The Pictorial Key to the Tarot
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot
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1.4 <strong>The</strong> <strong>Tarot</strong> In His<strong>to</strong>ry<br />
<strong>to</strong> notice is that in this manner was <strong>the</strong> antiquity of <strong>the</strong> <strong>Tarot</strong> generally trumpeted forth. <strong>The</strong> little books of<br />
Etteilla are proof positive that he did not know even his own language; when in <strong>the</strong> course of time he<br />
produced a reformed <strong>Tarot</strong>, even those who think of him tenderly admit that he spoiled its symbolism;<br />
and in respect of antiquities he had only Court de Gebelin as his universal authority.<br />
<strong>The</strong> car<strong>to</strong>mancists succeeded one ano<strong>the</strong>r in <strong>the</strong> manner which I have mentioned, and of course <strong>the</strong>re<br />
were rival adepts of <strong>the</strong>se less than least mysteries; but <strong>the</strong> scholarship of <strong>the</strong> subject, if it can be said <strong>to</strong><br />
have come in<strong>to</strong> existence, reposed after all in <strong>the</strong> quar<strong>to</strong> of Court de Gebelin for something more than<br />
sixty years. On his authority, <strong>the</strong>re is very little doubt that everyone who became acquainted, by <strong>the</strong>ory or<br />
practice, by casual or special concern, with <strong>the</strong> question of <strong>Tarot</strong> cards, accepted <strong>the</strong>ir Egyptian character.<br />
It is said that people are taken commonly at <strong>the</strong>ir own valuation, and--following as it does <strong>the</strong> line of least<br />
resistance--<strong>the</strong> unsolici<strong>to</strong>us general mind assuredly accepts archæological pretensions in <strong>the</strong> sense of <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
own daring and of those who put <strong>the</strong>m forward. <strong>The</strong> first who appeared <strong>to</strong> reconsider <strong>the</strong> subject with<br />
some presumptive titles <strong>to</strong> a hearing was <strong>the</strong> French writer Duchesne, but I am compelled <strong>to</strong> pass him<br />
over with a mere reference, and so also some interesting researches on <strong>the</strong> general subject of playingcards<br />
by Singer in England. <strong>The</strong> latter believed that <strong>the</strong> old Venetian game called Trappola was <strong>the</strong><br />
earliest European form of card-playing, that it was of Arabian origin, and that <strong>the</strong> fifty-two cards used for<br />
<strong>the</strong> purpose derived from that region. I do not ga<strong>the</strong>r that any importance was ever attached <strong>to</strong> this view.<br />
Duchesne and Singer were followed by ano<strong>the</strong>r English writer, W. A. Chat<strong>to</strong>, who reviewed <strong>the</strong> available<br />
facts and <strong>the</strong> cloud of speculations which had already arisen on <strong>the</strong> subject. This was in 1848, and his<br />
work has still a kind of standard authority, but--after every allowance for a certain righteousness<br />
attributable <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> independent mind--it remains an indifferent and even a poor performance. It was,<br />
however, characteristic in its way of <strong>the</strong> approaching middle night of <strong>the</strong> nineteenth century. Chat<strong>to</strong><br />
rejected <strong>the</strong> Egyptian hypo<strong>the</strong>sis, but as he was at very little pains concerning it, he would scarcely be<br />
held <strong>to</strong> displace Court de Gebelin if <strong>the</strong> latter had any firm ground beneath his hypo<strong>the</strong>sis. In 1854<br />
ano<strong>the</strong>r French writer, Boiteau, <strong>to</strong>ok up <strong>the</strong> general question, maintaining <strong>the</strong> oriental origin of <strong>Tarot</strong><br />
cards, though without attempting <strong>to</strong> prove it. I am not certain, but I think that he is <strong>the</strong> first writer who<br />
definitely identified <strong>the</strong>m with <strong>the</strong> Gipsies; for him, however, <strong>the</strong> original Gipsy home was in India, and<br />
Egypt did not <strong>the</strong>refore enter in<strong>to</strong> his calculation.<br />
In 1860 <strong>the</strong>re arose Éliphas Lévi, a brilliant and profound illuminé whom it is impossible <strong>to</strong> accept, and<br />
with whom it is even more impossible <strong>to</strong> dispense. <strong>The</strong>re was never a mouth declaring such great things,<br />
of all <strong>the</strong> western voices which have proclaimed or interpreted <strong>the</strong> science called occult and <strong>the</strong> doctrine<br />
called magical. I suppose that, fundamentally speaking, he cared as much and as little as I do for <strong>the</strong><br />
phenomenal part, but he explained <strong>the</strong> phenomena with <strong>the</strong> assurance of one who openly regarded<br />
charlatanry as a great means <strong>to</strong> an end, if used in a right cause. He came un<strong>to</strong> his own and his own<br />
received him, also at his proper valuation, as a man of great learning--which he never was--and as a<br />
revealer of all mysteries without having been received in<strong>to</strong> any. I do not think that <strong>the</strong>re was ever an<br />
instance of a writer with greater gifts, after <strong>the</strong>ir particular kind, who put <strong>the</strong>m <strong>to</strong> such indifferent uses.<br />
After all, he was only Etteilla a second time in <strong>the</strong> flesh, endowed in his transmutation with a mouth of<br />
gold and a wider casual knowledge. This notwithstanding, he has written <strong>the</strong> most comprehensive,<br />
brilliant, enchanting His<strong>to</strong>ry of Magic which has ever been drawn in<strong>to</strong> writing in any language. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Tarot</strong><br />
file:///C|/My%20Documents/Spiri<strong>to</strong>ality/Books/<strong>The</strong>...0<strong>to</strong>%20<strong>the</strong>%20<strong>Tarot</strong>%20-%20A.E.%20Waite/pkt0104.htm (6 of 7) [15/07/2001 23:10:05]