Ancient Mysteries Tarot Deck

This book situates Tarot in its ancient roots, with particular emphasis on the tradition of the Mystery Schools. The suites are designated as "Earth, Water, Air and Fire" rather than the conventional Pentacles, Cups, Swords and Wands. The first part of the book is a review of the ancient sources of Tarot and the dynamics of the archetypes, with interesting sidelights on the author's personal experiences in this realm. The reader is instructed by The Magician, The Priestess and The Hermit about the meanings and wisdom of Tarot, which he discovers to be a "Book of Truth."

This unique deck links tarot with the magic of its ancient roots. The images of the Major Arcana are based on sacred temple art from the Mystery Schools of Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia and India, while images of megaliths, sacred fountains and stone temples are used to portray the four sacred elements in the Minor Arcana. Roger Calverley has crafted this deck for divination and initiation, the background and the process of which is described in detail in his book, Ancient Mysteries Tarot. 78 cards plus insert booklet.

For hundreds of years, tarot cards have been used for predicting the future, and a way to cast light on life's big questions and inevitable challenges. Tarot reading is a fascinating and enjoyable way to explore your life's journey, whoever you are and whatever you're dealing with. All you need is curiosity and a willingness to tell the truth. What if I told you that our lives are made up of a set number of stories or patterns? At its simplest, the Tarot depicts 78 of these stories. Each story card holds a secret lesson or teaching, and deciphering each card's secret is what reading the Tarot is all about. With beautiful illustrations, instructions on how to use your cards and what they mean, this pocket-sized book is the perfect gift for Tarot enthusiasts and truth seekers. Chapters include: How to Use Your Cards The Major Arcana The Minor Arcana Card Spreads and Stories Tarot in Everyday Life

This is a practical and accessible guide to one of the most popular divination systems. What makes this book different from the others is that it: Provides instruction on reading both the Major and Minor Arcana Explains why the cards are the cards, why each picture forms part of a sequence, and why they occupy a mystical place in our consciousness Gives a balanced and informative perspective on each of the cards, as well as an overview of the entire deck Provides a history of the tarot Connects the tarot to the Qabalah Dee is a life-long tarot reader and historian. He traces the spiritual origins of the cards from Celtic mythology and Hebrew mysticism to Renaissance theatrical productions and the stars and planets of astrology. He also examines how past scholars thought about the tarot and how that thinking has changed to make the cards meaningful for today's readers. This wide-ranging primer provides readers with everything they need to know about the tarot and provides fresh insights into the cards. An illustrated edition of this title was published by Sterling in 2003.

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.

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.

The mystical Tarot Cards that Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Colman Smith developed have become the most authoritative deck in existence. This book and the cards originally belonged to the magical order of the Golden Dawn and conveyed to the order's members the secret tradition taught by the ancient mysteries.

That the Tarot originated in ancient Egypt as a divinatory tool is a romantic misconception. Ron Decker’s meticulous scholarship will surprise practitioners and academics alike, revealing the Tarot’s true evolution and meanings as its inventor(s) understood it. The Tarot consists of the Minor Arcana, four suits of cards similar to our modern deck, and the Major Arcana, twenty-two allegorical or “trump” cards. Decker says the four-suit deck was invented in Asia Minor before AD 1000; Italian courtiers added the trumps in the 1400s. But Tarot was first used as a game. Tarot divination was only created in the 1700s by a Parisian fortuneteller who based the trump images on Hermeticism, which merges Greco-Egyptian alchemy, astrology, numerology, magic, and mysticism. Today, the suit-cards are often traced to the ancient Jewish Cabala. But, says Decker, they, too, acquired their meanings only in the 1700s, and he cites a lost numerical system based on Cabala at that time Decker’s interpretation integrates three whole systems-astrological, arithmological, mystagogical (concerning initiation rites into the Mysteries). His depth of knowledge makes the book a must-have for serious students of Tarot and esotericism