Tarot is a survivor.
It began as an Italian card game in the 1400’s, and might have stayed that way if not for the French occultists in the late 18th century. Their adoption of tarot created a new relationship with kaballah and other esoteric beliefs around body/soul integration. Tarot also became associated with cartomancy i.e. fortune telling or divination – cross my palm with silver and all of that.
In the 19th/early 20th centuries, the Rosicrucians and Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn were secret societies with influence over the card designs. The tarot created by Arthur E. Waite, illustrated by Pamela Coleman Smith, was published in 1909 and has gone on to become one of the most recognised of all tarot decks.
During the late 20th century, a shift towards alternative thinking and lifestyles led to a resurgence of interest in tarot. Today, the cards are more popular than ever. Tarot has become commerical and international, with hundreds of decks available, ranging from fascimilies of historical cards to newer, more contemporary and original designs.
Whatever your passion, there’s probably a tarot to accompany it!
Let’s talk tarot…
This post precedes a new series of posts titled a walk through the tarot. It offers a brief overview of tarot history and includes the method used to approach tarot for a journey through the major arcana. If you’re new to tarot, this is s good place to begin.
Tarot background
We know packs were used for card games, including tarrocchi and tarocchini, in 15th century renaissance Italy. An early name for tarot is trionfi (triumph) where the major arcana cards acted as trumps. Games were based on the four suits of the minor arcana, a total of 56 cards, alongside the 22 trump cards of the major arcana.
While the suits are a forerunner of today’s playing decks used for poker, bridge, cribbage and other games, the images on the major arcana remin shrouded in mystery. Some refer to social status alongside the vices and virtues promoted by the church which had a primary influence on beliefs and behaviours in the 15th century. This was also the time of the carnival and dramas known as morality, miracle or mystery plays. They showed what life was like in times of feudalism and plague, with sharp dividing lines between poverty and wealth. The first tarot images in these decks can be seen as general reflections of life in 15th century Italy.
No one is sure who commissioned the first tarot but contenders include the Visconti, Sforza, and d’Este families alongside the Charles VI deck. There were also card sets like the Sola Busca, dated to the 15th entury, where the major arcana trump cards were named for biblical figures or famous people of the time. For example, the magician was called Panfilio after the magistrate Marcus Baebius Tamphilus, also known as Panfilio, while others in the deck include Nebuchadnezzar and Bacchus,
Some tarot decks became associated with the artist who paintened them, including Bonifacio Bembo and Jacquemin Gringonneur or designers like Jean Noblet, Jean Dodal, and Jean-Baptiste Alliette (known as Etteilla) from the 17th century. Present day publishers Marco Benedetti and Lo Scarabeo have produced fascimile copies of historical decks including those commissioned by the Visconti Sforza and the tarots designed by Oswald Wirth, Eliphas Levi and many more.
Tarot history is blurred and can be confusing. For example, the Marseilles tarot sounds like a singular pack but refers to tarots which share the same Marseilles-style design.
Useful sites which delve deeper into the depths of tarot history include Sherryl E. Smith’s Tarot Heritage and Mary E. Greer’s Tarot Blog, alongside the blog posts by Benebell Wen and Michael Howard.
The tarot deck used as a primary source for a walk through the tarot is the one designed by Arthur E. Waite, illustrated by Pamela Coleman Smith. Originally known as the Rider/Waite tarot, after the publisher William Rider, it’s now over a century old, but remains a popular choice.
The deck reflects the teachings of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and each card in the minor arcana contains an image. Prior to this, one of the few fully illustrated decks was the Sola Busca and photographs of these cards were on display at the British Museum in 1908. The similarity between these and some of the Waite/Coleman Smith images suggests the Sola Busca was one of Coleman Smith’s primary sources of inspiration.
Many contemporary packs are based on the Waite/Coleman Smith tarot. It was my first deck from many decades ago, one I still use today. The medieval style of the minor arcana images are not loved by all, but I’m used to them and it’s what each card symbolises rather than how they look.
If you’re new to tarot it’s worth knowing nothing is fixed.
Books and websites with a focus on divination will offer lists of key words for each card and while these are useful starting points, it can help to think of the cards as people and events rather than a set of nouns, verbs and adjectives.
Tarot deals with universal archetypes which can be traced back to Plato in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. Plato used the term eidos, which translates to form or idea. Archetypes are perfect and unchanging concepts such as good or beauty. They are timeless, especially when compared to the constant state of change in the physical world. Archetypes were popularised by psychiatrist and psychologist Carl Jung in the 20th century as universal principles. They shape our lives and are found in the collective unconscious, underpinning the shift to a psychological rather than esoteric approaches.
Which ever interpretation you choose, tarot is fundamentally about intuition with symbols intended to trigger subconcious responses.
In the way artists often can’t explain the sources of their inspiration, tarot seems to reflect something inaccessible to day-to-day life. Whether this is rooted in occult, esoteric belief systems, or the conscious and unconscious parts of the individual psyche, tarot deals with what can’t be seen as well as what appears more obvious.
Tarot practice is key.
Becoming familiar with each of the 78 cards takes time and effort but if tarot is right for you, this will be more pleasure than chore.
As you work with the cards, it will become clear that tarot has an uncanny knack of telling you what you need to know.
It helps to keep a written record of responses to each card because tarot is an individual experience. For me, this is part of the fascination. Your relationship to the cards will be different to mine because everyone is unique and the way we approach them will inevitably be personal, depending on who you are and what has happened during your life. Different people will interpret the cards in different ways, despite them looking at the same images.
Tarot deck details
There are 78 tarot cards in total; 22 cards in the major arcana and 56 in the minor arcana.
Arcana serives from the latin plural of arcane meaning mysterious or secret and understood by only a few.
The major arcana consists of numbers 0 to 21 and represent archetypal people and events.
The minor arcana has 56 cards, divided into four suits. Thier names have changed over the centuries but today they’re most commonly known as
- cups (also chalices, vessels
- pentacles (coins, discs)
- wands (rods, batons, staves)
- swords (blades)
Each suite links to the classical elements of water, earth, fire, and air.
- Cups (water) represent emotions, relationships, celebrations and feelings.
- Pentacles (earth) stand for material items, finances, careers and home life.
- Wands (fire) symbolise inspiration and actions, tasks, goals, and creativity.
- Swords (air) are for intellect and reason as well as truths and difficult situations which might include sorrow and hard times.
Each minor arcana suit has an ace, cards 1-10, plus a king, queen, knight and page or knave. The court cards symbolise different personality types, the aces show the characteristics of each element, while cards 1-10 deal with day-to-day events and progression.
Tarot and the occult
Today, tarot is less used as a card game, although playing with the cards remains a useful way to learn them. For many people it’s only a tool for divination but for others they have a deeper significance.
French clergyman Antoine Court de Gebelin was one of the first to attempt to ‘de-christianise’ the card images.
In 1781, he claimed tarot was practised by ancient Egyptian priests and went on to associate the cards with egyptian deities.
Evidence for this is scant but nevertheless his work influenced the design and approaches to tarot, from Oswald Wirth and Eliphas Levi to more contemporary Egyptian themed decks.
Jean-Baptiste Alliette was one of those influenced by de Gebelin. Writing in the late 18th century as Ettiella (Alliette spelt backwards) he suggested Tarot was connected to the Book of Thoth, allegedly written by the ancient egyptian god Thoth who was connected to magical knowledge.In the
De Gebelin designed the Egyptian Tarot, based on Egyptian symbolism, where specific meanings for each card incorporated astrology and the elements.
He also claimed they described the creation of the universe.
in the 19th century, the French occultist Eliphas Levi linked tarot with ritual and ceremonial magic.
Levi suggested tarot was older than Moses and connected the cards to the ten sephirot of the Jewish kabbalah, while claiming the four tarot suits represented the four-letter name of god.
To this day, many people continue to link tarot with kabbalah, in particular the relationship between the 22 cards of the major arcana and 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. When you begin to study these texts, connections between tarot and the kaballistic tree of life exist
In the mid 20h century, Aleister Crowley, designed the Thoth tarot, illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris. It was influenced by Crowley’s time with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn alongside his beliefs in astrology, kabbalah, numerology and a range of other esoteric systems.
The Thoth pack can be controversial because of the eclectic life of Crowley himself, enhanced by media portrayals of him as a satanist and practitioner of black magic.
The Thoth tarot remains the most esoteric of all tarot packs. Probably not the easiest choice for beginners, although some will take one look and fall in love with the images. In this case, go for it!
The Waite/Coleman Smith pack contains some of the best known tarot images. Working with artist Pamela Coleman Smith, the deck was reimagined by A. E. Waite and first published in 1909.
These cards demonstrate a complex mix of influences, including the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, an western magic and mytery organisation Waite and Coleman Smith both belonged to, and esoteric aspects of biblical myth and history, astrology and egyptology.
Like all historical tarots, it’s a product of its Edwardian times, but merges centuries of different beliefs.
Many packs produced in the last few decades are recreations of the Waite/Coleman Smith tarot, including Morgan Greer, Hanson Roberts and Robin Wood. However, if the original images appeal, the Waite/Coleman Smith remains a good deck to start out with.
Contemporary tarot
Choosing a tarot can be a challenge. There’s reproductions of traditional packs like the Sola Busca, Visconti Sforza, and Marseilles or contemporary versions based on Art Nouveau, William Blake and Arthur Rackham. Some like the Mythic tarot use greek myth. The Avalon Tarot is based on Arthurian legend, a Celtic Tarot, and a variety of Norse Tarots. The whimsical tarot uses nursery rhymes and childrens’ stories. There’s the cat tarot, dog tarot and a tarot based on birds. Just a few of many. If you want to browse, try the Aeclectic tarot website.
A psychological approach to the cards is used in a walk through the tarot series. Beginning with the major arcana I’ve separated the fool and laid the remaining cards in numerical order, divided into three rows of seven.
These three rows align with theories of a tripartite personality. The first row represents our conscious life, the second our unconscious self and the third our subconscious.
The conscious self contains thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. This row also contains the key archetypes we encounter during our early years.
The personal unconcious can include forgotten memories and repressed emotions. In our walk through the tarot, the cards symbolise major life experiences as we continue to grow and develop, alongside archetypal examples of these experiences.
The subconcious, which Jung called the collective unconcious, holds universal symbols, archetypes, and experiences that have been inherited across generations.
Examples of the collective unconscious might include our response to seeing fire at night or feeling the electric pull of a full moon against a black sky during the autumn equinox.
This third row represents the process of integration as we learn to blend outer and inner experience in the quest for understanding both ourselves and our place in the world.
We all have these different layers to our personalities and by exploring each card in turn we’ll discover universal archetypes and lessons to help know ourselves more effectively.
The fool, card zero, goes on a journey through life where he meets the cards in turn, each having a lesson to build on the ones previously encountered.
On the first row we meet the magician, high priestess, empress, emperor, hierophant, lovers and chariot. These represent people and life situations.
The second row is about delving into our unconcious selves where we meet strength, hermit, wheel of fortune, justice, hanged man, death and temperance.
In the third row we go deeper to explore our subconcious self via the devil, tower, star, moon, sun, judgement and world.
In a walk through the tarot, the fool represents each of us on our individual paths through life. We will look at each card in turn, say a little about its history, then explore potential interpretations.
I hope you can join me on this journey, beginning with the first post, Card Zero, the fool.
images my own, copyright free from wikipedia commons or from https://pixabay.com/