Historical Tarot

Following on from the earlier article on the translations of the founding documents of the occult Tarot by Court de Gébelin and Etteilla, I have published a study on the origins of the Egyptian myth of the Tarot, which may interest those who enjoy history, myth and other enigmas. The article may be read here.

Just reconditioned and reproduced my second historical deck. I know that you were saying you wanted to see it @FindYourSovereignty, I also figured you'd like a sneak peak @Merrick , @pacificwaters , @Flaxen @iMoodyCrab & @Aldor44 😉 I got it from the French site you linked in your thread @Morsoth and I can't thank you enough for that! It is the Tarot Italien 1860. It was in quite a bad condition and I had to use some PS skillz to get it back in order lol. In some cards half the text image was missing and I had to rebuild it up as you can see here below. Before:~ After:~ It took time and effort but…

I'm trying to translate these cards with Google translate from images online. I've looked for an english version but everything that says there is one links to a 404 or some weird website where you get all the books you want for free but you have to give them your credit card info. Does anyone have an english translation? If not, does anyone (who has at least a little bit of familiarity with french) want to help? 😅

I created this so that we may have an umbrella thread where we can discuss and post updates on the premium historical decks series by Lo Scarabeo. Separate threads on each offering in the line are listed here: Tarocchi Sola Busca Tarocchino Mitelli Minchiate Etruria Tarots Egyptiens

I decided to make my own facsimile version of the Etteilla Deck - Type I! You can see that Etteilla I tarot deck at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Since the deck has no copyright, and fall into the public domain, the task was fairly simple; you can freely download each image and print your own version of it. To make it more professional and authentic, I have polished the scans in Photoshop, fixed the border and made sure they are all formatted by the same template (size, color, sharpness, etc). It’s a fairly long process, but it is rewarding at the end. There is variations of patterns in the backs of the Etteilla I (and also diff…

Does anyone here work with the Minchiate? Which version/s do you own? What are your experiences with it, and how accurate was it? I've heard that among Tarot decks, it is one of the most useful when you want to read on everyday concerns, sorta like the Lenormand, Kipper, and Sibilla.

This topic has been moved to Promote Yourself. [iurl]https://www.thetarotforum.com/index.php?topic=4644.0[/iurl]

I just got a notification via email that Mr. Berti has re-released the Milanese Tarocco of Edoardo Dotti, 1862 ! For fans of the Sopraffino style deck, this might be a fun alternate. Berti says his edition is also environmanetally freindly: non plastic, safe inks etc. Looks lovely.. ❤️

Do you use decks that are not of the Golden Dawn heritage? What are they? I use the Egyptian Tarot by the Brotherhood of Light. This deck is structurally built to the guidelines of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor. The last surviving members of the Luxor chapter had someone in america take on their teachings, and this is that deck. The art for the major arcana was taken from a sort of mysterious Astrology book written in 1901 written by someone claiming to be Count saint Germain. The hermetic brotherhood of Luxor and it's two or three sister chapters ironically(?) are the origins of the handful that would initiate the Golden Dawn itself but in the end Alister …

I'm not sure if this blog has been shared on the forum before, but I found it a few days ago and thought it worth sharing for those interested in pythagorean number symbolism and Etteilla's deck: https://neopythagoreanisminthetrot.blogspot.com/2012/05/magician-and-aces.html?m=1 I've yet to read it all, but so far it's proven to be a really interesting blog that does a great job comparing pythagorean sources on the meaning of numbers and Etteilla's (and other decks) majors and pip card meanings. The author has a few other blogs too, all Etteilla related, which can be found on the homepage Hopefully new and experienced Etteilla fans can get some…

Who knows the origin of the Celtic Cross and why it seems to be as abundant as it is? I've been doing a lot of reading teaching back to the origin of tarot, the Kabala beginings and I've found some unique geometric designs all based on numerology that I feel make power spreads and I've been using them. Very energized. I also found a spread in the Brotherhood Of Light Book that seems to have been forgotten about using 7 cards. I just wonder if 7 questions are necessary for it.

... as suggested by Lynyrd Narciso who posts here as BlueToy. This is another follow-up to a thread on ATF, the beloved forum that closed down a year ago. It is meant to deal with everything that is related to the Mamluk pattern in general, also in particular to discuss the possible extension of the mamluk pattern to a full tarot deck, however of course not exclusively. I'll start with something my daughter came up with recently (already posted that on my Facebook page): When she looked over my shoulder while I was paying attention to the mamluk cards (more than paying attention to her, terrible injustice that is), she got me to talk about all the patterns, and we …

could playing cards/tarot suits be inspired by jc relics?;) suits; cup /hearts=holy grail=blood *water of life?:) wands/clover/=cross=wood/plant, only ex living element here that can be used to give/start fire?;) sword/spade/=spear=metal/men made weapon destruction to end life i.e murder may start revolution?;) diamonds/pentacles/foundation for human life= shread ?:) Or that stone Muslims bow to/it does represent earth!^^ lol totally inspired by promised land documentary on tlc i was watching right now & as conspiracy fan couldn't resist sharing!XD lol tell me what you think how realistic you rate it on scale; 0 total loony to 10 likely possible...…

I decided this might be the best place for this topic and my apologies if it hasn't been. Are there any good books or other resources that have been published the trace the historiography of modern tarot, especially from the 1930s to 2000+ ? So much is out there on the timeline until the 1930s and then it seems to stop and get summarized as "and then the tarot got popular again during counter-culture and we have Stuart Kaplan to thank for making modern tarot a Big Thing." XD I'm looking for things that go a lot more in-depth than that.

I am delighted to present a translation of Robert Klein's seminal article "The Illuminated Tarot Cards of the 15th century", with an illuminating introduction and notes by Ross Caldwell. This is a landmark article on the history of the early Visconti tarot decks.

@_R_ For the general forum reader: _R_ published the translated to English essay that Roger Caillois wrote as a preface to Wirth's Tarot of The Magicians last November. Below are my notes and comments about that preface. Reading it first or having it open in another browser window will provide the right context. I feel like I should have been more familiar with Roger Caillos than I was before reading your article, from my years of studying game theory if nothing else. I am sure he was cited and quoted in things I read, but that is the problem of being an eclectic who knows a little about a lot of different topics, master of none. Based on what I re…

Does anybody here have the Limited Edition of the Sola Busca Tarot recently released by Lo Scarabeo? How was it? It seems that a fly card there stated that to recreate the original physical look of the ancient deck, they decided to ditch the card varnish so that it may not be ideal for shuffling. Given this, do you even read with it? I ordered this online through my source, and since it is to be exported from half a world away, it might take weeks before it gets here. I just hope I'd have it in my hands before the month ends. I'm so excited!

Perhaps not everyone here knows the version of the Sola Busca Tarot published by Rinascimento in 2016: a limited edition of 700 copies, signed and numbered on a Warranty attached to the deck. This is certainly the only version absolutely faithful to the original. The paper is as robust as the Mayer 1998 deck. In addition, the cards have rounded corners and a marbled red back like the 1491 deck. The same deck is available either in a Deluxe box or in an Economic box. In both boxes there is a booklet in english (22 pages, full colour) that tells the story of this deck and shows the meanings of the 78 cards based on the book Alchemy in Sola Busca Tarot writt…

Hello, I recently read about the symbolism of the Column is some of the older Italian Strength cards (Tarot and Minchiate) that show a woman holding a column. Sometimes broken, sometimes whole. According to the source I read … it is a specific column with a specific meaning … NOT intuitive “a pillar symbolizes xyz”. I want to say it references a biblical story or Solomon’s temple …? Anyway I can’t find my source now and didn’t take very good notes. Anyone know the specific symbolism of this column? Thanks if you do!

I read that Arthur Waite had a daughter called Sybil. But I can't find any information about her at all. Does anyone know what happened to her ? Her life and when she died and all ? I only found one photo of her with her father. There doesn't seem to be a thorough biography of Arthur Waite written. It's odd. Would be a fascinating endeavour for a biographer.

I’ve just got a copy of this deck from the LS Anima Antiqua series. I love the differences in the depictions of the Trumps. Here is a sampling: Top row: Magician, Strength, Moon Bottom row: Tower, Star, Sun It looks like an interesting deck to work with although pips 2-5 are missing in each suit as fits this variant. Has anyone tried reading with their copy?

I am sure that many Tarot lovers would like to know about the english version of my book Giuseppe Maria Mitelli and the Tarocchino Bolognese (118 pages, illustrated in full color) entirely dedicated to the Tarot deck created around 1660 by the bolognese painter and engraver Giuseppe Maria Mitelli. The news are many and all very interesting: - life and works of Mitelli; - use of Tarot cards in the Baroque age for literary games; - legends and funny stories on Bolognese tarot; - customs of Tarocchino bolognese card players; - the first Bolognese manuscript on cartomancy (c. 1760). A long Appendix (written by Greta Boni Dori) is completely dedicated to cartomancy …

Hey everyone, So I've had this deck for a while now, though it's never been read with. More because of a huge lack of information around it. I did find one site which is now on the wayback machine that took a stab at making an attempt to understand this deck, but the webpage ended up being taken down due to lack of interest. My main question is, who in the world are on these court cards? I've tried to take as good a picture as possible, please let me know if I should take others. I'll probably be ignorantly blending Greek and Roman mythology together, so I apologise in advance. This whole deck has existed in a va…

Hello tarot fam! So at the end of last month, I ordered a bundle pack from Editions SIVILIXI containing the Vieville Tarot and book as well as the Tarot de Paris (at the time, CollecTarot was out of stock of the latter). Shipping from France to the US wasn't cheap. but the total cost came close to what buying the two decks and Vieville book would have been had I purchased from CollecTarot, and I had my package exactly seven days after I placed the order, which I thought was pretty righteous. Anyway! I've been working with the Tarot de Paris this month, and I'm finding it to be so fascinating. Most of the pips and several of the majors are quite a b…

Hello my Tarot friends :) I'm glad to announce you a new, exciting chapter in the history of the Tarot. This chapter is strongly related to the so-called "Marsellais Tarot tradition" but is not directly linked to France. This chapter is linked to the german language countries. One year ago I decided to reprint a wonderful german deck kept at the British Museum in London. I bought the licence from The Trustees of the British Museum and I started a historical research on that Tarot tradition. My research was very difficult because the only news about this deck come from the deck itself: the signature IOHANN CHRISTOPH HES IN AUGSPURG. No mention on the date …