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Where does it come from? This question has been a favorite of Tarot interpreters, historians, enthusiasts, and just plain curiosity-seekers for over two hundred years. Until 1781 no one seemed to really worry about it, but in that year a scholar of occult history named Antoine Court de Gebelin published his supposed revelation that the Tarot-known then as a card game with a special set of pictures-was in fact a secret book of wisdom from Ancient Egypt. People have debated this claim ever since, with current research indicating that Court de Gebelin simply made it up, and there is no evidence for the Tarot before northern Italy in the early fifteenth century. Perhaps the most significant thing about the 1781 story is that it created a compelling myth about the Tarot-that whether it came from Egypt, or Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), or Babylon, or Witches, or India, it somehow must have a secret origin. We love the idea that this set of pictures encodes some ancient truth about the universe.
Many serious scholars today see a different kind of link to Ancient Egypt. They accept that nothing like the Tarot existed back then, but they point out that the society where the Tarot first appeared-early Renaissance Italy-was a time of great interest in ancient and mystical doctrines. The images used in the first Tarot decks may not have represented a coherent system but they were infused with ideas that in fact go back to Greece and Egypt.
Recently, as I prepared for my monthly class in New York City, I discussed what to teach with my friend and colleague Zoe Matoff. She suggested we might do a reading about the Tarot's origins. We decided to do the reading on two levels, the first a general look at the sources of the Tarot's wisdom, the second questions about specific cultures. Both parts, but especially the first, operate on a kind of mythic level. We do not seek historical facts but a sense of meaning and symbolic connection.
We used the Shining Tribe Tarot, designed and drawn by myself.
What is the Tarot's origin? The High Priestess. The picture shows a priestess in an African robe, with a version of the Australian Rainbow Serpent coiled underneath her. The two images suggest a very old "origin," since Africa is the origin of the human species, while the Australian Aborigines represent possibly the oldest living human culture (rock paintings from fifty thousand years ago resemble paintings done in ritual ceremonies today). Clearly, we are talking about a deeper level of origin here than the historical emergence of painted cards. The issue becomes the importance of images in human culture. It also signifies mystery and the depths of wisdom, for these are the themes of the High Priestess.
Why was the Tarot created? The Six of Rivers. In this picture a sensual woman emerges from shadows into light. The Tarot takes the mystery symbolized in the austere, masked High Priestess and brings it into the open, in a way that people can grasp and use.
What was the original intent? Four of Stones. Here we see a series of gateways. The outer one resembles Ancient Egyptian arches, so that the cards become a modern gateway to old ideas (the arch is from the imagination rather than an historical re-creation). Inside the arch we find a much older gate, a prehistoric dolmen, two upright stones with a lintel laid across them. Thus, we go inside the first layer and come to a more primal level. And inside the dolmen we find only golden light and a spiral, symbolizing energy and spirit. The "original intent," therefore, is to take us to deeper and deeper levels until we come to a place of enlightenment. Again, the reading does not suggest such an intent in the minds of the fifteenth century designers. Instead, it shows us a mythic purpose for the cards, as if those Italian card makers became a vehicle for an energy that wanted to emerge into the world.
For the last two questions in the first part, Zoe suggested we ask what uses the Tarot approves of for itself, and what it disapproves of.
Approved uses-the Ace of Rivers. This card shows a river flowing from the mouth of a God, whose image I based on a prehistoric carving found in Ireland. An eland comes to slake its thirst, while a woman brings two water bags so she can carry away water for future use (the eland and the woman come from Tassili rock art, thousands year old paintings in the Sahara Desert). The Tarot approves of us using its images to nourish ourselves, both for instant satisfaction, the way the eland drinks (playing games, creativity, other enjoyable activities), and long term understanding, the way the woman consciously fills her water bags.
Disapproved uses-the Emperor. This Major Arcana card signifies rules and ownership and power (among other meanings). Thus, the Tarot does not wish us to use it for manipulation or control, and perhaps not for the creation of strict systems that we use to dominate people who disagree with us.
The second half of the reading looked at the Tarot's relation to several cultures that people have seen as significant in some way to its history or symbolism. These were Ancient Egypt, Alexandrian Egypt during the Hellenistic period (this was the time of the doctrines that Antoine Court de Gebelin saw as the original symbolic truth), the Romany, or Gypsies, the Italian Renaissance, and modern occultism. The cards were, in turn, Ten of Rivers, Five of Trees, Seven of Rivers, Justice, and Speaker of Stones.
Ancient Egypt-Ten of Rivers. Ironically, this is possibly the most modern looking card in the deck. On one level, therefore, it denies any ancient involvement directly with the Tarot's origins. However, the picture shows two people celebrating the home they have created. This suggests that through the doctrines developed in the Tarot over the past centuries we can join hands with the ancient teachings.
Alexandrian Egypt-Five of Trees. In this picture we see complex and mysterious events taking place in a city where no one sees what is happening. A child rests in a cradle high up in a dark leafless tree that towers over the building. The Sun shines at night. A wild beast runs through the street. And yet, everyone stays inside with their lights on rather than look out the window. The image comes from shamanic stories (found in varied cultures) of shamans who rest in cradles in the World Tree before birth, where the spirits teach them what they will need to know when they enter the ordinary world.
Alexandrian Egypt was the time of secret doctrines, of mystery initiations taking place behind closed doors, of complex webs of hidden teachings. The famous expression "As above, so below" derives from the Emerald Tablet, the work Antoine Court de Gebelin saw as the source of the Tarot. This great work was not published for the greater society but for those initiated into the mysteries. The Five of Trees shows us the importance of the entire concept of secret teachings, so vital to the occult tradition of the cards. Like the child in the cradle, we can receive the wisdom of the spirits because no one notices and therefore no one interferes.
Romany-Seven of Rivers. The basic meaning of this card is fantasy, and indeed, most Tarot historians consider it a fantasy that the Romany created the Tarot, or that the cards reflect Romany wisdom. And yet, fantasy has its uses. Without the fantasy of a secret and mystical doctrine, the Tarot would not have developed the deep-and genuine-teachings that it carries today. By adopting the Tarot as their own, the Romany have increased its mystique, and therefore its power to inspire us.
Renaissance-Justice. This card speaks first of all of truth, and an honest appraisal. Therefore, it can endorse the claims that the Renaissance was indeed the historical origin of the Tarot. The card involves the act of seeing. An eye appears above the hill, the eyes of the figure in the cave stare intensely at us. In the Renaissance people began to look at ancient wisdom in new ways, to construct complex systems of ideas. The Tarot, with its play of old and new images, belongs to this energetic time of new ways of looking.
Modern Occultism-Speaker of Stones. Here we are not asking about historical origins, for "modern" occultism clearly comes much later than the Tarot's known beginnings. In a more mythic way, however, the occult movement really is the "origin" of the Tarot, for it was Court de Gebelin in 1781 who began the symbolic and mystical approach we still follow today.
The Speaker of Stones is the most ancient image in the Shining Tribe deck. More than twenty thousand years old, the picture was found incised on a mammoth tusk dug up in Czechoslovakia. Thus, the occult approach to Tarot reconnects us to those ancient understandings we saw at the beginning of the reading, in such cards as the High Priestess and the Four of Stone.
Because the card bears the title "Speaker" (traditionally this card would be the King of Pentacles) the occult use of the cards involves speaking the wisdom coded into the symbolism. The image itself describes the process of using symbols, for we find the picture of a woman formed from geometric designs. Through the occult systems of esoteric ideas we learn how to see the symbolic truths found in nature and the world around us. The Tarot can act as a kind of training system for symbolic thought. And because we can lay out the cards and interpret them-just as we have done in this reading-they allow us to speak of such things in concrete ways.
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