Tarot of Marseilles Deck

Tarot de Marseilles Deck Overview

A variety of styles and designs exist in Tarot decks. Historically, one of the most prominent designs is the Tarot de Marseilles. This pattern was the one studied by Court de Gébelin. The Tarot de Marseilles was also popularized in the 20th century by Paul Marteau. Some current editions of cards based on the Marseilles design, date back to a deck, of a particular Marseilles design, that was printed by Nicolas Conver in 1760.

Deck Characteristics:

• Older decks such as the Tarot de Marseilles are less detailed than more modern decks.
• A Marseilles type deck is usually distinguished by having repetitive motifs on the pip cards as opposed to full scenes as found on the Rider-Waite style decks.
• Decks used in the English-speaking world often bear illustrated scenes on the numeric cards to facilitate divination. The more simply illustrated "Marseilles" style decks are also used esoterically, for divination, and at times for game play.
• The Marseilles style Tarot decks generally feature numbered Minor Arcana cards that look much like the pip cards of modern playing card decks.
• The Marseilles' numbered minor arcana cards do not have scenes depicted on them; rather, they sport a geometric arrangement of the number of suit symbols (e.g., swords, rods, cups, coins) corresponding to the number of the card, while the court cards are often illustrated with flat, two-dimensional drawings.

"Click" on any Tarot de Marseilles card below to see a larger pictorial version.

Major Arcana
Minor Arcana
Clubs (Wands)
Cups
Swords
Coins (Pentacles)

Rider-Waite, Aquarian Tarot, Morgan-Greer Tarot, Ukiyoe, and Swiss 1JJ decks are copyrighted to and published by US Games Systems.

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