The renaissance Neoplatonists included in their synthesis virtually all of the lines of thought and modes of interpretation which have ever been suggested for the Tarot. The only real exception seems to be Alchemy. Although Alchemy was known to be prevalent in Italy during the proceeding century, neither Ficino nor Pico seems to have turned their attention to this topic and it's obvious revelance to the rest of their system. But we will see in later study that even this strange science may have contributed to the mind set of the Tarot designers.
In many respects, our elaboration of the Italian Renaissance Neoplatonists forms a central pivot in our total presentation. If a renaissance origin of tarot is believable, it is because virtually every theme, implication and interpretation found in later interpreters, especially the Franch and English occultists, is found right here in the the works of these philosophers. They wove together into a synthetic World-view all the divergent lines of mystical and magical thought that are found in the Tarot. And they wove their picture well, showing that all the themes are consistent with a basic of thought prevalent in their day. Thus , our argument to the occultist reader that Tarot is a child of the Renaissance is essentially complete..........snip snip...
It is not reasonable to assume that all of the "occult nonsense" was superimposed on the tarot by later interpreters. All of this "nonsense" was considered high wisdom by the Italian Renaissance. They delighted in complex, multi- layered allegorical interpretations and used this approach in other examples of their poetry and art. If we are to understand the symbolism of the tarot, then we must accept that the Renaissance mindset was a complex syncretism of many lines of thought which would be considered occult today.....
