ABSTRACT
This chapter traces André Breton's increasing preoccupation with occultism, through his second epic poem at this time, Fata Morgana, and also through his commitment to the cooperative venture of the creation of the Jeu de Marseille. Collective projects were to serve as salvation as well as diversion to those Surrealists who now found themselves in Marseilles in precarious circumstances. The serendipity of the arrival of the members of the future Air-Bel community in Marseilles was, from a Surrealist view point, positive confirmation of their glorification of 'objective chance'; the experience of living as a community at the villa provided a unique opportunity to live a collective Surrealist experiment. In the 17th century Marseilles became an important centre for the production of tarot cards, and it was at this time that the iconography of the cards developed, adding astrological images to the Christian themes and those of antiquity already represented.
