 Hey there! Last time we looked at the basic symbology of Tarot, and now we're going to talk briefly about the history of how this intricate craft came to be. It's important to know that there's really a ton of information we could get into here, but we're going to do our best to cover the basics of only what's absolutely necessary. The first tarot cards in recorded history are found around the mid-14th century Europe, where we can see signs that the young and wealthy members of society would play several well-known card games using both the Major and Minor Akana. At that time, there seemingly wasn't anything spiritual about them. The earliest Italian tarot cards had unnumbered Major Akana cards, but as early as 1490, card makers began to place Roman numerals on these cards, fixing them to a specific sequence with the exception of the fool, who remained unnumbered. This practice was carried on by future card makers in France and onward, which brought about the Tarot des Marseilles, setting the standard for hundreds of years to come. Everything changed when a man named Antoine Court de Gébelin, in 1781, published Le Monde Primitif, in which he hypothesized and linked these popular playing cards to ancient Egyptian mythology, and the ancient writings attributed to the Egyptian sage, known as Toth. He also insisted that the fool be numbered zero, which added a new esoteric dimension to the tarot as well, marking the fool, the beginning, and the end. It is the consensus among most historians that Antoine Court de Gébelin didn't have much of a solid ground to stand on, and thus most historians believe that the tarot has no earlier history beyond its origins in Italy, and that is simply the end of that. But while most historians believe this to be the complete story of tarot, there are those who disagree. According to tarot historian Tom Tadford Little, for example, traditional playing cards were first seen in Europe in 1375, but had been brought over from Islamic societies in the Middle East, where they had been used for centuries before that. Further, it is a well-known fact that the earliest playing cards in history actually appeared in China during the Tang dynasty, and thus may have come about between the 7th and 9th centuries. Although these old Chinese playing cards did not have the suits as we know them today. At any rate, the development of tarot changed dramatically with the work of Antoine Court de Gébelin, and they started to be viewed as more than just card games, and this was just the beginning. In the 19th century, a French occultist named Eliface Levi became the catalyst for bringing even more connections to light, this time between tarot and Kabbalah. By his work, the tarot had now been linked to the Tree of Life structure, and its cosmic symbolism only continued to develop from there. By this point, there was enough connections made between tarot and these ancient philosophies that the cards became incredibly popular amongst more esoteric circles. And in 1888, the connections between tarot, astrology, numerology, Kabbalah, and her medicism would be realized to an even greater degree by the work of an established esoteric order called the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. This Hermetic Order was founded by three Freemasons who devoted themselves to drawing the lines between all of the aforementioned systems of cosmic interpretation. This was also one of the main establishing points in history for Hermetic Kabbalah, the open interpretation for traditional Jewish Kabbalah, which allowed for the free association to other spiritual and ancient traditions such as Hermeticism and the like. By their work, the Order of the Golden Dawn established a new age for modern occultism and especially tarot. This was touched upon in Spirit Science 35, Part 3, when we discussed the different branches of Kabbalah and where they all came from. You see, it was because of the work of this order that the most prominent tarot decks in history came to light. In fact, most of the authentic tarot decks which are available today are based on the two principle decks which emerged from the work of the Golden Dawn, which are called the Rider-Waite-Smith and Thoth-Tarot. Originally, the Rider-Waite-Smith was created out of a union of this new understanding with the older Tarot de Marseille and even today it holds the position of one of the highest standards in Tarot. Sixty years later, a tarot deck created by Alistair Crowley and Lady Frieda Harris would be published which took the established Golden Dawn associations and fused them with Crowley's own understanding of the universe and spirituality, bringing Thoth-Tarot into being. Today, it is one of the most alchemically infused arcane decks available and also one of the most detailed in their associations to the list of systems mentioned prior. That said, it also became one of the most controversial tarot decks out there and supposedly caused quite a bit of drama by its creation in the tarot community. Nevertheless, Thoth-Tarot really opened up a huge door in Tarot and now ultimately between Thoth and the Rider-Waite-Smith, these two decks have influenced the largest degree of authentic tarot since then. We can even see this in Patch-Tarot as we come around full circle which was designed to reconcile all of the paradoxes that exist between the Rider-Waite-Smith and Thoth, of which there are several. In addition to these decks and especially in recent history, thousands of new decks have been produced which explore the symbolism and meaning behind these cards in all manner of ways. Two very significant and other noteworthy decks include Shadowscape Tarot which explores the theme of the Rider-Waite-Smith without standing creative art, as well as Osho-Zen-Tarot which follows the same theme of Tarot but mirrors the wisdom of Osho so well that each card is a powerful lesson in Zen, yet so incredibly simple and clear. Along with the evolution of Tarot, through the last several hundred years we also saw the development of Oracle cards which are generally a set of numbered cards which are labeled with a variety of ideas for personal reflections such as healing, friendship, trust, love, and so on. Oracle cards do not follow the same pattern of the elements in Tarot and are significantly simpler in their makeup but excellent tools nonetheless. Now I'd like to take a moment to turn to the words of our fellow tarot historian Tom Tadford Little who wrote the following. There's a perception that the study of tarot history is at best irrelevant to the use of the cards for divination and at worst downright antagonistic towards it. Ever since the fanciful stories of the occult writers claiming that the cards were invented in ancient Egypt as a coded library of secret magical knowledge were rejected as historically false, historians have been regarded as debunkers trying to deprive the cards of their esoteric significance and call into question the legitimacy of their magical and religious uses. Indeed there is some truth to this perception. We should recognize however that tarot cards have persisted as part of our culture for nearly six centuries. Anything that survives that long will evolve and change and so will our attitudes towards it. The fact that game playing was an earlier use for the cards in fortune telling does not make it a better use. It just makes it an earlier use. From our present vantage point we can recognize that tarot cards are a cultural artifact of great versatility capable of engaging our interests in many different ways according to the context in which we encounter them, the nature of the times which we live, and our own individual preferences. The history of tarot is only part of its identity. Tom has a lot of amazing information on his website, The Hermitage, which is actually no longer available on its own but can be viewed through the Wayback Machine and we'll share some links in the author comments of this video. As we bring this episode to a close we find that the real power into row is the ability for the intricate symbolism to provide an experience of self-reflection. The cards represent archetypes, ideas that tell meaningful stories, whether in their natural sequence or in the sequence that you draw when you use them. By interpreting these stories and relating them within us we may come to learn more about ourselves and grow as individuals as a result. Thank you so much for watching and next time we'll jump into the first of the Arcanum and interpret the first story of the tarot. Till then.