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No one today knows the real origin of the Tarot picture cards. They have been traced as far as the thirteenth century in Europe, but students of the Tarot symbolism believe that in the nature of the symbolism as such, there is evidence that it has come down to us from the Temples of ancient Egypt and Babylonia.
The first outstanding scholar of the Tarot in modern times was the Count de Gebelin, the French archeologist, who in the years c. 1773 to 1782 set forth the theory that the Tarot cards originated in Egypt. On the basis of this understanding a set of cards was later drawn up with Egyptian pictures in imitation of the vignettes which are inscribed at the head of each chapter of the Book of the Dead. These pictures, however, follow the patterns of the "Bohemian" Tarot, which had been circulating in Europe, especially in Southern France, and were used for fortune-telling by bands of wandering gypsies. A.E. Waite takes credit to himself as having been the first to introduce the Tarot to the English-speaking public in 1887 in a digest of the writings of Eliphas Levi.
Egypt's magic had come down to the Middle Ages of Europe in a legendary form from the ancient Greeks and Romans, who had looked with superstitious awe upon the might and the glory and the wisdom of the Egyptians. Medieval Jews of Spain and Egypt (notably Maimonides — Moses ben Maimon — of Cairo and Moses de Leon of Granada) were in touch with a still living tradition of Egyptian wisdom in the Gnostic documents hidden away in crypts and temples in ancient lands. It was in the last half of the eighteenth century, when the American colonies were breaking away from the British Empire, that the Coptic document Pistis Sophia appeared in England. A letter written in 1773 states that a Dr. Askew found this document in a book shop, and references to it are found in print as early as 1770. Dr. Askew's heirs sold the Pistis Sophia to the British Museum in 1785.
Meanwhile, the Scotsman, James Bruce, was inspired by higher powers to travel to Abyssinia (Ethiopia) to learn if any copies of the Book of Enoch still survived in the first century, as shown in the Book of Acts of the New Testament. From 1768 to 1773 Bruce sought for the Book of Enoch and succeeded at last in finding three copies which he brought back to England. One copy he gave to the Library of Paris, one to the Bodleian Library of Oxford and one he placed in the family archives.
The book Pistis Sophia was written in Coptic, which is the last form of the Egyptian language used in Egypt, written down in Greek characters. The Book of Enoch which James Bruce found was inscribed in Geez, the ancient language of Ethiopia. Scholars and historians believe that no one in Europe could read these documents at the time they appeared there; yet there were many strange unfoldments of history during the nineteenth century which intimate that a Gnostic revival was taking place, arising from some unknown source. During this century Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry took a fresh hold upon European and American thought. The Pyramid of Gizeh was adopted as a symbol by the new American nation. As higher degrees were added to the basic degrees of the Blue Lodge in Freemasonry, evidences of kabbalistic thought were more and more conspicuous, and Egyptian influence more and more in evidence.
Now we are in a position to understand the eminent scholarship of the Count de Gebelin and his interest in things Egyptian. An intelligent youth, he grew to manhood in an era in which these and other mysterious documents were being discovered and somehow, somewhere, by persons unknown, translated into the languages of Europe.
It was in this same era that the Egyptian hieroglyphs were first deciphered. The honor for this is generally bestowed upon the young Champollion (1790-1832); but earlier than Champollion, an Englishman had already succeeded in deciphering some of the hieroglyphs, an Englishman by the name of Thomas Young (1773-1829). His brother was the poet Edward Young.
In the Egyptian rites of Freemasonry created by Cagliostro (who lived from 1743 to 1795), scholars have discovered evidence which indicates that Cagliostro may indeed have known the meaning of certain Egyptian hieroglyphs.
When we consider that this was also the era of the great Count St. Germain, "the Wonder Man of Europe," we have a hint of the truth; for it is said of this man that he spoke every living language of occident and orient, and was equally learned in the dead languages. It was believed that he had travelled throughout the world to many far off and mysterious places.
According to Max Heindel, there are in existence on earth five schools which teach the Four Great Initiations and seven schools which teach the Nine Lesser Initiations. He intimates that one at least of the five schools of the Greater Mysteries is located in the vicinity of ancient Israel, for the Christ founded all of these Greater Mysteries; one of the schools of the Lesser Mysteries he states is located in southern Germany — the Order of the Rose Cross, of which he was the representative, and another he mentions as existing in Egypt. In early lectures he also intimates that a Temple of the Lesser Mysteries is situated in the Himalayas.
It is noteworthy that not only the Hebrews but also the Egyptians and ancient Indians had a "kabbalah" that is a mystical interpretation of the letters of the alphabet, which were looked upon as sacred revelations from God. The Word itself, the Living Sound, came from God, and every letter, every word, of the sacred language might be read both as a letter and as a divine ideogram which revealed the deepest and most abstruse mysteries of Spirit.
The Tarot is of intense interest to the occult student because it contains an outline of Initiation; and as some form of initiation has formed the heart of every world religion, the truths contained in the Tarot symbolism are universal and belong to no one race, creed or culture, but constitute a textbook for every serious aspirant on the Path of Light.
The Tarot system consists of twenty-two Arcana, or Arcanes as they are also termed. This word means something hidden, secret, mysterious. These Arcana outline the Path from its beginning to its end in the supreme attainment. Having twenty-two Major Arcanes, its likeness to the Hebrew Alphabet is at once apparent and suggests a connection with esoteric Christianity as arising from the ancient Hebrew Mysteries. For each of the Major Arcanes there is a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, a number from 1 to 22 in direct sequence, and in another order from Hebrew numeration, and also an astronomical signature. Writers are not in agreement on these various symbols as attached to the Tarot cards; A.E. Waite intimates that he himself has the true key, which he does not choose to reveal, but he adds that the symbolism is so rich in meaning that any study of the Tarot is rewarding.
The Bible is one of the profound cipher books of the world. From Genesis to Revelation it outlines the Path of Initiation. Like the Tarot, the Bible has its exoteric interpretation, available to the many; it has also its esoteric interpretation, which is to the exoteric as the soul is to the body, as the great Christian scholar and mystic, Origen of Alexandria, observed.
Perhaps the greatest value of the Tarot teaching is its appeal to the intellectualist in religion. The devotee is generally termed "the Mystic" while the scientist or philosopher is termed "the Occultist." Yet the philosopher and the mystic may be one and the same individual, for as the philosopher he may rationalize all of the occult mysteries, while as a mystic he experiences them and comes to know God "face to face" or to "taste" God, as the mystic states.
The philosopher who endeavors to understand the Bible Mysteries takes the Bible narratives and discourses into his consciousness by a process of reasoning in which every character and situation, every text and commentary, relate to formulae of Initiation. Thus his understanding forms a bridge over which he enters into the experience of the inner truths of the Scriptures. Here he meets the mystic on his own ground.
Again we may say that the philosopher reasons about Wisdom; the mystic experience ("tastes") Wisdom. The Hebrew mystic-philosophers who created the Kabbalah endeavored to combine both Paths, signified in the two Sephiroth Chockmah and Binah, Wisdom and Understanding. So also the Tarot ciphers are aids to meditation and knowledge for the occultist and revelation for the mystic.
In the present studies we are not interested in the fortunetelling aspect of the Tarot, but we are concerned entirely with the inner or spiritual significance, which pertains to the Path of Initiation as represented in the-twenty-two Major Arcana or Arcanes.
We are using the cards known as "the Egyptian Tarot," with Egyptian pictures of designs. They reflect the overwhelming fascination of all things Egyptian upon the minds of eighteenth and nineteenth century Europeans; but they are merely imitative of the Egyptian vignettes from the Book of the Dead, drawn by some unknown artist. In some instances we refer to A.E. Waite's Tarot, the pictures for which were drawn under his personal direction; these are medieval European in setting and style.
Some modern mythologists who have studied the Tarot observe that these cards may be linked with the Druid Mysteries. We have noted earlier that the Druid alphabet, like the Hebrew, consisted of twenty-two letters. This, however, is a problem which involves the Anglo-Israel theory, which holds that the Druid religion was really a form of the ancient Hebrew religion, and that Jesus visited Glastonbury in England in his youth, and that Joseph of Arimathea was the first Bishop of Christendom and founded the first Christian Church in Britain. This problem cannot be discussed in these pages but some of the deepest mysteries of Christianity are conerned therewith.
Here we deal solely with the Major Tarot Arcana, and we endeavor to show how each one of these Arcana, or Arcanum, may be correlated with a story and a teaching in the Bible.
— Corinne Heline
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