jars for their Sacrifices, so the CUP symbolized the Priesthood.

The COIN meant commerce.

The BATON, Crook, or Goad represented Agriculture.

(Vine, p. 188)

De Mellet was also intrigued by the names attached to some of the Spanish pip cards used to play the game of Aluette. He believed these were ancient attributions preserved by Spanish card players. Aluette is actually a trick-taking game, nowadays played in southwestern France, based on a game that originated in the nearby Basque country of Spain in the Middle Ages (Vine, p.137). The illustrations on many of the pips include allegorical figures that influenced some of my designs, and seven of the Aluette cards have titles. The Aluette cards included here are from an early 19th ccentury deck in my collection.

The One-Eyed for the Ace of Coins

The Master for the Three of Coins

The Cow for the Two of Cups

The Queen of Heaven for the Three of Cups

Destiny for the Nine of Cups

Mercury for the Nine of Coins

The Serpent for the Ace of Batons

De Mellet found these titles compelling and believed they were further evidence of the Egyptian origin of the suits.

As we have said before, de Mellet’s other model deck was not the Tarot of Marseilles, but the Besançon Tarot, popular in eastern France, Switzerland and parts of Germany. The meanings he records sometimes relate directly to what is depicted on certain pips in this deck. For example, a small figure of Fortuna is portrayed in the center of the Four of Coins pip, and the Ace of Cups displays a vase with a lid, suggesting de Mellet’s sacred vessel used for sacrifices. 

Finally, we can see from the sample reading that de Mellet describes in his essay that number symbolism was also important to him. This is especially applicable to the numbered pip cards. For instance, he states that Aces (1), represent written correspondence or news of events, in brief, something new, which is a fitting signification for the first number in a series.   

Like de Gébelin, de Mellet believed that the Tarot originated in Ancient Egypt, but their experience of Egyptian art and culture was mostly of the late Hellenized period when Egypt was merged with Classical culture. I based my imagery on this combination of Egyptian and Classical art. I was also influenced by the art of the 19^th century Egyptian fantasy known as Egyptomania. 

Below are examples of some of the pip cards that I have created for this deck.

On March 19, 2021, I published an article on my blog in which I introduced my newest project, The First Occult Tarot, a Tarot based on an essay published in 1781, in Court de Gébelin’s eighth volume of his monumental encyclopedia, Monde primitif (accurately translated as Primordial World). I chose not to base the deck on the first article by Court de Gébelin, but on the second article, written by his friend the comte de Mellet.

I made this decision because I find de Gébelin’s interpretation of the cards somewhat shallow and comte de Mellet’s interpretations are more complete. I feel that they are closer to the interpretations that these images would have had in the Renaissance. He clearly sees that each of the three groups of seven trumps has a distinct character, different from the other groups. His overall interpretation is well founded in Hermetic philosophy. Basing his observations on the Besançon Tarot instead of the Tarot of Marseille, he reads the trumps from the World to the Fool as a descent from the Age of Gold, trumps 21 to 15; through the Age of Silver, trumps 14 to 8; and to the Ages of Copper and Iron, trumps 7 to 1 and the Fool, representing the madness of the modern world.  What is implied but left unsaid, is that if the trumps describe the descent of humans into a state of ignorance, when we read them forward, from the Fool to the World, they describe the ascent back to a state of spiritual Oneness. Like the Hermetica, they are a textbook for achieving gnosis.

At this time, I have completed the trumps and most of the cards in the minor suits. Unlike de Gébelin, de Mellet discussed the minor suits and their role in divination. However, his list of meanings and imagery for the pips and courts is random and incomplete. When he has neglected to supply meanings, I have completed my list by researching traditional 18^th- and 19^th- century meanings associated with playing card divination, particularly L’art de tirer les cartes, “The Art of Reading Cards,” 1843, by Joahannès Trismégiste, an author who was either heavily influenced by de Mellet or working from the same model. I was also able to gain insights by examining the imagery on the Besançon and Aluette cards, the decks on which de Mellet based his observations. The imagery on my pips is heavily influenced by the Aluette cards, an 18th century French four-suit deck that made use of the Spanish suit symbols.

Like de Gébelin, de Mellet believed that the Tarot originated in Ancient Egypt, but their experience of Egyptian art and culture was mostly of the late Hellenized period when Egypt was merged with Classical culture. I based my imagery on this combination of Egyptian and Classical art. I was also influenced by the art of the 19^th century Egyptian fantasy known as Egyptomania.  

To complete this project, it was essential that I have an accurate translation of the 18^th century French text, and until now, an accurate translation was not to be found. Fortunately, David Vine, an expert in historical French and a highly skilled translator, took on the task and has published a complete and accurate translation of both de Gébelin’s and de Mellet’s texts. along with Vine’s commentaries based on his extensive research of period French sources. And as an even greater stroke of fortune, David Vine has agreed to work with me on the book I am writing to accompany The First Occult Tarot deck, and which will now include Vine’s translation of de Mellet’s description of the trumps.

I still have royal cards to design and a book to write. So, it will be a while before you can preorder The First Occult Tarot deck and book set. But meanwhile, I recommend getting a copy of David Vine’s Vintage Tarot Texts: Antoine Court de Gébelin 1781; Louis-Raphael-Lucrece de Fayolle Comte de Mellet, published by Editions letarot.com.

https://tarot-history.com/boutique/

The original Alchemical Tarot was published by Thorsons, a branch of HarperCollins located in London. It came out in 1995. The Lovers card that I designed for the deck was deemed too sexy. Therefore, the publisher had me redesign the trump. So, I illustrated the King and Queen engaged in the foreplay that would have led to the sex act that was illustrated on the first version. After the Thorsons edition went out of print, I regained the right to publish the deck and I created The Alchemical Tarot: Renewed. For this second edition I decided to print both versions of the Lovers, both numbered 6. (I use both cards when reading and find that they illustrate foreplay and action.)  From then on, each edition of The Alchemical Tarot had 79 cards instead of the traditional 78. 

That is until the most resent version, The Alchemical Tarot: Renewed 6^th Edition, which has 80 cards, because of the addition of a 22^nd trump.

The 6th edition of The Alchemical Tarot is being printed at this time. It is subtitled “the Blue Sky Edition,” because unlike the 4th and 5th editions, which let the parchment background serve as the sky color, this edition has blue skies, unless of course they are grey or black (as on the Devil). The cards have silver edges instead of gold, as on the 5th, and the two-part cloth covered box is blue instead of green. The deck includes a little book with a blue cover. The biggest change, however, is that there is a 22nd trump card, called Truth, which brings the total number of cards to 80.  This card is a tribute to Rosemary Ellen Guiley, who was my partner on the book for the first edition, and who died in 2019.

The first card from the Alchemical Tarot to be published was the Star. It was published in the Fall, 1989, edition of Gnosis Magazine along with a one-page article that I wrote explaining the symbolism of the card and the concept of the deck. This was actually the first card that I designed for the deck. And this was the first thing I had ever published. 

Rosemary Ellen Guiley, who was a well-known New Age author, having written numerous books on spirituality and the occult, including several encyclopedias, was also a subscriber to Gnosis and she read my article.  Rosemary wrote to me and invited me to contribute to a book she was writing called The Mystical Tarot. I contributed two drawings of trumps: Temperance and the Devil, and I wrote several pages expounding on my insights correlating the Tarot with alchemical symbolism. The Mystical Tarot came out in 1991. This was the second time I was published.

After that, Rosemary had me do research for her for a book on alchemy, and we stayed in touch. Eventually she asked me how I was doing with my Alchemical Tarot project. I was working as a craft jeweler at that time and had limited time to work on the deck, so it was going slowly. Rosemary explained to me that I needed to get an advance from a publisher to free up my time so that I could finish the deck. She offered to partner with me on the book for the deck and to show me how to write a proposal, and that is how we got a contract with an advance from Thorsons. The deck and book set was published in 1995. This was the third time I was published.

Shortly after The Alchemical Tarot was published, Rosemary had a startling vision. In the middle of the night, Rosemary awoke to find Hermes Trismegistus, the first alchemist, standing at the foot of her bed holding a large Tarot card, called Truth. He told her that it was the 22nd trump. Rosemary described the card to me, and I made an illustration of Hermes holding the card for her to use in her lectures.  

The card depicted a pyramid with a flame at the top. The pyramid was composed of four stone layers, but the layers seemed to float separate from each other with air between them, so that there were actually seven layers, but three of them were invisible.  

At first, I did not know what to make of this image. I found a related illustration in an alchemical text: Heinrich Khunrath’s Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aerernae, 1602. The sixth illustration in the book depicted a triangular mountain with a flame at the top. The front face of the mountain was flat and covered with a written text. The illustration was called “the way of the wise leading to the door of the Amphitheater of Eternal Wisdom.” I showed this to Rosemary, but I knew that I had to delve deeper to reveal the meaning of the card.  

On the first page of Khunrath, there is a small detail at the top of the page that was leading me closer to the meaning of the card. The image depicted the tetragrammaton, the four-letter name of God in Hebrew: yod he vau he. But the letters were arranged in a triangle with yod at the top, yod he on the second layer, yod he vau on the third, and all four letters on the bottom. This I discovered was a kabalistic version of the Pythagorean sacred symbol called the Tetractys.

Pythagoras (circa 580–490 BCE) was one of the earliest Greek philosophers, in fact he is credited with having coined the word philosophy. Much of his teachings are at the core of alchemy philosophy. And the Tetractys symbol expressed the most essential aspects of his philosophy.  Here is a description of the Tetractys derived from Chapter Four in my book The Tarot, Magic, Alchemy, Hermeticism, and Neoplatonism.

The Tetractys

In the Pythagorean school ten was considered the perfect number. In fact, the number ten was such a symbol of perfection that the Pythagoreans developed an alternative model of the cosmos in which there were ten celestial bodies. In this model, Earth was considered a planet and added to the ancient seven, which included the Sun. The seven ancient planets were the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.  It was believed that these eight planets, Earth and the other seven, orbited a Central Fire that was not the Sun. To bring the number of bodies to ten, it was further theorized that there existed a counter-Earth that could never be seen because it was always orbiting on the opposite side the Central Fire from Earth.

In another example of the Pythagorean use of the number ten to represent the numerical intelligence of the universe, the Pythagoreans constructed a triangular arrangement of ten dots with one at the top, two on the second layer, three on the third, and four at the base. This symbol was called the Tetractys, and the Pythagoreans considered it sacred. The Tetractys expressed the concept of emanation in its simplest form, from the greatest unity at the top, representing the One, to the diversity of the world of form at the bottom, which was associated with four directions, four seasons, and four elements. It was like a pyramid reduced to a diagram. The most important aspect of this symbol to the mystic was that it could be used as a meditative tool, a ladder, that he or she could use to visualize an ascent back to Oneness—a state of being connected to the universe and to the part of an individual that is permanent and beyond the reaches of death.

There are many classes of symbolism that can be attached to the Tetractys. One of the most basic is a geometrical progression. With this theme, the single dot at the top depicts a point, a theoretical beginning with no dimension. The second layer has two points, which describe a line. Although a line has length it has no depth and still cannot be perceived any easier than the point. Next, are three points, which are necessary to form the first polygon, the triangle. This gives us a two-dimensional plane. The base has four points, which allows us to form the first three-dimensional object, the tetrahedron, which is composed of four triangular sides, like a pyramid with a triangle for a base. This is the beginning of physical reality. These four physical layers correspond to the four stone layers in Rosemary’s pyramid.

If we also look at the relationships between the layers, called ratios, these describe numerically the vibrations of the three essential notes in the music scale: the whole note, which had a ratio of one to two; the perfect fifth, which has a ratio of two to three; and the perfect fourth, which has a ratio of three to four. These three musical layers correspond to the spaces between the stone layers in Rosemary’s pyramid.

Together with the four physical layers these musical layers give us seven layers altogether—four physical layers and three non-material layers. Like the sacred  ziggurat, symbolizing the seven emanations of creation and the seven essential gods of Babylon, the Tetractys had seven layers but here numbers have replaced the gods as emanations. To fill out the music scale Pythagoras devised four other notes and created our familiar Western diatonic scale with its seven notes, denoted by the seven vowels in the Greek alphabet. The Tetractys can be correlated to all seven notes in the scale, and just like the notes, the seven layers can be correlated to the seven ancient planets and in alchemy the planets are correlted to seven metals. seven operations in the Opus, and to seven soul centers which ascend the human spine. With this correlation we can see that the emanations can be viewed as existing within the human body.

Now that it has been explained, the symbolism of the twenty-second trump seems obvious. But it took me several years to figure this out. Also, you might ask why I did not add the twenty-second trump to The Alchemical Tarot years ago. I guess that I felt that it belonged to Rosemary, but now that she died it seems that it is time to add it to the deck. 

https://robertmplacetarot.com/the-alchemical-tarot-renewed-4th-edition/

The title is Aphrodite

Find out more about the Expo Metro here:

https://expometro.co/en

Most of you know me as a Tarot designer and author, but before I designed my first Tarot deck I was well known as craft jeweler. Recently, I posted some of my jewelry on Facebook. They received a lot of attention and my Facebook friends seemed to want to know more about that period of my career. This article is about how I got involved in jewelry and I will display some examples of my work. 

In the 1970s when Rose Ann and I got married and we were back from our honeymoon in Europe, I worked as an art teacher in a grammar school near the New Jersey shore. The pay was low, and I had to have it divided over the ten months that school was in session. That left two months in the Summer with no pay. To make money during the summer, I took advantage of the outdoor art shows that were popular in towns along the Atlantic shore. The biggest one was the annual Maurice Podell Art Exhibition. It was my best earning event, but even though I was doing well selling my drawings and paintings, I noticed that the exhibitors in the crafts section were doing much better. So, I decided I would become a craftsperson.

To earn a degree as an art teacher, I had to become proficient at several crafts, Including, ceramics, textiles, and metalwork, but the one craft that I was most fond of, since I was first introduced to it in high school, was enameling. I realized that enameling was a technique used in jewelry, and that I had some basic knowledge of sculpting and soldering metal, so I decided to become a jeweler.  

Enamel is colored glass fused to a metal base at high temperatures (1,500 degrees F) in a kiln. It works best when fused to pure metals: copper, fine silver, or 24K gold.

The ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians made colorful jewelry by shaping flat pieces of lapis, turquoise, and carnelian to fit into cells created by flat gold wire fuse to a gold base. Eventually artisans realized that they could substitute pieces of colored glass for the stones. But it was not until later that the Greeks developed the technology that allowed them to grind the glass to a power and melt it in the gold cells at a temperature that would melt the glass, fuse it to the metal, but not melt the metal.  Once fused in place, the surface of the enamel was ground smooth with fine stones. This is called cloisonné enamel and it reached a high point during the Byzantine period.

The Celtic and Germanic people of northern Europe also used enameling to bring color to their jewelry, but besides using wire to create cells for the glass, they carved out areas in a thick metal plate and fuse the enamel in these recessed cells.  This technique is called champlevé. Champlevé remained popular during the Middle Ages and was used to decorate religious objects.

During the Middle Ages, Limoges, France was a center for champlevé enameling. It was here in the Gothic period and in the Renaissance that Limoges artisans, possibly with the help of alchemists, developed a new technique in which they fused glass to the surface of the metal without creating cells. This allowed them to blend colors and create shading so that they were painting with glass. This technique is called Limoges. Key to the technique is the use of an extremely finely ground opaque white glass that is fired in numerous layers to create highlights against a darker surface.

Limoges is actually the technique that I started experimenting with in school.  But at first, my technique was basic. Having little money to start my jewelry career, I focused on enameling on copper, the cheapest metal, that would work. I used opaque colors with layers of the fine opaque white to create form. The school I taught in had a kiln that I was allowed to bring home to fire the pieces, and I was in business. After a while I set up a bench and bought a drill and a jeweler’s saw, which allowed me to cut out shapes. This is a piece from that period.

When I earned enough from the business I began to invest in silver and started developing my metal working. Instead of casting, I concentrated on sculpting the silver directly. I learned to hammer and raise the silver from the back, a technique called repoussé, and punched details into the front with various shaped tools, called chasing. I bought a torch and a buffing wheel, and I was ready to quit teaching and do this full time. Quitting my job might have been a scary thing to do, but luckily, they were paying me so little that I was immediately earning more from jewelry than teaching. Rose Ann joined me in the business. She did some of the production work with me but mainly she was more interested in marketing at the craft shows and I was more interested in designing and creating.    

This is an early chased and repousséd brooch that I designed for the University Museum in Philadelphia. It is based on a Scythian stag in their collection.

As my work became more sophisticated, I added filing and engraving to create a more sculptural form like these Celtic designs and other pieces.

I also started carving and sculpting the metal, as you can see in these pieces.

Eventually, we were able to exhibit in the top craft shows in the country including the Smithsonian in Washington, and the American Craft Council shows in Baltimore, New York, Atlanta, Dallas, and San Francisco.  These shows were very competitive, and we had to be accepted by a jury to be allowed to exhibit. To prepare for the juries, I had to create high end portfolio pieces and have them photographed by a professional photographer, who specialized in photographing crafts. As I needed to create more elaborate pieces, my enameling evolved, and I focused on cloisonné.  This is a cloisonné brooch that I made at that time. It is called Leda. The enamel has 24K gold wire set on fine silver, the setting is repousséd sterling, 14K gold, with a ruby for the eye. I entered in in the 1984 Wilhelm Muller Competition, in Germany.  It won an honorable mention and was exhibited at the Stadtischen Museum, the Goldsmith’s House in Hanan, and was on tour until 1985.

Here is a cloisonné necklace that I designed. The create the gold areas I would fire clear enamel over 24K gold foil.

Here is a cloisonné brooch that Rose Ann made, called Flower-Bird.

These pieces also earned my work a place in galleries and museum, including the American Craft Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Delaware Art Museum. I was even invited to create an ornament for the national Christmas tree when Clinton was president. They also generated a lot of publicity in craft and jewelry magazines. These are two pages from a 1984 issue of Lapidary Journal.

The sculpture is sterling, 14K gold, opal, carved moonstone, horn and, Colorcore Formica. The triangle at the top detaches to be worn as a brooch. It was sold at the American Craft Council show in Baltimore that year to a gallery owner. The Turoe Box was made with a grant from the New Jersey council on the Arts. It is sterling, 22K and 14K gold, emerald, ruby, and has a deerskin lining. I sold it to Steve Martin at the WBAI Craft Show in New York. The Rabbit Fan Brooch is sterling, 14K gold, and lapis lazuli.

Here are some other boxes that I made.

Here are two other fan brooches.

At that time, I began experimenting with alternative materials like Colorcore Formica, antler, and horn. This piece is called Kore. The figure is carved antler, set against Colorcore with gold leaf, the setting and chain are sterling. The pink rhodochrosite stone in set in antler. I liked using antler as an alternative to ivory because deer drop them every year and I could search for them in the forest.

This piece is called The Philosopher’s Stone. It is sterling, 14K gold, carved horn, antler, Colorcore, gold leaf, opals, and turquoise. It was purchased by a Unitarian minister.

This is a page from a 1992 issue of Ornament magazine. The House Brooch was in a gallery show at the American Craft Museum that year and it received a lot of publicity. The brooch is sterling, 14K gold, Colorcore, slate, horn, and emerald. The woman who bought it told me that she was wearing the brooch on her vacation in Italy when a woman came up to her and said: “Where did you get that brooch; it is famous?”  

This is a series of pieces that I made by carving horn and antler. I added 14k gold details, opals, and a garnet. You can see how fine deer antler is a good substitute for ivory. these pieces were inspired by ancient Spanish sculptures from the 6th century BC.

In the 1990s I returned to Limoges enameling but in a more evolved form.  I repousséd the fine silver. I use transparent glass that I ground myself, and opaque white that I ground and sifted to make it finer. I now used the 24K cloisonne wire placed flat to add gold details, and I made 14K gold settings. These are some examples. By the end of the 1990s there were less crafts stores and galleries still in business, and inspired by my dreams and by synchronistic events, I switched my attention to illustrating and creating Tarot decks.

One final piece:

Anyone knowledgeable about Tarot history knows that the first occultist to write about the Tarot was the Parisian Freemason Antoine Court de Gébelin. In 1781 he published the eighth volume of his occult encyclopedia, Monde Primitif, and starting on page 365, he included an article on the Tarot in which he put forth his theories on the origin and meaning of the Tarot’s trumps and minor suits. De Gébelin theorized that the Tarot was a series of hieroglyphs that originated in ancient Egypt, were passed onto ancient Rome, and from there to France and Germany.

His article was accompanied by a series of engravings created by Mademoiselle Linote, who died the same year that they were published. Her illustrations are sketchy copies of a standard set of trumps from a French Tarot of Marseille, most likely the Conver Tarot, from 1760. De Gébelin added titles to them that suggested what they might have signified in Egyptian culture.

The Fool retains his name, but his dog is interpreted as a tiger, and in Linote’s engraving the animal does look like a cat but with spots, not stripes. It seems that Court de Gébelin was not distinguishing between a tiger, a cat that does not live in Africa, and a leopard, a cat that does. Trump One is the Juggler or Cup-Player, who is said to be holding the wand of Jacob or of the Magi.

Trump Two is the High Priestess, who is the wife of Trump Five, the High Priest, head of the hierophants. Trumps Three and Four are the Queen and the King, and their scepters are said to be the Tau cross.

Trump Six is the Wedding, depicting a priest, wearing a laurel wreath marrying a man to a woman with flowers in her hair.

Trump Seven becomes Osiris Triumphant, symbolizing the god’s return in the Spring. Trump Eight is Justice, but also Queen Astraea on her throne.Trump Nine is The Sage or the Seeker of Truth and Justice. Court de Gébelin correctly recognized the Hermit, holding his lantern in front of him, as a reference to the ancient philosopher, Diogenes, who held out a lamp during the day because he was searching for virtue.

Trump Ten retains its title, the Wheel of Fortune, and its symbolism as a satire on the nature of fate.

Trump Eleven remains Strength, a woman closing the mouth of a lion. Trump Twelve is now the virtue Prudence. Court de Gébelin said that it originally represented a man holding one leg up as he prudently decided where to place it, but that this image was reversed by ignorant card makers when reproducing the deck. He offers no explanation for why Linote depicted the man tied to a stake.

Trump Thirteen is Death with her scythe. Court de Gébelin refers to Death as female and says that she is numbered thirteen because this number is unlucky. Trump Fourteen is Temperance, who, as in the traditional interpretation, is pouring water into wine to make it less potent. 

Trump Fifteen becomes Typhon, a Greek name for Set, Osiris’s evil brother. Trump Sixteen is the House of God, its French title, or the Castle of Plutus, a reference to a tower stuffed with gold that fell into ruin crushing its worshipers. Court de Gébelin also relates the image to a story told by Herodotus about two Egyptian tomb robbers.

Trump Seventeen is the Dog Star, which rises when the Sun is in the sign of Cancer. Court de Gébelin recognizes the seven smaller stars as the seven planets, and says that the woman is Isis, who is their mistress. Trump Eighteen is the Moon rising between the pillars of Hercules. The drops in the sky are the tears of Isis, and Court de Gébelin says that the entire picture symbolize the time of the flooding of the Nile. Trump Nineteen is the Sun, the Father of all Humans.

Trump Twenty is the tableau misnamed “The Last Judgement,” because Court de Gébelin says that it represents the creation of humans, not the reanimation of the dead.

The final Trump, Twenty-one, is Time misnamed the World. Court de Gébelin says that the woman is the Goddess of Time standing in the wreath of time, with the emblems of the four seasons in the corners: the eagle representing Spring, the lion Summer, the ox Autumn, and the young man Winter. 

After de Gébelin’s article in Monde Primitif, he placed another article composed by the Comte de M, identified as Comte de Mellet. Comte de Mellet’s theories differ from de Gébelin’s on several points. From this, we may assume that Court de Gébelin did not feel that his theory was the final word, and he wanted to present other possibilities. For example, while de Gébelin believed that Tarot meant “the Royal Road” in Egyptian, de Mellet makes the case that the Tarot is actually the mystical Book of Thoth. He theorizes that the name Tarot is derived from the Egyptian Ta Rosh, which he said means the science of Thoth or Mercury, a possible reference to alchemy. He says that the book or deck was brought from Egypt to Spain by the Arabs, and from there, the soldiers of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V carried it to Germany in the 16th century. He suggests a relationship between the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the Fool and the twenty-one trumps. He discusses the meaning of several of the pip and court cards and demonstrates the use of the deck for divination. 

But his discourse on the trumps stands out the most, because it is more coherent and presents a unified approach that unites the trumps in one continuous narrative. Most scholars agree that the de Mellet article is older and most likely influenced de Gébelin. Not only is it older, but it is more complete and effectively it is the first description of a recreated occult Tarot deck. Therefore, we may call it the “first occult Tarot.”

As we look at the details that de Mellet describes, it is clear that he is not describing the Tarot of Marseille but he is describing the Besançon Tarot, which was first carved by Francois Isnard (1695 – 1765), who lived in Strasburg, France. The deck became popular in South Eastern France, Switzerland, and parts of Germany.  De Mellet clearly describes cards that only appear in the Besançon, such as Jupiter with his eagle instead of the Pope for the fifth trump and Juno with her peacock instead of the Papesse for the second trump. We will see other similarities as we go over his discourse.

Comte de Mellet interpreted the trumps as a Hermetic text describing the creation of the world in three stages. Starting with the World trump and working backwards, because he claimed that the Egyptians read from right to left, he divided the trumps into three groups of seven and related each group to one of the Classical Ages: the Age of Gold, the Age of Silver, and the Age of Iron. There are actually four Classical Ages, but de Mellet has combined the Age of Bronze the Age of iron into one for his discourse.

The Age of Gold begins with Trump Twenty-one, the World or the Universe, depicting Isis in the center of the egg of time with the symbols of the four seasons in the corners. Then comes Judgement, depicting Osiris creating humans from Earth.

Next in order is the creation of the Sun, with the union of man and woman below. The figures on the Besançon Sun seem to be male and female and this is made even more clear in the modern version called the 1JJ Swiss Tarot.

Trump Eighteen is the creation of the Moon and the animals, symbolized by a wolf and a dog, representing wild and domestic animals. The Besançon Moon does seem to depict a dog and a wolf. Trump Seventeen is the creation of the stars and fishes.

Sixteen is the House of God overthrown, and Fifteen depicts the Devil or Typhon, who ends the Golden Age, and brings suffering to all humans. De Mellet mentions that the Devil’s minion is clawing the Devil’s thigh. Again, this is a detail that we find on the Besançon trump.      

The Age of Silver begins with trump Fourteen, Temperance, who educates humans in the need for moderation to help them avoid Death. Thirteen is Death, who has now become a reality to humans.

Twelve is the accidental suffering that attacks humans, symbolized by a man hung by his foot, but also a symbol of Prudence. De Mellet had no need to turn the Hanged Man right side up as de Gébelin did.

Eleven is Strength subduing the lion, a symbol of savagery. Ten is the Wheel of Fortune expressing the injustices of this faithless goddess. De Mellet describe the Wheel as having a rabbit ascending and a monkey at the top, which we can see on the Besançon Wheel.  

Nine is the Sage searching for Justice, and Eight is Justice.

The Age of Iron begins with Trump Seven, the Chariot of War. Here he also briefly mentions the Age of Bronze but merges it into the Age of Iron. De Mellet describes the Charioteer as a king holding a javelin. He seems to be interpreting the charioteer’s scepter with its pointed top as a javelin. However, in a later edition of the Besançon Chariot, printed after 1791, after the French Revolution, the block was modified to remove the Charioteer’s crown, which was now unpopular, and the top of the scepter was modified into the head of a javelin (thanks to my Facebook friend Koy Deli for supplying this detail). In the editions after 1810 the crown was replaced but the javelin was retained. Was this due to de Mellet’s influence?

Trump six depicts a man standing between vice and virtue being guided by blind love instead of reason.

Five is no longer the Pope but Jupiter on his eagle, as he appeared in the Swiss decks.. including the modern 1JJ Swiss Tarot.

Four depicts the King, symbolizing that might and not reason rules. Three is the Queen, the King’s mate.

Two is Juno, with her peacock as she appears in the Besançon. She represents pride and idolatry. One is the Bateleur, holding a wand and misleading people with his magic, and then after the last trump, we have the Fool, representing madness and being attacked by the tiger of his regrets. The dog on the Besançon Fool has stripes, like a tiger.

I find that Comte de Mellet’s interpretations of the cards are closer than Court de Gébelin’s to the interpretations that these images would have had in the Renaissance. He clearly sees that each of the three groups of seven trumps has a distinct character, different from the other groups. His overall interpretation is well founded in Hermetic philosophy, and what is implied but left unsaid is that if the trumps describe the descent of humans into a state of ignorance, then if we read them forward, from the Fool to the Universe, they describe the ascent back to a state of spiritual Oneness. Like the Hermetica, they are a textbook for achieving gnosis.

I have been studying de Mellet’s Tarot more closely. Years ago, the curator at the Morgan Library was kind enough to send me a photocopy of the original essays from his copy of Monde Primitif. And recently, I have obtained a new more accurate translation of the 18^th century French. As my next project I have started working on creating the deck that de Mellet describes. Here is the first of the cards, Isis in the center of the World Egg and surrounded by the wreath of time.

The pip cards in the traditional Tarot of Marseille mostly depict a repetition of the traditional Italian suit symbols: coins, cups, swords, and staffs, with some decorative details, like flowers and vines, to fill in the spaces. These decks were primarily designed for playing card games. In 1909, when Pamela Colman Smith redesigned the deck to express occult philosophy and to be used primarily for divination, she modified the symbols to look like magical tools: pentacles, cups, swords, and wands, and added allegorical scenes to the pips, in which the figures interact with the suit symbols––scenes that were meant to provide a divinatory meaning. When I first became aware of the Tarot in the 1960s it was the common opinion that Waite and Smith were the source of this innovation; and that this unique innovation is what made the Waite Smith Tarot user-friendly and popular with Tarot readers.

The Three of Swords: the Tarot of Marseille, The Waite Smith Tarot, and the Sola Busca

While reading Kaplan’s Encyclopedia of Tarot, many years ago, I discovered that Smith’s pip designs were heavily influenced by The Sola Busca Tarot, a 15^th century Italian deck that made use of the same technique on the pips. This is especially obvious when we compare the three of swords from both decks. It is not clear, however, that the scenes on the Sola Busca pips were designed for divination.

My continued study of divination with cards has led me to explore decks in the Metropolitan Museum, the British Museum, and the National Library in Paris, and to follow the discoveries and revelations of the community of scholars studying the history of cards. What I have learned is that before the modern association of the Tarot with divination ordinary playing cards were more commonly employed for this purpose. And as the pips in the minor suits in the Tarot are based on these playing card decks; the pip cards must have had divinatory meanings associated with them from an early date. 

In the late 1700s, decks of oracle cards were created that consisted of a set of meaningful images with a small rendering of a traditional playing card included at the top of the card. The most famous of these decks is the Lenormand, which is based on the Game of Hope, published in Nuremberg in 1799. It seems that these were the first decks designed primarily for divination, and they had imagery associated with the pips. But I am starting to see that decks with meaningful imagery on the pip cards may have an even older history.

Game of Hope Cards, 1799

The latest evidence indicates that the series of twenty-one trumps that are found in the Tarot of Marseille originated in Florence in the first half of the 15^th century. In fact, the oldest mention of the term trionfi, the original name of the deck, is found in an account written in Florence in 1440. By the end of the century, the name of the deck in most of Italy changed from carte da trionfi in Ferrara to Tarocchi, and when the cards made their way to France the name was shortened to Tarot. In Florence the name changed from naibi di trionfi to Minchiate, which means something like the Fool’s game. A new version of the deck with forty trumps, including cards for the twelve signs of the zodiac and the four elements, was created in Florence in the early 16^th century and the name Minchiate came to become associated with this 97-card version of the Tarot. By the 18^th century the Minchiate was more popular in Italy than the original twenty-one trump Tarot and even became popular in Paris. But in the 15^th century the original twenty-one trump version spread through northern Italy to Milan, and from Milan to France, when it became the model for the Tarot of Marseille. I find it interesting, however, that the 16^th century expanded Minchiate contained meaningful allegorical imagery on many of the pips, often illustrating stories from Aesop’s Fables.  

Three 19th century Minchiate pips

In the 15^th century, playing cards spread to Germany, and by 1460, Germans had developed their own set of suit symbols: hawk belles, hearts, leaves, and acorns. But what is interesting is that by the 16^th century most of the German decks included satirical and allegorical scenes on the pips. I have seen and read about early card decks that were intended for divination that had the divinatory meaning written on the cards in the form of short poems. Having the meaning written on the cards makes it clear that they were used for divination, and it seemed that this was the norm for divination decks until the 18^th century when divinatory pictures started to appear. But the allegorical scenes on the Minchiate and the German cards clearly tell stories that could be used for divination. As far as I know, however, no one has found evidence that they were used for anything other than games.

Recently Fortune Rebecca Buchholtz, a friend of mine in Germany, sent me PDF copies of several German Renaissance lot or fortune books that are in the national library in Germany. These are books designed for divination. They contain pages of divinatory answers, each accompanied by a picture––in one example they are pictures of playing cards. The answers are located by either spinning a wheel with the pictures or numbers on it or by picking a playing card and matching it to the picture in the book. The Mainz Lot Book from 1505 is the one that contains pictures of German playing cards next to the answers. This is a clear example of early divination making use of cards, but the pictures just depict the German suited cards, and the answers are written next to it in the form of a poem. This is not that different from having the meaning written on the card.  

A page from the Mainz Lot Book from 1505

The book that I found most fascinating is Jorg Wickram’s Das Weltlich Loszbuch (the secular fortune or lot book), from 1560. The book contains divinatory answers that are accessed by spinning a wheel and the written answers are accompanied by numerous bizarre comical illustrations. These illustrations are clearly intended for divination, and I was struck by how similar they are to the moralistic allegorical scenes found on the German pips from the same century.

In these illustrations from Das Weltlich Loszbuch we see Fortuna sifting fools, two fools carrying a bee infested heart, a bull playing a bagpipe, a fool riding a pile of feces, and a cat acting as bishop to adoring mice.

Now compare these illustrations to the scenes found at the bottom of the pips from the suit of bells in Hans Schaufeiein playing cards, from 1535. There is a lazy man swatting bees, a fox walking upright carrying hens in a basket, an alchemist examining feces in a flask, a woman trying to milk a bull, a woman blowing air up a dog’s anus, and a man playing a flute while a rabbit dances. They seem related.