Re: Unnamed

12
MaryJane wrote:In the Middle Ages... in fact up to only a couple of centuries ago, death was not feared, but accepted. It is only recently that death has become something which is "forbidden". People in those days may have been scared of damnation thanks to the scaremongering of the church authorities, but they were not scared of death itself.

So I do not think that it was out of any superstition that the card was not named.

It would seem logical that if there is a card that is unnumbered and a card that is unnamed, that the two cards are linked somehow. I would think that any ponderations on the unnamed card should not be done alone, but in parallel with the unnumbered card. (As should be the case with any card that has curious parallels with another card in the pack, for instance the Lover and The Moon, or the Pope and The Devil.) I believe the cards should not be read in isolation but always looked at as one would look at pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Alone, a jigsaw puzzle piece has no meaning. It is when it is put together with the other pieces that a picture appears.
Hi MaryJane, welcome to the forum!

I do agree that Damnation was probably a bigger concern for people when our historic decks were made. I also agree that context matters, and that while looking in isolation may be fun and sometimes enlightening, discoveries need to also make sense in the larger scope of the sequence, as well as time and place.

I'll ask everyone who feels that Death is unnamed because of superstitious reasons to suggest why they feel that the Valet of Batons is also unnamed:

Image


and why the Valet of Coins has his name going up the side?

Image

Re: Unnamed

14
debra wrote:Art. It's art, Robert. Artists do things like that. ;)
WHAT?

No spooky music and superstition about "Le Valet sans Nom"??? Maybe he's Le Mort's henchman? Maybe his name is Judy, and he's so embarrassed he wouldn't have his name on the card?

Death gets to have a bunch of deeply serious "His name is unmentionable"'s, but this Valet gets a shrug.. "It's art"?

Shouldn't the Valet of Coins be sideways, since his title runs that way? Is he "Le Valet de trop de Vodka"?

Or maybe... just maybe... the funny titles are a clue???

Let's take a look at Le Pendu from Dodal:
Image

Hey! What happened to his crossbeam???

Re: Unnamed

15
Hello Robert,

About Pendu of Dodal and many other cards:

May be cards were originatly made of:
A full designed figure i.e hanged man with a full crossbeam
PLUS one cartridge on top of it and a catridge on bottom of it

So, may be Dodal was not a good imitator or interpretor of original Proto tarot deck.

I like Dodal deck as many Historical decks but NO ONE satisfys me in full.
They ALL have problems: Erased details, transformed details, unfitted scale, abnormal proportions, closed eyes when it should not, colors lacks, not well located colors and so on..

At this stage of my lifepath, I don't anymore look for Chronology as a Scientific evidence (and I weight what I write).
I.e Sforza Castle deck found without any cartridge doesn't means for me that before him there was no cartridge on Tarot decks.

Imagine that we are now in 3254 year after JC.
We have only a deck remaining from 2098 to 3056 period (our close future so :lol: ) and this deck shows us NO MORE cartridge.
Would it automaticly means that in 2008 ALL DECKS were without cartridges ?
And furthermore that previous 2008 year decks were ALSO without cartridges ?

For 2008 we have the answer: In 2008 our decks are made of cartridges (on top and bottom).

But a deck of a specific period is only " a look through a small hole in Time Map".
We can't have the full picture.

Unless we pass through the mirror like a young girl made it may be ?

With rationality,

Yves
Personne n'est au dessus de l'obligation de dire la vérité.
Nobody is above obligation to tell truth.