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'... entertaining and enlightening... Watkins plays Aubrey to the many remarkable personalities who populated old Fleet Street, defining this lost world through a series of splendid pen portraits.'- Matthew d'Ancona, Sunday Telegraph; 'This short book is the finest account of journalism I have ever read. Literate members of the public should by it because it is the wittiest book of the year. Undergraduate students of media studies should buy it without fail, for there is more practical information in it than in a hundred lectures...'- Brian Walden, Literary Review; 'I chuckled over every page of this splendid book, the genius of which lies in the detail...'- Peregrine Worsthorne, Independent on Sunday; 'A hilarious read.' - Robert Blake, Daily Telegraph Books of the Year; 'A Short Walk Down Fleet Street... is an incomparable portrait of a particular era and way of life, and is impossible to recommend too highly.' - Peter Oborne, Sunday Express
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When the Tarot pack was invented in Italy in the early 15th century, it was simply a pack of cards, used for playing games. Esoteric interpretations of the pack date from late eighteenth-century France, and were confined to that country for a hundred years. Nowadays, however, the cards are used throughout the Western world and not only for fortune telling; for real believers they are a key to secret knowledge of the meaning of life. Practised by secret groups such as the Order of the Golden Dawn, by magi such as Aleister Crowley, the 'Great Beast', and by psychics such as Dion Fortune, the occult interpretation of the Tarot pack is a worldwide phenomenon with countless devotees. The roots of the whole modern Tarot mystique lie in theories propagated by the occultists studied in this history. Tarot occultism is a significant part of modern social history. The first part of the story was told in "A Wicked Pack of Cards" , which traced its origins in France. In "The History of the Occult Tarot" the authors bring the story up to date, following its progress in other countries, especially Britain and the United States.
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It was in France that Tarot cards were first incorporated into the theory and practice of magic. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
It was in France that Tarot cards were first incorporated into the theory and practice of magic. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As a serious student of the tarot for over thirty years I approached this book with a high degree of expectation and some trepidation. Too often historical examinations of the tarot cards have concentrated soley upon their early development in Italy during the 1440s. To my mind there always was a strong argument for pursuing its development onwards from that time - for the modern tarot bears little relationship to its fledgling beginnings.
During the intervening centuries the tarot has developed in three distinct ways. Firstly, the interprational meanings of the cards has altered as modern society and the human psyche has matured, secondly the astrological, numerological and symbollic associations have been altered and redefined; and thirdly the actual pack design has changed significantly with hundreds of different 'themed' tarot decks now in publication.
The authors have dealt soley with tarot developments with an occult or mystical framework. They have traced the development of the tarot up to the point where the Golden Dawn integrated it so deeply into their philosophy', from which most modern understanding of the tarot has developed, and then onwards to the 1970s through the work of such occultists as Gareth Knight and Eden Gray.
On the way our understanding of the cards have been subject to a wide range of influences. Indeed there hardly seems to have been an occultist since the days of Wescott and Mathers who have not tried to put their stamp on the cards. Some have been successful in making their particular sets of associations and occult relationships stick whilst others simply seemed to have tinkered around with the tarot with little real understanding of their function. There is still no definitive understanding of the real esoteric principles that underpin the cards - though I suspect French Magician Eliphas Levi came closer to the truth than most. The clear links that have been made between the tarot and the Tree of Life over the centuries have still to be definitively established - though the work of Aleister Crowley has been important in this regard.
So then was I disappointed by this book? The answer was no, far from it. It is well-written, superbly researched and contains some fascinating illustrations of modifications to the Pamela Coleman Smith and Frieda Harris designs. There is a strong emphasis towards the Golden Dawn and the Western Mystery Tradition with several chapters devoted to the major occult societies and their offshoots but as I explained earlier this remains tightly in context of the general subject area.
I would heartedly recommend this book and can easily see it becoming a highly-sought after occult classic in ten or so years time.
During the intervening centuries the tarot has developed in three distinct ways. Firstly, the interprational meanings of the cards has altered as modern society and the human psyche has matured, secondly the astrological, numerological and symbollic associations have been altered and redefined; and thirdly the actual pack design has changed significantly with hundreds of different 'themed' tarot decks now in publication.
The authors have dealt soley with tarot developments with an occult or mystical framework. They have traced the development of the tarot up to the point where the Golden Dawn integrated it so deeply into their philosophy', from which most modern understanding of the tarot has developed, and then onwards to the 1970s through the work of such occultists as Gareth Knight and Eden Gray.
On the way our understanding of the cards have been subject to a wide range of influences. Indeed there hardly seems to have been an occultist since the days of Wescott and Mathers who have not tried to put their stamp on the cards. Some have been successful in making their particular sets of associations and occult relationships stick whilst others simply seemed to have tinkered around with the tarot with little real understanding of their function. There is still no definitive understanding of the real esoteric principles that underpin the cards - though I suspect French Magician Eliphas Levi came closer to the truth than most. The clear links that have been made between the tarot and the Tree of Life over the centuries have still to be definitively established - though the work of Aleister Crowley has been important in this regard.
So then was I disappointed by this book? The answer was no, far from it. It is well-written, superbly researched and contains some fascinating illustrations of modifications to the Pamela Coleman Smith and Frieda Harris designs. There is a strong emphasis towards the Golden Dawn and the Western Mystery Tradition with several chapters devoted to the major occult societies and their offshoots but as I explained earlier this remains tightly in context of the general subject area.
I would heartedly recommend this book and can easily see it becoming a highly-sought after occult classic in ten or so years time.
4 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book asserts that until the 18th century and the vagaries of Court de Gebelin the tarot had no 'occult' associations. Actually if we trace the tarot back through its Mamluk incarnation in medieval Egypt and even further back via its diffusion by the Mongols and spread along the Silk Road as the art of paper-making was transmitted into the Muslim world, back to China of the 7th century where woodblock printed cards generically term P'ai were used, we witness their origin during the 6th century BC in methods of shamanistic arrow-divination in Korea, where strips of silk inscribed with symbols and images were attached to arrows and used by shamans in prognostication. Eventually the arrows were no longer used but only the narrow oiled silk 'cards' which were in 9 card suits of various beasts, birds, stars etc each with a singler court card of a 'general'. These passing northward into China became the printed money-suited cards which spread estward into Persia and Egypt and eventually into Europe, the ancestor of tarot and playing-cards as Dr Stewart Culin demonstrated. Not to mention the use of tarot in divination and magical practises in Europe pre-dating Decker and Dummett's construct such as among 16th century Venetian sorceresses as recorded by the Inquisition and noted by the historian Ruth Martin. Paul Huson's 'Mystical Origins of the Tarot' also provides a much more rounded picture of tarot and cartomancy from a historical perspective.
It's more instructive I think to see how the tarot was derived, via a long and fascinating process from shamanistic divination practises in eastern Asia and that divination was, in fact, an integral aspect of the cards right from their beginning. But we should recall in any case that in the ancient world divination and gaming were closely related activities and borne from a common root. I think we have to remind ourselves of this with the 'sceptic' or 'debunking' school who claim that tarot had no 'occult' or 'divinatory' attributes until the fanciful superimpositions of the 18th century - it's not hard to see how this tendency represents little more than a new modernist 'pseudo-mythos' which is intended to deny and negate the tarots inherent metaphysical and spiritual content and context. Better by far to heed the words of the traditionalist metaphysician Rene Guenon who whilst dismissing (quite rightly) the modern occultist and pseudo-Kabbalistic accretions nonetheless recognized in the tarot 'vestiges of an indubitably traditional science.'
If the 18th and 19th century occultists constructed a faux-historical fantasy about the 'Book of Thoth' and 'kabbalistic' patterns and superimposed these upon tarot, the 'sceptical' post-modern school is just as involved in superimposing a similarly specious hypothesis in which tarot as a 'simple game' never had any inherent spiritual symbolism or esoteric dimension until invested with such in modern times. Both these tendencies are to be viewed as questionable, both are typical products of the modern mentality, its flawed perspectives, literalistic misperception and inability to understand traditional symbology.
It's more instructive I think to see how the tarot was derived, via a long and fascinating process from shamanistic divination practises in eastern Asia and that divination was, in fact, an integral aspect of the cards right from their beginning. But we should recall in any case that in the ancient world divination and gaming were closely related activities and borne from a common root. I think we have to remind ourselves of this with the 'sceptic' or 'debunking' school who claim that tarot had no 'occult' or 'divinatory' attributes until the fanciful superimpositions of the 18th century - it's not hard to see how this tendency represents little more than a new modernist 'pseudo-mythos' which is intended to deny and negate the tarots inherent metaphysical and spiritual content and context. Better by far to heed the words of the traditionalist metaphysician Rene Guenon who whilst dismissing (quite rightly) the modern occultist and pseudo-Kabbalistic accretions nonetheless recognized in the tarot 'vestiges of an indubitably traditional science.'
If the 18th and 19th century occultists constructed a faux-historical fantasy about the 'Book of Thoth' and 'kabbalistic' patterns and superimposed these upon tarot, the 'sceptical' post-modern school is just as involved in superimposing a similarly specious hypothesis in which tarot as a 'simple game' never had any inherent spiritual symbolism or esoteric dimension until invested with such in modern times. Both these tendencies are to be viewed as questionable, both are typical products of the modern mentality, its flawed perspectives, literalistic misperception and inability to understand traditional symbology.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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4 reviews
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful
More than you might expect
16 Mar 2005
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Very impressive book. My initial impression was that this would be another competently researched book on tarot & it's history, I soon realised that it is a lot more. This is one of the most concise histories of modern westen occultism that I have found. Even though it's not broad in scope the leval of detail is impressive. The history of Tarot is thorogh & well presented but the background on Occult orders was unexpected. Groups like the Golden Dawn & the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor are covered with enough detail to merit this being rated as a good general history of Occultism. The Church of Light & Manly Hall are treated with good biographical essays on the central characters. Even though I have been reading about these people & groups for many years I learned much new information here.
This is not a "how to" Tarot guide book but just as it says, a history. It establishes the personalities, places, & groups necessary & goes on to develop the story better than I have see it done elsewhere.
This is not a "how to" Tarot guide book but just as it says, a history. It establishes the personalities, places, & groups necessary & goes on to develop the story better than I have see it done elsewhere.
and, at times, snarky
29 April 2012
Format:Hardcover
I can't really add to the other 5 star reviews of this book. Yes, it is a must-have reference. Yes, you will learn things about tarot and 18th-Century France that you never knew you wanted to know. I just want to add that I thoroughly enjoyed a few snarky comments as the authors disproved one baseless assertion after another.
Excellent must-have reference.
13 July 2011
Format:Hardcover
An excellent reference volume. A little too much time is spent on the explanation of Kabbalah and ceremonial magic for my liking - would like to have read even more biography of folk like Madeline Montalban and Rolla Nordic - but this is just a personal quibble. Dummett and Decker (particularly) are to be congratulated on their efforts. This book is a must-have for all serious tarot enthusiasts.
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