In 1998, Philippe CAMOIN and Alexandre JODOROWSKY
rediscovered the original colours and symbols of theTarot of Marseille

In 1998, movie director Alexandre JODOROWSKY and Master Card & Maker Philippe CAMOIN accomplished the task of restoring the TAROT of MARSEILLE. Their research led to discoveries: secrets "hidden" for centuries.
Legendary film director, master of Tarot, scriptwriter for comic strips and novelist Alexandre Jodorowsky has studied the Tarot for over 40 years. He says: "that since, the Tarot of Marseille is the only Tarot of reference for which I have studied for over 20 years now." Alexandre Jodorowsky decided to restore the Original Tarot with Philippe Camoin because and he goes on to say "knowing secret facts regarding its history, manufacturing, tradition, symbolism and having the original moulding plates meant we were the only ones who could properly restore the Original Tarot of Marseille."
Philippe Camoin has studied symbolism since the age of 14. "I grew up with the Tarot. In my bedroom, as a child, the only pictures on the bedroom walls were the 78 arcana of Nicolas Conver’s Tarot of Marseille, who founded what later became the Camoin House."

  In 1998, the Tarot of Marseille rediscovered a symbolic structure which had been lost over time thanks to Philippe Camoin and Alexandre Jodorowsky. The Tarot of Marseille, Camoin and Jodorowsky, contains all the symbolisms already known and more than a dozen new symbols of which professors, experts and amateurs will not be able to do without any more. Only the colours are radically different from certain Tarot of Marseille cards which only contain red, yellow and blue - without light blue or any other colours involved. Originally, these primary colours simply red, yellow and blue, noninitiatory, were copied from a Camoin pack dated in 1880 at the time of the industrial era and the appearance of machines. These machines being only able to print the four primary colours. In the years 1860-1880, Philippe Camoin’s ancestor, who was the last and unique CardMaster in Marseille felt, indeed, constraint to invent these new colours that could adapt to the machines. Thus was born a particular edition created for mass production. It is these invented primary colours and noninitiatory from 1880 which were used, 50 years later, by other printers.
Since 1930, for over 70 years, the public wrongly thought that these colours had an esoteric significance. Since 1998, the new colours of the Tarot of Marseille, Camoin and Jodorowsky, are the reflection of the authentic alchemical tradition.

   This reconstitution of the Tarot of Marseille is a major event in the history of the Tarot. Many generations of researchers have studied the last existing Tarots in the search of initiatory secrets. It seems that Philippe Camoin and Alexandre Jodorowsky have been the ones who have discovered them.

    Philippe Camoin and Alexandre Jodorowsky are two Masters of the Tarot and both teach on this subject. Alexandre Jodorowsky has given lessons on the Tarot of Marseille for many years now. He is a legendary film director and has directed several initiatory full-length films, scriptwriter for comic strips and is passionate about the Tarot and has been for over 40 years. As for Philippe Camoin, he teaches his own method respecting the new major discoveries concerning the structure of the Tarot.

    A few months ago, Philippe Camoin, revealed to Tarot experts of the world, the date of the oldest existing pack of Tarot of Marseille manufactured in Marseilles. It belongs to François Chosson going back to 1672 and of which no one knows the origin. An American expert, Doctor Robert O' Neil, in contact with Philippe Camoin was able to find information going back to as far as 1608. We are far from the date of 1760 of which the historians speak of up until now.

    Philippe Camoin has also just revealed new historical data which could well change the order of appearance of the Tarot in the West. According to him, it was the monk Jean Cassien, founder of the abbey of Saint-Victor in Marseilles, in year 400 after J.-C. who arrived from Egypt and who contributed to transmitting to Western Europe the secret doctrines strongly influenced by Origen. It certainly was the Saint-Victor Order, who in the years 1000, reigned all over the territory where, later, the oldest Tarots were found and the oldest reference to the Tarot. This territory was the North of Italy, the North of Spain and the south of France, territory on which bloomed the cathars and templars.

    Philippe Camoin is the last heir to Marseille’s Master Card Makers. The CAMOIN House goes back to Nicolas CONVER who engraved in 1760 his Tarot of Marseille by perpetuating the tradition of Masters going way back to the elders of which François Chosson (1672) is an example. In the 19th century, the Camoin House collected the tradition of all Marseille’s Master Card Makers and became unique in Marseille.

    The re-composition of the Tarot of Marseille by Camoin and Jodorowsky will initiate the revival of a Tradition, existing beyond a simple card deck and of which has been dormant for several centuries.

    This re-composition is a complex process of comparison between the symbols present on many decks in Europe and the whole process according to the authentic tradition of the Tarot of Marseille. This work calls for an extremely precise initiatory logic. It is not just a question of copy or restoration as we know of, from an older deck of cards. The term "Restoration of the Original Tarot" implies a restoration of a complex philosophical system. The Tarot is indeed regarded as an initiatory knowledge, a metaphysical machine where the cards are only a support. Together, Philippe Camoin and Alexandre Jodorowsky re-composed the symbolism of the Tarot of Marseille as it should have been originally, the original deck having disappeared from the general public. They have also added their specific elements of which they hold the secrecy like Master Card Makers have always done in the past.

    The original symbols have been lost with time over generations of Master Card Makers. The discovery of the egg situated at the bottom of the eagle in the "Emperor" card was a decisive moment and confirmed that a quantity of forgotten symbols were hidden : waiting to be revealed. The other discoveries can help understand the logic with which the Tarot was originally built. Among the other restored symbols easily understood by the general public, we can add : the two snakes intertwined at the foot of "Temperance" and the four elements in the Ace of Cups.

    Of all these new symbols re-composed in the Tarot of Marseille springs new teachings adapted to the XXI st century and initiated by Philippe Camoin and Alexandre Jodorowsky.