The Camoin Tarot, present-day Tarot de Marseille, is an esoteric Tarot. It is a complex tool for knowledge, which for too long has been associated with simple divination. It is also a "metaphysical machine" that utilizes an extremely rich symbolic language, invisible to the eye of the non-initiated reader because it is encoded.

Philippe Camoin, legitimate heir to the dynasty of the Master Cardmakers of Marseilles and direct heir to the Tradition of Nicolas Conver, has revived the primordial energy contained in the original Tarot de Marseille, by meticulously restoring symbols which had become distorted over the course of centuries. The Philippe Camoin Spread© is simple, obvious and infallible. It has an unequaled precision for the simple reason that it respects the laws coded in the Tarot itself. This method exceeds the usual use of the cards simply as archetypes, as for example in the Cross spread, by letting the cards work with each other in a meaningful system…

INTRODUCTION

The Tarot de Marseille is the most well known tarot in the world. It is not surprising that the deck finds its origins in the oldest city in France: Marseilles dates back 2600 years, when it experienced the multiple cultural influences which have marked it since the beginning of the Common Era.

Let us briefly introduce to you the neglected history of this city, which was a teeming crucible of spiritual learning for many centuries!

It is often overlooked that the two major witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene and Lazarus, chose to settle in Marseilles, not long after the Crucifixion. They brought with them a mysterious Christian teaching… The former established herself in a grotto located at La Sainte-Baume, and the latter became the first bishop of the city.

Still in Marseilles, in 430 St. Cassian founded the order and the abbey of St. Victor. One of the first things that he did in the region was to tend the grotto of Mary Magdalene. He wrote the famous monastic Rules, revived a century later by St. Benedict, which were the rules upon which the majority of European Christian orders were based, and which are still in force in our day!

In the 11th century, the order of St. Victor became the most powerful order in the region, encompassing what is now Catalonia, Aragon, Southern France and Northern Italy, and it is no accident that it is within the borders of these territories that we find the oldest evidence concerning the Tarot.

For example, according to the famous historian René-Henri D’Allemagne (1906), the oldest reference related to the Tarot is found in the statutes of the Abbey of St. Victor. These statutes stipulate clearly that monks are expressly forbidden to play with "Paginae" (pages, papers), "papier pour jouer" or "playing paper" being the oldest expression designating playing cards.

It is difficult to go more deeply into detail here, but in the courses he teaches around the world, Philippe Camoin brings to light in a manner that is precise, detailed and unquestionable a large number of historical facts revealing spiritual influences operative in Marseilles, which constitute the fertile soil in which the secret Christian teachings of Mary Magdalene could flourish, and which are contained in the Tarot de Marseille.

This Tarot served as the model for all of the modern Tarots, which emerged in the 20th century. It has always been considered THE reference for esoteric Tarots.

ORIGIN

The Camoin Tarot is the restored version of the Tarot de Marseille to how it is believed to have been originally, thanks to the work of Philippe Camoin, assisted by Alejandro Jodorowsky.

The Camoin Tarot de Marseille is a composite work. It was redesigned based on the Nicolas Conver deck, with numerous symbols modified and added and the colours revised.

While it is true that there is a common standard for the 78 cards, the deck of each printer differs from the decks of others in several distinct elements.

To Philippe Camoin, the restoration of the original Tarot is more than just the restoration of a deck of cards, but that of a complex metaphysical machine. The Tarot is actually considered to be a path of Initiatic Knowledge for which the deck of cards is only the support.

In this sense, Philippe Camoin has respected the Tradition, which also required that each Master Card Maker add his or her own codes and elements.

EXPLANATION

On the whole, the Camoin Method is rather simple. This is what makes it so attractive to beginners as well as to experts in Tarot; it respects the Laws encoded in the Tarot. The Dynamic Spread Method of Philippe Camoin©, as it is officially known, is a method which allows a large number of cards to be used without knowing in advance their position or number. The spread can stop at three cards or at more than a dozen. It utilizes cards in reversed and upright positions. The position of figures in the cards, the direction of their "regards", similarities in symbols present in multiple cards, the colours, etc. There are so many factors to be aware of in a reading!

Basically, Le Mat (The Fool) indicates the direction to take on the path: it depicts a movement from the left of the card toward the right. It indicates a reference point in space and in time. From the Past to the Present, toward the Future…

After having shuffled the cards and formulated a precise question, the person selects three cards, which are laid down from left to right. Cards are seen from the perspective of the person drawing the cards, i.e. if the card is in upright position to the viewer, then it is upright. The tarot reader sitting across from the querent will see the cards upside down. Then it is about sharing and discussing in a way that the querent can understand the cards he or she is looking at. The card placed on the left represents the past, the one in the center the present, the one on the right the future. When a card is drawn in reverse position, it means that the energies of this card are blocked: it is a problem which calls for a solution. We therefore place a card above it, by way of solution.

The "solution card" is always placed in upright position (by definition, a solution is not a problem!). It indicates the direction to take, the work that needs to be done to neutralise the blockage of the "problem card": it is the card which treats the one which is reversed.

Next, the "regard" of the figure in each card must be taken into account. When the central figure of a card is gazing, or regarding, in a direction where there is no card placed, another card must be drawn and placed next to the first in the direction of the regard. This card can be upright or reversed. What is this card regarding? In this way the spread dynamically comes to life: a new card is drawn to see what the previous card is regarding. If this card is reversed, then there is a new problem which calls for a solution, to be placed above it, and so forth… Then, in the course of dialogue, when the person agrees to look at the problems and the proposed solutions, it is possible to place the reversed cards in their upright positions: the problems have been dealt with consciously by the querent.

Meanwhile, it is essential to keep in mind that the cards interact and communicate with each other, and that their meanings cannot be correctly read if one is limited to reading "card by card". The dynamic spread is a whole, representing the path of the person asking the question at that precise moment!

To give you the optimum understanding of the spreads that will follow, we have asked Philippe Camoin to tell us the Laws encoded in the Tarot which also govern how to read it:

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" There is a secret teaching about the function of desiny or Synchronicity encoded in the Tarot. If the cards also lend themselves just as well to reading fortunes, this is thanks to the coded laws. Everyone has experienced events which have no apparent link between them occurring at the same time. Our reality may be governed by laws of whose existence we are unaware, rather than simple random meaninglessness. It is very reassurring to understand that Life has a meaning and that we must search for this meaning. One of the secret laws of the Tarot is based on Dualism: I call it the law of the Two. In accord with this law, the majority of symbols are repeated at least twice in the 78 cards. I therefore teach my students to find in the same way in a reading whether a symbol, a concept or a pattern appearing two times; for example the egg, the eagle, the concept of travel, the pattern of a woman looking at an angel…If this is the case for two cards next to each other, then the Tarot has clearly expressed itself. And this will have particular importance in the reading. There is another law I call the Law of the Extremities, an example of which is found with the wands held in the same hand and appearing only in the first and last of the Major Arcana (I and XXI): in the extremities of the path of 21 cards! In the same manner, one must compare in the spread the cards which are at the extremities of the columns and the rows. "