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Alliette's Tarot Card Attributions

To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.tarot,alt.magick,alt.pagan.magick,alt.divination
From: nagasiva 
Subject: Alliette's Tarot Card Attributions (+Marsaille and Mathers!)
Date: Wed, 03 Dec 2003 20:56:07 GMT

Comparing Primary Occult Tarotsters: Alliette (w/ Marseille) & Mathers
==========================================================================
   ETTEILLA DECK'S ASTROLOGY CARDS (W/ MARSEILLE & GD NAME & KEY IMAGE)
  	     Jean-Baptiste Alliette (aka 'Alliette d'Etteilla')
			     (b. 1738 - d. 1791)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) ZODIAC -- (Alliette/1788), Marseille (1700's), & Mathers 1887) ------- |
------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
ETTEILLA ------------------------- | - MARSEILLE - | GOLDEN DAWN ---- KEY |
## SIGN ------ CARD NAME (REVERSE) | - CORRELATE - | SIGN CARD ---- IMAGE |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
01 ARIES       Etteilla (Male Q.)    Pope          | Hierophant     [--]
02 TAURUS      Enlightenment (Fire)  Sun           | Sun            [XIX]
03 GEMINI      Discussion (Water)    Moon          | Moon         [XVIII]
04 CANCER      Desolation (Air)      Star          | Star          [XVII]
05 LEO         Travel (Earth)        World         | Universe       [XXI]
06 VIRGO       Night (Day)           Empress       | Empress        [--]
07 LIBRA       Support (Protection)  Emperor       | Emperor        [--]
08 SCORPIO     Etteilla (Female Q.)  Popess        | High Priestess [--]
09 SAGITTARIUS Justice (Jurist)      Justice       | Justice [XI (rev.!)]
10 CAPRICORN   Temperance (Priest)   Temperance    | Temperance     [XIV]
11 AQUARIUS    Strength (Monarch)    Fortitude     | Strength      [VIII]
12 PISCES      Prudence (The People) Hanged Man    | Hanged Man     [--]
                                                   |
13 [--]        Marriage              Love          | Lovers         [--] 
14 [--]        Major Force           Devil         | Devil           [XV]
15 [--]        Illness               Mountebank    | Magician       [--]
16 [--]        Judgement             Judgement     | Judgement       [XX]
17 [--]        Mortality             Death         | Death          [--]
18 [--]        Traitor               Hermit        | Hermit          [XI]
19 [--]        Misery (Jail)         Tower/M.-Dieu | Tower          [--]
20 [--]        Fortune               Wheel of For. | Wheel of Fort.   [X]
21 [--]        Dissension            Chariot       | Chariot        [--]
                                                   |
0  [--]        Folly                 Fool          | Fool             [0]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Etteilla' deck, from "Maniere de se recreer avec un jeu de cartes nomees
tarots", or "How to Have Fun With a Pack of Cards Called Tarot", by J.-B. 
Alliette (also known as Etteilla), Amsterdam and Paris: Segault & Legras, 
1785; J. Revak: http://villarevak.org/astro/app_a.html, and "A History of 
the Occult Tarot: 1870-1970", Decker/Dummett, Duckworth, 2002; pp. 97-99,
"A Wicked Pack of Cards-The Origins of the Occult Tarot", by T. Depaulis,
R. Decker, & M. Dummett, pub.: St. Martin's Press, 1996; pages 86 and 92.
=========================================================================

Alliette's attributions at the beginning and the end of his deck may have 
been supplements, rather than occult facets as in the ceremonialist decks
as the Golden Dawn had from Mackenzie. he refers to the Zodiacal signs as 
being used for the construction of natal charts. the Planets (that are on
Coin Number cards, along with Part of Fortune and 2 Lunar Nodes) he calls 
"Little Gods of Egypt". the Etteilla Tarot is sequentially numbered, from 
#1 to #78, comprising the pages of the Book of Thoth, trump imagery being
his attempt to pattern the whole after the expression of Antoine Court de 
Gebelin as follows:

trump 1 = 'Chaos' (might be called 'the darkness over the waters'), while 
trumps 2 through 8 are the Judeochristian Myth of the Seven Day Creation, 
concluding the zodiacally-attributed cards with the four Cardinal Virtues 
(i.e. Justice, Temperance, Fortitude, and Prudence).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMPARABLE ZODIACAL CARD NAMES AND IMAGES 

3 of 4 Cardinal Virtues. their zodiacal signs differ markedly, due to the
method employed for assigning them, and card positions within the trumps.

	ALLIETTE  JUSTICE      9 SAGITTARIUS
	MATHERS   JUSTICE     XI LIBRA (post-GD-SWITCH, was VIII)
         
        ALLIETTE  TEMPERANCE  10 CAPRICORN
        MATHERS   TEMPERANCE XIV AQUARIUS
           
        ALLIETTE  FORTITUDE   11 AQUARIUS
        MATHERS   STRENGTH  VIII LEO     (post-GD-SWITCH, was XI)
                 
'Prudence', Alliette's next card, is the 4th Cardinal Virtue. Prudence is
sometimes associated with the Hermit trump (Mathers' IX) in contrast with
this, and curiously so, Alliette places the *image* of the Hermit on card
18 and gives it the name 'Traitor', A COMMON NAME NAME FOR THE HANGED MAN
(especially in *gaming* Tarot!):

         ALLIETTE: Prudence     12 PISCES
          MATHERS: Hanged Man  XII WATER
     GAMING TAROT: Traitor     XII 

cards from 9 to 67 are given no attributions, but additional astrological 
attributes (Planetary) are provided for card 68, 10 of Coins, through 77, 
Ace of Coins, ending the sequence with *attributeless* card 78 ('Folly').
=========================================================================

2) PLANETS
	---------------------------------------------------------
	ETTEILLA ---------------------------------------- MATHERS
	---  Coins Planetary -------------- Planetary Attribution
	###  Rank  Attribution ------------------ Faces (/Decans)
	---------------------------------------------------------
	68  10    Part of Fortune                Mercury in Virgo
	69   9    South Node                       Venus in Virgo
	70   8    North Node                         Sun in Virgo
	71   7    Saturn                         Saturn in Taurus
	72   6    Jupiter                          Moon in Taurus
	73   5    Mars                          Mercury in Taurus
	74   4    Moon                           Sun in Capricorn
	75   3    Venus                         Mars in Capricorn
	76   2    Mercury                    Jupiter in Capricorn
	77 ACE    Sun                     Root of Powers of Earth
       (78  --    --         'FOLLY'                         -- )
	---------------------------------------------------------
	Ibid., 23/11/2003, http://villarevak.org/astro/app_b.html 
	and "A History of the Occult Tarot: 1870-1970", by Ronald
	Decker and Michael Dummett, Duckworth, in 2002; pp. 97-8.

==========================================================================

both men used astrological components for their card attributions, Mathers
finding a way of using all the cards in the mix, whilst the earlier author
attributed the Part of Fortune, the Lunar Nodes (North and South), and the 
seven visible Planets (in astronomical order) to Earth Numbers, Ten-->Ace. 
Mathers called the Aces "Roots of the Powers of the Elements," attributing
astrological Faces to his Small Cards from Two through Ten in all 4 suits.

Mathers might have extracted these attributions (which he called 'Decans') 
from Agrippa's "Three Books of Occult Philosophy". Agrippa wasn't familiar
with all forms of astrology, apparently, and he identified Faces as Decans 
within his work in several places. Tyson makes it plain, in his edition of
the work, that Agrippa was somewhat unfamiliar with astrology and may have 
obtained Face information from the Picatrix: p. 360, Three Books of Occult
Philosophy, by H.C. Agrippa, tr. James Freake, ed. Donald Tyson, p. 360.
==========================================================================
END -- nagasiva 2003/12/3 -- corrections welcomed.

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