A Cultural History of Tarot ii A CULTURAL HISTORY OF TAROT Helen Farley is Lecturer in Studies in Religion and Esotericism at the University of Queensland She is editor of the international journal Khthúnios: A Journal for the Study of Religion and has written widely on a variety of topics and subjects, including ritual, divination, esotericism and magic CONTENTS A Cultural History of Tarot From Entertainment to Esotericism HELEN FARLEY iii Published in 2009 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd Salem Road, London W2 4BU 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 www.ibtauris.com Distributed in the United States and Canada Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 Copyright â Helen Farley, 2009 The right of Helen Farley to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher ISBN 978 84885 053 A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Library of Congress catalog card: available Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham from camera-ready copy edited and supplied by the author v CONTENTS Contents List of Illustrations List of Tables Acknowledgements Introduction vii ix xi Chapter 1: Origins and Antecedents The Emergence of the Playing Card Deck Some Theories of Tarot Origin 18 Chapter 2: Renaissance Italy and the Emergence of Tarot The First Tarot Deck The Viscontis and the Italian Renaissance The Purpose of the Deck Tarot Imagery 33 35 39 43 45 Chapter 3: An Alternative Explanation of Tarot Symbolism The Magician/Il Bagatella Temporal and Spiritual Power: The Emperor and Empress, the Pope and the Popess Love The Chariot Misidentified The Virtues: Fortitude, Justice and Temperance The Old Man as Time The Wheel of Fortune The Hanged Man Death The Star, Moon and Sun: Astrology in Renaissance Italy Angel The World Not a Tarot Trump but still the Fool The Tower: Absent or Lost? The Devil in the Deck 50 51 Chapter 4: The Transformation of Tarot into an Esoteric Device France in the Eighteenth Century Occult Philosophies Antoine Court de Gộbelin Etteilla 52 58 60 62 68 69 70 73 76 79 80 82 84 88 93 95 98 101 106 vi A CULTURAL HISTORY OF TAROT ẫliphas Lộvi Papus 111 117 Chapter 5: Across the Channel to England The Nature of British Occultism William Wynn Westcott S L Mathers The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Aleister Crowley William Butler Yeats Arthur Edward Waite 121 122 126 128 129 137 142 144 Chapter 6: Tarot and the New Age Predominant Themes of New Age Thought Combining Traditions and Methods The Influence of Feminism Neopaganism A Fascination with other Religions and Cultures: Great and Small History Repeating 151 152 157 159 161 165 169 Conclusion 173 Notes Bibliography Index 177 235 265 CONTENTS vii Illustrations 10 11 12 13 Mamlk playing cards now housed in the Topkapi Sarayi Museum, Istanbul The Tarocchi Players, Casa Borromeo, Milan The Bishop by Hans Holbein, first half of the sixteenth century The Popess from the Visconti-Sforza deck housed in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York Fortitude from the Visconti-Sforza deck housed in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York The Hanged Man from the Visconti-Sforza deck housed in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York Death from the Visconti Sforza deck housed in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York The Fool from the Visconti Sforza deck housed in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York The Moon from a contemporary version of the Tarot of Marseille The Devil from a contemporary version of the Tarot of Marseille The World from a contemporary version of the Tarot of Marseille The Hanged Man recast as Prudence by Antoine Court de Gộbelin in Le Monde Primitif Isis figures in Court de Gộbelins version of The Star in Le Monde Primitif Lộvis Baphomet as the Devil in Dogme et rituel de la haute magie Lộvis Chariot as portrayed in Dogme et rituel de la haute magie The Moon card as represented in the Cipher Manuscript The Hierophant from Crowleys Thoth Tarot Lust replaces Strength in Crowleys trump sequence The Magus from Crowleys Thoth Tarot The Fool from the Rider Waite deck The High Priestess from the Rider Waite deck Death from the Rider Waite deck The Kaiser replaces the Emperor in the Anti-Nuclear Wendlọndisches Tarot (1980) 24 Black Tortoises replace wands in the Feng Shui Tarot of Eileen and Peter Paul Connolly 25 Odin plays the role of Emperor in the Haindl Tarot 26 Marie Laveau replaces the Priestess in the New Orleans Voodoo Tarot 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 14 35 48 56 65 71 74 83 94 95 96 102 103 116 118 135 137 138 140 145 146 147 154 158 161 167 viii A CULTURAL HISTORY OF TAROT 27 Simbi dleau adorns the equivalent of the of Cups in the New Orleans Voodoo Tarot 28 The Wild Card is a novel addition to the New Orleans Voodoo Tarot 168 169 CONTENTS ix Tables Region-specific suit signs of tarot and ordinary playing cards The alignment of the celestial princes and barons with the four orders Structure of the Etteilla tarot deck A comparison of Etteillas tarot cards with the Tarot de Marseille tarot trumps A table of correspondences to Hebrew letters formulated by Athanasius Kircher Planetary spheres were arranged according to their supposed distance above the earth, from Saturn to the Moon as the closest Correspondences associated with tarot suit signs according to ẫliphas Lộvi Table of correspondences between the tarot trumps and the Hebrew letters according to ẫliphas Lộvi and the Cipher Manuscript Correspondences as given in the Sefer Yesi rah, by Papus and in the Cipher Manuscript Court card correspondences as described by Mathers in Book T 10 The table of correspondences drawn up by Yeats while he was still a member of the Theosophical Society 11 A table of correspondences between the four tarot suits and other systems including Jungs four functions of personality used in the New Tarot 36 108 110 115 117 133 134 136 143 156 256 A CULTURAL HISTORY OF TAROT Read, Piers Paul The Templars: The Dramatic History of the Knights Templar, the Most Powerful Military Order of the Crusades London: Phoenix Press, 1999 Regardie, Israel The Golden Dawn: A Complete Course in Practical Ceremonial Magic: The Original Account of the Teachings, Rites, and Ceremonies of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (Stella Matutina) as Revealed by Israel Regardie Sixth, revised and enlarged ed, Llewellyn's Golden Dawn Series St Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1989 Reprint, Tenth My Rosicrucian Adventure: A Contribution to a Recent Phase of the History of Magic, and a Study in the Technique of Theurgy Chicago: The Aries Press, 1936 Riches, D (2003) 'Counter-Cultural Egalitarianism: A Comparative Analysis of New Age and Other 'Alternative Communities'.' 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OF TAROT 265 Index Bold figures refer to pages with illustrations African Tarot 169 Age of Mythology Tarot 164 Albigenses 24 Alchemical Tarot 165 Alighieri, Dante 45, 49, 61, 68, 69, 79 Alliette, Jean-Baptiste (See Etteilla) Ambrosian Republic 48, 65 Ancient Egyptian Tarot 170 Angel (also see Judgment) 38, 46, 47, 68, 79, 82, 104, 134, 141 Anti-Nuclear Wendlọndisches Tarot 154, 155 Aquinas, Thomas 44, 64, 67, 69 Ardhanari 11 Arthurian Tarot 162 Astrological Tarot 157158 Astrology 2, 35, 42, 7678, 97, 106, 109, 118, 119, 120, 129, 131, 136, 141, 149, 157, 158, 174, 192 Astrotaro 158 Aura Soma Tarot 153 Australian Contemporary Dreamtime Tarot 169 Avalon Tarot 162 Aztec Tarot 169 Barath Egyptian Serigraphs 170 Barbara Walker Tarot 159 Baum Tarot 163 Bellenghi, Alessandro 28, 29, 30, 31 Bercovici, Konrad 24 Bible Tarot 165 Black Death 7375, 79 Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna 97, 117, 122, 124125, 127, 149, 153 Book of Doors Tarot 170 Brambilla deck 13, 36, 39, 45, 54, 69, 173 Brown, Dan 26 Buckland Romani Tarot 171 Buddhistic Fantasy Tarot 166 Campbell, Joseph 49 Cardinal virtues 8, 15, 1617, 38, 45, 51, 6367, 68, 73, 8384, 88 89, 92, 93, 103, 105, 108, 140 Carnival 45, 6061, 84 Celtic Dragon Tarot 163 Celtic Revival 121, 123124, 128, 150, 164 Celtic Tarot 143, 163 Celtic Wisdom Tarot 163 Ceremonial Magic Tarot 165 Champollion, Franỗois 20, 98 Chariot 7, 20, 38, 46, 6062, 63, 68, 79, 94, 102, 103, 105, 110, 111, 114, 133, 136, 140, 146, 147, 166, 169, 170 Charity (virtue) 38, 63, 67 Charles VI 1819 Chaturange 27, 29, 171 China 1112, 100, 160 Chobaut, Hyacinthe 30 Christian, Paul 20, 112, 129, 147 Christian Bible Tarot 165 266 A CULTURAL HISTORY OF TAROT Christian mysticism 121, 144, 147 148, 174 Cicognara, Count Leopold 8, 28, 59 Cipher Manuscript 129131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 139, 174 Comte de Mellet 20, 22, 104106, 107, 109, 113 Cooper J C 61 Corpus Hermeticum 21, 104, 109, 116, 120 Court de Gộbelin, Antoine 14, 19 20, 2223, 30, 73, 101106, 107, 109, 118, 129, 174 Crowley, Aleister 2, 31, 127, 131, 137142, 145, 149, 150, 151, 174 dAmbly, Boiteau 23 DEste Ercole 34, 77 DEste Sigismondo 34 da Pirovano, Sister Maifreda 5558, 93, 173 da Tortono, Marziano 35, 3637, 38, 39, 40, 44, 50, 77 Danse Macabre (Dance of Death) 47, 48, 7576 Daughters of the Moon deck 161 de Sagramoro, Jacopo 34 Death (card) 7, 22, 38, 45, 46, 47, 48, 59, 70, 7374, 7576, 79, 85, 92, 105, 108, 110, 114, 134, 141, 143, 147, 160, 163 del Maino, Agnese 4243, 60 della Torre family 41, 53, 8687, 88, 92, 94 Delumeau, Jean 73 Depaulis, Thierry 4, 30 Devil (card) 7, 38, 48, 84, 85, 8892, 94, 95, 102, 103, 105, 106, 108, 110, 114, 115, 116, 134, 141, 142, 160, 162, 166, 175 Di Parravicino, Count Emiliano 61 Dummett, Michael 4, 13, 28, 37, 64, 88 Egipcios Kier Tarot 170 Egypt 1, 2, 4, 6, 12, 13, 14, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 30, 31, 32, 93, 98, 99, 101, 102, 103104, 107, 109, 111, 114, 116, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122123, 129, 131132, 136, 139, 140, 141, 148, 151, 160, 161, 168, 169 170, 172, 174, 175 Egyptian Tarot 170 Emperor (card) 7, 24, 38, 51, 5254, 58, 105, 107, 110, 134, 140, 141, 147, 154, 155, 156, 160 Empress (card) 7, 38, 51, 5254, 58, 105, 107, 110, 134, 147, 163, 166 Encausse, Gộrard (Papus) 2, 20, 30, 31, 117120, 121 Etteilla (Jean-Baptiste Alliette) 95, 106111, 113, 119, 127, 129, 132, 147 Faery Wicca Tarot 162163 Faith (Virtue) 38, 57, 63, 67 Faivre, Antoine Feng Shui Tarot 158 Ferrara 33, 34, 39, 57, 62, 77, 87, 93 Fibbia, Francesco Antelminelli Castarcani 8, 2829, 186 Fool (card) 6, 7, 8, 38, 51, 8283, 84, 89, 95, 106, 110, 111, 113, 119, 120, 127, 132, 133, 134, 143, 145, 146, 147, 162, 163, 164, 165, 167, 169, 174, 176 Fortitude (also see Strength) 15, 16, 38, 47, 6265, 66, 67, 140, 141 Franklin, Stephen 27 Freemasonry 19, 100101, 111, 120, 121, 126, 130131, 144, 147, 150 INDEX Fullwood, Anna M 20, 183 Ganjifa 911, 27 Gates, Charlene 19, 20 Ghibelline 33, 53, 58, 85, 87, 187 Gilbert, Robert 130 Giles, Cynthia 30 Goddess Tarot 159 Goddesses of the Tarot 161 Golden Dawn 2, 31, 118, 120, 121, 125126, 128, 129136, 137, 138, 139, 140141, 142, 143, 144145, 147, 148, 149150, 151, 158, 164, 174 Golden Dawn Tarot 136, 164 Golowin, Sergius 24 Grellmann, Heinrich M G 24 Greenwood Tarot 163 Gresham, William Lindsay 21 Gringonneur, Jacquemin 18, 19, 49, 77, 84, 85, 88 Guelf 33, 53, 58, 86, 87 Gypsies 1, 20, 2226, 31, 32, 108, 170172 Haindl Tarot 153, 160, 161, 163 Hanegraaff, Wouter J 4, 161 Hanged Man (card) 7, 46, 7071, 72 73, 85, 102, 103, 105, 107, 110, 134, 146, 160, 162, 163 Harris, Lady Frieda 139, 140, 142 Healing Earth Tarot 154 Hercules 36, 64, 65, 66, 173 Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, see Golden Dawn Hermetic Tarot 164165 Hermit (also see Old Man) 7, 46, 68, 94, 103, 105, 108, 110, 134, 143, 160, 162, 166 Hierophant (also see Pope) 103, 110, 134, 135, 137, 141, 160, 161, 166 267 High Priestess (also see Popess) 20, 102, 103, 110, 116, 134, 135, 147, 166, 170 Hoffmann, Detlef 4, 110 Hope (virtue) 38, 63, 6768 Huson, Paul 14, 15, 16, 17, 4748, 54, 71 Ibis Tarot 170 Inquisition 26, 44, 56, 57, 58, 72, 79, 116 Isabella of Anjou 35, 39, 40 Joker 8, 82, 178 Judgment (also see Angel) 7, 46, 47, 48, 68, 79, 81, 82, 92, 103, 108, 113, 134, 140, 154, Jung, Carl 3, 155156 Jungian Tarot 156 Justice (card) 7, 15, 33, 47, 62, 63, 6667, 105, 108, 110, 117, 132, 133, 134, 135, 139, 140, 146, 155 Kabbalah 2, 31, 9899, 100, 101, 104, 106, 113, 114, 119, 120, 126, 127128, 129, 132134, 135, 136, 141, 144, 150, 164, 164, 174 Kaplan, Stuart 14, 28, 68, 88 Kashmir Tarot 165166 King Arthur 60, 69, 85, 143, 162 King Arthur Tarot 162 Kingsford, Anna B 125, 127 Lal, Chaman 24 Leber, M C 18 Legba Tarot of Voodoo 169 Legend: the Arthurian Tarot 162 Leland, Godfrey 55 Lộvi, ẫliphas 2, 20, 23, 31, 111117, 118, 119, 121, 126, 127128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 147, 174 Little, Tom Tadfor 29, 61, 8485 268 A CULTURAL HISTORY OF TAROT Love/Lovers (card) 7, 38, 46, 5860, 70, 79, 92, 94, 103, 105, 110, 133, 134, 147, 163, 164 Mackenzie, Kenneth 126, 130131 Magician (card) 7, 5152, 110, 113, 114, 119, 135, 137, 140, 143, 146, 156, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 171, 176 Major Arcana 19, 133, 157, 158, 160, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 175, 177 Mamlks 1213, 17, 28, 148, 173, 174, 176 Mandala Astrological Tarot 158 Mann, Sylvia Marcello, Jacopo Antonio 35, 3637, 38, 39 Maria of Savoy 42, 5859 Martinism 97, 101, 118 Mathers, Moùna 129, 136 Mathers, Samuel Liddell MacGregor 31, 118, 125, 126, 128129, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 144, 146, 147 Medici, Cosimo 43, 65, 72, 73 Medicine Woman Tarot 168 Menestrier, Pốre 18 Merlin, Romain 23, 28 Merlin Tarot 162 Mesmer, Franz Anton 112, 153 Metrosexual Tarot 1, 177 Meyrink, Gustav 23, 31 Milan xii, 1, 2, 26, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 4546, 48, 50, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, 60, 62, 65, 66, 70, 72, 73, 74, 76, 77, 8082, 86, 87, 92, 93, 94, 173 Minotarot 164 Moakley, Gertrude 4547, 48, 55, 60, 84, 85 Monsters 8991 Moon (card) 7, 38, 7678, 94, 103, 105, 108, 110, 115, 134, 135, 143 Motherpeace Round Tarot 153, 160 Mythic Tarot 163164 Naùbi 27, 28 Native American Tarot Deck 166 Neopaganism 159, 161165 New Age 1, 23, 21, 26, 120, 150, 151172, 174, 175, 176 New Amazon Tarot 159 New Orleans Voodoo Tarot 167, 168, 169 New Tarot 155156 Norse Tarot 163 Old Man (also see Hermit) 46, 68 69, 94, 103, 105 Olsen, Christina 51 Olympus Tarot 164 ONeill, Robert 21, 46, 55, 64, 84 85, 88 Osho Zen Tarot 166 Ouspensky, Petyr Demianovich 23, 149 Pachisi 27, 29 Petrarch 41, 45, 4647, 55, 61, 63, 68, 69, 74, 191 Pitois, Jean Baptiste see Christian, Paul Pittura infamante 70, 71, 72, 73 Poets Tarot 161 Pope (card) 7, 8, 23, 51, 52, 5455, 58, 62, 68, 79, 94, 103, 105, 107, 160 Pope Joan 55 Popess (also see High Priestess) 7, 8, 20, 51, 5258, 68, 79, 93, 102, 103, 105, 107, 168, 173 Postel, Guillaume 23, 31 INDEX Prudence 8, 15, 38, 63, 67, 73, 103, 105, 107, 108, 110, 111 Psychomachia 47 Queen (court card) 7, 29, 108, 111, 116, 136, 140, 145, 156, 159, 170 Rỏkúczi, Basil 19, 20, 31 Ramsay, Andrew Michael 100, 115 Rider-Waite deck 2, 145, 146, 147, 148, 150, 151, 159, 166, 175 Robin Wood Tarot 163 Rỹdiger, Johann 24 Runciman, Sir Steven 26 Sacred Circle Tarot 163 Sacred Rose Tarot 162 Santa Fe Tarot 167 Scarab Tarot 170 Seabury, William Marston 49 Sforza, Francesco 38, 43, 45, 51, 57, 59, 60, 61, 6566, 70, 72, 77, 81, 93, 173 Shah, Idries 14, 31 Shining Woman Tarot 161 Sinnett, Alfred Percy 124, 125 Smith, Pamela Colman 145, 146 Spiritualism 97, 121, 152 Star (card) 7, 20, 38, 46, 7678, 94, 103, 105, 110, 134, 135, 139, 140 Steele, Robert 58 Strength (also see Fortitude) 7, 63, 67, 68, 93, 105, 110, 132, 133, 134, 135, 139, 140, 141, 146, 158, 164, 166, 168, 171 SILsm 1415, 31, 180181 Suit signs 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 23, 38, 117, 132, 136, 145, 148, 154, 157, 162, 164, 166, 171 269 Sun (card) 7, 38, 7678, 9495, 104, 108, 110, 114, 115, 134, 143, 158, 160, 170 Swedenborg, Emmanuel 19, 97, 101, 114, 142, 174 Tarocchi 4, 27, 29, 30, 32, 120 Tarocchi Players 34, 35 Tarocchino 8, 2829 Tarocco Bolognese 95 Tarot de Mantegna 28, 67, 78 Tarot de Marseille 93, 94, 95, 96, 103, 105, 109, 113, 119, 120, 127, 135, 146, 147 Tarot of Ceremonial Magick 165 Tarot of the Crone 161 Tarot of the Northern Shadows 163 Tarot of the Orishs 169 Tarot of the Sephiroth 164 Tarot of the Southwest Sacred Tribes: Tribes of Earth 167 Tarot of Transition 157, 170 Tarot of Wicca 163 Tarot Tzigane 171 Taylor, Ed S 23 Temperance (card) 7, 15, 16, 38, 47, 6263, 67, 105, 110, 111, 114, 134, 140, 156, 158 Tenda, Beatrice 42, 59, 61 Theosophical Society 97, 117, 118, 124126, 128, 142, 148, 149, 152, 153 Tower 7, 38, 8488, 92, 94, 103, 105, 134, 135, 140, 143, 175 Transition Tarot 157 Transparent Tarot 161 Tree of Life Tarot 164 Trionfi 27, 29, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 49 Trump order 7, 44, 49, 50, 52, 54, 93, 118, 120, 127, 132 Vaillant, Jean-Alexandre 23, 30, 129 Van Rensselaer, Mrs John King 31 270 A CULTURAL HISTORY OF TAROT Visconti, Bernabũ 41 Visconti, Bianca 38, 39, 43, 45, 57, 59, 61, 65 Visconti, Filippo Maria 1, 35, 36, 38, 39, 4143, 4546, 4849, 50 51, 54, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 65, 68, 69, 70, 76, 77, 79, 81, 173 Visconti, Gian Galeazzo 41, 53, 59, 62, 70, 72, 77 Visconti, Giovanni Maria 36, 41, 42, 50, 70 Visconti, Matteo 57, 58, 8788 Visconti, Ottone 41, 53, 8687 Visconti di Modrone deck 1314, 18, 38, 39, 45, 46, 47, 54, 58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 66, 67, 76, 79, 80, 82, 173 Visconti-Sforza deck 3839, 45, 46, 47, 50, 51, 54, 55, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68 69, 70, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 82, 83, 84, 164, 173 Vision Quest Tarot 168 Voyager Tarot 154, 157 Waite, Arthur Edward 2, 112, 126, 130, 143150, 151, 162, 174 Waldenses 2627 Westcott, William Wynn 118, 125, 126128, 129, 130, 131, 134, 144 Wheel of Fortune 7, 31, 38, 47, 59, 6970, 79, 94, 105, 108, 110, 116, 134, 143, 146 Wirth, Oswald 117, 118 Wood, Juliette 91 World 7, 38, 46, 47, 48, 8082, 92, 94, 95, 96, 103104, 106, 107, 110, 113, 127, 140, 146, 147, 156, 166, 168 Xultỳn Tarot 167 Yates, Frances Amelia 34 Yeats, William Butler 124, 130, 142 143, 146, 148 Zigeuner Tarot 170 Zoroastrianism 1516 [..].. remarked upon in the classic tale of Arab adventure Thousand and One Nights.58 Also, the sixteenth-century writer Ibn Hajar al-Haytamī wrote in the Annals of Ibn Tagrī-Birdī, that the future Sultan al-Malik al-Mu’ayyad won a large sum of money in a game of cards around the year 1400.59 More particularly, in 1939, archaeologist L A Mayer stumbled across an almost complete pack of cards from the Egyptian.. Italian Renaissance to its use as an esoteric document towards the end of the eighteenth century Art historical studies and the data amassed by card collectors can help determine the early history of tarot but it is the study of esotericism that charts its subsequent course Though cultural historians have made no particular study of tarot, their work is invaluable in helping to determine prevailing attitudes.. consideration Looking beyond the significant names and dates which are the fodder of conventional historical studies, cultural historians seek to reconstruct the culture and ideas of a particular group or groups of people.10 It becomes possible to speculate about a population’s attitude to religion and to the supernatural, popular pastimes and familial relationships What once may have seemed irrational and.. became adapted to the culture which so readily adopted it Some Theories of Tarot Origin After examination of the documentary evidence, it is certain that the arrival of the ordinary playing card deck in Europe predated the appearance of tarot by about fifty years The oldest extant tarot decks were from northern Italy and were dated to the first half of the fifteenth century Speculation was rife as to. . distinguish tarot from ordinary playing cards.113 It is interesting that even though the truth of this matter has been acknowledged for some 150 years, contemporary writers still perpetuate this myth of tarot as the amusement of a mad king and of Gringonneur as the creator of tarot. 114 An alternative theory of French derivation for the tarot trumps was propounded by an American scholar of English, Charlene Gates.. a unique snapshot of the interplay of competing currents in Renaissance thought and life The study of tarot requires a multidisciplinary approach First, the paucity of material precludes any claim that one discipline is able to provide sufficient information to achieve the objectives of this study Second, the history of tarot sees the usage of the deck undergo a radical change from that of card-playing.. to extend my gratitude to John Fisher of the Guildhall Library; Jo Norman of the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum; Frances Rankine of the Prints and the Book, Word & Image Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the staff of the National Art Library From I.B.Tauris I would like to express my gratitude to Alex Wright who believes that a book about tarot is viable! Thanks.. in the hands of anyone without the appropriate knowledge and skill; madness and ruin lay along that path In contrast, New Age tarot is nothing if not accessible Though there are large numbers of professional readers, a tarot deck and instructional guide are available to anyone with some money and a little time.2 Obviously, it is the social and cultural context in which tarot is operating that imbues.. Zeena a clairvoyant and mystic in a travelling circus, ascribe an Egyptian origin to the tarot. 132 Interestingly, a significant number of contemporary New Age sources, in spite of the speciousness of this Egyptian theory, still maintain that tarot was born in the sands of Egypt and that the tarot deck contains all the wisdom of humankind.133 The hypothesis of an Egyptian provenance for tarot can be.. meaning in a certain context may have an altered connotation in another The theories regarding the origins of tarot are diverse, ranging from its creation in ancient Egypt by a mysterious priesthood or an evolution from any of a number of extant games Careful consideration must be given to each because the implications for the interpretation of tarot symbolism are considerable Does tarot contain a carefully .. writer Ibn Hajar al-Haytam wrote in the Annals of Ibn Tagr-Bird, that the future Sultan al-Malik al-Muayyad won a large sum of money in a game of cards around the year 1400.59 More particularly, in.. to pare uno de carte da trionfi, and again in the 34 A CULTURAL HISTORY OF TAROT Registro di Guardaroba, (Storeroom register) of February 10 there was allusion to Quattro paia di carticelle da.. possible to speculate about a populations attitude to religion and to the supernatural, popular pastimes and familial relationships What once may have seemed irrational and illogical to us as twenty-first