ORIGIN
by Alexandro JODOROWSKY
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No one knows who created Tarot, or where, or when. No one knows what that word means or what language it comes from. Nor is it known whether playing cards come from it or whether it is the end result of a slow evolution which would have begun with the creation of a deck called naïbbe (cards) to which the MAJOR ARCANA and the COURT CARDS would have later been added. Unquestionably the earliest reference mark is the interdiction of the deck of cards in Berne in 1376. In 1392, it is mentioned in the books of Charles Peupart, treasurer of Charles VI, that Jacquemin Gringonneur of Paris was paid 56 pence to paint three gilded decks of cards. But that does not mean that Gringonneur invented Tarot. In 1377, a German monk named Johannes mentions a deck of cards which he saw in Switzerland. In Spain, the deck of cards is first mentioned in 1378. In 1457, Saint Anthony refers to Tarot in his "Treatise on theology". And in 1500, a Latin manuscript -"Sermones de ludo cum aliis"- comprises a list of the MAJOR ARCANA. Until the 18th century, Tarot is thought of as a game of chance and its deeper meaning goes unnoticed. Its features are copied, modified, mutilated, embellished, adorned with portraits of the nobility, they serve the court's ostentation. But in 1781, French author Court de Gébelin rediscovers the Tarot (of Marseilles) and presents it in the ninth volume of his "Primitive World". Adding a zero to Le Mat (the Fool), misnumbering the Hermit and Temperance, adding a leg to the Magician's table, modifying the Pope's scepter, drawing the Hanged Man standing up, etc., he thus claims to correct the "mistake" of the original and, ignoring his own inaccuracies, attributes to Tarot a purely invented origin: the 22 MAJOR ARCANA would be hieroglyphs from the "Book of Thoth" saved from the ruins of Egyptian temples over a thousand years ago... Ten years later, a soothsayer in vogue, the barber Eteilla "restores" the "meaning" of the Tarot of Marseilles and sets between his whimsical Arcana no less whimsical links with Astrology and Kabbala. Since then, thousands of books have been written to the effect that Tarot comes from the Egyptians, the Chaldeans, the Hebrews, the Arabs, the Hindus, the Greeks, the Chinese, the Mayas, Extraterrestrials, Superhumans, when one does not evoke Atlantis or Adam himself, suspected of having designed the first sketches! The word TAROT would be Egyptian (TAR path; RO, ROS, ROB: royal), Indo-Tartar (TAN-TARA: zodiac) Hebrew (TORA: law), Latin (ROTA: wheel; ORAT: he speaks), Sanskrit ( TAT: the whole; TAR-O: fixed star), Chinese (TAO), etc. Various ethnic and religious groups, various secret societies have claimed authorship: Gypsies, Jews, Freemasons, Rosicrucians, Sufis... Influences from the Gospel and Revelation can be seen (in cards such as the WORLD, the HANGED MAN, the EMPRESS, JUSTICE, TEMPERANCE, STRENGTH, The DEVIL, The POPE, JUDGMENT), as well as Tantric teachings, the "I Ching" and the Aztec Solar Calendar. Some see Tarot as being alchemical, cabalistic, astrological, arithmomancean. Every society, every esoteric group, every branch of magic, every Initiate, every nationality, every artist then feels the need to finally paint the real Tarot... In the past two hundred years, over seven thousand new decks have appeared! Hundreds of ancient cards saved from libraries in order to retrieve the original cards!Out of this entanglement of limited, naive, fanciful, mercantile, pseudo-historic, romantic, schizophrenic, conceited or mitigated interpretations, out of this superposition of dogmatisms and Systems, finally springs the TAROT OF MARSEILLES, an authentic monument, anonymous as is all sacred art...
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