When the Tarot pack was invented in Italy in the early 15th century, it was simply a pack of cards, used for playing games. Esoteric interpretations of the pack date from late eighteenth-century France, and were confined to that country for a hundred years. Nowadays, however, the cards are used throughout the Western world and not only for fortune telling; for real believers they are a key to secret knowledge of the meaning of life.
An essential volume for serious students of the Tarot, this compelling survey describes the many fascinating decks imagined over time and the secret histories of mystics.
It might surprise you to learn that tarot cards were created for playing card games and not fortune telling. Indeed, contrary to popular myths, there is nothing occult in their origins. The family of tarot games has been played since the 15th century and continues to be played throughout continental Europe to this day. Sadly, English speakers have usually only heard of tarot in the context of magic and divination. This little book sets out to correct that, starting with chapters about the real history of the cards and continuing with the rules to more than 40 games from across Europe. To help you get started many of the terms and conventions have been standardised and Anglicised, and there is a guide on buying cards suitable for modern game play.Tarot includes some of the most sophisticated and challenging card games ever devised - discover what you've been missing and you may never pick up a 52 card pack again.
How can we possibly embrace our truest self if we never step into the dark? Author and occultist Travis McHenry reveals the secret daemons of the 17th-century and conjures their powers into this unique set of 78-divination cards. Drawing on daemons, symbols, and sigils from ancient magickal grimoires including Archidoxis Magica and the Key of Solomon, Occult Tarot presents a fully realized divination tool to finally embrace and behold the mysteries of the night. The first tarot deck to faithfully adhere to the Solomonic principles of demon conjuration, Occult Tarot allows practitioners to discover the power of ancient demons and learn to tame the beasts that wander between the physical and spiritual worlds.
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
Originally published in 1992, The Esoteric Scene, Cultic Milieu, and Occult Tarot examines beliefs, practices, and activities described as mystical, psychical, magical, spiritual, metaphysical, theophysical, esoteric, occult, and/or pagan, among other possible labels, by their American disciplines. The book is comprised using a mixture of field work and interviews and provides a broad overview of the esoteric community and the social meanings of occultism. The book describes and analyses social meanings of ‘esoteric culture’ as it is experienced, defined, structured and enacted by societal members and examines the sociological significance of esoteric culture as a formulation of alternative sociocultural realities. It provides a sociological understanding of esoteric culture and the cultural milieu.
This volume presents students and scholars with a comprehensive overview of the fascinating world of the occult. It explores the history of Western occultism, from ancient and medieval sources via the Renaissance, right up to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and contemporary occultism. Written by a distinguished team of contributors, the essays consider key figures, beliefs and practices as well as popular culture.
This is a compilation of Eliphas Levi's writings on the 22 Major Arcana of the Tarot and their corresponding Hebrew letters. It includes the ""Magic Ritual of the Sanctum Regnum"", some extracts from the ""Major Keys and the Clavicles of Solomon"" and the Editor's Appendix is a large collection of Levi's drawings and diagrams for easy reference. ÒThe science of signs begins with the science of letters. Letters are absolute ideas. Absolute ideas are numbers. Numbers are perfect signs. In using ideas with numbers, one can operate upon the ideas like one can operate upon number and arrive at the mathematics of truth. The tarot is the key of letters and numbersÉÓ ÒNow, the tarot that we have today É has come to us from Egypt passing through Judea. The keys of this tarot, in fact, correspond with the letters of the hebraic alphabet, and some of its figures even reproduce the same form of the characters of this sacred alphabet.Ó
The volumes in this set, originally published between 1978 and 1992, draw together research by leading academics in the area of the occult and provide a rigorous examination of related key issues. The collection examines occultism from a broad range of disciplines, from shamanism and the occult tarot, to the esoteric and spiritualism. It includes volumes across the disciplines of religion, covering new religious movements, spiritualism, ritual and magic practices. The three books that comprise this set include investigations into the evolution of occultism, as well as the history and practices of the occult as a religious movement. This collection brings back into print insightful and detailed books and will be a must-have resource for academics and students, not only of religion and anthropology, but also of history and psychology.
Here's how to get 3 to 5 times more information from each spread you cast right now: Ask better questions, do all of your pre-spreadwork, and verify the accuracy of your spread before you start making any predictions.Advanced Tarot Secrets illustrates, step-by-step, how to do all of this. You are about to learn how to spot patterns in spreads, find spreads hiding in the spreads you already use, and how cards interact with each other. This book reveals the advanced spread techniques and trade secrets used every day by the top psychics in the world. It is ahow-to-do-it handbook for the professional who charges $100 to $1,000 an hour to wealthy clients who expect results. These skills are essential if you are going to read for celebrity or corporate (or government) clients. Improve your accuracy and strengthen your intuition by practicing the 11 new exercises and playing the 6 new games detailed in this book. You will learn how to: Find lost items and missing people with the Tarot Manifest practically anything you desire out of thin air using your cards Read the distant past (and future); great for solving mysteries—and crimes Solve problems and brainstorm with the Tarot Overcome writer's block and master storytelling in the section specifically for authors The Tarot is not a parlor game. In the hands of a master it is a research tool used to read the future and rewrite the events to be. This book is the official textbook for theHouse of White mystery school and it will take your readings to a level of mastery that puts you head and shoulders above most Tarot readers you will ever meet. There is no guesswork involved with the Tarot, or this book. There are time-tested techniques that work, and it is time that you learn and use them.Advanced Tarot Secrets picks up from where The Easiest Way to Learn the Tarot—Ever!! left off. You build on the knowledge you already have to deepen your bond with your cards and make them reveal layers of information from the same exact spreads you are using right now. We start you off by learning and doing new exercises, all designed to strengthen your intuition. These simulate the exact methods you use in “real life” readings, and make you infinitely more comfortable reading for other people. Next we introduce you to 6 new games that teach you how to see the various layers of meaning each card offers, and how cards interact in a spread. These games help you understand how the Tarot reflects the intricacies of daily life: In a simple ten-card spread you can see more details than three other people reading the same spread. Next come advanced spread basics and advanced spread techniques. Here you apply everything you learn in the exercises and games: Quick and easy ways to clear your deck between clients (useful at parties or working psychic fairs and hotlines) Why every spread needs a protagonist How to instantly verify the accuracy of your spread (no more bad readings—ever) How to modify your favorite spread to meet your needs for each reading Hidden spreads, spread patterns and themes, the four passes through a spread every reading should have When to use clarification or expansion cards, how to read cards face down—and why How to give accurate “no-spread readings” And several other advanced techniques Once you understand all of these things, you can dowse with the Tarot, work on archaeological expeditions, work for treasure hunters, work with stock analysts to predict economic trends, remote view (we don't call it “spying”), solve any problem, design your own spreads and decks, and charge a LOT more for your services. Advanced Tarot Secrets is not “yet another book on the Tarot,” it is a Tarot revolution. This book frees you from the limitations of old worn-out techniques that create no
