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One of the most fascinating aspects of the Tarot is that
its very origins are shrouded
in mystery. Whilst some believe
that it originated in India and was brought to England by
travellers and gypsies,
others claim ancient Egyptian origins.
Yet more writers have asserted its beginnings were in
the Far East, Spain or
Southern France. No particular school of
thought has triumphed as conclusive proof has remained elusive.
Tarot
does seem to have begun as an early type of playing cards,
and the earliest deck seems to have appeared around the 14th
Century. The game then played was named Tarocchi. This was
a simple card game, no more no less, but the cards were
thought
to have symbolic meaning for Sufis.
Another school of thought is that it started in China as early as
the
11th Century, and the India theorists argue that the four suits
of the Minor Arcana may refer to the four Hindu castes,
and the
Major Arcana may feasably have links with Buddhism.
When Tarot first came to Europe, the Christian church was busy
stamping out unorthodoxy,
paganism, and perceived heresy.
However some cults survived, and these go under the
collective term of gnosticism
(belief in esoteric knowledge). It is
thought that the Tarot may well be descended from these gnostic
doctrines. The
pagan imagery on the cards may well been of the
Gods but was demonised by the Christian church. Along with the
perceived
evil of all playing cards (instruments of the vice of gambling),
the Tarot became associated with witchcraft and black
magic in
many minds, an opinion which survives amongst the most strict
hellfire-and-brimstone Christians today.
In the 18th Century a certain clergyman, Antoine Court de Gebelin,
who had a fascination
for Ancient Egypt, propogated the idea that
this was where the Tarot began. Secrets of the Egyptian priests had been
hidden
in the cards' imagery to preserve them from the uninitiated. The
cards were then brought to Europe with the gypsies, who
were thought
themselves to have Egyptian origins. Along with other occult matters,
the subject was of great interest
to the fashionable courts of the time.
Court de Gebelin wrote a famed book, "The Primitive World Analysed
and Compared
with the Modern World", which connected the Major Arcana
to the hidden secrets of the ancient Egyptians. He was responsible
for
bringing recognition to the Tarot and its mystical significance.
In the 19th century the Tarot was again revived
and a French Rosicrucian
and abalist, Eliphas Levi, renumbered the cards according to his
discovered link between the
22 Major Arcana and the 22 letters of the
Hebrew alphabet. The Tarot has been growing in popularity ever
since, and
a plethora of different and beautiful decks can now
be purchased all over the world.
It is thought that the modern deck of playing cards is derived from
the Tarot,
and the suits are related: Spades = Swords, Diamonds =
Pentacles, Clubs = Wands, Hearts = Cups.
On this home page, I'll introduce myself and talk about my reasons for wanting a web site. I might put a picture of myself
on this page...or just a picture that I especially like.
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What's New?
Here I might add an entry whenever I make an update to my web site. Where appropriate, I'll include a link to the change.
For example:
11/1/01 - Added new photos to Vacation Album page.
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Please get in touch with any comments or reactions to my site.
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