Grand Etteilla (Tarots Egyptiens / Egyptian gypsies tarot) (Grimaud)

Grand Etteilla (Tarots Egyptiens / Egyptian gypsies tarot). Grimaud, France. Full divinatory tarot deck, Mediterranean suited, 80 single-headed cards + divinatory-meanings booklet. Size: 63mm x 120mm.

Deck make-up:
Trumps: 0-21.
Coins, clubs, cups, swords: 1-10, foot jack, mounted jack, queen, king.
Extras: Grimaud advertising cards (x2).

"Etteilla" was the spelled-backwards pseudonym of Jean-Baptiste Alliette (1738-91). He was the French occultist who was the first to popularise tarot divination to a wide audience (1785), and therefore the first professional tarot occultist known to history who made his living by card divination. Etteilla published his ideas of the correspondences between the tarot, astrology, and the four classical elements and four humours, and was the first to issue a revised tarot deck specifically designed for occult purposes (1791).

The deck shown is by Grimaud, who have published it since 1890, and still do. Decks patterned broadly after Etteilla's original are categorised into three types: Etteilla I, Etteilla II, and Etteilla III. This deck is type I, which is the design closest to the Etteilla original (types II and II came later). Divinators like these decks as the interpretations are printed on the cards (both for when the card comes out upright, and when reversed), so no need to scrabble around for booklets of divinatory meanings!

Click on any card to explore the design.

(Comments or corrections, please e-mail: Click to see e-mail address.)

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Trumps

Coins

Clubs

Cups

Swords

Extras

The box blurb and little white booklet rattle on about Egyptians, gypsies and the Kabbalah, all of which have nothing whatsoever to do with tarot: they were grafted on a couple of hundred years ago in an attempt to give the whole thing more of a pedigree. Meanwhile, the divinatory meanings given in the booklet (see scan) appear to be for a different deck of cards completely! The Mopses??