Swiss Tarot

Jupiter, the fifth trump

The Swiss Tarot deck is a 78-card deck used for the tarot card games Troccas and Troggu. It is also sometimes called the JJ Tarot due to the replacement of the usual second and fifth trumps with cards depicting Juno and Jupiter, or as 1JJ Tarot in reference to the catalog number of a common release of the deck by A.G. Müller. ^[a]

History

The deck is derived from the Tarot de Besançon, which itself comes from the Tarot of Marseilles. ^{[1] [2]} It is an Italian suited pack which substitutes the figures of Juno and Jupiter in place of the Popess and Pope of the Tarot of Marseilles. The first version was produced between 1831 and 1838 in the card factory of Johann Georg Rauch. It was the first tarot pack made by the factory and was unexpectedly successful in the American market. The first version was manufactured, unaltered, by his successor, Johannes Müller in Diessenhofen until 1860. ^[3]

In 1965 the Swiss card game firm, A.G. Müller, issued a reprint which is distinguished by its cleaner lines. The alternative name for the pack comes from this edition, the "1" simply being a number within the product line and "JJ" the replacement of 2 trumps by Juno and Jupiter.

Cards

The face cards are not double headed and both the trumps and pip cards use additive Roman numeral indexing. The lack of modern features like vertically symmetrical face cards, corner indices, and Arabic numerals has made this deck unpopular for tarot players outside of their native communities. For example, the French-speaking Swiss (Romands) prefer using the Tarot Nouveau to play French tarot. It is still the official deck for Troccas tournaments.

Troggu players use the German version. Troccas players use the French-language version but refer to their cards with their Romansh (Rhæto-Romanic) nicknames. ^[4] In 2016, A.G. Müller began printing of Sursilvan captioned packs for Troccas players on behalf of Radiotelevisiun Svizra Rumantscha. The names of the trump cards are as follows:

Trump cards

#	Caption				Rhæto-Romanic		Image
	English	German	French	Sursilvan	Name(s)	Translation
	The Fool	Der Narr	Le Mat	Il Narr	il narr	The Fool
I	The Magician	Der Magier	Le Bateleur	Il Bagat	il bagat	the shell game player
II	Junon			La Gaglina	la gaglina la biua	the chicken the chicken (baby-talk)
III	The Empress	Die Herrscherin	L'Impératrice	L'imperatura	l'imperatura	the empress
IIII	The Emperor	Der Herrscher	L'Empereur	Igl Imperatur	igl imperatur	the emperor
V	Jupiter				il da Cuoz il Diu fauls	the man from Cuoz (a suburb of Disentis) the false God
VI	The Lovers	Die Liebenden	L'Amoureux	Ils Inamura	ils inamurai	the lovers
VII	The Chariot	Der Wagen	Le Chariot	Il Carr	il carr la Catrina en crotscha	the carriage Catherine's chariot
VIII	Justice	Gerechtigkeit	La Justice	La Giustia	la giustia la stadera	Justice the scales
VIIII	The Hermit	Der Eremit	L'Ermite	Il Pader	il pader	the monk
X	Wheel of Fortune	Rad des Schicksals	La Roue de Fortune	La Roda dalla Fortuna	la roda dalla fortuna la ventira	the wheel of Fortune fortune
XI	Strength	Kraft	La Force	La Forza	la forza	strength
XII	The Hanged Man	Der Gehängte	Le Pendu	Il Pendiu	il pendiu	the hanged man
XIII	Death	Der Tod	La Mort	La Mort	la mort	death
XIIII	Temperance	Die Mässigkeit	Tempérance	Igl Aunghel	la tempronza igl aunghel	Temperance the angel
XV	The Devil	Der Teufel	Le Diable	Il Giavel	il giavel il da cornas il naucli il bab dallas femnas	the devil the one with the horns the Evil One the Father of Women
XVI	The Tower	Der Turm	La Maison de Dieu	Il Tiaratriembel	la casa da Diu il tiaratriembel il cametg la Cadi la claustra barschada	the house of God the earthquake lightning the Church the burning monastery
XVII	The Star	Der Stern	L'Étoile	Las Steilas	las steilas	the stars
XVIII	The Moon	Der Mond	La Lune	La Glina	la glina	the moon
XVIIII	The Sun	Die Sonne	Le Soleil	Il Sulegl	il sulegl	the sun
XX	Judgment	Gericht	Le Jugement	Il Truament	la dertgira ils bluts la giuventetgna il truament	(divine) Judgement the naked ones youth the tribunal
XXI	The World	Die Welt	Le Monde	Il Mund	il mund la vaca la biala il min il miau la ferma	the world the cow beauty the cat (baby-talk) the cat beauty

Suit cards

Suit Number	Cups	Pentacles [b]	Swords	Wands
Ace
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Page
Knight
Queen
King

Footnotes

1. "Swiss Tarot" is the name recommended by the International Playing-Card Society. ^[1]
2. In English, the face cards explicitly name themselves "PENTACLES" despite not featuring any pentacles.

References

1. Swiss Tarot at i-p-c-s.org. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
2. Mann, Sylvia (1990). All Cards on the Table. Leinfelden: Deutsches Spielkarten-Museum. pp. 166–168, 172.
3. Ruh, Max (2005) Schaffhauser Spielkarten. Schweizer Pioniere der Wirtschaft und Technik. Verein für wirtschaftshistorische Studien, Zurich 2005, ISBN   3-909059-32-5, pp 27–31, 52 and 73.
4. McLeod, John. Troccas at pagat.com. Retrieved 13 February 2018.

External links

• Media related to Tarot 1JJ at Wikimedia Commons