The Illustrated Key to the Tarot: The Veil of DivinationDe Laurence, L. W. (Lauron William)
Religion
The Illustrated Key to the Tarot: The Veil of Divination
De Laurence, L. W. (Lauron William)
Fortune-telling by cards; Tarot
any treatise on numerical mysticism will show that the same
statement applies everywhere, even if we elect to ignore the
seven Christian Sacraments and the Gifts of the Divine Spirit.
Finally, as regards the etymology of the word Tarot, it is sufficient
to observe that it was offered before the discovery of the
Rosetta Stone and when there was no knowledge of the Egyptian
language.
The thesis of Court de Gebelin was not suffered to repose
undisturbed in the mind of the age, appealing to the learned
exclusively by means of a quarto volume. It created the opportunity
of Tarot cards in Paris, as the center of France and all
things French in the universe. The suggestion that divination by
cards had behind it the unexpected warrants of ancient hidden
science, and that the root of the whole subject was in the wonder
and mystery of Egypt, reflected thereon almost a divine dignity;
out of the purlieus of occult practices cartomancy emerged into
fashion and assumed for the moment almost pontifical vestures.
The first to undertake the role of bateleur, magician and juggler,
was the illiterate but zealous adventurer, Alliette; the second, as
a kind of High Priestess, full of intuitions and revelations, was
Mlle. Lenormand—but she belongs to a later period; while lastly
came Julia Orsini, who is referable to a Queen of Cups rather in
the tatters of clairvoyance. I am not concerned with these people
as tellers of fortune, when destiny itself was shuffling and cutting
cards for the game of universal revolution, or for such courts
and courtiers as were those of Louis XVIII, Charles IX and
Louis Philippe. But under the occult designation of Etteilla,
the transliteration of his name, Alliette, that perruquier took
himself with high seriousness and posed rather as a priest of the
occult sciences than as an ordinary adept in l'art de tirer les
cartes. Even at this day there are people, like Dr. Papus, who
have sought to save some part of his bizarre system from
oblivion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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