Very well ... then it must be okay to post this then :
Getting back to the topic (remember that?) ...
I am putting foreward Hermetics, going back to Plato as a major source of the tarot symbols origin.
[Note; not THE source … I am swayed toward the view that Plato had a great content of ‘Egyptian’ wisdom underlying his philosophy (even the ‘father’ of Greek Philosophy came from ‘Turkey’ and was taught by an Egyptian) , I know this is not as pop esoteric views sometimes think; a source from Ancient Egypt, but the source is Alexandrian Syncretism and that had a large componant of passed on Egyptian gnosis as well as other sources like the ‘Magi’, Zoroastrians and perhaps even the Proto-Indo European culture (as mentioned elsewhere). But Plato is a focus point of accretion that much can be traced back to from today’s Western Mystery Tradition, including Tarot.]
As an interesting point of consideration we can compare Plato’s imagery from one of his dialogues; The Phaedrus - a discussion on types of ‘spirits’. [I won’t quote the whole passage (too long) just some and I will leave the visual examining up to the reader].
Have your RW tarot deck handy for reference. Start with the Fool, pull it out and have a look at it.
The Fool
" There abides the very being with which true knowledge is concerned; the colourless, formless, intangible essence, visible only to mind, the pilot of the soul."
The Lovers
"The soul in her totality has the care of inanimate being everywhere, and traverses the whole heaven in divers forms appearing--when perfect and fully winged she soars upward, and orders the whole world; whereas the imperfect soul, losing her wings and drooping in her flight at last settles on the solid ground-there, finding a home, she receives an earthly frame which appears to be self-moved, but is really moved by her power; and this composition of soul and body is called a living and mortal creature"
The Chariot
“Of the nature of the soul, though her true form be ever a theme of large and more than mortal discourse, let me speak briefly, and in a figure. And let the figure be composite-a pair of winged horses and a charioteer. Now the winged horses and the charioteers of the gods are all of them noble and of noble descent, but those of other races are mixed; the human charioteer drives his in a pair; and one of them is noble and of noble breed, and the other is ignoble and of ignoble breed; and the driving of them of necessity gives a great deal of trouble to him… “
The Devil
“ "The divine is beauty, wisdom, goodness, and the like; and by these the wing of the soul is nourished, and grows apace; but when fed upon evil and foulness and the opposite of good, wastes and falls away"
"The rest of the souls are also longing after the upper world and they all follow, but not being strong enough they are carried round below the surface, plunging, treading on one another, each striving to be first; and there is confusion and perspiration and the extremity of effort; and many of them are lamed or have their wings broken through the ill-driving of the charioteers; and all of them after a fruitless toil, not having attained to the mysteries of true being, go away, and feed upon opinion."
The World
" For the immortals, when they are at the end of their course, go forth and stand upon the outside of heaven, and the revolution of the spheres carries them round, and they behold the things beyond."
Wheel of Fortune (but one might need Crowley’s take on the card {i.e. the Three Gunas} to make fuller comparison)
“Such is the life of the gods; but of other souls, that which follows God best and is likest to him lifts the head of the charioteer into the outer world, and is carried round in the revolution, troubled indeed by the steeds, and with difficulty beholding true being; while another only rises and falls, and sees, and again fails to see by reason of the unruliness of the steeds. The rest of the souls are also longing after the upper world and they all follow, but not being strong enough they are carried round below the surface, plunging, treading on one another, each striving to be first; and there is confusion and perspiration and the extremity of effort; and many of them are lamed or have their wings broken through the ill-driving of the charioteers.”
An interesting exercise is to read the whole passage (and others) with your deck handy.
Here is an interesting passage; “Zeus, the mighty lord, holding the reins of a winged chariot, leads the way in heaven, ordering all and taking care of all; and there follows him the array of gods and demigods, marshalled in eleven bands; Hestia alone abides at home in the house of heaven; of the rest they who are reckoned among the princely twelve march in their appointed order. They see many blessed sights in the inner heaven, and there are many ways to and fro, along which the blessed gods are passing, every one doing his own work; he may follow who will and can ...”