From: "Jon Hanna" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Quoting John Cowan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > "Trumps" in English. I suggest that 21 trumps be encoded, but not > > named, because the correspondence of names to numbers is variable. > > Are they very variable? I can only think of the one substitution suggested by > Crowley. Are there others, outside of toy decks?
There's a strong tradition for the symbolism of these trumps used for cartomancy. The most famous Tarot of Marseilles kept at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France has been the base of lots of research to rediscover its initial graphic design and colors, and it consistently used the same mediaeval symbolism. This symbolism (and the associated names) are extremely stable and well known. Good reproductions of this tarot are quite expensive. The modern Tarot decks for competition do not have this esoteric or medieval symbolism: Atouts/Trumps are numbered, and the official images display scenes of people in rural areas or cities during the XIXth century (dancing, militaries, rural activities, hunting, ...). This tarot is really cheap, simple to reproduce, with few colors, and sold everywhere. As competition requires using new decks quite often, these decks have very basic but easily recognizable designs. But there are lots of modern variants some of them being completely unplayable as they don't even display the number, but some other symbolism (like runes, or astrologic signs...)
