"...we would like to
challenge Alejandro Jodorowsky’s definition of the Marseille tarot as a
“metaphysical machine” by re-defining it, instead, as a “’pataphysical
machine”; for the tarot
cannot be used to understand what is real, but to understand how what isn’t
real can become realizable." Enrique Enriquez
A modest proposal...
Instead of looking at the Marseilles Tarot as a pataphysical machine, let's look at it as a pataphysical musical instrument...say a synthesizer....that spews forth its scandalous music when the tuning knobs of anomaly, clinamen, syzyzy, exception and inversion are turned all the way up and spun capriciously as the rhythms, themselves, unfold.
At the outset it should be noted that in the improvisations with the Marseilles Tarot described below, no question is posed to the deck prior to a playing of the cards. The cards fall and are "heard" as the deck is played in a variety of pataphysically inspired ways, yielding a "performance" which may suggest an imaginary solution to an unposed problem. Perusal of this solution may then, at times, expose a previously unimagined quandary.
The following machinations and visual representations of possible results should obviously not be considered in any way exhaustive, but rather merely suggestive of operations that may reveal unexpected "ahas" when applied systematically.
All of the maneuvers are done with the Major Arcana only but would also apply if the entire deck were used.
First, obtain two identical decks and separate the Major Arcana. Thoroughly shuffle the two sets of Major Arcana into each other and then cut the resulting 44 card "deck". Either do a reading (three cards or some sort of spread) with one half of the deck, in which some of the trumps will be duplicated, others completely missing, or do a reading with the entire new deck, in which all of the trumps are duplicated.
Do this several times. What new songs are the cards singing?
Alfred Jarry often inverted everyday behaviors for pataphysical effect. As is well known, for example, he would sometimes have his dinner served backwards (from cheese to soup) much to the consternation (or amusement) of the restaurant staff and customers.
A variety of ways of playing the Marseilles backwards come to mind.
Deal the cards from the bottom of the deck instead of the top, for example, or fan the cards like a stage magician and have the querent "pick a card" several times from the middle of the deck to create the spread (not backwards, but not off the top either).
Or, let the cards fall on the table, then read them in a mirror.
How does the mirror image of the Marseilles play, sound, speak...differently from the usual orientation?
A mirror can also be used to invert the cards top to bottom...
...to what effect?
A modest proposal...
Instead of looking at the Marseilles Tarot as a pataphysical machine, let's look at it as a pataphysical musical instrument...say a synthesizer....that spews forth its scandalous music when the tuning knobs of anomaly, clinamen, syzyzy, exception and inversion are turned all the way up and spun capriciously as the rhythms, themselves, unfold.
At the outset it should be noted that in the improvisations with the Marseilles Tarot described below, no question is posed to the deck prior to a playing of the cards. The cards fall and are "heard" as the deck is played in a variety of pataphysically inspired ways, yielding a "performance" which may suggest an imaginary solution to an unposed problem. Perusal of this solution may then, at times, expose a previously unimagined quandary.
The following machinations and visual representations of possible results should obviously not be considered in any way exhaustive, but rather merely suggestive of operations that may reveal unexpected "ahas" when applied systematically.
All of the maneuvers are done with the Major Arcana only but would also apply if the entire deck were used.
First, obtain two identical decks and separate the Major Arcana. Thoroughly shuffle the two sets of Major Arcana into each other and then cut the resulting 44 card "deck". Either do a reading (three cards or some sort of spread) with one half of the deck, in which some of the trumps will be duplicated, others completely missing, or do a reading with the entire new deck, in which all of the trumps are duplicated.
Do this several times. What new songs are the cards singing?
Alfred Jarry often inverted everyday behaviors for pataphysical effect. As is well known, for example, he would sometimes have his dinner served backwards (from cheese to soup) much to the consternation (or amusement) of the restaurant staff and customers.
A variety of ways of playing the Marseilles backwards come to mind.
Deal the cards from the bottom of the deck instead of the top, for example, or fan the cards like a stage magician and have the querent "pick a card" several times from the middle of the deck to create the spread (not backwards, but not off the top either).
Or, let the cards fall on the table, then read them in a mirror.
How does the mirror image of the Marseilles play, sound, speak...differently from the usual orientation?
A mirror can also be used to invert the cards top to bottom...
...to what effect?
"‘Pataphysical art has
often been associated with the use of various self-imposed restraints: one of
the most famous being the ‘pataphysician George Perec’s 1985 novel La
Disparition which is written without using the letter ‘e’ at all. And,
curiously, one of the most autonomously beautiful pieces of music in this
collection is composed using a set of similar constraints: Christopher Hobbs’ L’Auteur
se Retire: Aprés Schubert (2000) uses the Andante from Schubert’s Ab Major
sonata of 1817 in the following manner (in Hobbs’ own description):
'L’Auteur... is a set of pieces which uses a lipogrammatic procedure whereby the letters of a composer’s name which correspond to musical notes (using the German notation convention in which S represents Eb and so on) are removed from a chosen example of the composer’s work. The pitches are removed whenever they occur in any register. The resulting gaps are replaced sometimes by silences of the same duration as the notes, sometimes by extending the prevous note.'
...and, be assured, the ensuing piece, far from being the rabidly dissonant scrap of conceptual silliness it sounds like turns out to be an exquisite little magic trick, analogous to removing all the red pigment from a Botticelli and discovering it’s become a map revealing the burial place of the holy grail."
'L’Auteur... is a set of pieces which uses a lipogrammatic procedure whereby the letters of a composer’s name which correspond to musical notes (using the German notation convention in which S represents Eb and so on) are removed from a chosen example of the composer’s work. The pitches are removed whenever they occur in any register. The resulting gaps are replaced sometimes by silences of the same duration as the notes, sometimes by extending the prevous note.'
...and, be assured, the ensuing piece, far from being the rabidly dissonant scrap of conceptual silliness it sounds like turns out to be an exquisite little magic trick, analogous to removing all the red pigment from a Botticelli and discovering it’s become a map revealing the burial place of the holy grail."
Impose constraints upon the Marseilles deck (in this case, the whole deck). Remove an entire suit, or certain trumps and see how readings play out over a period of time...using both a "standard interpretation" approach to the cards, and then an observational/intuitive "what's happening - how does it make you feel" approach.
Or, to really explore the idea of imaginary solutions, buy a blank tarot deck and, first, "play" the blank cards by themselves and visualize the cards that have fallen to the table. (Others have suggested this approach but not within the pataphysical context.)
Next, see what the blank "sounds" like with accompaniment...
...or...
Cinematic montage effects, while always present in combinations of cards, are accentuated when the imaginal element is invoked.
What are the imaginary problems for these "imaginary" solutions? But aren't these solutions really "real"?
"By turning whomever uses
it into a ‘pataphysician, the Marseilles tarot becomes a tool of unmatched
obsolescence to face the future. If Alfred Jarry, the father of ʻpataphysics,
defined it as “the science of imaginary solutions”, we can confidently use the
his definition to account for the process of choosing a life’s course based on a
random selection of tarot cards!" Enrique Enriquez
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