World Servers Spread, November 2007

By Christine Payne-Towler
ArkLetter 32, November 9, 2007
For an introduction to the World Servers' Spread see ArkLetter 5 

This time we are going to be looking at Le Petit Oracle Des Dames, a foreshortened pack of mostly double-sided cards that encapsulates 74'tableaux' into 42 cards. Technically, this pack is from the Etteilla lineage, though it is an  'oracle game' pack rather than a strict Tarot. The artwork makes Hermetic references, but the contemporary scenes evoke pre-revolutionary France.

...I haven't found enough material about this unique pack to tell you much more about it. The site that sells it (see below) says "The game remains to this day the first of its kind and more interesting." The accompanying LWB is in French, which makes it unavailable to me. Nevertheless I have a vague impression that somebody has translated the available support material to English and put the text up on the Internet.  (Readers, if you have skills in the web-research area, can you help us out here?)

For an outline of the Etteilla School packs, see here:
http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Tarot_Decks:_Egyptian

Here is also an excellent overview of the Egyptian-style Tarot packs, written by a long-time esoteric compatriot Mark Filipas:
http://www.meta-religion.com/Esoterism/Tarot/a_history_of_egyptian_tarot_deck.htm

I have loved the Etteilla family of Tarots since I was given my first exemplar in the late 1970's. That was the Grimaud edition, called the Grand Etteilla, now known as Etteilla I (reproducing the pictures from the pack that Etteilla himself commissioned). This brand-new approach to Tarot clearly and dramatically diverged from previous and contemporary packs available in the late 1700's, spawning a whole cartomancy movement of its own, of which this pack is a mirror.  To make things even more confusing, the key words that were originally associated with Etteilla's unique images were modified over time, as is often the case in packs that have been reprinted across several centuries.  Lucky for all of us, lots of work has been done to contextualize this seemingly divergent stream of Tarots back to the Marseilles and modern traditions, which helps to stabilize our sense of Etteilla's original approach.   For an excellent comparison of the Etteilla divinatory tradition with that of Waite and Mathers (which were built on Etteilla's foundations), go here: http://www.villarevak.org/td/td_1.htm

To interpret this pack particularly, one has to fly by the seat of their pants, since even the attempt to map out the interior logic of this pack is a challenge. All 52 cards of the Pips pack seem to be in attendance, but the logic of the suitless images, and their various associations with each other, either exceeds or deviates from the sane and settled classical structure of Tarot proper. Comparing this pack to my Grand Etteilla, my Grand Jeu de l'Oracle des Dames, and my Cartomanzia (AKA Jeu de la Princesse Tarot), it seems clear that this collection of Etteilla-inspired images have been 'invaded' and cross-pollinated with the Lenormand and Minchiate ethos. There might be closer to 27 Trumps, depending upon how you would define a Trump in a mixed-bag pack like this. Our traditional Tarot Trumps are not treated here with the same respect we are used to -- they often share half a card with a pip or royalty image.  Meanwhile, it is not always clear if there is a relationship between the upright version of a card and it's reversed identity. So again, one has to go by feel. In any case, the cards are lively, the art is evocative, and with a little pondering, there's always something to learn from the effort.

Currently, Le Petit Oracle des Dames can be bought from this company, which seems to have absolutely everything:
http://www.lepalaisdutarot.com/  Go through Google to find the site it if you need translation help like I do! ;-)

Regarding the Question: As I was shuffling these cards, my mind was a total blank.  Not knowing what to ask, things were left open for the cards to make their own comment. Readings done this way quite often produce the very best, most creative interpretations, because my mind hasn't already spun a whole web of conditioning factors around the cards in advance of the deal. I'm much more likely to read the cards for their inherent potential this way.

World position:  9 Clubs (Wands)

The two men we see here approaching each other, striking the pose of 'hail fellow well met", give the feeling that they are old buddies who are happy to be crossing paths. They might each come from different worlds, different cultures, but for this moment life is enriched by finding themselves in each other's company.  The key words speak of well wishes, friendship and success.

The colors of their jackets and trousers give us a hint of an older concept -- the meeting of opposites. The man on the left is slim and wiry, he might be younger, and he's clad in the colors of the airy, mental realms -- blue and yellow.  The man on the right is corpulent and thick, is potentially older and is clad in red and green, symbols of earth and blood. These two fellows could be representing "theory" on one side and "experience" on the other. The Medieval Scapini pack puts this same concept on the two of swords, evoking "the meeting of Sanguine and Bilious". This implies an alchemical or transformative conjunction, in which the excesses or deficiencies of the one are balanced and tempered by the qualities of the other. Hence, we can see these two characters as ingredients in a remedy that blends substances of opposite nature to make a whole that's greater than the sum of its parts.

For the sake of this divination, I will go with the idea of the reconciliation of opposites, including the recognition of the worthy sparring-partner and/or counterpart.  We are witnessing the type of acknowledgment and respect that a military vet gives a peer and fellow warrior when they meet off the battlefield. Alternately, this image could betoken the insider greeting passed between Lodge members whose paths are crossing in the outer world. There's affirmative and approving recognition being exchanged, encouraged by the setting in which the two find themselves, walking outdoors in the fields as they are. If we want to dip into the pure-Tarot divinatory meaning of the nine of clubs, we can also add a flavor of rest and regeneration after intense labor, passing the baton to a teammate in a relay, and mutual pride in a difficult accomplishment that's nearing completion.

In the first position of our spread, this card encourages us to "meet the Tarot newly" each day, even on the days when the cards we turn up don't exactly resemble what we had expected, or make themselves instantly transparent and easy to understand. As a matter of fact, the longer one has practiced, the more one needs to challenge the givens and look from new angles to derive the fullest meaning from their cards. This is why it's instructive to switch out packs of cards regularly, forcing ourselves to confront different art, different writers, and the many different ways there are to express the same old combinations of title, number and/or suit. Just like no Tarot client is asking us to read from their momentary appearance (clothes, body-posture, facial expressions and vocal tones), even so, we should not be looking at the cards we just laid out through the obscuring haze of opinion, drama, or unquestioning repetition.  Rather than reacting to the cards based on how the superficial details are presenting themselves, or based on ways we have understood the cards in some past circumstance, our job as Tarot readers is to *peer deeply into the fresh potential signified by the cards*. The future will not be revealed by coughing up a rehash of the categories we already have going in our minds!

A reader must, very early in their practice, learn to dial down their personality-reactivity and put their 'opinionizer' on the back burner. Lazy people think that the 'meaning' of a spread comes from whatever superficial impression they acquire after hearing the question and throwing out a random swath of cards. This is most emphatically not so.  The spread that will be the most useful is not the one that seems to reflect information you already know!  To get the most out of our use of the Tarot, we have to be seeking out the ideas we would never have independently thought on our own steam, the concepts that hadn't entered our mental field of vision till the Tarot pointed them out. It's that contrast, that difference value, which brings out the reader's and the client's creativity, fosters breakthroughs and teases out solutions. Just like an inventor occupies her thoughts with what hasn't been created yet, the Tarot reader searches his cards for the untapped meaning, the unrecognized potential, and the rest of the story that was previously overlooked. It is by welcoming the surprise option into the conversation, becoming open to the seeming 'other', that we can make a bridge between what currently is and what is yet possible.

Fool position:  Consultante/Eve  --

This would be the Papess card in a regular pack. In this image we see the pagan Goddess who returned to Christianity through the Classical Revival of the early Italian Renaissance.  Etteilla called this image Eve, referring specifically to her untarnished sanctity and purity in the period before "the Fall".  I also sense there are echoes of Junon and her peacock from the IJJ Swiss pack, which appeared a little more than a decade before Etteilla's packs (my edition was first published in 1748). 

It would also be perfectly legitimate to see Sophia as the subtext of this image, in that we are witnessing the lushness of an abundantly furnished Creation framing an image of the Divine Feminine.  This pack is specifically aimed at 'des Dames', and the figure pictured is quite youthful and perfect.  Therefore I'm assuming a compliment is intended from the creator, given out indiscriminately to all women everywhere, in appreciation of those aspects of the feminine gender that have, since time immemorial, evoked divine comparison.  By labeling the card "Consultante" (in the feminine spelling), we are put on notice that "this means you, gentle and lovely querant".

Landing in the middle position, conditioned by the energy of the Fool, this card suggests the development of pure intuition as an ally in the art of reading the Tarot. Notice how the reverse of this card is also named "Consultant", but this time expressed in the masculine form? Furthermore, see how the image is one of obscurity, formlessness and lack of focus.  Why is the male Consultant pictured as an indistinct fog bank, while the female Consultante looks out at us with the canny gaze of Wisdom?  I think we are looking at an image of the long-storied, time-hallowed "female intuition", imparted through the wise blood of woman.

Before Jungianism, the symbol of a woman would most often have been read as referring to something belonging only to incarnated females, from which incarnated men were ipso facto excluded. It may still feel that way sometimes, but modern interpretations of the psyche provide for an opposite component supplied by the inner life, completing the attributes granted to us by the gender of our manifested body. We are now free to see this component of the Divine as part of everybody's personal make up, whether as an introjected image of our opposite, or as an upgrade to our own natural state.

There is also the allegorical interpretation of a naked woman representing the Soul, similar to the way we understand her in the Star card. This approach encourages us to make whatever identifications we can with the pictured 'blank slate' state of openness, virginality and unspoiled awareness. Whether we see her as the Popess in the Inner Sanctum, meditating on the Eternal Truths, or as the innocent First Woman, unsullied by the future's complications -- in either case we need to seize hold of her attitude of neutral witnessing, unbroken contemplation, awakened receptivity.  The effigy of Sophia's naked Wisdom dares us to divest ourselves of artifice as well, and respond with profound simplicity to the reality of what we are being presented with.  Wisdom advises that we practice uncensored seeing all through our conscious lives, so we'll have those reflexes honed and ready when its time see the naked truth in the Tarot.

Magus position:  Man between Virtue and Vice (Lovers/Two Paths)

In this image, Vice appears seated with her back to the viewer. She wears a hat embellished with feathers and a bright red dress, sign of her profligate tendencies.  Her near hand is reaching out to grab the man's cloak as he walks by. Virtue appears to be already pulling him away from the zone of temptation, keeping a firm arm around his shoulders and guiding him forward with the other end of his cloak.  The man's face is looking back but his feet are moving forward, away from the temptress and her pleasurable-sounding offer. In self-defense, he has thrown his arm out to push her away, rejecting her seductive advances. This image is optimistic about his chances of making the right choice and staying on the path of Virtue.

In this spread geared to readers of Tarot, the Lovers or Two Paths card in the Magus position reminds us that every time we throw the cards, every time we read for others or ourselves, we are being tempted by the siren song of self-aggrandizement. We might flatter ourselves that we know more than others do about their lives. Then again, we might take pride in the position we can gain in the community through our skill in divination. Having a successful session and helping somebody move out of a stuck spot makes us feel so smart, so talented, and so wise! Not to mention the specific attraction of being even momentarily psychic, far-seeing, prescient.

Too often we forget the flip side of the coin -- the painful spectacle of an individual who harbored a spiritual illusion until it distorted their destiny and led them into error. It's much harder, though infinitely more valuable to society, to retain our humility and refuse to inflate. We must get it through our heads that "having certain inalienable rights" does not mean we are automatically entitled to materialize whatever we can imagine, boundary-less and unrestricted. The headlines in the daily news teach how much damage can be done when people lose their bearings and indulge their desire natures without discipline. It shouldn't be necessary to re-live each and every age-old lesson through our personal lives. When standing at the fork in the road, wisdom counsels that we calculate not only the pleasures of the moment, but also the likely consequences for the long haul.  A person who takes himself or herself seriously and values their opportunity to contribute to the evolution of the world will not risk it all on a whim or an impulse.

The image is created to suggest a sexual temptation, but modern life is infinitely more sophisticated than that. Nowadays, we are bombarded all day long from every direction with advertising, consumerism, pre-processed news and herd opinions.  The drumbeat is relentless, and it creates hundreds of new seductions and temptations, ready to suck the life force out of us in new and novel ways, hounding us through every day. It has gone on so long already that most of us have ceased even noticing the ubiquity of it, meaning we also struggle to realize how taken in by this mass-manipulated empty desire we really are. If there's something you would like to do in response to reading about this image in this position, consider where in your life you can 'just say no' to meaningless impulse-gratification. If over time you were able to gather together all the little pulses of energy you used to spend unthinkingly on momentary pleasures, how quickly would that accumulate into a deep pool of reserve energy, available to be devoted to a truly creative new endeavor?

My final advice for this spread is this:  Realize that the observations you share through your Tarot practice are as relevant for yourself as your client. Listen carefully to the words of Wisdom you are being led to share with others. Assume that every time you find yourself doing a reading for another, you are doing a reading for yourself as well. I do not mean by this that you have to take that miserable tack of using a client session to talk about one's own life and experiences!  What I mean is, after you have done a really thorough job of exploring the cards for the sake of your client, you block out an extra unit of time to ponder how that very same lesson applies to yourself. Refuse to hold the client as the 'other', to whom things happen that have no relevance to your own life and studies. Take the attitude that every human story is, in some ways, your own story. Accept that there but for fortune go you or I.

In my experience, when a person takes the time to attend to this detail, they will see how utterly synchronistic it is that a particular client or friend will ask you this particular question at this particular time. There's no telling how many times, in my life as a reader, I have completed a professional session, only to close up my cards and walk out into the same general situation I was analyzing with my client not one hour before!  Of course the scale and the details would be rearranged to fit my life instead of the client's, but the parallels are so often uncanny. From this we learn that nobody is immune to the ups and downs of the human experience.

Holding oneself superior to one’s Tarot clients only ensures a big blind spot and a painful fall.   Therefore I advise careful attention to this aspect of your life with Tarot. Pledging oneself to this leveling discipline will reward you even beyond the synchronic-advice factor.  Not only will you learn your pack of cards faster when you study them both 'inside' and 'outside' (both as they apply to clients and as they apply to yourself). But also, you will get in the habit of taking your own medicine, ensuring that you never give a prescription or advice that is untested, or that you aren't ready to live out yourself.

_______________________________

ArkLetter 32
November 9, 2007
copyright christine payne-towler 2005-2007, all rights reserved

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Comments

[Bonnie]

Christine:

Certainly lots to think about here. It is a gift that you place the links that you have researched, because they open up new worlds for your readers. Especially with the work of Mark Filipas ... I have bookmarked his article to go back to and print out.

That you use different decks each month ... and explore the backgrounds of the decks is also a distinct bonus! I did attempt an Internet search on "Le Petit Oracle Des Dames", and,like you, regretted not understanding French! I found no English translation. However, you could type the LWB into a translation site, and see what comes up. There has to be a reason for the double images on the cards.

I have to agree that what we come up with in readings for our clients has a very strange way of finding its way into our own lives! ;-) I look somewhat to the Law of Attraction here ... that we are drawing to us what we are focusing on, even if that focus has not found its way up to the conscious level.

Blessings,
Bonnie

[Christine]

Thanks for the props, Bonnie!

I can't claim credit for the links, for the most part. Those are 98% due to the genius and amazing comprehension of our illuminated lightscribe, Cynthia. It is she who sets up the articles in their blogs, hunting down both the illustrations and the links.

If I manage to contribute something here or there from my own internet research, it was most likely found found while cruising my way through the threads at the Aeclectic Tarot forum.
http://www.tarotforum.net/
That is a truly beautiful place to go and immerse oneself and learn, because of the great generosity of the owners/managers and all these dedicated souls who pour out their love of Tarot for the world to share.

Anyway, it's a wonderful thing to be part of, this awakening of Tarot in the 21st century. I consider it a privelege!