The Egyptian Tarot

The origin of the Tarot cannot be proved with one hundred percent certainty. Whoever has been in the temples and tombs of the ancient Egyptians, however, will have discovered the astonishing correspondence of numerous images and artistic depictions - as regards the basic motifs - with those of the twenty-two picturorial 'laws' of the Tarot's Major Arcana. They know that the ancient temple statements still have validity today because these reflect prehistoric stages of development and awareness. In addition to this, it is also certain that the priests taught the seekers and those not yet initiated by means of these pictorial motifs, thus guiding them into the secrets of arcane knowledge. Esoteric knowledge at that time used to be at the core of every religion-oriented study which pursued the objective of making the sense of life clear and understandable, so that life could be meaningfully lived out. The twenty-two pictorial motifs of the Major Arcana contain the stages of awareness and development of an individual life; they represent the milestones on the Way which the uninitiated took in order to become adepts in ancient wisdom, to achieve initiation. In doing so it was less mental logic which played the main role, although this was also trained and scientific-oriented thinking also existed then, but rather the fact of grasping everything with an inner knowledge which became a conviction (instead of vice versa). Thus at the initiation it was less a matter of a logic aligned to the understanding, able to be grasped by everyone, than of an inner understanding of the knowledge of the human soul and of being embedded in a great order of the cosmos. Therefore, it seems a natural consequence that the ancient Egyptian Tarot - even if it is newly interpreted here and artistically recreated - is not misused for some banal fortune-telling. The work will show that the far greater content of these cards lies in the encounter with oneself, in order to accommodate oneself thus to the esoteric world. For this reason the accompanying Tarot set only consists of the twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana. The Minor Arcana of the four card suits is completely missing; these anyway count more as picture and number cards, without having all that much significance in their communication value. It is not without reason that the familiar card games have developed from these, with which one can play for 'money or other rewards' and which would certainly have little to do with esoteric experience. The cards of the Major Arcana consist of twenty-one pictures plus the card called 'The Fool' which bears the number zero and twenty-two as its indicator, both being numbers that lie outside the two holy numbers of three and seven, which make up twenty-one when multiplied. One might in addition conclude that before the one and after the twenty-one everything can be considered 'foolish' - or alternatively - uninitiated. The card named 'The Fool', which is called 'The Initiate' in the accompanying Tarot, leads us onto the Way of initiation and, on concluding this Way, onto a further path which should help us in achieving a further level in our development. When it concerns the interpretation and significance of this card, it becomes evident that it is precisely the ancient Egyptian wisdom which we are facing when we are making our own life experience. In such moments it becomes clear how timeless these pictures are, which means that the cards are not so much modern as exceptionally appropriate for our time. The Egyptian goddess of death, Selket - symbol of card thirteen - says at one point in ancient Egyptian myths: 'I have seen Yesterday - I know Tomorrow' This can be applied here to the Tarot, since it communicates the awareness and wisdom of the past in order to be equipped for today and tomorrow. This finds its very special expression in the three types of spread: in the 'Minor Egyptian Guiding Star' for daily tasks and the 'Major Egyptian Guiding Star' as the motto for life goals which are relevant at the present time. One can meet one's shadow in the spread 'The Ways of Thoth' which makes each person aware that no-one can and may only seek out the sunny side of life in any issue.