The Tarot symbols origin

[TarotCard]

Moonstranger,
you are correct in many respects especially in the adoption of older Greek and Egyptian ideas into Christian doctrine. The major arcana are an exact match for Egyptian and Greek doctrine. Take the feast of the Epiphany for example, Wikipedia calls it a Christian Feast. But was a Epiphany feast celebrated before the birth of Christ? Of course. Does the word Epiphany and Eucharist commonly associated with Gods before Christ? Of Course. Where does such words come from? And why are they now associated with Christ?

[Teheuti]

As Peter Balin's Xultun Tarot amply demonstrates, the ideas can be found in the Mayan cosmology. There's also the Kalevala Tarot that shows how these ideas can be found in Finnish folklore. And Caitlin and John Matthews have pointed up the parallels in Celtic myth. Ah, isn't Tarot wonderful!

[Teheuti]

I should add that whether we call this phenomenon 'Archetypes from the Collective Unconscious' and its related 'Hero's Journey,' or see it simply as the human pattern-making ability through which we make meaning out of any and everything - the fact remains that the allegorical pictures of Tarot seem to be incredibly flexible and able to apply to a great many of the world's "Big Stories" as well as to our own individual "little stories." The symbols are classic.

Perhaps that is why this particular set of 22 won out in popularity over the dozens of competing variations in Trump decks - the many Minchiate, the so-called Mantegna, the Sicilian, and adapted so well to fortune-telling.

On the other hand, the 78-card Tarot deck has a pretty clear factual history beginning sometime around 1440 in Northern Italy as a card game. Fortune-telling and magical use appear to have been incidental rather than endemic.

[TarotCard]

A book titled Archaeology of the Tarot investigates the connection between an ancient tarot deck and archaic Greece and Egyptian symbols.

[Ross G Caldwell]

Originally Posted by TarotCard

A book titled Archaeology of the Tarot investigates the connection between an ancient tarot deck and archaic Greece and Egyptian symbols.

According to your webpage -
http://www.sablefeatherpress.com/

- I can "Oder now!" (sic)

[Image removed following a complaint and then in discussion with Ross G Caldwell]

I would hope that the editing in this SEVENTY DOLLAR, 162 page book, is more careful than this. I shall never know, unless some kind soul sends me a copy or I see excerpts here and there.

You should have published with Brill or Mellen if you wanted to reach such an exclusive market - or are you on standing oder with some libraries already?

[Teheuti]

I was wondering, at that price, if this was a leather-bound edition on acid-free paper, printed on a handpress. But, then, I thought if this was so, then the publisher would have proudly announced it.

However, I see that it is a 153 page paperback with 159 illustrations. It is hard to imagine how there is room for any text, much less a careful analysis of the Unas Pyramid Texts and materials through the Ptolemaic period.

If it is primarily a collection of Tarot-like Egyptian images, I believe I can match that pretty easily with comparable imagery taken on my two trips to Egypt. Unfortunately, these are more in the nature of archetypal symbols found in almost every culture.

For those who want to know more about the texts in the Unas Pyramid at Saqqara - look here:

http://www.pyramidtextsonline.com/
http://www.pyramidtextsonline.com/photographs.html

This text is, I believe, the oldest version of what became the Book of the Dead. But, what is even more interesting is that the tomb contains magical spells in a 5,500 year old Semitic (Canaanite) language (written in Egyptian hieroglyphs) calling on "Divine Mother Snake" to ward off other snakes. Read this fascinating article:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...ke-spells.html

And, if you want a comparative explanation of meanings perceived in the text since their discovery, look here (the Unas text is discussed from about halfway through the very long page): http://maat.sofiatopia.org/wenis.htm

Also, I found it rather strange that the "pre-Renaissance origins of Tarot" are linked with the imagery of the 17th century French Marseille deck and not with the earliest 15th century Italian decks.

This is definitely a book I'd like to see - but not for $60 - especially when the majority of the text and photos are probably found in the material to which I've linked above.

As an aside - I really like these distinctions in terminology made by the author, Wim van den Dungen, at http://maat.sofiatopia.org :

"Parapsychology, comparative religions and mysticology allow us to distinguish between psi-events (parapsychology), occultism (knowledge of the invisible worlds between heaven and Earth) and mysticism (direct, radical experience of the Divine, the "totaliter aliter"). . . . In Ancient Egypt, the variety of ecstatic experiences may be classified as personal piety (offerings, prayers, festivals, mystery plays), magic (psi-events), the occult (initiation, entering and leaving the Duat) and mysticism proper."

[Ross G Caldwell]

Originally Posted by Teheuti

I was wondering, at that price, if this was a leather-bound edition on acid-free paper, printed on a handpress. But, then, I thought if this was so, then the publisher would have proudly announced it.

However, I see that it is a 153 page paperback with 159 illustrations. It is hard to imagine how there is room for any text, much less a careful analysis of the Unas Pyramid Texts and materials through the Ptolemaic period.

Indeed. I could do the same for Mesopotamian imagery.

This is definitely a book I'd like to see - but not for $60 - especially when the majority of the text and photos are probably found in the material to which I've linked above.

60 dollars? I get 69.95 everywhere I see it (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.) which, with shipping is over $70 (maybe you guys in the US will get it for exactly 69.95, but outside it will be well above that with shipping).



And - it's a PAPERBACK! - which weighs 10.4 ounces, or 0.65 pounds - less than a pound of butter. What audacity.

[Teheuti]

Ross - you are right - $70+ - especially if its just the same old story with a bunch of photos that don't even relate that closely to tarot.

[kwaw]

If it were a leather bound, hand-made paper, signed limited edition -- $70 would still be OTT. Despite the cock-up nature of the teasers some here and there might be willing to fork out $5 for a pdf or epub version... in tarot terms -- there's at least one fool in every 78!

[Alta]

I have removed a post commenting on the thread content/tone however to me the points being made are valid in discussing both the worth and the cost of the book.

Is there some reason to assume that Tarot Card is the author of the book being discussed? or simply someone who admires it?