The Occult origins of the Tarot by Robert M. Place

Before Aleister Crowley, before Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Colman Smith, before the Golden Dawn, before Papus, Éliphas Lévi, and Etteilla, the first author to describe an occult version of the Tarot was Louis-Raphaël-Lucrèce de Fayolle, comte de Mellet, writing in Antoine Court de Gébelin’s, 1781, eighth volume of his monumental encyclopaedia, “Monde primitif”.
The Comte de Mellet associated the Tarot’s trumps with the Classical Ages of Man: the Age of Gold, the Age of Silver, and the Age of Iron. He correlated the Trumps with the letters in the Hebrew alphabet, he described the minor suits in detail, and he provided the earliest discussion of a divination technique for the Tarot. Now for the first time de Mellet’s vision for the Tarot exists as a complete deck, and book: “The First Occult Tarot” by acclaimed artist and tarot expert Robert M. Place.
Robert joined us in a webinar for a fascinating exploration of this groundbreaking deck and the centuries of esoteric philosophy and history behind it.
Robert M. Place has been a frequent lecturer on and teacher of Western mysticism and the history and use of the tarot. Robert is the designer of “The Alchemical Tarot”, “The Alchemical Tarot Renewed”, “The Tarot of the Alchemical Magnum Opus”, “The Tarot of the Sevenfold Mystery”, “The Facsimile Italian Renaissance Woodcut Tarocchi”, “The Tarot of the Saints”First Occult, “The Buddha Tarot”, “The Vampire Tarot”, “The Angels Tarot,” the “Marziano Tarot”, the “Raziel Tarot”, “The Alchemical Tarot of Marseille”, and “The First Occult Tarot”.
He has also authored “The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination”, which Booklist has said, “may be the best book ever written on that deck of cards decorated with mysterious images called the tarot.”
robertmplacetarot.com/
You can find a variety of Robert M. Place’s decks & books on our webshop: shop.watkinsbooks.com/search?...
#tarot
#Alchemy
#mondeprimitif

[@thomasnihil4878]

So insightful. I Could listen to Robert for hours. Thanks.

[@TaurusVenus]

Loving this whole exposition by Mr. Place 🙏🌟

[@newangeltarot]

Literally have been discovering these decks recently - perfectly timed video!

[@peppinello69]

The Neoplatonic/Renaissance origin and the Magnus Opus as its goal is correct! There is an ‘egyptian’thread which links C.Gebelin, C.Mellet, Ettilla, Falconier, Eliphas Levi and even Papus. This you will find in the Masonic lodges these people were initiated into. Specifically the ones which practiced the Egyptian Rite (revived by Cagliostro). In their higher degrees Alchemy is at the heart of these teachings (vide the Arcana Arcanorum or Scale of Naples mentioned by Crowley who strangely enough relaunched the idea of Tarot=Book of Thoth). But the key to the tarot cannot be revealed unless you are initiated into their system, so you won’t find it written in their books. For the uninitiated it is truly a Liber Mutus (am sorry to disappoint Golden Dawn fans 😅)