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Reflections on the Various Uses of Tarot

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Innovation in Esotericism from the Renaissance to the Present

Abstract

Faivre’s chapter discusses an important innovation within esotericism: modern tarot. Tarot originated in the Renaissance, but no esoteric meaning was assigned to it until the works of Court de Gébelin (1725–1784) and Etteilla (1938–1991). Faivre determines that there are 12 innovative uses of modern tarot. These are (1) divination, (2) psychological symbolism, (3) ancient Egyptian wisdom from the book of Thoth, (4) the link between tarot and the Jewish Kabbalah, (5) the link with alchemy, and astrology, and numerology, (6) the connection with freemasonry, (7) connected with new social settings, (8) tarot as an esoteric image of other cultures, (9) tarot as feminine neo-pagan medium, (10) artistic tool for inspiration and literature, (11) as occult decoration, and (12) as an object of academic and historical study.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The purpose of this chapter is to stimulate methodological reflection on the subject. The research into Tarot has been encouraged by discussions I have carried out in the past with Professor Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. If I remember correctly, we agreed in seeing Tarot as a distinct modern Western esotericism current.

  2. 2.

    Ronald Decker, Thierry Depaulis and Michael Dummett, A Wicked Pack of Cards. The Origins of the Occult Tarot (London: Duckworth & Co, 1996).

  3. 3.

    The term “synchronicity” was introduced by Carl G. Jung to explain meaningful coincidences without a causal relationship; see Carl G. Jung, Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973).

  4. 4.

    Carl Gustav Jung, “Seminar of March 1933,” in Visions: Notes of the Seminar given in 1930–1934 by C.G. Jung, edited by Claire Douglas, 2 vols (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997), II, 923.

  5. 5.

    André Virel, “Le Symbolisme du Tarot,” unpublished article.

  6. 6.

    André Virel, L’Histoire de notre image (Geneva: Mont Blanc, 1965), 63–81, the editor’s translation.

  7. 7.

    Stuart R. Kaplan, The Encyclopedia of Tarot, 4 vols (Stanford, CA: US Games Systems, 1978–2005), III (1990), 595, 600–601.

  8. 8.

    Corinne Morel, ABC du Tarot psychologique (Paris: Grancher, 2009).

  9. 9.

    Papus (pseudonym of Gérard Encausse), Le Tarot divinatoire, Clef du tirage des cartes et des sorts (Paris: Librairie Hermétique, 1909).

  10. 10.

    Oswald Wirth, Le Tarot des imagiers du moyen âge, 3 vols. (Paris: Éditions Le Symbolisme, 1926–1927). This book has been translated into English by Richard Gardner and Diana Faber as The Tarot of the Magicians (York Beach, MA: Weiser, 1990).

  11. 11.

    See above, note 2.

  12. 12.

    Eliphas Lévi (pseudonym of Alphonse Louis Constant), Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (Paris: G. Baillère, 1861). See also Kaplan, The Encyclopedia of Tarot, I, 22.

  13. 13.

    Stanislas de Guaita, Le serpent de la Genèse (Paris: Carré, 1891–1897).

  14. 14.

    Papus (pseudonym of Gérard Encausse), Le Tarot des Bohémiens, le plus ancien Livre du monde à l‘usage des initiés (Paris: Carré, 1889).

  15. 15.

    Aleister Crowley, Book of Thoth (London: OTO Press, 1944).

  16. 16.

    Vanel’s main website is Spiritual Company, Astrology and Tarot by Steffan Vanel, http://spiritualcompany.com, accessed 25 June 2020.

  17. 17.

    François Trojani, Commentaire alchimique, vol. II of Série d’estampes de la Renaissance italienne dite Tarots de Mantegna ou jeu du gouvernement du monde au Quattrocento vers 1465 (Garches: Arnaud Seydoux, 1985).

  18. 18.

    Kaplan, The Encyclopedia of Tarot, I, 51.

  19. 19.

    Kaplan, The Encyclopedia of Tarot, I, 81–83.

  20. 20.

    Lévi, Dogme et Rituel, 337–63.

  21. 21.

    Kaplan, The Encyclopedia of Tarot, III, 617.

  22. 22.

    Romarret Halabaq, Le Livre des Psaumes à la lumière de la Tradition kabbalistique: la Version herméneutique du Livre des Psaumes (Paris: Lulu, 2013).

  23. 23.

    Pierre-Louis Augereau, Hergé au pays des Tarots. Une lecture symbolique, ésotérique et alchimique des aventures de Tintin (Le Coudray-Macouard: Cheminements, 1999).

  24. 24.

    See also Kaplan, The Encyclopedia of Tarot, III, 604–605.

  25. 25.

    Valentin Tomberg, Méditations sur les 22 arcanes majeurs du Tarot (Paris: Aubier, 1980).

  26. 26.

    Vladimir Chmakov, Великие Арканы Таро. Абсолютные Начала Синтетической Философии Эзотеризма (Moscow: Kniga, 1993; 1st edition, 1916).

  27. 27.

    Dominique Glaub, “La pratique New Age du Tarot: une nouvelle forme de religiosité” (PhD diss, University of Paris V-René Descartes, 1994).

  28. 28.

    On this general aspect, see Danny L. Jorgensen, The Esoteric Scene, Cultic Milieu and Occult Tarot (New York: Garland, 1992).

  29. 29.

    Jean-Marc Font, “Le Tarot Vaudou de la Nouvelle Orléans: Exemple de syncrétisme entre ésotérisme occidental et tradition religieuse africaine,” an unpublished paper presented in March 2012 at Antoine Faivre’s seminar in Paris.

  30. 30.

    Kaplan, The Encyclopedia of Tarot, II, 258.

  31. 31.

    A quick search on the internet with keywords “Café Téméraire” can easily reveal its Paris location and reviews. See, for instance, https://plancreateur.wordpress.com/2014/10/26/jodorowsky-au-cafe-le-temeraire-paris/, accessed 29 July 2020.

  32. 32.

    More examples are available in Kaplan, The Encyclopedia of Tarot, III, 88–89, and Rachel Pollack, The New Tarot: Modern Variations of Ancient Images (Woodstock, NY: Overlook, 1990), 88.

  33. 33.

    Kaplan, The Encyclopedia of Tarot, III, 601, 648, 220–1.

  34. 34.

    Kaplan, The Encyclopedia of Tarot, III, 574–75, 481.

  35. 35.

    Database of Modern Tarot Art—European Zone, based on Adam McLean’s Tarot Collection, version 1.4 July 3rd 2013 (1183 items), http://www.alchemywebsite.com/tarot/Tarot_database_Europe.html, accessed 1 September 2015.

  36. 36.

    Sang-Sun Park, The Tarot Café, 7 vols (Tokyo: Tokyopop, 2005–2008).

  37. 37.

    Charles Williams, The Greater Trumps (London: Gollancz, 1932).

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. École Pratique des Hautes Études (Sorbonne), Paris, France

    Antoine Faivre

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  1. Antoine Faivre
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. History Faculty, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Georgiana D. Hedesan

  2. Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Tim Rudbøg

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Faivre, A. (2021). Reflections on the Various Uses of Tarot. In: Hedesan, G.D., Rudbøg, T. (eds) Innovation in Esotericism from the Renaissance to the Present. Palgrave Studies in New Religions and Alternative Spiritualities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67906-4_12

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