David Thornton

The Tarot

The tarot first appeared in Western Europe in the early 15th century. Although we still do not know the origins of the cards, who designed them, or for what purpose, we can begin to understand their symbolism by studying the time and place from which they emerged.

From the 11th century onwards Western Europe experienced a huge revival in learning, culminating in the flowering of the Renaissance.

The Norman conquest of England in 1066 enabled Celtic beliefs and the Arthurian myths (the Matter of Britain) to enter Europe through the courts of Northern France. Influencing the troubadours and their romances.

The 12th century saw the burgeoning influence of gnostic sects. The Albigenses, Bogomils, Cathars and Waldenses enjoyed considerable success, before being systematically eradicated by the Roman Catholic Church and its supporters. Gnosis (Gk.knowledge) combined Greek philosophy and Hebrew mysticism with Chaldean, Persian, Egyptian and Indian magical beliefs.

During the 13th and 14th centuries the opening of trade routes to the Middle East and Asia meant that new concepts and beliefs entered Europe, kick-starting the Renaissance. The arrival of a Chinese fleet in Venice in 1434 introduced Europeans to the fruits of Oriental culture.With the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453, a great many Greek manuscripts, particularly the works of Plato and the Neoplatonist and Hermetic philosophers of Alexandria and the Middle east, found their way into Western Europe. The Neoplatonists and hermeticists offered the view man as a 'miracle', challenging over a thousand years of Christian doctrine that characterised man as a poor sinner whose only hope was through the intercession of the church.

The tarot emerged from and was influenced by this startlingly international milieu and if we look carefully at the symbolism of the cards we can still see traces of some of these ideas. However, what we cannot say with any certainty, is that the tarot belongs to any one of them alone.