{"product_id":"9780835609081","title":"The Esoteric Tarot: Ancient Sources Rediscovered in Hermeticism and Cabalah","description":"\u003cp\u003eThat the Tarot originated in ancient Egypt as a divinatory tool is a romantic misconception. Ron Decker's meticulous scholarship will surprise practitioners and academics alike, revealing the Tarot's true evolution and meanings as its inventor(s) understood it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Tarot consists of the Minor Arcana, four suits of cards similar to our modern deck, and the Major Arcana, twenty-two allegorical or \"trump\" cards. Decker says the four-suit deck was invented in Asia Minor before AD 1000; Italian courtiers added the trumps in the 1400s. But Tarot was first used as a game. Tarot divination was only created in the 1700s by a Parisian fortuneteller who based the trump images on Hermeticism, which merges Greco-Egyptian alchemy, astrology, numerology, magic, and mysticism. Today, the suit-cards are often traced to the ancient Jewish Cabala. But, says Decker, they, too, acquired their meanings only in the 1700s, and he cites a lost numerical system based on Cabala at that time\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDecker's interpretation integrates three whole systems-astrological, arithmological, mystagogical (concerning initiation rites into the Mysteries). His depth of knowledge makes the book a must-have for serious students of Tarot and esotericism\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Quest Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47032203084016,"sku":"9780835609081","price":23.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780835609081_p0.jpg?v=1763753673","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780835609081","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}