Tarot and Freemasonry

The tarot and Freemasonry, these two traditions with roots deeply embedded in Western tradition, fascinate us with the richness of their symbolism. Although they are two entirely distinct realities, tarot and Freemasonry share common symbols and both guide us towards the quest for knowledge, initiation and personal transformation. This article will explore the links between tarot and Freemasonry, highlighting how the arcana of the tarot can serve as a mirror to Masonic teachings, thereby revealing hidden truths about the human soul and its path towards enlightenment. We will also discover that Freemasons played a role in the development of tarot as an esoteric practice and that their contribution went far beyond the boundaries of Freemasonry.

The origins of tarot

Tarot, as we know it today, has its origins in Europe during the 15th century, but its roots can be traced back to older influences, particularly those of Mamluk Egypt.

The Mamluks, who were a military dynasty of mostly Turkish and Circassian origin, ruled over Egypt from 1250 to 1517. Their cultural and economic influence was significant, notably through trade and cultural exchanges between Europe and the Islamic world. This led to a circulation of ideas, symbols and practices between these regions.

Card games, which were introduced to Europe from the Indo-Muslim and Persian world, are generally considered to have been influenced by card games used by the Mamluks. Mamluk cards, called "naib" or "karuta", featured patterns and symbols that seem to have inspired the earliest forms of tarot.

Three cards of the Visconti-Sforza tarot, circa 1445

Tarot is first recorded in Italy, where it was originally used as a simple parlour game. The oldest known tarot decks, generally called "tarocchi", were thus created in Italy in the 1440s. It should be noted that they were sometimes called "naibi", which clearly refers to the Mamluk "naib".

The earliest tarot decks generally contained 56 suit cards in four suits (wands, cups, swords and coins) and 22 trump cards, which were called "trionfi". These trump cards became more elaborate over time, and their symbolism evolved. The four suits, also known as pips, are Latin suits, and are the ones still used today in Spanish card games and in certain Italian games. Since it began to be used in a divinatory and esoteric manner, the 56 suit cards have taken the name of minor arcana, while the 22 trumps are referred to as major arcana.

Divinatory and esoteric tarot 

Originally a simple parlour game, tarot appears to have been used for divinatory purposes as early as the 15th century, as writers such as Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) suggest. But this use seems to have concerned mostly high society during the Renaissance.

Moreover, tarot has never ceased to be a parlour game, particularly in France, where it remains one of the most popular card games. It is played with specific modern cards which, apart from their number, no longer correspond to the old tarot decks and use French suits (hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades).

Cartomancy experienced a new boom in France at the end of the 18th century, more specifically in the twenty years preceding the Revolution. Indeed, it became popular in the 1770s thanks to Jean-Baptiste Alliette, known as Etteila (1738-1794), about whom little is known: according to sources, he was a hairdresser, wigmaker, seed merchant or print seller. He had a 32-card fortune-telling deck printed (the Petit Etteila) and published several books on cartomancy. After discovering the tarot through the works of Court de Gébelin, he published his own version of it in 1788 (the Grand Etteila).

 Antoine Court de Gébelin

Although cartomancy in general had become popular as early as the 1770s, the man who gave tarot proper its pedigree was Pastor Antoine Court de Gébelin (1728-1784). His father, also named Antoine, was a pastor in Nîmes and took refuge in Lausanne, Switzerland, to escape the persecutions against Protestants, reactivated by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Antoine Court senior was in 1729 the principal founder of the French Seminary of Lausanne, a theological school intended for future French pastors and operating on the margins of the Academy of Lausanne, founded in 1537. His son attended courses at the Academy and, having become a pastor, taught at the French Seminary, before leaving Lausanne in 1763. Having returned to France, he devoted himself to defending the rights of the Protestant community. In 1778, he was admitted as a Freemason and attended several lodges, including the famous Lodge Les Neuf Sœurs, where he was particularly active. Court de Gébelin's major work, which he began publishing in 1775, has nothing to do with Protestantism: it is "Le Monde primitif analysé et comparé avec le monde moderne", a monumental work of which only the first nine volumes appeared and in which he intended to decipher the allegories hidden in all then-known mythologies.

It is in the eighth volume, published in 1781, that Court de Gébelin takes an interest in the Tarot. He sees it as a kind of picture Bible, a secret book that would transmit to us the wisdom of the ancient Egyptians. Indeed, he does not hesitate to call it the Book of Thoth, after the Egyptian God of wisdom and the word, equated with the Hermes of the Greeks. But it should be remembered that although ancient Egypt was particularly fashionable in the 18th-century Masonic world, only the descriptions by Greek authors were known at the time. The Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799, was only deciphered in 1822, and everything written on the Egyptian tradition before that is obviously open to question. As we have seen above, the Egypt from which tarot seems to originate is not that of the pharaohs, but the medieval Egypt of the Mamluks.

While he is certainly not the inventor of cartomancy, Court de Gébelin nevertheless remains the propagator of tarot in modern times. His research on tarot was continued by various authors from the 19th century to the present day, several of whom were Freemasons.

Some examples of Masonic tarots

While the most frequently used traditional tarot was for a long time the Tarot of Marseilles, which before 1830 was simply referred to as Italian Tarot, illustrious Freemasons or members of esoteric orders created their own cards, which are still widely used today.

The first that comes to mind is the tarot created in 1889 by the Freemason and Swiss esotericist Oswald Wirth (1860-1943), at the request of Stanislas de Guaita (1861-1897). Wirth was a theoretician of esotericism, and his work on the tarot was deeply influenced by his interests in these fields.

Four cards from Oswald Wirth’s tarot

The originality of Oswald Wirth's tarot lies in its symbolic and philosophical approach. He sought to reinterpret the 22 major arcana of the tarot by incorporating esoteric and cabbalistic meanings, as well as alchemical symbols, while maintaining a structure that allows for a traditional reading. His tarot, which remains graphically very close to the Tarot of Marseilles, is characterised by illustrations rich in symbols aiming to evoke universal archetypes and spiritual lessons. Wirth published two works on tarot, "Le Livre de Thot comprenant les 22 arcanes du Tarot" (1889) and "Le Tarot des imagiers du Moyen Age" (1927), in which he explains his concepts and his interpretation of the cards.

One also thinks of the tarot deck known as the Rider-Waite-Smith, which is one of the most popular and influential tarot decks in the world. Its origin dates back to the early 20th century, when it was created by the illustrator Pamela Colman Smith 1878-1951) and the mystic Freemason Arthur Edward Waite (1857-1942), both members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a Masonic-Rosicrucian initiatory Order founded in England in 1888.

Waite, a Freemason and member of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, presided over the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn as Grand Master from 1903 to 1914. He was a writer with a deep knowledge of mystical and esoteric traditions. In 1909, he decided to create a new tarot deck that would reflect the spirituality of his order. He chose Pamela Colman Smith, known as Pixie, an artist and illustrator, to design its illustrations. Pixie was also a member of the Golden Dawn and had a unique approach to art, integrating symbolic elements into her illustrations.

Twelve Rider-Waite-Smith tarot cards

The Rider-Waite-Smith tarot was published for the first time in 1909 by the publisher Rider & Co. in London. The deck consists of 78 cards, including 22 major arcana and 56 minor arcana, each illustrated in a way that captures deep meanings and esoteric concepts. What distinguishes the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot from other tarot decks is that the minor arcana cards are illustrated, and not just those of the major arcana. This enriched the symbolism of the minor arcana and made reading them more intuitive.

The Rider-Waite-Smith tarot has had a considerable influence on subsequent tarot decks, particularly in the English-speaking world. Many modern decks continue to draw inspiration from its very distinctive iconography, imitating, parodying or subverting it. The Rider-Waite-Smith tarot represents a synthesis of art, mysticism and psychology, and continues to be an essential reference in the world of modern tarots.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, several other Masonic tarot decks were born, including that of Jean Beauchard (1988) and that of Patricio Diaz Silva (2016). The characteristic of these tarot decks is that they explicitly integrate Masonic symbolism into their iconography.

Tarot and Freemasonry, two complementary approaches

Tarot and Freemasonry are two distinct realities, each with its own history, its own symbolism and its own dynamics. Yet, they have met during their respective histories, and many Freemasons have recognised in the tarot an organised symbolic system compatible with their own. Freemasonry and tarot indeed evolve in the world of universal symbolism and both draw from the inexhaustible well of the collective unconscious and its archetypes.

 Six cards of Patricio Diaz Silva's Masonic tarot

The Freemason will quickly feel on familiar ground when approaching the tarot. He will hardly be surprised to find symbols there that are familiar to him. The Sun, the Moon, and the Star will inevitably remind him of the symbols he contemplates in his Lodge. He will easily recognise Strength, and if he is a member of the Rectified Scottish Rite, he will be pleased to find two other cardinal virtues, which are Temperance and Justice. The Hanged Man, inverted and losing the coins from his pocket, will evoke the divestment of metals, while the Hermit carrying his dim lantern will remind him of his descent into the Chamber of Reflection and his discovery of V.I.T.R.I.O.L.. Not forgetting the four suits of the minor arcana: they symbolise the four elements, Cups for Water, Wands for Fire, Swords for Air, and Coins for Earth, all elements that will seem familiar to him.

The tarot and Freemasonry are not to be confused, but can offer complementary paths to seekers of Light, as the tarot is used not only for divination, but also as a tool for personal development and reflection. The cards can be seen as a mirror of the soul, allowing users to explore their subconscious and gain spiritual or psychological insights into their lives. This applies to everyone, whether a Freemason or not.