Forum Camoin du Tarot

[Arabella]

Hello, this is probably an unusual request, but I was wondering if someone could please help me understand a reading - given for a fictional character in a novel. I don't know if it's possible, but I would be very interested in your ideas, and hope it would hope me understand a fairly mysterious character better (I get the impression the author has chosen the cards for a reason). I'm currently writing an essay on the novel.
The novel is called Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and is an alternative history set during the early 19th Century. In it, magic (and fairies, the nastier kind) exist, the two figures in the title both being magicians (the only two practical, rather than theoretical, magicians left in England. Strange is represented by the Knight of Wands, Norrell by The Hermit). In one chapter, Childermass, the servant and man of business of Mr Norrell (who is rather fussy and scholarly), uses a deck of tarot cards he has copied himself (the author specifically mentions that they are Marseilles cards). He gives a reading for another character, then that character lays out the cards for Childermass himself, but offers no interpretation. Very little information is given about Childermass in the novel (though the author says she likes the character, and thinks she would give more information if she were ever to write a sequel) - he's clever, though limited by his class, knows the world, tends to (quiet) irony, and seems to have some magical skill himself. Here's the excerpt:

Vinculus took the cards and laid out nine. Then he turned them over one by one: XVIII La Lune, XVI La Maison Dieu reversed, The Nine of Swords, Valet Du Baton, The Ten of Batons reversed, II La Papesse, X La Rove de Fortune, The Two of Coins, The King of Cups. Vinculus looked at them. He picked up La Maison Dieu and examined it, but he said nothing at all.
Childermass laughed. "You are right, Vinculus. You are not like the others. That is my life - there on the table.

I can give more background, if needed. Any ideas very much appreciated. I can't but believe that the section is included for a reason, so am curious to know more. Thanks!

[Paul]

Hello Arabella :

Welcome to the English subforum. Your reading invitation is certainly tantalizing, if not challenging. I have not read this author, and her work sounds intriguing.

Please also feel free to attempt the Camoin Method using the Tarot de Marseille in any nonfictional readings. You may use the Smilies to construct your tableau. The English Camoin site provides the basic Laws of laying out the cards, as per Philippe Camoin’s discoveries: http://en.camoin.com/tarot/-Camoin-Laws-of-Tarot-.html. As well, you may consider acquiring a TdM deck, which is uncontaminated by modernity.

Within the string of cards you propose, it is of course obvious that the character (or, rather the author) did not use the Camoin Method. Indeed, the answers of how to interpret these particular cards brings us to more questions, and these are the questions that the Camoin Method answers:

Which cards to combine together into a unified thought?
Which symbols are most salient?
How can we discern the patterns in the apparent cacophony of images that coalesce to form a coherent meaning?
Which cards are more generally past? Present?
And, what were the solutions or attempted solutions to those reversals (as per the reversed cards) in Childermass’ life?

I heartily invite you to follow your interest in the Tarot de Marseille and learn more about the discoveries of Philippe Camoin. This is not to say that someone will not proffer an interpretation of this string of cards of which you propose. It reminds me of Italo Calvino's book The Castle of Crossed Destinies, whereupon travelers had to tell their tales using only the Tarot. I read this book in my teenaged years, and the poetry of the cards in sequence opened up horizons for me.

Best,
Paul