Prophetical, Educational and Playing Cards

by Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer

CHAPTER II.

THE TAROT PACK OF CARDS

The complete pack of Tarots (sometimes called “the book of Thoth”) contains seventy-eight leaves, and, of these, fifty-six bear pips, with four court cards to each suit, which show the attributes of Mercury, namely: Swords, Staves, Money, and Cups. Besides these, there are twenty-two cards with emblematic figures, that were also connected with the worship of Mercury or some of the ancient mysteries; and they, as a whole, represent the chief moral or spiritual characteristics of mankind, the cardinal virtues, marriage, death, creation, and resurrection, closely following the attributes of the Egyptian deities. They are presided over and controlled by Mercury himself, the card being named in Italy “il Matto,” or “le Fou”; and we know it as the Joker. This figure was also originally intended for Thoth or Nebo and is often presented as a vagabond or tramp, who typifies irresponsibility, the elements of uncertainty, chance, or luck, that pervade all the concerns of life, and which must be acknowledged and provided for under all circumstances, and in all social conditions from the emperor to the beggar.

The close resemblance of this Matto, in all the attributes bestowed upon him in the card world, to the Greek god Hermes should not be overlooked, for he was so rapid in his movements as to have quicksilver named after him, the mineral that has so many qualifications and is so uncertain. The name was probably given to the metal by the scientists who belonged to the Egyptian temple of learning. Then, too, its healing qualities were recognised by the medical world of ancient days, and, as these wise men were under the protection of the god Hermes, that also may have contributed to its having been named after him. Mercury also was the unexpected and versatile god who attended the dying, although he did not cause the death. He was the inventor and patron of games, although he was no gamester himself, but he personified luck and chance; so, with these and many other characteristics, Mercury was, indeed, the Joker of the pack, “the Trump that captures all other cards.”

The twenty-two Atout cards, as they are called, present allegorical figures in which the attitude, the costume, the accessories, and the attributes each have a significance that may be traced back to their origin, and although some of these symbols are still unidentified, the greater part are recognised, so the value of the figure itself is understood. Some of them were connected with one or the other of the arts, crafts, or sciences that were taught by the priests of Thoth, and by them transmitted to their successors in Italy; twelve of them represent the gods of Olympus; the others are connected with Egyptian gods or can be traced to even earlier ceremonies connected with divination.

Before describing each one of the Atouts and their meanings, it must be mentioned that, while many authors have written of different packs of cards, there are but two authors who have made a study of the Tarots, and that neither of these regards the packs as toys or gamblers’ instruments, but as the outcome of a great mystery or religious cult. Court de Gebelin, as early as 1773, declared: “The complete pack of Tarots, with pip and emblem cards together, were part of the Egyptian mysteries, and particularly of the worship of Thoth,” and he traces the resemblance of the figures and the quality or value attributed to them to Isis, Maut, Anubis, or other personages in the Egyptian cosmogony, which theory is confirmed by Papus in his “Tarots of the Bohemians.” A careful study of Sir Gardiner Wilkinson’s “Ancient Egyptians,” and Mr. Rawlinson’s “Ancient Egypt,” shows how accurate these surmises were, for the origin of many of the figures on the Tarots can be traced in these works, although in the days of de Gebelin, Egypt was a sealed book to students.

Sir G. Wilkinson stated in “Ancient Egyptians” (Vol. II, page 207): “Parchment was used for the records kept in the temples and is mentioned in the time of the eighteenth dynasty, when there were histories written on skins called Thr, or Tahar, and Thoth (Hermes) framed the laws.” This proves that the rules governing mankind emanated from the temple of Thoth (as the name is indifferently spelled), and that, if it were necessary to give publicity to the mandates, it could be done outside of the temple with written characters, or ideographically. Probably letters were not used at the time, although Thoth was the god of letters and the inventor of the alphabet; but symbols and emblems were adopted, since they could be more easily understood by illiterate people. This, then, might well have accounted for the figures of the Atouts, even if there were no other reasons for them.

We are indebted to M. de Gebelin for connecting the Tarots with this cult, as well as to Papus, for the latter, in his “Tarots of the Bohemians,” not only accepts the statements made by the other writer, but tries to prove that the Tarot pack was “the Bible of the Gypsies” and states that “it was also the book of Thoth Hermes Trismegistus of ancient civilization.”

Other writers who have studied the cards believe that they “are the key to forgotten mysteries”; but none of them have pointed out the significant facts connecting the emblems of the suit cards with the heraldic attributes of Mercury, and none have noted the value and connection between the different figures of the Atouts with those of the gods of Babylonia mentioned in the Bible, yet they are so remarkable that it seems incredible that they should have been so long overlooked by those who were searching for the origin of Playing Cards.

It is quite evident in the first place that the Staff, or magic wand, must have been inspired by the caduceus, or, perhaps, by the stylus, which is also emblematical of Thoth and was used by the Babylonian god Nebo to write on his tablets of fate. The Sword was derived from the Harpé presented by Jupiter to his son, Mercury, and was also used by Nebo. The purse of Money, and the Chalice, have from the earliest times been connected with spiritual uses and the mysteries of the three prophetical gods. Any one of the four denoted Mercury, while not one of the other gods of Olympus, Babylonia, or Egypt was ever so marked, and none of them combined all the sciences and arts that were practised by his priests and dedicated to the honour of the god who was worshipped as the prophet and messenger from gods to men.