Tarot tradition
The Tarot de Marseille
The older woodcut tradition — the deck as it stood for centuries before the Rider–Waite–Smith scenes. The trumps carry French names and an earlier numbering (Justice at VIII, Strength at XI), Le Mat stands outside the count, and the minors have no pictures at all: each pip is read from its number and its suit. Every card below links to its full meaning, shown in both traditions.
The twenty-two trumps
The four suits
Batons
Bâtons · will and work
Cups
Coupes · feeling and relation
Swords
Épées · thought and conflict
Coins
Deniers · matter and means
Reading the pips
No scenes on the pips — every minor is read from its number and its suit.
A Five of Coins is not a scene to interpret — it is the number five in the suit of earth, read from what five does to a suit and what the suit does to a five. The full method — the suits, the arc from ace to ten, and the courts — is its own short guide.
The three septenaries
The first septenary
Le Mat · I — VII · the stations of life
The second septenary
VIII — XIV · trial and measure
The third septenary
XV — XXI · the great forces
This edition
The Marseille art shown across Familiar is the Lequart 1890 deck, a Besançon-pattern variant. Two trumps depart from the standard Marseille images:
- In the edition shown here (Lequart 1890, a Besançon-pattern deck) trump II appears as Junon rather than La Papesse — the meaning tradition is the same.
- In the edition shown here (Lequart 1890, a Besançon-pattern deck) trump V appears as Jupiter rather than Le Pape — the meaning tradition is the same.