Page:The Illustrated Key to the Tarot.djvu/174

170 Meanwhile, America is still awaiting the fulfilment of the concluding forecast, that some few will ere long have so far developed in that country “as to be able to read perfectly… in that perfect and divine sybilline work, the Taro.” Perhaps the cards which accompany the present volume will give the opportunity and the impulse!

With reference to the dream of Egyptian origin, the author quotes E. Garth Wilkinson’s Manners and Customs of the Egyptians as negative evidence at least that cards were unknown in the old cities of the Delta. The history of the subject is sketched, following the chief authorities, but without reference to exponents of the occult schools. The mainstay throughout is Chatto. There are some interesting particulars about the prohibition of cards in Spain, and the appendices include a few valuable documents, by one of which it appears, as already mentioned, that St. Bernardin of Sienna preached against games in general, and cards in particular, so far back as 1423. There are illustrations of rude Tarots, including a curious example of an Ace of Cups, with a phoenix rising therefrom, and a Queen of Cups, from whose vessel issues a flower.

This booklet was designed to accompany a set of Tarot cards, and the current packs of the period were imported from abroad for the purpose. There is no pretense of original research, and the only personal opinion expressed by the writer or calling for notice here states that the Trumps Major are hierogylphic symbols corresponding to the occult meanings of the Hebrew alphabet. Here the authority is Lévi, from whom is also derived the brief symbolism allocated to the twenty-two Keys. The divinatory meanings follow, and then the modes of operation. It is a mere sketch written in a pretentious manner and is negligible in all respects.