Hello! Help reading list (Marseille)

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Hello

I hope this is ok to post in this room, feel free to move my post.
I am obviously new here, I have just discovered this forum and am absolutely amazed and intimidated by the knowledge displayed here.

I learnt tarot with the RWS, as I live in England, about 10 years ago. I studied it for a little while and then drifted away, but I somehow always seem to come back to the tarot one way or another. I have very recently developed an interest for the Tarot de Marseille. I saw the documentary about Enrique years ago and was blown away. I've now decided it's time for me to start studying this. Being a French expat in the UK I also feel it's only fair I should go back to my roots.
So I recently acquired a Noblet deck.

Would you be able to recommend books about the history/meaning of Tarot de Marseille to me, in French or English? I don't really know where to start, especially in French since I learned in the UK, I don't really know the French-speaking tarot world/authors.
Sorry of this is a tedious question, feel free to direct me to another post if there is already a list somewhere.


Merci!
Last edited by Céline on 28 Jul 2021, 08:10, edited 1 time in total.

Re: Hello! Help reading list (Marseille)

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Bonjour Céline,

Since procuring material from outside the UK would likely be quite expensive now, you might want to try your luck with some of the material online, or stick to ebooks for the moment.

As it happens, there is the very nice catalogue by Thierry Depaulis, "Tarot, Jeu et Magie", which you can read on the website of the Bibliothèque nationale. This will give you a good overview of the history. Depaulis' newer book is more up to date, mais faute de mieux...
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k ... texteImage

Isabelle Nadolny's recent book "Histoire du Tarot" is also supposed to be very good overall, so you might like to look into that too.

For some very French reading methods (since you mention Enriquez) I would strongly suggest the works by Tchalaï, and you may even have the booklet that came with the Grimaud deck in the 1980s and 90s, but if not, it is online here:
https://www.scribd.com/document/2616557 ... i-Le-Tarot

Another author whose work is interesting is Alain Bocher, and as it happens, his publisher has put his book and booklet online too:
https://www.arbredor.com/ebooks/TarotMemoire.pdf
https://www.arbredor.com/ebooks/TarotModeEmploi.pdf

Bear in mind that some books are deck-specific, e.g. the Grimaud for Tchalaï, and the Conver for Bocher. But you can adapt the details to the reading method accordingly. After that, if you want more specific recommendations, just ask.

Bonne lecture !

Re: Hello! Help reading list (Marseille)

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The best introduction to the history of the tarot is Thierry Depaulis's Le tarot révélé : une histoire du tarot d'après les documents, 2013, only 96 pages. I can't find anywhere online where you can buy it, unfortunately. Many of his articles are online, free, some in French, some in English. For the Marseille, there is his "Tarot of Marseille, Facts and Fallacies," parts 1 and 2. Ross Caldwell has some excellent articles online, too, in English.

My own introduction to the tarot was by way of the Noblet and Jean-Michel David's book focusing on that particular deck, Reading the Marseille Tarot, back when it was an online course. It's expensive, but you can see the first four chapters or so in Google Books. There is also Flornoy's take on the deck, online.

As far as interpreting the Marseille, my favorite is Sallie Nichols and Mary K. Greer, Tarot and the Archetypal Journey: The Jungian Path from Darkness to Light. It's on kindle. It also refers to the Waite-Smith, so you might relate to it. Mary Greer's tarot blog is pretty good, too.

You might enjoy Jodorowsky's La Voie du Tarot, which focuses on his and Camoin's dubiously reconstructed Conver. The English version, the Way of Tarot, is free online.

Re: Hello! Help reading list (Marseille)

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Mikeh thank you for the recommendations, am making a note.
Have now acquired Flornoy's book, in French, and am very excited about reading it. Turns out the fnac.fr only charges 4 euros for european delivery, this is good news. Didn't get charged anything else custom wise.
I used to read Mary Greer's blog years ago, very interesting indeed.
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