Origins of Tarot
Tarot and its Origins by Pushtiie
The account of the origins of the tarot is as shrouded in mystery as the very tool itself. While various accounts have been given that suggest where it could have originated from, there is nothing that can be pointed towards that which would actually be the exact origin of the tarot. While two of them are stated here, in everything that we read about the origins of the tarot, a few common factors tend to stand out.
The fact that the symbols on the cards, the pictures, contain ancient and valuable wisdom and that Egypt probably played a very important part in the coming about of these cards. Both these facts are undisputed. One theory is that in the great library of Alexandria in Egypt, whose female librarian Hypatia was world-renowned for her wisdom and learning, there existed scrolls containing all of the wisdom of the ancient world.
One of these “books” was supposedly based on the legendary Book of Thoth, (an Egyptian deity) derived from the mystery schools of Egypt. The allegorical illustrations on the Tarot cards are said to contain these secret teachings, which in the Major Arcana represent a course in personal development. The esoteric teachings were hidden in the seemingly innocent pictures. These pictures contain, even today, certain symbolism that could help unlock the deepest secrets of the human mind. There are the symbols of the runes, various animals that extend certain powers, certain spiritual symbols, like the wheel, etc. each time you read the cards or even just look and meditate on them there are newer meanings that come about and one tends to notice newer symbols in the same old cards.
Gypsies (considered to be a corrupt form of Egyptian) are said to have carried the cards to Europe. Considered by the Church to be “the devil’s picture book”, the cards were quickly condemned by the Catholic Church as heretical. Even to possess them was a dangerous act. There seems no doubt that the cards were a means for preservation of ancient knowledge that the Church considered dangerous, or heretical, at a time when it was literally a danger to your life to believe anything other than the established Church dogma.
Here is what another account had to say…! It seems like the only evidence there is to the origins of the Tarot can be found in the cards that were made in Italy, around 1420. The symbolism of the trumps can be found in the European art of that time, with some drawings being exactly the same like those found on Tarot cards today.
History tells us that a scholar named Marziano da Torona, who was secretary to the Duke of Milan, may have invented the Tarot deck. Marziano was a scholar and an expert astrologer. The young duke, Filippo Maria Visconti instructed Marziano to create a game, using a deck that would replace the common suits of swords, coins, staves and cups. The duke wanted the new deck to have cards that represented virtues, riches, pleasures and purities. Marziano went on to create the card deck that Visconti wanted. He wrote a companion book to go with the deck of cards. It is on display in the Paris National library. In the book, there are no divine meanings to the cards, but no real rules for a card game, either. The book focuses on the symbolic meaning of the pictures and the different ranks of the depicted characters. Michelino da Besozzo is the Italian artist credited with painting the cards, originally.
There are many more illusive and somewhat fitting accounts of the origin of the tarot, but none that could be considered more specific then the other. Continuing with its evolution, today the most famous deck is the one called the Rider Waite. A. E. Waite (1857-1942), the English Christian occult philosopher, broke from the Order of the Golden Dawn and founded his own school of mystical thought. Working with the artist Pamela Coleman Smith, he created a “rectified” deck featuring images and scenery on all the cards, Minor as well as Major Arcana. It is on record that Waite has said that “I have not met another artist as intuitive and knowledgeable about the other world as Pamela Coleman Smith.” The deck grew enormously popular, and many consider it the standard deck. His accompanying book The Pictorial Key to the Tarot is informative, if remarkably arrogant (”I wish therefore to say, within the reserves of courtesy and “la haute convenance” belonging to the fellowship of research, that I care nothing utterly for any view [but mine] that may find expression”), and contains insightful comments about the deck and its uses.
No matter the origin of the Tarot, it is clear that its motifs refer directly to fundamental human psychological and spiritual experiences. The more one studies them and practices their use, the deeper one’s understanding becomes, and the more they resonate to the inner life, as well as to events in the outer life. They are primarily meant to be used for enlightenment, for discovery of the authentic Self. Though we will never know their true history, that needn’t prevent us from using their wisdom, for the Tarot cards do indeed tell a powerful story: the story of the development of human life. It is an adventure story, like the hero’s journey, filled with challenges, obstacles to be overcome, lessons to be learned, reconciliations to be achieved, honor to be protected, goals to be formulated and reached. In this universal story, each of us undertakes his or her own Way, following whatever symbolism speaks to us at the moment of a reading. It is this amazing flexibility that has allowed the Tarot and its marvelous symbols to endure through long and tumultuous centuries in order to come down to us today.
Sometimes it is better that a few things remain a mystery it seems to add to the characteristics of it. Thus the illusive and magical origins of the tarot, that have not been traced yet, once again remain a mystery to us … and so they shall always remain.
Much love and light
