The teachings of different cultures and religions are contained in the 22 Major Arcana. As it happens, all these sources of knowledge have been overlapped with each other: you will see for yourself, it is absolutely phenomenal that so much information has been compiled in only 22 cards! No computer today would be capable of encoding so much information in so few cards. We will also see that the different concepts and their significance are born systematically from the association of two elements contained in the Tarot. We will either find two symbols in one card, or one symbol in two cards. Whichever it is, you should be aware that everything comes in twos in the Tarot, it is one of the Laws governing how it works!

Let’s try now to examine in more detail what are the different cultures and religions present in the Tarot de Marseille. We invite you to travel across the ages, into different religions and cultures, thanks to the restored Tarot de Marseille…

Let’s begin with ancient Egypt. Le Mat is without number, while the other Major Arcana are numbered from one to twenty-one. Therefore it seems there is a card which must be considered apart from the others. It represents sometimes a spiritual pilgrim, sometimes a guide, who travels and accompanies us on the path composed of the 21 other cards. Indeed, the Philippe Camoin method presents the 21 Major Arcana placed in three rows of seven, creating a path on which Le Mat is in forward movement. This precisely agrees with the myth of Anubis, Egyptian god accompanying the human soul in its voyage toward Judgment. And that is exactly the name of the penultimate stage (Card XX) on the path of Le Mat. Another series of points in common add themselves to this striking similarity. Anubis is generally represented as a man with the head of a dog, who holds a large baton in the right hand and a small hooked baton in the left hand. He generally holds himself in profile, giving an image of moving forward. As it happens, on the card The Fool also appears a man in profile, marching forward, arrayed with the same attributes and accompanied by…. a dog!

Ancient Greek myths are also present in the Tarot. For instance, that of Theseus who decides to kill the Minotaur, a monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull. It is thanks to the thread of Ariadne that he manages to escape from the labyrinth. This legend appears in the two last Arcana of the Tarot, where we see the red labyrinth in Judgment (XX), from which the hero emerges with blue skin; he can be associated with Theseus. Next, in the adjacent card The World (XXI) we see the head of a bull, below and on the left, as well as a young woman at the centre. It is astounding to notice that looking toward the person coming out of the labyrinth are the Minotaur and Ariadne, both observing the scene where Theseus emerges from his ordeal!

For Philippe Camoin, to read the Tarot for someone is foremost to give that person their own thread of Ariadne, to allow them to find the way out of their personal labyrinth…

Another symbol from Greek mythology appearing in the Tarot is the cyclops. This one-eyed being represented the beginning of spiritual vision. We find it in two cards: The Pope (V) and Judgment (XX). Indeed, if we look closely at the two smaller people at the foot of the Pope and the blue figure in Judgment, imagining that they are facing us… All three of these figures present a strange head with the aspect of an eye!

Let us cite one last example relating to Greece: in The Wheel of Fortune (X), we can see a winged sphinx, which belongs to the ancient heritage of Greece, Marseilles, and Assyria. Contrary to popular thought, it is not found in Egypt, where the sphinx has no wings. Let us remember that Marseilles was once Massalia, a Greek colony founded 2600 years ago. It is therefore interesting to find traces of the winged Sphinx in the Tarot…

Now let us speak of Shintoism, a religion of Japan which respects other religions. The Japanese believe in nature spirits and consider God to be a woman. Thus they have no difficulty understanding the essence of the card The World: that is, the Divinity represented here (XXI) by a woman! At the entrance to some shinto shrines, there are two columns, which one finds abundantly in cards I, II, V, VII, X, XII. Perched on each of the columns of these Japanese shrines is the statue of a lion-dog: the koma inu. The mouth of one is open, the other closed. They are the guardians of the sacred place. Let us observe that we find two lions in the Tarot (XI and XXI): the first has an open mouth and the second a closed mouth. We see also that the dog appears in two cards; once with its mouth closed (in Le Mat) and two times with mouths open (in the Moon).

Let us also note that the symbol of the Koma inu is found in the Tarot with the association of two elements: the dog and the lion. The two guardians, in Japanese culture, pronounce together the sound AUM. The one with mouth open begins with the A, and the one with mouth closed finishes with the M.

Try it yourself! Vocalising the sound "AUM" starts with the mouth open and ends with the mouth closed… AUM is the primordial sound at the base of all the mantras chanted by Asian monks. It is the symbol of the combination of superior energies.

The Hindu religion is based on a multitude of deities, which are at the same time different aspects of the Divine. The gods Krishna and Shiva are always depicted with light blue skin. One can obviously think immediately of the resuscitated being in Judgment (XX).

The Hindu Bhagavad-Gita tells the story of a dialogue between Krishna, the son of God and Arjuna, represented usually on his chariot, adorned with a canopy, both on the field of battle. The card The Chariot (VII) shows us exactly a warrior on his chariot. Take a closer look at the starry canopy above his head, which strangely resembles the hindu chariots…

Let’s continue with the Shivaite monks, who traditionally had three horizontal strokes painted on their foreheads. It is the mark of the initiate and we find it both on the forehead of The Hermit (VIIII), as well as on the torso of one of the small figures in the card the Devil (XV)! Also in the Hindu religion, the myth of the eye of Shiva speaks of an inner eye which opens in the initiate, until it allows him to embrace in his consciousness a vision of the cosmos. This is what we find in the card The World (XXI): looking at it sideways, the light blue oval evokes the form of an eye, surrounded by the constellations of Taurus, Leo, Aquarius (the angel) and Scorpio (the eagle). To the Egyptians, the myth is called The Eye of Horus, and it also exists for the Tibetans under the name The Eye of Dangma.

Let us finally come to the undebatable presence of Christianity in the Tarot. In addition to the obvious connection with the card The House of God (XVI) and that of The Pope (V), as well as the presence of several angels and cherubs, we can also find in The House of God a representation of the tower of Babel. Similarly, the card The Hermit (VIIII) reminds us strongly of Moses, holding his stick, ready to transform it into a serpent. It is just as difficult not to compare the fields of The Star (XVII) with the Garden of Eden, with Eve kneeling. One of the most striking similarities is the theme of the Resurrection, portrayed in Judgment (XX) which shows us a red cemetery from which three figures emerge! And lastly, the card of the World is the exact representation of Christ in Glory or Christ in Majesty, seen on the frontispieces of the European cathedrals, with the difference that we find a woman in place of a bearded Christ….

You will probably have been struck by the multidude of meanings that a single card of the Tarot de Marseille can contain. The examples which were briefly presented to you here were chosen expressly among the easiest and most vivid, in order to share with you the wide range of knowledge that Philippe Camoin offers us through his revelations. We have seen for example that the card Judgment makes reference to ancient Egypt and Greece, as well as Hinduism and Christianity. A single card which mixes distinct cultures, with such precision in a drawing so apparently simple…. These are the mysterious treasures that the work of Philippe Camoin gives us: the majority of symbols cannot be found except on the deck of Philippe Camoin. The restored Tarot is brimming with connections, each more magnificent than the others and of which some are extremely complex to develop. Their explanations are the topic of conferences and seminars all over the world. The courses are aimed at any person wanting to learn about this newly restored Science, finally made accessible to all.

Copyright © Philippe CAMOIN - 2003