For those readers with a scholarly interest in the historical development of Neoplatonism:

http://www.isns.us/links.htm

Best to all... Dai

Ross, I see that you mentioned my book Origins in the context of off-handedly dismissing Neoplatonic influence on the Tarot names, hierarchy and meanings. At the same time, you note that only a small part of my book addresses the earliest decks and possible places of origin. My first two chapters ex...

Also, for further reading on this subject I suggest Chittick's The Sufi Path of Knowledge : http://www.amazon.com/Sufi-Path-Knowledge-William-Chittick/dp/0887068855/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247345924&sr=8-1 and Shah's Islamic Sufism : http://www.amazon.com/Islamic-Sufism-Sirdar-Ik...

Here is the post linked to above: Although Sufism is often mentioned in tandem with Kabbalistic cosmogonic theories, the cycle of Divine Names and Attributes made famous by Ibn 'Arabi's academy is generally not addressed by Kabbalists. This being so even though Ibn 'Arabi lived in Spain during the t...

Thanks for the links, Patrick and Steve. Arabic is a difficult language to translate into english; there exist many dual meanings and poetic connotations. For example, Form-giver has also been translated as Painter. Out of Burckhardt's list, I find Live-giver to be interesting; but Curtailer to be m...

Hi JMD and all... I suggest that Ibn 'Arabi's Great Cosmic Cycle was influential in the formation of the Tarot's hierarchy and names. Here's a list of Divine Names that he envisioned to form a spiral, about which I have posted elsewhere http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=121176 : 0. Large Re...

As I peruse the varying tarot forums addressing history, I am taken with how little examination there has been regarding Venice-Alexandria-Constantinople communities and connections. Clearly the whole realm of Eastern Christian and Sufi philosophy, along with their Neoplatonic cores, deserve study b...

Warm regards, Robert. I hope you find the book to be enriching, regardless of whether its few speculative suggestions are deemed compelling. -Dai

Hi all...not to throw any monkey wrenches into the consideration, but pretty much all 560 pages of my recent work argues against: There is no esoteric, alchemical, kabbalistic, numerological, geomantic, heretical, magical in the narrative of the trumps. Of course, each of those above concepts stands...

Robert says: Which Virtue comes first? Where do they go? Here's my take, from Origins of the Tarot: "The Sun as agent of Zeus assists in constantly rejuvenating the cosmos. For Homer, to see the rays of the Sun was to be filled with Life. The equation between light and life was incorporated int...