Tarot was originally based on the Roman Catholic religion.
Posted: 28 May 2009, 09:48
This is a candidate “tarot history building block” that I think deserves some preliminary discussion.
My opinion is that original Tarot was a religious game, based on the Roman Catholic faith. According to the Webster on-line dictionary, “religious” means “relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity”. The theme of the Trump sequence is a religious one.
If I had to briefly describe the theme of the Trump sequence, I would say “the destiny of the human soul according to the Roman Catholic religion”.
I will try to explain the reasons for this opinion.
The sequence describes three different aspects of human life (a simplified and likely corrupted version of the explanation provided by Michael J. Hurst):
1. The social hierarchy, at the top of which there is the Pope as leader of the Churh (this kind of social structure is typical of Catholicism). I think this two cards justify stating that Tarot explicitly is Roman Catholic, not simply Christian. The Roman Catholic church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches separated in the XI century. One of the main differences between the two Churches is that the Orthodox Church does not recognize the power of a single person (there is no equivalent to the Roman Pope).
2. Principles governing human life in this world; at the end of this sequence, we find personified Death. Death is not the end of human life, but a transition from its “lower” part to its “higher” part. This is a concept that is common to many religions. The way in which Death is represented (holding a bow or a scythe) is derived from the Book of Revelation.
3. The higher world that the human soul will access after Death. In this realm we find the Devil as an entity whose function is to punish the souls of the wicked: this entity is typical of the Christian religion (not only Catholicism). The simplified astronomical structure (Moon, Star, Sun) is here because the Christian God resides in Heaven (the sky) which is also the place were the souls of the good go after Death. Judgement, as the Devil, is another Christian element: it is directly derived from the Book of Revelation.
I think that the concept of Judgement is also compatible with the Islamic religion. I am not sure if this holds for the Devil also. Anyway, Islam or Judaism would not approve the representation of God as a human being, as we see on the Bembo Judgement card. Still I do not think that the point is proving that Tarot is not derived from Judaism or Islam or Eastern Orthodoxy. If we agree that Tarot is religious and that it was created in Western Europe in the XV century, we must also agree that Tarot is derived from the Roman Catholic religion (which was the only religion powerful enough to express itself in that time and place).
Other games that were developed in the XV century do not have such religious content, even if they do have moral content (and of course all such games do not contradict the Roman Catholic religion. i.e. they are not “heretic”). For instance:
* Michelino
* Juego de Naypes by Fernando de la Torre (recently discovered by Ross)
* Sola Busca Tarot variant (here we have some religious references, but religious ideas are not so central to the Trump sequence, which is based on the history of the Roman Empire)
* Boiardo Tarot variant
So it is not necessary that a XV century game is extensively based on the Roman Catholic religion. But I think this is the case for the original trump sequence.
Marco
My opinion is that original Tarot was a religious game, based on the Roman Catholic faith. According to the Webster on-line dictionary, “religious” means “relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity”. The theme of the Trump sequence is a religious one.
If I had to briefly describe the theme of the Trump sequence, I would say “the destiny of the human soul according to the Roman Catholic religion”.
I will try to explain the reasons for this opinion.
The sequence describes three different aspects of human life (a simplified and likely corrupted version of the explanation provided by Michael J. Hurst):
1. The social hierarchy, at the top of which there is the Pope as leader of the Churh (this kind of social structure is typical of Catholicism). I think this two cards justify stating that Tarot explicitly is Roman Catholic, not simply Christian. The Roman Catholic church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches separated in the XI century. One of the main differences between the two Churches is that the Orthodox Church does not recognize the power of a single person (there is no equivalent to the Roman Pope).
2. Principles governing human life in this world; at the end of this sequence, we find personified Death. Death is not the end of human life, but a transition from its “lower” part to its “higher” part. This is a concept that is common to many religions. The way in which Death is represented (holding a bow or a scythe) is derived from the Book of Revelation.
3. The higher world that the human soul will access after Death. In this realm we find the Devil as an entity whose function is to punish the souls of the wicked: this entity is typical of the Christian religion (not only Catholicism). The simplified astronomical structure (Moon, Star, Sun) is here because the Christian God resides in Heaven (the sky) which is also the place were the souls of the good go after Death. Judgement, as the Devil, is another Christian element: it is directly derived from the Book of Revelation.
I think that the concept of Judgement is also compatible with the Islamic religion. I am not sure if this holds for the Devil also. Anyway, Islam or Judaism would not approve the representation of God as a human being, as we see on the Bembo Judgement card. Still I do not think that the point is proving that Tarot is not derived from Judaism or Islam or Eastern Orthodoxy. If we agree that Tarot is religious and that it was created in Western Europe in the XV century, we must also agree that Tarot is derived from the Roman Catholic religion (which was the only religion powerful enough to express itself in that time and place).
Other games that were developed in the XV century do not have such religious content, even if they do have moral content (and of course all such games do not contradict the Roman Catholic religion. i.e. they are not “heretic”). For instance:
* Michelino
* Juego de Naypes by Fernando de la Torre (recently discovered by Ross)
* Sola Busca Tarot variant (here we have some religious references, but religious ideas are not so central to the Trump sequence, which is based on the history of the Roman Empire)
* Boiardo Tarot variant
So it is not necessary that a XV century game is extensively based on the Roman Catholic religion. But I think this is the case for the original trump sequence.
Marco