Tannhauser
66 A mediæval German legend which relates how a minstrel and knight of that name, passing by the Hörselberg, or Hill of Venus, entered therein in answer to a call, and remained there with the enchantress, living an unholy life. After a time he grew weary of sin, and longing to return to clean living, he forswore the worship of Venus and left her. He then made a pilgrimage to Rome, to ask pardon of the Pope, but when he was told by Urban IV., himself that the papal staff would as soon blossom as such a sinner as Tannhauser be forgiven, he returned to Venus. Three days later, the Pope's staff did actually blossom, and he sent messengers into every country to find the despairing minstrel, but to no purpose, Tannhäuser had disappeared. The story has a mythological basis which has been laid over by mediæval Christian thought, and the original hero of which has been displaced by a more modern personage, just as the Venus of the existing legend is the mythological Venus only in name. She is really the Lady Holda, a German earth-goddess. Tannhäuser was a minnesinger or love-minstrel of the middle of the thirteenth century. He was very popular among the minnesingers of that time and the restless and intemperate life he led probably marked him out as the hero of such a legend as has been recounted. He was the author of many ballads of considerable excellence, which are published in the second part of the "Minnesinger " (Von der Hagen, Leipsic, 1838) and in the sixth volume of Haupt's Zeitschrift fur deutsches Althertum. The most authentic version of this legend is given in Uhland's Alte hoch und niederdeutsche Volkslieder (Stuttgart, 1845). Tappan-Richmond, Mrs. Cora L. V.: Perhaps the best known of all the inspirational speakers who have appeared since the beginning of the spiritualistic movement. As a child Mrs. Tappan-Richmond-then Miss Scott-spent some time in the Hopedale Community (q.v.), so that she was early initiated into the mysteries of spiritualism. At the age of sixteen she went to New York, and became an inspired" lecturer on spiritualism, in which capacity she soon became famous throughout America. Coming to Britain in 1873 she was warmly received by the spiritualists in this country, and for a number of years gave freqeunt trance discourses, characterised by their rhythm and fluency, and the comparative clarity of their ideas.
Tarot, or Tarots, is the French name for a species of playingcards, originally used for the purpose of divination, and still employed by fortune-tellers. Tarot cards, however, 66 form part of an ordinary pack in certain countries of southern Europe, whence the name of tarocchi given to an Italian game. The derivation of the word is uncertain. One suggestion is that these cards were so called because they were tarotées on the back; that is, marked with plain or dotted lines crossing diagonally. Confirmation of this theory may be found in the German form of the word; a tarock-karte being a card chequered on the back. Not improbably, however, there is here a confusion between cause and effect. 66 66 con-
De l' Hoste Ranking, who dismisses as obviously worthless" the explanations of Count de Gébelin, Vaillant and Mathers, refers the name to the Hungarian Gipsy tar, a pack of cards, and thence to the Hindustani taru. The figures on these cards are emblematic, and are believed by many to embody the esoteric religion of ancient Egypt and India; but on this subject there is much difference of opinion. "
The tarot pack most in use," observes Ranking, sists of seventy-eight cards, of which twenty-two are more properly known as the tarots, and are considered as the 'keys' of the tarot; these correspond with the twentytwo letters of the Hebrew alphabet, or, according to Falconnier and to Margiotta, with the 'alphabet of the Magi.' The suits are four: wands, sceptres, or clubs, answering to diamonds; cups, chalices, or goblets, answering to hearts; swords, answering to spades; money, circles, or pentacles, answering to clubs. Each suit consists of fourteen cards, the ace, and nine others, and four court cards: king, queen, knight, and knave. The four aces form the keys of their respective suits." As already indicated, the twenty-two "keys of the tarot," which consist of various emblematic figures, are assumed to be hieroglyphic symbols of the occult meanings of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet; or, alternatively, "the alphabet of the Magi." "Immense antiquity is claimed for these symbols," observes Ranking. "Alliette or (by transposition) Etteilla, a French mystic of the beginning of the nineteenth century, ascribed their origin to Hermes Trismegistus, under the name of The Book of Thoth, or The Golden Book of Hermes. Others have sought to identify the tarot with the sibylline leaves." Raymond Lully (1235-1315) is said to have based his great work, Ars Generalis sive Magna, on the application of the occult philosophy contained in the tarot.
The idea that the tarot was introduced into Europe by the Gypsies appears to have been first broached by Vaillant, who had lived for many years among the Gypsies, by whom he was instructed in their traditional lore. Much of the information thus obtained is incorporated in Les Rômes, histoire vraie des vrais Bohémiens (c. 1853), La Bible des Bohémiens (1860), and La Clef Magique de la Fiction et du Fait (1863). Vaillant's theory has been fully accepted by a French writer, "Papus," who published in 1889 Le Tarot des Bohémiens: Le Plus Ancien Livre du Monde ; describing it as la clef absolue de la science occulte." "The Gypsies possess a Bible," he asserts; yes, this card game called the Tarot which the Gypsies possess is the Bible of Bibles. It is a marvellous book, as Count de Gébelin and especially Vaillant have realized. Under the names of Tarot, Thora, Rota, this game has formed successively the basis of the synthetic teaching of all the ancient peoples." 66 66
Although it may not be possible to accept this dictum in its entirety, it is of interest to note that Ranking concludes that these and all other playing-cards were introduced into Europe by the Gypsies. "I would submit,' he says, writing in 1908, "that from internal evidence we may deduce that the tarots were introduced by a race speaking an Indian dialect; that the form of the Pope (as portrayed in the tarots) shows they had been long in a Tears on Shutters country where the orthodox Eastern Church predominated; and the form of head-dress of the king, together with the shape of the eagle on the shield, shows that this was governed by Russian Grand Dukes, who had not yet assumed the Imperial insignia. This seems to me confirmatory of the widespread belief that it is to the Gypsies we are indebted for our knowledge of playing-cards." It will be seen that this conclusion is based upon independent judgment.
As early, however, as 1865-two years after the appearance of Vaillant's last book-E. S. Taylor supported the same hypothesis in his History of Playing Cards. Willshire (Descriptive Catalogues of Cards in the British Museum, 1877) controverts Taylor's conclusion, on the ground that "whether the Zingari be of Egyptian or Indian origin, they did not appear in Europe before 1417, when cards had been known for some time." But this objection is nullified by the fact that the presence of Gypsies, in Europe is now placed at a date considerably anterior to 1417. There was, for example, a well-established feudum Acinganorum, or Gypsy barony, in the island of Corfu in the fourteenth century.
To examine in detail the various emblematic figures of the tarot would demand a disproportionate amount of space. Ranking's reference to the Pope and the King points to two of these twenty-two figures. The others are: the Female Pope, the Queen, Osiris Triumphant, The Wheel of Fortune, Justice, Prudence, Temperance, Strength, Marriage, The Philosopher, The Juggler, Death, The Devil, The Fool, The Lightning-struck Tower, The Sun, The Moon, The Star, The Universe, The Last Judgment. There is great diversity of opinion, even among "initiates," as to the meaning of these symbols. They are very fully discussed in the work of "Papus" already cited; to which the reader is specially referred. On the whole, there is much to be said in favour of the theory that the origin of the tarot is traceable to the esoteric philosophy of the schools of ancient Egypt and Chaldea, by whatever means it has found its way into Europe.
In addition to the works already cited, see Le Monde Primitif, by Count de Gébelin, Vol. VIII., Paris, 1781; Les Origines des Cartes à Jouer, by Merlin, Paris, 1869; The Tarot, by Mathers, London, 1888; L'Art de Tirer les Cartes, by Magus, Paris, 1895; Le walladisme, by Margistta, Grenoble, 1895; Magie, by Bourgeat, Paris, 1895; Les XXII. Lames Hermétiques du Tarot, by Falconnier, Paris, 1896; A. E. Waite, Key to the Tarot, 1910; and J. W. Brodie-Innes, The Tarot Cards, in the "Occult Review" for February, 1919.
DAVID MACRITCHIE. 66