Origins of Tarot, and What Matters.

Last night, I dreamed that I wrote this blog, and made it public here, and so I knew that I must.

Toward the end of last year, I had a weird experience. I'd done a presentation for the library on tarot, and put that presentation on YouTube. I was soon attacked by this zealous group of people who are on a kind of crusade to educate the world on tarot as a card game. Perhaps you saw my earlier blog entry about this.

After some research, I did misspeak in my presentation on what is tarot lore, versus what is proven. When one is writing, it is much easier to be careful, to fact-check, etc. I tend to do my presentations ad-lib and from the heart; they are not something I memorize and rehearse.

Anyway, it is true that the first tarot cards were found in 14th century Italy, and that these cards were used for a card game called "Tarocci." Absolutely true.

But tarot has its mysteries. The name Tarot comes from the Hebrew Torah, and the Latin, Rota (as in "rotate"), meaning circle of life. With its twenty-two paths, the tarot's major arcana coincidentally aligns perfectly in symbol, numbers and meaning against the structure of the ancient Jewish Kabbalah (and even more perfectly corresponds with the Hermetic Qabalah established by Aleister Crowley in the early 1900s, after he switched the position of the Strength and Justice cards--a change that has had occultists split for decades). The Kabbalah (or "Cabala," if you're looking at the Christian version, or "Qabalah," if you're a Hermeticist) is believed to be a divine template of the universe. It is how the universe works, and the order and structure of all things.

The Kabbalah's Tree of Life, with its stations and branches, represents this circle of life. The Norse, the Celts, and American primitive cultures have all had their versions of the tree of life, reflecting these same ideas. After all, truth is truth, no matter what the package, and it is available to anyone open to it.

The ancient practice of alchemy, adopted as a Hermetic science, also perfectly corresponds with the tarot and Kabbalah. So does Astrology; Greek, Roman, Norse, and Celtic mythology; the Hebrew alphabet; and a Hebrew form of numerology called Gematria. It seems that the deeper one digs into the tarot, the more of these spiritual and occult systems reside there. In the tarot's pictures, there are no accidents: there is a reason a flower may be portrayed as a rose, for instance, and not a lily. There are reasons for desert landscape, or a background with distant ships, rivers or trees. Even the coloring of the cards serve to function in card meanings and interpretation.

When one looks at all of the influences upon the tarot, it is clear to see that these cards resonate wisdom that existed long before Christ--and yet, is often compatible with Christianity. Spiritual philosophy expressed in the tarot reaches back to ideas and practice as long ago as the ancient Egyptians and ancient Greece. Can we prove tarot existed then? No. Not on paper, anyway. Paper cards don't last thousands of years, but wisdom does. One must take the time to learn the meanings to understand. The majority of people are not interested enough to do this work.

The great psychologist Carl Jung was interested enough. Jung determined that the pictures on the tarot represented ancient human archetypes which are true for all cultures. Every group of people, from every time in history, has a Mother, for example. Or the Lovers. Or the Emperor, or the wise old man. They have events considered to be good luck, victory, and tragedy. These are the personalities and stages of the human experience, as reflected in the tarot's major arcana. The minor arcana holds the more mundane details of our every day living. Think of the major arcana as the characters and phases, and the minor arcana as the stories that happen to them.

Through his own exploration of the tarot with himself and his patients, Carl Jung developed Jungian alchemy: the process of reaching self-actualization, or "Individuation," as he called it. It was the Jungian idea of the Philosopher's Stone, the turning of lead into gold.

It is no wonder a single tarot card, then, can be so loaded with representations! Some tarot readers may be well-versed in the Jungian psychological aspects, but less knowledgeable about the astrological end (which is the case for me, although I'm working on that). Some tarot readers may be strong astrologers, students of myth, or practicing alchemists-- understanding that alchemy is a three-fold study of laboratory, psychological, and spiritual work, and the tarot cards then might be tools for their own experiments and growth.

It doesn't matter, so long as the goal is benefiting humanity through personal and spiritual growth. The tarot is a tool we can use to become the people we are meant to be. It is a way to understand our higher selves, to become conscious, and to be better all-around. It is not that the tarot is such a magical thing, in and of itself. It is that we are magic, and it shows us a way to wake up to this wonderful fact.

Yes, some people make tarot out to be only a card game. I'm sure it's a fine one. But I think of using tarot cards only for a card game as sort of like using your state-of-the-art, Web-connected super-computer only for its little clock function in the bottom corner of your screen.

Let's see, live, and love within a larger, greater, unlimited world. The only thing stopping you is if you are too lazy to do the work.

In Peace,

Julia Gordon-Bramer