Optical Analogy Method

You are getting very sleepy! Your are forgetting everything you learned about Pythagoras or the Major Arcana.

In this method, the Minors are encountered as if it is enough that the optical, artistic elements of the cards indicate how to interpret the meaning, by analogy. No overlay is needed.

One simply looks at the card and describes what is happening. This then becomes the Optical Analogy for what is relevant to the querent’s situation.

When two Minor cards are placed in juxtaposition, the analogy becomes even clearer, as the result of the interactive iconography of two cards. Then the meaning of the Minors is immediately apparent in how the iconography displays itself and interacts with other cards.

In the Optical Analogy Method, we need no pre-supposed Pythagorean meanings of numbers or Major Arcana correspondences. The meaning of the card is immediately apparent by what is graphically on the card.

	Optical Analogy The optical idiosyncracies are described; these become an analogy for the meaning of the card, as combined with the Context of the Question.		Context of Question The nature of the question molds how the meaning is applied.
	NOW                 NEEDED

 
 

For example, if we pretend that the querent is asking about how to proceed with his marriage to make it better, we may optically note that the “soft” cups move into “stiff” batons. The flora around the central cup seems to form a receptive cup of its own, but then the flora in the 5 of Wands becomes more symmetrical and balanced. There seems to be more reciprocity in the second card.

These Optical notations may become Analogies within the Context of the Question.

 

		Suit Attribues The attributes of the Suit provide specific Meaning.

The answer to the querent is that the marriage has possessed abundant softness and receptivity on the part of the man. The querent confirms that he and his wife are best friends, but have lost the love connection, specifically sex. The advice is now that the marriage must get some backbone, some spice, and quite frankly, it needs some…stiffness, in the form of a more robust sex life. The flora being balanced and symmetrical may confirm that she will reciprocate.

Of course, the Optical Analogies only make sense with a given Context of the Question. In the above example, it’s only about cups and wands without context. With the context of the matter at hand, the analogies take on specific meaning.

Readers who are intrigued by this method are referred to Italo Calvino’s Castle of Crossed Destinies (1997) for how this method may be applied, using all of the Tarot de Marseille cards.

Readers are welcome to choose which system resonates with them most. It should now be clear that the Tarot de Marseille Minor Arcana offer the reader rich possibilities of interpretation.