by Pam Uher

Created on: January 21, 2009

The history of the Egyptian Tarot cards is full of dark murky legends and tales of intrigue and superstition. Facts to be found seem to indicate in 1781 the Frenchman Court de Gebelin wrote that Tarot cards were a kind of book containing the ancient wisdom of Egypt. The suggestion that an occult knowledge was encrypted within their reading stirred interest and curiosity among all the people, especially the elite seeking new parlor entertainment in the court of the King. Tarot Cards had been circulating for over 300 years before this arousal pushed them into the hands of the common person.

After this public recognition of an Egyptian connection concerning the cards strange value and occult ability to predict future events was made public many decks were produced claiming to be of Egyptian origin.

One of the first such decks produced in France was a 1789 version designed by a French astrologer (and cartologist) Etteilla, who named his deck of cards "The Book of Thoth". A version of this deck is still in production today which is called the "Grand Etteilla" also known as "Egyptian Gypsies Tarot". "Etteilla III" a more elaborate deck was issued in 1865. The cards began to be numbered (in the corners) as later editions were printed. This was done to help refer to the Tarot Cards as being a book' of knowledge.

The early Egyptian' decks did not come from the ancient Egyptian culture or astrological wisdom and really didn't even have good graphics depicting actual Egyptian icons. It must be remembered that the Rossetta stone was not discovered until 1799 and Egyptian symbolism was not available to most sources until after that date. A fact many people do not know is that the early card symbols were taken from sources such as The Book of Genesis in the Christian Bible and from the Hermetic myths found in The Divine Pymander.

In 1863, another French writer (Paul Christian) entwined the Tarot symbolism and legends with Egyptology even further. The book called "L'homme roughe des Tuileries" told a tale about Napoleon meeting a Benedictine monk who supposedly had an occult manuscript pertaining to the Tarot. The monk's book told (a fictitious account) in detail about the 78 symbolic houses of Tarot. These stories about the Tarot, albeit full of half-truths and twisted ancient history, caught the interest of Europe as explorations to the ancient world and occult study grew toward the end of the 1800's.

The 1896 publication of the book "Les XXII lames hermetiques du tarot divinatoire" by Falconnier presented, for the first time, designs that closely resembled Egyptian art. The card images were designed by M.O. Wegener and based upon the descriptions of Paul Christian. The Tarot Cards produced with these designs, presenting more realistic Egyptian symbols and based on the French occult theories surrounding the symbols became very popular. This was the point where Egyptian Tarot cards, as we know them today, derive their origin.

In 1901, 78 images were published and again in 1978 as the Egyptian Tarot' and many new renditions and variation would follow over the next century. The history of the Egyptian Tarot is a huge undertaking and this is a humble overview of the origin.

It must be noted, there is really no historical basis that can be authenticated that the Egyptian Tarot comes from Egyptian origin centuries ago

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