Grand Tarot Belline: definition

The Grand Tarot Belline is a complete tarot of 78 cards: 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana. Its four suits have names of their own — Scepters, Cups, Glaives and Shekels (Sceptres, Coupes, Glaives and Sicles in French) — where the Tarot de Marseille has Wands, Cups, Swords and Coins.

What sets it apart is the card itself, designed as a reference sheet for interpretation. A band at the top gives the esoteric correspondences (astrological signs, plus a Hebrew letter for the Major Arcana); keywords printed right way up and upside down give the upright and reversed meanings; a philosophical maxim runs along the bottom of the card.

The pen-and-ink drawings are attributed to Edmond Billaudot, known as Mage Edmond (1829-1881), who is said to have made them around 1863. They draw on Etteilla, the source of a large share of the keywords, as well as on Éliphas Lévi and Paul Christian. The clairvoyant Belline, who had rediscovered Edmond's work, brought the deck out in 1966; Grimaud distributes it. The original drawings were donated to the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions (musée des Arts et Traditions populaires) in Paris.

Its Major Arcana bear a family resemblance to the Tarot de Marseille, but the drawing, the symbolism and above all the pip cards depart from it: the deck belongs to nineteenth-century French occultist tarot, not to the tradition of the master card-makers.

It should not be confused with the Belline Oracle, the other Edmond deck published by Belline. The oracle has 53 cards grouped under the seven planets, with no arcana and no suits, and each card is read through its title; the Grand Tarot follows the full architecture of the tarot and is read as a tarot, with the printed keywords as support. Tarot Nova presents the deck's 22 Major Arcana, card by card.