The History of the Tarot and the Bible

Some people think the Tarot is evil; mostly because the Bible condemns divination, and it's been taught that the Bible should not be questioned.

Tarot actually wasn't intended to be used for divination; also, it came out hundreds of years after the Bible. But still, I've met many religious people that say it is sinful according to the Bible.

The Tarot was made to read current energies and what will most likely happen soon if nothing is changed. It gives wisdom about the human condition and advice from Hermetic teachings, which originated in Ancient Egypt. This is why we see Egyptian spinxes on the Chariot and Wheel of Fortune cards.

There was a Catholic Priest in the early 1800s named Eliphas Levi. He was one of the only visionaries at the time to question the predominant religion, and greatly influenced western occultism and magic societies, including the Order of the Golden Dawn. This was the order that produced the Rider-Waite deck.

Eliphas left the priesthood and became a Ceremonial Magician after questioning his religion. He was an original thinker who was imprisoned twice for heresy after speaking up about ancient knowledge, which pre-dated Catholicism.

This is what he had to say about the Tarot: "A prisoner devoid of books, had he only a deck of Tarot cards of which he knew how to make use, could in a few years acquire a universal science, and converse with an unequalled doctrine and inexhaustible eloquence."

The main source of Hermeticism is the Egyptian figure known as Thoth. He was also called Hermes by the Romans, which is where the term Hemeticism comes from.

Some say that Thoth came to Egypt from Atlantis. We have no records from Atlantis so there's no way to confirm or deny this; but, he seemed to know things that no one could explain. He taught the Egyptians about astrology, science, writing, art, law, mathematics, and philosophy. He also taught that there was one God, and that we are all connected because God is within all of us.

Egypt had to have gotten its advanced knowledge from somewhere. They somehow created inventions and amazing structures which we still cannot explain or even replicate today.

Thoth was revered in ancient Egypt from 6000 BC, and throughout the Assyrian conquest of Egypt in 674 BC, all the way up until Rome conquered Egypt around 30 BC. Romans actually respected Thoth as well, which is why they linked him to their messenger god, Hermes Trismegestus.

In 391 AD, the Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius I issued decrees that outlawed traditional pagan rites and ordered the closure of temples across the empire. By the year 535 AD, traditional Egyptian teachings were completely wiped out and replaced by the Bible, which became the law of the land.

The first five books of the Bible, or the old testament, are the also known as the Torah. This portion is said to have been given to Moses directly from God. Interestingly, The Torah was originally forbidden to be written down. This was because there was no way to write it in a way that could fully transmit the message, and it was felt that people would either misinterpret the information or abuse it for their own power.

Some might say there's no record that Thoth was a real person; however, there are ancient Egyptian texts that mention him. But, there's also no archaeological record of Moses, the 10 plagues, or even the Exodus of the slaves out of Egypt. There actually isn't even any archaeological or historical records that there were ever slaves in Egypt at all.

But the Torah does contain some of the knowledge of Thoth. Thoth also taught that there was one God, and that as human beings we could attain salvation and transcend this world. He speaks of a fall of man, and explains the differences between good and evil. He defines evil deeds as things done to intentionally harm ourselves or one another. His teachings also explain how God created the Universe.

The only reason we know this is because the Greeks preserved this knowledge; however, it wasn't re-introduced to the public until the 1400s when it was translated to Latin. This book is called the Corpus Hermetica.

This is around the time the first Tarot cards were produced. But by this time, hundreds of thousands of tribal and indigenous peoples with beliefs that went against the Bible had been murdered in the inquisition. The inquisition was a holy war by the Catholic church to impose their beliefs on the world by means of torture, murder, and fear tactics. This went on from the year 1184 to 1821.

The word Torah sounds a lot like Tarot. I believe the Tarot was named this way intentionally in order to take this knowledge back from those that used it for power. It was a way of presenting the actual ancient teachings in numbers and symbols, instead of words, so that it couldn't be distorted.

If you look at the High Priestess card, you'll see that she is actually holding a scroll that says Torah. And on the Wheel of Fortune Card, we see the letters around the wheel: TORA. MacGregor Mathers another co-founder of the Golden Dawn, says if you read the letters around the wheel, you get ROTA TAROT ORAT TORA ATOR.

Rota = The Wheel (Latin rota)

Tarot = Tarot

Orat = (Latin orat)

Tora = The Law (Hebrew Tora, usually spelled Torah)

Ator = Love (from Ator, or Hathor, an Egyptian goddess akin to Aphrodite).

Which means, "The Wheel of Tarot Speaks of the Law of Love".

The Torah is the book of Judaism, however; even in Judaism, the last book of the written Torah, Deuteronomy, is highly debated whether or not it was originally provided to Moses by God. Modern scholars agree that it was mostly written by the Levites to reflect economic and social needs around the year 600 BC. The Levites were a group of corrupt warrior priests that believed they were given permission by God to kill sinners.

This is where we find the first text in the Bible that condemns divination.

There are many other questionable laws in this section, including the law that working on Sunday is punishable by death. Another oddly specific law is that if a woman tries to defend her husband in a fight by grabbing the other mans genitals, her hand must be cut off!

The Levites once killed 3000 people because they had a statue of a golden cow, which they believed represented a deity. This was how they were given priesthood and allowed to police the area. Anyone in Israel would now be afraid to follow any other religion in their presence.

There's another crazy story about the Levites, where one of the mens' wives left to go to the next town because they were fighting. The man followed her and was allowed to stay in a farmers home where was given a concubine. That night, the men of the town surrounded the home and asked the Levite man to come out. Instead, he thew the girl out and she was raped all night and died. In the morning, the man took her body and cut it up into 12 pieces to show to the 12 tribes of Israel, demanding retribution.

They went to war with the city and killed all but 600 men. Then they realized it wouldn't be right to wipe out a whole tribe. So they went into another town and found them 400 virgins so that they could re-populate.

I'm hoping this story has some kind of symbolism because it just sounds horrible. I find it very hypocritical for murderers to be making laws.

I believe the whole thing about divination being a sin has to do with the fact that it was taught at the time that only prophets or the High Priest in the Temple could receive direct messages from God. If people believed they could get advice through other means, it took away their power.

Even when Jesus came, he was critical of the leadership during this time. The same Roman Empire that destroyed Egypt was responsible for Jesus' persecution. Jesus never once said anything bad about divination or following the Bible.

If you haven't read the Bible, I recommend at least reading the book of Mark because this is where most of the teachings of Jesus are recorded and in my opinion, it's the most valuable information that the Bible contains. Jesus warns of false prophets and encourages his followers to think for themselves. He says the only way to salvation is through his teachings.

Jesus is actually depicted in the Tarot in the 4 of Swords, seen in the stained glass window healing one of his followers.

Also, God's four-letter name, the Tetragrammaton, is found in the collar of the angel on the Temperance card. The Lover's card also depicts and angel and Adam and Eve with the trees of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Tarot is not evil. Murdering people is evil!

I think it's time that we put this myth to rest. Look how bad things got during the middle ages when this knowledge was lost. Anyone can benefit from learning Hermetic knowledge and learning the Tarot. It helps you to see your struggles from a different point of view. It allows you to see your blind spots. I agree with the occultist Paul Foster Case, "The Tarot is a book disguised as a pack of cards". It's possibly the oldest book of all time.