Was Tarot Inspired by the Devil?
What to say to people when they tell you the tarot is evil.
Growing up in a Christian Fundamentalist household, I was taught tarot is evil and the work of the Devil. You could burn in the forever flames of hell for picking up a deck. This of course made me all the more curious about tarot. Eventually, I got over my fear of everlasting damnation and picked up a deck. I found working with tarot to be one of the best medicines in my spiritual cabinet.
Tarot is not evil, nor is it the work of the Devil. Far from it: tarot can be an energetic salve. Tarot is like anything else you might turn to for guidance and divination such as tea leaves or the sudden movement of birds surging across the sky on a quiet morning. Like these things, tarot works because it’s part of the mysterious and sacred fascia that connects disparate parts of our life and brings them to our awareness through synchronicity.
At its core, tarot is 78 cards made up of the following
- 21 trump cards, known as the Major Arcana (arcana means “secret” or “concealed”)
- 1 wild card: The Fool
- 40 pips, known as the Minor Arcana and divided into four suits — Wands, Swords, Cups and Pentacles
- 16 court cards — A Page, Knight, Queen and King for each suit.
Humble beginnings
Before tarot gained its mystical allure, it was a card game used for entertainment purposes by the Italian elite in the 15th Century. Scholars believe card games first originated in China possibly around the 9th Century. We find them again in 13th Century Egypt. Over time, these cards featuring sticks, swords, cups and coins made their way to Italy. The decks that began to look like tarot decks used today gained popularity among the nobility. These commissioned, hand-painted decks were quite expensive, making them inaccessible to those without means. In addition, the everyday wo/man was discouraged to engage in vices such as card playing, throwing dice, bowling or tennis. Sermons delivered during this time chastised that the money and time wasted on such activities was better spent on more pious endeavors involving the Church.
A Wild Reconstruction
It wasn’t until the French Freemason and former Protestant minister Antoine Court de Gébelin came along that tarot was anything more than a card game. In 1781, Court de Gébelin published a critical essay which included a wildly spectacular reconstruction of tarot’s history. He connected the tarot to the ancient esoteric practices of Egyptian priests and the Kabbalah. He surmised historical occult wisdom had been concealed within the tarot traveling inconspicuously as a deck of cards. In this decked disguise, the magical arts were safely disseminated to a discriminating few. Given the spiritual zeitgeist at the time, these unsubstantiated claims spread like wildfire. Suddenly everyone and their feline familiars were pulling tarot cards with fervor!
Fast forward ten years to 1791. The French occultist Jean-Babtiste Alliette capitalized on an ever-swelling mystical tide and released the first tarot deck designed specifically for divination. He connected the tarot to astrology and the elements as well as re-ordered the trumps and introduced the idea of card reversals. Readers everywhere were captivated by the ancient knowledge they believed they now held in their hands. Yet there was no magic in the cards themselves. Just like today, the power of tarot lives in the interpretation of a card and its moment of synchronicity.
Rider-Waite-Smith Deck
No history of tarot is complete without mentioning the collaboration between Edward Arthur Waite and Pamela Colman Smith. They were both members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a magical order founded in 1887 which practiced various forms of spiritual occultism. Bringing together their insight of Egyptian magic, Kabbalah and Christian Gnosticism practiced by the Golden Dawn, they began their collaboration in 1909 when Waite commissioned Smith to illustrate a deck. This deck, the Rider-Waite (Rider was the publisher) has since become the most popular tarot deck of all time and is still heavily used to this day. Fittingly, Smith’s name was added on later recognizing her monumental contribution to the deck.
The Devil’s Work?
So is tarot the work of the devil? No! Its colorful past originates with commissioned decks for the Italian elite and then catches a very mystical yet fabricated wave in the heyday of late-1700 fascination with the occult.
Today, more and more people of all ages are increasingly turning to tarot for advice, guidance and comfort. Last I checked, self-help is not in the Devil’s purview.
