Understanding Tarot: Discover the tarot and find out what your cards really mean E-Book

Liz Dean

• Herausgeber: CICO Books
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Seitenzahl: 213

Beschreibung

Uncover the mysteries of the tarot with this comprehensive guide from tarot expert Liz Dean.

Das E-Book Understanding Tarot: Discover the tarot and find out what your cards really mean wird angeboten von CICO Books und wurde mit folgenden Begriffen kategorisiert:
tarot prophecy, tarot cards, deck of tarot, fortune telling, telling the future, tarot card decks, spirituality and tarot, divination

Leseprobe

UNDERSTANDING

Tarot

UNDERSTANDING

Tarot

discover the tarot and find out what your cards really mean

Liz Dean

Please note that Tarot cards are intended to be treated responsibly and with respect. Generally, they are not suitable for children. The way one reads Tarot cards may be guided by the information in this book, but ultimately the interpretation of the cards is up to the individual, for which neither the publisher nor author can be held accountable.

This edition published in 2019 by CICO Books

an imprint of Ryland Peters & Small Ltd

20–21 Jockey’s Fields

341 E 116th St

London WC1R 4BW

New York, NY 10029

www.rylandpeters.com

First published in 2003 as The Mystery of Tarot

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Text © Liz Dean 2003, 2019

Design © CICO Books 2003, 2019

For picture credits, see page 156

The author’s moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress and the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-78249-725-7

E-ISBN: 978-1-78879-335-3

Printed in China

Designed by David Fordham

Edited by Mandy Greenfield

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

1 TAROT TRADITIONS

COURT AND CLERGY: EUROPE’S FIRST TAROT

TAROT AS TRADE

KNIGHTS AND GYPSIES

THE ORIGINS OF THE MINOR ARCANA

THE OCCULT REVIVAL: EGYPTOMANIA

2 TAROT SYMBOLISM

USING ASTROLOGY WITH THE TAROT

THE TAROT AND KABBALA

THE TAROT MENAGERIE

THE TAROT RAINBOW

3 HOW TO LAY THE CARDS

TAROT READINGS

THREE-CARD READINGS

THE HEART AND HEAD SPREAD

THE STAR SPREAD

THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE SPREAD

THE CELTIC CROSS

THE TREE OF LIFE SPREAD

THE HORSESHOE SPREAD

THE YEAR AHEAD SPREAD

THE MONTH AHEAD SPREAD

THE WEEK AHEAD SPREAD

WHAT TO DO IF YOU CANNOT MAKE SENSE OF A READING

4 INTERPRETING THE CARDS

THE MAJOR ARCANA

THE MINOR ARCANA

TAROT RESOURCES

PICTURE CREDITS

INDEX

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

THE TAROT IS A STORY, as all good mysteries are. Its reputation has the romance of the Romanies, the power of the Italian dukes who commissioned the first cards, and a 600-year-long popularity. One episode saw the cards being carried by persecuted missionaries as a secret code; another twist had the Tarot denounced by the Church as “the devil’s picture book.” Yet universally the Tarot has been a tool for those seeking enlightenment.

There is no end to the Tarot saga, for whenever the cards are consulted and laid out in a spread, a new story begins. The narrative is never fixed, because the events revealed in a reading reflect the nature of our own thoughts and actions, which constantly change. The cards themselves do not create events; they reflect key issues in our lives, empowering our future choices.

The Sun, from The Classic Tarot, 1835. The engravings are by the Italian artist Carlo Della Rocca.

Learning Tarot is like learning a language, but it uses symbols as a way to explain itself. The occultist A. E. Waite, in his Pictorial Key to the Tarot, says: “Given the inward meaning of its emblems, [the cards] do become a kind of alphabet which is capable of indefinite combinations and makes true sense in all.”

It is hoped that this book inspires you to learn how to use the Tarot and benefit from the insight that this ancient mirror of life provides.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

The first and second chapters present a history of Tarot cards and their symbols. It suggests the threads of their mystery, from what are possibly the oldest surviving cards—the fifteenth-century Visconti-Sforza—to the evolution of the esoteric decks created from the 1700s onward. At this time, connections between the kabbala (an ancient Jewish mystical tradition) and astrology were established, and these are also examined in this section.

The third chapter shows you how to lay out the cards for a reading, ranging from the simplest three-card spread to more detailed layouts, such as the Celtic Cross and the Tree of Life. There are examples of genuine readings to demonstrate how the cards work in action, and how they relate to—and illuminate—each other during interpretation.

Some Tarot decks are inspired by the work of well-known artists, such as the Giotti and Salvador Dali Tarots. The card above is from The Dante Tarot, created by Andrea Serio.

Chapter Four offers interpretations for all seventy-eight cards: the twenty-two cards of the major arcana and the fifty-six of the minor arcana. For the major arcana there is a passage on the card’s symbolism, and another that decodes the astrological symbols that appear on many Tarot decks. The historical deck shown is the Visconti-Sforza Tarot; the modern deck is The Magic of Tarot deck (see page 155 for further details). Each interpretation presents card combinations and some include a historical anecdote, so that you can see how specific cards work in conjunction with one another, or delve deeper into the origins of salient cards.

The card interpretations for the minor arcana are grouped by their number and type, each with an introduction explaining their numerology. Learning the card numerologies can be a valuable shortcut when reading the numbered (or “pip”) cards, particularly if your deck has geometric designs rather than illustrated pips. The Court card introductions help explain how these cards act as energies, as well as representing specific people; for the beginner, the Court cards can be notoriously difficult to relate to, if they are considered solely as personalities.

Turn to page 155, Tarot Resources, for recommended Tarot “bibles,” the authors of which I thank here for making the deeper study of this subject, and its practice, so rich and enjoyable.

1 TAROT TRADITIONS

COURT AND CLERGY: EUROPE’S FIRST TAROT

PAGAN, EGYPTIAN, KABBALISTIC, early Christian, satanic: these terms have all been used to describe the ancient system of divination that is Tarot. Yet these descriptions really relate to the user more than they do to the cards themselves. This can be seen in the myriad decks that are available today: there is the Arthurian Tarot and the Tarot of the Witches; the Salvador Dali deck and the Jung-based Mythic Tarot; the Tantra, Ukiyoe, and Game of Thrones Tarots; the Tarot of the Sphinx, Tarot of the Cat People, Motherpeace Tarot, and Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot; along with numerous astrological Tarots, fairy Tarots, love Tarots, and I Ching cards. All seek to explain the mystery of Tarot through a host of broader cultural and individual belief systems.

The earliest Tarot decks appear to have been commemorative paintings commissioned by royal families, yet, by the nineteenth century, the Tarot had become a treasury of occult wisdom. So what happened in the intervening centuries to change Tarot from courtly art to high magic?

Justice from the Charles VI (Gringonneur) deck originally dated as 1392, although it is highly likely that these cards are of fifteenth-century origin.

It is thought that Tarot cards were originally designed for sole use at the royal courts of Europe, for games and divination. In 1392, a painter named Jacquemin Gringonneur was commissioned to paint three packs of richly decorated cards, “ornamented with many devices,” for Charles VI of France. His fee was entered into the court treasurer’s ledger, which was once considered the first documented evidence of decks of Tarot cards in Europe. Seventeen cards supposedly from this deck, previously known as the Gringonneur or Charles VI deck, are preserved at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. However, it is unlikely that these cards are the Gringonneur ones—scholars believe they were painted in Ferrara in northern Italy in the late fifteenth century. One clue to this lies in the style of armor worn by the Page of Swords, which is of a later design more consistent with the fifteenth than fourteenth century. This Ferrara deck is now known as the Estensi, after the dynastic D’Este family who commissioned them, and it’s assumed that the Gringonneur actually referred to a deck of playing cards, rather than the first Tarot.

Italian courts were commissioning Tarot cards as early as 1415, when a deck—the Visconti Tarot—was painted for the Duke of Milan, probably by the artist Bonifacio Bembo. Its successor, the Visconti-Sforza Tarot (see page 155) is believed to be the oldest Tarot in existence.

The High Priestess, or Papess, of the Visconti-Sforza deck. The Visconti family had her painted in the likeness of their ancestor, Sister Manfreda, who was a member of a religious sect who had elected her as Papess.

The Visconti-Sforza Tarot is thought to have been created to commemorate the marriage of Bianca-Maria Visconti to Francesco Sforza in 1441. The marriage represented the alliance of two of the most powerful families in northern Italy, and the deck reflects the early tradition of exquisite, hand-painted cards, which often carried the family insignia. The Ace of Staves (Wands) of the Visconti-Sforza Tarot is inscribed with the motto “A bon droyt”—which is variously translated as “with good reason” or “the right path.” The deck, in structure and imagery, was the forerunner of the seventy-eight card deck we know today.

In Italy, the term Venetian or Piedmontese is used to refer to decks of seventy-eight cards, as opposed to decks such as the ninety-seven-card Florentine pack (known as a minchiate) and the Bolognese pack, which comprises sixty-two cards.

TAROT AS TRADE

THE INVENTION OF WOODBLOCK PRINTING in Germany in the fourteenth century marked the beginning of mass production and the rise in popularity of playing cards and Tarot cards among ordinary people. By the mid-1400s, card-making workshops were flourishing in Italy, France, Germany, and Belgium, and card-painting soon became a specialized trade acknowledged by craftsmen’s guilds. Religious opposition to Tarot cards, and the banning of foreign imports (whether playing cards or Tarot decks), reveals their prevalence, popularity, and economic viability at this time. In the mid-fifteenth century a Franciscan friar preached a sermon in northern Italy condemning dice and Tarot cards, and the Church referred to Tarot cards as “the devil’s picture book,” which may have been part of an agenda to suppress the philosophy of Gnosticism throughout Europe. Gnostics (from the Greek word gnosis, meaning “knowledge”) believed in esoteric wisdom, which the Church deemed heretical (see page 12).

In woodblock printing, the outlines of the card images were printed, and then the colors were stenciled or hand-painted. The Marseilles deck is an example of this production method; its design was based on earlier Tarot styles. Tarot of Marseilles was published in 1701–15 by the artist Jean Dodal. Later decks were painted by Nicolas Conver, master papermaker at Marseilles in 1761.

WHERE DID THE NAME TAROT COME FROM?

The multitude of theories about the origin of the word Tarot reflects the debate surrounding the true origin of the cards themselves. There is little factual evidence to support any of these claims—only the interpretations of Tarot historians and occultists.

The simplest explanation is that the word Tarot is a diminutive of tarocchi, an Italian card game from which Tarot developed. The cards may have been named after the River Taro in the plains of northern Italy, where the oldest surviving decks were painted. The French les tarot and German tarock may be derivatives of tarocchi.

Tarot scholar Dr Yoav Ben-Dov (1957–2016) suggests Tarot derives from the Italian word taroccho, meaning “Fool” or “dumb person” in colloquial sixteenth-century Italian. Given the Tarot deck has one Fool card, taroccho may have meant “the Fool’s deck.”

Then there are the esoteric theories: “Tarot” stems from the Egyptian word Ta-rosh, meaning “the royal way,” associating the cards with the pharaohs of Egypt as both earthly and divine kings. Tarot may be a part-anagram of the Latin word rota, meaning “wheel” (rota appears on the Rider Waite Smith Wheel of Fortune card). Or, according to the magician Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), Tarot came from Torah, Hebrew for “the law,” so aligning the Tarot with kabbala, the Jewish mystical system.

The Crocodile, or Fool, from the Grand Tarot Belline, a nineteenth-century French deck conceived by one psychic, Magus Edmond, and published by another, Magus Belline. The card’s interpretation may translate as: “All kinds of misfortune threaten you. There is nothing to fear, as you only have to wait for salvation from heaven.”

KNIGHTS AND GYPSIES

SOME PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT THE ROMA (ROMANIES), OR “GYPSIES,” brought Tarot cards to Europe and that the word “gypsy” is a corruption of “Egyptian,” derived from Little Egypt (Epirus), a region of Peloponnesia in Greece; another theory suggests the Roma originally came from India. There is no evidence that they invented the Tarot; however, it is more likely that they brought Tarot cards or playing cards to Europe as they emigrated west during the 1400s.

The idea of Tarot may have been already familiar to medieval Europeans before the 1400s: in a sermon in Switzerland in 1377, the German monk Brother Johannes Rheinfelden described the rules of a card game and how it offered moral guidance for people of all walks of life.

The Knight of Wands from the IJJ Swiss Tarot is dressed cavalier-style, his red tunic symbolizing the energy of the suit.

Gnostic sects in Europe may have used Tarot cards to teach the illiterate their belief in Dualism, which is the interplay of opposites. These opposites—male and female, darkness and light, death and rebirth—are common themes in the Tarot. In this way, Tarot themes and archetypes were perhaps used for instructional rather than divinatory purposes. The Waldenses, a Christian dissident sect founded by Peter Waldo in 1170, may have used the cards as a secret code. The sect was banned by the Church, but thrived in secret, so Waldensian missionaries traveled throughout Italy (often in disguise) seeking converts. Known as barbe, or uncles, they would dress as tradesmen to ensure their safe passage. The Magician card may have represented a barb in disguise, since in early decks the Magician is shown as a cobbler. Roger Tilley, in his book The History of Playing Cards, proposes that the Magician card may have been used by Waldensians as a passport to identify themselves to other devotees. In France, the Magician has been titled “Le Jongleur,” the juggler or minstrel—a wandering bard.

The Knight of Cups from the Visconti-Sforza deck. A graceful youth on horseback holds the chalice, his suit symbol. His graceful offering may be at odds with the more forceful energy generally associated with the knights.

The Knight of Swords from the Tarot of Marseilles. The Knights denote action and in Tarot are often indicators of events speeding up.

The Knights Templar, an ascetic military order, has also been associated with Tarot cards. The order was founded by Hugh de Payens of Burgundy and Godeffroi de St Omer, a French knight, in 1119. Their mission was to protect pilgrims and the routes to the Holy Land. Over time, the order became rich and successful.

As its influence grew, the Knights became a target for persecution by the Church, which sought to stamp out the many unorthodox sects operating at the time. Philip IV of France charged the Knights with heresy; they were arrested and their possessions seized. Their grand master, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake in 1314. Again, there is no documented evidence to tie the Knights Templar in with the Tarot—however, a cross appearing on the Ace of Coins cards in the French Vieville pack has been identified as the Templars’ insignia.

THE ORIGINS OF THE MINOR ARCANA

THE TAROT IS MADE UP of twenty-two major arcana cards, or trumps (triumphs), and fifty-six minor arcana cards, which are divided into four suits. This being so, it seems likely that these arcanas may have existed separately and were combined to form the complete seventy-eight-card deck at a later stage. The minor arcana originated from playing cards thought to have come from eleventh-century China and Korea, where sets with four suits were in use at court. Early decks from southern China often have the suits Coins, Strings of Coins, Myriads of Strings, and Tens of Myriads—the forerunners of Hearts, Spades, Clubs, and Diamonds of our modern playing cards. In medieval Italy, merchants plied the trade routes from Venice to the Orient, so it is quite likely that the card-painters of northern Italy were exposed to, and influenced by, Oriental card systems.

The Italian author Giovanni di Covelluzzo, writing in 1480, had yet another theory, but little evidence. He believed that playing cards were introduced into Italy in 1379 from Arabic North Africa. If this happened at all, it is more likely that the minor arcana reached Italy from North Africa via Spain, which was Arab-occupied until 1492. In Spain, these cards are known as naipes; when they appeared in Italy, they were known by their Saracen name, naib.

The Ace of Swords, shown with a crown and decorative fronds, is from the Liguria-Piedmont Tarot, published in 1860. The style of this deck shows the fusion of both Italian and French Tarot traditions.

THE LEGEND OF THE GRAIL

The legend of the Holy Grail provides another mysterious link to the possible origin of the minor arcana cards. The Four Grail Hallows were the grail itself, or the chalice used by Christ at the Last Supper; the sword used by King David in the Old Testament; the sacred lance that pierced Christ’s side during his crucifixion; and the platter that held the Passover lamb.

Perhaps the best-known example of the grail stories in medieval England is Morte D’Arthur, a compilation of grail legends written by the English knight Sir Thomas Malory. Published in 1485, it is likely that Malory’s work was based partly on the earlier work of Chrétien de Troyes in the late 1100s. De Troyes, a French writer, penned Arthurian romances for his many wealthy patrons to satisfy their curiosity about British mythology after the Norman Conquest. He, in turn, was inspired by Celtic mythology.

The Ace of Cups, c. fifteenth-century Italy, shows a central chalice with a double-arced fountain. An arrow appears where the two streams of water divide, with a sword to the right and an anchor to the left.

The Irish predecessors of the Four Grail Hallows were the Four Treasures of Ireland: the Cauldron of the Dagda, the Spear of Lug, the Sword of Nuada, and the Stone of Fa. Many contemporary Tarot packs draw on these legends and name their minor arcana suits after the treasures. The Cauldron equates to Cups, the Spear of Lug to Wands, the Sword of Nuada to Swords, and the Stone of Fa to Pentacles. The Arthurian Tarot uses the characters and sacred objects of the grail legend in its major arcana. Card I, the Magician, is Merlin; the High Priestess is the Lady of the Lake; the Emperor is King Arthur; and the Wheel of Fortune is the Round Table.

THE FOUR SUITS OF VISHNU

The Hindu creator-god, Vishnu, may be another potential answer to part of the Tarot mystery. The four suits of the minor arcana are symbolized by his four arms, in which he holds four sacred objects, some of which correspond directly to the emblems of the suits. He holds the disk, for preservation (Pentacles); and the club, for wisdom (Wands). The third object is the lotus, for love; associated with femininity, the lotus may link with the suit of Cups. The conch, for inner realization, does not at first glance sit well with the remaining suit of Swords. However, in Hindu tradition the conch was used to sound the war-cry before battle, so it may imply the martial nature of Swords after all.

THE OCCULT REVIVAL: EGYPTOMANIA

THE LATE EIGHTEENTH and early nineteenth century saw an occult revival. Many of the associations made with the Tarot at this time have influenced modern thinking on the card meanings. Up to this point, there had been no obvious link between the Tarot and Egypt or kabbala.

The landmark text of the occult revival was authored by French esotericist Antoine Court de Gebelin. In his treatise Monde primitif of 1781, de Gebelin claimed that the Tarot itself was actually an ancient Egyptian book containing secret wisdom. This was the Book of Thoth, named after the Egyptian god of healing, wisdom, and the occult.

After de Gebelin’s death in 1784, a Parisian barber and wigmaker (or merchant, according to some sources) Jean-Baptiste Alliette, continued his work. Under the chosen name Etteilla—Alliette spelled backward—he wrote esoteric books, worked as a fortune teller, and produced his own Etteilla Tarot deck. He claimed that in this deck he had restored the ancient Egyptian designs. He also included the Tarot’s links with kabbala, the mystical tradition that originated in Judaism (see page 24). When Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798, Egyptomania reigned; as artifacts raided from tombs and temples found their way to Europe, the work of de Gebelin and Etteilla gained credence and popularity.

This modern Egyptian Tarot, painted on papyrus by Silvana Alasia, was partly influenced by the Tarot created by the late nineteenth-century occultist Jean-Baptiste Pitois, a follower of Eliphas Lévi (see opposite).

The Moon from The Tarot of the Sphinx, by Silvana Alasia. In this modern deck, two Anubis dogs replace the dogs or wolves seen on the Rider Waite Smith deck (see page 18).

Eliphas Lévi’s Le Cherub de L’Ekeskiel (Cherubin of Ezekiel), from his work Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (Transcendental Magic), 1854.

The story continues with the prominent occultist Alphonse Louis Constant, who went by his chosen name of Eliphas Lévi. In the mid-1800s, this French Rosicrucian developed the possible link between the major arcana and kabbala by explaining how the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet corresponded to the twenty-two major arcana cards of the Tarot. Lévi’s illustration, Le Cherub de L’Ekeskiel (see top right), shows how he combined kabbala with the Tarot. He drew a cherub based on the vision of the prophet Ezekiel, as described in the Old Testament’s Book of Ezekiel—this is a traditional cherub, rather than the familiar pucci, or chubby winged infant, that we generally envisage. Lévi’s sketch shows the four holy living creatures of Ezekiel’s vision: the cherub itself, the eagle, lion, and bull. But he added four hands, each of which holds an emblem of the four suits of the minor arcana: the sword, wand, pentacle, and cup. He also annotated his work with the names of the ten sephira (energy centers) of the kabbala: kether, chokmah, binah, chesed, geburah, tipereth, netzach, hod, yesod, and malkuth (see page 25). Many Tarot decks, such as the Rider Waite Smith, show card XXI, the World, with the four living creatures surrounding the garlanded dancer.

MYSTICAL ORDERS

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a British occult society, created a system of magic that wove together the kabbalistic, astrological, and Egyptian Tarot associations. It was founded in 1888, during the occult revival, by William Wynn Westcott and William Robert Woodman, both doctors, and Samuel Liddell Mathers (later MacGregor Mathers). All three were masons. The “order” of the Golden Dawn was based on a hierarchy of ten degrees, from the ten sephira of kabbala (see page 25). It devised a list of Tarot associations that is nowadays the one most generally accepted; it presented the element, the planetary influence, Tree of Life pathway, and Hebrew letter for each major arcana card.

The order also developed the divinatory meanings of the minor arcana cards, and presented fully illustrated numbered (or “pip”) cards, rather than showing a simple geometric design. One leading light of the order was Arthur Edward Waite, the originator of the Rider Waite Smith Tarot deck. Waite’s deck, illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith, was published in 1909 before the eventual demise of the order in 1914. The Rider Waite Smith deck is based on the card meanings of the Order of the Golden Dawn, and is still one of the most popular decks in use today.

The Chariot, Oswald Wirth Tarot. The Egyptian and kabbalistic influence is evident in the Wirth Tarot. The chariot is pulled by two sphinxes, and the chariot itself is adorned by the winged sun disc of Egypt. The Hebrew letter vav appears on the lower right corner of the card.

The infamous magician Aleister Crowley was initiated into the order in 1889, yet his Tarot cards—known as the Book of Thoth, or Thoth deck—did not appear until 1944, three years before his death. The limited-edition cards were illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris and only became available to the general public much later, in 1969. Crowley, “an unspeakable mad person” according to fellow initiate W. B. Yeats, left the order in 1900 after a disagreement with MacGregor Mathers. By 1907, however, he had founded the Argentinum Astrum, or Order of the Silver Star. This was his own magical society, whose key text, The Book of the Law