Tarotology

Tarotology is the hypothetical basis for the reading of Tarot cards, a subset of cartomancy, which is the practice of using cards to gain insight into the past,
present or future by posing a question to the cards. The reasoning behind this practice ranges from believing the result is guided by a spiritual force, to belief
that the cards are instruments used to tap either into acollective unconsciousor into the subject's own creative,brainstorming subconscious.

Tarot cards were originally used in games and are still used for that purpose in many parts of Europ
e.

Tarotology is not considered a science; there is no scientific evidence that readings made from the
cards can play a role in making objective predictions about
future events. It is therefore a practice ofpseudoscience.

Contents
History
Court de Gébelin
Etteilla
Marie Anne Lenormand
Éliphas Lévi
Use
Order of the Trumps
Personal use
Criticism
See also
References
External links

History
The main article on Tarot gives full details of the history of Tarot cards as game-playing cards.

One of the earliest reference to Tarot triumphs, and probably the first reference to Tarot as the devil's picture book, is
given by a Dominican preacher in a fiery sermon against the evils of the devil's instrument.[1] References to the Tarot
as a social plague continue throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, but there are no indication that the cards were
used for anything but games anywhere other than in Bologna.[2] As Dummett (1980: 96) notes, "...it was only in the
1780s, when the practice of fortune-telling with regular playing cards had been well established for at least two
decades, that anyone began to use the Tarot pack for cartomancy."

The belief in the divinatory meaning of the cards is closely associated with a belief in their occult properties: a
commonly held belief in the 18th century propagated by prominent Protestant clerics and freemasons.[2]:96 One of
them was Court De Gébelin (see below).

Antoine Court de Gébelin From its humble uptake as an instrument of prophecy in France, the Tarot went on to become a thing of hermeneutic,
magical, mystical,[3] semiotic,[4] and even psychological properties. It was used by Romani people when telling
fortunes,[5] as a Jungian psychological apparatus capable of tapping into “absolute knowledge in the unconscious,” [6]
a tool for archetypal analysis,[7] and even a tool for facilitating the Jungian process ofIndividuation.[8]

Court de Gébelin
T to ancient Egypt, divine hermetic wisdom,[9] and the mysteries of Isis.
Many involved in occult and divinatory practices attempt to trace the arot

Possibly the first of those was Antoine Court de Gébelin, a French clergyman, who wrote that after seeing a group of women playing cards he had the idea
that Tarot was not merely a game of cards but was in fact:

of ancient Egyptian origin

of mystical cabbalistic import
of deep divine significance
De Gébelin published a dissertation on the origins of the symbolism in the Tarot in volume VIII of work Le Monde primitif. He thought the Tarot represented
ancient Egyptian Theology, including Isis, Osiris and Typhon. For example, he thought the card he knew as the Papesse and known today as the High
Priestess represented Isis.[10] He also related four Tarot cards to the four Christian Cardinal virtues: Temperance, Justice, Strength and Prudence.[11] He
relates The Tower to a Greek fable about avarice.[12]

Although the ancient Egyptian language had not yet been deciphered, de Gébelin asserted the name "Tarot" came from the Egyptian words Tar, "path" or
"road", and the word Ro, Ros or Rog, meaning "King" or "royal", and that the Tarot literally translated to the Royal Road of Life.[13] Later Egyptologists
found nothing in the Egyptian language to support de Gébelin'setymologies.

Despite this lack of any evidence, the belief that the tarot cards are linked to the Egyptian Book of Thoth continues in modern urban legend to the present
day.

The actual source of the occult Tarot can be traced to two articles in volume eight, one written by himself, and one written by M. le C. de M.***. [14] The
second has been noted to have been even more influential than Gebelin's.[2] The author takes De Gebelin's speculations even further, agreeing with him
about the mystical origins of the Tarot in ancient Egypt, but making several additional, and influential, statements that continue to influence mass
understanding of the occult tarot even to this day
. He:

makes the first statement that the Tarot is, in fact, The Book of Thoth
makes the first statement that the Tarot is associated with the Romani People (and that the Romani people were roaming Egyptians)
makes the first association of Tarot with cartomancy

Etteilla
The first to assign divinatory meanings to the Tarot cards were cartomancer Jean-Baptiste Alliette (also known as Etteilla) in 1783 and Mlle Marie-Anne
Adelaide Lenormand (1776-1843).[15][16] According to Dummett,Etteilla:[2]

devised a method of tarot divination in 1783,

wrote a cartomanic treatise of tarot as the Book of Thoth,
created the first society for Tarot cartomancy, the Société littéraire des associés libres desinterprètes du livre de Thot.
created the first corrected Tarot (supposedly fixing errors that resulted from misinterpretation and corruption through the mists of
antiquity), The Grand Ettielle deck
created the first Egyptian tarot to be used exclusively for arot
T cartomancy
published, under the imprint of his society, the Dictionnaire synonimique du Livre de Thot,a book that "systematically tabulated all the
possible meanings which each card could bear , when upright and reversed." (Dummett, 1980: pp. 110).
Etteilla also:

suggested that Tarot was repository of the wisdom of Hermes Trismegistus

was a book of eternal medicine
was an account of the creation of the world
argued that the first copy of the tarot was imprinted on leaves of gold
Michael Dummett (1980) suggests that Etteilla was attempting to scoop Court De Gebelin as the author of the occult tarot. Etteilla in fact claims to have
been involved with Tarot longer than Court De Gebelin.[2]

Marie Anne Lenormand

Mlle Marie-Anne Adelaide Lenormand outshone even Ettiella and was the first cartomancer to people in high places, being the personal confidant of
Empress Josephine, Napoleon and other notables.[2] Lenormand used both regular playing cards, in particular the Piquet pack, as well as cards derived from
Etteilla's Egyptian root. She was so famous that a deck was published in her name, the
Grand Jeu de Mlle Lenormand, two years after her death in 1843.

Éliphas Lévi
The concept of the cards as a mystical key was extended by Éliphas Lévi (1810-1875). Lévi (whose given name was Alphonse-Louise Constance) was
educated in the seminary of Saint-Sulpice, was ordained as a deacon, but never became a priest. Dummett (1980, pp. 114) notes that it is from Levi's book
Dogme et rituel that the "whole of the modern occultist movement stems." Lévi wrote that an astral light is contained within all of reality, and according to
Dummett (1980, pp. 118), he claimed to be the first to

"have discovered intact and still unknown this key of all doctrines and all philosophies of the old world...
without the Tarot", he tells us, "the Magic of the ancients is a closed book...."

Lévi rejected Court de Gébelin's claims about an Egyptian origin of the deck symbols, going back instead to the Tarot de Marseille, calling it The Book of
Hermes, claiming it was antique, that it existed before Moses, and that it was in fact a universal key of erudition, philosophy, and magic that could unlock
Hermetic and Cabbalistic concepts. According to Lévi, "An imprisoned person with no other book than the Tarot, if he knew how to use it, could in a few
 [17]
years acquire universal knowledge, and would be able to speak on all subjects with unequaled learning and inexhaustible eloquence."

[2]
According to Dummett Lévis' notable contributions include:

Lévi was the first to suggest that the Magus (Bagatto) was to work with the four suits.
Inspired by de Gébelin, Lévi associated the Hebrew alphabet with theTarot trumps.
Lévi linked the ten numbered cards in each suit to the tensefiroth.
Claimed the court cards represented stages of human life.
Claimed the four suites represented theTetragrammaton.
Dummett (1980: 120) dismissed Lévi's contribution to magic as the product of "an advanced state of intellectual deliquescent," but noted that Lévi made a
major contribution to the history of occult lore. Occultists, magicians, and magus's all the way down to the 21st century have cited Lévi as a defining
influence. This trend began immediately when Jean-Baptiste Pitois (1811), writing under the name Paul Christian, wrote L'Homme rouge (1863) and later
Histoire de la magie, du monde surnaturel et de la fatalité à travers les temps et les peuples (1870). Christian repeats and extends the mythology of the
tarot and changes the names for the trumps and the suits (see table below for a list of Christian's modifications to the trumps). Batons (wands) become
Scepters, Swords become Blades, and Coins become Shekels. [18] In 1888 Ély Star published Mystères de l'horoscope which mostly repeats Christian's
modifications.[19] Its primary contribution was the introduction of the termsMajor
' arcana' and 'Minor arcana,' and the numbering of the Crocodile (the Fool)
XXII instead of 0.

In 1887 the Marquis Stanislas de Guaitamet the amateur artist Oswald Wirth (1860-1943) and subsequently sponsored a production of Lévi's intended deck.
Guided entirely by de Guaita Wirth designed the first neo-occultist cartomantic deck (and first cartomantic deck not derived from Ettielle's Egyptina deck).
Known as the Arcanes du Tarot kabbalistique it consisted of only the twenty-two major arcana.

Use
Tarot is often used in conjunction with the study of the Hermetic Qabalah.[20] In these decks all the cards are illustrated in accordance with Qabalistic
principles, most being influenced by theRider-Waite deck. Its images were drawn by artist Pamela Colman Smith, to the instructions of Christian mystic and
occultist Arthur Edward Waite and published in 1909.A difference from Marseilles style decks is that Waite-Smith use scenes with esoteric meanings on the
suit cards.

gned in recent years. [21]

Tarot cards have become extremely popular in Japan, where hundreds of new decks have been desi

Order of the Trumps

The following is a comparison of the order of the trumps up to and including the A.E. Waite deck. This table is based on Dummett (1980) and actual
inspection of the relevant decks.
 Paul Christian's
Tarot de Court de Etteilla's Egyptian Egyptian Tarot Book of
Oswald Golden
(divinatory A.E. Waite Thoth
Marseille[22] Gébelin[23][24] Tarot[25] Wirth Dawn
meaning in (Crowley)
bold)
1 - the
1 - The I - The I - The
Bateleur Bateleur Ideal/Wisdom the Magus / Will Magician
Magician Magician Magus
(Mountebank)
Gate of the
2 - the (occult) 2 - The High II - The High II - The
High Priestess Enlightenment/Passion Priestess
Popess Sanctuary / Priestess Priestess Priestess
Knowledge
3 - the Isis - Urania / 3 - The III - The III - The
Empress Discussion/Instability Empress
Empress Action Empress Empress Empress
4 - the Cubic Stone / 4 - The IV - The IV - The
Emperor Revelation/Behaviour Emperor
Emperor Realisation Emperor Emperor Emperor
Master of the
Chief Mysteries/Arcana 5 - The V - The V - The
5 - the Pope Travel/Country Property Hierophant
Hierophant / Occult Hierophant Hierophant Hierophant
Inspiration
6 - Love or Two Roads / 6 - The VI - The VI - The
Marriage Secrets/Truths Lovers
the Lovers Ordeal Lovers Lovers Lovers
7 - the Osiris Chariot of Osiris / 7 - The VII - The VII - The
Support/Protection Chariot
Chariot Triumphant Victory Chariot Chariot Chariot
Themis (Scales
VIII -
8 - Justice Justice Tenacity/Progress and Blade) / Justice 11 - Justice XI - Justice
Adjustment
Equilibrium
the Veiled Lamp / 9 - The IX - The IX - The
9 - the Hermit Wise Man Justice/Law-Maker Hermit
Wisdom Hermit Hermit Hermit
10 - The
10 - Wheel of Wheel of the Sphinx / X - Wheel of
Temperance/Convictions Fortune Wheel of X - Fortune
Fortune Fortune Fortune Fortune
Fortune
the
VIII -
11 - Fortitude Fortitude Strength/Power Muzzled(tamed) Strength 8 - Strength XI - Lust
Strength
Lion / Strength
12 - The XII - The XII - The
12 - the The Sacrifice / Hanged
Prudence Prudence/Popularity Hanged Hanged Hanged
Hanged Man Sacrifice Man
Man Man Man
The Skeleton
13 - Death Death Marriage/Love Affair Reaper / Death 13 - Death XIII - Death XIII - Death
Transformation
the Two Urns
14 - 14 - XIV -
Temperance Violence/Weakness (the genius of the Temperance XIV - Art
Temperance Temperance Temperance
sun) / Initiative
15 - The XV - The XV - The
15 - the Devil Typhon Chagrins/Illness Typhon / Fate Devil
Devil Devil Devil
the Beheaded
16 - the the Castle or 16 - The XVI - The XVI - The
Opinion/Arbitration Tower (Lightning Tower
Tower Plutus Tower Tower Tower
Struck) / Ruin
Sirius or the Star of the Magi / 17 - The XVII - The XVII - The
17 - the Star Death/Incapacity Star
Dog Star Hope Star Star Star
the Twilight / 18 - The XVIII - The XVIII - The
18 - the Moon Moon Betrayal/Falsehood Moon
Deception Moon Moon Moon
the Blazing Light
19 - The XIX - The XIX - The
19 - the Sun Sun Poverty/Prison / (earthly) Sun
Sun Sun Sun
Happiness
the Awakening of
20 - 20 - XX - XX - The
the Creation Fortune/Augmentation the Dead / Judgement
Judgment Judgement Judgement Aeon
Renewal
21 - the the Crown of the 21 - The XXI - The XXI - The
Time Law Suit/Legal Dispute World
World Magi / Reward Universe World Universe
0 the Crocodile
0 - The
Le Mat (Fool) Fool Madness/Bewilderment (between 20 and Fool 0 - The Fool 0 - The Fool
Fool
21) / Expiation
Personal use
Next to the usage of tarot cards to divine for others, often for a price, tarot is also used widely as a device for personal advice and spiritual growth. Whereas
professional tarot is often seen as a scam (see Criticism, below), personal usage of tarot cannot be regarded as such, as there would be nothing to gain from
scamming oneself. This is an area of tarot divination that has not been studied properly, however [26] . Regardless, persons who use the tarot for personal
.[27]
divination ask question ranging widely from health or economical issues to what would be best for them spiritually

The way the cards are taken to respond to such personal inquiries is subject to various theories. Many tarot users believe that the cards are the ones providing
the answers. Others would state that there are supernatural agents (e.g. angels or fairies) who guide the cards. From a psychological point of view, there are
those who believe that the person themselves is the one making the connections between the cards. Among these, some believe that tarot is useful either
because it is a way to let one's subconscious speak (after Freud), or because of meaningful coincidences between the situation or question at hand and the
cards (synchronicity, after Jung).[28]

Criticism
One of the main criticisms of tarot card reading is its distinct lack of a common reading method among its practitioners. During a tarot card reading there are
three mains steps that the reader will use, but how each of these steps is carried out varies significantly between practitioners. The first step is shuffling the
cards; the second is laying them out in a particular pattern; and the third, finally, is interpreting the cards. Some readers shuffle the cards themselves, while
others get the querent to do so. Readers also employ several different patterns in which to lay out and turn up the cards. Additionally, a reader may have their
own distinct way of interpreting the cards; some tarot cards can have up to ten meanings, and it is up to the reader to use their intuition to interpret them.
Some readers believe that they can only get reliable readings from "top quality decks" and that cheap decks give unreliable readings.[29] There is no
scientific evidence for choosing any reading method in particular. Furthermore, since tarot cards are shuffled before each reading, and the reading itself is
mostly based on the reader's interpretative intuition, it is improbable to get the same reading twice – something which could be expected to happen if the
cards were a basis for the statement of objective facts. Quoting the skepticJames Randi, "For use as a divinatory device, the Tarot deck is dealt out in various
patterns and interpreted by a gifted 'reader.' The fact that the deck is not dealt out into the same pattern fifteen minutes later is rationalized by the occultists
by claiming that in that short span of time, a person's fortune can change, too. That would seem to call for rather frequent readings if the system is to be of
any use whatsoever."[30]

Tarot card readings use very vague and basic ideas that any person could draw on as parts of the reading, internalizing them. Several different skeptics have
found that, when performing a tarot card reading, the reader uses several different techniques, of questionable scientific validity, to aid in their reading. One
of these for example iscold reading. Cold reading is a technique that psychics, mediums, card readers, etc. use to determine details about a person in order to
convince them that they know them.

See also
Rider-Waite tarot deck
Major Arcana The 22 trumps.
Minor Arcana The 56 suit cards.

References
1. R. Steele. A notice of the Ludus Triumphorum and Some Early Italian Card Games: With Some Remarks on the Origin of the Game of
Cards,' Archaeologia, vol LVII, 1900. pp. 185–200
2. Michael Dummett. The Game of Tarot. London: Duckworth, 1980. ISBN 0715631225
3. P.D. Ouspensky. The Symbolism of the Tarot: philosophy of occultism in pictures and num
bers. Dover Publications. 1976
4. Inna Semetsky. Tarot images and spiritual education: the three sI’ model. International Journal of Children’s Spirituality. 16(3): 249–260.
2011
5. Eliphas Levi. The Key of the Mysteries. Translated by Aleister Crowley. Red Wheel/Weiser. 2002 ISBN 0877280789
6. John Beeb. A Tarot Reading on the Possibility of Nuclear War. Psychological Perspectives: A Quarterly Journal of Jungian Thought. 16(1):
97-106. pp. 97
7. Sallie Nichols. The Wisdom of the Fool. Psychological Perspective: A Quarterly Journal of Jungian Thought. 5(2): 97-116. 1974
8. Salie Nichols. Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey. San Francisco: Weiser Books. Also Inna Semetsky. When Cathy was a Little Girl:
The Healing Praxis of Tarot Images. International Journal of Children's Spirituality. 15(1): 59-72. 2010. pp. 59
9. Ronald Decker and Michael Dummett.A history of the occult tarot, 1870-1970. London: Duckworth, 2002.ISBN 0715610147.
10. Court de Gébelin, Antoine (1781),Le Monde Primitif volume viii, p. 370
11. Court de Gébelin, Antoine (1781),Le Monde Primitif volume viii, p. 371
12. Court de Gébelin, Antoine (1781),Le Monde Primitif volume viii, p. 376
13. Court de Gébelin, Antoine (1781),Le Monde Primitif volume viii, p. 380
14. The asterix and the abbreviations are the actual way Court De Gébelin refers to the second essay
. As Dummett (1980) notes, Mr Robin
Briggs identifies the contributor as Louis-Raphael-Lucrece de Fayolle, Comte de Mellet. Louis was a brigadier
, governor, and
"unremarkable court noble."
15. Ronald Decker and Michael Dummett, History of the Occult Tarot, London: Duckworth, 2002ISBN 978-0715631225
16. Robert Place, The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination, New York: Tarcher/Penguin, 2005 ISBN 978-1585423491
17. Eliphas Lévi. Transcendental Magic. p. 103
18. Interestingly, Dummett (1980) singles out Christian's writing as one of the worst examples of what he callsfalse ascription to be found in
the occult literature.
19. Arcana in the Adytum (https://marygreer.wordpress.com/2008/05/18/arcana-in-the-adytum/)by Mary K. Greer.
20. Israel Regardie, The Tree of Life, (London, Rider, 1932)
21. Miller, Laura (2011). "Tantalizing tarot and cute cartomancy in Japan".Japanese Studies. 31 (1): 73–91.
doi:10.1080/10371397.2011.560659(https://doi.org/10.1080%2F10371397.2011.560659) .
22. "Queen of Tarot" (http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_decks/2).
23. "Queen of Tarot" (http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_decks/6).
24. Court de Gébelin is the first to attempt to provide the correct order and nomenclature for the tarot trumps. See Michael Dummett.
The
Game of Tarot. London: Duckworth, 1980.ISBN 0715631225
25. Etteilla's tarot is the first cartomantic tarot, thus the broken nomenclature that bears little resemblance to that which comes before! The
imagery of Ettiella's Egyptian Tarot is similar to Tarot de Marseille, but he breaks the ordering significantly putting, for example, the
imagery of the Sun (traditionally triumph 19) as triumph 1. This interested in viewing the images by do so by visiting this link (http://queeno
ftarot.com/tarot_decks/7)
26. But see: Gregory, Karen (2013). "NegotiatingPrecarity: Tarot as Spiritual Entrepreneurialism".WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly. 40 (3–
4): 264–280. doi:10.1353/wsq.2013.0025(https://doi.org/10.1353%2Fwsq.2013.0025).
27. van Rijn, Bastiaan Benjamin."The Mind Behind the Cards"(https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/51373). Retrieved 31 July 2017.
28. van Rijn, Bastiaan Benjamin."The Mind Behind the Cards"(https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/51373). Retrieved 31 July 2017.
29. Moore, Randy (January 1992). "Debunking the Paranormal: W e Should Teach Critical Thinking as a Necessity for Living, Not Just as a
Tool for Science". The American Biology Teacher. 54 (1): 4–9. doi:10.2307/4449386 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F4449386).
JSTOR 4449386 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/4449386).
30. "Your Future in a Deck of Cards?"(https://skepticdetective.wordpress.com/2008/12/19/your-future-in-a-deck-of-cards/)
. The Skeptic
Detective. Retrieved 7 November 2016. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)

External links
List of Tarot Decks
Images from the Grand Etteille Deck
Images from the Grand Oracle des Dames, an early cartomantic progeny
Images from Lenormand's deck

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