Wednesday, April 11, 2007

on Tarot cards and interesting thoughts

So after I read and commented on Brian's "Childermass" post, I decided to do some research on Tarot cards, specifically the "Cards of Marseille" that he has. Having a set of Hanson-Roberts tarot, which is similar in style to the most common Rider-Waite cards, I know a bit of the history of tarot. There are many different accounts of the history of the tarot cards. In my comment, I quoted the history as being just another set of playing cards, founded in 14th Century Italy. Now, my book says that tarot dates back to some 3000 years ago in the Middle East, and became popular in the 14th Century, that part being conistent with common histories. Really, all we know is that the predecesor to the modern tarot deck was designed in the 14th Century as playing cards. It is possible that other, more ancient forms of the deck, were produced, but not to the extence of the tarot deck. It wasn't untill a few centuries later that occultists took in the deck as a form of divination and thus gave the modern connotation to the deck. The term "Tarot of Marseille" that Childermass uses for his deck actually didn't come around until the early 1900s, and was coined for the grouping of cards made from the area. Unless I'm missing something.. I sense a bit of research error on Clarke's end?
links: http://www.tarothermit.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot_of_Marseilles
images of the TdM: http://www.wischik.com/lu/tarot/index.html
and you can also google it to find more ( i did 'history of tarot' and 'cards of Marseille' )


And for my intersting thought: Since I'm a high-fantasy, science-fiction kinda girl, I can make more connections to those kinda books than others. So, when I was reading S&N, I found the relationship between Norrell and Strange to be quite similar to a pair of brothers in a popular series. Is anyone familiar with Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis's Dragonlance series? I can only relate to the Legends 3 part book they pubplished. Back to topic, I found and interesting relation with Strange and Norrell to Cameron and Raislin. Cameron/Strange being the one who went out and actually did things with Raistlin/Norrell being the academic who was more content to sit brooding and studying in his library. Except, of course, Norrell isn't hellbent on taking over the world..

4 Comments:

Blogger Tara said...

From everything I've heard, the divination aspect of the Tarot was an extension of the card game. If I remember correctly, once the game was over, one was supposed to be able to tell one's future (as a joke, I think, not to be taken seriously) from the spread of the cards at the end of the game. Then again, it's been awhile since I did any research on it.


And, now that you mention it, Strange and Norrell do bear an interesting resemblance to the Brothers Majere (btw, I believe that's spelled Caramon. And though Norrell doesn't actualy try to take over the world, I think he does have that rather greedy ambition that makes him want to be in control of everything (and be the only magician).

12:40 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

hmm, i hadn't seen anything about the divination being after the card game. everything i read tends towards crazy occultists finding hidden meanings stuff in the cards.

and you're right about his name :) and Norrell :)

12:52 PM  
Blogger Tara said...

I think I have a book somewhere on the game. I'll see if I can't find it.

6:37 PM  
Blogger Jae said...

I was always fond of Caramon and Raistlin myself, though I only read something like one or two of those books. I like the correlation, though, between them and Strange and Norrell. (Raistlin was always my favorite, though, though I didn't think very much of Norrell. ;))

9:18 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home