The origin of these mystical cards goes far into ancient culture. Nevertheless, we cannot talk about a specific origin. There are many legends that say different things. It is difficult to name not only the origin of the cards themselves, but even from what the name "Tarot" came from. Some are inclined to believe that the name comes from the lines crossing on the back of the card, which are called "tarotee". Others adhere more to the theory that the name was formed from the Italian tarocchi deck, as the deck was called in the XIV century. And this is far from all theories. We will get acquainted with other possible origins later in the article.
A scientific perspective on the history of tarot cards
The oldest deck is considered Tarot Visconti - Sforza. It was commissioned in 1450 by two families: the Visconti and the Sforza. It was this deck that became the prototype for the 78-sheet deck that we can see today.
Figure 1. The history of the Tarot begins with the cards of the Visconti - Sforza deck (one of them in the figure).
At that time, such decks were made by hand and were quite expensive and only rich people could afford to order them. Visconti was at that time one of the richest men in Italy.
According to historians, from the very beginning, the Tarot was intended as a game card, only an extended version. Triomphs (triumphs) were added to the usual 56 cards - 21 cards that had their own unique drawing and could beat all ordinary cards. By adding another Fool card, we get 78 cards. This allowed the creation of games with more complex rules. Today we know the rules of only one game using tarot cards.
The Tarokka Mantegna deck appears next in history in 1465. It already differs from the previous one in that it contains only 50 cards and 5 suits (Vault of Heaven, Fundamentals and Virtues, Science, Muses, Social status). The number of cards may tell us that the structure of the deck is based on a kabbalistic division of the universe known as 50 Bina's Gates.
But some are inclined to believe that the history of Tarot cards does not begin in 1420-1440, but a little earlier. There is reason to believe that in 1392 Jacquine Gringonier was ordered to make a deck for King Charles VI. Until now, some of them are kept in the National Library in Paris. However, these cards (they are also called the Tarot of Charles VI), most likely were made only for card games and did not carry any mystical essence.
Some sources claim that the first to bring tarot cards to Europe were the Bohemian gypsies who called themselves Egyptians. This event dates back to around the 9th century. The very same word Tarot (or Taro) meant "the way of the rulers".
We can talk about an earlier history of the origin of Tarot cards, but only from legends. There is no reliable information.
The history of the tarot as cards for divination
Only in the 18th century did tarot begin to be used as cards for fortune telling. The first to do this was a Parisian seed seller named Jean-Baptiste Aliette (Etteila). He was one of the most famous fortunetellers of the day.
Figure 2. Jean-Baptiste Aliette - the first who began the history of the Tarot as a fortune-telling card
At the end of the 18th century, two French researchers, Antoine Cours de Jebelin and Count De Mele, tried to understand the mystical origin of the Tarot cards.
When Cours de Gebelin was writing his famous book Le monde primitif, he decided to link the history of tarot cards with Egypt. More information about his point of view can be found at the end of the article, where we will tell the Egyptian legend of the origin of these mystical cards.
Already in the 18th - 19th centuries, mystical cards were used mainly for fortune telling.
Legends of the tarot cards
Egyptian legend
The very first idea of the origin of Tarot cards comes from ancient Egypt. It all started a long time ago. Ever since the Atlanteans appeared. But, today we will not delve into this branch of history, but start from the legend of the Tarot.
Imagine pharaohs from ancient Egypt. We will also call them ancient magicians. They were the ancestors of the Atlanteans and had the knowledge that that mighty civilization possessed. The fact that the ancient Egyptians had “unearthly” knowledge is not denied even by today's researchers and scientists. Soon Atlantis fell apart, but people from ancient times were able to preserve some knowledge. They succeeded in doing this thanks to a different structure of consciousness. They remembered well what happened to them in their past life. So they could accumulate their knowledge. However, in each next life they might have lost some of the knowledge gained in previous lives.
This issue became especially important before nomadic tribes began to attack Egypt. In fact, the pharaohs (or magicians) were not afraid of death, because they knew that they would be reborn and would continue life in another body. Most of all, they were afraid of losing knowledge. One day they all got together and started thinking about what to do with this problem. In total, we have adopted 3 ways of transferring or reminding ourselves of the lost knowledge.
- One of the suggestions was to leave the notes somewhere in the mountains of Tibet, where ordinary people could not get. Selected magicians could familiarize themselves with the inscriptions through meditation.
- The second suggestion was to pour out gold bars with hieroglyphs that would remind the ancient magicians of their knowledge. As we know, gold can last for a very long time and not deteriorate.
- But the youngest of the magicians proposed to create a gambling game. Thanks to the passion, the people could themselves maintain the existence of this game and not even think that it had a mysterious meaning.
The ancient magicians made the right choice by creating a gambling game for the people. Thus, to this day we have a deck of Tarot cards that people themselves have preserved. But there is one big "But". If initially the deck was made as a book that can remind of some kind of knowledge, then in no case should the hieroglyphs (drawings) on these cards be changed. The fact is that earlier in ancient Egypt it was impossible to change the written texts. If you break this rule, then the punishment could be the death penalty. And at that time, the creators of Tarot cards did not even think that the time would come when anyone could redraw, change, add pictures on the cards. Thus, today we have many different tarot decks, but most of them are not suitable for reading the hints that magicians left for themselves.
From the above, we can conclude that the deck of Tarot cards was not originally made for fortune-telling. They began to guess by it much later.
According to one of the Egyptian legends, in Ancient Egypt there was a temple in which there were 22 rooms with different images on the walls. Legend claims that it was from these drawings on the walls that the Great Arcana of the Tarot began.
Cours de Gebelin wrote the following words in one of his books: "Tarot. A card game common in Germany, Italy and Switzerland. It is an Egyptian game, as we will show once more; its name consists of two eastern words, Tar and Rha (Rho) , and means "the royal way" ". However, the facts disprove the truth of these words, which means that the Tarot cards are of Egyptian origin.
Kabbalistic legend
Also, according to one of the legends, some people claim that the Tarot deck came from Kabbalah and its history should begin as early as 300 AD.
A documentary in which you can learn both the history of ordinary playing cards and the history of the origin of tarot cards
Therefore, traditionally Tarot is associated with "secret knowledge" and is considered mysterious.
Collegiate YouTube
1 / 3
Under What Circumstances Your Soul Will Come to FATE. TAROT Necro 13. TAROT Gremoir.
Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr - Walkthrough Hard = 31 = Tarot Cards +250
IS YOUR MONEY CHANNEL RELATED TO A MAN? Tarot
Subtitles
Description of the deck of tarot cards
Composition
The cards of a typical tarot deck are divided into two large groups:
- Major arcana - "trump cards", usually 22 cards. Each of these cards has its own original design and unique name. The order of the cards and the names in different versions of the Tarot deck may differ slightly.
- Minor arcana - four suits, usually 56 cards, 14 cards of each suit. Minor arcana consist of four series or suits - Of wands, Of swords, Cups and Denariev... Each suit contains Ace, Two, Three, and so on up to Ten, followed by "courtiers" or "curly cards" ("pictures") - Page (Jack), Knight (Horseman), Queen, King. The position of the Ace in the row of minor arcana is determined only by the accepted agreement, it can stand both at the beginning of the sequence (that is, it can be considered, in fact, the Unit of the corresponding suit), and after the King (that is, it can be considered the highest of the curly cards). In modern divination practices using the Tarot deck, the first option is more often used.
Design
Depending on the style used, various famous decks were named:
- Egyptian Tarot - Egyptian motives.
- The Marseille Tarot - in the style of 17th century France.
- Tarot Visconti-Sforza - the oldest known full deck, created in the 15th century, is named after the customers. The images of the major arcana are made in the style of the Italian Renaissance.
- Tarot Ryder - Waite - painted at the beginning of the twentieth century, the most popular iconography, leaving many clones and descendants. Named after first publisher William Ryder and design author Arthur Waite. The artist is Pamela Coleman-Smith. For the first time, minor arcana received not only designations of colors and denominations, but also meaningful plot drawings.
- Tarot Tota is a deck created by Aleister Crowley and Egyptologist Frida Harris. Characterized by a more modern style of performance and extremely rich esoteric symbolism.
In the XX century, especially in the second half of it, many "new" designs of the Tarot deck appeared, so now it is difficult not only to list all the options, but even to name their exact number. A significant part of them are variations on the theme of one of the classic decks, mainly Tarot Ryder-Waite, but there are also quite original "thematic" designs. Examples include the erotic Tarot Manara (the Tarot arcana is illustrated with thematic sketches with an acute erotic slant, the author is the Italian artist Milo Manara, the deck was created at the very end of the 20th century and first released in 2000) or the Tarot of the Elves by Mark McElroy and David Corsi ( Unlike a number of other variations on the elven theme, here the compositions of the drawings are not borrowed from Waite, but are completely independent, moreover, in the deck, while maintaining all the general features of the Tarot, five stories are symbolically depicted: the senior arcana sequentially tell how the main the hero investigates the loss of four relics, and the suit cards describe the history of each of these relics). There are decks based on various iconic works of art, and simply on popular themes ("Tarot of Flowers", "Tarot of Vampires", "Samurai Tarot" and so on). A number of followers of philosophical, religious and psychological schools have designed their belief systems in the form of tarot decks and use such decks for various practices ("Osho Zen Tarot" and others).
Tarot and playing cards
Parallels arise between the tarot deck and the common European playing card decks. Four Tarot suits can be matched to four traditional card suits: wands - clubs, swords - spades, cups - hearts, denarii - tambourines, a number of minor arcana dignities, from ace to king (or from two to ace) differs from most playing decks only the presence of not three, but four "figured" cards, and in most European playing decks there is no Knight, but there is a Jack (Page), but there are also those in which there is no Jack, but there is a Knight (Horseman). True, there is nothing to connect with the major arcana in playing decks, only the Joker, which is available in a 54-sheet deck, can be, with some stretch, likened to the Jester.
All these parallels have been repeatedly noted by various scholars of the history of the Tarot. According to one common hypothesis, the Tarot deck was a common predecessor for all European playing decks. There are other options, some of which are listed below in the Origin of the Tarot section.
The origin of the tarot
The origins of the Tarot cards are overgrown with numerous legends. But, as it is believed on the basis of most modern research, tarot cards appeared in Italy at the beginning of the 15th century (1420-1440). In 1450, the Visconti-Sforza Tarot deck appears in Milan. Remaining fragments of decks invented by the Visconti and Sforza families served as the prototype for the modern 78-sheet deck. The decks that have come down to us from those times are luxurious handmade cards made for the aristocracy. The deck appears in 1465 Tarokki Mantegna, the structure of which is based on the kabbalistic division of the universe known as the 50 Gates of Bina. The deck consists of 50 cards, 5 series or suits (Vault of Heaven, Fundamentals and Virtues, Science, Muses, Social status), 10 cards each. Some images on modern tarot cards (major and minor arcana) were borrowed from the Tarokki deck (Encyclopedia of Modern Magic, vol. 2. 1996). Tarokka Mantegna's deck served as a template for symbols for artists of the second half of the 15th century (in particular, for Robinet Testar in the manuscript A Moral Book of Love Chess).
To date, there is no reliable information that the cards appeared earlier. Sometimes they try to start the history of the Tarot from 1392, because there is a record dated by him, according to which a deck of cards was ordered from Jacquine Gringonier for the French king Charles VI, and some of these cards are still kept in Paris. However, the Karl VI Tarot deck in the National Library is a handmade deck from the late 15th century. north-Italian type. Therefore, it is possible that the deck ordered for the king was a regular deck for card games.
Legends
Egyptian
There is a legend that in Ancient Egypt there was a temple in which there were 22 rooms, and symbolic paintings were depicted on the walls of the rooms, from which the Great Tarot arcana later descended. This legend confirms the version that the Tarot cards originated from the vignettes of the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, the drawings of which were actually applied to the walls of sacred structures - tombs.
For the first time, Cour de Jebelin mentioned the possibility of the Tarot origin from Egypt. He wrote in the fifth volume of the Primitive World (1778): "Tarot. A card game common in Germany, Italy and Switzerland. It is an Egyptian game, as we will show later, and its name consists of two eastern words, Tar and Rha (Rho), and means" the royal path. " This statement was made before the discovery of the Rosetta stone in 1799, and even more so, before the Egyptian symbols were deciphered. All these facts cast doubt on the theory of Egyptian origin, since the words specified by Zhebelin were not found in the Egyptian language.
Kabbalistic
Others believe that the Tarot originated from Kabbalah (twenty-two letters and 10 Sefirot in Kabbalah - the basis of the Tarot system) and consider 300 AD as the starting point in the history of the Tarot - the approximate date of the creation of Sefer Yetzirah, the fundamental work on Kabbalah.
Functions
The game
The French tarot game (jeu de tarot) is a card game with bribes for four players. It is the only widespread card game that has survived to this day using the full 78-sheet tarot deck. The game is ubiquitous in France and also famous in French-speaking Canada. French tarot has been known for a long time and has been popular for at least several centuries.
Divination cards
In the writings of some occultists, one can find statements that the Tarot has been used for predictions almost since the time of the Great Flood, if not earlier. However, the first documentary evidence of the practice of correlating cards (in particular, Tarot cards) and human destinies dates back only to the 16th century. Some poets of the time, describing celebrities in laudatory verses, compared people to the trump cards of the Tarot. Such verses were called "tarocchi appropriati", and in one case (1527) they refer to the fate of a person. In 1540, the book "Fortune-telling" (Italian "Le Sorti") was published in Italy, in which the author, a certain Francesco Marcolino da Forli, indicates a simple way of predicting the future using the cards of the suit of coins of an ordinary playing deck. This is the earliest known treatise on divination. Although the Tarot deck contains similar cards, it is impossible to say unequivocally that the Tarot was at that time a developed fortune-telling instrument. It is possible to speak confidently about the Tarot as an established system of predictions only since the end of the 17th century, since Bologna has preserved records dated 1700, which unambiguously describe the divinatory meanings of the Tarot cards.
Meditative practice
Recently, meditation practices with the help of images of Tarot cards have become very popular. Most often, the Major Arcana are used for this. The goals of this practice can be different: a deeper understanding of cards for use in fortune telling, spiritual development, occult practice.
Tarot as a source of secret knowledge
According to esoteric beliefs, hermetic, gnostic or kabbalistic symbolism is present in tarot cards, since the early Italian Renaissance, which gave rise to the tarot, was a time of great intellectual activity. Therefore, Hermeticism, astrology, Neoplatonism, Pythagorean philosophy and unorthodox Christian thought, which flourished then, could leave their mark on the symbolism of the Tarot.
Similar symbolic "traces" in the Tarot prompted later researchers to believe that the Tarot comes from ancient cultures (Egyptian or Babylonian), that this system is a secret collection of wisdom of the past. The first known researchers in this area were Cours de Geblen. In 1781, his book "The Primitive World" was published, in the last chapter of which it is argued that the Tarot dates back to the Egyptian tradition. He suggested that the name "tarot" is translated from ancient Egyptian as "The Way of the King". It is possible that the maps studied were created by the author himself. Even more suspicious is his involvement in the creation of one of the decks, more precisely the next deck by the Comte de Saint-Germain or he is Edgar de Valcourt-Vermont, he is ... and so on. Whoever he was, appearing in different guises over the years, the main thing that he was also in the same Masonic lodge with Cours de Gebelin. According to one version, Saint Germain deliberately changed the original version of the trump cards of Antoine Cours de Jebelin in order to hide more deeply some of their sacred meaning, “easily” compared with the “Revelation” of John the Theologian. Later, the freemason Paul Christian, aka Pitua, Jean-Baptiste showed in his drawings one of Saint Germain's cover-ups - a map. This card deciphers and indicates the time of change in the coming century.
And from that time on, the deck was looked at as a mysterious occult system, and the studied Marseilles Tarot became a model for creating decks, on the basis of which occult research was conducted. Note also that in the early versions of the Tarot there were not only astrological symbols, Hebrew letters, but even numbers. Such was, for example, the Visconti Sforza deck, dating from 1428, made by the artist Bonifacio Bembo for the wedding of Bianca Maria Visconti to Francesco Sforza. Only in 1470 will a deck of cards appear Montegna featuring classic gods and astrological symbols.
Separate among the researchers of Tarot symbolism is the mathematics teacher and hairdresser Aliett, who was greatly impressed by the ideas of de Geblen's book. Aliett, devoting himself to occult studies, developed his own system of fortune telling by cards. In history, he is known as Etteila, this pseudonym was an anagram of the researcher's own name.
Major researchers of Tarot symbolism belong to one of two schools: french or english... The main difference between the schools is where they place the "Jester" in the series of the Major Arcana. The founder of the French school is Eliphas Levi. In his work "Teaching and Ritual of Higher Magic" Eliphas Levi for the first time connects Kabbalah and Tarot, associating them. The founder of the English school, Mathers, places the Jester, the zero lasso, before the Magician, since zero is the beginning of all other numbers, just as Nothing is the progenitor of all things. In this system of correspondence, Aleph is already correlated with the "Fool".
Further, the question of the symbolism of cards was dealt with by Arthur Edward Waite (White), who in 1910 published the book "The Illustrated Key to the Tarot." Under his direction, Miss Pamela Coleman-Smith, a young American Golden Dawn, drew a new tarot deck, the so-called Ryder deck. Waite for the first time placed on the drawings the "numerical" minor arcana, which previously depicted only suit symbols in the number corresponding to the card's denomination, drawings with a specific plot, unique for each card. This made it possible to expand the interpretation of the minor arcana in fortune-telling: if earlier these cards were interpreted exclusively by the combination of suit and denomination, now it is possible to use the symbolism of images. Another significant reform was the change in the position of the "Justice" and "Strength" arcana (in the early decks - VIII and XI, in Waite - XI and VIII, respectively). Published simultaneously with the deck, Waite's book "The Illustrated Key to the Tarot" gives a complete description of the deck, the symbolism of the cards and its interpretations from Waite's point of view.
Three decades later, A. Crowley created his own deck in collaboration with the artist Frida Harris. Although Crowley's deck is made as a whole in the "English" style, he also made significant changes to it: he returned "Justice" and "Force" to their original "French" positions (VIII and XI), renamed some of the major arcana, changing their interpretation, and also assigned all the "numerical" cards of the minor arcana their own names, reflecting their meaning. The figure cards of the minor arcana have been renamed: instead of the four from "Page", "Knight", "Queen" and "King", the four "Princess", "Prince", "Queen" and "Knight" are used. Work on the deck, named "Tarot Tota" in honor of the eponymous Egyptian deity, was completed in 1944. At the same time, Crowley released the "Book of Thoth" under the pseudonym "Master Therion", which describes the deck and deciphers its symbolism according to Crowley's views. Crowley's interpretation of the cards differs in many respects from the classical tradition, it includes interpretations from European astrology, Kabbalah, the mythology of many peoples, from India to Scandinavia. The symbolism of the Tarot Thoth is extremely rich, many tarologists call this deck the most saturated version of the Tarot with symbols; it is also the least straightforward to interpret. It is believed that Crowley kept secret some aspects of the symbolism of his deck, as a result of which his interpretations are often supplemented and modified by interpreters. Despite the author's desire to spread his approach to the Tarot as widely as possible, Crowley's deck was published during his lifetime only in an extremely limited edition (200 copies) and in an inferior form (poor print quality, card drawings were taken from reproductions of The Book of Thoth, only two colors). Its widespread distribution took place after the death of the authors, when several publishing houses released the deck in large circulation and in normal quality, using the originals of drawings made by Frida Harris under the direction of Crowley .. - M.: Williams Publishing House, 2005. - 672 p. -
The address "Three times Greatest" was adopted in relation to Hermes for the reason that he is the Great Knower and was considered the greatest among philosophers, the greatest of all priests and the greatest of all kings, and, according to ancient texts, contained "the three components of the wisdom of the whole world ". Thoth-Hermes Trismegistus was revered as the prophet of the only true god, and Cyril of Alexandria (IV century A.D.) said that he was the first to confess the Holy Trinity.
Unfortunately, history has not preserved indisputable evidence regarding the material embodiment of the Egyptian god Thoth. Some researchers claim that Thoth, or as he was also called Tutti, came to the land of Egypt after the death of the island of Atlantis. If we take into account the time of the flood that destroyed the civilization of the Atlanteans, indicated quite definitely by Plato, it turns out that Thoth appeared in Egypt around 9600 BC.But this does not quite coincide with the deeds of Thoth, who is considered the inventor of writing (or brought it from Atlantis ), since the most ancient chronicle known to us, apart from the symbolic writing on the columns of the temples, dates back to 4400 BC. years.
Since Thoth-Hermes could have come from Atlantis, which means that he was a representative of some mysterious and high civilization, perhaps his image is a collective one of the so-called "Fallen Angels". According to the Book of Enoch, they were a race of divine beings called irin in Hebrew - "those who watch" or "those who are awake." In Greek, this term was translated as egregori or grigori, which means "guards". These Guardians are also found on the pages of the Hebrew Book of Jubilees. Their descendants were called the Nephilim, which in Hebrew means "those who fell" or "fallen." In the Greek translation, these are giants, or "giants" - a race of giants, described by the Greek poet Hesiod (about 907 BC) in the poem "Theogony". As in the Bible, the book of the ancient Greek poet tells about the creation of the world, about the onset and decline of the "golden age", about the arrival of the race of giants and about the Flood.
Verses 1 and 2 at the beginning of Genesis chapter 6 read: "When people began to multiply on earth and daughters were born to them, then the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful, and took [them] for their wives, whatever one chose." And verse 4 of chapter 6 of Genesis continues: "At that time there were giants on earth, especially since the time when the sons of God began to enter the daughters of men and they began to give birth to them: these are strong, glorious people from ancient times."
Historian S. H. Hook, in his book Mythology of the Near East, writes: “Behind the brief and, apparently, deliberately vague mention in 1-4 verses of chapter 6 of the Book of Genesis lies a more widespread myth about semi-divine beings who rebelled against the gods and were cast down into the underworld ... The fragment set forth by the authors of the Bible was originally an etiological myth , explaining the belief in the existence of the extinct race of giants ... ".
It is quite possible that Hook is right, and if 1 - 4 verses of chapter 6 of Genesis are the product of more ancient Middle Eastern myths, it means that a long time ago, at the dawn of human history, on our planet, perhaps on the island of Atlantis or on the biblical lands, lived a higher and a more advanced race of semi-divine beings. Some of its representatives began to intermarry with women from less civilized races, as a result of which giants were born. However, then a series of global cataclysms struck the planet, which brought with them fire, flood and darkness, putting an end to the domination of the race of semi-divine beings and their giant children.
However, back to the Book of Enoch. In the first chapters, the author retells the story of Genesis chapter 6, which tells how the Sons of God took wives from among mortal women. It goes on to say that “in the days of Jared” (father of Enoch), two hundred Guardians “descended” on Mount Hermon, a mythical place identified with the triple peak of Jebel al-Sheikh (9,200 feet above sea level) in northern ancient Palestine. In Old Testament times, its snow-capped peaks were considered sacred by all the tribes inhabiting the Holy Land. It is quite possible that it was on this mountain that the "transfiguration" of Christ took place, when his disciples witnessed how the Lord was "transformed before them."
On this mountain, the Guardians took an oath and "obliged themselves with mutual curses", probably perfectly understanding the consequences of their actions both for themselves and for all mankind. It was this conspiracy that gave the name to the place of the "fall" (or "descent from heaven to earth") of the angels, since in translation from the Hebrew "Hermon" or herem means "curse".
Further in the “Book of Enoch” the name of the leader of the Guardians is mentioned - Salmaaz and nineteen of his subordinates, these are “superiors over their dozens”. We then learn that the rebellious Guardians who communicated with humans revealed the forbidden secrets of the sky to them. One of the leaders named Azazel "taught people how to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplate, introduced them to earth metals and the art of processing them." He also taught people how to make bracelets and jewelry and showed how to use antimony, a shiny white metal found in the visual arts and medicine. He taught women the art of "applying paint on the eyes", introduced them to "all kinds of precious stones and all shades of colors" - that is, before that women did not use makeup and did not adorn themselves with jewelry.
Other Guardians opened scientific knowledge to people - they taught meteorology ("recognizing clouds"), geography ("signs of the earth"), as well as astronomy and astrology ("constellations", "signs of the sun", "movement of the moon"). A guard named Kasdeya "showed the children of men the wicked movements of spirits and demons and the beating of the fetus in the womb so that it could go out." In other words, he taught women about abortion. One of the Guardians named Penemu "taught the sons of men bitter and sweet," that is, add salt, seasonings and spices to food. In addition, "he instructed humanity how to write with ink on paper." And the leader of the Guardians, Salmaaz, taught the people "witchcraft and how to plant trees." Perhaps one of the gifts of the Guardians or Fallen Angels was also a deck of Tarot cards, in the Major Arcana of which echoes of their history are hidden. According to the Book of Enoch, the rebellious Guardians revealed secret knowledge to mankind, however, in the end they were imprisoned by the heavenly Archangels before the coming of the Day of Judgment.
The plots of illustrations of some of the Major Arcana evoke associations with the history of the Fallen Angels. For example, Arcanum "The Hanged Man" depicts the bound Salmaaz, forever suspended upside down between earth and sky in the constellation of Orion. He received this severe punishment for revealing to a beautiful girl named Ishtahar the forbidden name of God in exchange for carnal pleasures. And the Arcanum "Last Judgment" can depict not the rebirth of the dead under the voice of the trumpet of the Archangel Gabriel, but the descent of two hundred angels (200 is the numerical value of this Arcanum) to earth, which brought a qualitatively new round of development for the human race and rebirth from the darkness of ignorance.
Knowing the history of the emergence of the Tarot system, and this is precisely the system, is only due to the fact that this knowledge will help many get rid of unnecessary fears and not fall for the many ducks that are spelled out in many books by sufficiently "respected authors". So, the history of the emergence of Tarot cards is very vague, contains a lot of speculations that are not supported by historical facts. There are many conjectures, since there is no specific source of their origin, the person to whom their creation would be attributed.
We can try to build some kind of logical chains, but not on speculation and enthusiastic visions of exalted gentlemen, but on historical facts. Some of the tarologists attribute the creation of cards to the time of Ancient Egypt, talking about the unidentified temple, the book of wisdom and their use in the mysteries. Others are sent even further to India, as if from there they were brought by the Gypsy tribe. There are even those who suggest as much a Chinese trace in the origin of Tarot cards. As much as possible?
Let's take a more critical approach to this point and look at the available historical facts. The first mention of the Tarot in written sources dates back to 1367 in Bern's canon on the prohibition of the card game. Let's make a mark for ourselves - this is the middle of the 14th century, the cards already existed, and the Catholic Church imposes a ban on them.
The first Tarot deck found, more or less identical to those that we now have, dates back to 1392, fragments of these decks have survived. They are believed to have been created by Jacquin Gringonner, the jester of the French king, for his amusement. But there are no Major Arcana in this deck. In 1450, a deck was created for the Count of Visconti and the Maiden Sforza, as a wedding gift. Fragments of this deck made up the oldest surviving deck, consisting of 78 Tarot cards. At the same time, such a direction as "Christian Kabbalah" appeared in esotericism, but about it a little later.
In 1540, the book "Marcolino" Divination "is published in Italy, which indicates the condemnatory properties of Tarot cards. Beginning of the 17th century - the treatise" The Glory and Confession of the Rosicrucians "appears, which became the manifesto of the secret society of the Rosicrucians, which notes the esoteric essence of the Tarot and their predictive capabilities XVIII-XIX centuries - the heyday of interest in the Tarot Here we meet the already well-known names: Etteilla with the book "The Predictive Tarot", Elephas Levi, Papus, MacGregor Mathers from the Order of the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley, who came out from there. and the English school of Tarot.Russian esotericists who seriously analyze Tarot: Vladimir Shmakov, Rosicrucian G.O.M. (Grigory Ottovich Möbes)
Why, in fact, everyone discounts Europe, which has always had many of its secret orders and religious movements, whose spiritual views did not coincide with the dogmas of the Catholic Church. Attempts by the Inquisition to clear the field of dissent only made it necessary to improve the art of encryption and conspiracy. The south of France and the north of Spain and Italy have historically been the concentration of heretical mystical knowledge. Want more value? But any teaching is always based on previous knowledge, hence the connection with ancient teachings. But let's still try to figure it out.
The emergence of the concept of maps in the world
Let's start by defining where the cards actually appeared, as a concept. Playing cards and their predictive variants are found in different countries of the world. In China, playing cards were mentioned already in the 8th century, where they were simply banknotes with images of emperors. In the XIII century, a deck of playing cards arose, where there were four suits associated with the seasons and 52 weeks of the year, there was an analogue of the Joker, but there were no court cards of the Major Arcana in the Chinese decks.
India had its own version of playing cards, nor were the Ganjif cards known since the 16th century. There is a legend that they migrated to India from Persia. As we remember, the Tarot has already been created in Europe. The number of suits in the Ganjif cards was different from 8 to 12, the number of cards in each suit corresponded to ten. The Raja (shah, king) and the Vizier (minister) were present there. The colors were the cardinal points, planets, twelve signs of the zodiac, incarnations of the god Vishnu (avatars).
Middle Eastern playing cards are also known. One of the decks, kept in a museum in Turkey, is believed to have originated from Mamluk Egypt (15th century). There are four suits in the deck, and this is more like a deck of Marseille Tarot. The Middle Eastern deck contains: coins, bowls, swords and polo clubs. Each suit has three face cards: Malik (king), Nabib malik (first minister) and Thani Mabib (second minister). There are 52 cards in total.
The earliest European names for playing cards (naibi, naibbe, naipes, etc.) probably derive from the Mamluk Naib Ministers. But the Major Arcana are not here again.
So, from the Islamic world (Egypt or Turkey), the cards get to Europe (first to Spain and Italy) somewhere in the 13th – 14th centuries. Europeans gladly adopted oriental games such as checkers and chess. And they also liked the game of cards, we recall the jester Charles VI, who personified all the cards of the court with specific historical figures. With the maps of the courtyard, everything is more or less clear. The Europeans have improved the cards and introduced European concepts: Kings, Jacks, Pages, and what a king is without a Queen. But where did the major arcana come from?
There is another legend about the Tarot, which wanders from one author to another, as if they were carrying ancient encrypted secret knowledge. Where did it come from?
The Major Arcana of the Tarot fit perfectly on the Kabbalistic tree of the Sephiroth. Initially, Kabbalah was considered only a Jewish teaching and was an esoteric interpretation of the Torah. However, due to its further development, its increasingly close connection with Christianity was manifested. The Torah is the Pentateuch of Moses, included in the Old Testament. Major Arcana Tarot reflect the basic archetypal concepts of each of the Sephira.
Now let's return to Kabbalah and see what interesting things happened in this teaching during the period when the Tarot appeared.
From the 8th to the 15th centuries, most of Spain belonged to the Arabs of the Maghreb, Islam dominated here, but there were large Jewish and Christian communities in this territory. The provinces of Andalusia and Granada were prosperous territories, the level of civilization in the Caliphate significantly exceeded the Spanish and French times of the Middle Ages. The Caliphs of the Maghreb ruled wisely and justly, they showed high tolerance towards Christians and Jews. In addition, Muslims patronized the arts, supported the development of science and created in Cordoba the best urban infrastructure in Europe at that time. During the period of its greatest prosperity, the Caliphate was one of the most economically advanced European states.
Kabbalistic teaching here received a new creative impulse and began to develop as a course of Jewish thought in a completely new, theurgic interpretation of the meaning of fulfilling the commandments of Moses. A school of ecstatic or prophetic Kabbalah emerges in the Maghreb. The school, founded by Yitzhak bin Shlomo Luria Ashkenazi in the 16th century, will influence teaching throughout the subsequent history of Jewish mysticism.
Kabbalists of this direction represented Siphirot as separate intellects, hierarchically located on the cosmological scale, the contemplation of which allows one to achieve a prophetic state, and also, at the same time, these are the internal psychological states of the mystic's soul, uniting with God. Here we will focus on the word contemplation, that is, on the drawing, as in the mandolas, which are meditated on in Hinduism.
In the rest of Europe, at this time, the papal inquisition was raging, which arose as a tool to combat apostasy, with the Cathars. In 1031 the Cordoba Caliphate collapsed. Weak states were no longer able to resist the European kings. And during the Reconquista, Cordoba in 1236 came under the rule of the Castilian king. At the end of the 1492 century, the remnants of the Caliphate completely fell under the onslaught of the Spanish and French troops, the oppression of Jews began, but especially Christians who were fond of Kabbalah.
It was at this moment that it was necessary to somehow hide knowledge and, most likely, it is the Christians Kabbalists who add 22 arcana to ordinary playing cards, which they used in meditative practices. We recall that the first deck, identical to the modern ones, was dated 1450. Major Arcana clearly fall on the Sephiroth tree.
Kabbalistic teaching, which began to take shape more clearly in the 12th century, in the 15th century was formed into a specific school. For the first time, the image of the "Sephiroth tree" appeared on the title page of the Kabbalistic book "Portae Lucis" published in 1516, a translation of the Latin manuscript "Shaare Ora" (Gate of Light) by Joseph Hycatilla, written by him presumably in 1290. Previously, there were no graphic images of the Tree. The puzzles of this riddle are starting to take shape. So, we can summarize, a deck of Tarot cards, identical to modern decks, took shape, most likely, somewhere in the 13th century. Yes, they wanted to hide secret knowledge in it, only not in Ancient Egypt, but in medieval Europe.
From the book "Non-Invented Tales of Tarot Cards"
From the book “Tarot: theory and practice.
Complete description of the A. E. Waite system "
In the hermetic tradition, it is believed that the ancient Jews received their esoteric knowledge from the Egyptians, therefore, the twenty-two letters and ten Sephiroth of the Kabbalah - the basis of the Taro system - have, in essence, Egyptian origin.
According to legend, in ancient Egypt there was a temple in which the mysteries of occult initiation were performed. Each of the successive stages of initiation was carried out in a special room. There were 22 of them in total. On the walls of the rooms there were symbolic paintings, from which the Great Tara Arkans later arose. A detailed account of these mysteries and of the ancient paintings of Taro can be found in the book "Egyptian Mysteries", ascribed to Iamblichus and translated into Russian by the publishing house "Sophia".
Some researchers dispute the Egyptian origin of Taro. Indeed, apart from the work attributed to Iamblichus and the teachings of the hermetic orders, we have no evidence of the existence of the "Book of Thoth" (the Great Archkans of Taro) in Ancient Egypt. Ancient Jewish Kabbalistic roots can be traced in Taro much more clearly, and the skeptically oriented adherents of Taro suggest considering 300 AD as the starting point in the history of this system - the approximate date of the creation of "Sefer Yetzirah", the fundamental legalization of the Jewish alphabet, in which detalization the basis of the Tarot.
The documented history of Taro in a compressed form can be represented as follows:
1367 A.D. NS.- A ban on card play appears in Bern's canon. This is the earliest surviving written mention of the Tarot.
1392 year- Jacques Gringonner creates three tarot decks for the amusement of Charles VI of France. Fragments of these decks make up the oldest surviving Tarot document.
1450 year- In the middle of the fifteenth century in Milan, Taro decks are created for the Visconti and Sforza families. Fragments of these decks form the oldest complete Tarot deck of 78 cards that has come down to us.
1540 year- In Italy, the oldest printed treatise on the Tarot as a system of divination appears in Marcolino's book "Divination" ("Le Sorti").
1612 year- In the anonymous treatise "The Glory and Confessions of the Rosicrucians", the manifesto of the European secret society of the Rosicrucians, the first mention of the esoteric Tarot appears. It is called ROTA and is described as a kind of device or mechanism for obtaining advice and information about the past, present and future.
1781 year- In the encyclopedia of Cura de Gebelin, entitled "Le Monde Primitif", the Tarot is first associated with Egypt. De Gebelin asserted that the original Tarot deck, created in Ancient Egypt, was the hieroglyphic Book of Thoth.
1785-1791 years- The French occultist Etteilla writes a number of books in which he creates the first mantic dictionary for tarot cards. (When creating his own dictionary, Mathers did not use Etteilla's definitions as a source. Papus brings them, along with Etteilla's divination techniques, in his book "Le Tarot Divinatoire", which was translated into Russian in 1912 and withstood several reprint editions in the late 80s - early 90s.)
1856 year- Eliphas Levi in his work "The Teaching and Ritual of Higher Magic" ("Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie") for the first time connects the Kabbalah and the Tarot. This is the scheme developed by S. L. McGregor Mathers when creating the Tara deck "Golden Dawn". (The Russian translation of Levy's book can be found in the book published by the "REFL-book" in 1994. It is published as an "appendage" to the book by Dion Forchun, which in this edition was called "Secret without fiction".)
1887 year- After the formation of the Order of the Golden Dawn, Mathers began to describe the esoteric attributes of the Tarot in his "Book T" manuscript.
1889 year- Papus publishes Le Tarot des Bphemiens. In this book, he develops the principles of Eliphas Levi's exotic Kabbalistic Tarot.
1909 year- Aleister Crowley, in a private edition of "Book 777" ("Liber 777"), describes in detail the order of the Tarot established by Mathers. This information is also disclosed in a privately published Crowley in 1909-1914. occult almanac "Equinox". (especially in issue I: 8).
In 1910 in the May issue of the English magazine Occult Review, an anonymous author, writing under the initials V. N. at the time, publicly reveals the correct attributes of the Golden Dawn Tarot, citing tables from Crowley's Book 777.
1910 year- Arthur Edward Waite publishes The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, in which he hints at the existence of a secret Qabalistic Tarot in the Golden Dawn system.
1916 year- in Moscow, Vladimir Shmakov publishes the encyclopedic work "The Sacred Book of Thoth. The Great Arkans of the Tara" (reprint: "Sophia", 1993), in which he links the French Kabbalism of Tara with Indian Vedanta, Gnosticism and other religious and philosophical teachings.
1920 year- In a series of articles for AZOTH magazine, Paul Foster Case gives his interpretations of the Tarot in the light of the tradition of the Golden Dawn philosophical school. Around 1920, Keyes claims to have found the correct order of the Tarot by unraveling the veiled directions in the writings of Eliphas Levi.
1937 year- Israel Regardie publishes the secret instructions of The Golden Dawn along with Book T in his four-volume The Golden Dawn.
1944 year- The "Book of Thoth" by Aleister Crowley describes in detail a new version of the Tarot, reconstructed from Mathers' Book T, but in the light of thelemic magic (Crowley was the founder of the religion of thelemism (from the Greek thelema - "will "), the basic dogmas of which are:" Every person is a star "," Thy own Will - let the whole law be in it "and" Love is the Law - Love subordinate to Will ").
1947 year- In The Tarot, A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages, Paul Foster Case develops the Golden Dawn symbolism for the Great Arcana of the Tarot. This edition is the final version of Case's book Introduction to the Tarot, first published in 1920.
Since 1969 to the present - The revival of interest in the Tarot has led to a wide spread of traditional decks (versions of Waite, Crowley and Case) and to the creation of completely new ones (pagan, Wiccan, New Age, Osho-Taro, etc.). In 1969, "T: New Tarot" appears, developed on the basis of contacts with spirits using an alphabet board. After that, more and more new versions of the Tarot began to appear, most of which have practically nothing to do with the Kabbalistic, hermetic Tarot of the "Golden Dawn".
Source of Taro
So, although the first book devoted to the metaphysics of Taro was published by the Frenchman Eliphas Levi in 1856, the "Book of T" should be considered the primary source of the English esoteric version of this system. According to legend, this is the same parchment manuscript that was found in the hands of the founder of the Rosicrucian brotherhood Christian Rosenkreuz when his grave was opened one hundred and twenty years after his burial. According to a more skeptical version, Book T was written by Mathers, crowning his own years of kabbalistic research.
At the present time, one can easily get acquainted with the contents of this secret document of the Golden Dawn, since the Book of T is published in full in Regardie's encyclopedic work Golden Dawn. In a small volume of this document, Mathers managed to transform all his intuitive kabbalistic guesses about the Tarot into a working mantic lexicon, which is still relevant today.
- "The Illustrated Key to the Tarot"(1910) by Arthur Edward Waite (reproduced almost entirely in this edition)
- "Book of Thoth"(1944) Aleister Crowley
- "Tarot: Key to the wisdom of the ages"(1947) by Paul Foster Keyes
Each of these interpretations comes directly from Mathers' Book T, as all of these authors have been members of the Golden Dawn for a time. Each of the books contains a ton of divination meanings for the Tarot cards, but on critical examination, it turns out that all these meanings directly go back to Mathers' unique divination dictionary for the Tarot.
French and English schools of Tarot
The main difference between the French (Levi) and English (Mathers) occult schools is where they place the Fool card among the Great Arcana. Levi considered the Fool as a card without a number and placed him between Symbol XX (Judgment), and Symbol XXI (Peace). In this case, the first card of the deck was the Magician (or, as he is called in the French system, the Magician). Mathers considered the Fool to be the first card that opens the entire sequence of the Great Arcana. After all, zero is the beginning of all other numbers.
Which system is correct? This issue can only be resolved in the course of practical work with both systems over a long period of time. The prophets working with the Taro Waite believe that the English system integrates the Qabalah and the Tarot on a deeper level than the Levi system. But they also recognize that in the French exoteric kabbalistic system there is an additional set of meanings, which can sometimes illuminate the cards in a new way or give them new meaning. The "British" advise not to neglect the French system, but to use it as an auxiliary one to obtain additional symbolism.
Aiwass, the angel with whom Crowley communicated, may have answered our question in 1904 by dictating the following passage for The Book of the Law:
My prophet is a fool with his one, one, one; are not they the Ox, and none by the Book?
My prophet is a fool, and with him is one, one, one; are they not the Bull and nothing according to the Book?
(Liber AL, I: 48)
Here the Fool is equated to:
Unit, unit, unit Bull Nothing (according to the Book)
These correspondences reveal the secret order of Mathers, in which the Fool's symbol opens the tarot deck and corresponds to the Hebrew letter Aleph. Each of the three symbolic correspondences for the Fool is associated with the Hebrew alphabet as follows.
111 is the numerical value of the name of the letter Aleph, written in Hebrew (ALP = 1 + 30 + 80 = 111). The bull is a hieroglyph corresponding to the name of the letter Aleph. Nothing (according to the Book) - zero, the number of the Fool in the Taro (symbolic book in pictures).
How did Mathers reveal this crucial secret of the Taro? Did he find it in some secret manuscript? Was he initiated into some secret magical community that held this secret? Or did he find this key on his own, by the power of his own intellect?
The official version of the origin of the Golden Dawn magical system is based on the existence of some mysterious manuscript. Occult Mason Wynn Westcott found in the rubble of books a certain ancient text, which consisted of many articles. This text went down in history as an "encrypted manuscript". The text contained information about the system of Masonic rituals based on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. All data was recorded in schematic form, and from time to time an unknown digital code was used. According to another version of this story, Westcott found the encrypted manuscript among the books and papers of his recently deceased friend. One way or another, Westcott, unable to decipher this cryptography, turned to fellow Freemason Samuel Liddell Mathers for help.
Mathers, thanks to years of dedicated occult research in the British Museum, immediately "split" the code used in this manuscript. He recognized it as the digital code used by the fifteenth-century occultist Trithemius in the Polygraphy. Alchemists worked with this digital code, trying to hide their secrets. When the manuscript was deciphered, it turned out to contain all the information needed to create what we now call the Golden Dawn magical system. It also reported the German address of a certain Anna Sprengel, a representative of the Continental Rosenkreutzer Lodge. Westcott secured permission from the Rosencruciers to open a branch in England, and with the help of Mathers and Dr. WR Woodman, in 1887 founded the first English Golden Dawn lodge.
This version is recognized by the majority of the Golden Dawn adherents and is defended in the writings of Israel Regardie. However, in 1972 a study appeared that refuted it. Ellik Howe's book The Magicians of the Golden Dawn exposed the mystical origins of the order and argued that the documents that have survived to this day, which allegedly originate from a pre-existing Rosencrucian lodge on the continent, were in fact fabricated by Westcott and Mathers.
David Allen Hulse, one of the leading contemporary scholars of Taro, Kabbalah and numerology, examined Howe's documents and positions in light of other historical research on the origins of the Golden Dawn (such as the writings of Francis King, George Harper, James Webb, and Ethel Cohun). Here are his conclusions:
The Golden Dawn documentation was indeed fabricated by Mathers under Westcott. They were driven by the urge to create a "noise factor" for the new synthetic Western magic system. By doing this, they could convince more people to accept the Golden Dawn system as correct.
This mythical cipher manuscript was inspired by Bulver-Lytton's Zanoni, which begins with a description of a mysterious cryptic manuscript written in a strange alphabetic code; a careful translation of this manuscript allegedly formed the basis of the Zanoni text.
Be that as it may, this whole cunning plan turned against its creator, because one of the members of the lodge, the poet WB Yeats, questioned the authenticity of the original sources. A committee formed to investigate the true nature of these documents eventually split, resulting in, among other things, the expulsion of Mathers from the magical order he had created. However, neither Yeats nor his committee of inquiry have ever been able to uncover the mystery of the origin of the Golden Dawn magical system.
Khals put forward his own version of the origin of the Golden Dawn documents. Mathers, independently of Westcott, worked for many years in the British Museum's book depository, collecting all the information needed to create the foundations of the Golden Dawn magical system. Thanks to his knowledge of Masonic rituals, he came up with a new set of rituals in which the theme of each Sephirah and each Path on the Tree of Life was played, rather than the traditional Masonic themes of the Temple of King Solomon.
Knowing John Dee's Enochian system, Mathers created his own revised version of this system in the light of the Jewish Kabbalah and Tarot. But the greatest value of his system in comparison with any other is that Mathers built the most convenient Tarot correspondence scheme for work, having managed to restore the secret order of the Great Archkans of the Tarot (the first twenty-two cards) on the basis of the Hebrew Kabbalistic text Sefer Yetzirah. It is this model of the main attributes of the Tarot, and not at all Enochian, as many authors suggest, that underlies all other symbolic systems of the Golden Dawn. Indeed, in order for the Enochian system to fit into the Golden Dawn system, correspondences between the Tarot and the letters of the Hebrew alphabet must be fulfilled. Without the Tarot, the Enochian system does not fit into the main series of magical correspondences.
Hals believes that Mathers discovered the true kabbalistic model for the Tarot, and first developed the correspondences for the Tarot, and only then created all other systems so that they were consistent with these basic correspondences, which led to the equating of the Fool with the Hebrew letter Aleph and the element of Air (0 = 1). This assumption seems to be confirmed by Mathers himself in his introduction to Book T symbolism, stating:
At the same time, I not only deciphered symbolism, but also subjected it to verification, study, comparison and scientific research both by means of clairvoyance and by other means. As a result, I became convinced of the absolute correctness of the symbolism of "Book T" and the accuracy with which it represents the Occult Forces of the Universe.
In the creation of Book T, Mathers faced three major mysteries regarding the true order of the Tarot. These were:
- The mystery of the card that heads the tarot deck
- The secret of the order of seven planets in the group of the Great Akans,
- The secret of the location of Leo and Libra in the Great Arkans.
How he unraveled these secrets is detailed below.
It should be noted that the following three major publications first revealed to the world the basic correspondences of Mathers:
- "Book 777"Aleister Crowley (1909) - Table XIV of this text shows Mathers' secret attributes (without citation of the source)
- "The Illustrated Key to the Tarot"Arthur Edward Waite (1910) - Waite does not explicitly disclose Mathers' correspondences, but uses them in his book as the primary source for all symbols and divination vocabulary. He hides in symbols all the keys necessary to decipher secret symbolism. For example, on the Symbol card III, Empress, the correct astrological attributes of Venus are depicted. (All these keys are explained in detail in our book in the section "Tara Waite's Arkans".)
- "Introduction to the teachings of the tarot Paula Cayce (1920) - In this first work, Cayce shows the esoteric order of the Tarot. the attributes (for the Great Arcana) are taken from Book 777, London, 1909. This means that until 1909, when he read 777, he did not have complete confidence in the correctness of the esoteric sequence of the seven planets in the Tarot. the planetary correspondences that Crowley himself took advantage of was Mathers.
Every serious Tarot interpreter, especially AE Waite, AE Crowley, and PF Keyes, has used Mathers' Book T to define and illustrate his own Tarot system.
When Waite, Crowley, and Case's astounding characteristics are compared with Mathers' original, it is possible to reconstruct the divinatory canon needed to clearly define each of the seventy-eight cards.
