November 5 - Daily Draw (Etteilla-style)

This is an incredibly fun deck! I was under the impression that Dame Fortune's Wheel was the only Tarot that put illustrations to Etteilla's meanings for the Minor Arcana, but I recently discovered the Tarocco Indovino by Sergio Ruffolo, published by Dal Negro. It's not incredibly sophisticated art, but it certainly has charm; and I must admit I'm so happy that another deck like this exists.  It uses French suit symbols instead of the usual Italian of most Tarot decks, but this is easily overlooked if you know the correspondences.

I drew the Sun, the Four of Spades (Swords), and the Magician.  The Four of Spades carries the keyword 'solitude'.  These cards tell me that success in my endeavours is possible, but only if I withdraw into solitude and spend some time on my own working diligently.

This post is the conclusion of my series on Etteilla-style decks, though after a bit of a break I'm sure I'll want to jump right back into them again!  But I want to make some observations on these interesting decks and their descendents: specifically Golden Dawn-based Tarots.  Doing these readings, it's easy to see that the Golden Dawn, and by extension Arthur Waite and even a bit of Aleister Crowley, cribbed meanings from Etteilla.  Where did the picture on the Rider-Waite Tarot's Four of Swords come from, if not this meaning of 'solitude'?

For my daily Lenormand draw, I used a different kind of deck; not really a proper Lenormand at all.  It was published in 1940, called simply 'Fortune Telling Cards' (though I've seen them referred to as the Whitman Cards); and while it features 36 cards, many of which are the same as or very similar to a Lenormand deck, it also has some unique ones as well.  I have a comparison post coming up, but in the meantime I'll have to leave you with this teaser!  The Flame, according to the instructions that came along with the deck, is a good luck card that strengthens good messages and weakens negative ones.  Flame + Rider I interpret as some news coming today, and it will be very good news indeed!