Tarot

Tarot cards are very old, there is a common myth that Tarot was brought to Europe by the Gypsies, although Gypsies use a regular deck of playing cards for fortune telling.

The first clear reference to Tarot cards is from a sermon that was collected about 1500 in Italy. The sermon is thought to date from about 1450 to 1470 and is a diatribe against games of chance. It gives a detailed description of the Tarot trumps, not only numbering them but naming them as well.

There is no evidence for any tarot cards prior to the hand-painted ones that were used by Italian nobles, but some esoteric schools believe its origins could be in Ancient Egypt, Ancient India or even the lost continent of Atlantis.

Alphonse Louis Constant, author of 'History of Magic', 1810-1875, was a French priest and Rosicruician who thought the Tarot the key to the Bible, the Jewish Qabbalah, and all other ancient spiritual writings. He attempted to link the 22 cards of the Major Arcana to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. He drew parallels between Tarot suits and the four letters of the Tetragrammaton, YHVH ('Yahweh').

Papus (Gerard Encausse, 1865-1916), a French doctor, philosopher, and Theosophist, described a link between Tarot and the Tetragrammaton. He also dealt with numerology and the Tree of Life.

The tarot has been studied by many adepts and has been shown to be directly relating to the Qabalah. The Order of the Golden Dawn in 1890 made a deck for its members, utilizing the knowledge of the Qabalah in its symbolism. This was not the first deck, but the research done by the Golden Dawn and its members helped shape the views of the Tarot and the western philosophies of the mysteries. Together, they produced the 78 card deck that we use today.

Other theories:

The cards are allegories of Sufi masters; Grail legend depictions; Indian holy texts; the Indian game Chaturanga, a forerunner of chess; Gypsy imports; Hebrew lore; Greek philosophy; ancestors of Mesopotamian copper cylinders; symbols handed down from prehistoric oral stories; symbols from ancient Central American Indian cultures; wisdom of prehistoric matriarchal cultures; teaching aids of the Waldenses, a persecuted Christian sect; surviving lore of the Order of Knights Templar; creation of the 13th century alchemists, the Tarot containing hidden alchemical imagery.

Speculation aside, we don't know, and perhaps will never know, what the original Tarot cards looked like. Nor do we know where they came from or who created them. We don't even know how many were contained in a deck. It has frustrated Tarot experts and inspired countless origin theories. However they came to be, the images of Tarot, like all true symbols, resound spontaneous self-expressions from the psyche's deepest springs; and for that reason they hold up magic mirrors to whatever reactions we bring them. Like all authentic artistic creations, Tarots are ultimately a mystery and will remain so.

I am only using the WildWood cards at the present with great success. I find them to be fascinating and so close to my psyche. I love them!

A few Wildwood cards that relate to my own life

While the Coronavirus crisis is on going I am doing readings from home using email, (and Skype, if it works OK) Do please contact me for a Reading.

1. A full Distant Tarot reading is usually about 45 mins to an hour long. I will do the reading via E-mail. Sometimes a 'two paths' reading will appear, depending on the numbers you give me.

The cost of this service is £25.
(25% will go to a charity of my choice.)

2. I can do a question/answer tarot reading by pulling just 3 cards,
these last about 15 minutes and the cost of this service is £8.
(25% will go to a charity of my choice.)

If you have questions after the reading is done you will not be charged extra. I aim to please my clients.

I will email you back giving you more details of how this reading is done. I can then put the results on a web page/s that I can make especially for you. No-one else will see it unless you want them to and give them the URL of the page yourself. This way you get more time to absorb what has been said to you along with the photos of the cards picked.

To book a Distant reading please email me at Dragonfly at dragonflydezignz dot 50megs dot com I will then get back to you with further details as soon as possible.

I accept prepayment via my bank account. I will email you the details.