We are excited to carry Tarot de Marseille by Paul Marteau in our store.
As we previously shared, this book is a must-have for an in-depth study of the Tarot de Marseille. It’s also a fantastic book for quick reference.
We wanted to learn more about the English edition, so we interviewed the translator Marius Høgnesen. We talked about his interest in the Tarot de Marseille and why he decided to translate the book. You can read the interview below.
Hello Marius! First, can you share what got you interested in the tarot?
I became very interested in everything spiritual after I experienced an "out-of-body" experience about 11 years ago. I found myself floating above my body, in a very neutral emotional state, wondering why a lamp was sticking out of my bedroom wall. Then I realized I was looking at the ceiling up close, 2.5 meters above my bed.
After that, I began to have an elevated interest in everything related to spirituality, reading books by Eckard Tolle, David Hawkins, and so on. Eventually, this led me to the Tarot.
I was not one of those people who took an interest in it as a young man. I only bought my first tarot deck about 8 years ago, and I was very skeptical in the beginning. The reason for the purchase was simple: I am not a patient person, so I wanted to find a better way to receive messages than through meditation. I am, by the way, self-taught. After the initial tries, I began gravitating towards the Marseille, as these seem to be a purer conduit than the Rider-Waite-Smith tarots.
Why do you read with the Tarot de Marseille?
We are all born with intuition. I believe intuition is the language of the soul and the tarots are just a tool for your intuition, a way to look into your shadows. I don’t believe the cards can predict the future; they just give you a picture of what you are dealing with right now, things to be wary of, and what you are not seeing. I usually only read for myself, but on occasion, I do read for friends and family. I believe the biggest problem we have today is our own relationship with ourselves. All problems really emanate from that.
I am not from the school of thought that there is only one type of card stock or one type of method. I, in fact, use several systems, such as Marseille, Rider-Waite-Smith, Lenormand, Kipper, Etteilla, and Oracles, and just recently, I’m trying out the Sibilla.
How did you first learn about Paul Marteau?
I started reading Paul Marteau´s Tarot de Marseille after I had exhausted all the books I could find in English. My French is not good, so I found a Spanish version that I consulted for some time.
Now Marteau is not a name that will escape you if you are interested in the Tarot de Marseille, since through his company Grimaud, basically created the Tarot de Marseille deck work-horse the Ancien Tarot de Marseille and coined the term Marseille into these type of cards.
I have translated a lot of material from French sources over the years, just on my own, for myself. The decision to do the Marteau book really came back in the summer of 2020.
At one point, there was some talk online that an English translation was coming, but nothing ever did, and I got tired of waiting. I reached out to someone who was working on a translation from his own blog, a translation that was very slow in the making, and I offered to combine forces, but he wasn’t interested.
So, I decided to do it myself, naively thinking I could do it in 3 months. It ended up taking 6 or closer to 7 months.
Why should people read Paul Marteau’s Tarot de Marseille?
Well if you are just looking for a short "how to", by all means just buy the books by Anna Maria Morsucci or Ben Dov. But, if you are serious about the Tarot de Marseille, Marteau’s book should probably be among your top 5. Marteau offers a range of interpretations you won’t find in any other books. Thanks so much for explaining your view on the tarot and how the English translation came into existence.
We are happy to support you by making Tarot de Marseille available in our store!
William Rader
