I've been wondering what tarot mythology meant to people who were closer to the source, those occultists of earlier times who believed in it unreservedly. What emotional or spiritual needs did it fulfill for them? What can this tell me about my own attraction to Tarot? The most accessible occult authors on my bookshelf are Papus and Waite, so I re-read their introductory comments to get a feeling for what tarot myths they believed in and what it did for them emotionally and psychologically.
Papus had a scientific background (he was a doctor) and was proud of being rational and precise, but he bought the entire Ancient Egypt/Gypsies package uncritically.
In the very first paragraph of The Tarot of the Bohemians he says that scientific materialism has gone as far as it can in fragmenting knowledge. We need a synthesis – and synthesis was the genius of ancient civilizations, especially India and Egypt. The word "synthesis" appears numerous times in the book. He defines it as the ability to condense all knowledge into a few simple principles.
Papus seems driven by a need for a grand synthesis, rooted in the simple truths of ancient times, that reflects the structure of the universe. Years of intense study of Tarot imagery, the Hebrew language and Egyptian hieroglyphics led him to the inescapable conclusion that the Tarot deck embodied the synthesis he was searching for.
This I can relate to! My first experiences with Tarot are beginning to recede into the "mists of time", but I can remember the excitement of seeing my universe – the four elements, seven planets, Jungian personality types, steps of the hero's journey, the Great Chain of Being - all reflected in the humble of deck of cards I carried around in my purse. What powers might I possess, and what wisdom might I embody with the help of my cardboard universe-in-a-box!
A.E. Waite wrote an introduction to the English translation of Papus' book where he asserts that tarot began as an Italian card game and he heaps scorn on anyone who believes de Gebelin's Egyptian baloney. This is followed by several pages of scathing comments about French occultists and their fantasies.
While Papus based his tarot myth on his study of the Hebrew language and a close examination of the cards' imagery, Waite's tarot myth seems to rest on a direct, mystical knowing that can't be put into words, so we just have to trust him on it. I think Waite's version of the Tarot myth can be summed up in his statement that: "The Tarot embodies symbolical presentations of universal ideas…they contain secret doctrine, which is the realization by the few of truths embedded in the consciousness of all". I think what he's saying is that Tarot exists on many levels from the vulgar and profane to the most rarified. Tarot symbolism forms the last level, a veil, over the inner sanctum holding the highest mysteries. These mysteries, the Secret Doctrine, are apprehended directly only by those who possess the spiritual gifts to perceive them.
In other words: "I know something you don't know and I'm not going to tell you because if you were worthy you'd know it already. The fact that you don't know what I'm talking about proves that you're one of the vulgar masses". Waite's myth appears to fulfill a rather adolescent emotional need to be part of an elite in-group with special knowledge (and a secret handshake and code words).
I have to admit, this was part of tarot's appeal for many years: the feeling of specialness when my friends petitioned me and my mysterious deck for answers to their dilemmas. The delicious delusion that I was a special person thanks to the arcane wisdom in my pack of cards. I never realized how much I have in common with those old occultists!
Sherryl