A Cultural History Of Tarot

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.

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.

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.

With more than 40 illustrations and an entertaining informative text, this elegantly designed book captures the scope, powers, and romance of the Tarot throughout the ages. "Excellently researched, entertainingly and compellingly written".--Booklist.

Tarot in Culture (ed. Emily E. Auger) is a well-illustrated (260 illus.) two-volume multi-author anthology of papers on Tarot with a foreword by Rachel Pollack. Contributions range from original, in-depth, thoroughly documented studies of Tarot history, art, and literature to artists' statements and other primary source documents. Volume One (416 pp) contributors include Michael Dummett, Helen S. Farley, Mary K. Greer, Richard Kaczynski, Marcus Katz, June Leavitt, Paul Mountfort, and Robert Place. Tarot in Culture is both accessible to the Tarot student and of interest to scholars of other fields, including historians and theorists of art, esotericism, literature, the occult, and popular culture and genres.

For the first time in print, Michael Kleen presents the full story of the Prairie State's dalliance with the dark arts. Although Illinois saw no dramatic witch trials, witchcraft has been a part of Illinois history and culture from French exploration to the present day. On the Illinois frontier, pioneers pressed silver dimes into musket balls to ward off witches, while farmers dutifully erected fence posts according to phases of the moon. In 1904, the quiet town of Quincy was shocked to learn of Bessie Bement's suicide, after the young woman sought help from a witch doctor to break a hex. In turn-of-the-century Chicago, Lauron William de Laurence's occult publishing house churned out manuals for performing bizarre rituals intended to attract love and exact revenge.

Arthur E. Waite and artist Pamela Colman Smith's Rider-Waite Tarot (1909) is the most popular Tarot in the world. Today, it is affectionately referred to as the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot in recognition of the high quality of Smith's contributions. Waite and Smith's deck has become the gold standard for identifying and analyzing contemporary Tarot and other meditation decks based on archetypes. Developments in both visual and literary history and theory have influenced Tarot since its fifteenth-century invention as a game and subsequent adaptations for esotericism, cartomancy, and meditation. This analysis consider Tarot in relation to established modern and postmodern art movements, such as Symbolism, Surrealism, and Pattern and Decoration Art, as well as the concepts and theories informing both the dominance and the dissolution of the modernist "grid" and hierarchical priorities. This work also explores the close connection between Tarot and the invention of the literary novel and includes new material on the representation of Tarot in film and fiction. A new chapter addresses the growing influence of the archetypal "shadow" and "shadow work" on Tarot as an artistic form, narrative genre, and practice in the new millennium.

Conventional wisdom traces Tarot cards to medieval Italy, but their roots go back much further in time and draw on a surprisingly rich variety of cultures and spiritual traditions. Combining pioneering scholarship with practical spiritual instruction, Origins of the Tarot is the first book to unveil the full range of the ancient streams of wisdom from which the Tarot emerged.The timeless principles of conscious realization and cosmological unfoldment underlying the Tarot have never been explored in a comparably extensive and detailed way: herein the teachings of a tremendous range of traditions, including Kabbalah, Western esotericism and alchemy, Buddhism, Taoism, yogic disciplines, Sufism, mystical Christianity, Gnosticism, and Neoplatonism, are masterfully incorporated and synthesized.Author Dai Léon explores a confluence of philosophical schools from East and West as they relate to the Tarot, giving each its due in the exposition of a universal procession of evolution and the soul’s quest for enlightenment. In the process, the Tarot is seen as a unique exemplification of perennial teachings on the soul and its liberation, as well as a still-unfolding window into concealed currents of human history. The book’s profound learning and unprecedented range of references are sure to attract close study among students both of the world’s most enduring esoteric tradition and of esotericism itself.