Aug 30, 2020
Annette Wakulenko, creator of the Triadic Tarot and author of The Tarot: A Strange and Wondrous Thing, offers techniques for using any Tarot deck, insight into the history and meaning of Marseilles-style Tarot decks, and the unique creation and use of her Triadic Tarot deck.
Annette did not have direct experience of experiencing the spirit world at a young age. Rather, she just had a sense of knowingness. She has been drawn to the Marseilles style Tarot deck after seeing an image of one of the cards.
A Marseilles Tarot deck is “block printed” and the colors are stenciled over the print. The “pip” cards of a Marseilles deck are non-scenic. Marseilles pip cards have literal drawings (five wands, four cups, etc.) rather than scenes with people and backgrounds on them. Pip cards are the Ace through 10 of each suit.
We don’t really know when the first Marseilles deck was created. There were Tarot decks created for the Italian nobility in the 1400s. The earliest documented deck is from 1440.
When Annette first saw her first Marseilles deck, it felt very familiar to her and she has been drawn to it ever since. The Marseilles deck inspires a more intuitive way of reading.
Annette created the Triadic Tarot deck. The cards are square in shape, creating four different ways a card can be read (in contrast to most other Tarot decks with rectangular cards that are read in two ways, “upright” and “reversed”).
Annette’s book, The Tarot: A Strange and Wondrous Thing, was written to help others read Tarot de Marseilles decks as there are not many resources available to Tarot readers. It also contains MANY intuitive techniques of reading Tarot that can be used with any Tarot deck, making it invaluable even if someone does not read a Marseilles style deck.
Annette also has a little booklet that is available free to anyone who sends her a self-addressed stamped envelope (with 2 stamps on it) that explains how to read pip cards that have no scenic illustrations on the cards.
One way of reading Ace through 10 cards that are non-scenic (cards that only have literally 6 cups on them or 3 swords on them): The first three cards of any suit (Ace, Two, Three) would be the commencement triad or beginning of an undertaking in the realm of that suit. Cards Four, Five, and Six of any suit comprise the opposition triad – all the problems you run into once you take on that project. Cards Seven, Eight, and Nine comprise the equilibrium triad, designating a project that is maturing or has matured and is functioning. Card 10 represents integration – you have integrated the experience and the learning that resulted from it.
Spread Analysis is another technique that can be used with any Tarot deck. Notice the expression of the figures, the gesture of the figure, what the figure is gazing at in the nearby card.
Annette is a firm believer in allowing the meaning of a card or spread to jump out at you rather than referring to a book or resource.
The earliest Marseilles decks included two
shades of blue color, one or two shades of green, one shade of red,
and a single shade of yellow. During the Industrial
Revolution the number of colors on Marseilles-style decks was
reduced for economic and production reasons. The Triadic
Tarot re-incorporates these colors that were lost to give the
reader a stronger sense and connection to nature.
When beginning with Tarot, look at each card and jot down what that card evokes in you as a way of getting to know the meaning of each card. When looking at cards in a spread, look at how the cards relate to each other – where they are looking, how the cards might interact with each other, etc.
Visit Annette Wakulenko’s website at www.arcanapress.net for information about Annette’s unique Triadic Tarot Deck, her book The Tarot: A Strainge and Wondrous Thing, and to receive a copy of her free “little tan book” with Tarot techniques.
Annette Wakulenko’s website: www.arcanapress.net. She can also be reached at PO Box 244, Genoa, OH 43430
Host Dan Johnson’s websites: www.vibrationalintelligence.com and www.performancemastery.com
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