Jesus replied to Mary, “Ask what you will: I will answer openly and manifest without parables; to all that you ask, I will answer with clarity and certainty.
I wish to render you perfect in all strengths and in all fullness, from the deepest on the inside to the most external on the outside, from the ineffable to the thickest obscurity, that you may be named complete and perfect in all knowledge.”
(Pistis Sophia)
Following the development of our reasoning, it should be clear that the proposed point of view is completely different from that held by the greater part of historians. We feel ourselves much more in line with those who, even without proof, recognized in these images the guardians of a very ancient wisdom, the depositaries of a primordial knowledge.
The significant basic difference with respect to those of scholars of the past is tied to the awareness of the presence of a system of internal reference. This Structure of Codes and Laws acts as a compass to orient us objectively in our investigative exploration of the true significance of the Arcana. Analyzing them further, developing in a more articulate manner the entirety of the Codes, the researcher verifies the incredible concordance of symbology on different levels, derived from a vast multiplicity of religious myths. These are not of exclusively Egyptian or Christian derivation, but derive as well from other sources, from Hindu tradition, Buddhist, Taoist, Greek, Judaic, etc. This enormous, immensely rich plurality, may however lead us into the error of thinking that the Tarot is a syncretism posterior to all these influences, which would be a great mistake. Not only is it improbable, if not impossible, to create such a compact and perfect synthesis of that which today appears an almost unreachable vastness and abundance of mystic and religious traditions so different from each other, but above all, because it is that same Coded Structure which indicates another truth.
The Tarot is the most ancient and unified of all myths, found also in Christian doctrine and only later declining into diverse forms with variable restrictions, from East to West. However incredible it may seem, the Codes reveal with certainty that these images are the compendium of a unique ancestral event as ancient as man. This event which, as such, has the nature of History, having become religion, travelled on miscellaneous paths and in different cultures, losing itself in a thousand streams and remaining more cohesive and recognizable, only in that most ancient cult known to us today, the ancient Egyptian. These are also the reasons for which esoteric Christianity (fundamental reference for every sincere researcher having at heart the deepest sense of occidental spirituality), deeply interwoven with Egyptian teaching, finds its most perfect expression in the Icons of the Tarot.
As ancient and primordial history, enchanted garden of a newborn humanity, fragmented and dispersed in all parts of the planet, the images of the Tarot, graphically revisited in the I century AD because of still more remote origin, were “eclipsed” in a thousand cards of an equal number of ancient decks. The essential task of Nicholas Conver, the 1700’s card master of this Tradition, was that of transmitting to posterity a deck in which the symbols, features, and illustrations, were newly reunited in their original version, precisely as might be the parts of a sacred mosaic waiting only to be replaced again into their proper spaces.
Therefore, his work is not to be attributed to an individual and personal knowledge which would remain, however genial, still purely subjective. His Tarot derive from that which he inherited and transmitted from the guild to which he belonged, becoming himself the vehicle of that Science, which came from the Egyptian lands, regions which hosted the anchorite Saints of whom we have amply spoken. Comprehending that the Arcana are the sum of an extraordinary knowledge transmitted through the ages, you may understand our perplexity hearing the affirmations of certain authors who have worked with these images, later claiming their paternity. How might a single individual, after having dedicated himself to such a monumental and solemn work, claim the right to consider the source from which all things flow, a creation of his own monopolistic property? Certainly, it is predictable that one who carries out a task, whatever it is, transmits to that which he accomplishes, his own energy. However, to claim that such a patrimony, immeasurable resource for all human beings, to whom it naturally belongs, be attributed solely to his own genius for having restored (and only partially reconstructed) it, is pure falsehood. Furthermore, apart from the evident vainglory of such a declaration, might all of this agree with the nature of one who proclaims himself guide of others’ Path, and with the profound essence of these sacred Icons? We prefer to bypass these small human disputes and to ask a new, important question: is it possible to offer historical examples in support of the theory according to which the Tarot is the custodian of a primitive and archaic symbolism? Regarding this, we must remember that the most complete and exhaustive manner to obtain certain replies with respect to this inference is the Coded Structure , which, for complexity and extension of its contents, guarantees a logic, a clarity and a coherence that quite literally amazes its scholars. Nevertheless, evaluations rooted in historiographical aspects, and documented by the Arcana, may be advanced, however different from that which is generally admitted by experts.
Let us remember that playing cards, according to general opinion, were invented before the Tarot which, according to scholars, was created in the Renaissance period as an evolved and more learned form of these same cards, although still of a recreational nature. Thus, beginning with this premise, historians committed various errors. On the one hand, they dismissed a priori all elements derived from the card decks precisely because, treating them as the original model of the Tarot, they did not take them into consideration as simple later traces (and this is the correct perspective from which they offer prompts of authentic reflection). On the other, the clues referring to the same symbolism present in the blades, found also in paintings, churches, cathedrals, palaces, monuments etc., were viewed as signs of confirmation of their theories and not possible proof of disavowal of their theses proposing a completely different course of events. For example, until today, when an explicit reference to the Tarot was discovered dating from an epoch earlier than that of its presumed genesis, the dating of the testimony itself was called into question. All this, in order to indicate it as later in time, thus to render the date in this way inoffensive with respect to the dominant theory.
On the contrary, in the case of symbolic recall of an unmistakable antecedent, it has been hypothesized that this last was an object of interest and used as creative inspiration by those who in later generations reproduced the Arcana, including the original prototype of the Visconti Tarot. We do not, in this manner, implicitly admit to the possibility that any historical reference, as those which we will soon analyze, might have been created thanks to the precedent model of the Tarot. However, perhaps the correct attitude to assume, is precisely this last.
Let us try following another logic: hypothesizing that the Icons were contemporary with the birth of the Christian epoch, it would be perfectly plausible to find their symbolism disseminated in churches, works of art, paintings and religious objects in general. These vestiges, obviously, might date back to epochs even precedent to the Renaissance and there would be nothing odd or contradictory if there should exist documentation relative to all the 1500 years which separate the advent of Christianity from the Renaissance. In fact, instead of believing that some object found in a church may have inspired the symbolism of the Tarot, we could imagine the opposite to be true. Everything would seem suddenly so simple and elementary, as to appear absurd...Furthermore, as the Tarot uses a coding technique for its own secrets, it would be just as likely that whoever in the past was initiated into this sort of knowledge, might have used these mechanisms in order to hide and transmit his own message, avoiding the danger of being accused of heresy. After all, John Cassian himself hid his deepest thoughts by the use of similar stratagems.
Therefore, on the trail of these hypotheses, we will attempt to analyze, from a very different point of view, a few “suspicious” historical cases.