About the Etteilla Tarot

Etteilla begins his book on reading the Tarot as follows:

The Art of reading French Cards, having generally pleased, I believed that
I would also flatter the curiosity and the taste of almost all Europe, if I
brought to light that of reading the Cards named TAROT, these being in all
respects the origin of ours, because they come to us (as M. Court de Gébelin
has very knowledgeably told us, in his eighth Volume of The Primitive World)
from the first Egyptians.
I shall not talk thoroughly here about this Deck of Cards, or rather this
invaluable Book, which is familiar to me since 1757, about which I protest
that I have found some unique information; however I shall say what is its
way of being amusing, in imitation of the ancient Peoples who made this
Deck of Cards, formerly named the book of Thoth, their most robust activity,
containing generally all their sciences, and particularly their Religion, their
Oracles, and their universal Medicine, so that it is easy to explain, by
interpreting, like the Ancient Mages, the seventy-eight Hieroglyphs that are
contained in this Deck of cards). To understand what I am going to say, it is
useful to have before your eyes the deck of cards named Tarot, and so as not
to have trouble with the order which I consider as their numbers and the
interpretation which I give to Hieroglyphs, it is necessary to write both on
each of the Cards, following the plan which I indicate, promising, besides, to
bring to light what is lacking here, so as to have a complete idea of this Book
of Thoth, which contains the whole Universe.

HOW TO AMUSE ONESELF

WITH THE DECK OF CARDS NAMED TAROT
Serving as the third Cahier of this Work

The Etteilla pattern was groundbreaking at the time, differing so wildly from the
more commonly known Tarot de Marseille and Italian patterns, which were used
for gaming. Information on the history of this change is discussed in my notes on
the esoteric history of the Tarot. It explains that Etteilla was adamant that the
Tarot was a relatively modern distortion or corruption of the ancient Book of
Thoth, 78 pages of wisdom from that Egyptian god. He affirms that the originals
were corrupted by “vile cardmakers” over the centuries; the originals were on
sheets of finest gold and Etteilla has restored their designs to the original.
The small cards (what was later known as the Minor Arcana) are largely
unchanged in the main from those which came before - four suits of fourteen cards
each; numbered cards Ace through Ten with the Ace being more ornately
decorated than the others, and four Courts. Pips or numbered cards were largely
unillustrated, although some suits - Wands and Coins - also contained small
illustrations that I always interpreted as being Masonic or similar in origin.
It is with the trumps that things really changed. While some of them really
didn’t vary all that much - the Moon and the Chariot are two examples, as are the
virtues of Temperance, Justice and Strength or Fortitude - others are wildly
different. Prudence, Chaos, Plants and Birds and Fishes, for example, replace
some of the more traditional titles and images. Also, many of the cards have
different placements within the deck from that which they had been traditionally
assigned.
 In his divinatory interpretations of the cards, Etteilla makes it clear that his deck
and that of Mlle Lenormand were contemporaries, in which specific combinations
of cards were read in very precise ways. It is clear that, despite his high-flown
theories of antiquity, the cards were not in use for much more in his time than
genteel parlour fortune-telling.
The first eight trumps in particular are quite interesting in Etteilla’s deck. He
implicitly ties them to the Creation, from the world without form and void, through
the six days of creation to the rest of the seventh day. They’re in a different order,
though: the fourth card appears to represent the second day, and the sixth card the
fourth, for example. Michael S. Howard put forward several theories as to why
this might be the case, including Pythagorean numerology, but I chose to ignore it
because it all seemed a little far-fetched to me. Gertrude Moakley, of all sources,
had the following to say about the ordering, at least by way of Court de Gebelin:

The authority he relied on was Antoine Court de Gebelin, a renowned

scholar who was an acquaintance of Benjamin Franklin and greatly
esteemed by the King of France. The gist of Court de Gebelin’s story is that
some time in the last quarter of the eighteenth century he happened to see
some ladies playing a card game with tarot cards. In his part of France these
cards were unusual, and he had not seen them since he was a boy. He was
interested in ancient Egypt, and it suddenly struck him that he was seeing a
sacred Egyptian book, brought into Europe by the Gypsies, to whom it had
been entrusted by ancient Egyptian priests thousands of years ago. Their
idea, he said, had been that the safest way to preserve their ancient wisdom
would be to disguise it as a game, and to trust that some day a wise man of
the future would able to decipher it. And now the time had come!
Intuitively, Court de Gebelin knew what wisdom had been hidden in what
seemed a simple pack of cards! He spread the cards out on the table, and
explained their hidden meaning to the astonished ladies. The trumps, he
explained; should be read backwards, beginning from the highest. The first
seven trumps represent the Golden Age: XXI Isis (the Universe), XX The
Creation (not the last Judgment, as one might ignorantly think), XIX Creation
of the Sun, XVIII Creation of the Moon and terrestrial animals, XVII Creation
of the stars and fish, XVI The House of God overturned, with man and
woman precipitated from the earthly Paradise, XV The. Devil, bringing to an
end the Golden Age. The next seven cards are for the Silver Age: XIV
Temperance, XIII Death, XII Prudence (the cards Court de Gebelin had
before him depicted a dancing Prudence instead of the Hanged Man), XI
Force coming to the aid of Prudence, X The Wheel, IX Hermit seeking
Justice, VIII Justice. The last group is for the Brazen Age: VII War (in the
modem tarocco pack the triumphal car of Love has given way to a military
chariot bearing an armed warrior), VI Man fluctuating between vice and
virtue, V Jupiter (the tarot cards of Southern France usually show Jupiter
and Juno instead of Pope. and Popess), IV King, III Queen, II Pride (Juno and
her peacock), I Juggler.

Slightly different layout than is expressed either via Etteilla or the Tarot de
Marseille. But the analogies are interesting, and are something I will be looking
at.
As for the minor cards, or “Minor Hieroglyphs”, Etteilla states in a footnote:
 I will give the reason for all these divisions, not in the style of the
Ancients, but according to the knowledge of the Cabalists.

In other words, the Egyptians didn’t give him these; rather, he borrowed from
mystics at the time.
The purpose of this study (which is by no means comprehensive, scholarly,
esoteric or even very much in-depth) is to become passingly familiar with the
Etteilla pattern of Tarot, and at least somewhat conversant in his interpretations.
I do not anticipate using the Etteilla decks to any great extent, but as the
divinatory interpretations he developed were so influential to Waite and so many
others, as he may be considered the grand-daddy of divinatory Tarot reading, I felt
it necessary to spend at least a little time looking at his work.
A few caveats: I don’t intend to spend any great amount of time on the reversals,
as I do not use them personally, nor do I dwell much on the interpretations of the
cards in close proximity to specific other cards. As the pips and Court cards have
little new or interesting to lend beyond Etteilla’s divinatory lists of keywords, I also
will not spend much time on them aside from Etteilla’s words and my observations
if and when they add anything to Etteilla’s words; it is the trumps that are of key
interest.
I also, as I hope my own comments will show pretty clearly, have very little faith
in his belief in the Tarot as ancient Egyptian artifact, as repository of great and
ancient wisdom. But again, Etteilla and his predecessors started it. Later
esotericists took that ball and ran with it. So I would just like to understand the
source a little better.
Speaking of sources, the bulk of my source material comes from a number of
excellent blogs by Tarot scholar Michael S. Howard, who translated much of
Etteilla’s work and interpretations of his source work by his followers, including
Papus, Julia Orsini, and several versions of the Grimaud companion Little White
Booklet (LWB). All translations herein, unless otherwise stated, are compliments
of his blogs; he credits amendments and some translations to other French-
speaking contemporaries, but I will not individually reference them here.

1. Chaos, Etteilla, the Male Querent

The sign of Aries is on border of this card, in the Grimaud version of the Etteilla
I deck. It shows a brilliant sun emerging from dark clouds, illuminating them a
paler blue where its light touches.

Etteilla, from his Third Cahier:

No. 1. The Egyptians took this Card or sheet on which was drawn a
Hieroglyph for the man who consulted them; so this Sheet or Card means, or
represents, he who questions the Oracles by the Book of Thoth.
The first sheet, listed no. 1, which represented--as may be justified by
numbers 9, 10, 11, 12--a light surrounded by a thick cloud, or the chaos
which was turned back in order to give place to the Truth, at the moment
when the Creator manifested his glory and his sovereign bounty to the
Creatures of the whole Universe, who slept and will sleep again in his
intelligence: allegorical truth, indeed worthy of our first Masters.
This allegory, formerly no. 1, was listed as no. V; and in place of the
emblem of a unique Motor, a pure light, dreadful Ignorance was first to put
 on this card a Jupiter, then a Pope, and in third place a Swordsman; error
that seems to us ridiculous, as if these images when reunited did not offer us
a precious Book, containing all the Philosophy of the first People of the
Earth, seen after an inundation over at last half the Globe, if one ought not
believe a general judgment.

The Swordsman, incidentally, I can only assume refers to the Belgian variant of
the Tarot de Marseille, Tarot Flamand, in which the Pope and Papess are replaced
by Bacchus and a stock comedy figure the Spanish Captain Fracasse, who wields a
sword.
He offers the below interpretations of the first card:

1. ETTEILLA. God. All-Powerful, Eternal, Very-High, Unitrine, the

Supreme Being, the Central Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Male Consultant,
Chaos. Thought. Meditation, Contemplation, Reflection, Concentration.
Reversed: THE MALE QUERENT. The Universe. The physical man or the
male. The querent. Philosophy. Philosophical. Philosophically. Philosopher.
Sage. Sagacity. Sagely.

It isn’t until later Grimaud interpretations for the Grand Etteilla Tarot deck that
the card becomes commonly known as Chaos. This title, I believe, springs from
Etteilla’s theory of the first eight cards as representative of the Creation. This
first card is about the void before the first day:
Genesis 1:1-2: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face
of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

I see this card as representing the beginning point - the emptiness, the Chaos,
the man coming to the cards in search of answers. It represents everything and
nothing. Particularly for a male querent, it really is the jumping-off point.

2 The Sun, Enlightenment

A five-pointed simple star is surrounded by a halo of reddish light above two
naked children embracing at the foot of a brick pyramid, the apex of which appears
to be topped by the star. Strong signs of the Tarot de Marseille card Le Soleil,
with the two children and the bricked background.

This card bears several legends in the borders: the glyph for Taurus, 2nd
element and 1st day of creation.

Etteilla says:
[...] the Sun is the instrument by which the Creator appeared in order to light up
the life of all Beings; as the Sun, it carried itself to all the Globes of our Universe.
These Globes can be nothing other than the proper matrices to receive life, that
one might compare to a fluid that contains and transfixes all of Nature, since it is
the true spirit of the Lord, the Sun that vivifies all the embryos, enfuses itself so
that all the Globes are necessarily people, or matrices, which the order of all things
demonstrates: gold, and also coal, being matrices, from the moment that Nature
animated them, or Art revived them. [...]
 This second sheet, listed number 2, offers for allegory a Sun. ...This second
sheet, as we have said, bears also the number 1, relative to the six days of
creation: the light was called day, and the darkness night; and it bears the number
2, the Fire, second Element.

What does all this mean? I’m not getting into any sort of astrological
associations, as I firmly believe that Etteilla just tacked them in there to say he had
done so, or as a quick and dirty and not particularly well thought out means of
tying a querent’s horoscope to the reading. So Taurus is attached to this card just
because it’s the second card. As for the elements, this is the second element, Fire.
Makes sense, coming from the Sun.

And the first day? Again, this goes back to the story of Creation:
Genesis 1:3-5: And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God
saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And
God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and
the morning were the first day.

As far as divination goes, I choose to look at a 1910 version of the Etteilla LWB
from Grimaud, in which the card is titled “Hiram’s Freemasonry.”
This gives you a clear-cut view of life. It often opens up new and interesting
possibilities.

R [Right-side up]: After a frank discussion the lovers are reconciled. With 13 –
great sentimental happiness, probable marriage, especially if 13 is placed before 2.
U [Upside-down]: Do not let anger dominate you. It will be harmful. With 75 –
worry, disagreement. With 21 – betrayal.

In a reading, I would see this card as representing illumination, that “let there
be light” moment when all becomes clear. Perhaps seeing things through a new
perspective, like the innocent eyes of a child.

3 The Moon, Plants

The Moon is clearly influenced by La Lune from so many traditional decks, just
in a compressed context - there’s no foreground, no background. It’s all together.
Two dogs sit (one lies) between two tall round towers. Behind them is a large lake
or pool, out of which a crayfish has just emerged and sits on the bank. An
insignificantly small full moon, crowded out by the other symbolism, gilds the
edges of gathering clouds.

The card’s borders are graffitied with the glyph of Gemini, as well as notations
for the 1st element and the 3rd day of Creation:
Genesis 1: 9-13: And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered
together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God
called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas:
and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the
herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in
itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb
yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself,
after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning
were the third day.

In his Third Cahier, Etteilla says:

No 3. The third sheet has for allegory the Moon, and bears the number 3 for the
third day of creation; that it gives its jet; and thus the number 1 Water, first
element.

Some of Etteilla’s followers and later scholars have argued that he missed the
point altogether on this card; rather than harkening back to the third day in which,
as we read above, God created the dry land and the plants, he stuck to the no
doubt “corrupted” contemporary version. Later decks, the Etteilla II and Etteilla
III versions, corrected this by titling this card “The Plants” and depicting flowers
prominently under the Moon. But it still beats the early title the Grimaud LWB
assigned the card: “The Order of the Mopses”, which Howard attributes to the
Masonic secret society by that name; its idol was a pug named Mops, so the title
may have been inspired by the dogs in the Moon.

And also, according to Etteilla:

No. 3. The Moon, means harmful talk. Reversed: Water.

Water in the reversed orientation is from its attachment to the first element.

In a reading I would see this as a somewhat negative card, suggesting gossip

and slander. Perhaps, even if only by accident, this is where the attachment to
Gemini comes from: Gemini, the Twins, can sometimes be seen as two-faced in
nature.

4 The Star
Etteilla didn’t stray far from the commonly available Tarot de Marseille pattern
for this card, at least not for the cards based on his own designs, the Etteilla I (II
and III show more alchemical schematics of the medieval cosmos in their designs).
But here we have the stocky maiden, nude, on one knee to pour water from two
pitchers into what might or might not be a shallow pool. A large haloed star is
central to the incongruously blue daytime sky, surrounded by planetary glyphs. A
butterfly hovers near her.

The marginalia on the Star includes the symbol for Pisces, as well as the 3rd
element (Air) and 2nd day of Creation:
Genesis 1:6-8: And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the
waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the
firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the
waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the
firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Etteilla, for all that he appears to call this card the Star, doesn’t appear to hold
much faith in this title:
No. 4. The fourth sheet has for allegory the Stars, and was by the Cardmakers
called “The Star,” because it showed there some Stars: I explain otherwise the
figure in its proper nomination, titled by its day of creation: expanse; the number
of the Element that it bears is 3, Air.
 Michael S. Howard postulates that by expanse, Etteilla might mean firmament,
and that this is just an issue of translation. In a reading, according to Etteilla:
No. 4. The Star means loss. Reversed: Air.

Loss. That’s a departure from the modern hopeful interpretation. The early
Grimaud LWB (the below from a 1910 version), in which the card is title “The Pool”
or sometimes even “The Swimming-Pool”, carries on in this vein.
This card right side up announces a secret that will be revealed one great day,
and which will dissipate some slanders. A woman will make a confession that will
surprise many; a black hypocrisy will be discovered.

Reversed, this card promises a cold that the person for whom one reads will
catch in leaving the bath; or, if the person does not bathe, in leaving the bed.

Interpreting the Star in an Etteilla reading clearly calls for a change of tack
from other styles of deck. It refers to secrets, confessions, things coming to light,
and yes, loss.

5 The World, Man and the Quadrapeds, Voyage

The World isn’t that much different from the last trump in the Tarot de
Marseille, at least not in the spirit of the card. A nude woman with her hips
draped in cloth holds an olive branch and stands between two sharp pyramids.
She forms a cameo style of decoration in the centre of a circle formed by a green
snake biting its own tail. Etteilla had a footnote about this central image:
Remove the oval Cartouche, & put in its place a Serpent having its head in its
mouth... & in place of two miserable blades of grass, put two pyramids of 59
measures, because the figure had some 121; & in agreement with all the Wise, you
will conceive that this figure was surrounded by seven stars.

Sounds very biblical, with the measurements and all, like building the Ark, or
the Temple. Surrounding this image are the same four figures we see in the
traditional version: angel, eagle, lion and bull, each labelled by the astrological
glyph of their zodiac sign. In the margins are a final astrological glyph (Leo, this
time), the 4th element and the 6th day of Creation:
Genesis 1:24-31: And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after
his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it
was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their
kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that
it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and
let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth
upon the earth. [...] And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it
was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Etteilla said:
No. 5. The fifth sheet bears the number 6 for its day of creation: God made Man
in his image, being then, in regard to human physicality, in perfection; it bears for
its Element the number 4, “Earth.”
 And indeed, in the Etteilla III, the main figure is a man, presumably Adam, to
reinforce the above. And also:
No. 5. The World means journey. Reversed Earth.

Around 1838, Julia Orsini elaborates on this:

The naked woman in the middle of the circle indicates that the truth floats over
the earth; the olive branch announces general peace; the attributes of the four
evangelists who surround the circle of the earth are signs of sagacity; the pyramids
indicate an impending increase of fortune.

This card predicts for you happiness, courage, battles won.

[...]
But if this card is presented upside down, it indicates absolutely everything
contrary in each case indicated above.

Some thoughts on this, as it does go into some of the symbolism. Because the
skinny little pyramids struck me particularly as odd. Not like the huge-based
Egyptian ones, which I would have thought would be Etteilla’s go-to. But no, we
get these small pointy ones. Michael S. Howard editorializes:
That way of representing them is an old tradition, going back to medieval tombs
in Bologna, even though travelers’ sketches showed the famous ones near Cairo
quite differently. Those were once thought to be the granaries built by Joseph.

Last note, from the modern Grimaud interpretation, when upright:

A journey or a voyage will prove beneficial to you; it will be the cause of
reconciliation with whom one has quarreled and an incentive in your work.

Overall, this card in a reading means what it says. It’s about a trip, about world
affairs, about a broader world-view. It’s a positive, happy card, and bodes well for
travel and practical affairs.

6 Night, the Sky

Just what it says: a dark sky decorated with a full white moon, tiny red star and
brilliant yellow rays from a reddish sun that doesn’t quite pierce the darkness.
Symbols in the margins suggest associations with Virgo and the 4th day of
Creation:
Genesis 1:14-19: And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the
heaven to divide the day from the night; [...] And God made two great lights; the
greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the
stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the
earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the
darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were
the fourth day.

Etteilla refers to this card alternately as the Emperor and the Empress in his
works, for all that he tries to assert that this is a falsification by later cardmakers.
He says in part:
No. 6. The sixth sheet offers the false hieroglyph of an Emperor, its number of
creation, which can serve for replacing it as it was formerly with the Egyptians, is
4, fourth day of creation: God made two great lights.
 And as the Empress,
No. 6. The Empress means, from something bad comes good, or, what has
damaged us will become useful to us. For reverseds, Day.

Although his footnote to this interpretation states that this is clearly a mistake:
Our inestimable Ancients would certainly verify that this is mistaken: this
Hieroglyph is modern; in one of the three other cahiers I will demonstrate that this
was originally the fourth day of creation.

Julia Orsini has some more to add to this card:

This card represents the sky; the sun still shines on the earth, but the pale light
of the moon will soon have replaced it; the mystical sense of this figure is not very
difficult to explain.

It signifies darkness, storms, eclipses, blindness.

If the person for whom one consults is aged, this card predicts length of days
still.

In a reading, then, the metaphorical terms for night and day are considered.
Darkness and misfortune, perhaps a little like the modern-day Moon card. In a
reading I would consider that things are still in the dark, but will become clear in
time. Because the dawn will always come after the darkness.

7 The Birds and Fishes, the Serpent

Another far cry from the traditional Tarot de Marseille, again due to what
Etteilla calls “bad purpose”, corrupted to resemble the contemporary card the
Emperor. But here we have the glyph for Libra, the 5th day of Creation. These
are in the margins surrounding a bleak image of an algae-green sea containing
creatures such as snakes and fish and what may be a crocodile (or a platypus?).
Overhead, multiple birds fly through the air. All this hails the fifth day of creation
that is noted in the margin:
Genesis 1:20-23: And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the
moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open
firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature
that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every
winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. [...] And the evening
and the morning were the fifth day.

Etteilla says:
No. 7, or the seventh sheet of the Book of Thoth, is also an Emperor, badly
figured to the purpose, which was preceded by an Empress; it bears 5 as its
number of creation. God created the flying and aquatic animals. There is no third
number.

I don’t get this about the lack of a third number. But be that as it may, here’s
what he has to say about this card for divination in the guise of the Emperor:
No. 7. The Emperor signifies support. In reverseds, Protection.
 But this seems to be a hangover from the Emperor, rather than an interpretation
of this card in its own right. Julia Orsini tries to fill this gap, and explains a little
about the birds and the snake:
The Birds and the Fishes. The serpent creeps on the ground in a sign of curse,
the sea is calm, the birds course in rapid flight through the aerial regions so as to
show that it is only with effort that one manages to rise.

Many later scholars have taken this and run with it, the serpent as the sign of a
curse. This is also a theme in the Lenormand system of reading, in which the
Snake is an unlucky card.

Overall, this isn’t a happy card to see in a reading. It appears to represent bad
luck, but that one may improve one’s situation through hard work.

8 Rest, Etteilla, the Female Querent

This card is Eve in the Garden of Eden. But a dizzy Eve, with lines swirling
about her in an egg shape. The glyph for Scorpio and “7 Repos” is in the margin,
indicating that this card represents the 7th day, when God rested from his labours:
Genesis 2:1-3: Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of
them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he
rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed
the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work
which God created and made.

Despite the fact that the swirling lines would suggest motion, Etteilla in his
Fourth Cahier specifically mentions that this card is stationary:
The eighth sheet offers for allegory a naked man, in the middle of a superb
garden, physical Nature being then formal and in its astral aspect of creation,
fixed, without movement, because the eighth day was that of repose.

I don’t get the part about the man, as it’s so clearly intended to be a woman; I’ve
also edited this part to remove a bit about Pymander and circles. But he goes on
in the Third Cahier to say:
No. 8. This Card, or better this Hieroglyph, like both the preceding ones, no
longer looks in any way like it was for the first Egyptians. Today on this Card we
see a Juno, or a Female Pope, or a Spanish Girl; it means the woman for whom we
question the Oracles of the Book of Thot. Reversed, Female Consultant.

In other words, this card, Repose or Rest, is also named Etteilla because it
serves as a female equivalent of the first trump, Chaos. Both are subtitled Etteilla,
and represent female or male querents in a readings. Sort of the same purpose as
the Man and Lady cards of the Lenormand deck.

9 Justice
A fairly garden variety version of Justice: crowned woman in long robes. Check.
Seated on a throne on a checkered floor. Check. Sword in one hand, scale with
perfect balanced pans in the other. Check. Glyph for, curiously, Sagittarius in the
margin, but that is because Etteilla seems to have just tacked the zodiac on as an
afterthought, and Sagittarius is the next sign coming up.
 Etteilla gives a very long drawn-out example of Justice that reads like a
mathematical formula, so I will leave it out and just give:
Nº. 9. Justice means Equity [...] This example should serve generally for all,
when one must interpret the Oracles offered in the entire spread drawn. For the
reversed, Jurist.

Doesn’t make much sense with or without the example. But Etteilla did go on
at length in other places about the four virtues in his deck (as we include Prudence
besides the standard three); I summarize some of this below:
Nº. 9. Justice, said these Sages, signifies Equity, but this word is only a sound;
for it not to be arbitrary, but on the contrary, fixed, we must give a true idea of all
that this harmonious sound contains, to analyze it, or otherwise a man will
pronounce Justice and Equity a hundred thousand times, and he will not be less
unjust.

Justice comprises the natural positive rights of human beings; the Rights of the
Fathers of families; of the Sovereign, of the Masters, and finally of superiors over
inferiors.

It comprises the right of giving Recompense, of commuting the Punishment of

crimes, proportionally to their Nature, following the Intention, or the Action,
Considering the Knowledge or ignorance of the party responsible; this is called
Interpretation of the law.

In other words, nothing new. Justice is Justice. Equity, treating people

uniformly and fairly, natural law.

10 Temperance
Temperance seems to me to be the virtue about which Etteilla was most
passionate. Not only does he go on and on about it as sort of the alpha virtue in
his Second Cahier, but he also shook up the symbolism and elaborated on it. For
the first time, the angel in Temperance is not standing in an empty backdrop, but
stands with one foot on a black triangular block and the other on a golden sphere.
She also has a shining light on her forehead. She does still, however, still wear
wings and pour water from one jug to the other. Capricorn is represented in the
margin.

From a divinatory standpoint, Etteilla says in his Third Cahier that:

Nº. 10. Temperance means or announces that one must moderate oneself. The
subject being considered is that indicated in the sheet following, whether physical
or moral; the extremes, in the one and the other case, being contrary to the law
that wise Nature indicates to us in its general movements. [Upright is Temperance.
For the reversed, the Priest.

But it’s in his Fourth Cahier that he really goes to town; the below is greatly
edited, and is still way longer than I’d think necessary:
Nº. 10. The Egyptians considered Temperance differently than we do; they did
not say that it had to do more directly with our carnal passions than with all our
other vices; some lines in the book of Thoth, written because of this, will put us in
a position to judge.
 Temperance is a virtue that rules morality as much as physicality; it is called the
Precursor of the Truth; without Temperance, a person carries all the other virtues
into a period of generation. [...] Of a man who would be virtuous, intemperance
makes him a maniac, an enthusiast, a dullard [...]

[...] Temperance is one of the four Cardinal virtues; She holds in particularly
high esteem Modesty and Sobriety; she requires work proportional to our
strengths, to our intelligence, and a kind of laziness pleases her, named the repose
of old age. She likes solitude, but she wants some activity there, and every day a
little company. The Egyptians defined her well, in a few words, in the book of
Thoth, by saying, “Temperance is the Divinity who presides over moral and
physical health”. [...] The Egyptians gave her two wings, to mark her intelligence,
her activity, her quickness, etc.

The ignorant Cardmaker did not conceive that the character on top of her
forehead was the Sun that comes to rest on her.

You must not think that the Sun placed on her forehead is there to enlighten her;
King of Celestial bodies, he contemplates her work, and that of her illustrious
Companions; He is on Temperance’s forehead because he has explored the entire
sky of Prudence, Strength and Justice; he admires the liquid substance that he has
vivified, and it pleases him to see to the Purifying, Mitigating, Mixing,
Amalgamating, and Perfecting of it, so that he may subdivide the parts of the
opaque night, which he will then use to complete the Trinaire, and the entire
Matrix of Nature--or guarantee of the divine Science or sacred Art--he is a
Reliquary for the Seed, but not the Seed of the Seed of which he is only one, and
the profane one may neither hear, nor touch, nor see it, until it is inseparable from
him, master over him, and spirit over him; what a shame that this Hieroglyph has
been altered! You should not study it in its entirety, but only some small and pure
parts of it, in order to understand the entire meaning of it [...]

What a lot of words to say that Temperance means the same as before:
moderation, tempering of one’s habits and one’s manner.

11 Strength
And Strength here is another standard-issue virtue, like the rendition of Justice.
Nothing new, aside from the glyph for Aquarius in the marginalia.

Etteilla explains this card in yet another odd formula which I think is
unnecessary in terms of explanation, so I’ll paraphrase here:
Nº. 11. Strength. Let it be C.B.A.: A, the consultant; B, Strength; C, a rival of the
consultant; the latter will be vanquished. [...] This correct Hieroglyph, like the two
preceding & and the ones following, comes to us directly from the Egyptians, if one
allows that while passing through the hands of the Greeks, the Arabs, the first
English People, and the Spanish, and finally the Romans, the Germans, etc., they
have been altered, thus in general transposing nearly all the numbers; this I
demonstrate and prove to be evident in the entire Work; but the number is correct
for Strength. Upright is Strength. For reversed, Sovereign.
 As seen above, again, all those since the Egyptians have got it wrong; but in this
case for once they happened to get the numbering right apparently. He goes on in
the Fourth Cahier to describe the virtue:
Nº. 11. Strength gives Magnificence, Confidence, Patience, Perseverance; its
Acts are: Piety, obedience to God, in the moral and physical virtues. [...] Strength
ordains having regard to and likewise obeying all that is virtuous, indeed to do all
that a vigorous man could by his personal strength, to secure this inestimable
humility, [against that which] would trouble the celestial harmony put by the
Creator among the Creatures; [...] If human strength departs for one minute from
the spirit of Divine Strength, man puts himself at that moment between the arms of
celestial vengeance and the secular arms of human Justice; to be humble, contains
all the true spirit of strength.

Clearly Etteilla subscribes to the moral fortitude school of thought for this card.
So if that is the case, his interpretation varies not at all from the traditional
meaning and would be viewed the same in a reading.

12 Prudence
This is another departure from the standard Tarot pack. Not even looking like
the mirror-viewing woman in the Minchiate or Mantegna versions, the maiden
stares at a green snake at her sandaled feed, holding her hem up out of its way.
She holds a caduceus rather than a mirror, a Tau cross with two golden serpents
intertwined around it. The symbol for Pisces, last of the astrological signs of the
Zodiac, is in the border of the card.

In his Third Cahier, Etteilla says:

No. 12. Prudence; sometimes when this Card comes up in the reading, it is a
piece of wise advice to proceed carefully, because it is recognized that prejudice
and ignorance make a crime of our most praiseworthy acts, when they do not
understand the steps that we take to bring the unrefined man to a life that is
honest and useful to Society; it means Caution. In reverseds, The People.

In a footnote to the title of this card, Etteilla takes great offence to the card that
this replaces:
Cross off absolutely the hideous name of the hanged man, which the most
excessive ignorance gave to this invaluable virtue.

And also:
Nº. 12. Prudence, In Consultation, Judgment, and Command; joining Memory,
Intelligence, Science, Reason, Foresight, Circumspection, Delivery. She wants
Honest solitude, Economy, Work, Activity, Politics, etc.

Prudence, all in all, represents prudence. Wisdom and caution, using good
judgement.

13 Marriage, the High Priest

Replacing the Lovers in the traditional Tarot, this card shows a mitred and
bearded bishop or priest in incongruous green and yellow, blessing a handfasted
couple in Roman dress.
 In the Third Cahier, Etteilla says the following, considering the emphasis that
the Egyptians placed on this card (or hieroglyph):
No. 13, Marriage; this Hieroglyph is one of those on which the Egyptians were
very expansive. They said: Marriage is the absolute will of the Creator, and
whoever disturbs this agreement, or diverts its progress, will not live in this world,
nor in the other. It means Marriage. In reverseds, Union.

Julia Orsini echoed this sentiment, around 1838:

The Egyptians were much invested in this hieroglyph, because they regarded
marriage as an absolute commandment of the Creator.

If the consultant is a young man, this card announces a union to follow soon with
the person he desires; if the consultant is married, it will be one of his relatives
who marries. [...]

When this card is reversed, it predicts only contrary things: failed marriages,
trouble in your household or in that of your friends.

Overall, this card means what it says. Marriage means marriage. For the
querent or someone close to him or her.

14 The Devil, Force Majeure

I’ve always like the title of this card in the Etteilla deck, and kept it in French for
that reason. Force Majeure, or Major Force. It looks just like the Tarot de
Marseille card Le Diable, and Etteilla reads it as very similar:
Nº. 14. The Devil. The Egyptians, by this word Devil, or Demon, did not
understand infernal Spirits enchained in the abyss, but a man whose science
surpassed many others; finally, who knew everything by divine gift, or by
prolonged study. Such were the Brahmins, the Gymnosophs, the Druids, etc., etc.
This Hieroglyph means superior force, in everything concerning the things of
human life; R Minor Force, insubstantial, weakness.

And really, what more is there to say? The name and the image says it all.
Force Majeure represents force, repression and dominance by the use of a superior
and unscrupulously wielded force.

15 The Magician, Aaron, the Bateleur

Looking to me to resemble more a Hierophant or Pope than a mage or street
performer as this card is supposed to represent, Etteilla seems for the most part to
retain the old French title of the Bateleur. But his interpretation is quite different:
Nº. 15. The Bateleur, means Illnesses: in a different sense, sometimes regarded
as a Mage, it means Health. Illness, both upright and reversed.

He also says:
In place of Tri-Mercury, who put together the Book of Thoth, the Cardmakers
saw, by the baton that he holds, a traveling gamester; and recognizing only the
number or cipher 1, instead of 15 in Arab numerals that it formerly had, they
called this card no. 1, and consequently put it, also badly to the purpose, at the
beginning, that which should be near the end.
 This Mercury, then Sovereign of all Egypt and first among the Magi, had
indispensably a rod in his right hand, the woodcuts reported, indeed understood, it
to be in his left fingertips; the left hand held to his chest, the right at present at his
pocket; they made him a round hat like that of the Valet of Swords reversed, that is
to say, wishing to see and not to be seen: he had a kind of tiara like that of the
Patriarchs, [but] they gave him a Gothic getup, such as the Romans’ Captain of the
Guard had for a time; he had the vestment of a Magus or Chief Sacrificer; behind
him was a T, sign of life, exceeding the height of three on ten, they put nothing on
it; on the center of the diametric line, a point was needed.

[...] This Sage was dressed a little like the ancient Patriarchs, such as Moses is
imagined; but the Prophet of the Lord changed some attributes from that of the
Magi, ones that had no doubt been inspired by the Eternal, so that the People of
God could distinguish Moses and his brother Aaron from the idolatrous Priests,
that is to say, from those who, although fearing the Lord, had not received the Law,
since his righteous anger at the time of the deluge.

I am guessing that it’s from this the Grimaud LWB for the Grand Etteilla first
came up with the title of Aaron for this card. From the 1910 edition:
AARON. Upright, no. 15 presages a sickness for which one will spend large
amounts of money without results. Finally a charlatan will come who, with a light
potion, will give you health for a long time.

Upside down, the card of Aaron brings a mental illness, of imaginary pains, of
vapors, of attacks of nerves, of sorrows.

I see no associations, no similarities between this card and that of the traditional
card it was to replace. The Magician according to Etteilla represents illness and
ailments, it suggsts to me matters of health and the body; the outcome would
depend on the cards in the vicinity.

16 Judgement
There is no difference, thematically, between this card and its counterpart in
earlier or many later decks. The Last Judgement, the biblical scene in which the
dead are awakened and rise from the earth for God’s judgement.

Etteilla, however, would have to complicate it:

No. 16. Judgment. C.B.A., Judgment in C, says that you judge on nothing. B.C.A.,
what you judge of B is true; what you judge of A is false; means Judgment.
Judgment, both upright and reversed.

I mean, what else is there to say? Judgement means exactly what it says. It
represents judgements and rulings, being assessed, and decisions that go for or
against a querent, depending on the surrounding cards.

17 Death, Mortality
A walking (in some versions, flying) skeleton clad in a loose robe like a hospital
gown. He carries a scythe in the Etteilla I version and stands at the base of a
pyramid.
 Etteilla has more to say on this card than that which came before:
Nº. 17. Death. Note that death has to come; but you should not get it mixed up.
C.B.A., Death in C. says nothing; A.C.B., bad news for A; but as the book of the
Oracles is not one of Decrees, it is most often necessary to believe that the death
coming here in C is only a small courtesy visit that it renders to A: nevertheless it
would be necessary to distrust B; because it is he who sends C to A. And finally, for
C to bring lead (shot) to A, there would have to be D.A.C.B.; if we find A and B and
C alone, it means death, or as little of it as necessary, for the sheet that follows,
which most often is an unknown, or a Project, or a Legal Case; and in this last
case, so much the better; in reverseds Nothingness.

I would just like to add here, that Etteilla’s mathematical formulae really make
me weary. Fortunately, he gets less quantitative in his Second Cahier:
The false Savants understood saying that the number or figure of death was 13;
in consequence, they code La Mort 13. But the Book [of Thoth] takes man in the
creation, and it is known that Adam was not subject to death by number 13, but by
that of 17, as I explained elsewhere; now, it was the pages that it was necessary to
code, and not to follow the truth of the bad number 13, into which we have fallen
Since Adam.

Although I still don’t get his version of the numerology. I think Etteilla’s version
of Death doesn’t pussyfoot around about endings and beginnings and all that.
Death is more literal, signifying pretty bad news for a querent. In legal matters
things go against you, otherwise it represents mistrust and death of things and
ways of life.

18 The Hermit, the Capuchin, the Traitor

A simple brown-habited monk adorns this card; unlike his counterparts he
stands in daylight amid ruins.

I don’t know where people came up with assigning this kindly solitary man, this
thinker and man of the cloth, with such negative connotations. Even Etteilla
starts off so nicely on this card in his Third Cahier before veering off abruptly into
nastiness:
No. 18. The Hermit. The Egyptians took this, as the Provençals say, as The
Capuchin, when the first degree of Knowledge and human Wisdom is reached:
these Philosophers there were themselves, in a way, forced by their
contemporaries, and by their Followers, so that, according to the vulgar idea, the
corpuscles of the sublime did not exalt not so freely: today this Hieroglyph means a
hypocrite, a traitor, and in reverseds Hermit; Traitor.

So however it was that he came up with this, Etteilla’s take on the Hermit is that
of a crafty and hypocritical man. Perhaps a wolf in sheep’s clothing, one who
disguises himself and his intentions until he can fully betray them.

19 La Maison Dieu, the Capitol, Misery

Etteilla describes this card in the Third Cahier as though he were seeing La
Maison Dieu from the Tarot de Marseille in his mind’s eye. Because here’s what
he says ...
No. 19. Maison-Dieu. As we see that this House looks like the Tower of
Montgommery, which has just been knocked over, or a small Castle that has been
knocked over, it is very correct not to make it, like the ignoramuses, the Temple of
the Eternal. So, as shown by the Egyptians, who never named it Maison-Dieu, but
House of the punishments of God ...it means Prison, poverty, and in reverseds,
Prison.

... and what we see is a round Roman building with no more damage than the
odd crumbling brick from the parapet. It looks more like the Capitol it’s called in
the Grand Etteilla interpretations (the Tower of Montgommery, by the way, is a
tower that formed part of Paris’ city walls; it housed Gabriel, Comte de
Montgomery, after his arrest for his part in the death of Henry II).

It represents a more mundane type of catastrophe, rather than cataclysmic end-

of-the-world sort we expect from this card. Rather, it represents disgrace, arrest,
poverty. Bad enough, but the structure still stands.

20 The Wheel of Fortune

Unlike earlier predecessors, the wheel of this card is a disembodied hoop that
floats in the air without visible support. A woman and a creature like a rat cling to
it. Sitting in a tree branch overhead is a caped and crowned monkey overseeing
things. However, Etteilla sees little difference in the interpretation:
No. 20. The Wheel of Fortune. This Hieroglyph means increase and fortune; note
however that every time it appears in a spread, you should not believe that it is
ours; finally, it is necessary to consider where it is placed, and in reverseds
Development; Fortune.

Lacking the balanced approach of the modern versions, this interpretation lacks
the unpredictability of going from the top to the bottom and around again. Even
Julia Orsini claimed that this card is “always auspicious”, upright or reversed.

21 The Chariot, the African Despot, Rehoboam

A charioteer in armour rides a small and high-backed speedy chariot drawn by
two tiny black horses. From this Etteilla gets a very troublesome interpretation:
No. 21. The Chariot, means noise, quarrel, dissension, bad order: the little ones,
no doubt angry against chariots, say with a common voice, that it is neither good
nor pleasant to be made wet like water spaniels, and squashed like fleas. In
reversed unrest, racket; Dissension.

Names this card goes by as well are Rehoboam and the African Despot. I’m
thinking the two go hand in hand; Rehoboam was the successor to Solomon as
ruler of Israel, and a true despot whose high-handed taxation resulted in rebellion
and a split in the kingdom. Orsini followed this line of thought:
A person of bad character will try and pick a quarrel with you; you will be
betrayed in an enterprise you involved several of your friends in. If the Enquirer is
a lady, it announces a rupture with her adorers.

So the Chariot or African Despot represents a tyrant, a person who brings

quarrel and poor rule in their wake. It calls in a reading for times of trouble.

78/0 The Fool, the Madman, Folly

 I kind of jumped ahead here; I’d originally planned to save this last card for,
well, last. But instead I will keep it at the end of the trumps. It’s very similar to
the scene of the Tarot de Marseille, the poor vagabonding wretch.

Etteilla says:
No. 0. The Madman, or Madness; this Card is the only one that in fact never had
a number; which returns well enough to the fact that it is hardly possible to assign
a number to our dear madnesses; means madness. Reversed idiocy, ineptitude,
carefreeness.

In a footnote he adds:
The Egyptians offer us this Hieroglyph as a mirror, which without being coated,
gives to each the power to see on one side the defects of some, while those see by
looking on the opposite side at the defects of the others.

In other words, he considered the Fool to be a true look at mankind, warts and
all. I see this card in a reading to represent not just a divine madness but a
carefree manner free from societal restraints.

The Suit of Batons/Staves

Upright: N. 22. King of staves, this is a countryman... conscientious; Country
Gentleman
Reversed: Nº. 22. the King of Staves, it is a man naturally good, but severe, who
most often waits for the right moment to correct...tolerance

Upright: N. 23. The Lady, this is a countrywoman...gentleness, virtue;

Reversed: Nº. 23. the Lady, this is a good woman, economical, virtuous, not
bigoted, not a gossip, not concerned with being popular, not lazy, not greedy; so
she is a really good woman, with a lot of presence [or spirit].

Upright: N. 24. The Knight, means Departure.

Reversed: Nº. 24. the Knight: Disunion.

Upright: N. 25. The Page, Good Stranger [or foreigner].

Reversed: Nº. 25. the Page. False news.

Upright: N. 26. 10 of batons, Betrayal.

Reversed: Nº. 26. the 10. Obstacle.

Upright: N. 27. 9, Delay.

Reversed: Nº. 27. the 9. Obstacles, Hindrance.

Upright: N. 28. 8, Country Party.

Reversed: Nº. 28. the 8. Domestic Dispute

Upright: N. 29. 7, Prattle.

Reversed: Nº. 29. the 7. Indecision.

Upright: N. 30. 6, Domestic.

In the 4th Cahier Supplement Etteilla adds “an inferior”, so a domestic servant
or underling.
Reversed: Nº. 30. the 6. Waiting.

Upright: N. 31. 5, means Gold.

Reversed: Nº. 31. the 5. Court Case, Trial, Legal Proceeding.

Upright: N. 32. 4, Society.

Reversed: Nº. 32. the 4. Flowering, Prosperity Increase.

Upright: N. 33. 3, Enterprise.

Reversed: Nº. 33. the 3. Troubles shortly at their end.

Upright: N. 34. 2, Sorrow.

Reversed: Nº. 34. the 2. Surprise.

Upright: N. 35. 1, Birth.

Reversed: Nº. 35. the 1. Seeming Victory, Be Wary; Fall.

The Suit of Cups

Upright: N. 36. King of cups, Fair-haired man.
Reversed: Nº. 36. The King of cup, it is a man of position, but positioned badly,
occupied in the business of the Merchants, that is to say, selling favors.

Upright: N. 37. The Lady, Fair-haired woman. Honest Woman.

Reversed: Nº. 37. The Lady, it is a woman of position, but a fiddler, getting
involved in schemes, in court cases; finally, rooting about everywhere to have
money, and dying like those of whom all the Egyptians wrote in their Book, covered
with shame, with remorse, and stained for life in infamy.

Upright: N. 38. The Knight, Arrival.

Reversed: Nº. 38. the Knight. More spirit than conscience.

Upright: N. 39. The Page, Fair-haired boy.

Reversed: Nº. 39. the Page. This is a flatterer.

Upright: N. 40. 10 of cups, The town where one is.

Reversed: Nº. 40. the 10. Prepared to lose.

Upright: N. 41. 9. Victory.

Reversed: Nº. 41. the 9. Sincerity.

Upright: N. 42. 8. Fair-haired girl.

Reversed: Nº. 42. the 8. Celebrations, Gaiety. Satisfaction.

Upright: N. 43. 7. Thought.

Reversed: Nº. 43. the 7. Plan.

Upright: N. 44. 6. The past.

Reversed: Nº. 44. the 6. The future.
 Upright: N. 45. 5. Inheritance. Heritage.
Reversed: Nº. 45. the 5. Flawed plans. Relatives.

Upright: N. 46. 4. Boredom.

Reversed: Nº. 46. the 4. New acquaintance.

Upright: N. 47. 3. Success.

Reversed: Nº. 47. the 3. Business trip, Expedition.

Upright: N. 48. 2. Love.

Reversed: Nº. 48. the 2. Desire.

Upright: N. 49. 1. Table, Meal.

Reversed: Nº. 49. the 1. Change.

The Suit of Swords

Upright: Nº. 50. The King of sword, Man of the Law. Man of Action.
Reversed: Nº. 50. The King of Sword, Wicked Man.

Upright: Nº. 51. The Lady, Widowhood.

Reversed: Nº. 51. The Lady, Wicked Woman, hot-tempered, a harpy, a bigot.

Upright: Nº. 52. the Knight, Soldier, Man of the sword, by estate.
Reversed: Nº. 52. the Knight, it is a conceited person, having in his mouth only
sarcasms that he brings back from dives, from smoking dens; finally, from the
places that he haunts; because of his nature, which is against life.

Upright: Nº. 53. the Page, this is a Spy.

Reversed: Nº. 53. the Page, Unexpected, Unforeseen Circumstances.

Upright: Nº. 54. the 10 of Swords, Tears.

Reversed: Nº. 54. the 10. Unfortunate event, which turns to advantage.

Upright: Nº. 55. the 9. Cleric.

Reversed: Nº. 55. the 9. Be wary, or justifiable wariness.

Upright: Nº. 56. the 8. Illness said of N. Morally and physically. Leper.
Reversed: Nº. 56. the 8. Past betrayal.

Upright: Nº. 57. the 7. Hope.

Reversed: Nº. 57. the 7. Wise Advice.

Upright: Nº. 58. the 6. Envoy, Messenger.

Reversed: Nº. 58. the 6. Declaration of Love.

Upright: Nº. 59. the 5. Loss.

Reversed: Nº. 59. the 5. Mourning.

Upright: Nº. 60. the 4. Solitude.

Reversed: Nº. 60. the 4. Economy, Good Management; Wise Administration.
Upright: Nº. 61. the 3. Nun.
Reversed: Nº. 61. the 3. Appearing lost or confused.

Upright: Nº. 62. the 2. Friendship.

Reversed: Nº. 62. the 2. Unhelpful or False Friends, or Relatives of Little Help.

Upright: Nº. 63. the 1. Crazy Love.

Reversed: Nº. 63. The 1. Pregnancy.

The Suit of Coins

Upright: Nº. 64. The King of coin, Dark-haired Man, Merchant.
Reversed: Nº. 64. The King of coin, an old and vicious man, Depraved Man.

Upright: Nº. 65. the Lady, Dark-haired Woman, Opulence.

Reversed: Nº. 65. the Lady, Certain trouble.

Upright: Nº. 66. the Knight, Helpful man.

Reversed: Nº. 66. the Knight, Brave man without employment, Inaction.

Upright: Nº. 67. the Page, Dark-haired boy.

Reversed: Nº. 67. the Page, Prodigality.

Upright: Nº. 68. the 10. The house.

Reversed: Nº. 68. the 10. Lottery.

Upright: Nº. 69. the 9. Effect.

Reversed: Nº. 69. the 9. Deception.

Upright: Nº. 70. the 8. Dark-haired girl.

Reversed: Nº. 70. the 8. Usury.

Upright: Nº. 71. the 7. Money.

Reversed: Nº. 71. the 7. Anxieties.

Upright: Nº. 72. the 6. The present.

Reversed: Nº. 72. the 6. Ambitions.

Upright: Nº. 73. the 5. Lovers or Mistress.

Reversed: Nº. 73. the 5. Lack of order.

Upright: Nº. 74. the 4. It’s a gift.

Reversed: Nº. 74. the 4. Closure.

Upright: Nº. 75. the 3. Nobility.

Reversed: Nº. 75. the 3. Child.

Upright: Nº. 76. the 2. Embarrassment.

Reversed: Nº. 76. the 2. Letter.
Upright: Nº. 77. the 1. Perfect contentment.
Reversed: Nº. 77. the 1. Purse of Money.