Grimaud Tarot of Marseilles Booklets

[devin]

I'm cross-posting this (with permission) from another corner of the internet.

 

ALL CREDIT FOR THE WORK INVOLVED IN PUTTING THE BELOW TOGETHER GOES TO  @_R_ 

 

Edited June 4, 2019 by devin

[devin]

 

On the subject of the Grimaud Ancien Tarot de Marseille LWBs, I thought it might be useful to create a thread in order to collect any relevant information, especially as far as English editions are concerned. Thanks to the kindness of some of our forum members - Devin and Gregory - we now dispose of a few more of these elusive English LWBs on the Marseilles Tarot tradition. Links to the files on Scribd, where available, and a Dropbox folder containing the lot, are provided for convenience.

Those who read French or who have been paying particular attention to the saga of the Grimaud/Marteau edition(s) of the Marseilles Tarot will have noted that Marteau’s deck was published in 1930, thus prior to the publication of his magnum opus ‘Le Tarot de Marseille’ in 1949. This deck was accompanied by a LWB penned by Marteau himself, and which contains some material not present in the later work, most notably divinatory meanings, as well as so-called “encounters” (Fr. rencontres) between cards, i.e. 2-card combinations and their combined meaning. Aside from that, it also contains some spreads, which are also contained in the later LWBs as well as in Marteau’s book. I may have some time in the coming weeks to provide some images or translated excerpts as I have this booklet myself.

 

For now, I will note that the 1930s/1940s booklet is not yet available in English. [Update: see below] It was suggested some years ago that a forthcoming translation of Marteau’s ’Le Tarot de Marseille’ would also contain the material from the booklet, but that particular undertaking has seemingly vanished. There is another translation underway, so this may yet surface in English. 

Copies of the booklet occasionally surface independently of the deck - it would have been in print from 1930 till sometime in the late 1950s at least, judging from the editions I have. It may very well have lasted until the takeover of the Grimaud firm by J.-M. Simon, in 1962.

Next, we have the post-Simon/Ducale (the company who took over Grimaud) versions of the booklet, one of which is available in English, dated 1969/1970. It has the image of The Lover on it, as does the box itself. 

There is no indication given as to who wrote the booklet, but it is largely a crib of Marteau’s earlier booklet. Here is the PDF on Scribd: 

https://www.scribd.com/document/399373114/1970-Grimaud-Tarot-of-Marseilles-English-LWB

 

The next edition, a 1977 booklet has both French and English, and is similar enough in structure to the earlier ones, but the content is different, though perhaps more ‘practical’. There is no cover image. 

 

This deck has been included with decks in different boxes e.g. the blue one with the World and the Fool on the cover, and the one with the Sun/Lover. It may be read online, either as images or as a PDF here (only the English is provided): 

http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks/d00110/d00110.htm

https://www.scribd.com/document/343958901/Grimaud-Tarot-de-Marseille-Booklet

 

For the 1980 edition, the Grimaud booklet was penned by Jodorowsky, ‘L’Art du Tarot’, with a picture of the ace of Cups on the front cover. The box is the same as the previous one. 

There is every chance that this consists of material that was later reworked into his booklet for the Jodo/Camoin tarot of 1997, which has a very similar title. For the sake of completion, the entire French  J/C booklet is available online here: https://www.scribd.com/document/399241473/L-Art-Du-Tarot-Jodorowsky

A partial English translation of this LWB is available here: https://www.scribd.com/document/399241585/The-Art-of-the-Tarot-Jodorowsky
Some other information is also available in English on the Jodorowsky/Camoin take: http://tarothermeneutics.com/classes/Jodorowsky-Camoin/handouts/PhilippeCamoinCode.pdf 

From 1981 onwards, French decks were accompanied by a booklet written by Tchalaï Unger, "Le Tarot, Pourquoi, Comment, Jusqu'où ?" (see the dedicated thread for further details). The cover has the Knight of Staffs on it. The box is the same blue one with the World and the Fool on the cover. From 1982, an English translation, "The Tarot: Why, how and how far", was also available. (A bilingual foreign deck - i.e. German and Spanish - in the 1980s continued to have a translation of the previous LWB in their respective languages, with the box with The Chariot on the cover.)

 

A Spanish translation of Tchalaï’s book was published separately, and this edition included black and white line drawings. There is a Portuguese translation too, but I do not know whether it was a LWB or standalone book. It is also possible that there was a Dutch translation, or some sort of version thereof, I will be able to write more about this in a few weeks.

French: https://www.scribd.com/document/261655753/Tchalai-Le-Tarot
French (.jpeg format): http://nicolaslevy.net/links_references/authors_people/tchalai_unger/
English: https://www.dropbox.com/s/t65d8sc7dep98dq/Tchalai%20booklet.pdf?dl=0
Spanish: https://www.scribd.com/document/344720937/El-Tarot-Por-que-Como-Hasta-donde-El-Tarot-La-respuesta-del-futuro

We should also note the booklet accompanying the Grimaud “Taromantic” deck, a sort of cheat-sheet deck of the Major Arcana of the Grimaud TdM. There are plenty of images online, it seems to be still in print. E.g. 

 

For our purposes, I will note that the LWB was penned by none other than Colette Sylvestre, who is a prolific French Tarot author. That is dated 1987, and gives very succinct divinatory meanings for the major arcana and the 4 aces. It also gives details on 2 spreads, the 4-card cross, and 10 card spread for general reading. There is no English on the copy I have, and I do not think that an English-language edition of this deck was produced.

The mini Grimaud Marseilles I have seen either contain a very condensed version of the earlier 60s/70s LWBs, or no LWB at all (that was one that was given away with a book or magazine or some such, as I recall.)

At this point, I want to note that there may be other editions I am not aware of, so any further information would be appreciated, and I would like to issue a request for information, and if at all possible, scans of other relevant materials, whether Grimaud specifically, or Marseilles Tarot more broadly. I think that it would be most opportune given the recent increase of interest in Marseilles Tarot, along with the relative difficulty of obtaining any practical information on the matter in English.

Here is the link to a Dropbox folder containing all the available LWBs mentioned so far: 
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3rchi9i2evl8x1m/AAC0wgKLWOEoXF-aJyQ5MjQYa?dl=0

[_R_]

Thanks for reposting this Devin. 

 

I have been able to check my copies of the earlier booklet by Paul Marteau, and it turns out that the later English LWB reproduced above (the 1969-1970 one) is in fact its approximate translation.

 

I will note that the 1980 deck with the Jodorowsky-penned booklet pictured above is absent from the otherwise comprehensive thread on AeT found here, as is the one with the English version of Tchalaï’s booklet.

 

 

[_R_]

Could any of the collectors on the forum confirm whether the content of the pictured LWBs matches the ones linked to above, or not?

 

 

 

[Eric13]

This is really great. The Grimaud LWB's have always been very unique.

[Decan]

On 6/4/2019 at 9:51 AM, devin said:

We should also note the booklet accompanying the Grimaud “Taromantic” deck, a sort of cheat-sheet deck of the Major Arcana of the Grimaud TdM. There are plenty of images online, it seems to be still in print. E.g. 

For our purposes, I will note that the LWB was penned by none other than Colette Sylvestre, who is a prolific French Tarot author. That is dated 1987, and gives very succinct divinatory meanings for the major arcana and the 4 aces. It also gives details on 2 spreads, the 4-card cross, and 10 card spread for general reading. There is no English on the copy I have, and I do not think that an English-language edition of this deck was produced.

The keywords look very interesting and usable for a reading, and since there are as well some combinations listed plus at the bottom if the card is good/bad or neutral depending on the area we ask (work, health, love etc.) I was wondering why I didn't have this deck.

But I think it's because of the 26 cards only (22 major + the 4 Ace cards).

This for the 78 cards would have been as well a very good idea!

Edited June 13, 2019 by Decan

[Decan]

Below (as an example for the "Taromantic"), a little translation for Le Bateleur (showman/Magician):

 

Le Bateleur (1)

Keywords: beginning of a relationship – beginning of a project – good initiatives for a new start – intelligence and quick thinking – dynamism and important activity – important vitality – luck

Combinations:

Le Bateleur near L’Impératrice (3): good news

Near Le Chariot (7): journey

Near Le Soleil (19): new love

Near La Roue de Fortune (Wheel/10): luck in the game

Near L’As de Denier (Ace of Coins): prosperity

Near L’Empereur (4): progress and achievement

Near Le Monde (21): reward for the efforts

The emotional (domain): very positive

Material: positive

Professional: positive

Health: positive

Spiritual: positive

 

ETA: I just realize that the cheater side of Le Bateleur isn't stressed here, as well with regard to "mastery", it's more about beginnings, but if I remember properly Le Bateleur in the Marseille is a young apprentice about try something new. It's not the Magician in the RW, not exactly.

Edited June 13, 2019 by Decan

[fire cat pickles]

I have the 1970 orange edition. I never even looked before, to be honest. Interesting to know though. Thank you for all this info. I love my Grimaud!

[_R_]

There is an ongoing English translation of Paul Marteau's main Tarot book online, here: https://smallcabin.org/le-tarot-de-marseilles-by-paul-marteau/

[devin]

On 6/13/2019 at 8:07 AM, Decan said:

Below (as an example for the "Taromantic"), a little translation for Le Bateleur (showman/Magician):

Thanks, Decan. Only 25 more to go! 🙂

 

22 hours ago, fire cat pickles said:

I have the 1970 orange edition. I never even looked before, to be honest. Interesting to know though. Thank you for all this info. I love my Grimaud!

Yeah, _R_ convinced me to take a deeper look at this particular LWB, and, I think, when viewed properly, it points to an implicitly 'cartomantic' style of reading. Which kinda debunks the oft peddled assertion (I've done it before) that such reading styles disappeared from tarot with the esoteric takeover centuries ago. 

 

As an LWB aside: The Tchalai LWB is something far beyond what one could or should class as a standard 'little white book', being something of a quasi-scientific mystical text. Amazing, really.