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Prague — ways of looking
by Karen Mahony
Magic Realist Press
A head on a carved stone pillar in the Old Town.
Going through immigration on a trip back to the UK last
year, I was standing behind an attractive girl whom the
officer was attempting to chat up.
“Prague,” he said, looking at her ticket. “I’ve
heard it’s beautiful.”
“Nah,” she said, clearly bored. “It’s
quite pretty, but I can’t see what all the fuss is
about.”
I actually laughed, because that’s so typical of
Prague – a city that you either “get” immediately
or that completely evades you.
When Jean-Michel asked me to write this piece on Prague
and tarot, I realized that what I really want to express
is how influenced Alex and I have been by Prague as a “magic
city.” It’s an aspect of the Bohemian capital
that continues to exercise a tremendous impact on some
people – you can see it in the work of many local
artists – while having no effect whatsoever on others.
In the words of one elderly lady we met, “Prague
calls, but not to everyone – only to those it
wants.” A bit of mystic nonsense, perhaps? Well,
yes, but it also possesses more than an ounce of truth.
Prague does have a rich tradition specifically around tarot,
but it also – and crucially, for us – has a
broader and more fantastic one in the general area of the
hermetic and the magical. If it doesn’t charm you
on your first visit, perhaps you’re not looking hard
enough.
I first came to Prague in 1991, and for all sorts of reasons,
it was a memorable trip. I was quite aware that something
had happened – some type of falling in love with
this aged, and at the time, dilapidated city. I returned
years later, until my visits became more and more frequent.
One day I found myself walking along Uvoz, the street on which Alex and I now
live (coincidence is, after all, part of everyday life in this city), wondering – Do
I want to disrupt my whole life for the sake of coming to live here?
When I decided that yes, I did, a sequence of absurd events
immediately took place. First, a bird burst into song right
beside me; then, a bell began to peal; then (and yes, it’s
true), a HUGE cheer went up from the whole city below me – windows
were opening, with people waving flags and bellowing and
shouting. Right above me, through a window someone yelled “Yes,
yes, oh yes!”
It took me a little while to realize that, while I was
out walking and thinking, the World Final of the ice-hockey
championship was being played out, and at the moment I
made my decision, the Czech Republic won. Did I already
say that outrageous coincidence is commonplace here?
An 18th century decoration on one of the pillars of the
old Jesuit college here – and a typical example of
the bizarrely amusing imagery that abounds in Prague.
Prague is magical, but it’s also a city
with a wild sense of humour, a surprisingly whacky mode
of irony, a profusion of symbols and an odd grip – that
can be vice-like – on the heart of certain people,
including me. Oh, and Kafka of course, who notoriously
described it as “a mother with claws, who keeps bringing
you back.” It’s a city that has a relationship
with magic that is there in its very origins. After all,
it’s supposed to have been founded by Libuse, a half-elfin
Celtic magician queen who found guidance in divination.
Although of course you can, if you prefer, take the alternative
view that the city was formed when a diadem fell off the
head of an angel – and formed the meteoric crater
that this city sits in. We may be the only city in the
world to have a stone formed by a meteriorite – green
moldavite – as our local gemstone. I probably hardly
need to add that it's supposed to have magical properties.
Art Nouveau picture of Libuse by Vitezlav Karel Masek.
Alex and I met in Prague some years back. He moved for
reasons that differed from mine, namely a frustration about
doing low-level advertising work in his native Crimea,
mixed with a hope that more satisfying work could be found
in a bigger city. Since we set up the studio, the work
certainly has been more interesting, and that, combined
with the sheer visual, sensual and intellectual pleasure
inherent in the material we’re working with, kept
us going through the difficulty of those preliminary years
in “set-up” mode.
One of the things that’s given us energy is the
good fortune of working in a place so rich in inspiration.
As we’ve worked, we’ve felt more and more connected
to the art, the symbolism – and the sheer magic – to
be found here. More pragmatically, we’ve also become
good at discovering new things; new to us, that is; in
fact, our findings are often very ancient. In Prague, you
have to keep your eyes, and perhaps your sixth sense, open,
but if you do, there’s a lot to reward alertness
and a bit of research.
The Tarot Tradition in Prague
Without getting into the whole “game or more than
game” debate, it is obvious that tarot cards were
used here for playing games from quite an early time. Bohemia
was prosperous, sophisticated, and in close contact with
Italy during the Renaissance, so it’s no wonder that
the Prague Castle museum claims tarot cards were used at
the Castle during the time of Rudolph II (1552-1612). While
these claims are not actually substantiated, they do seem
entirely reasonable. However, in spite of modern writers
describing Rudolph’s Court as being full of tarot
readers, I’ve found absolutely no concrete evidence
that this was the case - the cards were probably simply
used for gaming. Astrology was certainly important at Court – in
those days even eminent astronomers like Brahe and Kepler
were also expected to be astrologers. The alchemists John
Dee and Edward Kelley notoriously, while in Bohemia, used
crystal balls and scrying mirrors to talk to the angels – but
of tarot card reading, there is apparently no historical
record.
An almost immaculate (though note the slight damage on
L¬Imperatrice) set of Wirth cards ¥ probably an original
1927 set.
However, jump to the early 20th century and suddenly there
is a great deal of evidence of tarot (as opposed to the
whole separate question of oracle card) reading. Our most
spectacular find to date is a set of Oswald Wirth cards
that appear to be the rare 1926/7 set. They were found
in an antique shop along with an odd set of printed black
and white Minors with an Egyptian theme (what happened
to the Majors, or were there any decks around at this time
that were Minors only?) and a most interesting hand-drawn
set of Majors (but with The Fool sadly missing) that were
said to be done by local artist Vojtech Hynais (1854-1925),
who also painted some of the murals at Prague’s National
Theatre. This set was clearly designed to be used for divination,
and was also clearly based on the Tarot de Marseille, although
with some interesting, rather erotic interpretations (the
choice made in The Lovers card was clearly between a very
sexually attractive “brazen hussy” and a more
sedate older woman). All the cards had come from one Prague
household, so they obviously show that someone was collecting
divinatory tarot cards early in the century. It may well
be that the owner was connected to the Universalia group.
Universalia, Society of Czechoslovak Hermetic Philosphers,
to give the full title, was an esoteric group founded by
Pierre de Lasenic [Czech name Petr Kohout], Jan Kefer and
others in1927. It published a regular journal Logos,
which was in fact revived in the 1990s for several years.
There is far too much to say about Universalia and Lasenic
to include here, but of major interest is Lasenic’s
tarot deck designed in the late 1930s and still available
in shops in Prague (although the publisher tells us it's
about to go out of print). Many of the original Universalia
members died in the concentration camps of WWII, although
Lasenic himself met his end by damaging his lungs fatally
during a sandstorm in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, where
he was doing research.
In the 1940s, Prague also had a very famous tarot reader,
styled Madame de Thebes, who worked in Golden Lane. The
painted sign on her shop is very faded now, but you can
still just about make out an owl and a crystal ball. During
WWII she was killed by the Gestapo for refusing to stop
predicting the defeat of the Nazis - an example of courage
that should perhaps be better known.
The sign on wall of Madame de Thebe's shop in Golden
Lane.
Finding visual magic
Apart from our interest in the local history of tarot,
we also search constantly for inspiring art, graphics and
visual images. We’ve learned to go through doors
and explore passageways, hidden courtyards, and inner rooms – and
we’ve had some delightful surprises. A particularly
nice one was the two cherubs congratulating themselves
on their fishing success used in the Baroque
Bohemian Cats' Tarot, they were found behind an
unexciting looking door, and form a plaster motif on a
passageway wall; ne can only assume that the original owner
was a keen fisherman.
Used a foreground image in the Baroque Bohemian Cats'¬ Tarot
Nine of Pentacles ¥ for a cat, a large fish must be the
very image of contented prosperity. (click to enlarge)
There are the more obvious and easily found images too
of course. Famously, Prague has wonderful door signs (they
used to be used to identify houses before the days of standardized
addresses – I have to say I still love it when people
say something like “I live at the House of the Two
Golden Suns” In Nerudova Street – AND I know
exactly where they mean, so it still works). The sign of
the Red Lion, again from Nerudova Street, is used on our Tarot
of Prague Ace of Cups. The alchemical reference is
both obvious and very appropriate to the card.
The Red Lion door sign.
In bric a brac and antiquarian bookshops here,
you can unearth some real finds. For now at least, books
and interesting antiques are still comparatively easy to
find and affordable. It’s changing however. We look
for things that have some magical or interesting visual
qualities – and my goodness, do we find them! Here,
for example, is a plate from a mid-century book about the
imagery on the Krakov Altar (in neighboring Poland). If
you thought The Devil from Tarot de Marseille was strange – take
a look at this depiction:
Detail of a plate from a mid-century book about the imagery
on the Krakov Altar .
Our decks are full – some feel over-full! – of
our finds. In the picture book, Bohemian
Cats, we were able to show wonderful objects and
interiors at a glorious size: this was particularly satisfying
and has made us feel that we should perhaps work at a larger
scale more often.
Exploring and meeting people
Our surroundings, both town and country, are as magical
as Prague itself. For Baroque
Bohemian Cats' Tarot, we did a lot of photography
in Cesky Krumlov – perhaps the most perfectly preserved
Renaissance town in Central Europe. One particularly unusual
set of sgraffito that we photographed there are believed
to have Alchemical references although these have yet to
be properly explained. So far, we haven’t used these
images for a deck – but it may well happen.
These intriguingly symbolic sgraffito are considered
to be unique in Europe. (click to enlarge)
From the same house. We only managed to photograph two
of these clearly. A shame, as the fragment on the left
(with a hand just showing in the corner) looks especially
fascinating.
Of course, places like Cesky Krumlov are so rich that
for every image we use, there are many more left. In the Baroque
Bohemian Cats' Tarot for example, we were able
to incorporate a wonderful Renaissance wall painting of Temperance in
the background of the card, but this sister image of Fortitude
could not be used, although it¬s equally evocative.
Fortitude. (click to enlarge)
Recently, we’ve also spent time photograph at the
famously bizarre bone chapel at Sedlice, one of the best-known
attractions outside of Prague, and in nearby Kutna Hora.
The bone chapel is bizarre, but surprisingly beautiful
- and for tarot people the idea of "memento mori" may
not be so alarming as it is to most visitors.
One part of the Sedlice Ossuary - throughout, human bones
from the time of the Black Plague have been used to create
decorative or symbolic tableau. (click to enlarge)
While we were in the Old Town section of Kutna Hora we
also found yet more remarkable sgraffito. Later, As Michal
Pober, the curator of the Museum of Alchemy remarked “Ah
yes, well worth looking closely at those particular pictures“.
If anyone reading this would like to offer more explanation
of this scene - which is believed to have alchemical references
- we’d love to hear more.
Sgraffito from Kutna Hora. You can just see the small
devil that is rising above the flames on the lefthand panel.
(click to enlarge)
Michal proved generous with his time, his knowledge and
indeed, his very good humour. I have to say that one of
my favourite recent moments was walking with him and Alex
in the moonlight around the Cathedral of Saint Barbora,
while Michel airily described the last alchemy course he
ran “Yes, we did succeed in the transformation of
zinc to plant matter, but unfortunately it immediately
exploded.” Shades of Hogwarts? Perhaps he would make
a perfect Potions teacher. The next course is coming up
this autumn and I’m very tempted to join it, in spite
of the potential hazards!
Alchemist¬s lab ¥ a room at the Kutna Hora Museum of
Alchemy. (click to enlarge)
What's coming next?
Our next picture book, provisionally called Nosfelinu
the Vampuss is more of an adult graphic novel than Bohemian
Cats. Dracula, and features some incredible
local castles complete with interiors. The book is high
Victorian Gothic with some very odd twists – and
tails. Appropriate too, as in fact many of the early vampire
myths seem to centre on this region, rather than on Transylvania.
Our next deck? Importantly, there is the See of Logos
Oracle deck that we are making with Rachel Pollack. Rachel
bills this (with one raised eyebrow I suspect) as “100%
accurate divination – guaranteed” One of the
thirty-two prophecies in the deck begins:
“Your body is an engine of prophecy. Thousands
of years old, you were constructed by a team of seers
and alchemists. Every hair, every fold of
skin, every bend of your joints, they all symbolize
hermetic wisdom of future eventsé "
We are also working on another rather more conventional
tarot based on traditional and unabridged fairy tales,
including Grimms, Andersen, and some less well known tales
from non-European cultures. The illustrator for this deck
is the very talented Czech artist Irena Triskova, who is
developing the images with Alex. I am hard at work on the
companion book, which is intended to be a serious consideration
of the relationship of fairy tales to tarot. We hope to
have this published next autumn – for me it will
be the culmination of a long interest in the symbolism
of fairy tales. Lastly, for this year, we are doing a surreal
and, we think, beautiful, animal fantasy tarot. More of
that later - but suffice for now to say that it's in a
totally different style from anything we've done so far.
Into 2006, there are three projects in planning, one of
which is a book with Rachel Pollack which is provisionally
entitled "The Tarot of Perfection" (I think that
eyebrow is still raised). Life is exciting!
Our very favourite insouciant stone lion from Charles
Bridge ¥ he¬s seen it all.
Visit our websites:
Magical
Realism
The
Baroque Bohemian Cats' Tarot
The
Tarot of Prague
The Magic Realist Press - Magic in the Mind's Eye
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