T A R O T
"The true Tarot is symbolism; it speaks no other language and offers no other signs."
ARTHUR E. WAITE
ARTHUR E. WAITE
The tarot is ancient; of that there is little controvacy; but the occult associations that we take for granted nowadays are possibly of more recent origin.
One hundred and forty years before A. E. Waite and Pamela 'Pixie' Colman Smith got together to produce their now ubiquitous tarot pack Antoine Court de Gébelin, a Swiss occultist and Free Mason based in France, went public with the assertion that tarot was, in fact, an ancient Egyptian artifact. (Egypt was very much in the public consciousness at this time. Napoleon was financing archeological expeditions to Egypt and Champollion was hard at work on the Rosetta stone.)
Although largely forgotten today De Gébelin single handedly initiated the public movement to view tarot as a repository of timeless esoteric wisdom. Most importantly perhaps he suggested a link between the 22 major arcana of the tarot and the 22 paths of the Cabalistic glyph 'The Tree of Life'. And his detailed reinterpretation of the sybolism of the cards was the catalyst for the revival of the almost forgotten practice of cartomancy. Academics have since scorned both his scholarship and conclusions; nevertheless the Egyptian origins of tarot and the link with the Cabalah are now articles of faith amongst today's occult community.
In the final analysis I'm not sure that historical accuracy isn't over-rated; and anyway surely magicians, of all people, shouldn't feel bound by such mundane considerations. De Gébelin's theories have a great elegance; the tarot and the 'Tree of Life' seem to dovetail quite naturally and in the final analysis an intuitive leap of faith may well have more occult virtue than pedantic scholarship.
One hundred and forty years before A. E. Waite and Pamela 'Pixie' Colman Smith got together to produce their now ubiquitous tarot pack Antoine Court de Gébelin, a Swiss occultist and Free Mason based in France, went public with the assertion that tarot was, in fact, an ancient Egyptian artifact. (Egypt was very much in the public consciousness at this time. Napoleon was financing archeological expeditions to Egypt and Champollion was hard at work on the Rosetta stone.)
Although largely forgotten today De Gébelin single handedly initiated the public movement to view tarot as a repository of timeless esoteric wisdom. Most importantly perhaps he suggested a link between the 22 major arcana of the tarot and the 22 paths of the Cabalistic glyph 'The Tree of Life'. And his detailed reinterpretation of the sybolism of the cards was the catalyst for the revival of the almost forgotten practice of cartomancy. Academics have since scorned both his scholarship and conclusions; nevertheless the Egyptian origins of tarot and the link with the Cabalah are now articles of faith amongst today's occult community.
In the final analysis I'm not sure that historical accuracy isn't over-rated; and anyway surely magicians, of all people, shouldn't feel bound by such mundane considerations. De Gébelin's theories have a great elegance; the tarot and the 'Tree of Life' seem to dovetail quite naturally and in the final analysis an intuitive leap of faith may well have more occult virtue than pedantic scholarship.
H I S L I F E
The Protestant Pastor
Antoine Court, the son of a French Protestant pastor, was born in Switzerland, probably in 1719. However, historians are uncertain; he may have been born as late as 1728. Upon completion of his studies in the seminary in 1754, he too was ordained a pastor.
He entered France in 1762 and published Les Toulousaines ou lettres historiques et apologétiques en faveur de la religion réformé [The People of Toulouse or Historical and Apologetic Letters in Favor of the Protestant Religion]. By this time he was using the full name by which he would be best known: Antoine Court de Gébelin. His book was an account of Jean Calas, a Protestant merchant who was unjustly executed for the murder of his son, who had converted to Catholicism. Voltaire, the celebrated French philosopher and author, although very supportive of the Calas cause, attacked the book because, for one thing, it passionately promoted Protestantism.
Illustration (above): Antoine Court de Gébelin. Source: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, reproduced in A Wicked Pack of Cards by Decker, DePaulis, & Dummett (copyright © 1996 Decker). Click the image for a larger one.
Later Court de Gébelin visited Protestant communities throughout France and permanently settled in Paris, where he opened an office and advocated on the behalf of these sometimes persecuted communities. He was even appointed a royal censor, a remarkable achievement for a Protestant. During the final dozen or so years of his life he pursued esotericism and plunged into the popular world of freemasonry, which had hundreds of lodges in France, claiming thousands of members.
The Freemason
Court de Gébelin was initiated into feemasonry at the Parisian lodge Les Amis Réunis in 1771. Subsequently he joined the lodge Les Neuf Soeurs, where in 1778 he assisted in the initiation of his former critic Voltaire, which attracted such notable fellow masons as the astronomer Lalande, the naturalist Lacépède, the sculptor Houdon, and the American ambassador to France, Benjamin Franklin.
Although many freemasons were more interested in socializing or politicking than exploring philosophical or spiritual matters, a significant number enthusiastically embraced nonconformist philosophies and occultism. Some members learned about classical mythology and ancient cultures thanks to freemasonry and, at least occasionally, marked pagan holidays. For example, popular masonic almanacs, usually French, often contained calendars which described each month from the perspective of Roman mythology. In 1793 Amsterdam freemasons even celebrated the Roman pagan Saturnalia on Christmas day.
Sometimes lectures at lodges centered on alleged ancient wisdom traditions. One Dutch freemason wrote in 1794 that a speaker at his lodge “entertained us with the customs of the ancient Egyptian Priests to transmit the heroic deeds or the histories of the country to posterity by way of metaphoric symbols”, according to Margaret C. Jacob’s Living the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Europe (1991).
In addition, Court de Gébelin founded and served as president of the Société Apollonienne (later called the Musée de Paris), a society dedicated to the arts and sciences. He was also a founding member of the Philalèthes, an esoteric fraternity with ties to freemasonry and the mystical sect Élus Coens (Elect Cohens).
His Major Literary Work
Clearly, Court de Gébelin enjoyed abiding interests in religion, esotericism, and learning, which, in part, motivated him, to produce his major literary work, Monde primitif, analysé et comparé avec le monde moderne [The Primitive World, Analyzed and Compared to the Modern World]. It attracted over one thousand subscribers, including the French royal family (which ordered one hundred copies), the renowned author and encyclopediast Diderot, the philosopher d’Alembert, and Benjamin Franklin. Court de Gébelin published nine volumes between 1773 and 1782; his death in 1784 prevented him from finishing.
In Monde primitif, Court de Gébelin sought to reconstruct the primeval civilization. Following in the footsteps of some leading Renaissance scholars, he alleged that this civilization had been universal, intellectually advanced, and spiritually enlightened. The book centered on two major areas of concern: (a) linguistics and (b) mythology and symbology. With regard to the former, Court de Gébelin presented dictionaries of etymology, what he called a universal grammar, and discourses on the origins of spoken and written language.
With regard to mythology and symbology, he discussed the origins of allegory in antiquity and a history of the calendar from civil, religious, and mythological perspectives. In addition, he presented the first known published essays on Tarot. He included two: one by him and another attributed to “M. le C. de M.***”. Historians have determined that this author’s full name was Louis-Raphaël-Lucrèce de Fayolle, Comte de Mellet, an eighteenth-century French noble and cavalry officer about whom little is known.
Tarot as an Ancient Egyptian Artifact
In his essay, Court de Gébelin described his first encounter with the cards (excepting as a child) in approximately 1773-1778 while visiting a friend who had arrived from Switzerland or Germany. While she was playing the game Tarot, he glimpsed the cards, interrupted the playing, and began to inspect them. Having long ago fallen into disfavor in Paris, Tarot cards were virtually unknown by its residents. However, Court de Gébelin reported that he immediately understood Tarot’s origins and symbolic content. He recalled his experience in Monde primitif in almost mystical terms:
“. . . I glanced at it [the World] & immediately understood the Allegory. Each person stops playing and comes to see this marvelous Card wherein I perceive what they have never seen. Each person shows me another: in a quarter hour the deck has been gone through, explained & declared Egyptian and such that it was not a trick of our imagination but the product of the deliberate associations and feelings of the deck with everything which one knew of Egyptian ideas.”
Referencing illustrations adapted from the Tarot de Marseille for his book, Court de Gébelin discussed each Trump and the Fool. He asserted that the figure of the Hanged Man should be right side up and really depicted the virtue Prudence (see illustration, left). He claimed that the Chariot pictured the Egyptian god Osiris in triumph; the Devil showed Typhon, a Greek god often associated with the Egyptian god Set; the Star comprised the bright star Sirius and seven traditional “planets”; Judgment actually depicted the creation of the world; and the World really symbolized Time. Furthermore, he claimed that the correct order of the Trumps was reversed, beginning with the World and ending with the Juggler (later called the Magician).
Illustration (above): Prudence from Court de Gébelin’s Monde primitif (1781) (corresponds to the Hanged Man from the Tarot de Marseille and similar traditional decks). Click the image for a larger one.
He also asserted that the four suits symbolized social groups. He wrote that Swords represented the sovereign, nobility, and military; Cups, the clergy or priesthood; Batons (later called Wands), those concerned with agriculture; and Coins (later called Pentacles), the merchant class. To round things out he also presented rules for the game of Tarot.
Unfortunately, Court de Gébelin generally failed to use rational argument or present even a scrap of convincing evidence for his positions. Typically, he was purely speculative and one might describe his methodology as intuitive at best. Modern linguists and historians have long rightly rejected as absurd many of his ideas, including the notion that Tarot was an ancient Egyptian artifact.
The Comte de Mellet
De Mellet’s esssay appeared next in Monde primitif. Similar to Court de Gébelin, he asserted that Tarot originated among the Egyptians and the correct order of the Trumps was reversed. He asserted that the series began with the World and ended with the Juggler, followed by the Fool. He explained these cards from a perspectives, which included the creation of the world and thee mythic ages.
De Mellet also claimed that the Trumps and Fool systematically corresponded to the Hebrew alphabet. He implied a system, such that: the World = Aleph, Judgment = Beth . . . the Fool = Tau. However, this system apparently never attracted many users, unlike those espoused later by French magus Éliphas Lévi and the Golden Dawn (an influential group of occultists) in the nineteenth century.
De Mellet also briefly discussed using “The Book of Thoth” (a term he often used in lieu of Tarot) for divination. Purportedly emulating Egyptian priests, he explained how to read Tarot by using a layout of ten cards. He also provided themes for the four suits and divinatory meanings for a few individual cards and card combinations.
With regard to suits, he wrote that Spades (Swords) presaged poverty, worry, pain and death; Clubs (Batons), success, advantage, fortune, and money; Hearts (Cups), contentment and happiness; and Diamonds (Coins), the countryside and indifferent luck. To this day a significant number of Tarotists still use some of these associations at least occasionally.
With regard to individual cards, he wrote, in part:
“The Nine of diamonds [coins] implies delay – either for good or bad.
“The Nine of spades [swords] is the worst Card: it presages only ruin, illness, death.
“The Ten of hearts [cups] implies City. . . .”
To this day, some Tarotists still use some of these meanings at least occasionally. De Mellet’s description of divination by Tarot, however, was ultimately vague and incomplete. Working from his essay, one is unfortunately unable to reconstruct his system.
Regrettably, similar to Court de Gébelin, he too generally failed to use rational argument or present even a scrap of convincing evidence for his positions. Modern scholars have also generally rejected his ideas.
Contemporary Reaction
According to Court de Gébelin: Le Tarot présenté et commenté par Jean-Marie Lhôte [Court de Gébelin: The Tarot Presented and Commented Upon by Jean-Marie Lhôte], a French pastor of the time waxed eloquent about the book and its author in a letter to a friend. He wrote, “M. Court [de Gébelin] is like the sun which sends forth its rays on a dark cloud which it dissolves. . . . [Monde primitif] will persuade you that the first men were sensible and not idolaters as we think..”
However, his friend replied, “I really wish that he [Court de Gébelin] thought like the ancient philosopher who said that a big book is always a big problem. . . .”
Nevertheless, Monde primitif was a success. The public created a significant demand for copies; abridgements were published from time to time and volume eight, which included the essays on Tarot, was republished in its entirety.
Mesmer and Animal Magnetism
In his final years Court de Gébelin was a supporter of the controversial Austrian physician Franz Anton Mesmer. He was famous in Paris and elsewhere for using his hands and specialized equipment to manipulate an invisible force he called animal magnetism to cure a wide variety of illnesses. Therapy sometimes included connecting the patient to specially constructed tubs filled with “magnetized” water. For a time he apparently effected some extraordinary cures, attracted numerous patients, and enjoyed a lucrative practice.
In 1783 Court de Gébelin suffered a serious infection in his legs and called upon Mesmer, who apparently cured him. The patient was so pleased that he sent letters extolling Mesmer to subscribers to Monde primitif. Unfortunately, he soon suffered a serious relapse and returned to Mesmer in 1784. While undergoing therapy attached to a tub of magnetized water he died. Having never married, he left no immediate family.
In A Wicked Pack of Cards, Decker, DePaulis, and Dummett reported that an anonymous wag penned the following epithet.
“Ci-gît ce pauvre Gébelin,
Qui parloit Grec, Hébreu, Latin;
Admirez tous son héroisme:
Il fut martyr du magnétisme.”
“Here lies poor dear de Gébelin,
He spoke Greek, Hebrew, even Latin;
Delight in his hearty heroism:
He died the martyr of magnetism.”
A N A S S E S M E N T
Today Court de Gébelin and especially de Mellet are largely forgotten; modern scholars typically reject their ideas as absurd and without basis in fact. Even considering that they lived prior to the beginnings of modern Egyptology and the deciphering of hieroglyphics in the nineteenth century, their statements concerning ancient Egypt, including Tarot’s purported origins there, were absurd.
With specific regard to the essays on Tarot, determining the source of their authors’ ideas is extremely difficult; they provided virtually no documentation. According to Court de Gébelin, he alone rediscovered Tarot and its esoteric content. However, the failure of de Mellet to credit him with this rediscovery suggests that perhaps he was not the first to speculate on Tarot’s purportedly ancient history and esoteric content. In addition, the tone of de Mellet’s explanation of divination by Tarot suggests that perhaps he was reporting on a pre-existing system. Historians do know that divination by Tarot was practiced at least occasionally in Italy prior to Monde primitif; however, what little they do know about the system makes it significantly different from de Mellet’s.
Occultists, including some members of masonic lodges and similar organizations, may have been exploring and discussing the history and esoteric content of Tarot prior to Monde primitif, and, of course Court de Gébelin was an enthusiastic member of such organizations. Additionally, Monde primitif embraced concepts which did harmonize with known masonic interests. For example, similar to the aforementioned masonic almanacs, it included discussion on the calendar from, in part, a mythological perspective. Like some masonic lodges, it delved into purported ancient wisdom traditions, including the Egyptian.
Perhaps Court de Gébelin first heard of the esoteric Tarot in a masonic lodge or similar environment. However, this and similar statements are strictly suggestive. In reality, no clear documentary evidence exists to support the notion that individuals, including members of masonic lodges and similar organizations, explored or discussed the esoteric content of Tarot to a significant degree prior to Monde primitif. Instead, when people knew of it at all, they typically knew of Tarot as an entertaining game only. However, after publication of the essays by Court de Gébelin and de Mellet public interest in the esoteric content of Tarot and its use for divination blossomed.
Court de Gébelin was an eccentric, slapdash scholar whose ideas are typically dismissed today. However, to his credit, he initiated the public movement to view Tarot as a repository of timeless esoteric wisdom. Although he is largely forgotten today, thanks to the essays on Tarot in his Monde primitif he is remembered by one grateful group, Tarotists, and undoubtedly deserved the title: father of the modern esoteric Tarot.
The Protestant Pastor
Antoine Court, the son of a French Protestant pastor, was born in Switzerland, probably in 1719. However, historians are uncertain; he may have been born as late as 1728. Upon completion of his studies in the seminary in 1754, he too was ordained a pastor.
He entered France in 1762 and published Les Toulousaines ou lettres historiques et apologétiques en faveur de la religion réformé [The People of Toulouse or Historical and Apologetic Letters in Favor of the Protestant Religion]. By this time he was using the full name by which he would be best known: Antoine Court de Gébelin. His book was an account of Jean Calas, a Protestant merchant who was unjustly executed for the murder of his son, who had converted to Catholicism. Voltaire, the celebrated French philosopher and author, although very supportive of the Calas cause, attacked the book because, for one thing, it passionately promoted Protestantism.
Illustration (above): Antoine Court de Gébelin. Source: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, reproduced in A Wicked Pack of Cards by Decker, DePaulis, & Dummett (copyright © 1996 Decker). Click the image for a larger one.
Later Court de Gébelin visited Protestant communities throughout France and permanently settled in Paris, where he opened an office and advocated on the behalf of these sometimes persecuted communities. He was even appointed a royal censor, a remarkable achievement for a Protestant. During the final dozen or so years of his life he pursued esotericism and plunged into the popular world of freemasonry, which had hundreds of lodges in France, claiming thousands of members.
The Freemason
Court de Gébelin was initiated into feemasonry at the Parisian lodge Les Amis Réunis in 1771. Subsequently he joined the lodge Les Neuf Soeurs, where in 1778 he assisted in the initiation of his former critic Voltaire, which attracted such notable fellow masons as the astronomer Lalande, the naturalist Lacépède, the sculptor Houdon, and the American ambassador to France, Benjamin Franklin.
Although many freemasons were more interested in socializing or politicking than exploring philosophical or spiritual matters, a significant number enthusiastically embraced nonconformist philosophies and occultism. Some members learned about classical mythology and ancient cultures thanks to freemasonry and, at least occasionally, marked pagan holidays. For example, popular masonic almanacs, usually French, often contained calendars which described each month from the perspective of Roman mythology. In 1793 Amsterdam freemasons even celebrated the Roman pagan Saturnalia on Christmas day.
Sometimes lectures at lodges centered on alleged ancient wisdom traditions. One Dutch freemason wrote in 1794 that a speaker at his lodge “entertained us with the customs of the ancient Egyptian Priests to transmit the heroic deeds or the histories of the country to posterity by way of metaphoric symbols”, according to Margaret C. Jacob’s Living the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Europe (1991).
In addition, Court de Gébelin founded and served as president of the Société Apollonienne (later called the Musée de Paris), a society dedicated to the arts and sciences. He was also a founding member of the Philalèthes, an esoteric fraternity with ties to freemasonry and the mystical sect Élus Coens (Elect Cohens).
His Major Literary Work
Clearly, Court de Gébelin enjoyed abiding interests in religion, esotericism, and learning, which, in part, motivated him, to produce his major literary work, Monde primitif, analysé et comparé avec le monde moderne [The Primitive World, Analyzed and Compared to the Modern World]. It attracted over one thousand subscribers, including the French royal family (which ordered one hundred copies), the renowned author and encyclopediast Diderot, the philosopher d’Alembert, and Benjamin Franklin. Court de Gébelin published nine volumes between 1773 and 1782; his death in 1784 prevented him from finishing.
In Monde primitif, Court de Gébelin sought to reconstruct the primeval civilization. Following in the footsteps of some leading Renaissance scholars, he alleged that this civilization had been universal, intellectually advanced, and spiritually enlightened. The book centered on two major areas of concern: (a) linguistics and (b) mythology and symbology. With regard to the former, Court de Gébelin presented dictionaries of etymology, what he called a universal grammar, and discourses on the origins of spoken and written language.
With regard to mythology and symbology, he discussed the origins of allegory in antiquity and a history of the calendar from civil, religious, and mythological perspectives. In addition, he presented the first known published essays on Tarot. He included two: one by him and another attributed to “M. le C. de M.***”. Historians have determined that this author’s full name was Louis-Raphaël-Lucrèce de Fayolle, Comte de Mellet, an eighteenth-century French noble and cavalry officer about whom little is known.
Tarot as an Ancient Egyptian Artifact
In his essay, Court de Gébelin described his first encounter with the cards (excepting as a child) in approximately 1773-1778 while visiting a friend who had arrived from Switzerland or Germany. While she was playing the game Tarot, he glimpsed the cards, interrupted the playing, and began to inspect them. Having long ago fallen into disfavor in Paris, Tarot cards were virtually unknown by its residents. However, Court de Gébelin reported that he immediately understood Tarot’s origins and symbolic content. He recalled his experience in Monde primitif in almost mystical terms:
“. . . I glanced at it [the World] & immediately understood the Allegory. Each person stops playing and comes to see this marvelous Card wherein I perceive what they have never seen. Each person shows me another: in a quarter hour the deck has been gone through, explained & declared Egyptian and such that it was not a trick of our imagination but the product of the deliberate associations and feelings of the deck with everything which one knew of Egyptian ideas.”
Referencing illustrations adapted from the Tarot de Marseille for his book, Court de Gébelin discussed each Trump and the Fool. He asserted that the figure of the Hanged Man should be right side up and really depicted the virtue Prudence (see illustration, left). He claimed that the Chariot pictured the Egyptian god Osiris in triumph; the Devil showed Typhon, a Greek god often associated with the Egyptian god Set; the Star comprised the bright star Sirius and seven traditional “planets”; Judgment actually depicted the creation of the world; and the World really symbolized Time. Furthermore, he claimed that the correct order of the Trumps was reversed, beginning with the World and ending with the Juggler (later called the Magician).
Illustration (above): Prudence from Court de Gébelin’s Monde primitif (1781) (corresponds to the Hanged Man from the Tarot de Marseille and similar traditional decks). Click the image for a larger one.
He also asserted that the four suits symbolized social groups. He wrote that Swords represented the sovereign, nobility, and military; Cups, the clergy or priesthood; Batons (later called Wands), those concerned with agriculture; and Coins (later called Pentacles), the merchant class. To round things out he also presented rules for the game of Tarot.
Unfortunately, Court de Gébelin generally failed to use rational argument or present even a scrap of convincing evidence for his positions. Typically, he was purely speculative and one might describe his methodology as intuitive at best. Modern linguists and historians have long rightly rejected as absurd many of his ideas, including the notion that Tarot was an ancient Egyptian artifact.
The Comte de Mellet
De Mellet’s esssay appeared next in Monde primitif. Similar to Court de Gébelin, he asserted that Tarot originated among the Egyptians and the correct order of the Trumps was reversed. He asserted that the series began with the World and ended with the Juggler, followed by the Fool. He explained these cards from a perspectives, which included the creation of the world and thee mythic ages.
De Mellet also claimed that the Trumps and Fool systematically corresponded to the Hebrew alphabet. He implied a system, such that: the World = Aleph, Judgment = Beth . . . the Fool = Tau. However, this system apparently never attracted many users, unlike those espoused later by French magus Éliphas Lévi and the Golden Dawn (an influential group of occultists) in the nineteenth century.
De Mellet also briefly discussed using “The Book of Thoth” (a term he often used in lieu of Tarot) for divination. Purportedly emulating Egyptian priests, he explained how to read Tarot by using a layout of ten cards. He also provided themes for the four suits and divinatory meanings for a few individual cards and card combinations.
With regard to suits, he wrote that Spades (Swords) presaged poverty, worry, pain and death; Clubs (Batons), success, advantage, fortune, and money; Hearts (Cups), contentment and happiness; and Diamonds (Coins), the countryside and indifferent luck. To this day a significant number of Tarotists still use some of these associations at least occasionally.
With regard to individual cards, he wrote, in part:
“The Nine of diamonds [coins] implies delay – either for good or bad.
“The Nine of spades [swords] is the worst Card: it presages only ruin, illness, death.
“The Ten of hearts [cups] implies City. . . .”
To this day, some Tarotists still use some of these meanings at least occasionally. De Mellet’s description of divination by Tarot, however, was ultimately vague and incomplete. Working from his essay, one is unfortunately unable to reconstruct his system.
Regrettably, similar to Court de Gébelin, he too generally failed to use rational argument or present even a scrap of convincing evidence for his positions. Modern scholars have also generally rejected his ideas.
Contemporary Reaction
According to Court de Gébelin: Le Tarot présenté et commenté par Jean-Marie Lhôte [Court de Gébelin: The Tarot Presented and Commented Upon by Jean-Marie Lhôte], a French pastor of the time waxed eloquent about the book and its author in a letter to a friend. He wrote, “M. Court [de Gébelin] is like the sun which sends forth its rays on a dark cloud which it dissolves. . . . [Monde primitif] will persuade you that the first men were sensible and not idolaters as we think..”
However, his friend replied, “I really wish that he [Court de Gébelin] thought like the ancient philosopher who said that a big book is always a big problem. . . .”
Nevertheless, Monde primitif was a success. The public created a significant demand for copies; abridgements were published from time to time and volume eight, which included the essays on Tarot, was republished in its entirety.
Mesmer and Animal Magnetism
In his final years Court de Gébelin was a supporter of the controversial Austrian physician Franz Anton Mesmer. He was famous in Paris and elsewhere for using his hands and specialized equipment to manipulate an invisible force he called animal magnetism to cure a wide variety of illnesses. Therapy sometimes included connecting the patient to specially constructed tubs filled with “magnetized” water. For a time he apparently effected some extraordinary cures, attracted numerous patients, and enjoyed a lucrative practice.
In 1783 Court de Gébelin suffered a serious infection in his legs and called upon Mesmer, who apparently cured him. The patient was so pleased that he sent letters extolling Mesmer to subscribers to Monde primitif. Unfortunately, he soon suffered a serious relapse and returned to Mesmer in 1784. While undergoing therapy attached to a tub of magnetized water he died. Having never married, he left no immediate family.
In A Wicked Pack of Cards, Decker, DePaulis, and Dummett reported that an anonymous wag penned the following epithet.
“Ci-gît ce pauvre Gébelin,
Qui parloit Grec, Hébreu, Latin;
Admirez tous son héroisme:
Il fut martyr du magnétisme.”
“Here lies poor dear de Gébelin,
He spoke Greek, Hebrew, even Latin;
Delight in his hearty heroism:
He died the martyr of magnetism.”
A N A S S E S M E N T
Today Court de Gébelin and especially de Mellet are largely forgotten; modern scholars typically reject their ideas as absurd and without basis in fact. Even considering that they lived prior to the beginnings of modern Egyptology and the deciphering of hieroglyphics in the nineteenth century, their statements concerning ancient Egypt, including Tarot’s purported origins there, were absurd.
With specific regard to the essays on Tarot, determining the source of their authors’ ideas is extremely difficult; they provided virtually no documentation. According to Court de Gébelin, he alone rediscovered Tarot and its esoteric content. However, the failure of de Mellet to credit him with this rediscovery suggests that perhaps he was not the first to speculate on Tarot’s purportedly ancient history and esoteric content. In addition, the tone of de Mellet’s explanation of divination by Tarot suggests that perhaps he was reporting on a pre-existing system. Historians do know that divination by Tarot was practiced at least occasionally in Italy prior to Monde primitif; however, what little they do know about the system makes it significantly different from de Mellet’s.
Occultists, including some members of masonic lodges and similar organizations, may have been exploring and discussing the history and esoteric content of Tarot prior to Monde primitif, and, of course Court de Gébelin was an enthusiastic member of such organizations. Additionally, Monde primitif embraced concepts which did harmonize with known masonic interests. For example, similar to the aforementioned masonic almanacs, it included discussion on the calendar from, in part, a mythological perspective. Like some masonic lodges, it delved into purported ancient wisdom traditions, including the Egyptian.
Perhaps Court de Gébelin first heard of the esoteric Tarot in a masonic lodge or similar environment. However, this and similar statements are strictly suggestive. In reality, no clear documentary evidence exists to support the notion that individuals, including members of masonic lodges and similar organizations, explored or discussed the esoteric content of Tarot to a significant degree prior to Monde primitif. Instead, when people knew of it at all, they typically knew of Tarot as an entertaining game only. However, after publication of the essays by Court de Gébelin and de Mellet public interest in the esoteric content of Tarot and its use for divination blossomed.
Court de Gébelin was an eccentric, slapdash scholar whose ideas are typically dismissed today. However, to his credit, he initiated the public movement to view Tarot as a repository of timeless esoteric wisdom. Although he is largely forgotten today, thanks to the essays on Tarot in his Monde primitif he is remembered by one grateful group, Tarotists, and undoubtedly deserved the title: father of the modern esoteric Tarot.
The Major Arcana - Paths Of The Hebrew Letters (path-letter assignments may vary among kabbalists) - more information forthcoming
The Minor Arcana
Suits (Universe/World, Element & Soul Level)
Pentacles - Assiyah (manifest physical, action), earth, nefesh elokit
Swords - Yetzirah (emotive, psychological), air, ruach
Cups - Beriyah (creative spirit), water, neshamah
Wands - Atzilut (archetypcal, divine), fire, chayah
Number in the spread (Sefirah)
1 - Keter (Will)
2 - Chochmah (Wisdom)
3 - Binah (Understanding)
4 - Chesed (Lovingkindness)
5 - Gevurah (Strength)
6 - Tiferet (Beauty, Harmony)
7 - Netzach (Endurance)
8 - Hod (Reverberation)
9 - Yesod (Foundation)
10 - Malchut (Kingdom)
Court Card (Sefirah)
Pages - Malchut (Kingdom)
Knights - Tifereth (Beauty, Harmony)
Queens - Binah (Understanding)
Kings - Chochmah (Wisdom)
Suit (Sefirah)
Pentacles - Malkuth (Kingdom)
Swords - Tifereth (Beauty, Harmony)
Cups - Binah (Understanding)
Wands - Chokmah (Wisdom)
The Minor Arcana
Suits (Universe/World, Element & Soul Level)
Pentacles - Assiyah (manifest physical, action), earth, nefesh elokit
Swords - Yetzirah (emotive, psychological), air, ruach
Cups - Beriyah (creative spirit), water, neshamah
Wands - Atzilut (archetypcal, divine), fire, chayah
Number in the spread (Sefirah)
1 - Keter (Will)
2 - Chochmah (Wisdom)
3 - Binah (Understanding)
4 - Chesed (Lovingkindness)
5 - Gevurah (Strength)
6 - Tiferet (Beauty, Harmony)
7 - Netzach (Endurance)
8 - Hod (Reverberation)
9 - Yesod (Foundation)
10 - Malchut (Kingdom)
Court Card (Sefirah)
Pages - Malchut (Kingdom)
Knights - Tifereth (Beauty, Harmony)
Queens - Binah (Understanding)
Kings - Chochmah (Wisdom)
Suit (Sefirah)
Pentacles - Malkuth (Kingdom)
Swords - Tifereth (Beauty, Harmony)
Cups - Binah (Understanding)
Wands - Chokmah (Wisdom)