Join me and Brandon Spencer where we talk about a brief history of Tarot and of our ancient esoteric knowledge.

My general thought process:

I do think that they were first visualized with our ancient writings that go back many, many thousands of years. It may have just been the standard teachings of spirituality in our ancient history and over the course of a few thousand years the teachings of true spirituality had to go into hiding, so to speak. Over the course of several hundreds of years people who have taught true spirituality have been constantly assaulted by the general world using the tools of state and religion to demonize the true teachings. Throughout history people have been persecuted, tortured and murdered over the teachings that bring us closer to God.

Tarot: (TAR-o, ta-RO) noun {French < Middle French < Old Italian tarocco (plural: tarocchi)] a set of cards depicting certain allegories and providing a deck for oracles and games.

What we know if our written history about the Tarot:

Before the Tarot was called the Tarot is was called Trionfi (Italian: [triˈoɱfi], 'triumphs') which are 15th-century Italian playing card trumps with allegorical content related to those used in tarocchi games. Most cards feature the characteristics of a place or abstraction. The tarocchi games used a deck of cards that had specific trumps and numbered cards.

Tarot was originally an allegorical card game based on ancient esoteric teachings and Jewish mysticism. 

I believe that our most ancient teachings of spirituality have made its way through history in whatever form it was able to survive in. It is part of Spirits business for it to evolve. The only way for it to do that is to ensure that there is some way for its' physical representation of itself (all physical realm creatures) has a way to create evolution. To do this it must somehow come to know what true spirituality is. It will never matter, nor in the past or future what form the message of Truth shines through…so long as it shines through.

Say for instance, a scholar, artist or minister who knew of the teachings and power of true spirituality and knowing how the world operated, that being the powers at be who are the ruling class and created a way for the information of true spirituality to be taught.

Tarot History Timeline:

Pythagoras introduces metaphysics, including the use of numbers as transcendental realities in 530 BC.

Plato combines his theories about ideal forms with the work of Pythagoras in 350 BC.

Teachings of Thoth-Hermes (an Egyptian moon god) develop into Hermetism in 100 BC.

Traces of Heretic teachings show up in the ancient writings of Christianity in 200 AD.

Astrologers in Harran, before AD 1000, invented the 4-suit deck of cards and used esoteric symbols as suit-signs.

The traditional 56 playing card deck manifested long before the Tarot deck, we have today but it contained a lot of the same allegorical values. The 4-suit deck manifested about 1345 and came from the Muslim Middle East, migrating into Christian Europe.

The first Italian paper mills appeared in 1215, so this opened up a whole new way to get information and create new ways to learn and spread information.

Part of the inspiration for this was a poem that was written in the 14th (between the years of 1351–1374) century by a Tuscan poet named Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) called 'Triumphs' or 'I Trionfi'. The poet took next to 20 years composing a tale of triumph over allegorical figures such as Love, Chastity, Death, Fame, Time and Eternity who vanquish each other in turn. It has the feeling of doing shadow work and the conquest of developing yourself spiritually in the physical realm.

Love is triumphed by Chastity who is triumphed by Death who is triumphed by Fame who is triumphed by Time who is triumphed by Eternity and who all together are triumphed by reality. It is a spiritual journey of an individual that leads from sin to redemption.

Italian humanists, before 1440, supplemented the suits with Egyptianizing trumps, blending Egyptian and Christian motifs.

In 1589 records in Venice in regard to the Inquisition show the Devil card being used as a focus of veneration and prayer. This means that the Tarot itself was not considered evil by association at that time by the Christian faith. In fact, these cards have been used by Christians over many decades and it is only recent time, as in the last couple hundred years that using the Tarot has something to do with evil or demonic purposes. This change in mentality may have something to do with Aleister Crowley and the influence he made on the public.

In 1660 records in Paris show that Jean Noblet published the first deck we know of that closely resembles to the Tarot de Marseille look. The oldest known copies of the Tarot de Marseille were made in Dijon in 1709 by Pierre Madenié.

As a side note, about the mid-1700s was a popular fade called Egyptomania. This was basically a social hobby for all the upper class who primarily of the Christian faith who became obsessed with Egypt and ancient spiritual teachings coming from Egypt and Jewish mysticism. It was commonplace for Christians to be fully in alignment with the practice of the Tarot reading. They would even use this not just as a card game but a card game that helped to direct spiritual understanding. 

In 1750s Etteilla (who was first known professional tarot reader during the time period of 1738-1791) is taught card reading by a man from Piedmont. In 1770 while in Paris Etteilla writes the first book of cartomancy, How to Entertain Oneself with a Pack of Cards. He uses a Piquet deck but mentions Tarot for fortune telling. This is the first manual of card reading and the first explicit written reference to divination with Tarot. In 1783 Etteilla publishes How to Entertain oneself with a Pack of Cards called Tarot, the first how-to-read-tarot manual. It contains an elaborate story of Tarot’s ancient Egyptian origins. In 1789 Etteilla produces the first occult deck illustrating Hermetic teachings.

In 1804-1807 D’Odoucet, a follower of Etteilla, publishes a book on card meanings based on Etteilla’s teachings. This is the basis for about half the meanings of the Minor Arcana cards in the Rider Waite Smith deck.

In 1856 in Paris Eliphas Levi published Dogma and Ritual of Transcendental Magic, a grand synthesis of the western magical tradition that establishes Tarot an important place in history.

In 1861 the English occultist Kenneth Mackenzie visits Eliphas Levi in Paris and is inspired to create the Cypher Manuscript and Book T which becomes the base line for the teachings of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and eventually contributes to the bedrock of Anglo-American Tarot.

In 1864 Robert Chambers writes the Book of Days. A. E. Waite used some of this as the inspiration for his minor arcana.

In 1909 A. E. Waite publishes the Rider Waite deck and the accompanying book the Pictorial Key to Tarot. These become the bedrock of Anglo-American tarot. Pamela Colman Smith is the artist for the Waite deck and was a mystic who was part of the secret occultist society the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

My conclusion:

Now, keep in mind that the Tarot (or at least the teachings of the Tarot) are very ancient and I would suspect that they go back till the beginning of time. That being said there is only so much information we can pull from known history as it is now. Further research on this subject will be done in the future on my part in regard to this but for now this is the cursory information required to move forward. 

Leonardo da Vinci lived during the 14-1500s and would have been able to benefit from the ancient teachings of Tarot, even though at that time they may not have been referred to as this. He did not record a lot of his spiritual understandings or discoveries in his journals, but I contest all his spiritually understandings or discoveries he made through his life are recorded in his art as a form of visual language. And I think the Mona Lisa is prime example of this.

The Tarot, or at least the ancient teaching that we pull from the Tarot, have influenced humanity and humanities culture since the beginning through the form of teachers, writers and artists. It has gone through many transformations throughout history, shaping its form to be able to survive through the ages that has had ups and downs in how it has been received, accepted or prosecuted.

This I would even go so far as to suggest that this is how Spirit (God, That Which Set All Things In Motion, The Universal Truth) has used the Law itself to shape reality in regard to its teachings knowing that these teachings were what was going to be the tool that would help to free humanity on this planet and create ultimate spiritual growth. You may even make a guess that without this preservation humanity would be in severe dire straits and would be worse off than we are now. The teachings of the Tarot are the safety bar that is set into reality to allow people to lean on when necessary. It is a guidebook for the soul to refer to.

So, no matter what form the teachings of the Tarot take shape in the future I know that these teachings will always be there for us as a guiding light keeping the path to true spirituality, truth, love and freedom clear and open to all creatures that exist in this universe. And though God is merely a steward of creation It will still give us Its' hand to show us the way.