Introduction

IN THIS BLOG, YOU READ FROM THE TOP DOWN, GOING FROM ONE POST TO THE ONE BELOW IT. WHEN YOU GET TO THE BOTTOM, CLICK ON "OLDER POST" FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER. IGNORE THE POSTING DATES: THEY ARE JUST WHEN I SET UP THE BLOG. FOR THE REST OF THE TABLE OF CONTENTS (THE OTHER EIGHT CHAPTERS), CLICK ON "OCTOBER" AT THE RIGHT SIDE OF THIS PAGE.

IN OCTOBER, 2024, I AM WORKING TO IMPROVE THIS TRANSLATION, BASED ON COMMENTS BY "PATREEKTHEARTIST" AT THE END OF  http://thirdcahier.blogspot.com/2012/10/blank_3683.html, WHICH I GREATLY APPRECIATE.

Please note that I also have other blogs related to Etteilla, to which the links are below.

http://etteillastrumps.blogspot.com/, transcribing and translating Etteilla's comments, in his 2nd Cahier, on the trump cards of his deck. 

http://neopythagoreanisminthetrot.blogspot.com/ , discussing Etteilla's followers' word-lists for the numeral cards and connects them, by means of Neopythagorean writings, with the corresponding images of the Sola-Busca deck of c. 1491 and the Waite-Smith deck of 1910.

http://templeinmemphis.blogspot.com/ discussing a diagram that is the frontispiece to Etteilla's Leçons Théoreque et Pratique du Livre de Thot in terms of an essay by his follower Hugand, of which I translate the relevant portion. 

http://etteillasangelology.blogspot.com/ translating and discussing the portion of Etteilla's 1785 book Philosophie des Hautes Sciences that deals with the "72 angels of God".)

https://etteillatimelineiii.blogspot.com, "Etteilla and Variants Timeline III". This is an expanded version of a timeline I put together on Aeclectic Tarot Forum, in turn expanding and organizing by date a previous timeline. It contains links to historic Etteilla-related material, including that of his followers, up to the early 20th century.


A. The occasion for this translation.

In September of 2012 "Corodil", a native French speaker, posted on Aeclectic Tarot Forum (http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=180963) his transcription of Etteilla's 3rd Cahier, a work many have wanted to read but few have taken the trouble to either obtain (on microfilm from the Bibliotheque Nationale) or make available. I am not fluent in French, but I did want to read what it said. So I undertook a translation into English, relying on what I know, translation machines, dictionaries, and occasional help from people who are fluent in French. In this blog I am giving again what I posted on Aeclectic, but in a more readable form, in as much as it includes all the corrections I went back and did. Words in italics are as in the original. The French is still available on the link just given. Since it isn't my work, I didn't feel comfortable posting it here. 

ADDED OCT. 2024: The original is now available on Gallica, at https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k312882c.r.

B. Etteilla's introduction

Etteilla begins the book as follows:

Quote:

The Art of reading French Cards, having generally pleased, I believed that I would also flatter the curiosity and the taste of almost all Europe, if I brought to light that of reading the Cards named TAROT, these being in all respects the origin of ours, because they come to us (as M. Court de Gébelin has very knowledgeably told us, in his eighth Volume of The Primitive World) from the first Egyptians. I shall not talk thoroughly here about this Deck of Cards, or rather this invaluable Book, which is familiar to me since 1757, about which I protest that I have found some unique information; however I shall say what is its way of being amusing, in imitation of the ancient Peoples who made this Deck of Cards, formerly named the book of Thoth, their most robust activity, containing generally all their sciences, and particularly their Religion, their Oracles, and their universal Medicine, so that it is easy to explain, by interpreting, like the Ancient Mages, the seventy-eight Hieroglyphs that are contained in this Deck of cards). (*1) To understand what I am going to say, it is useful to have before your eyes the deck of cards named Tarot, and so as not to have trouble with the order which I consider as their numbers and the interpretation which I give to Hieroglyphs, it is necessary to write both on each of the Cards, following the plan which I indicate, promising, besides, to bring to light what is lacking here, so as to have a complete idea of this Book of Thoth, which contains the whole Universe. (*2) ________________________________ (*1.) See in the work, p... nos. 9, 10, 11 & 12. (*2.) It is the true expression of the wisest and greatest Ancients who have come before us. P.S. This corrected Deck of Cards is found, in Paris, at the home of the Author, living at Rue de la Verrerie, facing that of la Poterie, in the new building. Address the Porter.

Etteilla continues by describing the first 22 cards, called elsewhere the "trumps" or "major arcana", followed by the suit cards, 56 of them, and these with both Upright and Reversed meanings.

To continue with more of Etteilla's text, click on the word "October" at right. On the other hand, some background might be helpful, to put his work in historical perspective.

C. Some of the history behind Etteilla's cartomancy (this part written July 2020)

Etteilla's Third Cahier was published in 1783. Despite being called the "Troisieme Cahier", i.e. Third Notebook, it is his first published book on cartomancy using the Tarot deck, after which three more "cahiers" would follow in 1785. Before that he had written a book on cartomancy, or "cartonomancy" as he insisted on calling it, using the 32 card Piquet deck, i.e. the 52 card deck with the 2s through 6s removed.

This earlier work (called above The Art of reading French Cards) had used a deck with French suits, i.e. those called in English Hearts, Clubs, Spades and Diamonds. The tarot, however, used Cups, Coins, Swords, and Staves. Etteilla does not say what the relationships between French and Tarot suits are. But the formula had been articulated in another work, a companion piece to Court de Gébelin's better known essay on the tarot in his Monde Primitif, 1781, by his acquaintance the Comte de Mellet.
.
De Mellet, besides agreeing with de Gébelin that the ancient Egyptians had originated the 22 special cards of the Tarot, also discusses how modern card makers debased the "original" Egyptian designs of the suit cards, as seen in the Tarot, by turning them into those of French playing cards. Fortunately the cartomantic meanings remained similar, allowing de Mellet to reconstruct the relationship. Below is the passage (Monde Primitif p. 403, downloaded from Gallica)

"According to them," de Mellet writes of the modern fortune tellers:

The Hearts, (the Cups), announce happiness.
The Clubs, (the Coins), wealth.
The Spades, (the Swords), misfortune
The Diamonds (1), (the Batons), indifference & the countryside.
 __________________________________________________
(1) It is to be remarked that in their symbolic writing the Egyptians drew diamonds to express the countryside.

The words in parentheses are de Mellet's (translated into English). He illustrates both groups, Tarot and French suits, with particular examples. They more or less match Etteilla's own cartomantic meanings, in both the 1770 work and that of 1783.

These correspondences are not what we might have expected in two of the suits. We would expect that since both coins and diamonds were forms of portable wealth, the cartomantic meanings of Coins would have become those of Diamonds. Likewise we would expect Batons to have become Clubs. The Tarot suit-sign in some cards, the Ace and lower court cards (far left and middle, from the Chosson tarot of c. 1736) was in fact precisely a tree limb made into a club. And while on French number cards the sticks look more like stylized polo sticks (as in the Muslim cards that preceded them) than clubs (see next image below), in the Spanish suit-system that probably provided the impetus for the English nomenclature, this imagery of clubs also extended to the number cards. An example, by a Spanish card maker named Phelippe Ayet in c. 1584 (https://www.wopc.co.uk/spain/ayet), is at right above. Such clubs, made from tree limbs, naturally relate to the vegetation in the countryside, as does their color, green. Also, clubs were the only weapons allowed the peasants for self-protection.

But the French words for these suits do not mean the same as the English ones. In French the word for the suit we call Diamonds is Carreaux, most commonly meaning Tiles, as used on the roofs or floors of houses, but also, more generally, anything roughly square or four-sided. But still, why those, whether in the specific or general meaning, to correspond to Batons and indicate the countryside? Without other evidence, we can discount de Mellet's fanciful explanation, because batons are not four-sided figures, square or otherwise. Likewise in French the name of the suit we call Clubs is Trèfles, meaning Clovers. How would that image be connected to wealth or Coins?

Alain Bougearel in his book The Language of the Cards mentions that in French the expression "to have some clover", "avoir du trèfles", means to have some money. One theory is that the expression derives from how certain French coins looked in the 3rd quarter of the 15th century, with trifoils or quadrifoils, as at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blanc_au_soleil_sous_Louis_XI_le_Prudent.jpg?uselang=en. But there is no verification of this theory. And even if it is correct for why cartomancers associated black three-leafed clovers with money, it does not explain how Batons became Tiles or Squares.

I do not know the answer. But I have a suggestion that fits both suits, and at least is an easy way to remember how each converts to the other, for someone not conversant in French slang. At right are two cards from the Chosson Tarot of c. 1736 Marseille, the Ace of Coins and the Eight of Batons:

Notice that the eight batons form a kind of diamond shape in the center, with small diamonds where the individual suit-signs intersect. Similarly in the middle of the suit-sign in coins is a kind of four-petaled flower that can easily be associated with the three petals and stem of a leaf of clover. In fact the Italian word for the French suit of Trèfles is Fiore, flowers.

For comparison, here are some early French-suited court cards, "Rouen" pattern: (https://www.wopc.co.uk/cards/early-anglo-french-cards)

This is not to deny that the suit-sign actually came from the German suit-sign of Acorns, as tarot historians think (e.g. Michael Dummett in Il Mondo e l'Angelo, 1993, pp. 37-38, for which find "French suit system" at http://dummettsmondo.blogspot.com/2015/07/chapter-1-part-of-4.html).

It is also possible that another aspect of the cards in those two suits, Diamonds and Clubs, exerted some influence on the cartomantic interpretations of the cards. In the earliest surviving Tarot deck, the Cary-Yale, the Bastoni, sticks, are really arrows, with sharp points and feathers to keep them flying straight. In the next deck done for the same family, the Pierpont-Morgan-Bergamo, the Ace of Coins has a shield inside the coin. Another example is from 16th century Spain, the Ace of Coins by a certain Jean Pouns (https://www.wopc.co.uk/spain/ayet).

An example with both arrows and shields is the Sola-Busca deck, where the Bastoni are more like javelins, and the suit corresponding to Coins has round discs much like the kind of shields that fit on one's arms.

On Google Books I found an old dictionary in Google Books (An Universal Military Dictionary, by Charles James, London, 1816) in which one meaning of carreau is a type of arrow trimmed with brass instead of feathers and launched from a balista, which is a very strong catapult used for large stones and javelins..This meaning is confirmed in the online dictionaries Wiktionary and Wordreference (in addition to the others).

I have explored connections between the images of the Sola-Busca number cards and later cartomancy in another blog, http://neopythagoreanisminthetrot.blogspot.com/, arguing that they share a common basis in Neopythagorean number theory. It is perhaps not a coincidence that Pamela Smith and A. E. Waite saw an exhibition of photographs of the Sola-Busca at the time they were designing their famous Rider-Waite tarot deck, and that Waite's divinatory meanings for his suit cards in Pictorial Key to the Tarot largely derive from the Etteilla school's lists of meanings for these cards. They harmonize.

The significance of arrows and shields is that such suit objects influence the meanings attached to cards in those suits. In Diamonds the meanings of "Delay" and "Letter" relate to movement, like that of an arrow. Etteilla's 1770 book is at https://archive.org/details/1770etteillaoumaniere/page/n9/mode/2up. In 1783 he adds "Departure" for the Knight and "Stranger" for the Page, both also related to movement, as well as, in the Reverseds, "Obstacles" and "Waiting". "Surprise", in the 2 reversed, could relate to the action of an arrow, as opposed to hand to hand combat.

In the case of Clubs, Etteilla attaches the meaning of Bourse d'Argent, normally "Purse of Money," to the Ace Upright, which fits one meaning of the suit, but "Nobility" when it is reversed. In 1783 the same meaning of "Nobility" applies again, but this time to the Three. The Ten of Trèfles and Coins get the meaning "House", which would make sense if there were noble houses' coats of arms on the cards. There is also the 7's "Embarassment", which is on the subject of honor.

While in the Sola-Busca the shield suit-signs have lost their connection to the heraldics of noble houses, the same is not true of another early deck, the so-called Tarot de Paris, anonymously done in the early 17th century (10 of Coins at left below). Each suit-sign in Coins has on it a distinctive coat of arms, many of which have been traced by researchers to particular noble houses in France.

This practice in fact goes back to the Visconti decks themselves, the Cary-Yale and Brera-Brambilla, put the same images on the suit-signs as the Visconti had on their coins, a rider on a galloping horse on one side and a dragon-headed helmet on the other (Brera-Brambilla 10 of Coins, center above, and Visconti ducat, below right, the latter from https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces126318.html). The lettering on the coin reads on one side "FILIPVS M | ARIA • A | N | GLVS" and on the other "DVX | o MED | IOLA | NI o 3CS o FI - MA", according to the numismatic website. "Filipus Maria" is the duke's name; "Dux Mediolini" is "Duke of Milan". They both are simply Visconti heraldic devices. The latter especially is seen in other contexts as well. The next deck, the PMB, done by the Sforza successor to the Visconti, used a variation on the "sun burst"design, another Visconti heraldic (at right above).

Symbolic designs on a small object are also characteristic of talismans,  i.e. good luck charms. That is another source of meaning for the cards in Coins, i.e. Clubs. They can indicate not only lucky increases in money, but benefits of all kinds.

The other two suits, Hearts and Spades (the latter in French Piques, i.e. Pikes), corresponding to the Tarot's Cups and Swords, are more straightforward. For de Mellet, as quoted, they were "happiness" and "misfortune". De Gébelin said something else, that Cups represented the priesthood and Swords the military nobility (Monde Primitif, vol., 8, p. 379). The two interpretations are not contradictory. Cups associate immediately to religion, as the Cup of Holy Communion. When the suit becomes Hearts, the only change is a certain secularization, so that besides the happiness deriving from loving God, there is that from more earthly love, of parents for children and lovers for each other. From Swords to the suit of Pikes is almost no change at all. But besides the misfortune of war there is its generalization into conflicts of all kinds and the sword of Justice.

All of these sources of meaning in French cartomancy have been developed further, in a systematic way related to the stages in a sequence, four (7-10) for the Piquet cards, and five (2-6) for the others, by Alain Bougereal in the book already mentioned, The Language of the cards: an introduction to French cartomancy, which I recommend for an elegant and systematic account in such a framework.

Other sources of meaning are from the particularities of French court cards. Hearts gets the meaning of blond or light brown hair because of the color of the suit-sign, red as closer to blond than that of black, which in Clubs designates a dark-haired individual in the querent's life..And since the kings are invariably, at least in northern France, shown as older and bearded, they designate an older male in the querent's life, while the Jacks, since they are always young and unbearded, designate a young man or male child. Mature women, of course are designated by the Queens; for some reason, young women and girls are assigned to the 8s.

In the tarot suits the suit-signs are not lighter versus darker: it is the type of object alone that differentiates the suits. Moreover, it is not only the lower members of the courts, the Knights and Pages, that are young, but also two of the kings, in Swords and Batons. You can see the difference at right, where the Kings of Cups and Batons, again from the Chosson deck of 1736 Marseille, can serve as examples.

 

 In such a context, how is the translator to render Etteilla's names for his suits?  Coupes as "Cups," Epees as "Swords," are straightforward, but for me there is a problem with translating "Baton" with the English word "baton." ("patreektheartist" offers this suggestion; it is not out of line, and I thank him for it, as my preference for "staves" needs explaining.) In English "baton" typically denotes a symbol of authority, which in Etteilla's France of 1783 is related to the old order, as for example preening gentleman of the Tarot of Marseille. But in French, bâton has as its primary meaning "stick," which as a piece of wood associates the suit directly with the countryside. Moreover, if you look at his court cards (at right, early 19th century), you see not the baton-wielding gentleman of the Tarot of Marseille, but rather one with a more rustic implement, more like a walking stick than a baton. While Etteilla retained the crown on his card and called him the King, he associates the card simply with "un homme," a man, and had not yet produced his own deck. There, while retaining the crown, he pictured a more rustic implement, which could be used for self-defense on the road, as suggested by his Knight (now simply a man on horseback), or with others in rebellion (as in the Désunion on the card) , or for beating someone, as the word sévère might suggest in the keyword on the King. I have chosen the English word "staves," which was used by Michael Dummett in The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards (1986) and before him by Gertrude Moakley in The Tarot Cards Painted by Bonifacio Bembo for the Visconti-Sforza Family (1966) for that suit in that deck, as a translation for Etteilla's bâton, as that word suggests what we see on the cards that he was to produce a few years after he wrote the text (1788 for the cards, 1783 for the text).

So far I have focused only on the cards of the regular suits as they are given meaning n Etteilla's Tarot. As for how his 22 special cards depart from the normal sequence of the French Tarot, a parallel can again be found in de Mellet. For him the sequence describes, from the end (the World) to the beginning (the Bateleur), a descent from perfection in the Golden Age to rank sinfulness in the Age of Iron. Etteilla has simply made the order of the cards correspond to the temporal order, with the seven days of creation first, followed by the virtues of the Golden Age. For more on this topic, including Etteilla's specific reference to the "four ages" in the cards, see my post at http://etteillastrumps.blogspot.com/2012/05/conclusion.html.

Etteilla has made another "correction" worth mentioning.. As a supporter of the French Revolution, he has removed all those cards representing monarchs, including the religious monarch in Rome. Instead of the Emperor and Empress he has put designs more suitable to theme of Creation, one with sun, moon and stars and another with fish, birds, and crawling things. I have written more on this subject in relation to the Second Cahier, at http://etteillastrumps.blogspot.com/2012/05/introduction.html. And instead of the Pope and Popess, whom de Gébelin had called the High Priest and Priestess, he has put cards representing the male and female querent respectively. In his 1770 book, correspondingly, he had invented a 33rd card he called "Etteilla", again representing the querent. At the same time he has made the Hermit into a traitorous monk and the Charioteer into a tyrant.

 

Such is some of the raw material that Etteilla mostly assimilated from previous practitioners but in part invented, to produce his system of cartomantic interpretations of the 32 cards of the Piquet deck and the 78 cards of the Tarot.

The trumps (major arcana)

IN THIS BLOG, YOU READ FROM THE TOP DOWN, GOING FROM ONE POST TO THE ONE BELOW IT. WHEN YOU GET TO THE BOTTOM, CLICK ON "OLDER POST" FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER. IGNORE THE POSTING DATES: THEY ARE JUST WHEN I SET UP THE BLOG.  FOR THE REST OF THE TABLE OF CONTENTS (THE OTHER 8 CHAPTERS), CLICK ON "OCTOBER" AT THE RIGHT SIDE OF THIS PAGE.

This is the second post in this blog. For the first, my introduction, click on "December" at right.

For convenience I repeat Etteilla's own introduction below, and then go to his presentation of the trumps, later known as the "major arcana".

Etteilla begins the book as follows:

Quote:

The Art of reading French Cards, having generally pleased, I believed that I would also flatter the curiosity and the taste of almost all Europe, if I brought to light that of reading the Cards named TAROT, these being in all respects the origin of ours, because they come to us (as M. Court de Gébelin has very knowledgeably told us, in his eighth Volume of The Primitive World) from the first Egyptians. I shall not talk thoroughly here about this Deck of Cards, or rather this invaluable Book, which is familiar to me since 1757, about which I protest that I have found some unique information; however I shall say what is its way of being amusing, in imitation of the ancient Peoples who made this Deck of Cards, formerly named the book of Thoth, their most robust activity, containing generally all their sciences, and particularly their Religion, their Oracles, and their universal Medicine, so that it is easy to explain, by interpreting, like the Ancient Mages, the seventy-eight Hieroglyphs that are contained in this Deck of cards). (*1) To understand what I am going to say, it is useful to have before your eyes the deck of cards named Tarot, and so as not to have trouble with the order which I consider as their numbers and the interpretation which I give to Hieroglyphs, it is necessary to write both on each of the Cards, following the plan which I indicate, promising, besides, to bring to light what is lacking here, so as to have a complete idea of this Book of Thoth, which contains the whole Universe. (*2) ________________________________ (*1.) See in the work, p... nos. 9, 10, 11 & 12. (*2.) It is the true expression of the wisest and greatest Ancients who have come before us. P.S. This corrected Deck of Cards is found, in Paris, at the home of the Author, living at Rue de la Verrerie, facing that of la Poterie, in the new building. Address the Porter.

The asterisks (*) mean that what follows is a footnote, amplifying on a corresponding place in the text:

Below I have added in brackets English-language keywords or synonyms that have appeared in various sources, from English translations of the keywords and the lists made up by his followers. If I add nothing, it is because they are all the same as what I put. Etteilla in the 3rd Cahier did not offer special reversed meanings for the first 21 cards and the Fool. These came later, on the cards published in 1789 and the work of his followers. For reference, my sources for the material in brackets are indicated by letters, as follows:

S = Stockman’s translation of the Etteilla-based word lists in Papus’s Tarot Divinatoire. They come from a student of Etteilla's, D'Odoucet, Science des Signes, vol 2 (online at https://archive.org/details/b22018529_0002/page/n6/mode/2up. For the trumps there is one keyword and then a word-list for both upright and reversed meanings, of which I only give the first, unless D'Odoucet himself has an explicit keyword that is different, as indicated by the abbreviation DOD. For the courts, Stockman has a keyword on top and also some words along the right side of Papus's cards; the latter have no basis in Etteilla or his immediate followers and are not included here.

R = Revak’s translation of Papus's word-lists, at http://www.villarevak.org/td/td_1.htm

F = the keywords in English and French on the 1969 France Cartes (Grimaud) deck, for which the French keywords of the 20 cards shown in Decker, Dummett, and Depaulis's Wicked Pack of Cards correspond exactly.

D = the keywords in English and French in the booklet that comes with Dusserre’s edition of the Grand Etteilla III (entitled Tarot Egyptien, Grand Jeu de l”oracle des Dames)

DDD = Decker, Dummett, and Depaulis, Wicked Pack of Cards. They give nothing for the courts. When they show the card-image, and the French keyword is different from F, I give the French as well. This only occurs in one instance (out of 20 cards), card 29.

1838= French only, "Julia Orsini," Le Grand Etteilla, ou L'Art de Tirer les Cartes, which has same keywords as D plus word-lists for both upright and reversed. 

LAS=de La Salette, 1791 Dictionnaire Synonymyque.

The text starts on p. 5 of the original.

Quote:

HOW TO AMUSE ONESELF WITH THE DECK OF CARDS NAMED TAROT Serving as the third Cahier of this Work No. 1. The Egyptians took this Card or sheet [Fr. lame = literally laminate in English], (*3) on which was drawn a Hieroglyph (4) for the man who consulted them; so this Sheet or Card means, or represents, he who questions the Oracles by the Book of Thoth. [In F, on the cards, “Questionnant” = “Male Consultant” is the reversed keyword, in D “Le Questionnant” = “The Enquirer (man)”. The Upright in both F and D is “Etteilla”. R has nothing for this card. S for the sole keyword has “The Male Querent”, in the upright word-list “God”, etc., and in the reverseds, “the Universe, the physical man, the male, the querent”. DDD: Etteilla/Male questioner. The 1838 in the uprights has “Etteilla” as keyword and in the word-list “Dieu”, i.e. God, etc., and in the reverseds “Le Questionnant” and “Philosophe, Sage” etc., i.e. “Philosopher, Sage”.] No. 2 The Sun, this hieroglyph means enlightenment. [F & D have Feu = Fire for reverseds; S and R have Fire.] No. 3. The Moon, means harmful talk [coup de langue, literally “blow of tongue”]. [S Proposal, discussion . . . gossiping...malicious gossip, slander; R Comments, Symposium, conversation... Prattle . . . Malicious Gossip, Slander; F & D Propos = Discussion in F, Talk in D. Reversed: L’Eau = Water; DDD Opinion, Water] No. 4. The Star means loss. [S Dispossession; R Desolation, Privation; F Loss; D Privation. Reversed: Air = Air; DDD Deprivation/Air] No. 5. The World (*5) means journey. [R Voyage, F Travel. Reversed Terre = Earth; DDD Journey/Earth.] No. 6. The Empress (*6) means, from something bad comes good, or, what has damaged us will become useful to us. [F and D upright Nuit = Night; S and R Night. For reverseds, Jour = Day; DDD Day/Night] No. 7. The Emperor signifies support. [In reverseds, F & D have Protection = Protection, S & R Protection; DDD Support] No. 8. This Card, or better this Hieroglyph, like both the preceding ones, no longer looks in any way like it was for the first Egyptians. (*7) Today on this Card we see a Juno, or a Female Pope, or a Spanish Girl; it means the woman for whom we question the Oracles of the Book of Thot. [F & D uprights: Etteilla. F reversed, “Questionnante” = “Female Consultant”; D reversed, “La Questionnante” = “Enquirer (woman)”. DDD: Etteilla/Female questioner. In S, the upright keyword is “Female Querent”, followed by the list “nature, repose” etc.; the reversed words are “imitation, Garden of Eden” etc. In R the keyword and upright are the same as in S, and the reversed is “Reproduction, Garden of Eden” etc. The 1838 has “Etteilla” as upright, followed by “Nature, Repos” etc.; in the reversed it is “La Questionnante” and “Imitation, Jardin d’Eden” etc.] Nº. 9. Justice means Equity; example: C.B.A. A is Jupiter. Justice is B, & some other figure is C. .... A, Jupiter, B will render Justice to the figure C. On the contrary, in A.B.C., it will be C who will render justice to A. This example should serve generally for all, when one must interpret the Oracles offered in the entire spread drawn. [Upright is Justice. For the reversed, F & D have Le Légiste = Jurist in F, Law giver in D, Legist in S, Jurist in R] Nº. 10. Temperance means or announces that one must moderate oneself. The subject being considered is that indicated in the sheet [or card, Fr. lame] following, whether physical or moral; the extremes, in the one and the other case, being contrary to the law that wise Nature indicates to us in its general movements. [Upright is Temperance. For the reversed, F & D Le Prêtre = the Priest; S Minister, Priest; R Minister, Priesthood] Nº. 11. Strength. Let it be C.B.A.: A, the consultant; B, Strength; C, a rival of the consultant; the latter will be vanquished. Let it be B.C.A.: against the danger of A, ... C is going to seek Strength B, & vanquish A. ... This correct Hieroglyph, like the two preceding & and the ones following, comes to us directly from the Egyptians, if one allows that while passing through the hands of the Greeks, the Arabs, the first English People, and the Spanish, and finally the Romans, the Germans, etc., they have been altered, thus in general transposing nearly all the numbers; this I demonstrate and prove to be evident in the entire Work; but the number is correct for Strength. [..ce que je démontre & prouve évidemment dans l’Ouvrage entier: signifie la Force.] [Upright is Strength. For reversed, F & D Le Souverain = Monarch in F and Sovereign in D, while S and R have Sovereign] ________________________________ *3. They were of the finest gold, and their dimensions were 1 by 2. *4. The Hieroglyph that was on this card is totally changed; thus without entering the matter, this Card offers today, according to the country where it is made, only a Jupiter, or a Pope, or a Swordsman. *5. Remove the oval Cartouche, & put in its place a Serpent having its head in its mouth . . . & in place of two miserable blades of grass, put two pyramids of 59 measures, because the figure had some 121; & in agreement with all the Wise, you will conceive that this figure was surrounded by seven stars. *6. Our inestimable Ancients would certainly verify that this is mistaken: this Hieroglyph is modern; in one of the three other cahiers I will demonstrate that this was originally the fourth day of creation. *7. The Dissertation that I made on this Card, proving in an irrefutable manner the sort of Hieroglyph it was originally, merited at Frankfurt-on-Main in 1777 the appellation of Astro-phil-astres, & Mage of France, in the terms of [aux termes de] the second [of the] human Sciences.

Start p. 9:

Quote:

No. 12. Prudence; (*8) sometimes when this Card comes up in the reading, it is a piece of wise advice to proceed carefully, because it is recognized that prejudice and ignorance make a crime of our most praiseworthy acts, when they do not understand the steps that we take to bring the unrefined man to a life that is honest and useful to Society; it means Caution [French original: Prudence]. [In reverseds, S & R Nation; F & D Le Peuple = The Masses in F, The People in D No. 13, Marriage (*9); this Hieroglyph is one of those on which the Egyptians were very expansive. They said: Marriage is the absolute will of the Creator, and whoever disturbs this agreement, or diverts its progress, will not live in this world, nor in the other. ...it means Marriage. [In reverseds, S & R lists have Society; F & D Union = Union] Nº. 14. The Devil. The Egyptians, by this word Devil, or Demon, did not understand infernal Spirits enchained in the abyss, but a man whose science surpassed many others; finally, who knew everything by divine gift, or by prolonged [interpassante] study. Such were the Brahmins, the Gymnosophs, the Druids, etc., etc. This Hieroglyph means superior force, in everything concerning the things of human life. [S force majeure [left in French]; R Great Force; F & D Force Majeure = F Absolute Necessity; D Major Force; DDD Major Force. Reversed: F Force Majeur = Absolute Necessity; D Force Mineure = Minor Force. S list, slightness, weakness; R, insubstantial, weakness; 1838 Légèrité, Faiblesse, i.e. lightness, weakness] Nº. 15. The Bateleur, (*10) means Illnesses: in a different sense, sometimes regarded as a Mage, it means Health. [S Sickness, in list illness, infirmity; R Illness, infirmity; F & D Maladie = Illness, both upright and reversed; DDD Illness. S list has in reversed, mental illness, headache; R reversed has Mental Illness...Head Injury; 1838 reversed, Indisposition...mal de tete, i.e. headache] No. 16. Judgment. C.B.A., Judgment in C, says that you judge on nothing. B.C.A., what you judge of B is true; what you judge of A is false; means Judgment. [F & D Jugement = Judgment, both upright and reversed; S & R reversed lists: arrest, decree, weak mind] Nº. 17. Death. Note that death has to come; but you should not get it mixed up. C.B.A., Death in C. says nothing; A.C.B., bad news for A; but as the book of the Oracles is not one of Decrees, it is most often necessary to believe that the death coming here in C is only a small courtesy visit that it renders to A: nevertheless it would be necessary to distrust B; because it is he who sends C to A. And finally, for C to bring lead (shot) to A, there would have to be D.A.C.B.; if we find A and B and C alone, it means death, or as little of it as necessary, for the sheet [= card, Fr. lame] that follows, which most often is an unknown, or a Project, or a Legal Case; and in this last case, so much the better.[S keyword Mortality, in list death, in reverseds list inertia; R Mortality, then in list annihilation, inertia; F & D Mortalité = Death in F, Mortality in D; DDD Mortality; in reverseds F & D Néant = Nothingness] No. 18. The Hermit. The Egyptians took this, as the Provençals say, as The Capuchin [Friar], when the first degree of Knowledge and human Wisdom is reached: these Philosophers there were themselves, in a way, forced by their contemporaries, and by their Followers, so that, according to the vulgar idea, the corpuscles of the sublime did not exalt not so freely: today this Hieroglyph means a hypocrite, a traitor (*11). [S Traitor, in list betrayal...deceit, hypocrisy, and in reverseds loner; R Traitor, Treason...Dissimilation, Hypocrisy, and in reverseds Hermit; 1838 Fourbe [deceitful[, Hypocrite, reverseds Hermite; F & D Traitre = Traitor, in both uprights and reverseds; DDD Traitor] No. 19. Maison-Dieu [literally. House-God, but in Old French, per Kwaw's later post, meaning House of God]. As we see that this House looks like the Tower of Montgommery, which has just been knocked over, or a small Castle that has been knocked over, it is very correct not to make it, like the ignoramuses, the Temple of the Eternal. So, as shown by the Egyptians, who never named it Maison-Dieu, but House of the punishments of God ...it means Prison, poverty. [S Distress, then in list situs, misery or wretchedness...poverty, and imprisonment in the reverseds; R Misery, in list Distress...Poverty and in reverseds Imprisonment; 18838 Indigence...Détresse, then Imprisonnement; F & D Misère = Poverty in F and Misery in D, and in reverseds, F & D Prison = Prison; DDD Misery/Jail] No. 20. The Wheel of Fortune. This Hieroglyph means increase and fortune; note however that every time it appears in a spread, you should not believe that it is ours; finally, it is necessary to consider where it is placed (*12).[S Fortune, in list good luck, happiness, and in reverseds Development; R Fortune, in list Happiness, and reverseds Increase; 1838 in list Bonheur, reverseds Accroissment; F & D Fortune = Fortune, and in reverseds Augmentation = F Raise and D Increase; DDD Fortune] No. 21. The Chariot, means noise, quarrel, dissension, bad order: the little ones [les petits, i.e. the little people], no doubt angry against chariots, say with a common voice, that it is neither good nor pleasant to be made wet like water spaniels, and squashed like fleas. [S Disagreement, in list war...dispute, noise...disorder, in reversed noise, dispute; R Dissension, in list war, dispute, disruption, in reversed unrest, racket; 1838 Troubles, Emeutes...Guerre [Troubles, Riots, War], reversed Bruit, Tapage [Noise, Commotion]; F & D both upright and reverseds Dissension = F Disagreement, D Dissension; DDD Dissension] No. 0. The Madman, or Madness; this Card is the only one that in fact never had a number; which returns well enough to the fact that it is hardly possible to assign a number to our dear madnesses (13); means madness . [R and DDD Folly, all others Madness, for both upright and reversed. S list has madness...dementia, extravagance, unreasonableness, reversed idiocy, ineptitude, carefreeness. R list has Demented, Eccentricity [Extravagance], Insanity, reversed Imbecility, Ineptitude, Carelessness; 1838 has Démence, Extravagance, Déraison, reversed Imbécilité, Ineptie, Insouciance.] It is necessary to understand that these first 22 Leaves never had, for the Egyptians, with regard to divination, a single meaning; but when this book was finally moved and mixed, opened, or cut, and one of these 22 Hieroglyphs coming upside down, then the forecast was less, that is to say, the chariot coming reversed, upside down, the quarrel is less considerable. If the so-called Devil comes feet at the top, the superior force [force majeur] is less; so of these twenty-two meanings, 22 major Hieroglyphs being interpreted, as I said for divination, and not for hermetic Philosophy, which is so perfectly developed there, that it is impossible not to recognize in it the Originals of all the Adepts who have written. We are going to pass to the 56 minor Hieroglyphs, taken up under the primary four faces, which have all the numbers relative to the high Sciences, or second Human sciences. (*14) ________________________________ *8. Cross off absolutely the hideous name of the hanged man, which the most excessive ignorance gave to this invaluable virtue. *9. In the work I give reasons for the transposition that I make of this Hieroglyph in the place of death, which I classify as No. 17. And without demonstrating here that I am just translating the thought of the Egyptians, I say that it is necessary to go back to the spirit of Marriage, which is birth, as birth is the spirit of death, and this one of life. *10. This hieroglyph is very altered; it was a mage. ... *11. I warn the Reader that I always translate only with regard to the divination of the Egyptians. *12. This has often been thought very bad, going as far as regarding it insane; but I believe it very wise, because it takes as its task only tormenting the insane.  *13. The Egyptians offer us this Hieroglyph as a mirror, which without being coated, gives to each the power to see on one side the defects of some, while those see by looking on the opposite side at the defects of the others. *14. I will give the reason for all these divisions, not in the style of the Ancients, but according to the knowledge of the Cabalists.

We have reached the end of p. 14, and I stop to make a few comments. On no. 17, I read a semicolon after "D.A.C.B." and before "on". Otherwise I don't know how to understand this paragraph.

In a post on Aeclectic (http://tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=3235242&postcount=14), "Kwaw" (Steve Mangan) gave an excellent explanation of the reasons for "absolute necessity". My choice, "superior force", is the Wikipedia article's translation of the original Latin phrase vis major. The problem with "absolute necessity", I think, is that it doesn't admit of more or less, and Etteilla says that when the card is reversed, the "force majeur" is less. But he doesn't mean "weakness", at least not in this book--just less of the superior force. Hence my choice of words.

Kwaw also corrected my translation of "Maison-Dieu" as "House-God". I also see that in the Grand Robert Dictionnaire de la Langue Francaise, 1986 edition, "Maison-Dieu" sometimes referred to the Temple of Jerusalem. 

At this point we have reached the end of the trumps, or "major arcana" (words that did come into use until after Etteilla). I will pick up with the suit cards in my next post.

The suits, upright

Note: This post last modified Jan. 19 2017, to remove some extraneous material in Papus along the sides of his cards which do not correspond to what is in the 3rd Cahier.

I continue now translating Etteilla's 3rd Cahier, resuming at the point where he starts giving the upright meanings of the suit cards. Again, I am adding material from other sources after what Etteilla says about each meaning, mostly from English translations of the keywords and the lists made up by his followers. If I add nothing, it is because they are all the same as what I put. For easy reference, these are:

S = Stockman’s translation of the Etteilla material in Papus’s Tarot Divinatoire. For trumps and number cards, there is one keyword and then a word-list for both upright and reversed meanings, of which I only give a few. For the courts, there is a keyword on top and also some words along the right side of Papus's cards; the latter have no basis in the 3rd Cahier and are not included here.

R = Revak’s translations of Papus word-lists, at http://www.villarevak.org/td/td_1.htm

F = the keywords in English and French on the 1969 France Cartes (Grimaud) deck, for which the French keywords of the 20 cards shown in Decker, Dummett, and Depaulis's Wicked Pack of Cards correspond exactly.

D = the keywords in English and French in the booklet that comes with Dusserre’s edition of the Grand Etteilla III (entitled Tarot Egyptien, Grand Jeu de l”oracle des Dames)

DDD = Decker, Dummett, and Depaulis, Wicked Pack of Cards. They give nothing for the courts. When they show the card-image, and the French keyword is different from F, I give the French as well. This only occurs in one instance (out of 20 cards), card 29.

c. 1840 = French only, "Julia Orsini," Le Grand Etteilla, ou L'Art de Tirer les Cartes, which has same keywords as D plus word-lists for both upright and reversed

An additional difficulty is that Etteilla now adds a second set of footnotes, which he puts at the end of his list. Since it is not easy here to flip back and forth between pages, I am moving these to the same blog-page as their originals, after the ones indicated with asterisks (*). These additional footnotes have to do with how to interpret the card in relation to other cards that may have come up in the reading. We are starting with the last sentence on p. 14 of the original, which seems like an introduction to what follows even though it is not a new paragraph. For my explanation of why "staves" for bâtons, see toward the end of my introduction, about the suits.

Quote:

We are going to pass to the 56 minor Hieroglyphs, taken up under the primary four faces, which have all the numbers relative to the high Sciences, or second Human sciences. (*14) Staves [bâtons] in their positions. Situs. [Latin for "Situated"; it might be his term for "Upright"] N. 22. King of stave [bâton], this is a man. [S countryman... Conscience; R Man of the Country...conscientious; F & D Homme de Campagne = F Country Gentleman, D The Country Man] N. 23. The Lady, this is a woman. [S countrywoman...gentleness, virtue; R Woman of the Country...Gentleness, Virtue; F & D Femme de Campagne = F Country Lady, D The Country woman] N. 24. The Knight, means Departure (1). [S departure; R same; F & D Départ = Departure] N. 25. The Page, Good Stranger [or foreigner]. [S stranger or foreigner; R Stranger; F Étranger = Stranger; D Bon Étranger = Good Stranger. See also Etteilla, 4th Cahier Supplement, p. 145, where he says "étranger: nous y avons mal-à-propre ajouté le mot bon = stranger [or foreigner]: we have inappropriately added the word good, and p. 147, where he changes the keyword to Étranger without the Bon. Bon also has the sense of the English "decent." Patreekotheartist suggests "kind stranger." In my view that would be "gentil"; however, that's what a decent stranger would be.] N. 26. 10 of batons, Betrayal. [R & D; Treason] N. 27. 9, Delay. [S in list: lateness, delay] N. 28. 8, Party in the country. [S in list, R countryside . . . pleasure; F & DDD Campagne = Country; D Partie de Campagne = Country Party] N. 29. 7, Prattle [Fr. Caquets]. [S Gossip; S in list negotiation; R Discussion; F & D Pourparlers = F Negotiations; D Preliminary Talks; DDD Pour Parler = Negotiations] [See also 4th Cahier Supplement, p. 145: Nous avons pas eu assez recours aux terms génériques, ayant mis caquet au lieu de paroles, &c. Les paroles ne devant se voir que comme pour parler utile, ou comme bavarderie, suivant les cartes qui accompagnent celles qui signifient [i]paroles/i]. = We did not have enough recourse to generic terms, having put prattle in place of words. The words around it seeing whether as useful speech or as prattle, following the cards that accompany those that signify words. On p. 147 he gives "Pour Parler. Paroles" as keyword for the 7.] N. 30. 6, Domestic [Fr. Domestique]. [S Servants, in list domestic servant; R Domestic Worker; DDD Domestic] [In the 4th Cahier Supplement p. 146, Etteilla adds that this can be augmented to "un inférieur", i.e. an inferior, depending on surrounding cards. However he did not put this change in the list of keyword changes that follows.] N. 31. 5, means Gold. N. 32. 4, Society [Fr. Societé. [S Company; DDD Social Success ] N. 33. 3, Enterprise. [S Enterprise; in list, to undertake; R Enterprise, Begin; F & D, Enterprises = Enterprises; DDD Enterprises] N. 34. 2, Sorrow. [S & D Sadness; R Chagrin] N. 35. 1, Birth. The Cups in their positions, Situs. [Latin for situated; the meaning is "as situated," i.e. upright.] N. 36. King of cups, Fair-haired man. [S: fair (haired) man, honest man. . . Art, Science; R Fair Man, Honest Man... Arts, Sciences; F & D Homme Blond = Blond Man] N. 37. The Lady, Fair-haired woman. [S: fair (haired) woman, honest woman... wisdom; R Fair Woman, Honest Woman.... Wisdom; F & D Femme Blonde = Blond Woman] N. 38. The Knight, Arrival (2). N. 39. The Page, Fair-haired boy. [S: fair-haired youth, studious; R Fair Young Man, Studious; F blond boy, D Fair-haired boy.] N. 40. 10 of cups, The town [ville] where one is. [S: the town where you are; in list: town, city; R Town, City; F & DDD La Ville = The City; D La Ville = Town] N. 41. 9. Victory. N. 42. 8. Fair-haired girl. [S Fair Girl, in list fair-haired girl, practical girl, honor; R Fair Girl, Honest Girl, Honor; F & D & DDD Blond Girl] N. 43. 7. Thought [Fr. La Pensée] (3). [D La Pensée =Thoughts] N. 44. 6. The past (4). N. 45. 5. Inheritance. [S Heritage, in list inheritance...heritage; R Legacy...Heritage] N. 46. 4. Boredom (5). [D Ennui = Troubles] N. 47. 3. Success. N. 48. 2. Love. N. 49. 1. Table. [S in list Table, Meal; R Table, Meal; F Table = Gastronomy] ________________________________ *14. I will give the reason for all these divisions, not in the style of the Ancients, but according to the knowledge of the Cabalists.

Footnote 14 seems to me quite important. He is not claiming an Egyptian origin specifically for his interpretations of the suit cards. Rather, they come from the “Cabalistes”, which I think means not the Jewish mystics, but those in Europe of his time and before who practiced a largely hidden tradition that combined Jewish-based mysticism, alchemy, Pythagoreanism, and perhaps other doctrines and practices--everything they imagined as part of the prisca theologia, the ancient theology. The ancient Egyptians would have been close to that source. Card-reading with the Italian deck of 56 cards was part of that tradition, he seems to be saying.

Now here are the Swords upright meanings. From there he goes on to Coins. We are on p.

Quote:

The swords in their positions. Nº. 50. The King of sword, Man of the Law (*15). [S on side: Warrior, Man of Action, Man of Justice, Dark or Red-Haired Man; S in list: man of the cloth; R Man of the Law; F Man of Law; D Legal Profession] Nº. 51. The Lady, Widowhood (6). Nº. 52. the Knight, Soldier, Man of the sword, by estate. [S soldier, with swordsman second; R Soldier, Man with a Sword; F Soldier; D Military] Nº. 53. the Page [Valet], this is a Spy. Nº. 54. the 10 of Swords, Tears. [S Weeping, F Sorrow] Nº. 55. the 9. Cleric. [S Man of the Cloth, S in list: celibate...priest...monk or other religious devotee; R unmarried person...priest...monk...religious person; F Priest, D Clerical; DDD Ecclesiastic] Nº. 56. the 8. Illness said of N. [S Damage, S in list criticism, unfortunate position, critical moment; R Criticism.. Regrettable Situation, Critical Moment; F Critique = Criticism; D Critique = Critical; DDD Criticism] [In the 4th Cahier Supplement, p. 147, he changes this, or perhaps adds to it: "Moralement et physiquement. Lepre" = "Morally and physically. Leper.".] Nº. 57. the 7. Hope. [F Esperance = Expectation] Nº. 58. the 6. Envoy, Messenger. [S route....envoy, agent; R Road ...Envoy, Messenger; F and D, Route = Journey; DDD Journey] Nº. 59. the 5. Loss. Nº. 60. the 4. Solitude. [F Solitude = Loneliness; DDD Loneliness] Nº. 61. the 3. Nun [Religieuse] (*16). [S Nun as keyword, in list distance ... disdain; R Estrangement [Removal]; F & D Eloignement = F Separation, D Removal; DDD Separation] [In the 4th Cahier supplement, p. 148, he adds Vestale, or "filles et femmes solitaire, ou qui se cloîtroient chez les premiers Egyptiens" = "solitary girls and women, or who cloistered themselves, for the first Egyptians"] Nº. 62. the 2. Friendship. Nº. 63. the 1. Crazy Love (*17). [S Extreme; R, F, D Extrème = Extreme] [In the 4th Cahier Supplement, p. 148, he changes the wording to "Extrême, avec Passion" = Extreme, with Passion"; DDD Pregnancy--which is the reversed keyword everywhere else.] The coins in their positions. Nº. 64. The King of coin, Dark-haired Man. [S: dark man, merchant; R Dark Man, Shopkeeper] Nº. 65. the Lady, Dark-haired Woman. [S in list, R: dark woman, opulence] Nº. 66. the Knight, Helpful man. [S useful; R Utility; F & D Utilité = F Usefulness; D Utility] [In 4th Cahier supplement, p. 148 he changes keyword to: "Objet, chose utile" = "Useful object, thing."] Nº. 67. the Page [Valet], Dark-haired boy. [S dark-haired boy, study; R A Dark Youth, Economy] Nº. 68. the 10. The house. [D Home] Nº. 69. the 9. Effect. [R Result; F Effet = Bills, DDD Bill of Goods, D Effect] Nº. 70. the 8. Dark-haired girl. [S dark-haired, passive; R A Dark Girl, Passive; F Fille Brune = Dark Girl, D Brown-haired girl; DDD Dark girl] Nº. 71. the 7. Money. [DDD A little money] Nº. 72. the 6. The present. [S in list: currently] Nº. 73. the 5. Lovers or Mistress (7). [S Lover or master; S in list lover, mistress; R Lover, Mistress; F & D Amant ou Amante = F Lovers; D Lover; DDD Lovers] Nº. 74. the 4. It's a gift. [S in list present, gift; R Charity, Present; F & D & DDD A Gift] Nº. 75. the 3. Nobility. [S Nobility; S in list noble, important; R Important, Noble; F & D Noble = Noble; DDD Noble] Nº. 76. the 2. Embarrassment. [S Embarrassment/ Awkward Position /Confusion; S in list difficulty, obstacle; R Embarrassment, Obstacle; F Difficulties; D Trouble] Nº. 77. the 1. Perfect contentment. [F Absolute Harmony; DDD Perfect joy] ________________________________ *15. For the Egyptians of the reign of the true Mercury, those who commanded the Armies rendered justice, treated the sick and served at the Temples during peace. *16. The Egyptians received as Vestals only those whose nature was unshaped; that was very rare. *17. Crazy love; to moderate it, work 18 hours daily plowing [aux labours]; the remedy is Egyptian. ________________________________ (1) Departure, is not a figure; but the departure of the card which follows it. (2) Arrival, Idem [the same]. (3) Thought; one sees on whom it falls; example, 54 [Tears], 53 [Spy], 43 [Thought], one says: you spy on somebody to make him or her shed tears, etc. (4) The Past: if one sees 18 [betrayal], 44 [the past], one says, in the past you committed a hideous betrayal, for which you have a thousand regrets; or on the contrary, 44 [the past], 18 [betrayal], 51 (this last number reversed) [wicked woman]: a wicked woman betrayed you in the past. (5) Boredom (*20); 56 [illness said of N] 46 [boredom], your boredom will make, or is making, or has made, you fall ill; because it is always necessary to see which time is marked in the sheets [or cards; Fr. lames] that came; 46, 56, your illness carries you too much into boredom. (6) Widowhood is not a figure, but purely an event: 8 [female enquirer], 51 [widowhood], 1 [male inquirer], the man will die before the woman: 1, 51, 8. the Husband will remain a widower: 8, 1, 51, they will both go one right after the other, the Husband taking the lead. (7) Lover or Mistress: when the sheets [or cards] are being read for a man, and when 73 [lover or mistress] follows, it is an announcement that he has a mistress; so, for a woman, one says to her that she has a Lover.

The suits, reversed

This section modified Jan. 19, 2017: slight revisions to reflect the variety of meanings better, then again October, 2024, to incorporate some suggestions of Patreekotheartist.

Now for the next section, I proceed as I have been, giving the translations in existing books and cards in brackets after Etteilla’s discussion. For easy reference, here are my abbreviations again.

S = Etteilla material in Stockman’s translation of Papus’s Tarot Divinatoire. For number cards, there are two keywords (upright and reversed), and then a word-list for both upright and reversed meanings, of which I only give a few. For the courts, there is only the list.

R = Revak’s translations of Papus word-lists, at http://www.villarevak.org/td/td_1.h

F = the keywords in English and French on the 1969 France Cartes (Grimaud) deck, which correspond exactly for the 20 cards shown in Decker, Dummett, and Depaulis, A Wicked Pack of Cards.

D = the keywords in English and French in the booklet that comes with Dusserre’s edition of the Grand Etteilla III (entitled Tarot Egyptien, Grand Jeu de l”oracle des Dames)

DDD = Decker, Dummett, and Depaulis, Wicked Pack of Cards. No translations for reverseds (except, mistaking reversed for upright, the Ace of Swords), but they do have the 1789 cards, with keywords, for the 4 and 1 of batons, below.

c. 1840 = in French only, "Julia Orsini," Le Grand Etteilla, ou L'Art de Tirer les Cartes, which has same keywords as D plus both upright and reversed word-lists.

I cite these sources only when they say something different from Etteilla's French or my translation.

Etteilla is giving reversed meanings of the suit cards, starting with Staves [batons].

Quote:

It is necessary now to interpret these Hieroglyphs, such as the Egyptians have attested them to us, when they are upside down. The staves reversed. Nº. 22. the King of Staves, it is a man naturally good, but severe [sévère], who most often waits for the right moment to correct. [S, R: good and austere man ... indulgence (R Leniency)...tolerance; F & D Homme Bon et Sevère = Good and Just Man; DDD Homme Bon et Sevère] Nº. 23. the Lady, this is a good woman, economical, virtuous, not bigoted, not a gossip, not concerned with being popular, not lazy, not greedy; so she is a really good woman, with a lot of presence [or spirit]. [S good woman, good, excellence; R Good Woman, Kind, Excellence; F & D Bonne Femme = Good Woman] Nº. 24. the Knight: Disunion (8). [S disunion; R Discord; F & D Desunion = Disunion in F; Disunity in D] Nº. 25. the Page [Valet]. False news. (9). [S & R, announcement; F & D Nouvelle = News; DDD Nouvelle] [In 4th Cahier Supplement p. 148, keyword now "Nouvelle" = News.] Nº. 26. the 10. Bars (10). [S Bars; S in list obstacle; R Obstacle...Bar; c. 1840 Obstacle...Barres; F & D Obstacle = Obstacle] [In 4th Cahier Supplement he changes keyword to Obstacle] Nº. 27. the 9. Obstacles [traverses]. [S Setback; S in list setback, obstacle; R Crossing, Obstacle; F Hindrance; D Obstacles] Nº. 28. the 8. Internecine disputes. [S Internecine Struggles; S in list domestic quarrel; R Domestic Dispute; F Domestic Dispute; D Internal Quarrels; DDD on card Dispute Intestiné] Nº. 29. the 7. Indecision. [S in list indecisiveness; all others Indecision] Nº. 30. the 6. Waiting [or Expectation]. [S Waiting, in list hope; R Waiting, Expectation; F Expectation D Waiting] Nº. 31. the 5. Court Case. [S Trial, in list litigation disagreement; R Legal Proceeding; F Court Case; D Law Suits] Nº. 32. the 4. Fleurissement (18 *). [S Flowering, in list prosperity, increase; R Prosperity Increase; F & D Prosperité = Prosperity; DDD Prosperité] Nº. 33. the 3. Troubles shortly at their end. [F Sorrow’s End; in list, pause in misfortune or sorrow; R Interruption in Misfortunes; F Peines Tendant a Leur Fin = Troubles Nearing an End; D Peines à Leur Fin = Difficulties coming to their end] Nº. 34. the 2. Surprise (11). Nº. 35. the 1. Distrust the first victory. [S Seeming Victory, Be Wary; in list fall; R Fall; F & D Chute = Fall; DDD Chute] [In 4th Cahier Supplement p. 148 he changes the keyword to Chûte, in English = Fall.] The cups reversed. Nº. 36. The King of cup, it is a man of position, but positioned badly, occupied in the business of the Rubanier [I thank Patreekotheartist for his explanation: Rubanier means "Ribbon" in the sense of ribbons as party favors, thus a pun; I would say, however, as awards, as in "blue ribbons"] Merchants, that is to say, selling favors. [S: man in a situation, distinguished man, honest man, dishonest man...vice, corruption; R distinguished man, honest man, dishonest man...vice, corruption; F Man With Position; D Man of High Office] [In the 4th Cahier Supplement, p. 148, he has simply "Homme en place" = man of position.] Nº. 37. The Lady, it is a woman of position, but a fiddler, getting involved in schemes, in court cases; finally, rooting about everywhere to have money, and dying like those of whom all the Egyptians wrote in their Book, covered with shame, with remorse, and stained for life in infamy. [S woman of distinguished rank, honest woman. Vice, dishonesty, depravity...corruption; R, A Woman of Distinguished Rank, Honest Woman. Vice, Dishonesty, Depravity...Corruption; F Woman with Position; D Femme d’un Homme en Place = Wife of a Man of High Office] [In 4th Cahier Supplement, he has simply "Femme en place = woman of position.] Nº. 38. the Knight. More spirit than conscience. [S, R: mischief, villainy; F & D Friponerie = F: Dishonesty, D: Roguery.] [In the 4th Cahier Supplement, he has "Friponnerie".] Nº. 39. the Page [Valet]. This is a flatterer. [S Penchant, fondness or weakness... seduction... flattery; R Tendency, Bent... seduction... flattery; F & D Penchant = Tendency] [In 4th Cahier Supplement he has "Ce qui flatta = that which flattered. Then in a footnote he adds: "Comment render par abréviation la signification réelle de cette lame? En voici l'esprit, qui nous rendra plus intelligibles. 38.39. Le penchant. Ce qui flatte, est de commettre une friponnerie: 66, 39, ce qui flatte est d'être utile; ou 39, 66, votre utilité flattera la figure qui suivra 39 = How to render by abbreviation the real signification of this card? Here is the spirit of it , which will render it more intelligible for us. 38.39. Tendency. What flatters is the commission of a roguish act. 66, 39, what flatters is of a useful nature; or 39, 66, your usefulness will flatter the figure that follows 39.] Nº. 40. the 10. Prepared [or ready] to lose [Pret à perdre] (12). [S: Brother to whom to be united [which has no basis in Etteilla]; S in list, R: wrath, indignation; F & D Courroux = F: Anger, D: Wrath] Nº. 41. the 9. Sincerity. Nº. 42. the 8. Celebrations, Gaiety. [S Celebration, Gaiety; S in list Satisfaction... gaiety... party; R Satisfaction...gayety... festivity... feast; F & D Satisfaction = Satisfaction] Nº. 43. the 7. Plan. [S Plans, in list plan; R Project, Design [Plan]; F & D Projets = F: Plans, D Projects] Nº. 44. the 6. The future. Nº. 45. the 5. Flawed [or bogus] plans. [S Flawed Plan; S in list, R: Consanguinity; F Parent = Relative; D Parents = Relatives] [On p. 148 of the 4th Cahier Supplement Etteilla has Parent = Relative. In a footnote he says that it would take 10 pages to explain how the Egyptians distinguished all their relatives.] Nº. 46. the 4. New acquaintance [or knowledge]. [S New Acquaintance; S in list, new teaching; R New Instruction; F & D Nouvelles Connaissances = F: New Acquaintances, D: New knowledge] Nº. 47. the 3. Business trip [Expedition d'affaires]. [S in list, dispatching or expedition, execution or performance; R Expedition, Dispatch, Execution, Achievement; F Expédition = Expedition] Nº. 48. the 2. Desire. Nº. 49. the 1. Change. [S in list, transformation; R Mutation] The swords reversed. Nº. 50. The King of Sword, Wicked Man. [S in list: ill-intentioned, malice; R ill-intentioned, wickedness; F Wicked Man; D Bad Man] Nº. 51. The Lady, Wicked Woman, hot-tempered, a harpy, a bigot, a devil has [probably in, reading à instead of a, as Patreekotheartist points out in a comment] the house. [S: bad woman, cruelty or spite, malice, treachery...bigotry; R Evil Woman.—Bale, Malice, Trickery, ...Bigotry; F Malicious Woman; D Bad Woman] Nº. 52. the Knight, it is a conceited person, having on his lips [for which I thank Patreekotheartist, in place of the literal "in his mouth"] only sarcasms that he brings back from dives, from smoking dens; finally, from the places that he haunts; because of his nature, which is AGAINST LIFE [?: ANTIPHIBOLOGIQUE], it is an ignoramus (13). [S in list, R: incompetence, ineptitude; F & D Ignorance = Ignorance] [Note added 10/2024: Patreekotheartist suggests that "antiphibologique" is an intentional misspelling of "amphibologique," meaning "ambiguous" or "equivocal" language, anti-biguous as a variation on "ambiguous"  The word refers back to sarcasm, which is typically ambiguous, meaning the opposite of what it says, so more "anti" than "ambi."] Nº. 53. the Page [Valet], Unexpected (14). [S in list: unexpected, sudden; R Without Warning; F Unforeseen Circumstances; D Imprévoyance = Lack of foresight] Nº. 54. the 10. Unfortunate event, which turns to advantage. [S in list, R: advantage, gain; F & D Advantage = Advantage] Nº. 55. the 9. Be wary, or justifiable wariness (15). [S in list: justifiable mistrust; R Justified Mistrust; F & D Juste Defiance = Justified Mistrust] Nº. 56. the 8. Past betrayal (16). [S in list, R: incident, difficulty; F & D Incident = Incident] Nº. 57. the 7. Wise Advice [or Sage Advice, Patreekotheartist suggests, for sage avis, i.e. the advice of a sage (17). [S in list: wise opinion, good advice; R good advice, counsel; F Good Advice; D Wise Advice] [In the 4th Cahier Supplement, p 149, he changes this to Donner ou prendre de sages Avis = To give or take wise advice."] Nº. 58. the 6. Declaration of Love. [S in list: declaration, incorporation; R Declaration, Love Proposal; c. 1840 keyword: Declaration, in list: Publication, Proclamation; F & D Déclaration = F: Avowal; D: Declaration] [In the 4th Cahier Supplement p. 149 he says "On voit qu'elle Declaration" = "We see that it [is] Declaration."] Nº. 59. the 5. Mourning. [S in list: mourning, despondency; R Loss, Falsification; c. 1840 in list Regret, Désolation; F & D Deuil = F Death, D Bereavement] Nº. 60. the 4. Economy (18). [S in list economy, good conduct, wise administration; R Economy, Good Management; Wise Administration; F & D Economie = F Thrift, D Economy] Nº. 61. the 3. Appearing lost or confused [Effet égaré] (19). [S keyword Wild Effet; in list: distraction, insanity or dementia...wild or crazy behavior; R Distraction, Insanity... Crazy Behavior; c. 1840 Démence, Divagation [ramblings]... Distraction, Conduite Folle; F & D Égarement = F Misconduct, D Getting lost] Nº. 62. the 2. Unhelpful or False Friends, or Relatives of Little Help (20). [S keyword: False friends or friends who are little help Relatives of little help; S in list false, falseness...treachery; R False Friends, Treachery; F & D Faux = F Falsehood, D Falsity] [In the 4th Cahier Supplement Etteilla says: "Qui n'est pas vrai. Faux." = "What is not true. False.] Nº. 63. The 1. Pregnancy. [S in list pregnancy, germ, seed or semen; R Pregnancy, Beginning, Seed, Sperm; DDD Pregnancy, in list otherwise containing only uprights] [In the 4th Cahier Supplement p.145, he expands this to include, depending on other cards, "la signification d'abondance ou fécondité, parce que grossesse étant la génération de l'espece humaine, il n'en peut pas être moins que de la génération du froment, qui alors devient une abondance" = "abundance or fecundity, because pregnancy being the generation of the human species, he [il] cannot be less than of the generation of the wheat, which then becomes an abundance." However he does not put these words in his list of changed keywords that follows.] The coins reversed. Nº. 64. The King of coin, an old and vicious man. [S, R vice, fault [R Flaw], weakness; F & D Homme Vicieux = F Depraved Man, D Vicious man] [In the 4th Cahier Supplement, p. 1489, he changes this to "Homme Vicieux" = Vicious [or Depraved] Man] Nº. 65. the Lady, Certain trouble (21). [S unsure, doubting, uncertain...fear; R Untrustworthy, Doubtful, Unsure...Fear; c. 1840 keyword Mal Certain, in list Douteux, Incertain, Doute...Peur; F Mal-Sur = F Evil Prospects; D Mal Certain = Bad Illness] Nº. 66. the Knight, Brave man without employment. [S in list, R peace, tranquility...inactivity; F & D Inaction = Inaction] [In the 4th Cahier Supplement, p. 149, he changes this to "le Chavalier qui ne va ni ne vient. Inaction" = "the Knight who neither goes nor comes. Inaction"] Nº. 67. the Page [Valet], Prodigy (22). [S in list, R: profession, superfluity, largesse or bounty (R Magnanimity)... dissipation; F & D Prodigalité = F Spendthrift; D Prodigality] Nº. 68. the 10. Lottery (*19). [S in list prize, fortune, game; R lot, Fotune, Gambling; c. 1840 Lot, Fortune, Jeu; F Loterie = Lottery; D Jeu de Hasard = Game of Risk] Nº. 69. the 9. Deception. [S in list, dupery, swindle or fraud; R Artifice, Fraud, Deception; F Deception; D Dupery] Nº. 70. the 8. Usury. [S Money Lending; S in list: yearning for the void, avarice, usury; R Lack of [Voided] Ambition, Avarice, Usury; c. 1840 Avantage, Augmentation, Beaucoup [Advantage, Increase, A Lot]... Usure; F Plus = Many More; D Usure = Usury] Nº. 71. the 7. Anxieties (23). [S Worries; S in list worry, agony of mind; R Anxiety [Agitation], Mental Torment; F & D Inquiétude = F Anxiety; D Restlessness] Nº. 72. the 6. Ambitions. [S Ambition; S in list desire, wish, ardour; R Ambition, Desire, Passion; F & D Ambition = Ambition] Nº. 73. the 5. Lack of order. [S in list disorderly, countermand, misconduct; R Muddled, Disorganization, Debauchery; c. 1840 Désordoné, Contre-ordre, Inconduite [Misconduct]; F Lack of Organization; D Lack of Order] Nº. 74. the 4. Closure. (24). [S in list, R: Enclosure, Circuit; F & D Cloture = F Too Late; D Closure] Nº. 75. the 3. Child.. [S in list, R: Puerility, Childhood] Nº. 76. the 2. Letter.. [S in list: note, document; R Note, Written Document] Nº. 77. the 1. Purse of Money. [S & R in list: Sum, Capital, ...Treasure; F Purse with Money; D Money Purse] [Patreekotheartist observes that argent, money, also means silver, so there could be an alchemical contrast between this purse of silver and the gold of the 5 of Batons.] Let us go back to our 24 small Numbers. [Translator's note: the first 7 are in the previous post, along with the entry they qualify.]                   (8) Disunion. One must see what this hieroglyph concerns; if it is disunion with the Wife, the Mistress, money, etc. (9) False report. One must see from whom it will come, what it will or did concern. (10) Bar; 26 [Bar], 35 [Birth], you gain a victory over obstacles: 35, 26, it is the opposite. (11) Surprise; 49 [Change], 34 [Surprise], you will be surprised by a change: 47 [success], 49, 34, it will be a happy one: 54 [Tears], 49, 34, it will make you cry. Mind you, that if you read this Work without having the hieroglyphs under your eyes, it's a waste of time; because you cannot understand what I say, much less what I must leave untold. (12) Ready [or prepared] to lose ; 77 [Purse of Money], 40 [ready to lose], a lot of money; 62 [false friends, unhelpful relatives], 40, false friends, or unhelpful relatives. (13) A vain fool who curls his hair and primps, and un Sarcassien [I thought Saracen here, but Patreektheartist suggests a pun with "sarcasme" in the main text, distorting Circassien, a real word for someone from the area east of the Black Sea] whose reputation marks him as a querrelous dog, are usually fools who are only welcomed into the homes of imbeciles, and of the dishonest. (14) Unforeseen: 74 [a gift], 53 [unforeseen], an unexpected gift: 19 [poverty], 53, it is a reversal, the unforeseen poverty which will come suddenly to keep us company, such as to these people who, by laziness and misfortune, live moment to moment by the charity of some and the duplicity of others. (15) Justified mistrust is the mother of security: in other times the Egyptians said, never speak against men or Gods (*21): today more is necessary, that is, although one says nothing, there are people nastier than devils, who accuse you of having spoken badly; and it is justified to say what I know in this regard, for the general good of Society. I had the occasion to know a man in 1771, who, without me asking, said to me: "I live by the reports that I make to the Bailiff of my Village, and as he pays me for them by the dozen, when I have nothing to say against the Peasants, by my faith, and come what may, I invent things against them, and I am well liked, and well paid." I then said to him, the Bailiff is a fool, and you are a villain. (16) Betrayal in the past: this hieroglyph carries with it the sign of the past, and I admit that I was not yet able to get the Egyptians’ meaning, with regard to the sign of the past; but finally 56 [past betrayal], 62 [false friends]: in the past, you were betrayed by friendship; 62 [false friends], 56 [past betrayal]: in the past, you betrayed a friendship that was had for you;  20 [Fortune], 56, you were betrayed in fortune, etc. [Thanks to Patreekotheartist for spotting a missing part of Corodil's transcription here: the point is about where in the order card 56 appears.] (17) Wise [or Sage] advice: one should see from whom it comes and about what. (18) Economy: is it relative to health or fortune? (19) Appearance [Effet, literally “effect"]; papers and jewels are by no means lost, but only mislaid. (20) False friends, unhelpful relatives. When they could be helpful, they are hard, avaricious, or ignorant, to the point of not preventing our indigence; these are people to flee and to detest; because if one fixes one’s gaze on them, they often pretend to pity you, and behind your back they oppose everything that could relieve you. (21) Certain trouble: 65, 31 [court case], it is not said that you will have a court case [or trial]; 31, 65, it is not sure that you will gain from your court case [or trial]; or if you have one, there is no guarantee of gain. (22) Prodigy: one must consult the sheet [=card, Fr. lame] that follows, in order to know in what one is a prodigy. (23) Anxiety [or restlessness]: I never understood how to define anxiety, as I read [replacing “is” with “lis”] it in the Book of Thoth. (*22) (24) Closure: a closed business is not lost, but, like a Court Case, stuck [accrochée]. In that case one consults in the Book of Thoth why, and one finds there the reason. ________________________________ *18. In the Grand Etteilla, for No. 15 also, "flowering" must be understood. *19. I have translated the Lotto of the Indians, which I have brought to light; but it is an error to believe that the funds of the Lotto are going to follow one who makes the operation; for that one must succeed in knowing the formula [la règle] well; and better, know how to read well; which is easy enough. *20. See anxiety [No. 71].

That completes his exposition of the meanings of the cards, both singly and in relation to other cards. Next he discusses how to lay out the cards. For that there will be another post.

Laying out and reading the cards

I continue now in my attempt to translate Corodil’s transcription of the Third Cahier. I noticed that this whole section is almost word for word in Papus’s Tarot Divinatoire, of which I have Stockman's’ English translation (see pp. 244-247). I am trying to translate more literally than she does, with a resulting loss of clarity (because Etteilla is not the clearest of writers; or it might also be that Papus has done some translating of his own, from Etteilla-French to something clearer). When Stockman’s translation differs from mine, I will give her version and, unless it is obvious, the original French. I will also interrupt the translation when I want to make more extended comments.

I will start where Papus starts, which means with the last few paragraphs of Corodil’s previous section (p. 28 of Etteilla's original):

Quote:

The ignorant perform badly [corrected from "Ignoramuses operate" thanks to Patreekotheartist] badly in all that they do; but it is not the same for instructed people: thus the Egyptians took the Book of Thoth, shuffled it in every way without looking at the Hieroglyphs; they had their Enquirers cut this Book in two, and then they took the first Card [Carte], and put it there on B; the second on A; and the third they put again on B. (Like this: B. A.) The fourth went to B; the fifth to A, and the sixth to B. Then the seventh to B, so on until the end. In this way, on [pile] A there were 26 sheets [or cards], and on [pile] B, 52. With the 52, they began the first operation again (on D.C.), and there were on C 17 sheets [or cards: lames], and on D 35; they put 17 aside; and with the 35 remaining, they repeated the process on FE; in that way there came to E, 11 leaves [cards]; and to F, 24. It turns out that A=26. B=0. C=17. D=0. E=11. F=24; but these last ones [F] were not interpreted (*23). ________________________________ *23. Note that in every operation, one must always mix right side up with upside down, and cut.

Papus omits this footnote. He also "corrects" Etteilla's French. Here Patreekotheartist offers a different correction (see the end of the present post); I quote his remark in its entirety:

Etteilla's description of how to cut and sort the cards into stacks does not work correctly. Starting out with one card on stack B always results in a rounding error, so that in the end, you get 23 cards in stack F and 12 cards in stack E. That could easily be fixed by always starting out with 2 cards on the first stack instead of one. I think this is why Papus uses a different sorting method, although his method gets even more messy and convoluted IMO. So the question is, do you present an accurate translation, or do you correct it like Papus attempted to do? I came up with a "translation" that fixes the sorting error without completely changing the language of this entire section:

"...they had their Enquirers cut this Book in two, & then they took the first & second Cards, & placed them to their left on stack B; the third card they placed to their right on stack A. (Like this: B. A.) The fourth they placed on B; the fifth again went to B; & the sixth to A. The seventh to B; & the eighth again to B, so on until the end. In this way, on stack A there were 26 sheets, & on stack B, 52."

 Now I continue with new material. The first paragraph below is as corrected by Lotus Padma:

Quote:

Therefore, taking A, they read the sheets [or cards] one at a time, (from right to left, as the meaning of the whole [of the reading[ is to be found in its individual parts), announcing what they portended; and next, they took the first card, and interpreted it in relation to the 26th card. When they had finished doing that [or reading A] , they interpreted C, and finally, E. Read Cartonomancie, third Edition, 1782; it will give you the whole procedure, although I admit that the Etteilla [Stockman: Etteilla’s work] is only a copy after the Egyptians, as also the Steganography of Trithemius, likewise the Theory of Raymond Lull, all copies, I say, of the Book of Thoth, or to speak to everyone [a literal translation of "pour parler a tout le monde": Patreekotheartist suggests "or in the common parlance"], of the Cards called the Tarot.

I interrupt here to observe that this last sentence is rather odd, as though the author is someone other than Etteilla. I will say more the next time this occurs. 

Added October 2024: Patreekotheartist observes here, I think correctly:

"Etteilla ou instructions sur l'art de tirer les cartes. Troisième et dernière édition". According to DDD, the frontispiece illustration for this book had the caption, "Cartonomancie, ou l'art de tirer les cartes. Troisième édition... Extract des récréations algébriques d'Etteilla." So "Cartonomancy, third edition" is a summation of the caption of the frontispiece. As far as the "oddness" of him referring to himself in the 3rd person, I think "the /Etteilla/" refers to the book name: "Etteilla ou instructions..." Note that "la" is not italicized, but "/Etteilla/" is, because book titles are usually in italics, like when he says: "livre de /Thot/".

So now I resume

Quote:

Their second procedure was to draw three times 7 leaves [cards], which they arranged as follows: 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. A. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. B. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. C. If A did not answer their questions, they would place below them seven other sheets [or cards], 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. A. [Stockman omits “A”] If that still gave no answers, they would draw another seven sheets [or cards], 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. A, and would do as much for B and C, [Stockman has, after “answers”: “they would draw another seven cards, 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. A through to C”], if they had not found a solution, or a positive prognosis. If these repetitions said nothing, they advised their enquirers to pray to the Gods, to alter their conduct, and to come back the next day or several days later.

My comment here: this last paragraph can be interpreted in various ways.

(1) Papus, or perhaps Stockman, has Etteilla saying that one tries up to three times, using rows A-C, to get a reading that answers the questions. It is the same number of rows that he has, more clearly, in a later method he gives with five cards in a row.

(2) Based on “Julia Orsini” in the c. 1840 book (p. 44), the interpreter would be laying out five rows, each below the one preceding, and one reads the top row first, and if it doesn’t make sense, one goes to the next, etc. (Actually, that book has the interpreter lay out six rows; but the point is that there are more than three rows of seven each being laid out. In the Dusserre booklet, which is a heavily edited version of the c. 1840, this is pictured on p. 7.)

(3) What Etteilla says literally: first you lay out three rows, then you try for a reading with the first row. If that doesn’t work, you lay out seven more cards, below the other three rows; if that doesn’t work, you lay out seven more; if that doesn’t work, you go to rows B and C that you’ve already laid out. The result is five rows, but the second and third tries at readings are laid out after the other three.

I emphasize this part, however many rows there are, because in modern books on cartomancy, almost all of which derive from Etteilla, it is usually not said to start over when you get a reading that doesn’t make sense; and the Etteilla decks' booklets, except the Dusserre, are the same. You are apparently expected to use your “intuition” to make the interpretation of the card part of a coherent reading. At the most, a book will advise you to put down one or more cards to clarify one that is obscure. And you will usually not be given examples where such a procedure is appropriate.

I have found only one historical source that does give an example of an incoherent reading, requiring one to go to start with a completely new interpretation using another row. It is in the c. 1840 “Julia Orsini” book (omitted from Dusserre's edited version), pp. 44-45. Here are the relevant pages, followed by a summary of what is being said.

Page 45 begins by interpreting the row given on p. 44:

63..30..64..77..44..13..42....8, with cards 44 and 63 reversed.

The 8 is there automatically in this book, because the reading is for a female. From right to left, it comes out: In relation to the querent (8) (she happens to be a blond girl), a blond girl (42) has marriage (13) in the future (44 reversed) with happiness (77) with a dark-haired man (64) with fortune (30) and there will be pregnancy (63 reversed). All of this makes sense and hopefully is good news. But if instead of 64, “brown-haired man”, the sixth card (out of eight, or fifth card not counting the 8) was 33, “woman of the country”, the reading would be contre-sense, i.e. nonsense (at least in 18th century France where women did not marry each other). In any case, it is not clear what such a person has to do with the rest of the sentence formed by the cards. So we start over, using the second line.

I resume:

Quote:

Their third procedure was considerable, and [called for] considerable thought [& à considérer]. After having shuffled and cut the 78 leaves [cards], they formed from them two columns and a capital that they laid out across the top [i.e. a row at the top]. Then without reshuffling the leaves [cards], they laid out a circle, taking care in this operation to remove the 1 or the 8, according to the Sex of the querent; When that came up, they placed the first or eighth Hieroglyph in the center, as one sees [in] the whole configuration [figure] below.

This is where Corodil says there is a picture, which he doesn’t have the means to insert. In Stockman’s translation of Papus, there is also a picture, and I think it is much easier to understand Etteilla if you see it. Here is the picture as presented by Stockman (p. 246), which I have photographed and put at the link below:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibQbb8HByIkBXUvWtYOt2a9VRh6-caDgYNSbyUXh-vuJ9IGwy4S7d4nWjZ8pWeqs8SCMOhI8lGxK1rgl-Ud2XMx-_Jj9vhlmiEr_fyjyEZ2AwxzFaoZ7k3f82bgWC6eC_3OSYcvD3lFOXJ/s1600/IMG_0510a.jpg

In case you can’t access this link, here is a detailed description of the diagram: Etteilla uses numbers to indicate how the cards are to be placed. As I read it, first one lays out eleven cards in the column on one’s right, going from the bottom up; then come eleven more in the column on the left, also going from the bottom up; then eleven more in a row at the top, from right to left. Then a circle in the middle is formed in three parts: the first section, with the label “Past” between it and the right-hand column, is on the reader’s lower right, but laid out from the side of the enquirer, from right to left, 11 cards; the next, with the label “Present” between them and the “capital” row on top, from the reader’s perspective, 11 more cards, from right to left from the reader’s perspective; then 11 more cards on the reader’s lower left, but laid out from the enquirer’s perspective, from the enquirer’s right to his or her left, with “Future” between them and the left column. The top of each card, as it comes off the deck, faces inward in the circle.

I resume:

Quote:

The first Card [Carte] was placed in position 1, continuing up to 11. They put the twelfth Card [Carte] at number 12, and so the others up to 22, etc. 1, 11, 34, 44, were the past [Stockman has “1 to 11 and 34 to 44”]; 12, 22, 45, 55, were the future [Stockman: “12 to 22 and 45 to 55”]; and 23, 33, 56, 66, [Stockman: “23 to 33 and 56 to 66”] were the present. If the 1 or the 8, according to the Sex of the enquirer, did not appear, they would take it from the remainder of the Deck, and place it in the middle, as you see, 8, Supposing that the reading is for a woman; for 1 would be for a man; in as much as it is true that the distance between man and woman is seven degrees; that caused Mohammed to commit an error, when he said that women are of Ouris [Stockman: “houris”; I think Etteilla means Horus], who will not enter into Paradise but will guard its door; having not understand that this difference of seven degrees existed only in the physical world. The Egyptians read all the sections one after the other, beginning with the Past; then the Present, and last the Future; they took then for the past 8, 34, and 1; and following this procedure up to 8, 44, and 11, and likewise for the Present and the Future. I think one must read Etteilla (the price is only 1 livre 16 sous), if one wishes to understand how to read this spread, three cards by three cards and always using the ones [celles] of the center [Stockman: “three cards in relation to one another and always using the middle card”].

This last sentence is another place where the writing is as though by someone other than Etteilla, since he says “I think it is necessary to read Etteilla”--“On sent la nécessité de lire le Etteilla”. [Added Oct. 2024: But as Patreekotheartist points out in a comment to this post, he is referring to his first book, on cartomancy with a piquet deck.] But giving the price is characteristic of Etteilla himself. The book Cartonomancie, 3rd edition, is slightly more expensive than the 3rd Cahier itself, which sells for 1 livre 10 sous, we learn at the end of that book.

Quote:

Sometimes the Egyptian Sages would open their Operations with 12 leaves [cards]; but that was always for remarkable things [objets], such as harvests, decisions, battles; or also for the Sovereigns of the Nation, or foreign ones; or for their principals [commettants, I think prime ministers; Stockman has “constituents”]. But having completed the three operations that I detailed, they would do a fourth; even five or six if they wished, or if directed by the numbers; example: in placing the Cards [Cartes], if they saw a number well or badly placed among [Stockman: a number particularly well or badly placed in relation to] the others, they remembered it, and after this spread they placed as many leaves [i.e. cards] as the well or badly placed number, etc., had indicated to them.

Since there are only a couple of pages left of Papus’s excerpt, I will continue into Corodil’s next section, as as far as Papus does:

Quote:

If it happened that a man had only one question to ask, and it was a legitimate one (for they were enemies of all that was vicious, or could lead to become such), then they would simply draw five leaves [i.e. cards] e.d.c.b.a., going from a to e as usual; if that did not give an answer, they drew 10 more leaves [cards], and they arranged them thus: 5 4 3 2 1. E D C B A. 10 9 8 7 6. And they read the cards going from 1 to 5, from A to E, and from 6 to 10; and then, as I have already said, if the cards still said nothing, they would have the querents come back [remetter] another day, adjure them to worship the Gods ever more strongly, and to love their fellows [sembables; Stockman: fellow human beings] or their neighbor.

I continue with my effort to translate Etteilla’s 3rd Cahier. We are now in new territory, thoughts that have not been repeated in various translated works. At the same time, it is Etteilla in a more obscure style—perhaps more profound, as well. Since he is difficult for me to understand, he is also difficult for me to translate. He is talking about the tarot-interpreter and the tarot-consultant as human beings, the first likely an ignorant person—not to mention perhaps drunk or lazy--even with the Book of Thoth in his or her possession, with cards like 19, Prison, and 20, (Good) Fortune, in the same reading. The consultant is perhaps more thoughtful but also more anxious, especially when seeing such cards. Yet the consultant sees his whole life reflected back to him by the interpreter. But it is from a certain point of view: An ignorant interpreter’s political views and other biases and character traits can affect the reading. And such an ignoramus can learn much from the anxious person’s manner of presenting himself, his face and his questions, which the interpreter then reflects back to the consultant. But I will let Etteilla speak for himself. The first paragraph below has the benefit of Lotus Padma's suggestions. Also, I had omitted the second sentence completely, the pointing out of which I again thank Patreektheartist]:

Quote:

You must not believe that the Divination practiced by the Egyptians was of the same kind as that practiced by other idolatrous people, particularly the oracles of Delphi, Dodona, Trophonius, Nymphos, or Claros - and others - as some of those were changed due to political reasons, or because they were misunderstood; because they muddled the minds of men, rather than enlightening them. If it were thought in the same way that the Egyptian Sages resembled, in regard to Divination, our alleged Diviners & Divineresses, it would be an authentic proof of the ignorance into which we had fallen upon [from?] the knowledge of men issued, it must be said, directly from the hands of wise Nature.

I have found all these oracles on Google except Nymphos: the nearest equivalent is “oracle of the nymphs”, of which there were several. I continue. The first part of the third paragraph and the second half of the fourth paragraph are Lotus Padma's translation (I suppose I should have asked Lotus to translate all the paragraph):

Quote:

All the Oracles only existed by the infamous imaginations [vues] of the idolatrous Priests; I will not enter into any details, but with regard to these so-called Diviners [Devins], no one can speak better than I. The Science, coming from long and painful work formerly created by the Diviners [Devins], or if one wants, Astrologers, Physonomancers, Palmists, Geomancers, Cartonomancers, and even Savants, in all the branches of Divination or the science of results [resultats]. Today it is ignorance, laziness, poverty, and drunkenness that create the so-called [prétendus] Diviners [Devins] and Divineresses [Divineresses]. For 30 years there are few that I have not known [il y en a peu que je n’aye connus], I say not only in Paris, but in the major part of Europe. These all arose from the same central point [montés sur le même pivot]; some, who are certainly not Diviners, take a route to appear as such to their Consultants; because all the rest of Society, describing them, does nothing for them at all. A trait common to several that I am going to report is that it does not add up [ne tient pas à la copie], because I am not a demonographer.  [Thanks to Patreekotheartist for the translation of this paragraph.] When a naive person goes to the homes of these ignorants, his manner very determined to discover whether or not they are Diviners, he will not realize that this is already the beginning of insanity; for it is necessary, in going either to a savant or an ignorant, not to be preoccupied: to put oneself on one’s guard before one’s enemy arrives, I say, so as to fight one on one [seul à seul], is the nicolade [perhaps rigolade, joke. Added Oct 2024: Patreekotheartist suggests nike=victory + accolade, i.e. "to wear an air of victory." He adds: This is supported by the "vaincu" and "vainqueur" and "Champion" in the lines that follow. The passage seems to be advising to not be nervous, adversarial, or overly confident as the "Sorceress" will see this as weakness.] Arriving at the so-called Sorceress’s, my skillful ignorant receives abruptly the thoughtful Man, and puts him between two fires: on one hand, she says to him: Sir, before three days have passed you could very well go to prison; and on the other hand: Sir, if you conduct yourself skillfully, there is a rich fortune which cannot avoid you. Is my Savant strong enough to support these shocks so opposite one to the other? He is offered the third means to overcome them. Someone of interest to you is going to die suddenly. Let us see, says our Champion with little order, what you say to me: 1. Do I have enemies? 2. Shall I succeed? 3. The person who is to die: is it my wife, my sister, my son, my daughter, or just the only aunt left to me? Without going any further, we can see that the poor man has already said too much; the Diviner is not a sorcerer, no, it is our poor naive who has not been alerted by his (the Diviner's) body language, and has first pronounced that he is frightened by his enemies, and so reveals his train of thought; and then secondly, that he is ambitious; this is the pivotal point. Thirdly, he hopes for an inheritance. He should have said, whatever may come, I am unconcerned! He then withdraws into himself, and wishes he could also withdraw his words; he will not notice then that there will be no more divining, but that he is being taken in by his weaknesses, and he will be told that all he wishes for will happen; and at the same time, the diviner will rap his knuckles a little, as one would a child, to make him talk more, even though he has sworn to himself he will not say another word; I have several times seen this being played out, and been quite amused by the facial contortions of the sitter, in his effort not to speak. But in good faith, let us return to - reason; is it the Devil who comes to blow in the ears of the so-called Diviner, the whole history of our life? It would be stupid to think that way: it is, says a devotee of our madnesses [amateur de nos folies], the science that makes them speak; but these so-called Diviners and Divineresses are so ignorant as not to know even the letters which appear in their names [entrent dans leurs noms]. Finally, shall we say, how, and by what means do they forecast the things that happen? Listen to the truth; it is our ignorance that makes them learned, and not the science, which communicates only on critical points of the previous day [points aigues des veilles] and the fatigue. All the Sages of the ancient peoples who applied themselves to the abstract sciences, or the high sciences, needed nothing, took no tribute; the Nation considered them as its true Sages; it sustained them, foresaw their slightest physical needs, and it got from them salutary advice in everything it required; because in fact nobody was wiser and and more learned than these Mages. Their house, or their Temple, was indeed one of the Oracles; but it was not one of offerings, as with the Priests of Jupiter-Amnon, Apollo-Clarien, and all the others. When our so-called Diviners have the Book of Thoth in their hands, or some other object that was formerly used for Divination--even this scientific book, where the whole Universe is contained--so as to tell, speaking in the vulgar, fortunes [la bonne aventure], they originally are not concerned with studying the spirit of every Hieroglyph: Lack of order, Usury, Calumny, each of these words has in their ears only one sense, or one sound. Four Hieroglyphs will give us the intelligence of the 74 others.

These last four paragraphs are worth emphasizing. The fortune-teller has to be wise as well as equipped with a set of keywords. He or she has to be able to see a variety of meanings in each word (e.g. words as metaphors). Thus later there are not just key-words, but lists of "synonyms" And it is not just the word; Etteila says “son”, “sound”. So the lists also have "homynyms". I think he means also that one must be sensitive to puns and other word-play. These are not typically translatable from one language into another. Freud had similar thoughts about dream interpretation (being alert to puns); he also said, as Etteilla does here about his “science”, that dreams mostly only reflected the events of the previous day. Etteilla in the part we are looking at in this post is much like Freud, bringing similar considerations to bear in interpreting cards as Freud did in interpreting dreams. De Mellet (in part 7 of his essay, in French and English at http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Recherches_sur_les_Tarots, had already done dream-interpretation using tarot, in his example of Pharaoh’s dream. The Etteilla school would later develop a systematic approach to dream-interpretation, in part using the tarot. But that is another story, for another thread.I At this point Papus stops excerpting from Etteilla’s 3rd Cahier. Papus ends with a paragraph attempting to interpret Etteilla’s numerology, which I think he says is his own hypothesis about Etteilla; but it relates more to the 1st and 2nd Cahiers than it does to the 3rd; so I will omit it here.

A too-severely edited version of Etteilla’s methods in laying out the cards, including a variant of the 67 card spread using all 78 cards and one other method not mentioned by Etteilla in the 3rd Cahier, is at http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/ftc/ftc21.htm. We are fortunate to now have Etteilla himself—or at least I assume it’s Etteilla!