A Cultural History of Tarot From Entertainment to Esotericism
Contents
Chapter 1: Origins and Antecedents
The Emergence of the Playing Card Deck Some Theories of Tarot Origin
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
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
Chapter 4: The Transformation of Tarot into an Esoteric Device
France in the Eighteenth Century Occult Philosophies
Antoine Court de Gébelin Etteilla
vi
A CULTURAL HISTORY OF TAROT
Éliphas Lévi Papus
111 117
Chapter 5: Across the Channel to England 121 The Nature of British Occultism 122 William Wynn Westcott 126 S. L. Mathers 128 The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn 129 Aleister Crowley 137 William Butler Yeats 142 Arthur Edward Waite 144
Chapter 6: Tarot and the New Age 151 Predominant Themes of New Age Thought 152 Combining Traditions and Methods 157 The Influence of Feminism 159 Neopaganism 161 A Fascination with other Religions and Cultures: Great and Small 165 History Repeating 169
Conclusion 173
Notes 177 Bibliograph
Introduction
When we think of tarot, images of fortune-tellers, crystals and incense flash past our mind’s eye. Those with more romantic dispositions may imagine dark-eyed gypsies in colourful caravans, wending their way through the countryside, telling fortunes with cards for the curious few brazen enough to peek at their destiny before its blossoming. Outsized cards are shuffled, laid out and ‘read’; the order in which they are drawn, their symbolism and their position relative to each other are all significant for folk with eyes to see. Those who wish to possess a pack for themselves are confronted by a bewildering variety of decks:
pagan tarots,
astrological tarots,
gypsy tarots, any number of Egyptian tarots, even a Metrosexual Tarot.1
In contemporary society where empirical scientific enquiry and strict rationalism are paramount, tarot has been associated with shoddy soothsayers and confidence tricksters, and it is in part for this reason that academics have deemed the area unsuitable for detailed examination.
Though there is a paucity of scholarly works, there are numbers almost without limit of popular tarot monographs, which line the shelves of New Age bookstores and ‘Self-Help’ corners of department stores.
In embarking on an academic study, it is difficult to separate historical fact from esoteric fiction, where elegant myths are recycled ad infinitum. Many authors would have us believe that the tarot contains the lost Hermetic knowledge of a proud and noble Egyptian race who encoded their secrets when faced with untimely extinction. Such myths, never verified by their perpetrators, have their origin in the desire for pseudo-legitimacy through an ancient, though false, lineage and the dogged persistence of a pre-Rosetta infatuation with all things Egyptian.
In order to correct this deficiency, this book forms the first comprehensive cultural history of the tarot deck and its imagery.
The symbolism, changes in patterns of use and theories of tarot origin become entirely comprehensible when viewed in conjunction with the cultural contexts in which they occurred.
Four significant periods in tarot’s history are considered, beginning with an investigatation of the popular theories of the deck’s provenance in order to accurately determine the circumstances of its invention. The reclusive Duke Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan is the most likely candidate for inventor of that first deck, sometime early in the fifteenth century.
A close investigation of the spiritual and mundane concerns of the Italian Renaissance brings to light the meaning in the mysterious symbolism of these early decks; at this time used solely for game playing. Could it have been that that this innocuous game of some skill and much chance was an allegory for the life of the Viscontis as rulers of Milan, similarly characterised by a dizzying mix of rat-cunning and luck?
In late-eighteenth-century France, tarot was so far removed from its original cultural context that the ready decryption of its symbolism became impossible. Instead it was reinterpreted according to a new set of intellectual currents which included an infatuation with exotic cultures, esoteric doctrines and an ardent yearning for a lost Golden Age.
In particular, France was gripped by Egyptomania, fuelled by Napoleon’s conquest of that exotic land. The failure of the Church to adapt to the changing political, social and spiritual circumstances enabled the emergence of the alternative and esoteric doctrines which would constitute the French Occult Revival.
It was in this milieu that tarot was transformed from a Renaissance game to an esoteric device, legendarily created in an Egypt still perceived to be the repository of arcane knowledge.
It was linked to all manner of abstruse schemes including Hermeticism,
astrology and
kabbalah by esotericists, most notably
Éliphas Lévi and Gérard Encausse, otherwise known as
Papus.
The next significant development in tarot occurred in England, also in the grip of the Occult Revival.
Under the influence of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, tarot would become central. Though never possessing more than 300 members, the Golden Dawn was enormously influential on the practice of magic and tarot interpretation. These nineteenth-century magicians altered the trump sequence and linked each card to one of the twenty-two pathways between the sephiroth on the kabbalistic Tree of Life. These pathways lent a divinatory interpretation to each card which forms the basis of contemporary divinatory meanings.
Two Golden Dawn members who would play a significant role in the evolution of tarot were Aleister Crowley and Arthur Edward Waite.
Crowley extended the lists of correspondences between the tarot trumps and other esoteric systems. But it was Waite who was to be the major innovator by designing a pack in which the minor arcana or pip cards were illustrated to facilitate divination. The deck he designed, commonly known as the Rider- Waite deck, was to become the most popular in the history of tarot.
With the advent of the New Age, the tarot underwent yet another transformation. Though retaining its primary purpose of divination, the nature of that divination shifted; where once the deck was used for fortune- telling, the object became healing and self-development, both central to the New Age movement. In addition, New Age seekers were intrigued with Eastern and indigenous religions, searching for commonalities that would expose an underlying truth in all the world’s spiritual systems.
The New Age adoption of Jungian psychology justified many of its practices including the liberal use of the theory of archetypes to validate ad hoc borrowings and substitutions from other cultures in the symbolism of tarot. So too, the structure of the deck became fluid, subservient to its ultimate purpose.
In glaring contrast to religious trends in the West which were moving towards greater secularisation, tarot has shifted from the mundane towards the sacred. It began its life as a game with no purpose beyond providing mental stimulation. It contained no esoteric wisdom, could provide no spiritual advice and gave no clue as to how to conduct one’s life. True enough, these matters were implied in the symbolism of the trump sequence, but it was not the purpose of the deck to provide answers, merely to acknowledge the existence of such factors.
In contrast, the esotericists of the Occult Revival imbued tarot symbolism with esoteric meaning. Still, tarot was used only by a select few who were initiated into its mysteries; being seen as too powerful a tool to be left 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 the deck with meaning and given the variety of contexts, it becomes more realistic to discuss the ‘cultural histories’ of tarot, rather than ‘cultural history’ in the singular.
Most tarot historians examine an aspect of the deck in isolation. Scholars of western esotericism busy themselves with the possible occult significance of the cards and forge tenuous links to other arcane traditions while turning a blind eye to alternative explanations of the symbolism. Historians of games are entirely focused on that aspect of the deck’s multifaceted history. Art historians focus only on the artistic significance of a card within the wider context of that period’s art. I will draw on all of these disciplines to posit the significance of tarot symbolism and trace the development of the tarot deck.
This book will form part of the lively discourse surrounding the academic study of the history of esotericism. Because of the changing function of the deck and the ambiguity surrounding its origins, it has been difficult to locate tarot within this discourse. Further, in an area where scholars are clambering to gain recognition for the discipline, they are inclined to distance themselves from tarot which is still regarded as suspect in contemporary society.
In recent times there has been some recognition that occultism has played a significant role in the development of Western thought. Warburg scholar Dame Frances Yates has been very influential in this arena. Her works including The Rosicrucian Enlightenment,3 Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition4 and The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age5
4 A CULTURAL HISTORY OF TAROT
have done much to legitimise the study of esotericism in the academic world. In more recent times Antoine Faivre and Wouter J. Hanegraaff have taken up the baton, working to establish the study of esotericism as a legitimate discipline.6 Their focus, however, tends to be narrow and larger social, economic and cultural currents are downplayed or disregarded in their desire to elevate the investigation of the development of esoteric doctrine and practice. This approach, when applied to tarot, becomes especially problematic as tarot’s origins were firmly grounded in the secular, only achieving esoteric significance towards the end of the eighteenth century. The study of esotericism finds little of interest in the early genesis of the game of tarocchi in the courts of northern Italy.
Similarly, the focus of art historical studies is stiflingly narrow. Authors in this area are primarily concerned with how tarot fits into the larger schema of Renaissance art. They are concerned with the ‘who’ and ‘when’ of tarot, rather than the ‘why’. These studies help to determine when a work was likely to have been created, the original geographical location and under whose patronage the work was undertaken, certain courts or church administrators favouring particular artists at specific times. Art historians, however, show little interest in the subject of the artistry, the symbolism portrayed therein, the subsequent development of the deck or the cultural milieu in which it resided.
Playing card collectors and enthusiasts have done much to augment the available information about tarot. Alas, most collectors are at best enthusiastic amateurs, frequently ignorant of academic rigour, regurgitating popular myths without corroboration. However, there is much to be gleaned from them and their collections. In later years there have been a few names that are synonymous with reliable and careful research including Detlef Hoffmann,7 Sylvia Mann and philosopher cum tarot enthusiast Michael Dummett.8 Dummett in particular has contributed some works which have become the starting point for anyone interested in the field, including The Game of Tarot (written with Sylvia Mann), A Wicked Pack of Cards (authored with Ronald Decker and Thierry Depaulis) and A History of the Occult Tarot: 1870–1970 (authored with Ronald Decker). Though Dummett exhibits careful scholarship, he is barely able to contain his contempt for the esotericists who have ‘appropriated’ the game of tarot for their own ends. Admittedly, he tends to moderate his opinion in his later works.9
Prejudices aside, card collectors have made a careful study of the evolution of both ordinary playing cards and tarot cards. They have traced the origins of playing cards in Europe from those imported from Egypt; recognising a similarity in suit signs without obvious precursors. Card collectors are interested not only in standardised packs but also non-standard
INTRODUCTION 5
packs, though they do tend to play down the significance of the latter, preferring to trace a linear development. In doing so they are neglecting a valuable clue. By looking at the larger corpus, similarities between superficially divergent decks and trends in symbolic representation may be observed. A close scrutiny of contemporaneous decks may provide 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 in the 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 during the periods under 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 illogical to us as twenty-first century observers, becomes rational when presented within the framework of a fifteenth-century worldview for example, one burdened with a distinct cosmogony and the firsthand experience of plague, war and a growing individualism. If we can look at tarot in this context, it ceases to become the mysterious and slightly dangerous entity it first appears. Instead, it becomes the wholly comprehensible reflection of the people that created and used it. Cultural historical studies can provide the context in which tarot resides; providing clues as to why tarot was used so differently at different times. An awareness of the modes of culture and prevailing attitudes both during the Renaissance and during the Occult Revival will h
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