I have a whole slew of photos to post on my personal website and I do promise that I will get to them soon. Back in October we made a day trip to Rennes-le-Bains to see the "Devil's Armchair" and a "Trembling Rock." We had a nice hike through beautiful countryside and I have some lovely photos. On the way home, we made a quick run up the hill to Rennes-le-Chateau to try to catch the sunset, but by then, my camera battery was gone!
In November, we went to Marseille again to stay a week at the Luminy campus. The weather wasn't optimal so I only visited St. Victor's church and spent about two hours in the gi-normous crypt.
Seems that the guy who founded the church was St. Cassien. (interesting that "cass") and he has also been credited with creating Tarot cards based on recent research. He came from Bulgaria and may very well have been of a Catharist persuasion. So, the idea that the Tarot embodies the teachings of the Cathars, or "Esoteric Christianty," may need to be considered.
This is my friend, Pierre's, translation of a recent French text on the subject:
In November, we went to Marseille again to stay a week at the Luminy campus. The weather wasn't optimal so I only visited St. Victor's church and spent about two hours in the gi-normous crypt.
Seems that the guy who founded the church was St. Cassien. (interesting that "cass") and he has also been credited with creating Tarot cards based on recent research. He came from Bulgaria and may very well have been of a Catharist persuasion. So, the idea that the Tarot embodies the teachings of the Cathars, or "Esoteric Christianty," may need to be considered.
This is my friend, Pierre's, translation of a recent French text on the subject:
So, that was an interesting excursion. I took lots of photos in the crypt and will be putting up a photo album when I get an hour to call my own.According to Philippe CAMOIN, “it was the monk called Jean Cassien, founder
of the St Victor Abbey in 400 AD coming back from the East, who contributed
to the transmission of a secret teaching via the Tarot. It is clearly the
order of St Victor that, in the years 1000, ruled over the territory where
we will find the oldest Tarot and the oldest documents mentioning Tarots.
This territory is composed of Northern Italy, Southern France and Northern
Spain, the territory over which the Cathars and the Templars flourished”.
In France, from the end of the XVIth century, and due to the bohemian
influence, people really started using tarot in a divinatory way. Marseille
became then, in 1754, an important production center. The Marseille model
takes the lead, perpetuating the tradition of far more ancient masters
including François Chausson (1672); and particularly under the plume of
Nicolas Conver, Card Master. His middle age drawings were re-written in
1760, from the existing wood molds and the colors used by ancient engravers.
This Tarot, Called “Tarot de Marseille” is the one that saved the purest,
the most ancient and the most traditional symbolism, items and colours. We
should notice that the Conver factory founded by Nicolas CONVER, card master
since 1760, became, through a merger with the Camoin House : a factory
producing playing cards and various games, that prints its favourite game :
“Le Tarot de Marseille de Nicolas Conver”, last representative of the
ancient Marseille Card Masters Brotherhood, the Camoin House keeps focused
on respecting, maintaining and transmitting an authentic tradition.
Philippe Camoin, the last inheritent of the Marseille Card Masters, says new
historical data could change the situation about the rise of Tarot in
Western world. Thanks to the restoration work that he started in 1998 with
Alexander Jodororowsky through whom he’s restoring original symbols and
colours of the Tarot of Marseille, they discover a symbolic structure that
had vanished with time; and dozens of new symbols generating new teachings.
For example, the discovery of an egg located at the bottom of the eagle in
the emperor arcane, two snakes enlaced at the feet of The Temperance also
the four elements in the Ace of Cups. "