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<div id="content"><h1 id="a-hypothesized-and-randomly-factual-history-of-tarot-cards">A
hypothesized and randomly factual History of Tarot Cards</h1>
<p>What follows is the story of a deck of cards and all the more-or-less
believable claims made about its origin. This brief history was compiled
following sources that attempted accurate historic recalling instead
of the most commonly shared semiotic, occultist story.
However, <br>despite all efforts, the found sources told a convoluted
tale due to the misinterpretation of age, sources and authorship common
to any ancient texts on magic and mysticism (Dummett, 1993). As such,
the following text will recall the disproven stories that were told
about the origin of Tarot, some factual sourced material and a modern
description of its usage.</p>
<p>When we talk about Tarot cards, we are talking about a deck of
playing cards composed of ten numeral cards and four court cards (Jack,
Knight, Queen and King) for each of the four suits (Swords, Batons, Cups
and Coins). Alongside these more common cards, Tarot includes 22 trump
cards with allegorical illustrations. The trumps form a sequence,
usually numbered from 1 to 21, with the single card of The Fool being
separated (Decker, Depaulis &amp; Dummett, 1996). </p>
<p>This specific deck of cards history begins at the bottom of a well
in 1440s Northern Italy, where we place its first appearance in
history. From there on we can easily find links to the common usage of
these cards in Northern Italy; from Milano to Bologna and Ferrara
(Steele, 1900). These cards, initially called <em>Trionfi</em> and then
<em>Tarocchi</em>, are thought to have been intended for card games,
regardless of their occasional usage in future-telling (Dummet,
1993). This finding helps us trace a factual beginning of Tarot but
leaves an open question as to how these cards gained their place as the
primary tool used in modern occultism and mysticism for cartomancy. </p>
<figure>
<img src="Visconti-Sforza-Tarot.jpg"
alt="Image of the First Tarot Deck" />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">Image of the First Tarot
Deck</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While this is where the story begins to get intricate, it is clear
that the first wide spread future-telling performance appeared in France
in the 18th century. At this point, the history of Tarot was to be
influenced by what each fortune teller imagined the history of the cards
to be. To fully reveal this, I will first attempt to map the most
notable occultists that used the cards and wrote historical notations
about their deviance, and the stories they told about them.</p>
<p>The first encounter we have between Tarot, magical theory and
practice happens in the <em>Monde primitif,</em> an incredibly long
essay about Tarot cards written in 1781 by Antoine Court de Gébelin.
With this text, the pastor began what would be the endless repository of
arcane esoteric wisdom within Tarot that would follow the cards for
generations (Chisholm, 1911). In this text, Gébelin attributed the
cards origin to ancient Egypt, a theory that is to this day accepted as
truthful. This belief was based on an erroneous link to <em>The Book of
Thoth,</em> an ancient Egyptian text about magic that is believed to
have been spread through Europe by Romans. This belief was then
substantiated with a similar essay by Comte de Mellet (Decker, 1993).
Promptly, a Parisian fortune teller named Jean-Baptiste Alliette,
professionally known as Etteilla, having found these theories, adapted
the esoteric view of the cards to his own uses. He switched his own
practice from traditional French piquet cartomancy to the use of a
self-made Tarot card deck. This deck was based on the previously shared
Hermetic ideologies and was named <em>The Book of Thoth</em> (Decker,
1993).</p>
<p>The next fundamental spin that was applied to the cards background
was done by Éliphas Levi, another French esoterist. Levi repudiated
Etteillas theory and integrated a version of the cards that were closer
to the original than his own Cabalistic magical system. While Levis
understanding of the cards travel from Egypt to Judea and into Jewish
tradition was historically mistaken, it nonetheless revolutionized Tarot
in ways that survive to this day. His Cabalistic theory about signs
being letters, letters being absolute ideas and absolute ideas being
numbers can still be seen in modern iterations of Tarot.</p>
<p>At this point, Tarots journey speeds up as the cards leave France
and become absorbed into new esoteric movements like Swedenborgianism,
Mesmerism and Spiritualism (Decker, Depaulis &amp; Dummet, 1996).</p>
<p>Before we make another jump through time towards the next relevant
development of Tarot, I will share the last of the three false
widespread theories about the origin of Tarot (the first two being
ancient Egypt and Judaism, despite the latters influence on modern
Tarot).</p>
<p>This last theory is harder to trace back to one esoteric influence,
and it claims a Chinese origin to the cards. This is most likely due to
the similarity between Tarot and the <em>I</em> <em>Ching</em>, a
divination manual from around 1000 BC. This manual was grounded in
cleromancy, i.e. the production of random numbers with the purpose of
predicting divine intention. However, there is no traceable connection
between Chinese cleromancy and Tarot divination. Modern analyses of
Chinese Tarot divination draw a direct correlation between Western
occultism and Tarot divination, leaving little room to imagine any
direct causation starting from China (Fu, Li, Lee, 2002).</p>
<p>The next big step will bring us to Britain in the late 19th century,
to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn was a secret
society devoted to occult Hermetic Kabbalah and one of the largest
single influences on Western occultism as a whole (Jenkins, 2000). While
the society itself had a wide curriculum including astrology, alchemy
and geomancy (soil divination), our concern at this moment are their
links to</p>
<div class="centered-image">
<figure>
<img src="etteilla.jpg" alt="Image from Etteillas Deck" />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">Image from Etteillas Deck</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p>Tarot cards. In 1909, two mystics and members of the Golden Dawn,
A.E. Waite and Pamela Colman Smith, published a deck of re-made Tarot
cards through the Rider Company which reflected Golden Dawns magic
system. Later, these cards became known as the Rider-Waite Tarot (Dean,
2015). This deck was based on the Sola Busca Tarot, with symbolism
derived from Egyptian and Christian traditions and Levis descriptions.
This deck has since become the paradigm and touchstone through which
modern occultists think of Tarot. Between the distribution of this deck
and the use of the cards in the Golden Dawn, it became axiomatic among
followers of various traditions of mysticism that Tarot is an essential
component of any occult science.</p>
<p>Today, Tarot is emblematic and incredibly wide spread as the most
common future-telling method and device. Tens and thousands of different
formats exist, often falling under the category of Oracle cards. While
these do not share the clear formatting rules of Tarot, they are still
used for divination and self-reflection purposes through the
interpretation of allegorical illustrations.</p>
<div class="centered-image">
<figure>
<img src="Rider-Waite_Pents.jpg"
alt="Image from the Raider-Waite deck" />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">Image from the Raider-Waite
deck</figcaption>
</figure>
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