Ancient Tarots of Marseilles (Tarot cards)

Rating:
Summary: This Conver is easiest to find in the USA
Review: Nicholas Conver's 1760 woodcut Tarot was the basis for Paul Marteau's Grimaud Tarot de Marseille pack that appeared in 1930. It was Marteau who named this particular style the "Tarot de Marseille." This deck, or a deck very similar to it, was the deck that was discovered by Antoine Court de Gébelin and written about in his treatise "Le Monde primitif;" he was the first to propose the theory, ultimately shown as historically unsound, but deeply influential, that the tarot were "arcana" that preserved Hermetic or Egyptian secret wisdom. Court de Gébelin's theories were picked up by Etteila, founder of Tarot divination, and by Eliphas Lévi, whose version was passed on to British Rosicrucians and ultimately to the Golden Dawn.

This Conver deck, therefore, represents the root and origin of all later systems of Tarot divination and all occult theories about this deck of cards. This is what Pamela Colman Smith and A. E. Waite worked from; this is what Frieda Harris and Aleister Crowley worked from. This is also the foundation of all of the rather different Francophone systems of tarot divination and interpretation, systems that have had only slight impact on the English speaking world.

Some may not find these cards to be things of beauty; they look genuinely old, and as stated above, they are traditional. The deck that comes with the "Tarot Set" is another version of the Conver Marseille. These are made on laminated card stock, and feel like they are made more soundly. Of all the several reprints of the 1760 designs, this one is probably the easiest for a U.S. buyer to get.

Users should be aware that the original deck from which these reproductions were made was apparently missing the Six of Bâtons. The Six in this deck was made by erasing the central Bâton from the Seven; this means it does not have the floral decorations that the original deck had. If your system of interpreting the Tarot de Marseille includes the flowers, you may prefer the Tarot Set edition to this one.