Ascension on the "Stairway of the Planets": Tarot as a Western Book of the Dead; Emerald Tablet as an Ascension Text

Is the Tarot a Western Book of the Dead, and the Hermetic Emerald Tablet, the famous Tabula Smaragdina, an ascension text? Does it have anything to do with the ideas of ascension? I am going to propose that in a round about way it can be understood as an ascension text, not as Dante’s Paradisio, the Book of Enoch, or Ezekiel’s visions of the Divine Chariot-Throne of God in the Old Testament are, that is, not as an actual description of a person ascending to heaven, receiving instruction via a vision, or an angel teaching the ascendant, etc., but as a text which elucidates the idea of ascension. A person who purifies his/her soul, can and ought to have an ascension to heaven for oneself. This is the whole core, the entire reason for Alchemy, Kabbalah, and Hermeticism, not even to mention Joseph Smith’s idea in the King Follett Discourse that “we have got to learn how to be gods ourselves.”

I will further propose that the Medieval Tarot Cards, with their spiritually significant symbolisms are ascension texts par excellence, as instructional symbolisms for us to comprehend that we are from the higher worlds, (the fundamental meaning and inspiration seen in Paul Foster Case’s “Fool” card) and we can, while here, in this life, again ascend

to the heavens to receive our own revelations, testimonies, and knowledges, exactly in the same manner as many of the ancient ascendants, prophets, mystics, and children of God.

The Tarot Card symbolisms are pictorial graphic images, when placed in the correct enumeration, are the “Stairway to Heaven,“ ascension texts, exactly in the spirit of Jacob’s ladder to heaven he participated with, and recorded n the ancient Hebraic record. The Tarot Cards, according to Jason Lotterhand, are nothing short of pure revelation, and he tells his students many, many times that we have got to learn to be open to the idea and possibility of having revelation, or we simply won’t get what life is all about.[1] Joseph Smith taught that revelation is the pure intelligence flowing into you, sudden strokes of ideas, those things presented to you by the Spirit of God, and we can see for ourselves that we can grow into the spirit of revelation, “until you become perfect in Christ Jesus.”[2] Paul Foster Case has taught, and taught very bluntly that “the most important use of Tarot is to evoke thought.”[3]

This revelation from the heavens comes in many ways, but pondering the scriptures, thinking about the Plan of Salvation, and meditation are powerful ways to receive this influx of “Divine Energy,” as I shall call it. Isaac the Old Testament Patriarch, we read from one of the truly great Kabbalistic scholars, Leonora Leet, is the correct Patriarch to connect spiritual meditation with the Patriarchal Covenant because we are told that from the way of the well Lahai-Roi (Genesis 24:62), the well which was mystically revealed to Hagar by an angel, Isaac went out to meditate (suach) in the field at eventide. (Genesis 24:63). This type of meditation which Isaac engaged in is understood and known to be the floating, tranquil state experienced by Isaac.[4]

I would propose, based on my own experience, that meditating and praying with a spirit of learning and understanding, of recognizing the great truths in all the spiritual disciplines from the magnificent Book of Mormon Lehi/Nephi visions of the Tree of Life, as well as the revelation of Joseph Smith in the Doctrine & Covenants, (my personal favorite section being 88), to the Kabbalah Tree of Life and the Tarot Card Symbolisms, and other spiritual informations available to us, by using God’s given methods of meditating with our minds and spirits as our forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have done, as has the Prophet Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and the current prophet Gordon B. Hinckley has taught. This enables us to recognize (to re - COGNIZE, that is put back together in our minds, the meaning of the word!) our own Divine heritage, and realize that God has spoken to all his children and to all the tribes of Israel. Their spiritual understandings can help us appreciate our own with greater depth, clarity, and appreciation, and learn from them also to expand our minds, spirits, and horizons about the goodness and greatness that is God, ourselves as children of God, and of the incredible Plan of Salvation which is literally open to all.

The Kabbalah and alchemy have a major singular theme that Leet has elaborated upon, and which is powerfully found in the Gospel as Joseph Smith taught as well. “The great secret shared by both the Kabbalah and Alchemy is that which I have termed the secret doctrine of the son, that ’son of the wise, whose generation is impossible for nature,’ and who unites the essential qualities of the higher and lower planes, of the infinite and the finite. And they would seem to share this secret doctrine because both [note this! She says both Kabbalah and alchemy] are similarly derived from an earlier Hebraic priestly culture.”[5]

The process of alchemical ascension is viewed powerfully with the Tarot Cards “Infinite Stairway,” or the “Ladder to Heaven.” It brings together, with the Tabula Smaragdina (Emerald Tablet), both the heavenly and earthly planes, and connects the microcosm with the macrocosm, giving us our proper place within the universe, as a part of the universe. The Emerald Tablet directly notes that what esxcends from heaven is supposed to, and ought to ascend to heaven. The Cosmos is our home, and we belong here, as do all of the other critters and creatures of creation.

The idea that the Tarot images display when correlated with their correct astronomical aspects, is the “hieros gamos of sun and moon,… a mystical marriage of the divine and the human planes.”[6] Compare Joseph Smith’s teaching. “ …all will be raised by the power of God, having spirit in their bodies, and not blood. Children will be enthroned in the presence of God and the Lamb with bodies of the same stature that they had on earth, having been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; they will there enjoy the fullness of that light, glory, and intelligence, which is prepared in the celestial kingdom.”[7] The marriage, that is the connection and interaction of the heavenly and human plane.

This interconnection is vividly shown on the Magician in the Tarot with his gesture by his upward thrust arm and his downward thrust arm, the Hermetic gesture of “As Above, So Below,” taught in the Tabula Smaragdina - “It is true, without falsehood, and most certain. What is below is like that which is above; and what is above is like that which is below: to accomplish the miracle of the one thing.”[8] Joseph Smith, so far as I understand, is the only one in his day, and all the way up into ours who has united both the living and the dead, the heavenly and the earthly (as above, so below) with the doctrine of the salvation for the dead, including baptism for the dead.

The Tarot as a pictorial form of the alchemical art, which had very little with turning lead into gold for profit, though there is a real gold, the only question is what is it being transformed, shows a relation of the metals of alchemy to the planets (the microcosm links to the macrocosm), which leads to an interpretation of the “Great Myth: that of the Stairway of the Seven Planets.”[9]

Roberts quotes Jean Doresse that “All the pagan religions of the Near East and the Mediterranean had adapted their creeds to the great myths of astrology, which was accorded the status of a science, and according to which man was subject to the planets and constellations from before birth until death, shackled to the Wheel of Fate.”[10] I can’t find his exact quote, but in my copy of Doresse, one can look in the Index under “astrology,” “fate,” and see that the influence was in the Gnostic, Egyptian, Iranian, Christian, Jewish, Chaldean, Hermetic, etc. regions. There is also further evidence of this astrological mindset in many new scholarly analysis’ of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Gnosticism, and Early Christianity.[11]

This “Wheel of Fate,” is seen in the Tarot as the “Wheel of Fortune,” the same image. It is associated with the planet Jupiter, one of the rungs of the “Stairway of Planets.”[12] The Wheel of Fortune is also associated with the Cube of Space at the center of the west.[13] The Cube of space is itself an ascension meditation and is used for ascension rites and practices.[14]

Keys 13, 14, and 15 (The Tarot has 22 major cards, Roberts calls “keys” here) are related to the planet Saturn, another rung in the stairway. The death keys, and Saturn is associated with Father Time, and death, the end of time and process.

“The alchemical process may be seen as a rite of initiation for matter and man to become spirit, or, symbolically, the gold of the sun (Key 19)”[15] Roberts shows how the ancient rites of Apuleius being transformed into an ass, symbolizing lead, is carried through all the elements and is transformed into gold in the process. Capricorn is the sign of lead, the furthest element from the sun, and the ass is an attribute of Saturn, which also signifies lead. The ass in Apuleius is an attribute of Saturn also. All the alchemical elements are present in the transformation of the ass into the sun, from lead which is (ass, Saturn, even trickster/devil) transformed and crowned as Helios.

“The idea of a ladder, a stairway set up to heaven is universal in religions. Most significant is the connection of the 7 steps of development… in which the soul (material) pass through the spheres of all the planets… the soul must, on its ways (anados) to its heavenly home, i.e., to its celestial goal, pass through all the planetary spheres… also in the life of the world, if it is completely lived, man passes through, according to the ideas of the old mystery teachings, the domination of the seven planets.”

This is the reason that Roberts calls the Tarot a “Western Book of the Dead.”[16] The reason for this is that the Major Arcana (the main cards of the Tarot) can be aligned up perfectly with the 7 steps of initiation of the ancient ascension rites to travel to heaven. As with both the Egyptian and Tibetan Books of the Dead, the Tarot, the Western Book of the Dead is about how the Souls ascend back through the planetary spheres to get back home to heaven, where they originated.

Steps symbolize ascent, upward movement, gradation, communication between different vertical levels. Mithraism had the same number of steps of initiation, namely 7. The ancient ziggurats of Mesopotamia also were steps symbolizing the ascending king ascending to heaven. The veil of Isis is lifted and the stairway of the planets revealed as the great mystery of the Major Tarot Arcana in this manner.

1. Mercury - Quicksilver - Tarot Keys 1-3

2. Venus - Copper - Tarot Keys 4-6

3. Mars - Iron - Tarot Keys 7-9

4. Jupiter - Tin - Tarot Keys 10-12

5. Saturn - Lead - Tarot Keys 13-15

6. Moon - Silver - Tarot Keys 16-18

7. Sun - Gold - Tarot Keys 19-21

What the Tarot is teaching when we remember the celestial correspondences here is the transformation journey of soul or spirit, which commences with a descent through Mercury to Saturn, from the volatile and mercurial metal to the heavy and gross aspect. Then we have a following ascent, a return up through the silvery moon to the gold of the sun.[17]

As the Corpus Hermeticum teaches, "If a man knows God, all will be well with him not only in this life, but also in the life to come; for his soul, when it quits the body, will know whither to direct its upward flight; that is, it will fly to God, whom it has learnt to know on earth."[18] As Alexander Roob aptly summarized it: "In many Gnostic myths man is given an autonomous task of creation: in order to heal the sick organism of the world, he must lead the divine sparks of light [which is what we are, Gnosis is "knowing" we are divine - Roob, p. 18], spiritual gold, through the seven planetary spheres of the Ptolemaic cosmos and back to their heavenly home.To the outermost sphere of Saturn corresponds the 'sullied garment of the soul' the grossest material, lead. Passing through this sphere meant physical death and the putrefaction of matter that is a necessary prerequisite transformation. The subsequent stages are: Jupiter-tin; Mars-iron; Venus-copper; Mercury-quicksilver; Moon-silver; Sun-gold. The individual metals were taken to represent various degrees of maturity or illness of the same basic material on its way to perfection, to gold. To ease its passages throughout the seven gates of the planetary demons, gnosis, the knowledge of astral magic practices, was required."[19]

This exact same process of descent, leaving the heavenly home, and then a return ascent back to home in the heavens is the process that Joseph Smith described for Gods and men in the King Follett Discourse. Jesus did what he had seen his Father do, and we must do the same. We go from the lower, heavy, gross, leaden nature of humanity, rising up into the golden nature and eternal lives as Gods. This is the ancient Hebraic Priesthood doctrine of the Divine Son, the early Christian doctrine of Deification, the Hermetic Egyptian doctrine of Gnosis, the Medieval doctrine of the Kabbalah and alchemy. This is the doctrine pictured in the Tarot Cards Stairway of the Planets alignment. And it is a restored doctrine of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Joseph Smith giving us notice that the Restoration (ascension) of the Gospel is once again to be had for the betterment, improvement, and Deification of God’s creation, his own Divine Children.

Endnotes

1. Jason Lotterhand, The Thursday Night Tarot, Newcastle Publishing, 1989: 281.

2. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, (hereafter cited as Teachings,)ed., Joseph Fielding Smith, Deseret Book, 22^nd printing, 1973: 151.

3. Paul Foster Case, Tarot: Key to the Wisdom of the Ages, BOTA, Revised edition, 1990: 210.

4. Leonora Leet, Renewing the Covenant: A Kabbalistic Guide to Jewish Spirituality, Inner Traditions, 1999: 2.

5. Leonora Leet, The Secret Doctrine of the Kabbalah, Inner Traditions, 1999: 216.

6. Richard Roberts, Tarot Revelations, Vernal Equinox Press, 3^rd edition, 1987: 51.

7. Teachings, p. 200.

8. Quoted in Three Books of Occult Philosophy, by Henry Cornelius Agrippa, edited/annotated by Donald Tyson, Llewellyn Publishing, 7^th printing, 2004: 711. Cf. the translation of the tablet in Alexander Roob, The Hermetic Museum, Alchemy & Hermeticism, Taschen, 1997: 8-9. See also David Fideler, Jesus Christ: Sun of God, Quest Books, 1993: 232-233; For another interesting translation and analysis, Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism, Anonymous, [I am told it was Valentin Tomberg], 1985 copyright by Martin Kriele, 21-26. One cannot miss the in-depth analysis of the Emerald Tablet, translation and interpretation of Dennis William Hauck, The Emerald Tablet: Alchemy for Personal Transformation, Penguin/Arkana, 1999: Chapter 4. See further Manley P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, Penguin Books, Reader's Ed., 2003: 513-516. And there are multitudes of links on the Internet on the Emerald Tablet or the Tabula Smaragdina.

9. Roberts, Tarot Revelations, p. 52.

10. Roberts, Ibid., p. 52.

11. See Jean Doresse, The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics, MJF/Inner Traditions, 1986; Rabbi Joel C. Dobin, Kabbalistic Astrology: The Sacred Tradition of the Hebrew Sages, Inner Traditions, 1977, for a detailed description of astrological influences in the ancient Hebrew scriptures and life; Robert R. Stieglitz, “The Hebrew Names of the Seven Planets,” in Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 40, No. 2 (1981): 135-137; See Kocku von Stuckrad, “Jewish and Christian Astrology in Late Antiquity - a New Approach,” in Numen, Vol. 47, (2000): 1-35; James H. Charlesworth, “Jewish Astrology in the Talmud, Pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Early Palestinian Synagogues,” in Harvard Theological Review, 70, No. 3-4, (July-October 1977): 183-200; B. L. van der Waerden, “History of the Zodiac,” in Archiv fur Orientforschung, (1952-1953): 216-230.

12. Kevin Townley, Meditations on the Cube of Space, Archer Books, 2003: 49.

13. David Allen Hulse, New Dimensions for the Cube of Space, Samuel Weiser, 2000: 27. Cf. Robert Wang, The Qabalistic Tarot: A Textbook of Mystical Philosophy, Marcus Aurelius Press, Revised ed., 2004: 194.

14. See Robert Wang, Qabalistic Tarot.

15. Roberts, Ibid., p. 53.

16. Robert, Ibid., quote on p. 54.

17. Roberts, Ibid., pp. 56-57.

18. Walter Scott, Hermetica: The Ancient Greek and Latin Writings Which Contain Religious or Philosophical Teachings Ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, Kessinger Republishng, (no date), Vol. 3: 323. 19. Alexander Roob, Ibid., p. 19.

Comments

[chrys333]

Brilliant, as usual, Kerry.
Interesting how much the rituals are alike, the soul traveling and having tests and key words.
That is something that isn't ever presented in modern, conventional religion - unless you count Christmas and Easter plays.
Thanks,
chrys333

[Oudler]

What is Tarot?
Tarot (also known as Tarock, Tarokk, Taroky, Taroc, Tarok, Tarocchi and similar names) is a family of trick taking card games played with an enlarged deck of 78 cards which include an extra court card for each of the four regular suits, a permanent trump suit of 21 cards, and a kind of "wild card" called "the Fool" or "Excuse." Although seen primarily by many as a means of fortune telling or divination, the Tarot deck was created in northern Italy during the 15th century for playing card games. The notion of a trump suit which survives in such popular card games as Spades and Bridge originated with the game of Tarot.

The myth of Egyptian origins of Tarot, while once common, has long been debunked by later scholars. There is also no record of Tarot cards being used for the occult or divination prior to the 18th century. The Tarot card readings popular at Renaissance Fairs are a creative license taken with historical fact and should not be viewed as authentic. Contrary to popular belief, conventional playing cards were not derived from Tarot decks and the Fool is unrelated to the Joker of conventional playing cards. The Joker was created in the USA during the 19th century originally for the card game Euchre.

[Kerry Shirts]

That's one view of it yes. Paul Foster Case has also demonstrated with great intelligence that the Tarot as a divination tool is incorrect. It is more for personal growth and understanding.

The symbolisms, while being put forward later than many ancient societies, at least in some decks, certainly do tap into an ancient resevoir of knowledge.

Tarot card "readings" used by one as a means of telling soeone else what their future is about, is a misuse in my opinion as well. For a takeoff point of researching into other ancient traditions and ideas however, I find the symbolisms to be very stimulating.

[Kerry Shirts]

Hi Chryss,

Yes the rituals are fascinating, and in regards to my post, I find the Books of Jeu and the Pistis Sophia to be loaded with fascinating reading. I shall have to put some materials together with these books also. Thanks!

[David Littlefield]

If you are going to read Pistis Sophia, then you really need to read Bishop Cyril's discouse on the Mysteries! Of course we could just the the 88th section of the Doctine and Covenants, it all ends up at the same place.
- David

[Kerry Shirts]

True! I need to do some posts on this material as well. I have Cyril's lectures as well as the Pistis Sophia and Books of Jeu.......the diagrams i Jeu are fascinating, even though they aren't the original ones in the actual manuscripts. At least not all of them. I would love to have a copy of the original materials.

[Joe Steve Swick III]

Oudler said: "The myth of Egyptian origins of Tarot, while once common, has long been debunked by later scholars."

Joe responds: So, the old 'Gypsy Fortuneteller stuff is all myth? I'm heartbroken.

:-))

Oudler said: "There is also no record of Tarot cards being used for the occult or divination prior to the 18th century."

Joe responds: Not if your sole source of Tarot information is Decker and Dummett. While D&D provide important scholarly discussion, the facts are not yet entirely in, and the final score has yet to be tallied regarding the earliest occult uses of Tarot. :-) In the first place, the use of playing cards in divination DOES date back even earlier than the creation of Tarot. In his nicely documented book, _Mystical Origins of the Tarot_ (http://www.amazon.com/Mystical-Origins-Tarot-Ancient-Modern/dp/0892811900/), Paul Huson notes that the earliest references to playing card divination are from the 14th century (i.e., the 1300's). From the 15th century, playing card divination was popular in Germany, where special oracle books were printed for use in conjunction with the deck. Such books were frequenly illustrated "with depictions of Fortune's Wheel, as they are in similar Italian lot-books of the following century" (Huson, 47). As for the specific use of Tarot as a divinatory tool, evidence is relatively strong that "during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the tarot was already being viewed as an occult device." Further, based upon the 1989 discovery of a pre-1750 Bolognese manuscript which "gives a list of cartomantic interpretations for ... Bolognese tarocchi cards" (ibid.) it seems quite likely that the assertion of Decker and Dummett that there was no occult or divinatory use of Tarot until the 18th century is is incorrect.

Huson has this to say about Dummett's thesis (which appears in two separate books -- _A Wicked Pack of Cards: The Origins of the Occult Tarot_, and _A History of the Occult Tarot: 1870-1970_):

"Michael Dummett, who is opposed to what he regards as the misappropriation of the tarot by occultists, doubts that the images depicted on the trumps taken as a set contained any special meaning to their earliest users, inasmuch as they were standard subjects of medieval and Renaissance iconography. I, on the other hand, for the very same reason, believe the trumps to have been pregnant with meaning from the start, their symbolism drawn from the world of medieval drama, of miracle, mystery and morality plays, with a hint of Neoplatonism evident here and there, which lent itself very readily to esoteric uses" (Huson, xiii).

I largely agree with Huson's very careful scholarship. Whether tarot was used for divination (or was born in ancient Egypt) or not is less interesting to me than its apparent relationship to the mystery plays of the middle ages, as well as to certain streams Renaissance-period religion and philosophy -- including the belief that viewing of fine art could heal or set something right in the soul. While there is no doubt that Tarot was used in common games and in divinatory practices such as "sortilege" or the drawing of lots as early as the 1500's, I'd suggest that they may have had another purpose as well.

Oudler said: "Contrary to popular belief, conventional playing cards were not derived from Tarot decks"

Joe responds: That is correct. Versions of conventional playing cards are traceable to the mid-1300s, and appear to have "evolved from a source ... that ... can be traced to the Persian Empire before the time of the Islamic conquest in 642 C.E" (Huson xiii). The Trumps (or Major Arcana) appear to have been invented in Italy some time in the early-to-mid 1500's, as an expansion of the "regular" deck. It may (or may not) have been named for Petrarch's poem, I trionfi, composed in the late 1300's.

Regarding the derivation of the Tarot Trumps, Huson explains: "Judging from the facts that no decks consisting solely of twenty-two trumps have survived and that the early uncut printed sheets of tarot cards and various Visconti and D'Este painted decks all show trumps and suit cards united, it seems ... likely that somebody had the bright idea of making the regular game of fifty-six Mamluk-derived playing cards more complex by adding to it twenty-one special, high-ranking cards (and one special nonranking card)" (Huson 29).

Oudler then said: "The Tarot card readings popular at Renaissance Fairs are a creative license taken with historical fact and should not be viewed as authentic."

Joe responds: Your comment can be taken in two ways, and so I'll address both. In the first place, the Renaissance roughly covers the period from the 14th ~ the 16th centuries. So, the Tarot cards themselves were certainly a product of the Renaissance. Huson argues that by the late 1500's to early 1600's, the Tarot was already being viewed as an occult device. And, we are fairly certain that there were Tarot readings by the late 1600's ~ early 1700's. This is a little late for Tarot-mancy during the Renaissance, but there is little doubt that cartomancy itself existed in the 1500s: in fact, Huson's example was a German oracle-book "entitled _Ein Loszbuch ausz der Karten gemacht_, (A Lot-Book Made from Playing Cards), which was written in the 1480s to accompany a deck of cards using the German suit signs Hawkbells, Hearts, Leaves, and Acorns.... Such lot-books seem to have been highly popular among educated Germans of the fifteenth century" (Huson, 46-7). So, while the historical authenticity of a Renaissance use of Tarot for cartomancy is not certain, it is not entirely impossible or unlikely, either. Here is a piece of evidence that has bearing on Kerry's premise that Tarot was a Renaissance "Ladder of Ascent":

"There are ... those tarotlike engravings ... dated to about 1470 now and once attributed to Andrea Mantegna. They are printed on flimsy paper and seem much too large from playing ordinary card games.... The ukknown Ferrarese artist who created them made FIFTY IMAGES (rather than twenty-two or seventy-eight), five ranks of ten, and they too carry alphabetical letters as well as numbers. The first rank depicts the social order of precendence in medieval and early Renaissance times, PROGRESSING from a BEGGAR to an ARTISAN to a SERVANT, PASSING THROUGH KING and EMPEROR, ENDING WITH THE POPE. The second rank shows the Arts as the nine classical muses led by the god Apollo; the third rank depicts the SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS OF MEDIEVAL SCHOLASTICISM, PLUS ASTROLOGY, PHILOSOPHY, AND THEOLOGY; the fourth rank depicts the three disciplines of ASTRONOMY, CHRONOLOGY, and COSMOLOGY, followed by the SEVEN VIRTUES. The fifth and most sublime rank shows the SEVEN PLANETARY GODS, then the SPHERE OF THE FIXED STARS, FOLLOWED BY THE PRIMUM MOBILE, OR ETHER, AND FINALLY THE PRIMA CAUSA, or FIRST CAUSE of EVERYTHING. In other words, the Mantegna tarocchi presents THE ENTIRE COSMIC LADDER in typical Neoplatonic fashion, FROM BEGGAR to GOD, IN FIFTY STEPS that would be comprehensible to the educated fifteenth-century mind.... we can detect similarities to the tarot trupmps. Undoubtedly THE ARTIST WAS DRAWING INSPIRATION HER FROM EXISTING TAROCCHI.... Differing opinions have been advanced as to ... [the] purpose [for which these cards were created]. Playing-card historian Detlef Hoffmann has conceded that they were MOST LIKELY USED TO PROVIDE A STIMULUS FOR PROFOUND DISCUSSION BETWEEN EDUCATED PEOPLE RATHER THAN TO PLAY IDLE GAMES" (Huson, 48-9).

I trust you find this remark as stimulating as I do. I certainly is food for thought, and it perhaps provides some nice support for Kerry's article (which is a nice expression of an opinion he and I apparently share).

For those of you interested in the celestial ascent as depicted in Masonic ritual, I'd again point out this early use of the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences as part of the Ladder extending from Earth to Heaven.

Sorry for the small digression. Of course, the other issue your ambiguous language raises is that of the authenticity of the Tarot reading itself. Whether the *reading itself* is "authentic" or not has nothing whatsoever to do with the historical origins of Tarot, I think you'll agree! Now, I frankly see little value in Tarot fortunetelling; I do see an immense value in Tarot as a psychological and even instructional tool, and I speculate that something akin to this may have been appreciated as a value of the Tarot Trumps relatively early on.

Kindest,
Joe Swick

[Oudler]

Yes, I have drawn on Dummett on his works on Tarot games, as Tarot in it's purest form is card playing. I have not read Huson's work. I have downloaded a pdf file reviewing Huson's book and if I understand it Huson is not contradicting Dummett as he is focusing on the Tarot symbolism which was beyond Dummett's focus. Are you sure you are not taking Huson's work out of context?

[Joe Steve Swick III]

Oudler says: "Yes, I have drawn on Dummett on his works on Tarot games, as Tarot in it's purest form is card playing."

Joe responds: Well, that is what Dummet says, and I can appreciate why you would be attracted to such a view. However, it is a view contradicted by Huson's unique and nicely supported thesis.

Oudler then says: I have not read Huson's work. I have downloaded a pdf file reviewing Huson's book and if I understand it Huson is not contradicting Dummett as he is focusing on the Tarot symbolism which was beyond Dummett's focus.

Joe replies: Huson definitely focuses on Tarot symbolism. However, this does not mean he does not contradict Dummett. He clearly does, as the quotes from him in my previous post demonstrate. That is to say, Huson uses evidence for his argument which was not even considered by Decker and Dummett.

As you nicely summarize, it is Dummett's contention that "there is also no record of Tarot cards being used for the occult or divination prior to the 18th century." By contrast, "Paul Huson notes that the earliest references to playing card divination are from the 14th century (i.e., the 1300's). From the 15th century, playing card divination was popular in Germany, where special oracle books were printed for use in conjunction with the deck. Such books were frequenly illustrated 'with depictions of Fortune's Wheel, as they are in similar Italian lot-books of the following century' (Huson, 47). As for the specific use of Tarot as a divinatory tool, evidence is relatively strong that 'during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the tarot was already being viewed as an 'occult device.' Further, based upon the 1989 discovery of a pre-1750 Bolognese manuscript which 'gives a list of cartomantic interpretations for ... Bolognese tarocchi cards' (ibid.) it seems quite likely that the assertion of Decker and Dummett that there was no occult or divinatory use of Tarot until the 18th century is incorrect."

Oudler then asks: Are you sure you are not taking Huson's work out of context?

Joe replies: I leave it to you to actually read Huson and form your own opinions. However, it would be polite to have actually read him before suggesting I've taken him out of context, I think.

:-)

I don't know what in my posting would even suggest that I'd misrepresented his argument, frankly. If anything, I've understated Huson's point, which is that the use of playing cards for divination can be documented even earlier than the first Tarot decks, and that Tarot decks themselves appear to be a kind of "Game of Man," as suggested by the circa-1470 Mantegna work. This work, notes Huson, was "drawing inspiration from existing Tarocchi," and was "likely used to provide a stimulus for profound discussion between educated people rather than to play idle games."

As I said.

:-)

Cheers,
Joe Swick

[Joe Steve Swick III]

Joe said: "The Trumps (or Major Arcana) appear to have been invented in Italy some time in the early-to-mid 1500's, as an expansion of the "regular" deck. It may (or may not) have been named for Petrarch's poem, I trionfi, composed in the late 1300's."

I meant early-to-mid 1400's as the date for the creation of Tarot. My apologies. I was thinking XV Century.

~J

[Oudler]

History of Occult Tarot is slightly dated because of the recent discovery of Bolgnese Taromancy. History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack does mention it however. Dummet did write something on it. The Playing Card vol. 32 no. 2 (2003) pp. 79-88
http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/index.php/Bolognese_Tarot_Divination

[Oudler]

I would be interested in Huson's work as I am also curious as to how he would evaluate the work of A.E. Waite. Huson recently created, as of this writing unpublished, deck using more direct English translations of the original French/Italian nomenclature. For example, Trump I is called "the Juggler" and not "the Magician" I would like to see this deck published soon.

[Howie Schwartz]

Astrology is the ancient practice and study of the stars and planets. Its history goes back to Babylonian times. Astrology is not the same as astronomy. Astronomy studies only the science of the planets, stars and universe.

horoscope, astrology

[Kerry Shirts]

At one time there was no differences between the two disciplines however. Just so ya know!

Best,
Kerry

[BK]

I saw somewhere that someone said, "trying never got anyone anywhere, you either do it or you don't." Indeed, there are those who will without question when given a notion, do the thing and succeed. For that person there is no doubt, but for those who "do" have doubts, they need to instill in their hearts the modicum of operation, "to keep trying." Some choose to struggle, others simply claim the prize and sail on. However, that ship is destined for disaster, if the captain doesn't share his abundance. Much like the young couple who goes to the Carnival, and the young man is given the task of knocking down the bottles for a stuffed bear. He doesn't do it for himself, but rather to give the prize to his lady. In such a manner, "both" are happy, as the bear means little but the gesture says it all. There is little choice, you either jump in or get left behind, even Socrates drank the poison in the end.

[Joe Steve Swick III]

As a final comment, I'd point out that while the Tarot itself may not have been an Egyptian "invention," the ancient Egyptians certainly had a believe in a "Ladder of Ascent" -- Horus' ladder to the heavens, and all that. So, too, the Jewish Kabbalists and their Mystical Tree, as well as the early Christians. Desert Father John Klimakos has a Ladder of Ascent, which includes 50 steps. You will recall that Andrea Mantegna's "Game of Man" also included 50 images, progressing from Beggar to the Primum Mobile. Kerry's suspicion that there is a Heavenly Ascent in Tarot is an interesting one -- it is a suspicion I share. After all, Key 1 is The Magician -- Adam in the Fertile Valley-- and Key 9 is The Hermit -- the Ancient of Days on his snow-capped Mountain Peak.

Thanks for some great work, Kerry.

[David Littlefield]

Check out this ladder:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobs_Ladder

[k -mikey]

elohim is a plural feminine term. The key being its 32 occurances in the first chapter of genesis. The 32 paths of wisdom and 50 gates of light. Where is personality in air fire earth and water, they make up 40. The other 10 are personality archtypes, imperative for conscious individual comprehension. So have all the so called wise men missed it. Apparantly so.
bliss joy wonder