A Cultural History of Tarot: From Entertainment to Esotericism

by Helen Farley

The enigmatic and richly illustrative tarot deck reveals a host of strange and iconic mages, such as The Tower, The Wheel of Fortune, The Hanged Man and The over which loom the terrifying figures of Death and The Devil. The 21 numbered playing cards of tarot have always exerted strong fascination, way beyond their original purpose, and the multiple resonances of the deck are ubiquitous. From T S Eliot and his 'wicked pack of cards' in "The Waste Land" to the psychic divination of Solitaire in Ian Fleming's "Live and Let Die"; and from the satanic novels of Dennis Wheatley to the deck's adoption by New Age practitioners, the cards have in modern times become inseparably connected to the occult. They are now viewed as arguably the foremost medium of prophesying and foretelling. Yet, as the author shows, originally the tarot were used as recreational playing cards by the Italian nobility in the Renaissance. It was only much later, in the 18th and 19th centuries, that the deck became associated with esotericism before evolving finally into a diagnostic tool for mind, body and spirit.
This is the first book to explore the remarkably varied ways in which tarot has influenced culture. Tracing the changing patterns of the deck's use, from game to mysterious oracular device, Helen Farley examines tarot's emergence in 15th century Milan and discusses its later associations with astrology, kabbalah and the Age of Aquarius.

Genres: Tarot, Nonfiction, History, Occult, Religion, Witchcraft, Divination

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Fran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative and persuasive. This is an academic work that views the tarot as an object of study. It traces the development of the cards through history using evidence from historical documents to make a case for its conclusions. It's not a book for people who are invested in unearthing hidden meanings in the cards, but rather for people who want to know where the tarot originally came from and how it has changed over time.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is impossible to be alive and sensate without knowing something about tarot. The problem is: most of what one knows is likely wrong. In Act III of Bizet's opera "Carmen," she and her friends Frasquita and Mercedes read the tarot cards to learn their destiny. In the James Bond movie "Live and Let Die," the beautiful Solitaire is alerted to Bond's coming by the tarot cards. In "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," the detective reads Simza Heron's fortune using a tarot deck. Professor Trelawney, who teaches divination in four of the Harry Potter novels, uses the tarot. Tarot shows up in T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land," the TV programmes "Bones," "Doctor Who," "The Murdoch Mysteries," "Schitt's Creek" and "Gilmore Girls." Helen Farley is on the faculty of the University of Queensland, Australia, where she teaches religion. Her book reads more like a doctoral dissertation than a popular history. It is exhaustively researched, carefully argued and extensively footnoted. A few conclusions can be reached with certainty. No one can demonstrate precisely when and where tarot first appeared. It did not originate in Ancient Egypt nor anywhere else "ancient." It is first seen in the mid-15th century in Europe where the decks were used to play a variety of gambling games. It is not until the middle of the 18th century that the use of the tarot in cartomancy is first documented. Thereafter, its use for all manner of fortune telling, prophecy and even healing purposes is well demonstrated. Anyone who wants to create a new tarot deck is free to do so, which explains why there are so many varieties: Celtic, Ancient Egyptian, Native American, Ancient Hebrew, Masonic, Rosicrucian, New Age, UFO, voodoo, ecological, Wiccan, Jungian, astrological, feng shui, Taoist, feminist, Arthurian, and Old Norse mythological. The last chapter cannot be written as the use of tarot continues to be appropriated and modified by one interest group after another.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

By the title, I was expecting a more broad cultural history, including portrayals of tarot in popular culture, films, etc.

This book lacks that element, but still it provides a concise and compelling history of the development of the tarot from the original game up to its current primary use as an esoteric tool.

The first half of the book is much better, taking on the rare task of debunking all the specious theories about Tarot's origins. There are only a couple of books that really do this, most books about the tarot being full of hokum and flimflam about ancient Egypt.

The second half of the book kind of falls apart, but I can't completely blame the author, as the development of Tarot as a fortune telling tool is a mess, full of nutters and charlatans.

It's a shame that this book seems to have been overlooked, apparently because of how ridiculously expensive the publishers put the price at.

[Rjyan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Farley's uses pretty confrontational language throughout: "nothing but", "erroneously", "There is no underlying esoteric scheme that forms the basis of a continuous tradition." And seems to justify this attitude almost entirely through negations of the more popular legends of the tarot's origin. Her lethal certainty is most strange, though, in that she readily admits that there's no clear evidence as to exactly where the tarot began, or even whether it preceded or followed the regular playing-card deck. Somehow, after dismantling theories about origins in ancient Egypt or with the Gypsies or India, she concludes that because the origin is a mystery doesn't mean there's any mystery to it. It was most likely a deck from the Mamluk Sultanate that was changed for inconsequential reasons when it came to Renaissance Europe.

Her overview of internecine intrigue and power struggles in Italy leading to the Renaissance is pretty cool, but she speeds through it. Then she spends a big chunk of the second part of the book listing random decks produced in the 20th century and very briefly describing the cultural and philosophical influences of each. But not really in any more depth than what you'd get browsing through tarot packs on Amazon (not to speak of a site like tarotpedia or Aeclectic.)

Hard to recommend this to anybody but people who think Tarot is somehow both intriguing, but not that intriguing, and also frivolous.

[Evan Herberth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thorough history of tarot. Dispels a lot of nonsense and bad history along the way. At times it reads like a dry college essay, so you might need an extra cup of coffee or two to stay awake.

[Mark Schlatter · Rating 3 out of 5]

In terms of the big ideas surrounding tarot, Farley delivers. She clearly debunks the theories connecting the deck to ancient civilizations, describes how the major arcana fit neatly within the historical context of fifteenth century Italy (where the cards were created and used for actual card games, not divination), and then details how --- four centuries later --- French and English writers and occultists transformed the deck into a tool for reading esoteric knowledge. The framework that supports all this argument is first-rate and convincing.

The detail, however, is often exhaustive. Farley has a strong encyclopedic sensibility, and I found it very easy to be overwhelmed by the personages, secret societies, and differences between different decks. Sadly, much of the history is delivered in a very matter-of-fact tone, and I wished there had been a more lively approach to illuminating the details. (I'm wondering, for example, if there's an engaging and critical history of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn).

One final note: much of the material in here may be helpful to Alan Moore fans, especially readers of Promethea or the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impressive and thoroughly researched history of the creation and transformation of these cards.

[Todd R · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with most books on Tarot buckets of speculation abound. However this book is well worth the time to read and offers historic data and art that makes this an academically appealing read.

[Miguel Alvarez · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the Introduction the author states that this book is "the first comprehensive cultural history of tarot and its imaginery". This is a bold claim and can hardly be considered to be the case. First of all, the book is far from being as comprehensive and systematic as Dummett et al.'s "A wicked pack of cards" and "The History of Occult Tarot". Chapter III is the only one that really stands out as original and illuminating. One would think (as I did, before reading the book) that, as Dummett et al.'s "History" ends up in the 1970s, chapter VI would really expand and complement that previous work. But it limits itself to comment on some new editions of the deck, without going any further into its cultural impact, the change of perspectives in their theorists and other general aspects that one would expect from a so-called "Cultural History" of tarot.

Also, throughout the text I found some blatant historical mistakes (here are two examples: the author confounds the XVIII century French revolution with La Commune de Paris and quotes an "Age of Mythology Tarot" from 1990, supposedly based on the videogame... from 2001!) that made me wonder whether this book went into serious revision before being published. It is not acknowledged anywhere in the edition, but I am pretty confident that this is a Ph. D. thesis. The style and the structure is pretty much what one would expect if that were the case.

All in all, I would say that it is not a bad book for somebody curious about the topic, but for someone really interested in the history of Tarot, the books to read are Dummett et al.'s. Chapters II and III of this book can be taken as an appendix to them.

[Sonee Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is well-researched. I appreciated the amount of detail the author provided. She spent a lot of time in providing context for the various theories on the origins of Tarot. The author has a clear point of view.

[Mirko Liang · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important academic insight on the origin and development of tarot. An essential element to comprehend the tarot phenomenon, without which the modern take on the matter would seem shallow and could be barely taken seriously.

[Laura Lawson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tarot as one might pick it up now is quite a smorgasbord of ideas, beginning with a game, sort of packaged and repackaged and rediscovered and over interpreted and specialized into fortune telling, etc.

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Academic tome with a deep dive into Renaissance Italy

[E7boehm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good history of the cards and the mess of 1700- 2000 occult use of the cards. A must read for those who want to know what the cards history and basis which is quite recent is all about

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readable and interesting with a solid history of the evolution of the tarot cards through the courts of the Visconti and Sforza families.