{"id":8366,"date":"2016-12-13T22:08:55","date_gmt":"2016-12-14T05:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8366"},"modified":"2016-12-14T10:11:16","modified_gmt":"2016-12-14T17:11:16","slug":"thinking-how-the-tarot-smuggled-paganism-to-the-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8366","title":{"rendered":"Thinking How the Tarot Smuggled Paganism to the Present"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\"\"In my twenties, the Tarot was about the most “occult” thing around that I could bring out in public settings. I learned to read the cards semi-competently and had some adventures thereby. When I made it through an evening of reading for casual strangers in a nightclub, I figured that I was probably at my pinnacle.((I told a woman that she was pregnant althought it did not show. I was right\u2014she already knew.))<\/p>\n

Then I moved into other things more and more, including other types of divination.1<\/a><\/sup> I did write a little on the history of the Tarot<\/a>, then pretty much shelved my cards.((They are now unshelved, however.)) At one point I had thought of collecting Tarot decks \u2014 that was right about when the number of decks exploded! From the short list (Marseille<\/a>\"\", Waite-Smith<\/a>, Crowley’s Thoth deck<\/a>\"\", Palladini’s Aquarian Tarot<\/a>\"\", and few others), we went to practically a “Tarot Deck of the Week.” U.S. Games Systems has a few<\/a>. “The Undersea Tarot,<\/a>” anyone?<\/p>\n

Some months back, I was reading something that Thorn Mooney had written on Tarot, maybe her Tarot Skeptic<\/em> blog<\/a>. We see each other at long intervals; otherwise, it’s email, so I wrote and asked her what historical books on Tarot she would recommend. One was out of my price range.((It might as well have been published by Brill<\/a>.)) The other was The History of the Occult Tarot<\/a>\"\"<\/em> by Roanld Decker and Michael Dummett.<\/p>\n

I bought the book. I read through 200-plus pages of Rosicrucians, Freemasons, ceremonial magicians, astrologers, Western Qabbalists, etc.((Overlapping categories, yes.)) trying to force the Tarot to mesh with these other systems, such as the Hebrew alphabet. If it did not mesh, they hammered on it until some sort of fit was achieved, as in A. E. Waite’s switching of the Strength and Judgement cards to fit his scheme.<\/p>\n

It all seemed part of Western esotericism’s ongoing demand for a system Where Everything Fits Together and Corresponds with Everything Else<\/em> \u2014 a demand that seems informed by a quasi-monotheistic or Platonic outlook.<\/p>\n

But what if it will not all fit together? The Tarot deck itself is a mashup. You have the four symbolic elements, which are also social groups, as favored in the Indo-European tradition:((Other\u00a0 cultures get along with three, five, or whatever.)) Air\/spades\/swords\/aristocracy; Fire\/wands\/clubs\/farmers; Earth\/pentacles\/diamonds\/merchants & craftsmen; Water\/cups\/hearts\/priesthood.((If you follow George Dum\u00e9zil’s “trifunctional hypothesis”<\/a>, you might think of this as 3 + 1, with merchants being the 1 split of from class 3, the commoners.))<\/p>\n

Built on top of that is an upper story derived from “the Pagan dream of the Renaissance,” to borrow the title of Joscelyn Godwin’s excellent book<\/a>\"\" on “the almost untold story of how the rediscovery of the pagan [sic<\/em>], mythological imagination during the Renaissance brought a profound transformation to European culture.”<\/p>\n

As Decker and Dummett write in their section on Tarot-writer Eden Gray, her interpretation of Tarot symbolism was “based not on occult fantasy, but on themes well known to art historians.”((Still she could not stop trying to glue on some “Cabalism, astrology, and numerology.”)) Art historians have more to offer here than do correspondence-obsessed magicians, I suggest.<\/p>\n

Consider the observations of William Lindsay Gresham<\/a>, who wrote a preface to one editing of Charles Williams’<\/a> Tarot-based novel The Greater Trumps<\/em> and created his own Tarot-influenced noir <\/em>novel, Nightmare Alley<\/em>.<\/a> He wrote,<\/p>\n

The Tarot is not a mnemonic device for a set doctrime, it would seem, but a philosophical slide-rule<\/a> on which the individual can work his own metaphysical and religious equations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So forget the Hebrew alphabetic correspondences. Think instead of the Tarot as the product of some (probably aristocratic and\/or clerical) creative dreamers living in (most likely) northern Italy in the 15th century. They were not Pagan as such, but they might have been what we could call “Pagan re-enactors,” trying intellectually and artistically to reinhabit the world of Greco-Roman Paganism.<\/p>\n

They took artistic and philosophical themes of their time and grafted them onto a pre-existing card game. Among the pages of this “book” the old gods and archetypes snuggled in for a journey of five or six centuries.<\/p>\n

  1. For some good short essays on divination, read John Michael Greer on “The Speech of the Stars<\/a>” and “Foundations of Magical Practice: Divination<\/a>.” [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In my twenties, the Tarot was about the most “occult” thing around that I could bring out in public settings. I learned to read the cards semi-competently and had some adventures thereby. When I made it through an evening of reading for casual strangers in a nightclub, I figured that I was probably at my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[89,163,234,159],"class_list":["post-8366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-esotericism","tag-italy","tag-renaissance","tag-tarot"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-2aW","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10222,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10222","url_meta":{"origin":8366,"position":0},"title":"A North American Tarot Deck","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"This would make a nice bookend to the American Renaissance Tarot \u2014 Emi Brady's North American Tarot. For more than a decade, Denver artist and printmaker Emi Brady toyed with the idea of her own tarot card deck. She \u201cwasn\u2019t ready\u201d until more recently. \u201cTechnically, I wasn\u2019t ready and I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/cpr-swolf_brady-tarot_dsc6869.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/cpr-swolf_brady-tarot_dsc6869.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/cpr-swolf_brady-tarot_dsc6869.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/cpr-swolf_brady-tarot_dsc6869.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14029,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14029","url_meta":{"origin":8366,"position":1},"title":"Tarot Thoughts — And Eden Gray’s Surprising Story","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 25, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I decided to get more serious about Tarot after all these years. Maybe some day people will see me as a wise old man, but I will need some props \u2013\u00a078 of them, to be precise. I actually learned to use the I Ching in a superficial bohemian way before\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Tarot\"","block_context":{"text":"Tarot","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=tarot"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/eden-gray-doctor-x.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11873,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11873","url_meta":{"origin":8366,"position":2},"title":"How Makers and Creators Might Price Their Work","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 6, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"When I graduated from college, I owned three Tarot decks: the Rider-Waite\/Pamela Coleman Smith deck (of course), the Marseilles deck (for history), and David Palladini's Aquarian Tarot (well, it fit my personal aesthetic at the time). This is fun, I thought, I should collect more Tarot decks. And then the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"art\"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=art"},"img":{"alt_text":"King of Cups Tarot Card","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Palladini-King-of-Cups.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5867,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5867","url_meta":{"origin":8366,"position":3},"title":"Tarot Cards \u2014\u00a0They Are for Catholics Too","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Thomas L. McDonald, Patheos' \"Technology | Culture | Catholicism\" blogger has a five-part series on the history of the Tarot cards. It starts here. The real history of the Tarot, however, begins in the early 15th century in Italy, and their story is an important part of gaming and cultural\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"history\"","block_context":{"text":"history","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=history"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9627,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9627","url_meta":{"origin":8366,"position":4},"title":"There Was More to “Pixie” than Tarot Cards","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"At Spiral Nature you can read a long review of a new book about Pamela Coleman Smith (Pixie to her friends), best known for designing probably the most popular Tarot deck of the twentieth century. Corinne Pamela Colman Smith, who went by the nickname \u201cPixie,\u201d\u00a0defied so many social norms, it\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"history\"","block_context":{"text":"history","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=history"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Pamela_Colman_Smith_circa_1912.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8581,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8581","url_meta":{"origin":8366,"position":5},"title":"A Haitian Take on the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Members of a Haitian artists' group are re-creating the Tarot designs of Pamela Coleman Smith, otherwise known as the Rider-Waite Deck. Photographed by Alice Smeets, they are calling it the Ghetto Tarot. They have lots of machetes to substitute for swords. Information on crowd-funding and purchase here.","rel":"","context":"In \"Haiti\"","block_context":{"text":"Haiti","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=haiti"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/nine_of_cups_tarot_465_465_353_int-300x228.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8366"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8392,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8366\/revisions\/8392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}