The Tarot of Marseilles, the Sola Busca, their meaning and divination

The History of Tarot

The origins of the Tarot are not certain. Seems that originated in the Middle Ages in northern Italy, and yes spread across Europe with great speed. They were 78-card decks destined to play in the courts, a refined and intellectual pastime. The wealthiest they commissioned the painting of their papers to more or less famous painters; who he could not afford it instead he bought decks of cards printed in series, created with wooden matrices and colored with mattes. The "divinatory" reading does not was still known, it would become prevalent only with the French school of the eighteenth century. 

Others say they derive from hieroglyphs of the Book of Thoth, are a synthesis of Egyptian knowledge and religion. Others argue that their birth is Chinese, due to the different similarities with the I Ching, the guardian book of ancient Chinese ancient wisdom more than three thousand years. Still others argue that the origin is all Italian, placing them in the court of the Duke of Milan at the beginning of the fifteenth century. 

Sure is that the Tarot cards are very hermetic cards, with symbols other than tradition to tradition, and different methods of use and divination. 

History of Sola Busca Tarot

The Sola Busca Tarots date back to 1491, and bear the name of its previous owners, the Marquise Busca and Count Sola. It is the oldest complete deck in the world and is therefore of exceptional importance, increased by the quality of the representations. Precisely for these reasons it was bound in 1924 by the then Ministry of Education. In 2009 the owners decided to sell it to the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities, and today they are publicly owned.The game of Tarot is cited by sources as a pastime of the upper classes starting from the fifth decade of the fifteenth century, especially in the area Ferrara. These were 78-card decks intended for play in the courts, a refined and intellectual pastime, very different from the card games that were played in taverns, deplored and sanctioned by the laws. The wealthiest commissioned the painting of their papers to more or less famous painters; those who could not afford it bought instead decks of cards printed in series, created with wooden matrices and colored with mattes. The "divination" reading was not yet known, it would become prevalent only with the French school of the eighteenth century. The Sola Busca deck is composed of 78 cards, 22 "trumps" and 56 cards of the four traditional Italian suits (coins, swords, sticks and cups): these are prints on paper from burin engravings, which were then illuminated with tempera and gold colors. The more traditional images of the fifteenth-century "triumphs" are replaced by figures of warriors from Roman antiquity and heroes of history biblical.

Among the characters depicted there are some that are difficult to identify, also due to homonyms and probable distortions. The Roman characters are those linked to the Catiline conspiracy and civil wars, examples of virtues of illustrious men for their skills (in war, in politics, in social roles) to be imitated., With a possible allusion to events of internal politics that today they are difficult for us to specify, at least until a more in-depth investigation is carried out on the classical sources of the fifteenth century and the Middle Ages. deciphering made it possible to interpret the deck as a living testimony of alchemical-hermetic knowledge. Thanks to the reading of the coats of arms present in the deck and the monogram “M. S. " Marin Sanudo the Younger was identified as the owner of the deck and responsible for its "coloring" in Venice in 1491.
The first 22 cards of the Triumphs of Sola Busca are different from the known numbers and symbols reproduced in the Tarot of Marseille, so the interpretation of the images is also different. This Tarot series has not yet been fully interpreted, so everyone can give their own personal interpretation to each image. The table below represents our personal interpretation, based on the Marseille symbology and the history of the characters represented, and in many cases it goes beyond the classical numerology of the Marseille people. We have reported the explanation at the bottom of the page.

DIVINATION OF THE FULL ARCANA "sola busca": A SIMPLE METHOD

MEANING OF THE CARDS Sola Busca

MINOR ARCANAS (signed by arabic numbers)

Explanation of our interpretation of the major arcana

The Sola Busca have yet to be interpreted and studied in depth. We have given our personal interpretation, based on the search for the classical symbology of the Marseillais, and on the life of the historical characters represented. Our interpretation therefore goes beyond classical numerology, and only a few cards coincide. The next interpretation is up to you! 

0 - The Fool: Rich headdress, raven looking at him in the eyes and mirror each other.

I - Panfilo - The Popess: he was sent to Greece where he managed to settle the conflicts between the Thessalians and the Macedonians. In addition, it reduced the Apuani Liguri or the inhabitants of Liguria who lived in the Apuan mountains, under Roman rule without shedding a single drop of blood. In such
sense, the triumphal crown that surrounds the head of the character acquires a significant value, as a reward for his victory.

II - Postumio - The Pope: he was appointed praetor and sent to the Gallia Cisalpina, the current Po Valley, to tame the inhabitants of those lands. However, the Roman legions he commanded were defeated in the woods Litana from the Galli Boi, allies of Hannibal. His head was hollowed out inside and, once decorated with gold, it was used by the Gauls as a sacrificial cup, a sacred vessel with which in solemn feasts they celebrated the sacrifice, and the itself served the use of the priest and the presidents of the Temple. In the card his skull colored in gold was depicted.

III - Lenpio - The Magician: Concept of transformation for the cup, and the stick in your hand and a herb that is about to be used or burned or cooked, and vision beyond things given by the character Strabo, with sight defect, symbolized by the hand covering one eye.

IIII - Mario - The Hanged Man: The symbolism leads back to a character immobile against his will and in precarious balance. It has just leaning on a two-branched shrub, ready to go as the gaze shows us attentive and not at all relaxed, and with his right hand he holds a rod on which waving a red flag, a symbol of the revenge against Silla. The winged helmet that adorns his head expresses the sign of further imminent victory.

V - Catulo - The Justice: One appears in the card trutina, the scale used by the Romans to administer Justice.

VI - Sesto - The Lovers or Love: Symbolism of uncertainty and of the crossroads given by the fact that the young man holds a shield leaning on ground while observing a torch that he holds in his left hand, and the body he is facing the shield and his head towards the torch  VII - Deotaur - The Chariot: symbolism given by the character known as upright, upright, virtuous and faithful

VIII - Nero - The Force: symbolism given by keeping with firmness of the child's legs as he removes him from the flames (or places him there?), from the pose of the arms and from the bare head and full of hair.

VIIII - Falco - The Emperor: symbolism of wisdom e of the power given by a man crowned and kneeling, with a long gray beard, who holds a pole in the right, a symbol of power, while the shield and the helmet they are resting on the ground, signifying his non-violent attitude.

X - Venturio - The Wheel of Fortune: character “touched by ventura” (lucky), symbols are the winged shoes worn by the character who they are not a sufficient guarantee of victory, precisely because they are a symbol of Fate that decides human destiny.

XI - Tulio - The Moon: the character observes the torch, and a large, heavy shield hangs from his back causing him to stagger.
It symbolizes self-observation through energy, the unconscious and the emotions.

XII - Carbone - The Hermit: symbolism given by the cup with the flame held high in the right hand, with the left hand facing in low leans on the decorated stick, and the moon on top of the paper 
XIII - Cato - Death: the character holds a spear with which he pierces the head of a killed man and holds papers in his hand, meanwhile, a star at the top illuminates the scene and there are few other elements recognizable are poured out on the ground

XIIII - Bocho - The Judgment: the image represents the resurrection of the dead in the last judgment, with a man rising from
earth with the help of a shield, and the bewildered face, the uncovered head and the red flag of the rescue. The character was portrayed as a traitor when instead Sallust in his works "resurrected" him as a wise man e moderate and sad in having to make decisions that, in one sense or another, they would have condemned him to be valued as a despicable man.

XV - Metelo - The Devil: symbolism given by the character wearing a red and conical hat, with the tip folded forward, that is one of the attributes of the religion of Mithras which was introduced in Rome in II / I century BC, together with the sacral scepter and the flame, represented from the lit urn above the column. Mitra was one of the many masks of the light-bearing god, of the sacred fire of the Romans or of the Lucifer of later Christian tradition.

XVI - Olivo - The Sun: symbolism given by the sun above a right and the basilisk, which was said to be necessary in alchemy to produce gold

XVII - Ipeo - Temperance: old man in Franciscan habit with two huge wings on his shoulders praying in front of a tree on whose top the face of an angel appears. He is the humble servant of earthly wisdom of the tree of life and the illuminating one of the heavens represented by angelic cherub rising from the top of that same tree.

XVIII - Lentulo - The Stars: in the stars the character is a naked woman, and here the character wears the toga transparent purple worn by aediles, and in all the chronicles this consul Lentulo is praised as a man of extraordinary wisdom, honesty and rigor intellectual. The symbolism is the man who observes the torch symbol of the truth (in the future it will be a woman who will observe the stars), and touch her own beard and the base of the torch, symbolizing the connection between a world and the other

XVIIII - Sabino - The Empress: the kneeling man looks at the sky and holds in his hand a fine staff symbol of the scepter, in the other an overturned helmet symbol of the triangle pointing downwards. Man holds the role of universal recipient of the Gospel message, a sun of truth

XX - Nenbroto - The Tower: founder of a powerful empire in Babylon whose initial nucleus was the city of Babel. Probably to him yes owes the construction of the tower instigating the whole world to rebel against sovereignty of God proudly raising an instrument with which to overcome the same divine height.

XXI - Nabuchodenasor - The World: character depicting Babylonian ruler who conquered and destroyed Jerusalem. The figure in the middle bust contemplates, almost asleep, the crown and the staff, and above her the world covered with stars, divided into 4 parts and surmounted by the griffin, animal
half lion and half eagle, symbol of Christ in his human and divine form al place of the 4 evangelists.