The Fool as Wandering Jew

by Jean-Michel David During Mediæval times, the legend of the wandering Jew gained popular recognition. I have previously (around 2003 on Aeclectic’s TarotForum) written some comments that indicates possible connections between the Fool and the Wandering Jew – what we shall be briefly looking at here are not only some of those references, but also [...]

The Tarot Wheel

a tripartite view on the internal structure of the Visconti Sforza Tarot By Joep van Loon As all human made concepts, Tarot has not been created immediately in its final form. In the beginning of its existence, in 15th century Northern Italy, there were a lot of different stages before the Tarot crystallized in the [...]

Some Theories Concerning Ghisi’s Laberinto

by Nadya Chishty-Mujahidthe American University in Cairo Very little concrete historical background is known about the 1616 game Laberinto [Labyrinth] created specifically for the doge of Venice at that time Giovanni Bembo, by the Venetian nobleman Andrea Ghisi. An extant and complete copy is housed in the British Library, but sadly no precise directions exist [...]

Boethius, Fortuna, the Ass and the Monkey

The Wheel of Fortune by Jean-Michel David There are a few cards in the sequence that were especially influential in sending me scurrying through historical connections and developments. This is one of those, the other two being XVI and XXI. Not that other cards lack such aspect, of course. The Wheel has numerous details worthy [...]

The Fool’s Journey

The History, Art, & Symbolism of the Tarot A new book by Robert M. Place Jean-Michel asked me to include an excerpt from my new book, The Fool’s Journey: The History, Art, & Symbolism of the Tarot, in this, the September issue of the ATS Newsletter, but first I would like to explain the focus [...]

Rudolf Steiner and Tarot

by Jean-Michel David Given my personal and professional interests, I am at various times asked whether Rudolf Steiner talked about tarot in either his books or his lectures – or was at least aware of tarot. It should be brought to mind that amongst the thousands of recorded lectures he gave between 1900 and 1925, [...]

Enrique Enriquez Interviews J-C. Flornoy

Let me start by asking what everyone in the tarot world is wondering: do you remember your first kiss? Oh yes! How did that first kiss compare to the moment in which you ‘got’ the tarot? I mean that moment in which the whole tarot suddenly made sense to you. These are moments of exceptional [...]

Journeying the Sixties: A Counterculture Tarot

William Haigwoodwww.counterculturecreations.com “The thing itself is unreachable, but its phenomenon can be apprehended through the structures of thought.” –Immanuel Kant “To have a new vision of the future, it has always been necessary to have a new vision of the past.” –Historian Theodore Zeldin When I recently wrote and created The Counterculture Tarot I finished [...]

1701 Dodal restored!

Jean-Michel David www.fourhares.com I like to imagine what it will be like in 300 years hence: perhaps one of Flornoy’s decks survives, having been found in one of Melbourne’s museums, and perhaps a mastercraftsman has picked it up, obtained high resolution images thereof, and seeks to remake it afresh for all to enjoy. Some of [...]

A Century with the Waite-Smith Tarot (and all the others…)

K. Frank Jensen When the French author, priest and Freemason Antoine Court de Gebelin (1719-84) in 1781 advanced the allegation, that the tarot deck constituted the Egyptian god Thoth’s ‘Secret Book’, he cast a seed to something, which during the next couple of centuries should grow to immense heights. Tarot was an ordinary card game [...]