Where Tarot Came From

Two chairs

Two accounts of the same deck, and they can't both be right about its beginning.

The question

Is tarot an ancient mystery system — or a fifteenth-century Italian card game that was read as occult only from 1781?

Round 1

The chair of the ancient originBelievers say the imagery maps onto older systems too closely for chance — the Hebrew letters, the elements, the Tree of Life.

The chair of the documented deckThe earliest decks are Italian, around 1440, made for courts like the Visconti and Sforza, for a trick-taking game.

Round 2

The chair of the ancient originBelievers say symbolic knowledge travels in pictures long before anyone writes it down, so a missing paper trail proves little.

The chair of the documented deckFor about three centuries it was only played. In 1781 Court de Gébelin called it Egypt's Book of Thoth, without evidence.

Round 3

The chair of the ancient originBelievers say twenty-two major cards and four suits aren't the shape a card game would naturally take.

The chair of the documented deckHieroglyphs couldn't be read by anyone in 1781. The correspondences were added later, by people building a synthesis.

Where are you sitting?

The chair of the ancient origin The chair of the documented deck Neither — I’m still listening

Held open

The paper trail is heavily on one side. What it can't settle is whether something assembled recently can still do what it's used for — which is usually the real question.

A card game, then a mirror. Both happened.

scroll to hear both

1 / 7