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====A Brief Summary of the Best Known Tarot Decks==== | ====A Brief Summary of the Best Known Tarot Decks==== | ||
- | ==Visconti-Sforza Deck== | + | ===Visconti-Sforza Deck=== |
The oldest surviving Tarot cards are three early to mid fifteenth century partial sets, all made for members of the illustrious Visconti family. The oldest of these existing Tarot decks was most probably painted to celebrate the wedding of the ruling Visconti (Bianca-Maria) with (Francesco) Sforza, uniting the two noble families of Milan. Most likely the cards were painted by Bonifacio Bembo and other miniaturists of the Ferrara school. Today' | The oldest surviving Tarot cards are three early to mid fifteenth century partial sets, all made for members of the illustrious Visconti family. The oldest of these existing Tarot decks was most probably painted to celebrate the wedding of the ruling Visconti (Bianca-Maria) with (Francesco) Sforza, uniting the two noble families of Milan. Most likely the cards were painted by Bonifacio Bembo and other miniaturists of the Ferrara school. Today' | ||
- | ==Marseille Deck== | + | ===Marseille Deck=== |
The //Tarot de Marseille// (or // | The //Tarot de Marseille// (or // | ||
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More recently French-speaking Tarotists including Alejandro Jodorowsky and Kris Hadar continue to use //Tarot de Marseille// for esoteric purposes. In the mid-1990s Jodorowsky contacted a late descendent of the Camoin family who had been printing the Marseille decks since the nineteenth century. They worked together for almost a decade to create a 78-card deck including the original details and eleven colour prints. | More recently French-speaking Tarotists including Alejandro Jodorowsky and Kris Hadar continue to use //Tarot de Marseille// for esoteric purposes. In the mid-1990s Jodorowsky contacted a late descendent of the Camoin family who had been printing the Marseille decks since the nineteenth century. They worked together for almost a decade to create a 78-card deck including the original details and eleven colour prints. | ||
- | ==Esoteric Decks== | + | ===Esoteric Decks=== |
In the English-speaking world, where there is little or no tradition of using Tarot as playing cards, Tarot became known through the of occult traditions influenced by French Tarotists such as Etteilla and Eliphas Levi. The occultists later produced esoteric decks that reflected their own ideas. These decks were widely circulated in the anglophone world. | In the English-speaking world, where there is little or no tradition of using Tarot as playing cards, Tarot became known through the of occult traditions influenced by French Tarotists such as Etteilla and Eliphas Levi. The occultists later produced esoteric decks that reflected their own ideas. These decks were widely circulated in the anglophone world. | ||
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Tarot became increasingly popular from the 1910s, with the publication of the // | Tarot became increasingly popular from the 1910s, with the publication of the // | ||
- | =RWS (Rider-Waite-Colman-Smith) Deck= | + | ==RWS (Rider-Waite-Colman-Smith) Deck== |
The images in the RWS deck were drawn by artist Pamela Colman Smith, based on the instructions of the Christian mystic and occultist Arthur Edward Waite, and originally published by the William Rider & Son publishers in 1909. While the deck is sometimes known as a simple, user-friendly one, its imagery, especially in the Trumps, is complex and replete with occult symbolism. The subjects of the trumps are based on those of the earliest decks, but have been significantly modified to reflect Waite and Smith' | The images in the RWS deck were drawn by artist Pamela Colman Smith, based on the instructions of the Christian mystic and occultist Arthur Edward Waite, and originally published by the William Rider & Son publishers in 1909. While the deck is sometimes known as a simple, user-friendly one, its imagery, especially in the Trumps, is complex and replete with occult symbolism. The subjects of the trumps are based on those of the earliest decks, but have been significantly modified to reflect Waite and Smith' | ||
- | =Thoth Deck= | + | ==Thoth Deck== |
A widely-used esoteric Tarot deck is Aleister Crowley' | A widely-used esoteric Tarot deck is Aleister Crowley' | ||
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Diane B. Wilkes together with Arnell Ando (the creator of the // | Diane B. Wilkes together with Arnell Ando (the creator of the // | ||
- | ===Tarot Symbolism and Psychology=== | + | ====Tarot Symbolism and Psychology==== |
Tarot has a complex and rich symbolism with a long history. Contrary to what many popular authors claim, Tarot origins are not lost in the mists of time. In fact, much of the fog around the symbolism can be clarified if one studies iconographical sources rather than the occult ones. Interpretations have evolved together with the cards over the centuries: later decks have “clarified” the pictures in accordance with meanings assigned to the cards by their creators. In turn, the meanings come to be modified by the new pictures. Images and interpretations have been continually reshaped, in part to help the Tarot live up to its mythic role as a powerful occult instrument. Each card has its own large, complicated and disputed set of meanings. | Tarot has a complex and rich symbolism with a long history. Contrary to what many popular authors claim, Tarot origins are not lost in the mists of time. In fact, much of the fog around the symbolism can be clarified if one studies iconographical sources rather than the occult ones. Interpretations have evolved together with the cards over the centuries: later decks have “clarified” the pictures in accordance with meanings assigned to the cards by their creators. In turn, the meanings come to be modified by the new pictures. Images and interpretations have been continually reshaped, in part to help the Tarot live up to its mythic role as a powerful occult instrument. Each card has its own large, complicated and disputed set of meanings. | ||
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Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) was the first psychiatrist to attach importance to the Tarot. He regarded the Tarot cards as representing archetypes: fundamental types of a person or situation embedded in the subconscious of all human beings. Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and colleague of Sigmund Freud. He was a creative thinker whose observation of correspondences between world religions, mythologies and dreams of his patients led to a unique view of the human condition. Jung emphasized the reality of the psychic life (a fact that separated him from the empirically oriented mainstream of academic psychology). He proposed that the consciousness of all humans is linked; that the consciousness of each person is like a small pond which trickles into the ocean of a shared “collective unconscious”. One of his key principles involves the contents of this collective unconscious – the archetypes as “cultural imprints”, | Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) was the first psychiatrist to attach importance to the Tarot. He regarded the Tarot cards as representing archetypes: fundamental types of a person or situation embedded in the subconscious of all human beings. Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and colleague of Sigmund Freud. He was a creative thinker whose observation of correspondences between world religions, mythologies and dreams of his patients led to a unique view of the human condition. Jung emphasized the reality of the psychic life (a fact that separated him from the empirically oriented mainstream of academic psychology). He proposed that the consciousness of all humans is linked; that the consciousness of each person is like a small pond which trickles into the ocean of a shared “collective unconscious”. One of his key principles involves the contents of this collective unconscious – the archetypes as “cultural imprints”, | ||
- | ===Tarot and storytelling=== | + | ====Tarot and storytelling==== |
The Tarot has inspired writers as well as visual artists for centuries. Selections of Tarot cards have also been used to construct stories in writing exercises and writing games. Italo Calvino described the Tarot as “a machine for telling stories”. He wrote the novel //The Castle of Crossed Destinies// with plots and characters constructed on the Tarot archetypes. Charles Williams wrote a supernatural thriller //The Greater Trumps,// about a struggle over “the Original Deck” that landed in the hands of an English civil servant. T. S. Eliot' | The Tarot has inspired writers as well as visual artists for centuries. Selections of Tarot cards have also been used to construct stories in writing exercises and writing games. Italo Calvino described the Tarot as “a machine for telling stories”. He wrote the novel //The Castle of Crossed Destinies// with plots and characters constructed on the Tarot archetypes. Charles Williams wrote a supernatural thriller //The Greater Trumps,// about a struggle over “the Original Deck” that landed in the hands of an English civil servant. T. S. Eliot' |