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Exploring the Grand Etteilla

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Candace M.

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Comparing Etteilla’s Tarot Deck to the Rider Waite Tarot

In our last post, Etteilla Unmasked, we explored the revolutionary ways Jean-Baptiste Alliette, aka Etteilla, transformed tarot from a game into a system of divination. Today, we take a closer look at his unique tarot deck and see how it compares to the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, a popular choice for modern tarot readers.

Etteilla’s Deck: A Different Landscape

Etteilla’s deck, the Grand Etteilla, consisted of 78 cards, just like the Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) deck. However, the similarities mostly end there. Etteilla’s cards were simpler in design, often featuring keywords or short phrases directly on the card to convey the meaning. For instance, Etteilla’s “3. La Maison de Dieu (The House of God)” card might simply depict a church, while the Rider-Waite-Smith “The Empress” card showcases a regal woman seated amidst a bountiful landscape.

Numbering and Suit Variations

While both decks maintain the Major Arcana (cards like The Star, The Devil) and Minor Arcana (numbered suits like Wands, Cups), Etteilla renamed some Major Arcana cards and assigned different astrological associations to them. For example, Etteilla’s “1. Le Baton (The Baton)” corresponded to The Magician in the RWS deck, and “2. La Femme (The Woman)” aligned with The High Priestess. The suits in Etteilla’s deck were also named differently: Clubs became Batons, Diamonds became Globes, Spades became Poignards, and Hearts became Chalices.

The Legacy of Etteilla

Despite the visual and structural differences, Etteilla’s core idea – that tarot cards held divinatory meaning – laid the groundwork for modern tarot. The Rider-Waite-Smith deck, though developed over a century later, still embraces the concept of symbolic imagery on the cards themselves, enabling intuitive interpretations much like Etteilla envisioned.

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One response to “Exploring the Grand Etteilla”

  1. Judith Avatar
    Judith

    Studying Etteilla has been my 2024 Tarot Project. I find so many of his ideas intriguing. Just the card titles alone are thought-provoking. Sometimes I can see how they relate to our more traditional RWS interpretations; at other times his ideas seem far removed from our current thoughts. A case in point: His Magician, known in his system as “Maladie” or “illness”. I have to do a lot of “mind-juggling” (the card is often represented as a juggler) to find any connections to our modern thinking of the Magician. Yet, look back in history. Someone who offered cures for diseases and illnesses would surely be viewed as a magician, wouldn’t they? And reversed, you have charlatans or quacks who peddled worthless “cures”. To me, it’s fascinating to explore the “new landscape” of Etteilla, although, as you’ve pointed out, his system was the first to present Tarot as a divinatory tool. I’m especially curious about how the cards have changed their meanings over the years. The evolution of meaning in Tarot is a fascinating study.

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