Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
After
putting it off for a bit, I wanted to make a start on my exploration of the
Tarot de Marseille. This is not such a simple task as it seems, and as a
seasoned occultist one thing I have to deal with is decades of Golden Dawn type
interpretations based on book T, Crowley’s Book of Thoth, and popular interpretations
largely developed from the Rider-Waite tarot. However, the Marseille is older,
has a messier and more organic background, being essentially the first
mass-market version of the tarot available, created shortly after the invention
of the printing press, and drawing not on the occult writings of 19th
and 20th century occultists, but on centuries of culture,
philosophy, and the popular tropes and imagery developed especially in the
period from the late Middle Ages to the renaissance.
Not
being an expert on these things either, I don’t feel I can interpret accurately
from that position either, and would be more likely to confuse than elucidate. So
instead, I’m going to take a completely naïve approach, and while I cannot
avoid drawing on my own experience and background to some extent, I want to
avoid drawing up correspondences or anything so mechanical, and instead just
say what I see. I would ask you therefore to take these observations in the
spirit of playful exploration, rather than anything definitive.
On
to the first card: Le Bateleur: who is this guy? He stands, brightly dressed, a
big flamboyant hat, a short want held lightly in his left hand, the other
holding some small object. In the Ben-Dov it could be a dice or a token. In the
Jean-Pierre Payan it looks like a red ball. Perhaps he’s going to do the ball
and cup trick? In any case he looks like the sort of street magician you might
meet at the fair, willing to entertain you with the illusion that you might
actually win something. There is something of the trickster, deft, poised to
take you money and put it into the purse he has ready on his table. This is not
somebody I would trust but the kind of person who with a twinkle in his eye and
a friendly smile, would take the shirt of your back and encourage you to keep
playing. After all, one more game, you might win it all back…
He
also seems to exude intelligence, a sort of craftiness and worldliness. There is
a creativity here, but it’s the creativity of manipulating objects and
situations, even people. He could be a politician, spinning a fantastic vision of
‘sunlit uplands’ to lure the masses, appealing to their prejudice for his own
gain. But he could equally be a sort of artist, a musician or other dextrous
creative, perhaps an actor.
What
would he mean in a spread? I guess it depends. If describing the questioner, he
may speak of developing certain skills, he’s a tradesman after all, in his way.
Nonetheless he’s not a high level creative but more at the level of the street
hawker or the journeyman, he askes to develop your craft and rely on your wits.
He may also represent someone out to deceive, a false choice, someone stringing
you along with promises that never come to anything.
So
far, I think my impressions have been largely negative, but I feel I would not
be doing Le Bateleur justice if I left it at that. He’s undauntedly also clever,
resourceful, and may represent the development of important social and life
skills. How to get on in the world which, after all, if taken too much at face
value, can be ruinous. So, he may also council to be aware, cautious, ‘as wise
as a serpent’, navigating the world with a certain adroitness.
So
overall he’s an interesting character, one of the first people we meet in our
life journey, and whether he teaches us something useful, tries to fleece us,
or anything else, we can still learn a lot from the interaction.
Love
is the law, love under will.
