THE |
|
a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining
to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects. |
[from http://www.clark.net/pub/cosmic/97rtr.html ] Subject: COSMIC BASEBALL ASSOCIATION-1997 RIDERTOWN TAROTIANS The modern Tarot deck of today is based on the so-called Venetian deck which consists of 78 cards. The Venetian deck includes 22 trump cards called the major arcana and 56 cards arranged into four suits of fourteen cards, called the minor arcana. The four suits are commonly called Swords, Cups, Coins and Wands. Each suit has four court cards (king, queen, knight and page) and 10 numbered cards including an ace. The trump cards are also numbered from 0 to 21. The Venetian deck is also sometimes referred to as the Piedmontese or Marseilles Tarot. Another Tarot deck consisting of 97 cards is known variously as the Florentine or Minchiate deck. This deck includes 41 major arcana (trump) cards. In addition to 21 of the 22 Venetian trumps (the hierophant or pope is excluded), the major arcana of the Florentine deck includes the four virtues (hope, faith, charity, prudence), the four elements (water, air, earth, fire) and the 12 signs of the zodiac. The origin of Tarot is, like their meaning, shrouded in mystery and obfuscation. However, current theory suggests that they appeared in Europe sometime in the later fourteenth century. Theories that suggest the Crusaders or the Gypsies introduced the cards to Europe do not appear to have any chronological support. The Crusades were too early, the Gypsies too late. Initially, Tarot was just a game played with cards. The history of Tarot's fortune-telling capabilities starts in the 18th century when a Protestant clergyman, Antoine Court de Gebelin claimed that the cards were of Egyptian origin. Further, he claimed that the Tarot contained secret and mysterious information that was so powerful it could only be transferred from generation to generation under the guise of a light-hearted card game. If the powers-that-be knew of Tarot's power they would have certainly reacted against it. Cards in general were viewed with some consternation by the religious leaders. Court de Gébelin ushered in a whole new approach to the Tarot: With the mistaken assumption about their origin, the Tarot's cards became the key to unlocking the secret mysteries of the cosmic. In the 19th century, mystics such as Gerard Encausse (pseudonymously known as Papus) and Alphonse Louis Constant (pseudonymously known as Eliphas Levi) amplified the divining nature of Tarot by connecting it to Jewish Cabalistic mysticism. As one commentator writes: Although Christian, Jungian and other symbolic systems have affected modern interpretations [of Tarot], the set scheme which has had the greatest influence is based on the Cabala. (Richard Cavendish) Cabalistic mysticism is an elaborate and speculative set of teachings organized by medieval scholars and based on ancient and obscure traditions. Using a diagram called "the tree of life", lessons explaining how the world and man and god came into existence are learned by the those that have the patience and the skill to penetrate the metaphors. Tarot, like other fortune-telling enterprises must begin with the premise that there are no accidents. Every occurrence is determined by a pre-determined law. By divining that cosmic law, one can predict the future. The "tree of life" is basically a cryptic map of that law and Tarot, its 22 trump cards related to the Hebrew alphabet, contains the clues to the decoding and proper interpretation of the tree. The Tarot's virtue is thus to induce that psychic or mental state favorable to divination. (Kurt Seligmann) In 1910, Arthur Edward Waite published The Pictorial Key to the Tarot and supervised the creation of what is known as the Rider Tarot Deck. The actual design of the cards was accomplished by Pamela Colman Smith and it is the Rider deck that has been used to represent the major arcana cosmic players on this roster. While not necessarily the most aesthetically pleasing of decks, the Waite-inspired Rider deck is, today, one of the most popular decks available. There are other Tarot deck designs. A modern example is the deck designed by Fergus Hall for the James Bond film Live and Let Die. References * Cavendish, Richard. The Tarot. Harper & Row, New York: 1975. * Martello, Leo L. Understanding the Tarot. HC Publishers, New York: 1972. * Seligmann, Kurt. The History of Magic. Pantheon Books, New York: 1948. [some more specific and very creative tarotic explication omitted] Eliphas Levi 1810-1875 French writer born in Paris, son of a shoemaker. Levi's given name was Alphonse Louis Constant. Cavendish calls Levi the "first writer to fit the Tarot systematically into the scheme of the Cabala." In 1856 he published Le Dogme et ritual de la Haute Magic which suggested the Tarot had its origins in Jewish mystical thought. Levi associated the 22 trump cards with the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Arthur Edward Waite 1857-1942 A belief in the secret tradition of the transfer of knowledge, A. E. Waite spent a considerable portion of his life trying to uncover the tradition's secrets. A member of the mystical Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Waite wrote, in 1910, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot: Being Fragments of a Secret Tradition under the Veil of Divination which is still the standard English-language introduction to the Tarot. Waite also supervised the design of the popular Rider Tarot deck. _________________________________________________________ 1997 Ridertown Tarotians Roster URL http://www.clark.net/pub/cosmic/97rtr.html Published: February 23, 1997 Revised: February 15, 1998 (c) 1997, 1998 by the Cosmic Baseball Association Email: cosmic@clark.net EOF
The Arcane Archive is copyright by the authors cited.
Send comments to the Arcane Archivist: tyaginator@arcane-archive.org. |
Did you like what you read here? Find it useful?
Then please click on the Paypal Secure Server logo and make a small donation to the site maintainer for the creation and upkeep of this site. |
The ARCANE ARCHIVE is a large domain,
organized into a number of sub-directories, each dealing with a different branch of religion, mysticism, occultism, or esoteric knowledge. Here are the major ARCANE ARCHIVE directories you can visit: |
|
interdisciplinary:
geometry, natural proportion, ratio, archaeoastronomy
mysticism: enlightenment, self-realization, trance, meditation, consciousness occultism: divination, hermeticism, amulets, sigils, magick, witchcraft, spells religion: buddhism, christianity, hinduism, islam, judaism, taoism, wicca, voodoo societies and fraternal orders: freemasonry, golden dawn, rosicrucians, etc. |
SEARCH THE ARCANE ARCHIVE
There are thousands of web pages at the ARCANE ARCHIVE. You can use ATOMZ.COM
to search for a single word (like witchcraft, hoodoo, pagan, or magic) or an
exact phrase (like Kwan Yin, golden ratio, or book of shadows):
OTHER ESOTERIC AND OCCULT SITES OF INTEREST
Southern
Spirits: 19th and 20th century accounts of hoodoo,
including slave narratives & interviews
|