History of the Tarot???????????

[TheTheologin]

The Tarot is the oldest card game in the world. Time has covered up its origins, thus the formation of myths and legends.

The one that is mostly accepted tells us that it was invented by the Great Hermes Trismegisto who is known as the messenger of the gods, who possessed the knowledge of the words of Power as well as their correct pronunciation. He is compared and matched to the god Thot, who created through words, and even sometimes takes his place.

Hermes is the father of Hermetism, a study that is named after its creator. All of his prophesies have come true, like the one he said about his own people when he wrote: "Mercy will end, the religious will me persecuted and when this happens, Egypt will die". And to tell this to a nation whose religion is the foundation of many other religions around the world would seam impossible.



Rest of the thesis (http://www.cafetarot.com/english/history.htm)

[Demeter]

The only part of that post that is true is the first sentence.

I've seen links to all sorts of things as the origins of the Tarot, including Buddhist picture books and Gypsy lore. I thought I had seen just about every possible story about the origins of the Tarot, but this one takes the cake! There are no such pictures in the Great Pyramid! At all! The arrangements of rooms in the temples is not the same as the rooms in the Great Pyramid. were. How someone can write such bosh about something that is a matter of archaeological record is beyond me. Further, we have no idea what the secret rites of Osiris were. The Gypsies are not of Egyptian origin. If the article is accurate about the Gypsies having entered Europe in the 12th century, it cannot be accurate about them being responsible for the cards, which did not appear until 2 centuries later (the article claims the two events were "simultaneous," but its own text states that the first known cards were made in 1392). Hermes Trismegistus was a legendary name, probably a name taken by several succeeding writers. Most of the hermetic lore was lost, and what is left is fragmentary. Its prophetic accuracy is about the same as that of Nostradamus or the Book of Revelation, and most of that "accuracy" is because heavily veiled symbolic allegories can be read so as to apply to almost any situation.

Here is a link to a summary on the facts of the tarot rather than suppositions, folklore, and wishful thinking.

http://www.salemtarot.com/tarothistory.html

[Myst]

Look look it's a disagreement in the Tarot forum! ;)

[Demeter]

Something tells me this is not unusual?

[Dagda Moon~Lily]

lol On the contrary, it's very unusual for the Tarot forum! lol :sunny:

[Myst]

heh I'm so excited

a disagreement that isn't in one of my forums ;)

[Adrenaline Junkie]

LOL :D

[TheTheologin]

Actually the reason that there are question marks after the title is because in fact I was asking the question. I ran across that and seeing that I've never really been into the tarot I was curious as to the validity of the article.

[Theres]

if the ravages of time haven't played too heavily on me, i'll take a shot at this...

Hermes (the God) is certainly similar to, or derived from Thoth. but Hermes Trismagistus is NOT Hermes the God of the Greeks.
as the Author of 'The Emerald Tablets' he probably is the originator of modern 'hermetics'.
but as was posted above by Demeter, it is more likely that the Hermes Trismagistus that we know is probably a conglomeration of a number of writers over a period of time.

the idea of Egyptian origins for the tarot was popularized by Antoine Court de Gebelin in the late 18th century, and really took off a century later thanks to Papus and the Golden Dawn.
there is no real evidence of the truth of this theory, or of any alledged tarot 'history' before the 15th century (of course, there's nothing that says it isn't Egyptian either). as far as i know, the earliest 'hard evidence' that we have is the Visconti-Sforza pack, which dates from around 1430 something (if my memory still serves). from that time until Court de Gebelin's time, the tarot was considered little more than a parlor game for the rich. it's esoteric meaning didn't really become popular until the late 1700's.
other common 'histories' are that it came from the Far East with the Celtic migration, or that it was a deliberately 'pied' book of occult knowledge (in either 22 or 78 'chapters') that descended from the Middle East from biblical times.
these are all great stories, but i wouldn't call ANY of them facts.

one really good book on the history of the tarot is Cynthia Giles' "TAROT; History, Mystery and Lore". i would also recommend "The Element Tarot Handbook" by Naomi Ozaniec.

have a nice day.

[TheTheologin]

Demeter & Greenman..........thank you for the info. Iwill definitely read up on it. :)

[Myst]

damn

no disagreement :-/

[Theres]

no, you're wrong!



(hehehe...)

[Demeter]

Ah, I see, Theologin ... sorry for the, um, abrupt tone of my post, but it wasn't clear from your post that you were looking for information. Maybe next time: "I heard this, what do you think?" so as not to confuse old slowtops like me?

And we can still have a disagreement if people want to. "I think the Mythic Tarot is best!" Anyone care to disagree?

Wishing a happy Yule to all!

[Theres]

Happy Yule!!!

and my Yule gift to you all is... A DISAGREEMENT!

regarding tarot cards, there is the Thoth deck, and then there is everything else!

[Demeter]

For some reason Thoth gives me the heebie jeebies. I only have one because a friend gave it to me, and I don't let it live on the same shelf with my other decks.

[Major Tom]

The origins of the tarot is a fascinating question and has been answered by many people over many centuries. I wonder how many of them simply made it up! :lol:

From Playing Cards by Roger Tilley: The earliest known original document with an unarguable reference to playing cards is a manuscript, dated 1377, written in Latin by a German monk living in a Swiss monastery and preserved by the British Museum.

Interestingly enough, the monk, named Johannes, described the deck for playing tarocchi - but forgot in his enthusiam to describe the game. :lol:

[Arduinna]

Sorry to disagree, hehe, but the best tarot deck of the Sacred Circle Tarot!!!

I knew we could disagree about something!!

**giggles**

[Dagda Moon~Lily]

LOL and you know everyone will disagree as to the best deck! lol I personally LOVE the Robin Wood Tarot deck. That's what I do most all my readings from....though I have appoximately 10 decks. ...and most of them I had BEFORE I got my Robin Wood's.

[Lavender]

No! No! You're all wrong!!! The best deck is my deck...which is the Wheel of Change Deck. :D

[goldenweb]

Hmmm... interesting, and the first sign of disagreement I've ever seen on MysticWicks, which happily ended almost before it started!

[seeknow]

What? You mean you haven't had the argument if one have to use reversals or not?

As for "best" deck
Well, there is the Thoth and then there is the rest :hehehehe: