The Babel of Tarots - Giordano Berti Lecture at the 2002 World Tarot Congress
2
- THE ESOTERIC TAROTS: A DEVIATION?
In
recent times, the role of a “universal esoteric writing” has been attributed
to the game of Tarot, and in particular to the 22 Triumph cards, or Major Arcana.
These 22 allegories are actually regarded as an illustrated book that can be
opened and therefore read, using different keys. But for what reason did the
Tarots become “ the bible of the esoterists?”. This fact is indeed amazing
as the tarots did not come about for magic or divinatory purposes; on the
contrary, according to many historians, the tarots were developed as a game of
chance and their esoteric applications represent a “deviation” with respect
to the original project. This deviation occurred due to a basic interpretation
error which happened at the end of the 18th century, in France, by the mason
Antoine Court de Gebelin.
But
this explanation is too simplistic. If it is true that Court de Gebelin was
mistaken, attributing the Tarots with an Egyptian origin, it is also true that
this mistake occurred in interpreting what some of the Tarot allegories
suggested, which actually do have some religious significance. Even in the 16th,
17th and 18th centuries, when the Tarots were used for a simple game of chance,
there were writers who sensed in these figures a more profound meaning than that
attributed to them by the players of this gambling game.
For
example, the Italian jurist Francesco Piscina, in his opera “Speech
on the order of the images of the Tarots”, published in 1565, affirmed
that the Tarots were “hieroglyphic” illustrations that contained many moral
teachings of the Catholic faith. Similar ideas to those expressed by Piscina
were also contained in an anonymous “Speech...
on Tarots”, written more or less in the same period.
But
it is clear that at the time of Francesco Piscina, the original significance of
the allegories of the Tarots were already lost. To understand what that meaning
was, it is necessary to go back in time, that is, to return to the precise
moment when these illustrations appeared for the first time. The late-medieval
period in fact, is extremely rich in pictorial and literary images that can be
compared to the 22 allegoric Triumph cards.
Essential
bibliography
Giordano
Berti and Andrea Vitali, Tarots: art,
history and esotericism (I Tarocchi: arte, magia ed esoterismo, Fanza, Le
Tarot, 1994).
Giordano
Berti, Francesco Piscina da Carmagnola and
his Speech on the order of the images of the Tarots written in 1565
(Francesco Piscina da Carmagnola e il suo Discorso sopra l’ordine delle figure
dei Tarocchi, Bologna, Istituto Graf, 1995)
Giordano
Berti, Ancient Enlightened Tarot
“Sola-Busca” (Antichi Tarocchi Illuminati. l’alchimia nei Tarocchi “Sola-Busca”,
Turin, Lo Scarabeo, 1995), written
with Sophia Di Vincenzo.
Text © 2002 Giordano Berti