The Alchemical Tarot of Marseille

The Alchemical Tarot of Marseille is a 78-card deck by Robert Place that reinterprets the French Tarot with references to Alchemy and Hermeticism.

Robert wanted to show that these images are clearly related to Hermetic philosophy and can be correlated with the alchemical Opus. The trump cards are based directly on the traditional French cards with French titles. The original cards are examples of naive folk art. Robert redrew the figures in a more sophisticated style which is still influenced by Renaissance prints. Each trump displays the same alchemical symbol that he used for the latest editions of The Alchemical Tarot. However, the major innovation is that each trump also shows a quote from the ancient Hermetica (as translated by Walter Scott in 1924), and these quotes clarify the meaning of the imagery on the card in a way that demonstrates the underlying Hermetic philosophy.

Although the pip cards in the Tarot of Marseille do not contain much imagery other than the repetition of the suit symbol, this was not the norm for all early decks. From the beginning, German decks of playing cards often included scenes of people and animals on the pips along with the suit symbols. Minchiate decks also used this same approach. Robert has followed this example and included imagery on the pips based on the divinatory meanings that he worked out for The Alchemical Tarot.