The Evolution of the 'Mother' in Tarot

The first tarot decks, beautifully hand-painted in the courts ofNorthern Italy in the fifteenth century, boasted wonderful images ofcherubim and angels, mysterious landscapes and many enigmaticfigures wearing glorious robes of gold. At first glance, it would appearthat the image of the mother was absent from these original decks.Though maternal images and themes were not explicit, I will arguethat the mother has always been present in the tarot deck in someform, though admittedly a portrayal of maternity was not theforemost purpose of these cards. In the trumps, women appeared asfeminine personifications of the moon and astrology, the Theologicaland Cardinal Virtues, as the Popess (in more recent times known asthe High Priestess), and as the Empress. Further, it was usually awoman who ruled over the World trump, typically the most powerfulcard iu the deck. It was for the game of tarot that Queens were firstadded to the all-masculine court of King, Knight and Jack. Byexamining the likely identities of the female figures illustrated inRenaissance and subsequent decks, their status in the trumphierarchy and their subsequent divinatory meanings, I will argue thatover nearly five hundred years, the role of the 'mother' in tarot hasbecome increasingly significant. In conclusion, I will demonstratehow the image of the mother has become explicit and integral inmany New Age divinatory tarot decks, some entirely focused aroundthe idea of the archetypal 'mother'.

Tarot was likely invented sometime in the early fifteenth century atthe court of Duke Fihppo Maria Visconti of Milan,' a despotic rulerwith a taste for astrology and board games.^ This seventy-eight-carddeck evolved from the regular playing card decks which was broughtto Italy from Egypt, still under Mamiuk rule, in the second half of thefourteenth century."* The regular deck was augmented by the additionof a set of numbered trump cards and one unnumbered card, the Fool(Fou) to make the tarot deck." Tarot further distinguished itself bypossessing four court cards per suit instead of three. Because of ourfamiliarity with English and French decks, it would be easy to believethat the additional card was the Knight, but in reality the Queen wasthe interloper.^ It is only in the regular French and English decks thatwe find the female presence. The Queen, as consort to the king andparent to royal heirs, found a home first in the tarot court. In most ofEurope, the court is still au all-male affair; for example, the courts ofdecks from Gennany and Switzerland are populated by the Konig,Obermann and Untennaiin, all of which are male figures." In thefifteenth century, some German playing card decks did have fourcourt cards, the regular court augmented by the Queen, but this wasunknown by the sixteenth century." Some tarot decks took it even

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fiirther: the oldest extant deck, the Visconti di Modrone pack paintedfor the Visconti family in the mid-fifteenth century, had a courtconsisting of six cards, each ranked male had a female counterpart.Hence, the deck featured a King and a Queen but also a Knight and aDame, and a Knave and Maid.

To fully recognise the significance of the symholism displayed onthe tarot trumps, it is necessary to know for what purpose tarot wascreated. There is no evidence to suggest that tarot was created for anyesoteric purpose or contained 'secret' information. The deck wasoriginally used for playing a trick-taking game similar in concept toBridge of which it is the direct ancestor. Tarot did not fulfil adivinatory role until the end of the eighteenth century. Because weare most familiar with this use of the deck, it is difficult for us tounderstand why it did not serve such a function from the verybeginning. The answer can be found in the Renaissance attitudes todivination and magic. It was believed that God planted clues innature that had only to be deciphered by an astute observer in orderto know the mind of God. Thus the causes of tempests, misfortuneand famine could be discerned by a close examination of omens, themovements of stars or even an interpretation of the physicalattributes of the human body.'" It simply did not occur to those earlytarot players to use the deck for any purpose other than the one forwhich it was created. The regular playing card deck was similarlyoverlooked as a divinatory device. Forms of divination which requiredinvocations, written petitions or the use of signs or sigils weredeemed to be devilish and were likely to attract tlie unwelcomeattentions ofthe Inquisition." Instead, tarot was considered to be agame requiring great skill akin to chess and backgammon, so wasusually exempted from prohibitions against card games andgambling. In Brescia in 1488, Salo in 1489 and Bergamo in 1491 lawsagainst games of chance specifically excluded backgammon, chessand 'the game of triumphs' or tarot.'^

The game of tarot functioned as an allegory for life in which bothskill and chance played a part. The trump cards of the Visconti tarotcards formed a particular nan*ative of Visconti history, culminating inthe glory of Milan as evidenced in the World trump. Historical eventswere tempered by the indiscriminate forces of Fortune, Death andpossibly Love, which lay beyond human control, but also by humanforces as administered by the Church and the Holy Roman Empire,*^and human personality as indicated by the presence of the Cardinal'**and Theological Virtues. ^ Ultimately, any soul was naked before Godas he or she awaited Judgment. The Tower card, representing themisfortune of the della Torre family, arch rivals of the Visconti, andcorresponding success of the Viscontis, probably took its place in the

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sequence as a part of Visconti history though it has been lost fromthose early decks. ^

As mentioned, tarot was used to play a trick-taking game. Thetrump cards were ranked one to twenty-one with higher rankedtrumps being more powerful in the game and able to 'trump' those ofa lower number to take a 'trick'. As the trump cards wereunnumbered, the art of memory being so prized in the Renaissance,'^ttying to determine an exact sequence of trumps is problematic. Inaddition, the trump sequence varied from region to region. Hence,only the approximate trump sequence is known, derived fromsermons against card playing and from early literary* sources somefifty years after the invention of the deck.'**

The lowest ranked trump to be considered in this discussion is theEmpress, preceding the Emperor in the trump sequence. The Viscontifamily had been growing in status since the appointment, by PopeUrban IV (1195-1264), of Ottone Visconti as Archbishop of Milan in1262.*y Control of Milan was finally wrested from their archrivals, theDella Torre family in 1277 ° and their position of hereditary rulers ofMilan was confirmed by Wenceslas of Bavaria towards the end of thefourteenth century. ' The Viscontis had prevailed against the whimsand fancies of successive popes and emperors. They had survived thehardships of political strife, repeated wars and other such difficultiesto become the rulers of a strong and wealthy city state that few daredoppose. It is little wonder that the Pope, Emperor and Empressshould be so lowly ranked in the trump order. Their power wasperceived to be corrupt and ineffectual and no match for that of theViscontis.

The presence of the imperial eagle on a shield held by the Empressbelies her connection to the Habsburgs. The role of the Empire was toprotect the Papacy and Papal States. As with the Queens of the tarotcourt, the Empress was the mother of her domain, the consort of theGerman Prince and mother to his heirs. Several authors havesuggested that the Empress hides a pregnancy under her royal robes:certainly the high waist topping a large bulge is suggestive^- andmodern tarot decks make the pregnancy unmistakeable. Though herrole is not explicit here, we can discount a military or strategic role;the Holy Roman Empire was never led by an Empress. Instead, herpresence reflects a parallel between political authority structures andthose embedded in the institution of the family. Thus Empress andEmperor are Mother and Father, transposed from ruling thehousehold to ruling the Empire.^

Next in the trump sequence are the Pope and the Popess. That thesecards should be so closely aligned is not surprising, and is indicativeof the close relationship between the Holy Roman Empire and theChurch. The identity of the Pope as God's representative on Earth is

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self-evident, but the identity of female pope is not so obvious. Manyauthors have posited that the Popess merely acts to balance the Pope,an appealing hypothesis given their proximity in the sequence to theEmperor and Empress, and the pairing of the King and Queen in thetarot court. Given that the very idea of such a pairing wouldconstitute heresy, it seems unlikely that a Popess would be added tothe sequence simply to continue a pattern, especially as the patterndoes not continue beyond these cards and has no significance in theactual game of tarot. There are many figures in the tarot deck thatremain unpaired, for example, the Magician and Time (the Hermit).

Figure l The Empress from the Viscoiiti-Sforza tarot deck,first half of the fifteenth century^''

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Robert O'Neill posited the idea that the card represented the deityof a sect of witches that Godfrey Leiand claimed existed outside ofFlorence, though the theory is not well argued.^'' A more popularhypothesis, probably because of our relative familiarity with thelegend of Pope Joan, claims that this card depicts that legend.Certainly, the story was popular at the time that these tarot deckswere painted and there was even a version of the story written byPetrarch.^*" The legend told of Pope John Anglicus who was pope fortwo years, seven months and four days.^^ This pontiff was really awoman who had been led to Athens disguised as a man by her lover.Once in Athens she mastered all manner of learning before going toRome and teaching the liberal arts. ** She eventually became pope butbecame pregnant by her lover. Unsure of the exact time of theupcoming birth. Pope Joan had the child while in a procession fromSt Peter's to the Lateran.^'^ She was said to be excluded from any listsof pontiffs as she was a woman and her impersonation of a pope wassordid.^" In some accounts she was bound by the feet to a horse's tailand dragged and stoned by the people for half a league, before beingburied where she died.^' Though this legend had sufficient currencyiu the fifteenth century, there is no obvious reason why such a subjectwould have been depicted in the Visconti-Sforza deck.^^ if niycontention that the trump sequence reflects the history of theVisconti family is correct, there is no place for Pope Joan in thisscheme. Further, the image on the Popess card did not resembletraditional representations of Pope Joan who was usually illustratedsuckling or holding a baby.- ^ Furthermore, unlike the figure on theVisconti-Sforza card, Pope Joan had never been a nun.''4 Though, itseems unlikely that it was the intention of the originators of tarot todepict Pope Joan, this card has become synonymous with this figure.In fact, it could be said that enthusiasts of tarot have projected theimage of the mother onto this card, an anti-heroine smart enough totake her place among learned men but still contending with thebiological actualities of being a woman.

It seems likely that the inventors of tarot intended the card torepresent Sister Manfreda di Pirovano, a relative of the Viscontifamily, who belonged to the Gugliemites, a heretical sect founded byGugliema of Bohemia.35 Gngliema arrived in Milan with her sonaround 1260, choosing to live as a pinzochera — a religious womanwho lived independently in her own home.3^ It was not entirely clearwhere she arrived from, though it was rumoured that she was thechild of the King of Bohemia.^? She practised good works andpreached piety, going about her work without special austerity.^** Shedied in 1281, leaving behind a devoted famigHa.'^'^ Its membershipincluded that of a layman that she called 'her firstborn son', AndreaSaramita, Sister Manfreda da Pirovano of the Umiliate order and

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nearly forty upper-class citizens of Milan. The famiglia, inaccordance with a prediction by Joachim of Fiore,4" believed thatGugliema was the Holy Spirit incarnate, in spite of her own vehementdenials.'" Her devotees preached that Gugliema had come as the HolySpirit to found a new church replacing the old corrupt establishment,and that Jews, pagans, and Saracens would be saved. AfterGugliema's resurrection and ascension, the new Church would be ledby Sister Manfreda, who would be the new Pope or more correctly,papessaS^ Many honoured Sister Manireda as the popess by kissingher hands and feet and addressing her as 'Lord Vicar' or 'Lady by thegrace of God'. An altarpiece at the convent showed the Trinity withGugliema as the third person in an allusion to the Harrowing of Hell,with Jews and Saracens to be saved by the Holy Spirit.• 'J Naturally,these activities were considered heretical by the Church and theactions of Saramita and Sister Manfreda attracted the attentions ofthe Inquisition.44 In 1284, the Dominican tribunal had symbolicallypunished them after they had repudiated their errors.'is in 1300 bothwere sentenced to death as relapsed heretics''^ and burnt at thestake.47

Bianca Maria Visconti, wife of Francesco Sforza and daughter ofFilippo Maria Visconti was an ardent admirer of both Gugliema andSister Manfreda, ^ her interest encouraged by Maddalena Albrizziwho entered the nunnery of San Andrea in Brunate in 1420.4** Thenunnery was generously patronised by the duchess.''" It subsequentlybecame a church and, in 1826, workmen uncovered a painting ofGugliema which had been one of a narrative cycle depicting her life.s'It seems that about 150 years after the deaths of both Saramita andSister Manfreda, a painting had been commissioned of Gugliema andher most ardent followers. This painting is interesting because itshowed Sister Manfreda in a nun's habit resembling that depicted onthe Visconti-Sforza Popess card.52 Also, this identification seemslogical given the Visconti pride in their pious though hereticalrelative. It also seems likely that the Popess card was not a part oftheearlier Visconti decks and was probably included in the later deckbecause of Bianca's special affection for Sister Manfreda. There wasalso some similarity between the Popess card aud Giotto's Fides(Faith) painted in 1306.53 The artist of the Visconti-Sforza deckprobably referenced the earlier painting as a means of highlightingSister Manfreda's piety.54

Sister Manfreda was known as a kindly and gentle, almost saintlybride of Christ. Though she was not a mother per se, she was motherof her fiock of supporters and mother to the poor of Milan, for whomshe tended and cared. Again, this card doesn't overtly speak of themother but immortalises those qualities often associated with

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motherhood though, admittedly, this was not the primary message ofthis card.

Figure 2 The Popess from the Visconti-Sforza tarot deck,first half of the fifteenth century55

Another very subtle reference to the mother, more specifically theidealised mother as the Virgin Mary is made in the Moon card. Awoman holds a crescent moon in her right hand, just above her head.

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she is dressed in a red dress with blue sleeves that is gathered in by arope at the waist. This time, the woman has bare feet. It seems likelythat this figure is a composite of two ideas. I think she is apersonification of astrology but she exists in combination with someof the iconographical features of the Virgin Mary. Mary is oftenassociated with the Moon-'> and her humility is frequently madeexplicit by her bare feet.57 In some traditions, the moon was alsolinked with the Old Testament.^^

Other women in the deck inciude the allegories of the CardinalVirtues of Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance. Among other earlydecks, the Theological Virtues were also included.- ^ These were Faith,Hope and most conspicuously for our purposes, Charity. Charity isdepicted as a woman, richly draped in gold fabric. In one arm sheholds a vase in which a small flame burns. In her other, she holds anaked child, suclding from her left breast, over her heart.f"" This is theonly place in early tarot where the image of the mother is overt andunequivocal, though this speaks more about motherhood as a symbolof Christian self-sacrifice rather than about motherhood itself.

The game of tarot spread quickly throughout Europe, and the orderand subjects of the trump cards quickly became established in aregular pattern. It wasn't until the end of the eighteenth century,during the French occult revival, tliat tarot was used for anythingother than a game. Between 1773 and 1782 Antoine Court de Gebelin,published his nine-volume opus entitled Le Monde Primitif Analyseet Compare avec le Monde Moderiie, of which the eighth volume wasin part devoted to the origins of tarot.^' Here Court de Gebelinreported that some time in the last quarter of the eighteenth century,he had come across some ladies playing the game of tarot. In Paristhese cards were unusual, and he had not seen them since he was aboy. He was interested in the Hermetic mysteries of ancient Egypt,and it occurred to him that he was seeing a sacred Egyptian book, ^the remnants of the lost Book ofThoth. The trump cards he regardedas a disguised assemblage of ancient Egyptian religious doctrines. Heidentified the Popess, for example, as 'the High Priestess', the Chariotas 'Osiris Triumphant', and the Star as 'Sirius' or 'the Dog Star'. -* ThisBook ofThoth, he supposed, must have been brought to Europe bythe gypsies, who had been safeguarding it since it had been entrustedto them by Egyptian priests millennia ago. He deduced that the safestway to preserve their ancient wisdom was to encode it as a game, andto trust that some day an adept would be able to decipher it. Thishonour he claimed for himself. ''

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Figure 3 Charity from the Visconti di Modrone tarot deck,first half of the fifteenth c

With Court de Gebelin's discovery and interpretation, tarot for thefirst time was viewed as having an esoteric and divinatory purpose.Quickly, occultists lined up the twenty-two trumps with the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, thus linking tarot with the Jewish

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(and later Christian) mystical tradition of Kabalah. They also linked itto the signs of the zodiac and the four elements. The trump orderbecame associated, not with playing a game but with thecorrespondences with the Hebrew alphabet. A low ranking trump wasno longer indicative of a lack of power or importance.

American-born mystic and occultist Arthur Edward Waiteconceived the deck with which most of us are familiar in 1909.^ As amember of the secret society, the Hermetic Order of the GoldenDawn, he was also a prolific scholar of Christian mysticism,Rosicnicianism, Freemasonry, the Grail legends and ritual magic.With Pamela Colman Smith, he created the deck which has becomethe most popular of all time, the Rider-Waite deck (now called theColman-Waite deck after its creators rather than its publishers).Waite combined the elements of the traditional tarot deck with Celticfolklore which he associated with Christian mysticism and legends ofthe Holy Grail and Egyptian motifs. Also, for the first time, Waitefully illustrated the minor arcana as a means of facilitating theirinterpretation.

In Waite's deck, the Female Pope underwent a transformation intothe High Priestess. As such, she is associated with the Egyptiangoddess Isis and the Moon. The modest figure dressed in a nun'shabit is transformed into a mysterious, Middle-Eastern princess witha lunar crescent at her feet and a diadem on her head. A scroll on herlap bears the inscription 'Tora' to indicate her association with theSecret Law.*''' Waite described her as the Supernal Mother, themother of the Heavens. * This mother is distant and frightening;guardian of the mysteries and secrets of the Universe. She is themother of the spirit rather than of the physical body. The card isindicative of intuition, arcane wisdom and the triumph of spirit^^which are often identified as feminine attributes.

In contrast to the Priestess, the next card in the trump sequence isthe mother of the physical. The Empress is no longer just the consortof the Emperor; she takes on some of the qualities of mother earth, anidea that became enormously popular in the nineteenth century.7°Waite has designed the card with the Empress having a series of starscrowing her head.?' It is wortli noting that the Virgin Mary was oftendepicted this way in the art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.^ Afield of corn ripens in front of her and there is a waterfall behind.?:! insome decks she is overtly pregnant. Waite describes the Empress asthe refugium peccatorum, literally the 'refuge of sinners' but also thefruitful mother of thousands.?'' In a divinatory context, she isassociated with emotional power, but also fertility, abundance andthe reenergising force of nature. She represents the triumph ofinstinct and emotion over reason and material concerns.?^ At last wefind an overtly maternal figure celebrated in the tarot trump

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sequence. No longer is she merely the consort of the Emperor, butshe has a meaning and purpose all her own and that purpose ismotherhood with the feitility and abundance that it brings.

HIGH PRIESTESSFigure 4 The High Priestess from the Colman-Waite tarot deck,

The image of the Mother does appear in another place in the RiderWaite deck. On the Six of Swords, a mother and child are seen beingrowed away with six swords sitting in the boat.'^ Tlie divinatorymeaning of the card symbolises a journey by water or an envoy,'^ andis not really associated with anything particularly maternal, exceptthat women are often depicted as being associated with water, I amassuming because of the uterine fluids of pregnancy. With hisinclusion of the mother and child in the minor arcana, Waiteacknowledged the existence of the mother in society. Her role iscelebrated in the card of the Empress^'' in contrast to the shadowyand ambiguous references in the early Italian decks.

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I THE EMPRE55.Figure 5 The Empress from the Colman-Waite tarot deck, 1919* °

Though Waite and Colman Smith's deck remains the most popularfor divinatory purposes even today, the advent of the New Age hasseen the creation of thousands of beautiful and diverse tarot decks.The New Age is associated with the amalgamation of differingspiritual currents, drawn together into an eclectic collection of beliefsbroadly termed New Age spirituality.^' Here we see feministideologies sitting alongside Native American philosophy, astrology.Eastern meditation and a myriad other belief forms. Tarot alsoreflects this ideology, the traditional tarot trumps being reinterpretedand redrafted in the light of any of the New Age currents. What beganas the criticism of male-dominated mainstream religions, evolvedinto an intense spiritual exploration;^^ rediscovering and reinventingwomen's roles in spiritual endeavour and evolving a spiritualityresponsive to the needs of women. In this manner, feminist imagesand, consequently, depictions of the mother have become overt inseveral decks.**-' The Goddess appears, represented on varyingnumbers of cards in numerous decks as a replacement or adaptationof male figures.^-* Male characters give way to their female

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counterparts, the new trump sometimes given a new name whileretaining the essence of its divinatoiy meaning.

Perhaps the best known of the new women's decks is Mothei'peace;created by Karen Vogel and Vicki Nobel. s The distinctive roundcards suggest a different approach to life; through wholeness andcommunity rather than through hard-edged patriarchal thinking.^''The cards boast artwork that is primitive but the symbolism isevocative. Created from a Goddess perspective; the symbolism is veryEarth-based and woman-oriented. For example, trump IX which istraditionally the Hermit is replaced by the Crone. The four of Wandsdepicts a ritual to mark a girl's first menstruation and initiation intothe mysteries of motherhood and fecundity.* ? The court hasundergone a transformation being populated by the Daughter, Son,Priestess and Shaman, which is male or female. The intent of thecreators is made overt by the title of the book accompanying thedeck: Motherpeace: A Way to the Goddess through Myth, Art and

Figure 6 The Crone (corresponding to the Hermit in other decks) and theDaughter of Discs (Coins or Pentacles) from the Motherpeace tarot**^

Yet another feminist deck is the oversized, also round Daughters ofthe Moon deck designed by Ffiona Morgan but executed by a numberof artists.9" The deck, originally described as a 'Matriarchal Tarot',was designed to change 'ingrained basic beliefs' and 'retrain' women's'minds and 'psyches'.*" The entire structure of the deck has beenaltered to feature five Arcana, one for each element with 'Aether'representing the tarot trumps. =^ The trump cards are not numberedand depict different subjects to the traditional tarot decks. Two loverscards are provided so one can choose one's sexual preferences. Butagain it is in the court cards that we see the elaboration of the motherimage. Minor Arcana suits are Flames, Blades, Pentacles, and Cups

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but, as befits a feminist deck, the three court cards represent thethree phases of the goddess: maiden, mother, and crone.93

Figure 7 Some cards from tlie Daughters of the Moon

There are many other decks that elaborate this theme of the sacredfeminine and the mother. The Barbara Walker Tarot features a courtwith Goddesses and Gods with figures from the Grail cycle.95 Thedeck is heavily reliant upon mythology and history, thoughadmittedly a particularly one-sided history. The New Amazon Tarot,comprised of art from no less than twenty artists, also includes analtered court of Child, Amazon, Companion and Queen.9&Interestingly it features no images of men. ? A Poet's Tarot, theMedicine Woman Tarot, the Shining Woman Tarot and theTransparent Tarot also echo this theme.

Men have also embraced the idea of the feminine, seeing it as anecessary component of wholeness. German artist, Hermann Haindl,has incorporated maternal images into his Haindl Tarot Deck.'^*^ Heconsulted Aleister Crowley's writings, juxtaposing Hebrew letterswith runes and astrological symbols over his major arcana artwork.The court becomes a family with the cards renamed Son, Daughter,Mother, and Father, and are associated with a different direction andethnic group: Native Americans (Pentacles and north). EasternIndians (Wands, east), Northern Celts (Cups/north), and Egyptians(Swords/south). The Star adopts the image of Gaea, the ancient

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mother, bending down to wash her hair and this card poignantlyexpresses the hope of the creator of this deck; that the Earth willwash herself clean of hate and destruction to choose life.* 9

Though images of the mother were present in the early Italian handpainted decks used for game-playing, they were ambiguous andwithout an obvious role in the trump sequence. With the exception ofthe personification of Charity in the Visconti di Modrone deck, thematernal qualities of these women were not highlighted. TheEmpress was the wholly dependent consort of the Emperor; thePopess was paired with the Pope and was the representative of Godon Earth. Tarot changed in function to an esoteric and fortune-tellingdevice towards the end of the eighteenth century, with the mostpopular deck to be created for this purpose being the Colman-Waitedeck. Here there is an evolution of the status of mother in the deck,claiming an existence beyond the needs of her consort. The HighPriestess (equivalent to the Popess) and the Empress express andcelebrate maternal qualities such as wisdom, fertility and abundance.This evolution is yet more evident in some of the New Age deckswhich refiect the diversity of currents that comprise the New Age. Indecks such as the Motherpeace Tarot and the Daughters of the MoonTarot, images of the mother are central, displacing the traditionalmale roles depicted in most packs, and completing thetransformation of the mother image in tarot from implicit to explicit.

Helen FarleyNotes

' Michael Dummett and John McLeod, A History of Games Played with theTarot Pack: The Game of Triumphs, 2 vols., vol. 1 (Lewiston: The Edwin MellenPress, 2004), 111.^ Will Duraiit, The Renaissance: A History of Civilization in Italy from 1304-1576 Ad, ed. Will Durant and Ariel Dxirant, X vols., vol. V, The Story ofCivilization (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1953; reprint, Thirteenth), 182;Dorothy Muir, A History of Milan under the Visconti (London: Methuen, 1924).133-35.70-71.^ TTie 'regular' playing card deck is the one we are all familiar vrith, consisting offifty-two cards distrihuted through four suits. Each suit contains cards numbered1 (Ace) to 10 with three court cards.•f Christina Olsen, 'Carte Da Trionfi: The Development of Tarot in FifteenthCentury Italy' (Ph.D, University of Pennsylvania, 1994)- 50-• Though it took some fifty years for the trump sequence to become firmlyestahlished, the following cards were usually present in this approximate order;Tlie Magician, the Popess, the Empress, the Emperor, the Pope, the Lovers, theChariot, Strength, Time, the Wheel of Fortune, Justice, the Hanged Man, Death.Temperance, the Devil, the Tower, the Star, the Moon, the Sun, the World, andJudgment.^ Michael Dummett with Sylvia Mann, The Game of Tarot: From Feirara to SaltiMke City (London: Gerald Duckworth, 1980), 6.

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7 Ibid.« Ronald Decker and Michael Dummett, A History of the Occult Tarot: 1870 —1970 (London: Gerald Duckworth, 2002), ix; Michael Dummett, The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards (New York: George Braziller, 1986), 2; Dummett with Mann,The Game of Tarot, 6-7. For a fuller discussion of these decks, see MichaelDummett and Kamal Ahu-Deeb, 'Some Remarks on Mamluk Playing Cards,'Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 36 (1973): 116-17." Richard Kieckhefer. Magic in the Middle Ages, Cambridge Medieval Textbooks(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 90; Francisco TorreblancaVillalpando, 'Epitomes,' in The Occult in Early Modern Europe: A DocumentaryHistory, ed. P. G. Maxwell-Stuart, Documents in History Series (Houndmills:Macmillan, 1999). 5-6; Jeffrey Burton Russell, Witchcraft in the Middle Ages(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1972), 143; F. W. Dillistone, Christianity andSymbolism (London: Collins, 1955), 57; Edgar Wind, Pagan Mysteries in theRenaissance, Revised ed. (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967), no; Paolo L. Rossi,'Society, Culture and the Dissemination of Learning,' in Science, Culture andPopular Beliej'in Renaissance Europe, ed. Stephen Pumfrey, Paolo L. Rossi, andMaurice Slawinski (Manchester: Manchester University Press. 1991), 143.'" See Melanchthon, 'Initia Doctrinae Physicae,' in The Occult in Early ModemEurope: A Documentary History, ed. P. G. Maxwell-Stuart, Documents inHistory Series (Houndmills: Macmillan, 1999), 6. For an account of thepopularity of reading hodily signs see William Armand Lessa, 'Somatomancy:Precursor of the Science of Human Constitution,' in Reader in ComparativeReligion: An Anthropological Approach, ed. William Armand Lessa and Evon Z.Vogt (Evanston: Row, Peterson and Company, 1958), 314-26." Melanchthon, 'Initia Doctrinae,' 7; William Monter, Ritual, Myth and Magic inEarly Modern Europe (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1984), 32-33; Russell,Witchcraji in the Middle Ages, 143; D. P. Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magicfrom Ficino to Campanella, ed. G. Bing. Studies of the Warburg bistitute(London: The Warburg Institute, 1958), 43; Stuart Clark, Thinking withDemons: The Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modem Europe (Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 1997), 234.

' Christina Olsen, 'Carte Da Trionfi: The Development of Tarot in FifteenthCentury Italy' (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1994), 103.'•' Represented by the Emperor, Empress and Pope trumps.'•» The Cardinal Virtues were Strength, Justice. Prudence and Temperance.'••i The Theological Virtues were Faith, Hope and Charity. 1'*' The Tower and the Devil cards were absent from the three incomplete Visconti-Sforza decks.' For a full examination of the significance of the ars memoria or art of memoryin Renaissance Europe see Frances A. Yates, The Art of Memory(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1966).'^ Olsen, 'Carte De Trionfi', 166. Sermons denigrating the game of tarot usuallyopposed the presence of the Emperor and Pope alongside the Devil in the trumpsequence. See Cynthia Giles, The Tarot: History, Mystery and Lore (New York:Paragon House. 1992). 7.'9 Chamberhn, The Count of Virtue, 15-16; Newman, 'Heretic Saint,' 7.2" Muir, History of Milan, 9.=" PuUan, History of Early Renaissance Italy, 235.^ For example, see Tom Tadfor Little, The Hermitage: Tarot History [website](2001 [accessed 5 April 2004]); available from http://www.tarotherniit.com/. —

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The History of the Empress Card (www.tarothermit.com/empress.htm)16/05/04; Charlene Elizabeth Gates. 'The Tarot Trumps: Their Origin,Archetypal Imager>-, and Use in Some Works of English Literature' (Ph.D,University of Oregon, 1982), 15.3 Little, Hermitage.

^'^ From Michael Dummett, The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards (New York: GeorgeBraziller, 1986), 105.=s Robert V. O'Neill, Tarot Symbolism (Lima: Fairway Press, 1986), 58. For a fullaccount of this sect see Charle.s Godfrey Leland, Aradia: The Gospel of theWitches (London: The C. W. Daniel Company, 1974)-^ Rosemary Pardoe and DarroU Pardoe, The Female Pope: The Mystery of PopeJoan (Weliingborough: Crucible, 1998), 29-30; J. N. D. Kelly, Pope Joan[Oxford Reference Online] (Oxford Dictionary of Popes: Oxford University Press,1991) [accessed 21 March 2006]); available fromhttp://www.oxfordreference.com/; O'Neill, Tarot Symbolism, 58." Martin Polonus, Chron. Pont. Et Imp; Monwuenta Germaniae Historica:

Scriptores, XXII, 428 cited in Pardoe and Pardoe. The Female Pope, 11; TomTadfor Little, The Hermitage: Tarot History [web site] (2001 [accessed 5 April2004]). — The History of the High Priestess (Papess) Card(www.tarothermit.com/priestess.htm) 16/05/04; Bill Butler, Dictionary of theTarot (New York: Schocken Books, 1975)> ii7.2» Martin Polonus, Chron. Pont. Et Imp; Monumenta Germaniae Historica:Scriptores, XXII, 428 cited in Pardoe and Pardoe, The Female Pope, 11.='> Martin Polonus, Chron. Pont. Et Imp; Monumenta Germaniae Historica:Scriptores, XXII, 428; Barbara Newman, 'The Heretic Saint: Gugliema ofBohemia, Milan, and Brunate,' Church History 74, no. 1 (2005): 28; Butler.Dictionary of the Tarot, 117.3" Martin Polonus, Chron. Pont. Et Imp; Monumenta Germaniae Historica:Scriptores, XXU, 428 cited in Pardoe and Pardoe, The Female Pope, 11; Olsen.'Carte De Trionfi', 240.3' Jean de Mailly, Chron. Univ. Mett; Monumenta Germaniae Historica:Scriptores, XXXV, p. 514 cited in Pardoe and Pardoe, The Female Pope, 16:Butler, Dictionary of the Tarot, 117.•f Tlie Visconti-Sforza deck was the most complete early tarot deck missing onlythe trumps of the Devil and the Tower. It is the deck from which mostsubsequent decks are derived.M For example, see Kelly, Pope Joan ([Oxford Dictionary of Popes] accessed 21March 2006).*i Newman, 'The Heretic Saint,' 28.35 The English version of this name is Wilhelmina.:i' Newman, 'The Heretic Saint.' 4, 7; Pardoe and Pardoe, The Female Pope, 93-94; Henr>' Charles Lea, A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, TheHarbor Scholars' Classics Edition ed., IV vols., voL III (New York: S A RussellPublishers, 1955; reprint, Second), 90-91.37 Newman, 'The Heretic Saint,' 4; Lea, Inquisition Vol. Ill, 90-91.3** Lea, Inquisition Vol. Hi, 90-91.3 Newman, 'The Heretic Saint.' 4; Pardoe and Pardoe, The Female Pope, 93-94;Lea, Inquisition Vol. Ill, 90-91.''" Joachim of Fiore predicted the advent of the Third Age or status of the HohSpirit, superseding the ages of God the Father (Old Testament era) and God theSon (New Testament era). See, Newman "The Heretic Saint," 7-8; Gabrielc

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Mandel, Concise Guide to Tarot (London: Grange Books, 1994), 8-9; Pardoe andPardoe, The Female Pope, 93-94; Rosemary R. Ruether, 'Christianity,' inWomen in World Religions, ed. Arvind Sharma, McGill Studies in the History ofReligions (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987), 220.I' Newman, The Heretic Saint,' 4; Pardoe and Pardoe, The Female Pope, 93-94;Lea, Inquisition Vol. HI, 91.•*" Newman, The Heretic Saint,' 4; Dummett, Visconti-Sforza Tarot, 106; Butler,Dictionary ofthe Tarot, 117.t3 Newman, The Heretic Saint,' 14; Pardoe and Pardoe, 77ie Female Pope, 93-94.** Newman, The Heretic Saint,' 4.• s Newman, 17.4'' Newman, 4, 17; Mandel, Concise Guide to Tarot, 9; Butler, Dictionary oftheTarot, 117. :•7 Mandel, 9; Pardoe and Pardoe, The Female Pope, 93-94.•** Mandel, 27. > ,'• Mandel, 30.5" Mandel, 30-32.5> Mandel, 32.5- Mandel, 3,5-6. J -•^^ See Mellinkoff, Outcasts, 17.'" The papal triple tiara was not introduced until 1315 and so was ahsent fromthis painting. O'Neill, Tarot Symholism, 62: Ferguson, Christian Art, 97.55 From Dummett, Visconti-Sforza Tarot, 107.^'' Hans Biedennann, Dictionary of Symbolism, trans. James Hulbert (New York:Facts on File, 1992), 224. For an example of this association, see Millard Meiss,The Madonna of Humility,' Art Bulletin 18, no. 4 (1936): 435.5 Meiss, 'Madonna,' 435.58 Erwin Panofsky, Studies in Iconology: Humanistic Themes in the Art qftheRenaissance (New York: Harper & Row, 1972), 110.59 The Theological Virtues were found in the Visconti di Modrone tarot deckwhich is believed to be tbe oldest extant tarot." J. C. Cooper, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols (London:

Thames and Hudson, 1978), 34; Count Emiliano di Parravicino, 'Three Packs ofItalian Tarocco Cards,' The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 3, no. 9(1903): 242.SS'' oisen, 'Carte De Trionfi", 266; Ann Fiery, The Book of Divination (SanFrancisco: Chronicle Books, 1999), 178; Nevill Drury, Magic and Witchcraft:From Shamanism to the Technopagans (New York: Thames & Hudson, 2003),108; Thierry Depaulis, Tarot, Jeu et Magie (Paris: Bibliotheque Nationale, 1984),131; Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot: Being Fragments ofaSecret Tradition under the Veil of Divination, Second ed. (London: Rider andCompany, 1971; reprint. Fifth), 43; Mary Katherine Greer, The Complete Book ofTarot Rever.'ials, Special Topics in Tarot (St Paul: Uewellyn Publications, 2002),18.*2 Gertrude Moakley, The Tarot Cards Painted by Bonifacio Bembo for theVisconti-Sforza Family: An Iconographic and Historical Study (New York: TheNew York Public Library, 1966), 30; Decker and Dummett, A History of theOccult Tarot, 25; Sandra A. Thomson, Pictures from the Heart: A TarotDictionary (New York: St Martin's Griffin, 2003), 107; Cynthia Giles, The Tarot:History, Mystery and Lore (New York: Paragon House, 1992), 23; H. T. Morley,Old and Curious Playing Cards: Their History and Types from Many Countries

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and Periods (Secaucus: The Wellfleet Press, 1989), 18; Catherine Perry Hargrave,A History of Playing Cards and a Bibliography of Cards and Gaming (NewYork: Dover Publications, Inc., 1966), 223; Francis King, Ritual Magic inEngland: 18S7 to the Present Day (London: Neville Spearman, 1970), 21-22;Robert Wang, An Introduction to the Golden Dawn Tarot Including the OriginalDocuments on Tarot front the Order of the Golden Dawn with ExplanatoryNotes (York Beach: Samuel Weiser, 197B), 18; fimile Grillot de Givry, IllustratedAnthology of Sorcery, Magic and Alchemy, trans. J. Courtenay Locke (NewYork: Mallard Press, 1991), 281.3 Olsen. 'Carte De Trionfi', 266; Fiery, The Book of Divination, 178; Stuart R.

Kaplan, Tarot Classic (New York: U. S. Games Systems, 1972), 8.^•^ Moaicley, The Tarot Cards Painted by Bonifacio Bembo, 30; Olsen, 'Carte X>i.-Trionfi', 267; Court De Gebehn, Monde Primitif: Analyse et Compare avec IvMonde Moderne, Considere Dans L'histoire Naturelle de la Parole; OuGrammaire Universelle et Comparative, 9 vols.. Archives de la LinguistiqucFrangaise; N0.95 (Paris: 1774)-"s From Uri Raz, Uri Raz's Tarot Site [Web page] (Uri Raz, 2005 [accessed 9June 2005]); available from http://www.tarot.org.il."'• .Juliette Wood, The Celtic Tarot and the Secret Traditions: A Study in ModernLegend Making,' Folklore 109 (1998): 15; Decker and Dummett, A History of theOccult Tarot, 131.^'^ Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 76; Paul Huson, Mystical Origins of theTarot: From Ancient Roots to Modern Usage (Rochester: Destiny Books, 2004).82."« Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 79.'"* Arthur Edward Waite, The Rider Tarot Deck Instructions (Stamford: U.S.Games Systems, Inc., 1971), 13; Alessandro Bellenghi, Cartomancy, trans. JulieAlmond (London: Ebury Press, 1988), 62." Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of" the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan

Witchcraft (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999). 36-37-71 Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 81."= George Ferguson, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art (New York: OxfordUniversity' Press, 1959), 24.3 Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 80.•' Ibid.

7s Waite, The Rider Tarot Deck Instructions, 13; Bellenghi, Cartomancy, 63." From Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot: Being Fragmentsof a Secret Tradition under the Veil of Divination, Second ed. (London: Riderand Company, 1971; reprint. Fifth), 77.^ Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 242-43." Waite, 242; Waite, The Rider Tarot Deck Instructions, 34-35-

79 For a detailed analysis of gendering in the Rider-Waite deck see, Emily E.Auger, Tarot and Other Meditation Decks: History, Theory, Aesthetics.Typology (Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 2004). 43,«" Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 81.**! William Sims Bainbridge, The Sociology of Religious Movements (New York:Routledge, 1997), 362; David Tacey, Jung and the New Age (Hove: Brunner-Routledge, 2001), 10.** Rachel Pollack, The New Tarot (WeUingborough: The Aquarian Press, 1989).109.

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83 For example see Auger, Tarot and Other Meditation Decks, 41-48; Pollack,New Tarot, 109-24.^•^ Auger, Tarot and Other Meditation Decks, 41-42.85 Vicki Noble, Motherpeace: A Way to the Goddess through Myth, Art, andTarot (San Francisco: Harper, 1994).s Pollack, New Tarot, 110.87 Pollack, 112.88 Noble , Motherpeace; Pollack, New Tarot, 110. For a fuller examinar ion of theimagery of this deck see. Auger, Tarot and Other Meditation Decks, 45-46;Pollack, New Tarot, 110-13.9 From Vicki Noble, Motherpeace: A Way to the Goddess through Myth, Art,

and Tarot (San Francisco: Harper, 1994).">" Ffiona Morgan, Daughters of the Moon Tarot (Boulder: Daughters of theMoon, 1984).'•' Pollack, ATew Tarot, 118.•*- Pollack, 119. I93 Ibid. For a fuller examination of the imagery of this deck see, Pollack, NewTarot, 118-21.-1 From Morgan, Daughters of the Moon Tarot (Boulder: Daughters of the Moon,1984).•Js Pollack, New Tarot, 114. ' . .' *'Pollack, 117."^Pollack, 118. I" Hermann Haindl, Haindl Tarot Deck (New York: U. S. Games Systems, 1990).'' Pollack, New Tarot, 29. For a fuller examination of the imagery of tliis deck seeAuger, Tarot and Other Meditation Decks, 107-09; Pollack, New Tarot, 28-32.

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