joseph scissorhands: Tarot: Origins and Afterlives

The Star card from the 15th-century Tarocchi di Bartolomeo Colleoni tarot deck.

To the Warburg Institute, Woburn Square for the first time to see this small, but very popular exhibition aiming to explain the development and history of the tarot card phenomenon. I was particularly interested in this exhibition because one of the earliest tarot decks was created for the Milanese Visconti-Sforza dynasty in the 15th century, and as coincidence would have it a few days earlier I'd been in Milan visiting the very same castle - Castello Sforzesco created for Viscount Sforza and the leaders of the Duchy of Milan, where some fragments of original tarot cards were retrieved from the waterworks of the castle. Some examples date from 1499. I didn't see any tarot cards on my visit to the castle in Milan but there are a pair of original surviving cards from the period included in this exhibition. This exhibition looks at the shifting role of tarot from its uncertain beginnings as a game similar to bridge, to a more narrative-based character in the Renaissance, and then as a tool for divination and the occult in the 18th century then more recently as a guide for life on social media. Tarot became associated with mysticism around 1781 when Antoine Court de Gébelin a French clergyman and scholar discovered the game at a salon in Paris. De Gébelin was an associate of Diderot, and Enlightenment figures such as Benjamin Franklin, and believed he saw ancient Egyptian symbolism and meaning in the cards and published his theories which included examples of how the cards were laid out in the Egyptian temple at Memphis. By the late 19th century tarot had developed along two lines as a tool for fortune-telling and as a key to esoteric knowledge. Tarot's use in the work of popular artists such as Hilma af Klint, and Leonora Carrington has only widened its current appeal. A tarot deck is typically composed of 78 cards, most of which are divided into four suits: swords, batons/wands, cups, coins/pentacles. Each suit contains pip cards numbered ace to 10 and four court cards; king, queen, knight and page. In addition, 22 picture cards called trumps or the "major arcana" depict the symbols for which tarot is best known. These typically include the lovers, the wheel of fortune, justice, the hanged man, death and the tower. There are countless numbers of tarot decks with differing designs each open to interpretation based on different archetypes and narratives. The way the cards are usually used in a reading is for them to be fanned out face down in a "spread" before a querent (the person seeking answers from the cards), chooses an agreed number of cards. A basic spread of three cards might represent past, present and future, but some spreads might be more numerous and elaborate depending on the reading. A narrative would then be read from the positioning of the cards to give answers, advice and possible solutions to the querent. The images in tarot have been evolving for centuries. Artists have been given free rein to display their talent and there are some beautifully designed and illustrated decks on display as you can see below. As a former illustrator they hold great personal appeal. I like the way modern decks have been designed to cater to specific social groups and interests and how they have changed throughout time. They reflect the challenges of the modern age. There is The Lockdown Tarot, Black Power Tarot, and even a Gay Tarot for latter day users. Perhaps my favourite artwork in the exhibition were the paintings by Aleister Crowley and Lady Frieda Harris for their Thoth Tarot pack which has some very dynamic designs appearing to be influenced by Art Deco and Futurism from the period in which it was created. The Rider-Waite tarot pack is another classic which features popular illustrations. This is a most fascinating inaugural exhibition at the Warburg Institute. I made two visits and as stated previously both sessions were very busy with visitors. Whether one believes in this form of mysticism or not it is increasingly being adopted by the mainstream in fashion, literature and across social media.