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A long time ago, there was a thread (I think it was on AT) where the discussion was on the "origin of the Tarot de Marseille", and at the time Ross suggested the Tarot de Marseille devil was a particularly strange card, and that if we could find a cognate for that it might help us understand the deck better (or something like that).
In a conversation in Chat last night I mentioned to Ross that if we could find a Devil standing on an Anvil outside of Tarot that might give us a clue, I paraphrase:
"An Anvil?" asked Ross.
"Yeah, like on the Marseille, he's standing on an Anvil." I replied.
"I can see why you might think so, but I don't think it's actually an anvil, but you could certainly research it," he replied.
Well, this was a revelation for me. I'm so used to thinking anvil that it hadn't even occurred to me that other people might not think so too! Then Enrique came into the chatroom... so I thought "ah ha! he'll back me up!"
When asked to describe the card, Enrique covered all of the general details and when he came to the Devil he said "And the Devil stands on a pedestal".
Pedestal?? Not Anvil??? DAMN!
So, I broke out the Noblet... and realised it wasn't really clear, except for the shape at the bottom. And then I showed them the Dodal, which I think is much closer, and then the Conver.
The general consensus was that it might be an anvil, but that the shape was wrong and not angled correctly and the strange angle at the bottom of cards was actually showing what the two minions were standing on.. also pedestals.
So... I guess it just goes to show you. I checked back to an old thread I started on AT to compare and contrast the Devil, and in the very first line I mention the "pedestal" and ask if it might be an Anvil.. so obviously I have been thinking this for some time but was just not so "convinced" as I seem to have become over the years.
I tend to think myself rather skeptical when it comes to "seeing things" in the Tarot de Marseille, but here I am absolutely guilty as charged! This made me wonder how many "facts" about what I see in the Tarot de Marseille are like this?
So, I started this thread because I was curious if other people thought it was an anvil, before reading this? What have you always thought he was standing on?
(And if anyone has any pictures of the Devil standing on an anvil, please, do let me know.
