The Illustrated Key to the Tarot by L. W. de Laurence - The Veil and its syymbols - Section 4

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Episode Transcript

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Part one, section four of theIllustrated Key to the Tarot by L.
W. De Lorentz. This LibriVoxrecording is in the public domain recording by
Michel Dyer, Section four The Tarotin History. Our immediate next concern is

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to speak of the cards in theirhistory, so that the speculations and reveries
which have been perpetuated and multiplied inthe schools of occult research, may be
disposed of once and for all,as intimated in the preface here too,
let it be understood at the beginningof this point that there are several sets
or sequences of ancient cards which areonly in part of our concern. The

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Tarot of the Bohemians by Pappus,which I have recently carried through the press,
revising the imperfect rendering, has someuseful information in this connection, and
except for the omission of day andother evidences of the archaeological sense, it
will serve the purpose of the generalreader. I do not propose to extend

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it in the present place in anymanner that can be called considerable, but
certain editions are desirable, and soalso is a distinct mode of presentation among
ancient cards, which are mentioned inconnection with the taro. There are firstly
those of Baldini, which are thecelebrated set, attributed by tradition to Andrea

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Mantegna, though this view is nowgenerally rejected. Their date is supposed to
be about fourteen seventy, and itis thought that there are not more than
four collections examt in Europe. Acopy or reproduction referred to fourteen eighty five
is perhaps equally rare. A completeset contains fifty numbers, divided into five

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denaries or sequences of ten cards each. There seems to be no record that
they were used for the purposes ofa game, whether of chan or skill.
They could scarcely have lent themselves todivination or any form of fortune telling,
while it would be more than idleto impute a profound symbolical meaning to
their obvious emblematic designs. The firstdenari embodies conditions of life as follows one

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the beggar two, the nave three, the artisan four, the merchant five,
the noble six, the knight seven, the doge eight, the King
nine, the Emperor ten, thePope. The second contains the muses and
their divine leader eleven Calliope twelve,Urania thirteen Terpsichori fourteen Irato fifteen, Polyhemnia

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sixteen, Talia seventeen Melpomini eighteen Utepe, nineteen Cleo, twenty Apollo. The
third combines part of the Liberal Artsand Sciences with other departments of human learning
as follows twenty one grammar twenty two, logic twenty three, rhetoric twenty four,

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geometry twenty five, arithmetic twenty six, music twenty seven, poetry twenty
eight, philosophy twenty nine, astrologythirty theology. The fourth denary completes the
Liberal Arts and enumerates the virtues thirtyone astronomy thirty two, chronology thirty three,

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cosmology thirty four, temperance thirty five, prudence thirty six, strength,
thirty seven, justice, thirty eight, charity thirty nine, hope forty faith.
The fifth and last denary presents thesystem of the heavens forty one Moon

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forty two, Mercury forty three,Venus forty four, Sun forty five,
Mars forty six, Jupiter forty seven, Saturn forty eight, eighth, Sphere
forty nine, Primum mobile fifty first. Cause we must set aside the fantastic

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attempts to extract complete Tarot sequences outof these denaries. We must forbear from
saying, for example, that theconditions of life correspond to the Trump's major,
the muses to pentacles, the artsand sciences to cups, the virtues
et cetera to scepters, and theconditions of life to swords. This kind

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of thing can be done by aprocess of mental contortion, but it has
no place in reality. At thesame time, it is hardly possible that
individual cards should not exhibit certain andeven striking analogies. The Baldini King,
Knight, and Knave suggest the correspondingcourt cards of the minor Arcana, the

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Emperor, Pope, Temperance, strength, justice, Moon, and Sun are
common to the Mategna and Trump's Major. Of any tarot pack predisposition has also
connected the Beggar and fool Venus,and the star Mars, and the chariot
Saturn, and the Hermit, evenJupiter, or alternatively the first Cause,

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with the Tarot card of the World. But the most salient features of the
Trumps Major are wanting in the Mategnaset, and I do not believe that
the ordered sequins in the latter casegive birth, as it has been suggested
to the others. Romayne Merlin maintainedthis view and positively assigned the Baldini cards

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to the end of the fourteenth century. If it be agreed that, except
accidentally and sporadically, the Baldini emblematicor allegorical pictures have only a shadowy and
occasional connection with Tarot cards, andwhatever their most probable date, that they
can have supplied no originating motive.It follows that we are still seeking not

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only in origin, in place andtime for the symbols with which we are
concerned, but a specific case oftheir manifestation on the continent of Europe to
serve as a point of departure,whether backward or forward. Now it is
well known that in the year thirteenninety three, the painter Charles Gregugnier,
who for no reason that I cantrace, has been termed an occultist and

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cabalist by one indifferent English writer,designed and illuminated some kind of cards for
the diversion of Charles the sixth ofFrance when he was in mental ill health.
And the question arises whether anything canbe ascertained of their nature. The
only available answer is that at Paris, in the BiblioTech du Roy there are

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seventeen cards drawn and illuminated on paper. They are very beautiful, antique and
priceless. The figures have a backgroundof gold and are framed in a silver
border, but they are accompanied byno inscription and no number. It is
certain, however, that they includeTaro Trump's major the list of which is

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as follows Fool, Emperor, Pope, Lovers, Wheel of Fortune, Temperance,
Fortitude, Justice, Moon, Sun, Chariot, Hermit, Hangedman,
death Tower, and last Judgment.There are also four tarot cards at the
Museaic Carer Venice, and five otherselsewhere, making nine in all. They

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include two pages or knaves, threekings and two queens, thus illustrating the
minor arcana. These collections have allbeen identified with the set produced by Gregennier,
but the inscription was disputed so farback as the year eighteen forty eight,
and it has not apparently put forwardat the present day, even by

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those who are anxious to make evidentthe antiquity of the taro. It is
held that they are all of Italian, and some at least certainly of Venetian
origin. We have in this mannerour requisite point of departure in respect of
place. At least. It hasfurther been stated with authority that Venetian tarots

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are the old and true form,which is the parent of all others.
But I infer that complete sets ofthe Major and Minor Arcana belong to much
later periods. The pack is thoughtto have consisted of seventy eight cards.
Notwithstanding, however, the preference showntowards the Venetian taro, it is acknowledged

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that some portions of a Minchiati orFlorentine set must be allocated to the period
between fourteen thirteen and four fourteen eighteen. These were once in possession of a
Countess Gonzaga at Milan. A completeMinchiati pack contained ninety seven cards, and
in spite of these vestiges, itis regarded, speaking generally, as a

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later development. There were forty onetrumps major, the additional numbers being borrowed
or reflected from the Baldini emblematic set. In the court cards of the Minor
Arcana, the knights were monsters ofthe centaur type, while the knaves were
sometimes warriors and sometimes serving men.Another distinction dwelt upon is the prevalence of

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Christian medieval ideas and the utter absenceof any Oriental suggestion. The question,
however, remains whether there are Easterntraces in any tarot cards. We come
in fine to the Bolanese taro,sometimes referred to as that of Venice,
and having the trump's major complete,but numbers twenty and twenty one are train

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in the minor arcana that two,three, four, and five of the
small cards are omitted, with theresults that there are sixty two cards in
all. The termination of the Trump'smajor in the representation of the last judgment
is curious and a little arresting asa point of symbolism. But this is
all that it seems necessary to remarkabout the pack of Bologna, except that

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it is said to have been inventedor as a taro more correctly modified,
about the beginning of the fifteenth century, by an exiled Prince of Pisa resident
in the city. The purpose forwhich they were used is made tolerably evident
by the fact that in fourteen twentythree Saint Bernadine of Siena preached against playing

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cards and other forms of gambling.Forty years later, the importation of cards
into England was forbidden, the timebeing that of King Edward four. This
is the first certain record of thesubject in our country. It is difficult
to consult perfect examples of the setsenumerated above, but it is not difficult

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to meet with detailed and illustrated descriptions. I should add provided always that the
writer is not an occultist, foraccounts emanating from that source are usually imperfect,
vague, and preoccupied by considerations whichcloud the critical issues. An instance
in point is offered by certain viewswhich have been expressed on the Mategna codex.

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If I may continue to dignify cardsequences with the title of this kind,
it has been ruled, as wehave seen in occult reverie, that
Apollo and the nine Muses are incorrespondence with Pentacles. But the analogy does
not obtain in a working state ofresearch, and reverie must border on nightmare
before we can identify astronomy, chronologyand cosmology with the suit of cups.

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The Baldini figures which represent these subjectsare emblems of their period and not symbols
like the taro. In conclusion,as to this part, I observe that
there has been a disposition among expertsto think that the trumps major were not
originally connected with the numbered suits.I do not wish to offer a personal

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view. I am not an expertin the history of games of chance,
and I hate the profanum vulgus ofdivinatory devices. But I venture under all
reserves to intimate that if later researchshould justify such a learning, then except
for the good old art of fortunetellings and its tamperings with so called destiny,

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it will be so much the betterfor the greater Arcana so far as
regards what is indispensable as preliminaries tothe historical aspects of tarot cards. And
I will now take up the speculativeside of the subject and produce its test
of value. In my preface tothe Terror of the Bohemians, I have

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mentioned that the first writer who madeknown the fact that the cards was the
archaeologist court de Gebelin, who justprior to the French Revolution, occupied several
years in the publication of his monedPrimitif, which extended to nine quarto volumes.
He was a learned man of hisepoch, a high grade mason,

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a member of the historical lodge ofthe Philthes, and a virtuoso with the
profound and lifelong interest in the debateon universal antiquities, before a science of
the subject existed. Even at thisday. His memorials and dissertations, collected
under the title which I have quoted, are worth possessing. By accident of

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things, he became acquainted with theTaro when it was quite unknown in Paris,
and at once conceived that it wasthe remnants of an Egyptian book.
He made inquiries concerning it and ascertainedthat it was in circulation over a considerable
part of Europe, Spain, Italy, Germany and the south of France.
It was in use as a gameof chance skill after the ordinary manner of

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playing cards, and he ascertained furtherhow the game was played. But it
was in use also for the higherpurpose of divination or fortune telling, And
with the help of a learned friend, he discovered the significance attributed to the
cards, together with the method ofarrangement adopted for this purpose. In a

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word, he made a distinct contributionto our knowledge, and he is still
a source of reference. But itis on the question of fact only,
and not on the beloved hypothesis thatthe taro contains pure Egyptian doctrine. However,
he set the opinion which is prevalentto this day throughout the occult schools,
that in the mystery and wonder,the strange knight of the gods,

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the unknown tongue, and the undecipheredhieroglyphics which symbolized Egypt. At the end
of the eighteenth century, the originsof the cards was lost, so dreamed
one of the characteristic literaia of France. One can almost understand and sympathize for
the country about the Delta and theNile was beginning to loom largely in the

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preoccupation of learned thought, and omneignotum pro egyptico was the way the delusion
to which many minds tended. Itwas excusable enough then, but that the
madness was continued, and within thecharmed circle of the occult sciences still passes
from mouth to mouth. There isno excuse for this. Let us see

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therefore, the evidence produced by m. Court Gebelein in support of his thesis,
and that I may deal justly.It shall be summarized as far as
possible in his own words. One, the figures and arrangement of the game
are manifestly allegorical. Two the allegoriesare in conformity with the civil, philosophical,

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and religious doctrine of ancient Egypt.Three. If the cards were modern,
no high priestess would be in includedamong the greater arcana. Four.
The figure in question bears the hornsof Isis. Five The card which is
called Emperor has a scepter terminating ina triple cross. Six. The card

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entitled the Moon who is Isis showsdrops of rain or dew in the act
of being shed by the luminary.And these, as we have seen,
are the tears of Isis, whichswelled the waters of the Nile and fertilized
the fields of Egypt. Seven.The seventeenth card or star is the dog
star Serius, which was consecrated toIsis and symbolized the opening of the year.

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Eight. The game played with thetarot is founded on the sacred number
seven, which was of great importancein Egypt. Nine. The word taro
is pure Egyptian, in which languagetar equals way or road and row equals
king or royal. Is signifies,therefore the Royal Road of life. Ten.

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Alternatively, it is derived from aequals doctrine rasch equals mercury equals tooth,
and the article t in some taroche. And therefore the tarot is the
book of tooth or the table ofthe doctrine of mercury. Such is the
testimony it being understood that I haveset aside several casual statements for which no

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kind of justification is produced. These, therefore are ten pillars which support the
edifice of the thesis, and thesame are pillars of sand. The tarot
is of course allegorical, that isto say, it is symbolism. But
allegory and symbol are Catholic of allcountries, nations, and times. They

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are not more Egyptian than Mexican.They are of Europe and Cathay, of
Tibet beyond the Himalayas, and ofthe London Gutters. As allegory and symbol
the cards correspond to many types ofideas and things. They are universal and
not particular, and the fact thatthey do not especially and peculiarly respond to

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Egyptian doctrine, religious, philosophical,or civil is clear from the failure of
Court de Gaebelein. To go furtherthan the affirmation, the presence of a
high priestess among the trump's major ismore easily explained as the memorial of some
popular superstition, that worship of Diana, for example, the persistence of which

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in modern Italy has been traced withsuch striking results by Leland. We have
also to remember the universality of hornsin every cultis not expecting that of Tybet.
The triple cross is preposterous as aninstance of Egyptian symbolism. It is
the cross of the patriarchal see bothGreek and Latin of Venice of Jerusalem,

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for example, and it is theform of signing used to this day by
the priests and laity of the Orthodoxrite I pass Over. The idle allusion
to the tears of isis because otheroccult writers have told us that they are
Hebrew jods. As regards the seventeenthcard, it is the star Sirius or
another, as predisposition pleases. Thenumber seven was certainly important in Egypt,

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and any treatise on numerical mysticism willshow that the same statement applies everywhere,
even if we elect to ignore theseven Christian sacraments and the gifts of the
divine spirit. Finally, as regardsthe etymology of the word taro, it
is sufficient to observe that it wasoffered before the discovery of the Rosetta stone,

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and when there was no knowledge ofthe Egyptian language. The thesis of
Court de Gebelin was not suffered torepose undisturbed in the mind of the age.
Appealing to the learned exclusively by meansof a quarto volume, it created
the opportunity of tarot cards in Parisas the center of France and all things

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French in the universe. The suggestionthat divination by cards had behind it the
unexpected warrants of ancient hidden science,and that the root of the whole subject
was in the wonder and mystery ofEgypt, reflected thereon almost a divine dignity.
Out of the pearly use of occultpractices, cardomancy emerged into fashion and

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assumed for the moment almost pontifical vestures. The first to undertake the role of
badileur, magician and juggler was theilliterate but zealous adventurer Aliette. The second,
as a kind of high priestess fullof intuitions and revelations was Mademoiselle Lenormande,

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but she belongs to a later period, while lastly came Julia or Assini,
who was referable to a queen ofcups rather in the tatters of clairvoyance.
I am not concerned with these peopleas tellers of fortune, when destiny
itself was shuffling and cutting cards forthe game of universal revolution, or for
such courts and courtiers as were thoseof Louis the eighteenth, Charles the ninth

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and Louis Philippe. But under theoccult designation of Attaia the transliteration of his
name Aliette that Periquier took himself withhigh seriousness and posed rather as a priest
of the occult sciences than as anordinary adept in leard Diitier le Carte.
Even at this day there are peoplelike doctor PAPIs who have sought to save

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some part of his bizarre system fromoblivion. The long and heterogeneous story of
Le Monde Primitif had come to anend of its telling in seventeen eighty two,
and in seventeen eighty three the tractsof Attaia had begun pouring from the
press, testifying that already he hadspent thirty nay almost forty years in this

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study of Egyptian men, and thathe had found the final keys. They
were, in fact the keys ofthe Taro, which was a book of
philosophy and the book of tooth.But at the same time it was actually
written by seventeen magi in a templeof fire on the borders of the Levant,
some three leagues from Memphis. Itcontained the science of the universe,

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and the kardomansis proceeded to apply itto astrology, alchemy, and fortune telling.
Without the slightest diffidence or reserve asto the fact that he was driving
a trade. I have really littledoubt that he considered it genuine as amethier,
and that he himself was the firstperson whom he convinced concerning his system.

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But the point which we have tonotice is that in this manner was
the antiquity of the tarot generally trumpetedforth. The little books of Attaia are
proof positive that he did not knoweven his own language, when in the
course of time he produced a reformedTaro. Even those who think of him
tenderly admit that he spoiled its symbolism, and in respect of antiquities he had

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only Court de Ghebelin as his universalauthority. The Kardomancists succeeded one another in
the manner which I have mentioned,and of course their were rival adepts of
these less than least mysteries. Butthe scholarship of the subject, if it
can be said to have come intoexistence, reposed after all in the carto

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of Court de Gibelin for something morethan sixty years on his authority. There
is very little doubt that everyone whobecame acquainted by theory or practice, by
casual or special concern with the questionof Tarot cards accepted their Egyptian character.
It is said that people are takencommonly at their own valuation, and following

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as it does the line of leastresistance, the unsolicitous general mind assuredly accepts
archaeologie pretensions in the sense of theirown daring and of those who put them
forward. The first who appeared toreconsider the subject with some presumptive titles to
a hearing was the French writer Duche, but I am compelled to pass him

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over with a mere reference. Andalso some interesting researches on the general subject
of playing cards by Singer in England. The latter believed that the old Venetian
game called tripola was the earliest Europeanform of card playing, that it was
one of Arabian origin, and thatthe fifty two cards used for the purpose
derived from that region. I donot gather that any importance was ever attached

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to this view. Duchesny and Singerwere followed by another English writer, Wa
Chattow, who reviewed the available factsand the cloud of speculations which had already
arisen on the subject. This wasin eighteen forty eight, and his work
has still a kind of standard authority. But after every allowance for a certain

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righteousness attributable to the independent mind,it remains an indifferent and even a poor
performance. It was, however,characteristic in its way of the approaching Middle
Night of the nineteenth century. Chaddlerejected the Egyptian hypothesis, but as he
was at very little pains concerning it, he would scarcely be held to displace

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Courte de Ghibelin if the latter hadany firm ground beneath his hypothesis. In
eighteen fifty four, another French writerBotoius took up the general question, maintaining
the oriental origin of tarot cards,though without attempting to prove it. I
am not certain, but I thinkthat he is the first writer who definitely

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identified them with the Gypsies. Forhim, however, the original gypsy home
was in India, and Egypt didnot therefore enter into his calculation. In
eighteen sixty there arose Elephus Levi,a brilliant and profound illuminae, whom it
is is impossible to accept, andwith whom it is even more impossible to

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dispense. There was never a mouthdeclaring such great things of all the Western
voices which have proclaimed or interpreted thescience called a cult and the doctrine called
magical. I suppose that fundamentally speaking, he cared as much and as little
as I do for the phenomenal part. But he explained the phenomena with the

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assurance of one who openly regarded Charlotetree as a great means to an end,
if used in the right cause.He came unto his own, and
his own received him also at hisproper valuation as a man of great learning,
which he never was, and asa revealer of all mysteries, without
having been received into any I donot think that there was ever an instance

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of a writer with greater gifts aftertheir particular kind, who put them to
such indifferent uses. After all,he was only Attaiah a second time in
the flesh, endowed in his transmutation, with a mouth of gold and a
wider casual knowledge. This notwithstanding,he has written the most comprehensive, brilliant,

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enchanting history of magic which has everbeen drawn into writing in any language.
The Tarot and the di gebelin hypothesishe took into his heart of hearts,
and all occult France and all esotericBritain martinists, half instructed cabalists,
schools of Soeuy descant theosophy there hereand everywhere, have accepted his judgment about

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it with the same confidence as hisinterpretations of those great classics of Kabbalism,
which he had skimmed rather than read. The Taro for him was not only
the most perfect instrument of divination andthe keystone of occult science, but it
was the primitive book, the solebook of the ancient magi, the miraculous

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volume which inspired all the sacred Writingsof Antiquity in his first work. Levi
was content, however, with acceptingthe construction of Court de Ghebelin and reproducing
the seventh trump Major with a fewEgyptian characteristics. The question of tarot transmission
through the Gypsies did not occupy himtill J. A. Vlante, a

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bizarre writer with great knowledge of theRomani people, suggested it in his work
on those Wandering Tribes. The twoauthors were almost coincident and reflected one another
thereafter. It remained for Romayne Merlinin eighteen sixty nine to point out what
should have been obvious, namely,that cards of some kind were known in

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Europe prior to the arrival of theGypsies in or about fourteen seventeen. But
as this was their arrival at Luneburg, and as their presence can be traced
antecedently, the correction loses a considerablepart of its force. It is safe
for, therefore, to say thatthe evidence for the use of the taro

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by Romani tribes was not suggested tillafter the year eighteen forty. The fact
that some Gypsies before this period werefound using cards is quite explicable. On
the hypothesis, not that they broughtthem into Europe, but found them there
already and added them to their stockin trade. We have now seen that
there is no particle of evidence forthe Egyptian origin of tarot cards. Looking

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in other directions, it was onceadvanced on native authority that cards of some
kind were invented in China about theyear a d. Eleven twenty. Court
de Gibelin believed in his zeal thathe had traced them to a Chinese inscription
of great imputed antiquity, which wassaid to refer to the subsidience of the

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waters of the deluge. The charactersof this inscription were contained in seventy seven
compartments, and this constitutes the analogy. India had also its tablets, whether
cards or otherwise, and these havesuggested similar slender similitudes. But the existence,
for example, of ten suits orstyles of twelve numbers each and representing

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the avatars of Vishnu as a fish, tortoise, bore, lion, monkey,
hatchet, umbrella or bow, asa goat, a bud, and
as a horse and fine are notgoing to help us towards the origin of
our own trumps major, nor docrowns and harps, nor even the presence
of possible coins as a synonym ofdeniers, and perhaps as an equivalent of

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pentacles, do much to elucidate thelesser arcana. If every tongue and people,
and clime and period possessed their cards, if with these they also philosophized,
divined, and gambled, the factwould be interesting enough. But unless
they were tarot cards, they wouldillustrate only the universal tendency of man to

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be pursuing the same things in moreor less the same way. I end,
therefore the history of this subject byrepeating that it has no history prior
to the fourteenth century, when thefirst rumors were heard concerning cards. They
may have existed for centuries, butthis period would be early enough if they

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were only intended for people to trytheir luck at gambling or their luck at
seeing the future. On the otherhand, if they contain the deep intimations
of secret doctrine, then the fourteenthcentury is again early enough, or at
least in this respect, we aregetting as much as we can. End

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of Section four