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To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.tarot,alt.divination,alt.pagan.magick,alt.magick From: nagasivaSubject: Re: Etteilla's Tr. of Pymander Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2004 08:43:13 GMT ================================================ Etteilla's sources. re Pimander/Pymandres/et al. ----------------------------------------------- the second French, according to Depaulis et al. # I know for a fact that at least one such translation was # available in France during his day. two, apparently. the first was classic and the second was the one to which Alliette turned. here's the text from which I'm deriving this conclusion: The *Pimander* was Etteilla's authority, mentioned frequently in his writings about the Tarot, notably in the 'Second cahier' of *Maniere de se recreer avec le jeu de cartes nommees tarots*, where reference is made to the 14th section of the '*Pymandre*, traduit par *Francois de Candalle*, 1578' (p. 17). NOTE: Actually *Le Pimandre de Mercure Trismegiste ... traduit de l'exemplaire grec ... par Francois, Monsier de Foix de Candalle*, Bordeaux, 1579. This was the second French translation to be published in the XVI century. The first had appeared in 1557: *Deus livres de Mercure Trismegiste Hermes ... traduit en francois par Gabriel du Preau*, Paris, 1557. Despite Etteilla's fantasies, his fundamental thinking is still coherent: if the Tarot is the Book of Thoth, and Thoth is Hermes Trismegistus ('Mercure Trismegiste', as he calls him), and the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus are preserved in the *Pimander*, then we should find learned Hermetism in the cards. However, Etteilla does not attempt to accommodate the whole of Hermetic philosophy in his Tarot. His focus is on the creation myths. Etteilla also noted the Hermetist's reliance on the four classical elements: this is why he assigned four trumps to the elements. Both Etteilla and his authority are partially dependent upon the description of creation in Genesis with its six days culminating in the formation of humans. --------------------------------------------------------- "A Wicked Pack of Cards...", Depaulis, Decker, Dummett, St. Martin's Press, 1996; pp. 86-7, 273-4 n44. ===================================================== # ...Etteilla's predecessors, Gebelin and Mellet, did relate # Tarot to the story of Creation, which almost certainly # influenced Etteilla to do similarly. that seems to have been the basis for Alliette's quasi-reversion of the Tarot de Marseille (TdM), yes. # *However*, unlike Etteilla, # Gebelin and Mellet, for reasons they never satisfactorily explained, # insisted that the true or esoteric ordering of the Trumps began with # the World as number one. They insisted that the story of Creation # began with this card, continued with Judgment as number two, etc. Go # figure. someone (I couldn't find a reference with a brief glance; could have been the fabulous Levi for all I know) noted that they presumed the Egyptian values were descending, that primacy was given by *Egyptians* to higher numbers and perhaps even that counting by Egyptians happened this way. it should be remembered, if I'm even close to motivation, that this was the heyday of *Sethos* Egypto- mania, and no historical evidence was available to these Frenchmen from which they might derive their theories. my impression was that they were Christians attempting to make some sense out of the card-ranking, saw a potential emanation-scheme in the Trumps, and fabricated atop them for their purposes (whether one presumes them deceptive or merely imaginative absent evidence). this kind of thing is what led me to playfully suggest that the logic of this sequence might some kind of Neoplatonic emanationist hierarchy (which was succinctly criticized for its weaknesses :>). I got some points, but couldn't, as I suggest that early (occult) Tarotists could not more convincingly, persuade a modern reader of its awesome character and origins given the contradicting evidence. Etteilla liked Hermeticism and Rosicruciana of his time and sought to express within this writ concordant and innovative ideas which might be taken up as part of an emergent ancient recovery of an occult device. he published text on this subject and described himself as a Professor of Algebra. nagasiva
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