Histoire et origines du Tarot

"A picture is better than a long speech" recalls Jacques Halbronn, and he questions: "for what reasons, during the 16th century, in France, while the majority of the population couldn't read nor write, editors censured most of the pictures of prophetic texts which illustrated the Centuries, the Mirabilis Liber, the Vaticinia….  while foreign editions, especially German, had many of these?"

The traditional Chinese calendar is composed of five cycles of Twelve years governed by twelve symbolical animals. Beginning by the year of the Rat, the cycle ends by the Pig. Each sign is linked to an hour character which defines more precisely and itself divided in two complementary notions, one beginning and one ending, showing the mutable y cyclical character of time.

Throughout time, man has always needed to play. Driven by the need to gain victory over another but also to tempt fate, or to put one’s belief in chance or fortune, ultimately this led to the ‘game’ of divination. In antiquity, the Greeks and Romans played with dice or with knucklebones and the Chinese used dominos and chess. Itself a blend of different traditions, the Tarot appeared, in its current form, in the 16th century. Consisting of 78 cards, of which 22 make up the Major Arcana, its images stem from medieval, humanist and ancient iconography.  It can be the “Royal Road” for an initiate or just a wordly game, either way it never ceases to beckon to us or fascinate us.