The Tarot

From the Lesson

The Tarot — Pictorial Keys to the Mysteries

"The Tarot is a pictorial representation of the Forces of Nature as they are conceived by the Initiated." — S.L. MacGregor Mathers

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Cards of Divination and Initiation

They began as playing cards in 15th-century Italy—a game for nobles, nothing more. But somewhere in the 18th century, French occultists looked at the images and saw something else: a secret tradition, Egyptian wisdom, a complete symbolic system for understanding reality and the soul's journey.

Were they projecting? Probably. Does it matter? The Tarot works.

Today the Tarot is the most popular divination system in the Western world. But for the initiated, it's far more: a map of consciousness, a portable initiation, a key to the Kabbalah, and a method for accessing intuitive wisdom.

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Historical Development

Playing Cards to Italy (14th century) Playing cards arrived in Europe from the Islamic world in the late 1300s. The standard deck had four suits (cups, coins, swords, batons) with ten pip cards and three court cards each.

The Tarot Emerges (15th century) In northern Italy (Milan, Ferrara, Bologna), aristocratic families commissioned special decks with additional trump cards—trionfi (triumphs). The earliest surviving example: the Visconti-Sforza deck (c. 1450).

These trumps depicted allegorical figures: the Pope, the Emperor, Love, Death, the Wheel of Fortune, the World. They were used for a game called tarocchi—similar to bridge.

Occult Tarot Begins (18th century) Antoine Court de Gébelin (1781): French Protestant pastor who, seeing Italian Tarot cards, declared them Egyptian wisdom smuggled into Europe by Gypsies ("Egyptians"). No evidence supports this, but the idea took hold.

Jean-Baptiste Alliette (Etteilla) (1783): Published the first guide to Tarot divination. Created his own deck with "corrected" Egyptian imagery.

The French Occult Revival (19th century) Éliphas Lévi (1856): Definitively linked Tarot to Kabbalah—22 trumps to 22 Hebrew letters. This correspondence became foundational.

Papus (Gérard Encausse) (1889): Wrote The Tarot of the Bohemians, synthesizing previous occult interpretations.

The Golden Dawn Synthesis (1888-1903) The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn integrated Tarot into their comprehensive system: - Major Arcana = paths on the Tree of Life - Minor Arcana = emanations through the Four Worlds - Court cards = zodiacal elements - Complete attributions to planets, elements, colors, gods

Influential Modern Decks Rider-Waite-Smith (1909): Arthur Edward Waite designed the symbolism; Pamela Colman Smith painted it. For the first time, the pip cards had pictorial scenes (not just arrangements of symbols). This deck remains the most popular and widely imitated.

Thoth Tarot (1944): Aleister Crowley wrote The Book of Thoth; Lady Frieda Harris painted the deck. Dense with Qabalistic, alchemical, and Thelemic symbolism. Widely used by serious occultists.

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Structure of the Tarot

The Major Arcana (22 Trumps) The "Greater Secrets"—archetypal images representing stages of the soul's journey or cosmic principles.

| Number | Name | Letter | Path | |--------|------|--------|------| | 0 | The Fool | Aleph | Kether to Chokmah | | I | The Magician | Beth | Kether to Binah | | II | The High Priestess | Gimel | Kether to Tiphareth | | ... | ... | ... | ... | | XXI | The World | Tau | Yesod to Malkuth |

The Fool's Journey: One way to read the Major Arcana is as a single narrative—the Fool (innocent consciousness) progressing through life's stages to integration (the World).

The Minor Arcana (56 Cards) The "Lesser Secrets"—representing everyday life, elemental forces, and specific situations.

The Four Suits: - Wands/Batons (Fire): Will, creativity, energy, passion - Cups (Water): Emotions, relationships, intuition, receptivity - Swords (Air): Thought, conflict, analysis, truth - Pentacles/Coins (Earth): Material world, body, work, resources

Pip Cards (Ace-10): Each number corresponds to a Sephirah. The Threes relate to Binah, the Sixes to Tiphareth, etc.

Court Cards: King, Queen, Knight, Page (or various alternatives). These can represent people, aspects of the self, or stages of development.