The deck has male and female pages and knights, making 6 court cards for each suit. I have fancifully decided that in feminine suits, cups and coins, female pages and knights and queens are higher than their male counterparts, and vice versa. Since I’m not playing a game with them, I don’t think it matters, but it makes me happy . . .
I’ll be using the replacement minors (there are 8 of them), but not the replacement majors. Because extant majors include Faith, Hope, and Charity, there is no way of knowing what other, probably non-Marseille, majors were included in the original. Strength is there, so probably Justice, Temperance, and Prudence were also in the original. These are the 11 majors we have:
Empress
Emperor
Love/Marriage
Chariot
Strength
Faith
Hope
Charity
Death
Judgment
World
On a personal note, I remember I had just gotten this deck when my father passed, almost 20 years ago now. In my distraction, I dropped some of the cards under a cabinet without noticing, and put the deck away. When I took the deck out again, I was shocked there were missing cards, but there they were, on the floor, waiting patiently for me to find them. This isn’t a sad memory, it’s more good that it reminds me of a time when my dad was with us, and also that I thought I was calm and rational when I was really not in my right mind at all, but at least some of it came back with time.
Moving on to reading, I’m not sure how I’ll shuffle this monster, but I’ll figure something out, and do a short interview:
Deck’s most important characteristic: 5 Swords
It’s confusing. It’s a challenge (5=Mars) to our tarot ideas (swords), both meaning and reading ideas, and the very idea of what a tarot deck is. Also, I originally preferred Visconti decks over Marseille decks because the swords are more recognizable as swords, rather than strange intertwined curved things.
Outcome of our work together: Hope
A while back I had to research the difference between faith and hope. According to Martin Luther, faith is understanding and believing, and hope is doing and will, so basically faith is swords/air, and hope is wands/fire. In this illustration, Hope is trampling down Despair and is tied to the anchor of stability as she makes her way to heaven. The anchor is a traditional symbol of hope, and I’m trying to figure out why. Maybe the whole will and doing thing means staying the course, sticking to your path. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. So, work with this deck will confirm and strengthen my resolve to use historic and pips decks, and decks with non-conventional majors!
Well, that’s it for today. Have a happy week ahead! I’ll be back tomorrow with more Visconti!