Origins of the Tarot's Minor Arcana

Origins of the Tarot's Minor Arcana PDF Author: Benjamin Hoshour
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
Today, the Tarot is largely associated with divinatory practices, western ceremonial magic, and as a primary element in the New-Age Spirituality complex. Central to these associations is the Tarot's trump suit, consisting of twenty-two symbolic images, whose original 15th-century meaning has been whitewashed by the Tarot's occult pseudo-history. The trump suit (Major Arcana), however, is only one of two components making up the Tarot, the other being its regular pack, or Minor Arcana. This one-of-a-kind volume deals with the ancestry of the much-neglected Minor Arcana, showing that it developed as a unique variant of European playing cards, which were themselves the inheritance of a much older and richer Chinese and Islamic heritage.In "Tarot Ancestors", Ben Hoshour examines the untold story of the Asian and Islamic influences leading up to the creation of European playing cards, specifically the Chinese money cards and the Mamluk deck. His treatment is a needed one, going a long way towards dispelling the numerous origin myths surrounding the Tarot and placing it firmly back within its historical roots. These early developments are framed within the larger story of humankind as Homo symbolicus (symbolic man) and Homo ludens (playful man) in order to show that playing cards were the direct result of humankind's innate propensity to play and communicate symbolically.This volume also serves as an indispensable guidebook to the cards of the the Chinese money pack and the Mamluk deck. This short, landmark work delves deeply into the mysteries of both packs, revealing the origin of the four suit system in the Chinese pack and foundation for the European suit-signs in the Mamluk deck. Each of these packs, including their suit-signs (i.e. symbols), developed as a unique combination of the symbolic and ludic (i.e. relating to games) elements of the culture in which they were created, a process that would be repeated with European cards including the Tarot.Origins of the Minor Arcana is the definitive, popular work on the early, formative history of the Tarot's Minor Arcana. This knowledge that will deepen and enrich your understanding and appreciation of the most neglected masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance.

Origins of the Tarot's Minor Arcana

Origins of the Tarot's Minor Arcana PDF Author: Benjamin Hoshour
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 199

Get Book

Book Description
Today, the Tarot is largely associated with divinatory practices, western ceremonial magic, and as a primary element in the New-Age Spirituality complex. Central to these associations is the Tarot's trump suit, consisting of twenty-two symbolic images, whose original 15th-century meaning has been whitewashed by the Tarot's occult pseudo-history. The trump suit (Major Arcana), however, is only one of two components making up the Tarot, the other being its regular pack, or Minor Arcana. This one-of-a-kind volume deals with the ancestry of the much-neglected Minor Arcana, showing that it developed as a unique variant of European playing cards, which were themselves the inheritance of a much older and richer Chinese and Islamic heritage.In "Tarot Ancestors", Ben Hoshour examines the untold story of the Asian and Islamic influences leading up to the creation of European playing cards, specifically the Chinese money cards and the Mamluk deck. His treatment is a needed one, going a long way towards dispelling the numerous origin myths surrounding the Tarot and placing it firmly back within its historical roots. These early developments are framed within the larger story of humankind as Homo symbolicus (symbolic man) and Homo ludens (playful man) in order to show that playing cards were the direct result of humankind's innate propensity to play and communicate symbolically.This volume also serves as an indispensable guidebook to the cards of the the Chinese money pack and the Mamluk deck. This short, landmark work delves deeply into the mysteries of both packs, revealing the origin of the four suit system in the Chinese pack and foundation for the European suit-signs in the Mamluk deck. Each of these packs, including their suit-signs (i.e. symbols), developed as a unique combination of the symbolic and ludic (i.e. relating to games) elements of the culture in which they were created, a process that would be repeated with European cards including the Tarot.Origins of the Minor Arcana is the definitive, popular work on the early, formative history of the Tarot's Minor Arcana. This knowledge that will deepen and enrich your understanding and appreciation of the most neglected masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance.

Mystical Origins of the Tarot

Mystical Origins of the Tarot PDF Author: Paul Huson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1620551837
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
A profusely illustrated history of the occult nature of the tarot from its origins in ancient Persia • Thoroughly examines the original historical source for each tarot card and how the cards’ divinatory meanings evolved from these symbols • Provides authentic 18th- and 19th-century spreads and divination techniques • Reveals the divinatory meanings of the cards as understood by diviners in the Middle Ages and Renaissance The origins of the tarot have been lost in the mists of time. Most scholars have guessed that its origins were in China, Egypt, or India. In Mystical Origins of the Tarot, Paul Huson has expertly tracked each symbol of the Minor Arcana to roots in ancient Persia and the Major Arcana Trump card images to the medieval world of mystery, miracle, and morality plays. A number of tarot historians have questioned the use of the tarot as a divination tool prior to the 18th century. But the author demonstrates that the symbolic meanings of the Major Arcana were evident from the time they were first employed in the mid-15th century in the popular divination practice of sortilege. He also reveals how the identities of the court cards in the Minor Arcana were derived from a blend of pagan and medieval sources that strongly influenced their interpretation in tarot divination. Mystical Origins of the Tarot provides a thorough examination of the original historical source for each card and how the cards’ divinatory meanings evolved from these symbols. Huson also provides concise and practical card-reading methods designed by the cartomancers of the 18th and 19th centuries and reveals the origins of the card interpretations promoted by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and A. E. Waite.

Origins of the Minor Arcana

Origins of the Minor Arcana PDF Author: Ben Hoshour
Publisher: Learn Authentic Tarot
ISBN: 1648713386
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Book Description
Origins of the Minor Arcana, the first volume in the Learn Authentic Tarot series, presents the true story behind the ancestry of the Tarot's much-neglected Minor Arcana, which is to be found in the symbolism, culture, and gaming traditions of Asia and the Middle East. In doing so, it abolishes the numerous occult myths surrounding the Tarot that have been promulgated from the late 18th century right up to the present day. Origins of the Minor Arcana provides a new foundation by which to understand the development of the Tarot, one grounded in historical scholarship and careful research. Set against the backdrop of humankind as Homo symbolicus (symbolic man) and Homo ludens (playful man), this volume illustrates how the gradual evolution of symbolic expression, together with the integral nature of play in human culture, ultimately led to the invention of playing cards and their transmission across the Eurasian landscape and into Europe. These early ancestors served as the foundation for the creation of all European playing cards, including the Tarot, and are the source of its four-suit system. Lavishly illustrated and beautifully presented, this volume contains a sizable collection of stunning color photos, including a full presentation of the Tarot’s direct ancestors: the Chinese Money cards and the Mamluk deck. Heavily researched, but eminently readable, this scholarly account of the Tarot's Minor Arcana is the definitive work on the early, formative history of the Tarot.

Mystical Origins of the Tarot

Mystical Origins of the Tarot PDF Author: Paul Huson
Publisher: Inner Traditions / Bear & Co
ISBN: 9780892811908
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
In "Mystical Origins of the Tarot, " Paul Huson traces each symbol of the Minor Arcana to ancient Persia, and the Major Arcana Trump card images to the medieval world. A thorough examination of each card is given, and how the cards' divinatory meanings evolved. Huson also provides concise and practical card-reading methods of the 18th and 19th centuries and reveals the origins of the card interpretations promoted by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and A. E. Waite.

Kabbalistic Tarot

Kabbalistic Tarot PDF Author: Dovid Krafchow
Publisher: Inner Traditions / Bear & Co
ISBN: 9781594770647
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
This guide reveals the intimate relationship of the tarot to the esoteric teachings of the Torah and the Kabbalah. Kabbalistic interpretations for all 78 traditional tarot cards are included as well as a detailed kabbalistic reading and interpretation of the Tree of Life spread.

Tarot of the Origins

Tarot of the Origins PDF Author: Sergio Toppi
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788886131971
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description


The Tarot

The Tarot PDF Author: Robert Place
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9781585423491
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
The Tarot is one of the few books that cuts through conventional misperceptions to explore the Tarot deck as it really developed in the Middle Ages and Renaissance Europe-not, as some would suggest, in the far reaches of Egyp-tian antiquity. Mining the Hermetic, alchemical, and Neoplatonic influences behind the evolution of the deck, author Robert M. Place provides a historically grounded and compelling portrait of the Tarot's true origins, without overlooking the deck's mystical dimensions. Indeed, Place uncommonly weds reliable historiography with a practical understanding of the intuitive help and divinatory guidance that the cards can bring. He presents techniques that offer new and valuable ways to read and interpret the cards. Based on a simple three-card spread, Place's approach can be used by either the seasoned practitioner or the new inquirer.

The Esoteric Tarot

The Esoteric Tarot PDF Author: Ronald Decker
Publisher: Quest Books
ISBN: 0835630838
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
That the Tarot originated in ancient Egypt as a divinatory tool is a romantic misconception. Ron Decker’s meticulous scholarship will surprise practitioners and academics alike, revealing the Tarot’s true evolution and meanings as its inventor(s) understood it. The Tarot consists of the Minor Arcana, four suits of cards similar to our modern deck, and the Major Arcana, twenty-two allegorical or “trump” cards. Decker says the four-suit deck was invented in Asia Minor before AD 1000; Italian courtiers added the trumps in the 1400s. But Tarot was first used as a game. Tarot divination was only created in the 1700s by a Parisian fortuneteller who based the trump images on Hermeticism, which merges Greco-Egyptian alchemy, astrology, numerology, magic, and mysticism. Today, the suit-cards are often traced to the ancient Jewish Cabala. But, says Decker, they, too, acquired their meanings only in the 1700s, and he cites a lost numerical system based on Cabala at that time Decker’s interpretation integrates three whole systems-astrological, arithmological, mystagogical (concerning initiation rites into the Mysteries). His depth of knowledge makes the book a must-have for serious students of Tarot and esotericism

The Tarot

The Tarot PDF Author: Cynthia Giles
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0671891014
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
With more than 40 illustrations and an entertaining informative text, this elegantly designed book captures the scope, powers, and romance of the Tarot throughout the ages. "Excellently researched, entertainingly and compellingly written".--Booklist.

Origins of the Tarot

Origins of the Tarot PDF Author: Benjamin David Hoshour
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781648713484
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
An absorbing and richly illustrated examination of the Asian and Islamic influence behind the creation of the Tarot's Minor Arcana. This volume highlights the symbolic and ludic contributions leading up to the invention of the basic ingredients for playing cards: paper, printing, and formal games. Set against the backdrop of humankind as Homo symbolicus (symbolic man) and Homo ludens (playful man), Ben Hoshour illustrates how the gradual evolution of symbolic expression and the creation of formal games gradually led to the formation of pre-European playing cards, specifically the Chinese money cards and the Mamluk pack. Following a detailed examination of both landmark packs, Hoshour illustrates the way in which they provided the foundation for European playing cards, to include the Tarot. There has never been a more accessible guidebook to these landmark packs or the early history of the Minor Arcana.