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