The Beginning of the Egyptian Tarot Myth
Tarot cards are the hieroglyphic “Book of Thoth”. All wisdom comes from Egypt, and the quintessence of Egyptian wisdom is contained in the Tarot. The Gypsies were the first to begin fortune-telling with these cards, and in the time of the pharaohs, the Tarot was a collection of either gold embossed sheets or frescoes on the walls of a secret temple, on which the most important occult truths—the “Arcana”—were depicted in symbolic form. The word Tarot itself means “the Royal Path”. This is the path of Initiation, understood as the sequential mastering of each of the Arcana.
The above-mentioned “axioms” about the Egyptian roots of the Tarot come from several 18th–20th centuries texts, where the historical and occult erudition of the authors was mixed with fantasies (or, if you like, with “inspiration from above”). An entire esoteric tradition grew out of these books, the fruit of which, in particular, are the various versions of the “Egyptian Tarot” decks, so popular in our time.
In this series of notes, I want to take a look at the origins of the Egyptian Tarot and its founding fathers.
Part 1. Court de Gebelin and Сomte (Сount) de Mellet
As far as we know now, the first person to connect Tarot cards with ancient Egyptian culture was Antoine Court de Gebelin (1728 (?) – 1784), the French (albeit of Swiss origin) Protestant pastor, Freemason, antiquarian and historian. His main printed work is Le monde primitif analysé et comparé avec le monde moderne (The Primitive World, Its Study and Comparison with the Modern World). He believed in the Golden Age of humanity and intended to reconstruct the appearance of this hypothetical ancient civilization through a comparative study of languages, calendars, mythologies, and symbols of different cultures.
In 1772, he published a prospectus for a multi-volume work that was to be distributed by subscription. There were over a thousand subscribers, including the King of France and royalty. The funds raised allowed to begin publication. From 1773 until his death, Court de Gebelin managed to publish nine volumes.
The Tarot (in the archaic spelling Tarraux) is first mentioned in the fifth volume of The Primitive World, published in 1778 and containing the Etymological Dictionary of the French Language. The dictionary entry reads:
TAROT: a card game well known in Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. It is an Egyptian game, as we once shall demonstrate; and its name is composed of two Eastern words, Tar and Rha, or Rho, which mean “the royal road.”
In 1781, the eighth volume of The Primitive World was published, in which Court de Gebelin included, among numerous other materials, his article On the Tarot Deck and the article Researches on the Tarot by a certain “M. LE C. DE M.***”
The first letter M. stands for “Mr.” (Monsieur), LE C. means “Count” (le Comte). At the end of the various volumes of The Primitive World there are lists of subscribers, featuring several “Counts de M.***” In his own article, Court de Gebelin introduced the author of the second work as “a general, governor of a province.”
Only Count de Mellet fits this definition. If Count de M***, the author of Researches on the Tarot, was a subscriber of The Primitive World, then historians know something about him.
He is Louis-Raphaël-Lucrèce de Fayolle, comte de Mellet (1727–1804). I came across his portrait on a genealogy website a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, my inquiry about the portrait’s origins went unanswered, and the portrait itself was removed from the site. Of course, this casts doubt on its authenticity, but in principle, a person with such a biography could look exactly like that.
Read more about him in the book, A Wicked Pack of Cards: Origins of the Occult Tarot by Michael Dummett, Ronald Decker, and Thierry Depaulis, and in the article by Robert M. Place, Who was the comte de Mellet?
On the Tarot Deck
De Gebelin’s article begins with a well-known paragraph, which was quoted by many Tarotists of subsequent generations and which can be considered the true beginning of the Egyptian Tarot Myth:
If we were to be told that a work of the ancient Egyptians had been preserved to our day, one of their books that had escaped the flames that devoured their excellent libraries, and that contained their purest teaching on interesting subjects, everyone would undoubtedly hasten to familiarize themselves with this book, so precious and so extraordinary. If it were added that this book is widely distributed in most of Europe and for several centuries has been in the hands of the whole world, then the surprise would be even greater...
De Gebelin goes on to report:
The entertaining and frivolous form of this book was necessary, for this allowed it to conquer time and to carry through the centuries with extraordinary precision what it was supposed to preserve. People did not suspect its true content, and it was precisely because of this ignorance that it calmly overcame the centuries, because otherwise someone would certainly have tried to destroy it.
The time has come to reveal the allegories that this game was intended to preserve, and to show everyone that among the Egyptians, this most wise of peoples, everything, including games, was based on allegory, and that these wise men were able to turn even their most important and useful knowledge into a game and entertainment.
And further on, we read that “most of the trump cards have the most direct relation to Egypt.” For example:
·
The Chariot is Osiris triumphant;
·
The Devil is Typhon;
·
The House of God is the story of the Egyptian
king Rhampsinites (Ramses), which is retold by Herodotus;
·
The Star is Sirius, and the female figure is
Isis; the whole image is “purest Egyptianism”;
·
in the Moon, the water in front of the two
towers is the Nile, and the two dogs represent “a completely Egyptian idea: two
dogs guarding and, in fact, personifying the two tropics.”
· Another “purely Egyptian” feature of the Tarot, according to de Gebelin, is its septenary structure. If we assign the Madman a zero value, then the entire deck consists of (7 × 11) cards, with (7 × 3) trumps and (7 × 2) cards in each suit. Finally, the suits themselves represent “the four classes into which Egyptian society was divided”: swords=the king and the military nobility, cups=the priesthood, clubs=farmers, and coins=merchants.
Court de Gebelin sums up:
Therefore, this deck of cards, which is entirely allegorical, cannot be the creation of any other people than the Egyptians.
Invented by some genius before or after the advent of chess, and combining utility with pleasure, it has come down to us through the ages. It has survived the complete decline of Egypt and its wonderful knowledge, and while we had no idea of the wisdom of the lessons it contained, we did not fail to enjoy the game it offered.
The path this deck took before it came to our lands is fairly easy to follow. In the first centuries of the Church, the Egyptians literally flooded Rome and brought their ceremonies, the cult of Isis, and therefore the deck in question.
This deck, interesting in itself, did not go beyond Italy at first, but then, when the Italians began to communicate closely with the Germans, it became famous in this second country. When the Provencal counts established relations with Italy, especially during the time of the papal court in Avignon, it took root in Provence and Avignon…
So, Antoine Court de Gebelin was the first to put forward the idea of the ancient Egyptian origin of the Tarot cards and their esoteric significance.
Researches on the Tarot
In his article, de Gebelin informs the reader that it will be followed by
… another study, setting forth the manner in which this pack was used in the art of divination. It is the work of a general, governor of a province, who has honoured us with his favour. His extraordinary insight enabled him to discover in this pack the Egyptian principles of the art of divination by cards, known to the first groups of Egyptians, erroneously called Gypsies, who spread over Europe. Some, though very few, of these principles are weakly reflected in our decks of cards, which are much less suitable for divination because of their monotony and paucity of designs.
The Egyptian cards were the best fit, since in a sense they contained the entire world and all the conditions that exist in human life. These people were so unique and profound that they were able to leave the imprint of eternity even on the smallest of their creations. As for the other peoples, it can be said that they are only trying hard to follow in the footsteps of the Egyptians.
As I have already noted, this “general, governor of a province” has been identified by historians as Louis-Raphaël-Lucrèce de Fayolle, but in the Tarot literature he is usually referred to simply as “Count de Mellet.” What is this man’s contribution to the Egyptian Tarot Myth?
In my opinion, this contribution is not so great, but it was Count de Mellet who first called the Tarot “the Book of Thoth.” Although Court de Gebelin talks a lot in his article about the ancient Egyptian origin of the Tarot, he does not mention the name of Thoth. The first volume of The Primitive World contains a huge treatise on the “History of Mercury, or Thoth,” but it does not say a word about the Tarot.
Thus, the primacy of defining the Tarot as the Book of Thoth belongs to the Count de Mellet (until any earlier documents are discovered). And this, of course, is historically and esoterically much more important than his assertions that
· the World card represents the Universe as the goddess Isis;
· the Judgement card depicts Osiris as the creator God;
· the twenty-two trump cards “convey the history of ancient times”;
· “the wise men of Egypt prophesied with confidence by means of sacred pictures,” etc.
It is interesting to note the differences in the two authors’ approach to the Tarot: Court de Gebelin “unravels the allegories” and “reveals deliberate and tangible connections between this deck and everything we know about Egyptian ideas.” In other words, he is a researcher. Comte de Mellet speaks from a position of authority. He is an initiate who kindly shares his knowledge. It is interesting that Court de Gebelin mentions the Count and his article several times in the most respectful manner, while the Count does not mention de Gebelin even once, although he could—in fact, he should—at least express gratitude to de Gebelin as his publisher! Perhaps de Mellet was the bearer of some tradition of esoteric interpretation of the Tarot that already existed before Court de Gebelin. In that case, the Count occupied a higher position, which made gratitude superfluous. In any case, for now de Gebelin and de Mellet are rightfully considered the founding fathers of the occult Tarot. And they are also the founding fathers of the Egyptian Myth of the Tarot.
De Gebelin’s article in the eighth volume of The Primitive World is accompanied by original illustrations of 26 cards. These are the 21 trumps (with Roman numerals, in which two errors were made), the Madman (numbered 0) and the four aces. It is interesting that these cards do not have anything “Egyptian” in their design, as we see it today. Court de Gebelin based his illustrations on a Marseilles-type deck, but turned the Hanged Man (trump XII) 180 degrees so that he no longer hangs, but stands on one leg, which is tied to a peg driven into the ground.
The card is reinterpreted by de Gebelin as the fourth cardinal virtue, Prudence. In his opinion, Prudence could hardly be better represented than as a man standing with one foot suspended in front of the other, as if examining the place where he is about to place it…
Why is this man not standing, but hanging? De Gebelin explains:
Apparently, this is the work of the unfortunate in his arrogance card printer, who, not understanding the beauty of the original allegory, took upon himself the liberty of correcting it—and then completely distorted it.
So, one of the two first founding fathers of the occult Tarot made a change to the “Tarot of the card printers,” that is, to a gaming deck of that time, in order to “restore” the hypothetical original Egyptian deck. Other occult Tarotists also engaged in such “restoration,” more or less radically changing the Marseilles prototype.
The third most important figure in the Egyptian (and generally occult) Tarot tradition is undoubtedly Jean-Baptiste Alliette (1738–1791), better known under his “kabbalistic” pseudonym Etteilla. We will talk about him next time.
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