Section 03THE MYTHOLOGY
The Mythology
How a card game acquired an Egyptian past, and why the claim outlived every fact that contradicted it.
5 pieces in this section
- Lead piece
Antoine Court de Gébelin, 1781
A Protestant minister with a theory about ancient Egypt looked at a card game and launched a myth that outlasted the scholarship that refuted it.
Read the piece
Éliphas Lévi Tied the Cards to the Hebrew Alphabet in 1854
A French occultist's published correspondence between tarot trumps and Hebrew letters became the structural skeleton of every deck the Golden Dawn ever touched.
Read the piecePhoto: Mihaïl Zablodsky / Pexels
Photo: Israel-Regardie-Golden-Dawn-Vol-1-1937-Banner-Frontispiz · Wikimedia Commons
