Concerning the Symbolism of the Tarot Trumps: A New Interpretation? By Ioannis Marathakis

The historic publication of Stuart Kaplan’s Encyclopedia of Tarot in 1978 presented to the public many scholarly theories about the Tarot, formerly restricted to a limited audience. There is little doubt now regarding the origin of this peculiar deck of cards. Tarot originates in the common 52-card deck, which comes from Islamic Egypt. The oldest almost full surviving 52-card deck, the Mamluk Cards, was created at c. 1400 AD, and it can be found at the Topkapi Sarayi Museum in Istanbul. It contains four suits, Polo sticks, Scimitars, Cups and Coins, while each suit consists of ten pip cards and three court cards: King, Viceroy and Second Viceroy. Islam forbids imagery though, so the court cards contain but the written titles. Fragments of older decks do exist, so we may accept that the usage of the playing cards in the Islamic world dates from the 12^th century (Kaplan S., p.53, 56).

Playing cards came to Europe at the end of the 14^th century. Europeans replaced inscriptions with images, and they experimented with different versions of the common deck. In some cases the Queen replaced the Viceroy, yet in other cases she was added to the other three court cards, thus making a 56-card deck. The earliest references we now have to the 56-card decks were made in 1423. One of the mid-fifteenth century variations is also the “carte da trionfi”, that is to say the standard 78-card Tarot deck (Kaplan S., p. 26, 56). The oldest almost full surviving deck is usually named Pierpont Morgan-Bergamo Visconti-Sforza tarocchi (from now on Visconti-Sforza), generally believed to have been constructed c. 1450, as a present of Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, to his wife Bianca Maria Visconti. Variations with more Trumps are known to have existed since 1428, but until the mid-fifteenth century the 78-card deck had already predominated (Kaplan S., p. 106-107).

Tarot was intended to be a game, and indeed it became an extremely popular game in Italy. From the beginning of the 16^th century it became popular in France as well. Printed decks soon replaced the former hand-painted ones. Of these printed decks, the most recognizable nowadays are the various Tarot of Marseilles packs of the 18^th century, which inspired Court de Gebelin to give the first “esoteric” explanation on the Tarot.

During 1781, Antoine Court de Gebelin, a Swiss ex-pastor, freemason and researcher of Mesmerism, published the eighth volume of his massive work, The Primitive World (Le Monde Primitif). The series had started on 1773, and their aim was to reconstruct the primitive human culture, which, according to de Gebelin, was the Golden Age of humanity. The aforementioned eighth volume included an essay on the Tarot. De Gebelin claimed that the ancient Egyptian priests were the first to construct the Tarot deck. They codified their secrets in images, thus offering to humanity an epitome of wisdom. So, this deck was named The Book of Thoth. Then the priests brought the Tarot deck to Rome, where the Christian Popes learned its secrets. The latter brought the deck with them to Avignon in the 14^th century, and then it was spread throughout France.

However, Court de Gebelin does not provide any historical proof of his claims, and the contemporary research proved his thesis to be merely imaginary. De Gebelin also claimed that the name “Tarot” derives from the supposedly Egyptian words TAR, meaning “royal”, and RO, meaning “path”, thus being the royal path to wisdom. When Francois Champollion deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs about twenty-three years later, it was obvious that the etymological claims of de Gebelin did not have even the least trace of truth. For more than two centuries though, this theory had an enormous influence on the esoteric circles.

Tarot had become fashionable, and within nine years after de Gebelin’s publication, the cartomancer Jean Batist Aliette (Etteilla) designed the first of the so called “esoteric decks” and published the first book on the Tarot oracle ever written, On the Theory and Practice of the Book of Thoth (Cour thèorique et pratique du Livre du Thot, 1790). The use of Tarot as a divinatory device became very popular after this book was published. Aliette was also the first who proposed an attribution of the Tarot Trumps to the planets and the signs of the zodiac. Three Trumps remained without attributions (Kaplan S., p. 1, 4).

The astrological attributions of Tarot Trumps according to Aliette (Etteila)

No	Tarot Trump	Astrological Attribution
Ι.	The Magician	-
ΙΙ	The High Priestess (Popess)	Moon
ΙΙΙ	The Empress	Venus
IV	The Emperor	Jupiter
V	The Hierophant (Pope)	Aries
VI	The Lovers	Taurus
VII	The Chariot	Gemini
VIII	Justice	Cancer
IX	The Hermit	Leo
X	The Wheel of Fortune	Virgo
XI	Strength	Mars
XII	The Hanged Man	Libra
XIII	Death	-
XIV	Temperance	Scorpio
XV	The Devil	Sagittarius
XVI	The Tower	Capricorn
XVII	The Star	Mercury
XVIII	The Moon	Aquarius
XIX	The Sun	Pisces
XX	Judgement	Saturn
XXI	The World	-
0	The Fool	Sun

The works of the French occultist Alphonse Louis Constant (Eliphas Levi, 1810-1875) caused the rebirth of interest in the hidden wisdom of Tarot. His classic book, Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic, published in 1855 (and translated as Transcendental Magic by A. E. Waite), is divided in two volumes, each containing twenty-two chapters. The astrological attributions of the Tarot were none of Levi’s concerns. Instead, he proposed that the twenty-two Tarot Trumps correspond to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, thus connecting the Tarot with the Qabalah for the first time. Curiously enough, he places the card zero (The Fool) between the Judgement and the World.

Attributions of the Tarot Trumps to the Hebrew Letters according to Levi

No	Tarot Trump	Hebrew Letter	Hebrew Name
Ι.	The Magician	א	Aleph
ΙΙ	The High Priestess (Popess)	ב	Beth
ΙΙΙ	The Empress	ג	Gimel
IV	The Emperor	ד	Daleth
V	The Hierophant (Pope)	ה	Heh
VI	The Lovers	ו	Vau
VII	The Chariot	ז	Zain
VIII	Justice	ח	Cheth
IX	The Hermit	ט	Teth
X	The Wheel of Fortune	י	Yod
XI	Strength	כ	Caph
XII	The Hanged Man	ל	Lamed
XIII	Death	מ	Mem
XIV	Temperance	נ	Nun
XV	The Devil	ס	Samech
XVI	The Tower	ע	Ayin
XVII	The Star	פ	Peh
XVIII	The Moon	צ	Tzaddi
XIX	The Sun	ק	Qoph
XX	Judgement	ר	Resh
0	The Fool	ש	Shin
XXI	The World	ת	Tau

Levi’s ideas were so influential to the founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn that they tried to incorporate the Tarot to their own magical system. They also seem to have been influenced by Etteila as well, since their system included astrological attributions. But it seems they felt that they needed further justification of the system. This justification occurred in a medieval qabalistic text, named Sepher Yetzirah, The Book of Formation. This book referred to a division of the Hebrew letters into three categories, namely the three Mother Letters (corresponding to the Prime Elements), the seven Double Letters (corresponding to the planets) and the twelve Simple Letters (corresponding to the signs of the Zodiac). Apart from the full attributions for the Mother Letters, Aleph-Air, Mem-Water and Shin-Fire, no other specific attribution was given, and various commentators offer different views on the subject.

It seems that the founders of the Order spent much time trying to conciliate all these systems. At the end they came up with a system of correspondences totally different from all the previous ones. They placed the Fool before the Magician, and then they attributed the Hebrew letters to the Tarot Trumps following the natural succession of both. When not restricted by Sepher Yetzirah, they followed Etteilla’s astrological attributions (The High Priestess to the Moon and the Empress to Venus). Otherwise, they apparently employed their logic and insight. Yet, they were obliged to interchange the numbering of the Trumps XI (previously being Strength) and VIII (previously being Justice) in order to place the signs of the Zodiac in their natural order, although they did not seem to care at all about the natural order of the planets.

Attributions of the Tarot Trumps according to the Golden Dawn

No	Tarot Trump	Astrological Attribution	Hebrew Letter	Hebrew Name	Path of the Tree of Life
0	The Fool	Air	א	Aleph	11^thPath
Ι.	The Magician	Mercury	ב	Beth	12^thPath
ΙΙ	The High Priestess	Moon	ג	Gimel	13^thPath
ΙΙΙ	The Empress	Venus	ד	Daleth	14^thPath
IV	The Emperor	Aries	ה	Heh	15^thPath
V	The Hierophant	Taurus	ו	Vau	16^thPath
VI	The Lovers	Gemini	ז	Zain	17^thPath
VII	The Chariot	Cancer	ח	Cheth	18^thPath
VIII	Strength	Leo	ט	Teth	19^thPath
IX	The Hermit	Virgo	י	Yod	20^thPath
X	The Wheel of Fortune	Jupiter	כ	Caph	21^st Path
XI	Justice	Libra	ל	Lamed	22^nd Path
XII	The Hanged Man	Water	מ	Mem	23^rd Path
XIII	Death	Scorpio	נ	Nun	24^th Path
XIV	Temperance	Sagittarius	ס	Samech	25^th Path
XV	The Devil	Capricorn	ע	Ayin	26^th Path
XVI	The Tower	Mars	פ	Peh	27^th Path
XVII	The Star	Aquarius	צ	Tzaddi	28^th Path
XVIII	The Moon	Pisces	ק	Qoph	29^th Path
XIX	The Sun