The Tarot of the Bohemians (Papus) · 27 of 134 · tr. A.P. Morton
Chapter IX (part 1)
CHAPTER IX.
HISTORY OF THE SYMBOLISM OF THE TAROT.
INQUIRY INTO ITS ORIGIN.
The Tarot is an Egyptian Book--Its Transformations--Mantegna's Pack--Venetian Tarot--Florentine Tarot--Bolognese--Hindu Tarot--Chinese Tarot--Modern Tarots--Etteila--Marseilles--Besançon--Watillaux--Oswald Wirth--Italian and German Tarots--Constitution of the Symbolism of the Tarot--The 16 primitive Hieroglyphic Signs--The 22 Hebrew Letters.
ORIGIN OF THE SYMBOLISM OF THE TAROT.
As we have already stated, each card of the Tarot represents a symbol, a number, and an idea.
We have endeavoured to avoid empiricism as far as possible in the course of these explanations; and therefore we first studied the numbers, for they are the most settled element, and give the most unvarying results in their combinations.
Relying firmly upon the basis which we have thus constructed, we can now study the symbols with absolute assurance.
We hope that for this purpose you have procured the Tarot of Marseilles, the most correct in its symbolism, or else the twenty-two keys designed by Oswald Wirth; perhaps--and this is really almost indispensable--you have both of them.
You need, then, only deal the cards upon the table, to see at once that the personages depicted upon them all wear dresses of the Renaissance period.
And yet, is this pack of cards of ancient origin?
It does not appear so.
Look at your figures more attentively and you will soon perceive Egyptian symbols [the triple cross (No.
5), ibis (No.
17)] combined with these Renaissance costumes.
They at once prove that the Tarot of Marseilles is really the exact representation of the primitive Egyptian Tarot, slightly altered to the epoch denoted by the costumes.
Only the gypsies possess the primitive pack intact.
The studies of those learned men who have investigated the Tarot have confirmed this fact by the strongest evidence.
And the works of Chatto, Boiteau and above all of Merlin, show us that history corroborates our assertion.
Merlin conducted his researches very scientifically, and succeeded in discovering the original of our Tarot of Marseilles in an Italian Tarot at Venice, the father of all the later packs.
He believes also that he has discovered the origin of this Venetian Tarot in the philosophical pack of Mantegna .
But he cannot determine the origin of this pack, because the one that Merlin believed to be the source of the Tarot is on the contrary a reproduction , made by one of the Initiates.
The Ars Magna of Raymond Lulle was produced in the same way; it is drawn entirely from the Tarot.
We have given for reference the pack of Mantegna , known in the trade as the cards of Baldini , as well as the packs of the Italian Tarots, from which most of ours are derived.
The tableau which indicates the connection between the Tarot packs and that of Mantegna, ought to be reversed, and on the contrary show the cards of Mantegna derived from the Tarot, as we have stated.
Here are the figures of the Tarots.
(See page 84 .) MANTEGNA'S PACK.
1 The beggar.
11 Calliope.
21 Grammar.
31 Astronomy.
41 Moon.
2 The knave.
12 Urania.
22 Logic.
32 Chronology.
42 Mercury.
3 The artisan.
13 Terpsichore.
23 Rhetoric.
33 Cosmology.
43 Venus.
4 The merchant.
14 Erato.
24 Geometry.
31 Temperance.
44 Sun.
5 The Nobleman.
15 Polyhymnia.
25 Arithmetic.
35 Prudence.
45 Mars.
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
The passage notes that the personages depicted on the cards wear dresses of the Renaissance period and depicts figures like 'The beggar' or 'The Nobleman', attributing human form to symbolic concepts.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The text discusses the connection between Tarot packs, Mantegna's cards, and Egyptian symbols, implying a structural correspondence between different historical artifacts and the 'primitive' truth.
A historical or mythical chain of transmission for secret wisdom from master to disciple across time and cultures — the credential of the teaching, not merely its content. Distinct from oral_tradition (the spoken-not-written modality of transmission, which a lineage may or may not use) and hidden_sayings (the concealment-for-readiness of a teaching's meaning, independent of who transmitted it or in what unbroken chain).
The text traces a lineage of transmission from primitive Egyptian Tarot through Gypsies to Marseilles and Mantegna, referencing specific initiates and learned men like Merlin.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage describes the Tarot as a book of symbols and ideas where the true origin (Egyptian) is hidden beneath Renaissance costumes, requiring study to uncover.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The passage explicitly states that each card represents a number and idea, and emphasizes studying numbers first as the 'most settled element' giving unvarying results.