The original purpose of the tdm
Manufactured edition of Claude Valentin & Guillaume Dubesset
Why the Marseille tarot has been initially created for ?
This is a central question in the history of the Marseille tarot.
In fact, we don’t have much information about the original purpose of the Marseille tarot, so in order to find some clues, we have to explore the historical and cultural context in which the TdM has been created.
Most of historians agree that the Marseille tarot has been created at the end of the XV th century in the italian city of Firenze.
So let’s explore the society of Firenze during the XV th century.
I) The philosophy of Firenze society during the XV th century
During the XV th century, the city of Firenze was composed of the most talented artists and philosophers of the whole human history as Boticelli, Michelangelo, Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Masaccio, Masolino, Donatello, Domenico di Michelino, Marsilio Ficino, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Christophoro Landino, etc.
Back to this time, christianity was at the heart of the Italian society and all theses artists were very pious christians as we can see watching their art or reading their books. But some of them may be considerated as heretics by the clerical authority because of their evident gnostic philosophy.
a) What is gnosticism ?
Gnosticism offers the spiritual belief that the creator of the material world is a different being than the true God of the light.
The demiurge (creator of the material world in 3d) is assimilated to the figure of Saturn, whereas the true God is assimilated to a non human being composed of pure divine light.
Gnostics tend to reject the material world that is considered as an illusion which prevent us to reach the Pleroma (the world of the light also considerated by Platon as the world of the ideas).
That philosophy consists into experimenting the holy presence of God inside of us, breaking away from the illusion of the material world and so it can be considerated as an esoterical pratice.
Despite the fact that gnosticism was (and still is) considerated as an heresy by the catholic church, theses christian gnostics were devoted to Jesus Christ. They considerated him as the only way to return to the light.
The gnosticism philosophy did not appear in the XV th century but during the antiquity. Unfortunately that philosophy has been lost over time because of the persecutions from the roman church who tended to eradicate that spirituality.
But during the XV th century, the rediscovering of the platonism and neo platonism texts of the antiquity gave a new birth to the gnosticism spirituality.
This new spirituality / philosophy emerged and spreaded itself in the Firenze Renaissance thanks to theses erudite artists.
Despite the opression of the church, artist from Firenze managed to hide many gnostic symbols inside their art.
That’s why this ancestral spirituality is present in so many Firenze masterpieces of the XV th century.
Representation of the Devil as Saturn in "The temptation of Christ" by Botticelli
Gnostic esoterical representation of Mary Magdalene (Trinity by Boticelli)
Representation of the cave where Jesus was born (in the background) according to the Gnostic belief in which Jesus was not born in a manger but in a cave, in the deepest part of Earth.
(Adoration of the magi by Botticelli)
Reprersentation of the creator of the material world (Y.H.W.H) as a terrifying being
(Sixtine Chapel by Michelangelo)
Representation of a violence scene from the cheroubin to Adam & Eve.
(Sixtine Chapel, Michelangelo)
Gnostic esoterical representation of Mary Magdalene
(Mary Magdalene sculpture by Donatello)
b) Alchemy, Astrology & Cabbale
In that cultural context, during the XV th century, sciences as Alchemy, Astrology and Cabbale emerged in Firenze.
Back to this time, the purposes of those sciences was to liberate the soul and the body from the prison of the material world, worshiping Jesus Christ.
It seems like, astrologists of that time, believed that the creation of human beings had something to do with the 7 planetary archons (Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Moon and Sun).
There was an idea of fatalism. That’s probably why it was more difficult for some people than other to reduce the influence of some archons (aggressivity related to Mars, sexual addiction related to Venus, pride related to the Sun, etc).
So the purpose of astrology was to liberate the humanity from those bad influences, in order to free the Christ inside of us. Back to this time, astrology was never used for divination purpose because the aim of that science was not to collaborate with the 7 planetary archons. On the contrary, the goal was to set us free from them.
They also used Alchemy to extinguish their ego (associated with the figure of Saturn back then) and to liberate the soul and the body from the material prison to become a pure light. According to their believes, the body is originaly pure light that has been solidifing, so the soul remains stucked in the prison of the body.
All those theories has been developed by Marsilio Ficino after having read and translated the books of Plato.
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola adapted the Kaballah (gnosticism hebrew spirituality) to christianity by creating the “christian Cabbale”.
Boticelli, Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola used to be good friends during the XV th century, they influenced each other sharing their own discovery and philosophy.
II) MARSILIO FICINO
According to Christophe Poncet and Sebastien Michel, the Marseille tarot may have been created by Marsilio Ficino for the students of the “Plato Academy of Firenze”. It is likely that Botticelli helped to create the first Marseille tarot by collaborating in their illustration.
In that Academy, led by Marsilio Ficino for the Medicis family, students learnt the philosophy of Plato directly from Marsilio himself.
Plato is actually known as the inventor of the concept of the Demiurge. He also discovered that the material world is a prison in which we need to escapte, in order to return to the “light of the Monad” that is the true God (see alegory of the cave).
But in this religious and philosophical context, the teachings of Plato were adapted into christianity (as Pico della Mirandola did for the Kabbalah).
Not because they have to (in any case christian platonism philosophy was considerated as an heresy) but because it was their true believe.
Marsilio Ficino, woodcut
III) THE USE OF CARDS TO HELP STUDENTS MEMORIZING THEIR LESSONS DURING THE XV TH CENTURY
Back to the XV th century, it was very common in Italy to create “playing cards” to help students memorizing their lessons.
For exemple, we found some cards used by law students, medicine students and philosophy students. Most of these cards contained pictures that illustrated lessons so students could have a better understanding of the purpose of their courses.
In that context Christophe Poncet and Sebastien Michel elaborated the theory in which the Marseille tarot may have been created for that purpose too.
That could explains why we found so many gnostic, astrological and alchemical symbols in the Marseille tarot (Marsilio Ficino was also known to practice alchemy ).
IV) USING THE MARSEILLE TAROT TO FOLLOW THE PATH OF JESUS CHRIST
As seen earlier, the neoplatonist christian gnostic philosophy is not just about believing, it is an inner spiritual practice that leads to a self transformation.
That’s why students of the Plato Academy of Firenze did not simply have to memorize lessons, they had to experiment the holy presence of Jesus Christ inside of them to escape from the prison of the material world.
In that spiritual context, the Marseille tarot may have been used as a map illustrated in 22 steps to exepriement that divine presence inside of them. Well used, this map could help students to access the gnosis, that is not just about an intellectual understanding of the divine but more about an awakening of the mind, a comprehension that goes far beyond the soul, to the spirit.
That’s why it is more likely that the Marseille tarot has originally been used as an introspective and a meditation tool and not a divination tool.
V) NO SIGNS OF A DIVINATION USE OF THE TAROT UNTIL THE END OF THE XVIII th CENTURY
Back to the XV th century, gnostics (and so christian neo platonists) had a good understanding of the astral world. They were aware about the danger of being manipulated by astral entity called archons. That’s why they could not use the tarot (nor astrology) for a divination use. They clearly made the distinction between the astral world (world of the psyche, governed by the demiurge and archons) and the Pleroma (divine world of light). They knew that using divination directly interfered with the astral world they wanted to escape from.
Some people may argue that divination was forbiden by the church so they had to hide their practise but that’s not true. They simply did not use divination because divination was against their neoplatonist gnostic philosophy.
That could explain why no clues or information about a divination use of the tarot has been found, until the end of the XVIII th century with Etteilla and a bit later with Antoine Court de Gébelin.
Indeed, that gnostic esoteric philosophy disappeared in the course of the XVIII th century with the emergence of the humanist philosophies.
Manufactured edition of Claude Valentin & Guillaume Dubesset
VI) PRACTISING THE MARSEILLE TAROT ACCORDING TO THE INITIAL PHILOSOPHY
As no tangible proof regarding the practice of the Marseille tarot from the end of the XV th century to the end of the XVIII th century, has been found yet, we can only establish theories. As a suggestion, you could for example use your deck to do a “Lectio Divina”(as “La Papesse” suggested to us), having in mind the idea that we are all jailed in a material prison and that the only way to escape it, is following the spiritual path of the Christ.
The lectio divina is known for having been commonly used during that period, the ancients may have been used the tarot in a similar way.
The lectio divina would be composed by 5 main steps.
STEP I : Chosing a card
The first step, consists in chosing a card to work with. As the cards are numbered, you have to begin with the Bateleur. Shuffling the cards is not a good idea, as the archons don’t want you to give birth to Christ inside of you, they won’t let you chose the right card to work with. You can keep working on the first card for days, weeks, or simply choosing the next trump and so on.
Step II : Lectio - “Eating” the card
The next step consists to observe all the details of the card with attention. You must spend a long time on it, for your mind to absorb each pictural elements of the trump, decode all symbols until having them printed in your mind, in order to have a very good understanding of the card. During that step, you must be aware of what is happening on the trump (the story it tells) as much as what is happening inside of you (it may be an emotion, an existential problem, a memory, etc). You should not force anything but you might notice an element that seems important to you or that attracts your attention. That element will remain with you for the next step.
Step III : Meditatio - Meditate with the card
When your soul has “eaten” all the details of the card, you can close your eyes and have an introspective reflection on the element that catched your attention or on the whole card if nothing popped up. Why this card revealed that emotion, idea, memory,etc within me ? Why this memory came back to me ? Reflect on it and analyze what happened to you, putting it in relation with the card.
Step IV : Oratio - Praying with the card
The previous step will help you to enter slowly and naturaly in a step of prayer. Your mind will naturaly open itself to the Heavenly kingdom. You can enter in a praying step in silent or repeating a short sentence. Praying is not about asking favours to God, praying is about uniting yourself with God. To pray properly, you have to forget about yourself in order to let God enter through you.
Step V : Contemplatio - Contemplation of God
The final step is the most spiritual one, the quality of your prayer (previous step) allows you naturally to experiment the holy presence of God. At that stage, you slowly slide into a state of contemplation with God. Your whole being is inflamed by the heavenly fire. The Holy spirit is actually purifying you and transforming you from the inside through the holy union that is happening.
Your “lectio divina” session will naturally end when you notice that your thoughts are back, when you are aware of yourself again. You can write on a notebook what happened during your experience and be patient because it can take a few tries before accomplishing the 5th step.
CONCLUSION
Although, the ancients did not use the tarot as a divinition tool, they used it in a very spiritual way.
The Marseille tarot was, and still is a very good tool to access the divine reality (not the material illusion, either the astral realm) through the divine union and connection with God.
Using the tarot the same way ancients most likely did, can allow you to exeperiment the diving presence of God instead of connecting with archons as in a regular intuitive or intellectual interpretation of tarot reading.
It can lead you outside of the physical and astral borders, bringing you to the divine light of God. In that way it is a very powerfull tool that can help you to experience the spirituality of the ancient gnostics inside of you.
Moreover, it can literaly help you to curse your past and to free yourself from the prison of the material world to access the so called Pleroma.
That’s why the Marseille tarot is one of the best tool for inner transformation.