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Of Trolls, Giants and Tomtes: The John Bauer Tarot


Mi-Shell

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Hi friends! I received the John Bauer Tarot as a Winter Solstice / my B-day present and – since C-19 is now dancing into C-21 I need a little something to sink my teeth in and explore.

In no particular order I will post my thoughts, impressions and questions about this deck.

You are all invited to chime in♥

So let's get together and check out this little wonder.

 

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Edited by Mi-Shell
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The deck arrived here in the usual box, with its LWB that is not very helpful – if you happen to be a person new to Tarot.

We are given a sentence or 2, that describe the image you have in hand. 

It is not mentioned, which character or Fairy Being the image portrays.

Then a sentence or 2 point to the Tarot meaning ascribed to the card.

Sometimes these do fit the archetypes we know so well: other times - they sound quite like an enigmatic oracle.


 

The cards however are beautiful!

Since the Winter Solstice is just past, I leave you with the Hermit.

I do recognize her as Lucia.

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The meaning ascribed to her is :

Trust in your own knowledge

Be prepared for the next step and be ready to lead the charge

 

She is a Lady Hermit very much to my liking♥


 

Edited by Mi-Shell
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That's a lovely folk tale book - I have had it for ages, in the original edition  called simply "Swedish Fairytales". I used to read them to the children.... but it's MY book !

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Here are the Tarot cards depicting scenes and archetypes out of the Little Princess Cottongrass story:

 

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Princess Tuvstar and the Fishpond

Princess Tuvstar is one of several illustrations done in 1913 for the book Princess Tuvstar and the Fishpond.

The images is of Princess Tuvstar sitting by the pool looking for her heart from The story of Skutt the Moose (Leap the Elk in the English Translation)and Princess Tuvstar (Cottongrass).

Have you ever been in a large forest and seen a strange black lake hidden deep among the tall trees? It looks bewitched and a little frightening. All is still - fir trees and pines huddle close and silent on all sides. Sometimes the trees bend cautiously and shyly over the water as if they are wondering what may be hidden in the dark depths. There is another forest growing in the water, and it, too, is full of wonder and stillness. Strangest of all, never have the two forests been able to speak to each other....

Princess Tuvstar (Princess Cottongrass), a girl with long wavy blonde hair, slips away from the Dream Castle to meet Leap the Elk, a strong, loyal, and protective creatures who carries the princess into the world on his powerful back after the princess pleads to take her with him:

'How big and stately you are. You have a crown, too. Let me come with you. Let me sit behind your neck, and then carry me out into life.' The elk hesitates. 'The world is big and cold, little child, and you are so small. The world is full of evil and wickedness, and it will hurt you.' 'No, no. I am young and warm. I have warmth enough for everyone. I am small and good, and want to share the good that I have.' 'Princess, the forest is dark and the roads are dangerous.' 'But you are with me. You are great and strong, and can easily defend us both.'"

Thus, the strong and wise elk carries the innocent and vulnerable Princess on his back out into the world. At first, all is well and the princess is delighted with what she sees on her journey. But, the princess is vulnerable and dangers from the dark forest lurk everywhere and, little by little, rob the princess of her innocence. At some point in the journey, she finds herself naked, robbed of her fine white gown. The elk watches over her vulnerable naked body as she sleeps under the stars at night. He becomes anxious, worried that his strength and wisdom will not be sufficient to protect the little princess.

"He seems to want to move on, and bends down to let the princess climb on his back. Then they are gone in a rush, galloping east. He hardly hears when she calls to him, and rarely answers. As if in a fever he breaks through the tangled forest at a furious rate. 'Where are we going?' asks Princess Cottongrass. 'To the pool,' is the answer. 'Deep in the forest is a pool, and that is where I go when autumn is coming. No person has ever been there, but you shall see it.'"

The elk warns her to be careful of the danger in the water, to watch her golden heart chain around her neck. But, the princess, mesmerized by the dark shining water bends forward for a closer look and the golden heard slips over her head and drops in the pool. 'Oh, my heart, the golden heart that my mother gave me the day I was born. Oh, what shall I do?' She is inconsolable and wanders over the tussocks to look for her heart. The elk warns her 'It is dangerous for you here. Looking for one thing, you will forget everything else.'

But, the princess wants to stay to find her heart. She gently strokes the elk and kisses his bent head. 'Then, small and slim and undressed, she goes and sits down on a grassy hillock. For a long time the elk stands quite still and looks at the small girl. But when she no longer seems to notice that he is there, he turns and disappears with hesitant steps into the forest.'

"Many years have passed. Still Princess Cottongrass sits and looks wonderingly into the water for her heart. She is no longer a little girl. Instead, a slender plant, crowned with white cotton, stands leaning over the edge of the pool. Now and then the elk returns, stops, and looks at it tenderly. Only he knows that this is the princess from Dream Castle. Perhaps she nods and smiles, for he is an old friend, but she does not want to follow him back; she cannot follow any more, as long as she is under the spell. The spell lies in the pool. Far, far under the water lies a lost heart."

Still Princess Cottongrass sits and looks wonderingly into the dark depths of the water.

 

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The first image is of the little Princess sitting in the the Cotton grass meadow, her crown right next to her.

This is, how the tale actually begins.

In the Tarot she is not the innocent but adventurous Page of Rods, but the Queen!

 

The next image in the line -up is the Moon card. 

The little princess has talked the mighty Moose into taking her along on his travels. 

The Moose is very protective of her and also warns her of all the dangers. 

Little Cottongrass hears him, but then always makes mistakes and so looses one of her assets after the other.

First her crown, then her nice dress gets snatched up by an evil green witch:

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This image - not in the Tarot would in my personal opinion would have been a good one for the 7 of Swords - cunning, trickery, a spy, deceit, impulsiveness  etc...

 

The next image I found in the deck is showing how sweet and protective the mighty Moose stands and guards the now naked little Cottongrass as she sleeps. 

this is pretty much the opposite to the "nightmares in your mind" 8 of Swords.  

 

Last in line is Little Cottongrass sitting and sitting and still sitting at the pond looking into the water, motionless, looking for her lost heart necklace - passively, not moving - until she eventually becomes a Cottongrass Flower.

Meditative - yes, but as the archetype of the High Priestess???

To me little Cottongrass is much more likely the dreamy Page of Cups.

 

In my mind and soul the High Priestress is very wise. 

sensitive too...

Would have listened to the ever present warnings of her Moose Familiar.

The HP also would have been more responsible.... In my mind....

 

 

What do you guys think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On 12/26/2020 at 11:41 PM, Mi-Shell said:

Together with the deck I received the Book

An illustrated Guide to Folk and Fairy Tales - John Bauer

Of course it is not written by John Bauer, he sadly drowned at the early age in 1918.

 

 

MiShell - what is the ISBN on that book - the one you have quoted from - as it isn't the same as my book about him !

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8 hours ago, gregory said:

 

MiShell - what is the ISBN on that book - the one you have quoted from - as it isn't the same as my book about him !

Hi gregory!♥

I did see another version / book about John Bauer, when i ordered mine and there seems to be yet another older book out there

The ISBN I have is: 978178250-593-8

 

This here one I would loooove to get:

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-na.ssl-images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F81gRLeBRneL.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.ca%2FFairy-Tale-Art-John-Bauer%2Fdp%2F1999667700&tbnid=J3MTeLgY0zNeIM&vet=12ahUKEwie8ebMofbtAhWBLM0KHQbyDEkQMygAegUIARCaAg..i&docid=fHg8CMFFXLjcjM&w=1051&h=1360&q=Books John Bauer&ved=2ahUKEwie8ebMofbtAhWBLM0KHQbyDEkQMygAegUIARCaAg

 

Ouptzzz! 

that is a crazzzzy web address!

But it is download only, not a hands-on volume 😞 

 

 

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..... Well, I went ahead and downloaded it!

It is a PDF - 126MB

No text, all large images from the artist.

Many of them I do recognise from my Tarot cards.

Sadly, I am missing more explanations = who is portrayed and what the tale is about.

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A beautiful deck, I love the illustrations.  They remind me of Johan Egerkrams book about Scandinavian Folklore called Vaesen, which is so beautifully illustrated too.

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Ah thanks - so that's the centenary one of the one I already own - they must have added a lot more.... I might buy it as well, then.

 

But Raggy will know all the stories - they are part of her life.

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11 hours ago, gregory said:

Ah thanks - so that's the centenary one of the one I already own - they must have added a lot more.... I might buy it as well, then.

 

But Raggy will know all the stories - they are part of her life.

Yes these stories were part of my childhood. I think it’s important to point out that we have a book series in Sweden called Bland tomtar och troll (among gnomes and trolls) and they publish a new edition every year. These books contains different traditional stories (by different authors) and many of the earliest ones were illustrated by John Bauer. My dad collected some of these books as a kid and I was gifted them for a while when I grew up. I had vintage John Bauer posters in my room that had belonged to mom in the 60s/70s and my mom always had this picture on the wall (now it is in my possession):

 

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It’s gotten worn because it originally belonged to my grandmother when she was a child. So it’s old! (This is obviously no original painting though!). 
 

I can’t say that I remember all the stories. There were so many. My favorite ones tended to include älvor and skogsrån. These are mythical creatures that has different stories and meanings to them depending on where in Sweden you are from. They are often depicted differently depending on where the artist was from. To give one example, the skogsrå (i dont know what they translated her to) is sometimes depicted as having a tree-like back, typically if the artist was from southern Sweden. Up north we see her as having a hole in her back, and she usually has a tail. In some traditions it’s a cows tail, but I’m used to it being a fox tail. The way I view these creatures and these fairytales are based on my childhood and the stories I was told, particularly by my grandfather who really believed in all these creatures and who told me of encounters. 
 

I do not own the John Bauer tarot. I initially intended to buy it, but when I saw it I decided it wasn’t for me. I don’t think it truly works. I am disappointed to hear that they didn’t specify the stories in the guidebook/booklet. I suspect that they might have struggled to make their meanings work in the light of the original story. I mean, it wouldn’t have taken up much space to at least list the stories that the illustrations are from or even give a short recap!

 

I agree that Tuvstarr is not a suitable high priestess. There are many layers to that story and I personally don’t think it fits in a tarot deck. And to be brutally honest, I think this deck did a disservice to the traditional stories and to the artist. Mainly because they didn’t care about the original stories or the context and that they didn’t write a proper guidebook to explain what this national treasure of art is  about. I’m sure it can still work (or be made to work) but I feel that they should have made on Oracle deck centered around the stories instead! Not everything has to be tarot, but sadly I think that producers often want to make things into the tarot format because tarot is more profitable than Oracle decks. 

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Here’s a resource that my kids love, it’s a playlist from a museum project where they read John Bauer stories to kids. Its really atmospheric with forest sounds and howling owls etc. It’s in Swedish but maybe those who don’t understand Swedish can activate English close captioning ?
 

 

There are other free resources too but they are all in Swedish. I could link some if anyone was interested, I guess you could use auto translate. 

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New Year's morning reading:

 

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Card 1:

The situation as it is:

King of Wands

A well bejewelled Troll Elder sits in his cozy cave and disperses advice:

What I hear him say is:

Stay put, stay home, your cozy cave is the safest place for you to be right now!

Listen to your Elders and to the wise old healers”

As much as this one – being the King of Wands - has it in his nature to be outgoing, lead the gang in a successful venture, he realizes, that this right now is not the right time for recklessness.

 

Card 2:

Outlook for the year:

The Star!

Oh, but what a drab and sad looking Star image it is!

In semi-darkness a rider, hunched over head downward in defeat sits on his horse. He has relaxed the reigns,given the lead to his rather spunky looking steed. Above the firmament is filled with stars, one of them, a little larger shines brighter than the rest but still is not able to illuminate the image.

Animal instinct will rule over human will!

But slow and steady will get the rider to his destination.

Trust! Even if the way is long and the going is rough!


 

Card 3:

The task at hand:

2 of Swords

To slay the Dragon or to get bit by it?

In European myth there usually is a young hero, that goes out to slay the Dragon – the ancient Medicine Being full of Wisdom and Healing.

Most dragons were seen as nasty treasure hoarders and maiden abductors.

In Siberian myth it is the other way around: Dragons are timeless and very wise. People seek them out to gain access to their wisdom and healing Powers.

ONE BITE AND YOU WILL FALL ASLEEP FOR 4 DAYS BUT THEN WAKE UP AS A SHAMAN ! (Uighur myth from China)

Bring the Dragon a treat and she will give you a healing potion.

We all could very much use that healing potion and protection from a world wide scourge!

Snakes always were dangerous, but also powerful Healers.

Given the chance, I will gladly accept the bite of the snake in my left arm – the sooner the better.

Until that chance comes I will join the Troll King in his cave and hope my Star Rider reaches the dawn of a new era.


 


 

 

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I can't add much to the thread, but I love this deck and John Bauer's illustrations, dark -  which feels like home.   Hm, better make sure I know where my copy is.  

 

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Thank you, @Raggydollfor your valuable input♥

I totally agree with what you mentioned.

Knowing, that this deck is mass produced by LS....

I did not expect anything other than their flimsy LWB in 5 languages crammed into 63 little pages. 😞

 The images seem to have been chosen by a person that does not know the stories and I realllly do hope the person at least knows something about Tarot.

Most of the "meanings" have very little to do with the traditional tarot card meanings.

The cards themselves also do not say, what Archetype is depicted - The Mayors just have Roman numerals, so only an reasonably well informed Tarot user knows the intended archetype.

The Minors have regular numbers 1-10 and then head, helmet  small and large crowns plus the stylized suit symbol on them.

This and, when I follow the little 1 to 2 sentence meaning, lets me feel, as if I am playing with an Oracle.

The cards that normally do have a bit of a realistic "bite" to them, Death for example are almost unrecognizable:

 

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Meaning:

Reverence for the experience

The unknown is closer than you think

Transformation from one side to the other

 

What do you guys think?

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Mi-Shell
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A part of why I see this deck as problematic is because I think about how this all would be if they did that same thing to stories from, lets say, an indigenous culture or an otherwise exploited minority group, and they slabbed it together into a tarot format and added a guidebook that did not name the stories or their context, and just put some random keywords in there. That would be really really bad. Since this deck is about Norse culture, I don't count it as cultural misappropriation, but the method or the approach is exactly that. They did not do the research and they did not present the artwork or the stories in a respectful way. So in this case its mostly an annoyance, but they really should learn better and do better. 

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42 minutes ago, Raggydoll said:

A part of why I see this deck as problematic is because I think about how this all would be if they did that same thing to stories from, lets say, an indigenous culture or an otherwise exploited minority group, and they slabbed it together into a tarot format and added a guidebook that did not name the stories or their context, and just put some random keywords in there. That would be really really bad. Since this deck is about Norse culture, I don't count it as cultural misappropriation, but the method or the approach is exactly that. They did not do the research and they did not present the artwork or the stories in a respectful way. So in this case its mostly an annoyance, but they really should learn better and do better. 

Oh, Sister, EXACTLY such a deck exists !😞

It is called "Native American Tarot" by Lo Scarabeo, depicts scenes from lore and legend without attributing them to these, is full of cultural flaws and embarrassing stupidities ... and I had a loooooooooong thread about it on AT, trying to link the images to parts of the real stories and pointing out..... all kinds of stuffff..... 

Oh, I could start a rant....

To deepen the cultural misinterpretation mess, LS also created an Oracle with the same cultural strereotypes and mistakes a' la Italian Spaghetti Western.... (called Native American cards)

To make your toenails roll up completely, let me tell you, that I was once, while visiting in Germany, invited to a gathering of "authenitc Native American enactors, that wore outfits meticulously re-created after a Lakota encampment in the early 1800. there they sat, in front of a Teepee, all in feather bonnets - playing cards with this deck........ 

I ran......

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1 hour ago, AJ-ish/Sharyn said:

I think LoS has learned Nothing. But I'm enjoying your self-introduction to the deck 😉 

Hi @AJ-ish/Sharyn!♥

I  am sure you well remember all the long threads we had about certain LS decks....

.... The African American is another largely untouchable one......

 

But back to this one, I am glad that when looking at the images I do not see names in 4 different languages.

I also like that there just is a top and a bottom border; it is better, than the "border in a border and another white rim -thing...

 

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26 minutes ago, Mi-Shell said:

Oh, Sister, EXACTLY such a deck exists !😞

It is called "Native American Tarot" by Lo Scarabeo, depicts scenes from lore and legend without attributing them to these, is full of cultural flaws and embarrassing stupidities ... and I had a loooooooooong thread about it on AT, trying to link the images to parts of the real stories and pointing out..... all kinds of stuffff..... 

Oh, I could start a rant....

To deepen the cultural misinterpretation mess, LS also created an Oracle with the same cultural strereotypes and mistakes a' la Italian Spaghetti Western.... (called Native American cards)

To make your toenails roll up completely, let me tell you, that I was once, while visiting in Germany, invited to a gathering of "authenitc Native American enactors, that wore outfits meticulously re-created after a Lakota encampment in the early 1800. there they sat, in front of a Teepee, all in feather bonnets - playing cards with this deck........ 

I ran......

Oh that’s so horrible 😩

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726793162_pointingoutafewthings.JPG.9565239b12baeb36453a7f60524daf05.JPG

...... because Mi-Shell and Raggy and the whole gang may come over and point out a few things to you, including the large wart on your nose!

 

 

and THAT

 

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may not be good for business...... !!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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DSCF2093.thumb.JPG.cea150d21a80cf9bd51db78fe340eede.JPG

 

I KNOW, my eyes are getting very bad, but??

Isn't that an Eagle, not a Raven?

And - dark as the image may be, I can only make out, that the hooded figure is carrying 1 bag in each of his hands - not 2......

 

Card 1 is the Ace of swords and from the story called  Bella's glorious adventure.

We see the mighty Mother Eagle, that carried Bella home to her parent's castle and Bella thankfully presenting him her petticoat.

All is well, that ends well♥

 

The LWB says: 

A large Raven sits on a darkened branch.

Below it stands a young child without clothing.

The child extends their gown out to the Bird as a gift

Meaning:

Start of a new friendship

ask for clarity

express new ideas

         ?

 

Was this image chosen, because there is an Eagle = Air in it?

It would have been a great Knight of Air or even the Queen of Air.... Lady Eagle sure knows, how to deal with trials and tribulations!

..............................................................................................................................................................................................................

I do not know, from what story the next image comes and  would love someone to help.

We are sure dealing with quite an old Page here, and not all too well on foot either - slow and steady and slow and stealthy is my impression....

The LWB says about the Page of Pentacles :

He walks across a cobblestone path carrying 2 bags in each hand.

He is cloaked and hunched, focused on the task at hand.

Meaning:

harnessing your talents

be observant

the journey has begun.

 

Well to be observant, this old guy would have to lower his hoody!

and - if he undertakes a journey, I hope it is a short one and I hope he makes it.....

- well, actually, first I thought this one was a thief using his talents of stealing away with someone's coins.....

and?? are these cobblestones at his feet?? Or is he in a dungeon full of coins and is playing Gollum - taking "my precious"

 

I will Send the mighty Eagle Mother out, to keep an eye on this guy!

 

 

 

 

 

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