Author: Ronald Decker Publisher: Prelude Books ISBN: 0715647059 Category : Body, Mind & Spirit Languages : en Pages : 439
Book Description
An essential volume for the libraries of all serious students of the Tarot. When the Tarot was invented in Italy during the early fifteenth century, it was simply a pack of cards used for playing games. Esoteric interpretations of the pack date from late eighteenth century France, and were confined to that country for a hundred years. But today the cards are used throughout the world and not only for fortune telling - for true believers they are the key to secret knowledge and the meaning of life. A History of the Occult Tarot is the classic work on the history of the Tarot deck and its use in occult circles. Starting with the late nineteenth century, the Decker and Dummett examine how the Tarot became the favoured divination tool of occultists, a bridge to the spirit world, and a map of the unconscious. From Theosophical to Aleister Crowley to the Order of the Golden Dawn and P.D. Ouspensky, this compelling survey of the Tarot's history describes the many fascinating decks imagined over time as well as the secret histories of mystics.
Author: Ronald Decker Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan ISBN: 9780312162948 Category : Games Languages : en Pages : 308
Book Description
And practitioners of magic, and the occasional French charlatan, developed uses for Tarot cards and baseless theories about them which were virtually unknown in other countries. The authors trace this phenomenon through the writings and activities of many advocates of Tarot occultism, including Court de Gebelin, Etteilla, Levi, and Papus, showing how an extraordinary variety of occult theories - from Hermetism to Rosicrucianism, from the Cabala to Freemasonry - was.
Author: Helen Farley Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1788314913 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 285
Book Description
The enigmatic and richly illustrative tarot deck reveals a host of strange and iconic mages, such as The Tower, The Wheel of Fortune, The Hanged Man and The Fool: over which loom the terrifying figures of Death and The Devil. The 21 numbered playing cards of tarot have always exerted strong fascination, way beyond their original purpose, and the multiple resonances of the deck are ubiquitous. From T S Eliot and his 'wicked pack of cards' in "The Waste Land" to the psychic divination of Solitaire in Ian Fleming's "Live and Let Die"; and from the satanic novels of Dennis Wheatley to the deck's adoption by New Age practitioners, the cards have in modern times become inseparably connected to the occult. They are now viewed as arguably the foremost medium of prophesying and foretelling. Yet, as the author shows, originally the tarot were used as recreational playing cards by the Italian nobility in the Renaissance. It was only much later, in the 18th and 19th centuries, that the deck became associated with esotericism before evolving finally into a diagnostic tool for mind, body and spirit. This is the first book to explore the remarkably varied ways in which tarot has influenced culture. Tracing the changing patterns of the deck's use, from game to mysterious oracular device, Helen Farley examines tarot's emergence in 15th century Milan and discusses its later associations with astrology, kabbalah and the Age of Aquarius.
Author: Paul Huson Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1620551837 Category : Body, Mind & Spirit Languages : en Pages : 352
Book Description
A profusely illustrated history of the occult nature of the tarot from its origins in ancient Persia • Thoroughly examines the original historical source for each tarot card and how the cards’ divinatory meanings evolved from these symbols • Provides authentic 18th- and 19th-century spreads and divination techniques • Reveals the divinatory meanings of the cards as understood by diviners in the Middle Ages and Renaissance The origins of the tarot have been lost in the mists of time. Most scholars have guessed that its origins were in China, Egypt, or India. In Mystical Origins of the Tarot, Paul Huson has expertly tracked each symbol of the Minor Arcana to roots in ancient Persia and the Major Arcana Trump card images to the medieval world of mystery, miracle, and morality plays. A number of tarot historians have questioned the use of the tarot as a divination tool prior to the 18th century. But the author demonstrates that the symbolic meanings of the Major Arcana were evident from the time they were first employed in the mid-15th century in the popular divination practice of sortilege. He also reveals how the identities of the court cards in the Minor Arcana were derived from a blend of pagan and medieval sources that strongly influenced their interpretation in tarot divination. Mystical Origins of the Tarot provides a thorough examination of the original historical source for each card and how the cards’ divinatory meanings evolved from these symbols. Huson also provides concise and practical card-reading methods designed by the cartomancers of the 18th and 19th centuries and reveals the origins of the card interpretations promoted by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and A. E. Waite.
Author: Travis McHenry Publisher: ISBN: 9781925924213 Category : Fortune-telling Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
"How can we possibly embrace our truest self if we never step into the dark? Author and occultist Travis McHenry reveals the secret daemons of the 17th-century and conjures their powers into this unique set of 78-divination cards. Drawing on daemons, symbols, and sigils from ancient magickal grimoires including Archidoxis Magica and the Key of Solomon, Occult Tarot presents a fully realized divination tool to finally embrace and behold the mysteries of the night."--Container.
Author: Robert Place Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 9781585423491 Category : Body, Mind & Spirit Languages : en Pages : 338
Book Description
The Tarot is one of the few books that cuts through conventional misperceptions to explore the Tarot deck as it really developed in the Middle Ages and Renaissance Europe-not, as some would suggest, in the far reaches of Egyp-tian antiquity. Mining the Hermetic, alchemical, and Neoplatonic influences behind the evolution of the deck, author Robert M. Place provides a historically grounded and compelling portrait of the Tarot's true origins, without overlooking the deck's mystical dimensions. Indeed, Place uncommonly weds reliable historiography with a practical understanding of the intuitive help and divinatory guidance that the cards can bring. He presents techniques that offer new and valuable ways to read and interpret the cards. Based on a simple three-card spread, Place's approach can be used by either the seasoned practitioner or the new inquirer.
Author: John Michael Greer Publisher: Union Square & Co. ISBN: 1454925787 Category : Body, Mind & Spirit Languages : en Pages : 441
Book Description
Explore the occult from ancient times to the modern day with one of its most respected scholars and practitioners. Take an enlightening journey through occult history, exploring 100 dramatic incidents, arcane knowledge, and key historical figures from around the world. John Michael Greer delves into two millennia of tradition, from the earliest alchemists to pagan rituals; from the Philosopher’s Stone to Cabala, the first tarot, and the Knights Templar; and from the first horoscopes to fortune-telling trials and the birth of modern witchcraft, or Wicca. Each entry features a stunning image or intriguing item of ephemera.
Author: Papus Publisher: Courier Dover Publications ISBN: 0486834212 Category : Body, Mind & Spirit Languages : en Pages : 401
Book Description
To the casual observer, they're just a pack of playing cards. But to initiates, the mysterious figures of the Tarot deck symbolize the keys to ancient wisdom. The 78 cards can be employed to unlock the secrets of the universe and to foretell the future — but only by those who comprehend their esoteric truths. A pillar of occult science, The Tarot of the Bohemians provides a theological element to the work begun by Antoine Court de Gébelin, Etteila, and Éliphas Lévi, and advanced by A. E. Waite, the distinguished scholar and designer of the most widely known deck. Geared toward initiates, its topics include an introduction to the study of the Tarot as well as its symbolism and applications. This revised edition includes a Preface by Waite in addition to illustrative plates, charts, and tables.
Author: Eliphas Levi Publisher: Lulu.com ISBN: 1300783117 Category : Languages : en Pages : 334
Book Description
This is a compilation of Eliphas Levi's writings on the 22 Major Arcana of the Tarot and their corresponding Hebrew letters. It includes the ""Magic Ritual of the Sanctum Regnum"", some extracts from the ""Major Keys and the Clavicles of Solomon"" and the Editor's Appendix is a large collection of Levi's drawings and diagrams for easy reference. ÒThe science of signs begins with the science of letters. Letters are absolute ideas. Absolute ideas are numbers. Numbers are perfect signs. In using ideas with numbers, one can operate upon the ideas like one can operate upon number and arrive at the mathematics of truth. The tarot is the key of letters and numbersÉÓ ÒNow, the tarot that we have today É has come to us from Egypt passing through Judea. The keys of this tarot, in fact, correspond with the letters of the hebraic alphabet, and some of its figures even reproduce the same form of the characters of this sacred alphabet.Ó
Author: Ronald Decker
Author: Ronald Decker
Author: Ronald Decker
Author: Helen Farley
Author: Paul Huson
Author: Travis McHenry
Author: Robert Place
Author: John Michael Greer
Author: Papus
Author: Eliphas Levi