Egyptian Grand Trumps
Overview
As the LWB that comes with this small deck advises, in the Eighteenth century the archeologist Court de Gebelin - more of whom elsewhere on this site - made the claim that, “The Book of Thoth exists and its pages correspond to the images of the Tarots.” Of course, it is impossible to prove where, exactly, Tarot originated, and there are many decks and, indeed, the whole of the Thoth tradition, that base their card designs on the belief that Thoth, the great Egyptian god of Knowledge, known to occultists as Hermes Trismegistus - the Thrice Great Hermes - created Tarot as a way of transmitting across the centuries his Occult knowledge. These are the reasons that many of the secret societies that sprang up in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries, such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, developed tracts of arcane knowledge that included the design and use of tools such as Tarot.
Be that as it may, I first encountered the work of Silvana Alasia when I picked up this small deck of the Major Arcana with artwork drawn from ancient Egyptian mythology. Silvana now has a number of decks available, all of which are filled with artwork on the same theme - Ancient Egypt.
Of course, being a Thoth tradition deck, we should not necessarily be seeking for correspondences with the RWS tradition - but this is a point where we see that the roots of both traditions reside in a higher level narrative - possibly Book T, the Golden Dawn’s treatise on Tarot, and, of course, the deliberations of Court de Gebelin, which can be found in his work The Game of Tarots. A perusal of Court de Gebelin’s writings provides us with a foundation for the Major Arcana drawn from previous incarnations of Tarot but with associations (and modifications therefrom) back to Ancient Egypt and the writings of Hermes Trismegistus - all-in-all a fascinating study!
So, in Alisia’s deck, we see the Magician still with his artifacts on a table in front of him, and pointing down (As Above, So Below!) The Fool is being snapped at by a crocodile instead of a dog, the High Priestess has her pillars, and Egyptian Cupid adorns The Lovers, the Chariot has two chronologically correct Sphinxes, Justice truly is Maat, and so on.
The advanced level of this deck makes it difficult to be used as a starting tool for the Tarot initiate, and also the lack of the Minor Arcana obviously significantly hinder the learning curve, but as a curiosity in a collector’s archive, it would certainly hold a high place of interest.
Details of the Deck:
Tradition: Thoth
Major Arcana: 22 cards
Minor Arcana: Major arcana only
Court Cards: N/A
Fire Suit: N/A
Air Suit: N/A
Water Suit: N?A
Earth Suit: N/A
Designer(s): Silvana Alasia
Artist(s): Silvana Alasia
Publisher: Lo Scarabeo, 2006
Major Arcana:
0 - The Fool
1 - The Magician
2 - The High Priestess
3 - The Empress
4 - The Emperor
5 - The Hierophant
6 - The Lovers
7 - The Chariot
8 - Justice
9 - The Hermit
10 - The Wheel
Like many of my old school friends and colleagues, I’d read a lot of the history of Ancient Egypt, and especially its esoteric and religious mythology. One of my all-time favourite novels is Ancient Evenings, by Normal Mailer, which deals in depth with the same subject material, so finding this little treasure of a deck in my local book store was a delight.
The deck is produced by one of the largest producers of modern Tarot and Oracle decks - Lo Scarabeo in Italy, and is actually the Major Arcana culled from Alasia’s full Egyptian Tarot deck. Naturally, the artwork is littered with a multitude of hieroglyphics, which, alas, I don’t understand, and characters drawn from the Ancient Egyptian pantheon of gods, some of which - Anubis, Thoth, Isis, Horus, Nut - I can recognise, but many of which I can’t, but my ignorance doesn’t detract from the beauty of the cards! In fact, it is actually a challenge to track down the characters and learn as much about them and their stories as possible. I guess, in this way, the intent of Hermes Trismegistus is fulfilled, and his arcane lore passed down yet again!
11 - Strength
12 - The Hanged Man
13 - Death
14 - Temperance
15 - The Devil
16 - The Tower
17 - The Star
18 - The Moon
19 - The Sun
20 - Judgement
21 - The World
Where to buy your copy…
W.I.P.
