Omissions and Errors in translation of Papus's "Tarot Divinatoire"

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Researchers into the history of the French occult tarot are fortunate to have a good English translation of Papus's last major work, Le tarot Divinatoire - not because it is a seminal work, far from it, but because of its inclusion of much material from Etteilla and others after him, conveniently placed next to cards that look much like the Marseille in Egyptian dress.

Papus had designed an Egyptian-style deck and thought he could integrate the disparate work of Etteilla on the one hand and Levi and Christian on the other. The result (Levi made numerous disparaging remarks about Etteilla) is not without its problems, one of which is that the English translation omits some crucial comments in the book about and from Etteilla.

Having recently been sent scans of Papus's book in French, I want to try to rectify that situation, based on what Papus actually wrote.

The main part of Stockwell's English translation is the reproduction of Papus's cards along with, on the facing pages, his quotations from Christian and Etteilla (as filtered through his follower D'Odoucet) relating to that card. Stockwell explains that she had to do some rearranging of Papus's text to do this, as Etteilla's "synonyms" are in one place(Chapter 6 of the original), Christian in another place (the first part of his Chapter 7, pp. 167-186) and the cards after that (Chapter 7pp. 187 on). There is also the problem that Etteilla's correspondences to the Marseille deck do not match Papus's correspondences to Christian's, which follows the Marseille order precisely.

Part of the problem is that Etteilla's cards vary greatly from the standard Marseille deck and also, to a large extent, from Levi's and Christian's modifications of the Marseille. In most cases it is merely a matter of the order of the trumps. But Etteilla got rid of four Marseille trumps and substituted his own, and also "restored" the Hanged Man to its proper role as Prudence. How could the new ones be correlated with the Marseille?

Etteilla himself was quite clear, in his writings before producing his own deck, on how to transform a Marseille or Besancon deck into one suitable for his brand of cartomancy: you simply wrote his card numbers and meanings on them. He gave the correspondences in both his 3rd and 2nd Cahiers. In the 3rd Cahier he gave the Marseille title along with his own card number and "restored" meaning.

But second-hand reports of Etteilla's correspondences to the Marseille vary, not only between authors but in the same work. Compare Kaplan. Vol. 1, at the top of p. 140, where he gives the correlation of card 13, "Marriage", as "The High Priest", with the bottom of the page, where he gives the same card 13, Mariage, as corresponding to "L"Amoureux". In neither case does he cite a source.

Likewise, as "Tarot John" reminded me in an email, compare Decker, Depaulis and Dummett (Wicked Pack of Cards) on p. 86, based on "all four cahiers", but earlier just the 3rd Cahier, with what they say on p. 92.

On 86 we are told that Etteilla's card 1 corresponds to the Marseille Pope, 8 to the Popess, etc.
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This goes on until Etteilla's card 21, corresponding to VII The Chariot, and then 0, for the Fool. I have uploaded the whole two pages at https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JExbc8B8dDY/ ... ge-007.JPG. This list will prove to be correct.

Then on p. 92 we are told that Etteilla's card 1 corresponds to the Popess, while card 7 corresponds to the Pope, no references given except to "Etteilla's Tarot".
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Here is the whole list: https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A3-EEp9i3Dw/ ... ge-010.JPG

The correlations are different for cards 6 , 7, and 8, too. I am not aware of any work in which Etteilla changed his mind about these correspondences.

I think it is possible to remove th confusion by quoting Etteilla directly, in the 3rd Cahier. Or rather, I will quote from my translation, at http://thirdcahier.blogspot.com/. I am not aware of any publication in which Etteilla gave a different set of correspondences,

For Etteilla's card 1, we find the Marseille Pope mentioned, as the one to alter, by crossing out "Papa" and putting, apparently, "he who questions":
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.
______________
*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.
We find the second Marseille card, the Popess, mentioned in relation to Etteilla's card 8:
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.
____________
*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.
We are also to alter the Empress and the Emperor cards, although it is not clear which of these words are to go on the cards:
No. 6. The Empress (*6) means, from something bad comes good, or, what has damaged us will become useful to us.

No. 7. The Emperor signifies support.
_________
*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.
Here the keywords , when Etteilla put out his own deck, will be, for 6, Night and Day, and for 7, Support and Protection. Christian's interpretation, in terms of the Woman Clothed by the Sun, in which the Sun, Moon and Stars are all represented, correlates well with Night and Day, and support and protection work as a nice virtue for an Emperor to possess. Christian considered himself a favorite of Emperor Napoleon III, whose disastrous efforts to "protect" led to his removal from office the same way he got in, by military coup.

Finally, Marriage corresponds to Etteilla's card 13:
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.
_____________
*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.
Of course there is no card called "Marriage" in the Marseille or Besancon tarot sequences. But the only one not assigned, and the logical one, is "L'Amoureux", the Lover. So we are to cross out "L'Amoureux" and put "Mariage".

Also, for the Marseille I Bateleur he does give card 15, Illness. In fact, DDD do report all but four of the correspondences consistently right. And p. 92 does report correctly Etteilla's major advance from 1783 to 1789 about the cards, namely the keywords he thought up for the trumps, to replace his rather wordy expositions of 1783.. But Etteilla consistently had two keywords for each card. Sometimes it was the same word upright and reversed, but in some of the cases where DDD have given only one (e..g. the virtues), Etteilla in fact had two different ones.

Now that Etteilla's correspondences to the Marseille are straight, I will return to Stockman. For Papus's Hierophant, she puts Etteilla's synonyms for his card 13, Marriage, instead of those for his card 1, Etteilla/Questionant. Not only that, but Papus's card (now called "L'Amoureux") has two males bowing down to a male Hierophant, following Christian's description precisely. That's Marriage? Papus's image works well for Christian's text but fits Etteilla's only in a metaphorical way, i.e. the harmony and union between leader and follower.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C8EBdxKZ48M/ ... e-005a.jpg (below)
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The next card in the Marseille sequence is VI The Lover, Etteilla does not use this idea precisely, but that is the only thing a "Mariage" card could be or correspond to, the one corresponding to his card 13 (even if I have seen it also referred to as "The Hierophant", perhaps someone who has read Papus or Kaplan). Etteilla takes de Gebelin's interpretation, that the card is about marriage, as opposed to de Mellet's, who saw it as a man choosing between good and evil. Christian, however, very much sees the card as about choosing between good and evil, and therefore so does Papus's card. It is the situation of the physical man, who must reflect on the will of his creator. To that extent Etteilla's synonyms for card 1 are appropriate. There is also a god floating above the man: but it's not the one usually called "God" in Etteilla's list.: https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-reB6uLWEAiY/ ... e-006a.jpg (below)
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My question for years has been: given that these last two correspondence are not Etteilla's, where do they come from? Are they Papus's, or are they the translator's? An editor's comment on all of them says, "Those given are supplied by Papus. Other attributions have been suggested." The "other attributions" are by those, I assume, who take their cue from Etteilla. But where does Papus "give" these attributions? Nowhere in the translation are they to be found.

Now that I have Papus's original, I can see the answer. He does give the correspondences, in sentences that appear with his quotations from d'Odoucet's "synonyms" but which the translator has left out. Here are the first two pages of Papus's original text: https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dWMJKVLD_o4/ ... ge-001.JPG

For Card 1 he has "(Cette carte est special au Tarot d'Etteilla.)", i.e. "(This card is specific to the Tarot of Etteilla. )"

For card 2 he has "Correspond a la lame 19 du Tarot Egyptien reconstitui par nous" i.e. "Corresponds to card 19 of the Egyptian Tarot reconstituted by us."

For card 3 he has "Correspond a notre lame 18", i.e. "Corresponds to our card 18": https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i2eyHoWsfH0/ ... ge-002.JPG

For the rest of the word-lists the wording in parentheses is the same as for Etteilla's card 3.

The point is that the synonym lists for Etteilla's cards are not meant, for Papus, to correspond to the Marseille cards, but to Papus's own cards, which correspond to Christian's descriptions. So it is no wonder that Papus's correspondences differ in a few places from Etteilla's: they are Etteilla correspondences brought to bear on Papus's cards, not the Marseille's. Even if the titles of Papus's cards are for ths most part the same as those of the Marseille, and the pictures mostly just the Marseille in Egyptian costume, the meanings are those of Christian plus the word-lists from Etteilla as Papus assigns them.

Thus the synonyms for Etteilla's card 13 apply to "our card" 5 -- i.e. Papus's, "Hierophant", not the Marseille's "Papa".. And the synonyms for Etteilla's card 1 apply to "our card" 6, i.e. Papus's Lover, and not the Marseille's, even if the main difference between the pictures is the costumes. Papus's deck comes with the interpretation and word-list of his choosing. The Marseille, in contrast, had a life very much independent from the LWB's written about it.

Stockman made other omissions of possible interest to people who may wish to learn from Papus. What I have found of significance are three charts, a long quotation in Spanish, and a second number on two of Papus's cards., omitted by Stockman I will get to these omissions later.

Re: Omissions and Errors in translation of Papus's "Tarot Divinatoire"

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I have to add one thing to my previous post, because it is part of the same argument, namely, how Stockman changes the numbers on the World and Fool card from what Papus had. This is something that people who have seen the Papus deck and then looked at Stockman may have wondered about. Here is what I mean, with Papus on the left and Stockman on the right:
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It is another example of how Papus is trying to combine Etteilla and Christian. For Etteilla the Fool was Zero and came between the World, which was number 21, and the King of Batons, number 22 (even if, for other reasons, he made it number 78 as well). For Christian and Levi the Fool was number 21. followed by the World at number 22, with no numbering of cards after that. In numbering his cards, Papus follows Etteilla. But he also has to acknowledge Levi and Christian, although their particular way of numbering the cards intrudes only once in the book that I can find, a page which Stockman simply omits. Papus has a diagram immediately before his pictures of the cards:
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This diagram makes no sense if it is the King of Batons that is card 22. It is rather that the Fool is 21 and the World 22. He does not discuss this diagram that I can find; it is something for the reader to contemplate. For one thing, it shows how numerological reduction can give a Pythagorean reading of cards 11-22, paralleling cards 1-10. Then there is the relationship to the suit cards to contemplate.

Re: Omissions and Errors in translation of Papus's "Tarot Divinatoire"

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Actually, Papus does discuss the diagram that I posted at the end of my last post. Here it is, the last page of Tarot Divinatoire (p. 187). P. 186, on the left side of the two page scan below, is on p. 54 of Stockman.

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LuVJfOG-Euk/ ... ge-017.JPG

Here is a transcription and translation of p. 87:
LE TAROT DIVINATOIRE 187

Recherches personnelles.
Nos recherches personnelles sur le Tarot ont été publiées dans le volume Le Tarot des Bohémiens qui sera réédité sous peu. En attendant cette réédition transformée, nous allons donner la figure générale de construction du Tarot telle (tue nous l'avons établie après de nouvelles recherches. Dans cette figure on voit que le centre est occupé par l'Arcane .21, qui résume toute la construction., les Arcanes majeurs sont au centre et les Arcanes mineurs à la périphérie. Les nombres correspondant à chaque arcane mineur des figures sont placés au-dessous de la dite figure. Ainsi les nombres 1-4-7 correspondent au Roi, les nom-bres 2-5-8 à la Dame, les nombres 3-G-9 au Cavalier et le nombre 40 au Valet. Enfin les Batons commencent par les Rois, les Coupes par les Dames et ainsi de suite. Les Arcanes majeurs sont disposés de telle sorte que l'Arcane placé au–dessus reproduit par addition théosophique le nombre de l'Arcane placé au-dessous. Ainsi l'Arcane 12 donne par addition Un plus Deux ou Trois qui est le nombre de l'arcane placé en dessous. On trouvera tous les détails dans notre étude sur le Tarot des Bohémiens devant paraître sous peu.


Personal research.
Our personal research on the Tarot has been published in the volume Le Tarot des Bohémiens which will be re-edited soon. While waiting for this transformed reissue, we are going to give the general figure of construction of the Tarot as we established it after further research. In this figure we see that the center is occupied by Arcanum 21, which summarizes the whole construction. The major Arcana are in the center and the minor Arcana in the periphery. The numbers corresponding to each minor arcanum of the figures [i.e. court cards] are placed below the said figure. Thus the numbers 1-4-7 correspond to the King, the numbers 2-5-8 to the Queen, the numbers 3-G-9 to the Knight and the number 40 for the Page. Finally, the Batons start with the Kings, the Cups with the Queens and so on. The major Arcana are arranged so that the Arcanum placed above reproduces by theosophical addition the number of the Arcanum placed below. So the Arcanum 12 gives by addition One plus Two, or Three, which is the number of the arcaum placed below it. One will find all the details in our study on the Tarot of the Bohemians to appear shortly.
I am not aware of any revised edition of Tarot des Bohemiens, in print, manuscript, or hearsay. I would certainly like to know about it if there is one. You will have noticed that in the diagram it is not the number 21, that is in the center, but 22. Looking again at Christian, I see that he does not have a 22. I don't know who has a "major arcanum" called "22". I assume he is referrng to the World card, since that is his assignment (in parentheses) for that card. Unlike "21", I know of no other card he gives that number to.

Re: Omissions and Errors in translation of Papus's "Tarot Divinatoire"

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Addition to preceding: Papus's concentric circles would seem to be an expansion of Christian's "golden star", for which he has just quoted Christian on p. 184 (corresponding to p. 52 of Stockman, continued on p. 54 and then droppe)d. Since this is Christian's only attempt at giving an image on a tarot card, and Papus does not reproduce it, perhaps I should do so. I get this from the English translation of Christian's 1870 History of Magic:
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Last edited by mikeh on 21 Feb 2020, 08:20, edited 1 time in total.

Re: Omissions and Errors in translation of Papus's "Tarot Divinatoire"

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I've a German edition of 1985, which was the 3rd printing since 1979. An introduction contains a foreword to the first French edition of 1889 by Papus, a foreword to the 2nd French edition 1911 by Papus (both very short) and a biographiy to Papus (little more than a page).
The introduction tells, that the translation followed the French edition of 1911, only in difficult points the English edition was requested. The introduction of the translators reads as being made for normal humans, nice.
The text of Papus is a mess. I never read it.
My German introduction has, that Papus has 22 chapters - that's correct in the translation. I don't find the text, that you quoted in the last post. Could you give the chapter? Or is this from Christian?
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Omissions and Errors in translation of Papus's "Tarot Divinatoire"

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The part I quoted in post 4 was originally in Christian, L'Histoire de la Magie, 1870, and then repeated word for word in Papus, Tarot Divinatoire, 1900. It is on pp. 184-185 of the 1909 French edition of Tarot Divinatoire.

The part I quoted in post 3 was from Tarot Divinitoire, 1909, a passage, that with the diagram he said would also be in the new edition of Tarot Des Bohemiens. The English translation of Tarot des Bohemiens, 1892, was of the 1889 first edition. That translation itself went through several editions. I have the 3rd edition, with Waite's preface.

I assume you were referring to post 3, Huck.

Looking online now, I see that Decker and Dummett, in Occult Tarot, speak of a "reissue" of Tarot Des Bohemiens in 1911 that omits Wirth's drawings that appeared in the 1889 book (footnote 11 to some chapter, I can't tell which, 10 or 11), but on p. 54 they call it a "revision". Well, it apparently did come out. Thanks, Huck. But so far I know nothing else.

Added next day: I see on WorldCat that French editions have two titles for the book. One, typically giving 1889 as the date, published by Carré (but one of 1920s published by Durville), is Clef absolue de la science occulte : Le Tarot des Bohémiens, le plus ancien livre du monde...

The other, once with [1911] as the date, published by Durville, is Le tarot des bohémiens : le plus ancien livre du monde à l'usage exclusif des initiés. The words on the title pages of both are probably the same, but in a different order. Well, I will try to get what I can from Interlibrary loan and see how they differ from the English translation. I do not see any French edition uploaded online. Could it still be in copyright?

I cannot answer your question, huck, about the page number until I see the French of the second edition of Tarot des Bohemiens. It is not in the English translation of the 1889, nor would I expect it to be in the French of 1889. II only know that it is, however, on p. 187 of Tarot Divinatoire

Re: Omissions and Errors in translation of Papus's "Tarot Divinatoire"

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Another omission: Papus gives a long quote from a "Catalan grimoire" in Spanish on a "Gypsy method" of card-reading called "The Pearls of Isis", which he then translates into French. Stockman translates the French and leaves out the Spanish. Perhaps of more importance for someone who wants to trace the history of occultist cartomancy in Spain, she leaves out Papus's note about the name of the book, its editor and place of publication: El Libro Negro, ed. by Manuel Saures, Barcelona.

The book is on WorldCat, El libro Negro ó la Magia : Las ciencias ocultas, la alquimia y astrología con secretos y reglas admirables, sacados de los más celebres autores cabalísticos
By: Alberto El Grande.; Marcelo García de Balbuena; Michael Nostradamus.
Barcelona : Manuel Sauri, ed., 1886.

It is held by the Biblioteca of the Universidad de Sevilla.

Here are the relevant pages of Papus, Tarot Divinatoire (pp. 23-25). Except as I have already indicated, this is on pp. 178-179 of Papus
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k7FuIE8EDc8/ ... ge-014.JPG
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MznY-k0U-Rc/ ... ge-015.JPG

Re: Omissions and Errors in translation of Papus's "Tarot Divinatoire"

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mikeh wrote: 22 Feb 2020, 13:39 Another omission: Papus gives a long quote from a "Catalan grimoire" in Spanish on a "Gypsy method" of card-reading called "The Pearls of Isis", which he then translates into French. Stockman translates the French and leaves out the Spanish. Perhaps of more importance for someone who wants to trace the history of occultist cartomancy in Spain, she leaves out Papus's note about the name of the book, its editor and place of publication: El Libro Negro, ed. by Manuel Saures, Barcelona.

The book is on WorldCat, El libro Negro ó la Magia : Las ciencias ocultas, la alquimia y astrología con secretos y reglas admirables, sacados de los más celebres autores cabalísticos
By: Alberto El Grande.; Marcelo García de Balbuena; Michael Nostradamus.
Barcelona : Manuel Sauri, ed., 1886.

It is held by the Biblioteca of the Universidad de Sevilla.

Here are the relevant pages of Papus, Tarot Divinatoire (pp. 23-25). Except as I have already indicated, this is on pp. 178-179 of Papus
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k7FuIE8EDc8/ ... ge-014.JPG
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MznY-k0U-Rc/ ... ge-015.JPG
The Pearls of Isis spread - like the Gypsy Method - both appear in Bourgeat's book (1906) - and the latter is taken verbatim from the Trismegiste book mentioned elsewhere.

Re: Omissions and Errors in translation of Papus's "Tarot Divinatoire"

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mikeh wrote: 24 Feb 2020, 00:15 Good to know. Which book by Trismegiste? And is the Spanish there, too? That is what I was chiefly interested in. That would help to decide whether the method came from Spain, or the Spanish is a translation from the French - the latter seems more probable, if it is in Trismegiste, unless he credits a Spanish source.
"L'Art de tirer les cartes." The "Bohemian method" is found verbatim in Bourgeat. There is no mention of a Spanish method. I expect Papus just copied those spreads from the existing literature (Bourgeat most likely, given the "Tears of Isis".)