Fig. 2
Prophecies of Nostradamus
Egypt
We have already said that together with the Celtic, the Greek and Egyptian civilizations were at the root of the founding of Marseilles. This condition is even truer because the stories of Greek philosophy and Egyptian tradition have always been closely interwoven. In general, since it is possible to prove a relationship with the origin of Christianity, ancient Egypt may be considered the primary crossroads for the development of the culture, wisdom, and religion of the modern Western world. Thales and his contemporaries, Anaximander and Anaximenes, are usually considered the first philosophers in Western history. We are in the pre-Socratic period of the birth of one of the most important schools of the Hellenistic world, that of Pythagoras, of which Crotone was the principle centre of illumination.
Fig. 3
Pythagoras, Athenian School
“At its first appearance, its political, ethic, and religious thought spread like a fire through all of southern Italy; the activity of all of Magna Graecia was subverted; it spread to neighbouring countries and many came to hear the marvellous word which resonated in Italy with unfamiliar accents. The institutions of Rome, as Cicero himself wrote, were much influenced: multa sunt in nostris institutis ducta ab illis (in our institutions, much is taken from those, that is, the institutions of Pythagoras).14”
Founded circa 530 BC by Pythagoras, one of the most renowned initiates of antiquity, this School, directed with severe discipline and organized in three levels, was structure on the example of the Orphic communities and the religious tendencies of Egypt and Babylon, lands which, according to tradition, the philosopher had visited in earlier journeys of study. The injunctions of the Ancient Mysteries, “Know thyself” and “As above, so below” were used by Pythagoras to illustrate more clearly than before the marvellous relationship between Macrocosm and Microcosm, that is, the Universe and Man. Although having little resonance in the literature of the following centuries, “the fascination evoked by the School from the Renaissance onward was in part owing to the conviction of the Italians that, through Platonic thought, Pythagorean thought revealed itself.15”
The influence of Pythagoras, then, was enormous, not only upon his contemporaries but on modern Western thought, as it allows the continuation of that golden thread of Wisdom between Egypt, whose history loses itself in even more remote times, and the splendour of Greece of the last centuries before the appearance of Christian tradition. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the Egyptian capital, Alexandria, was the greatest cultural centre of the Roman Empire from III BC, when it was founded, to III AD, epoch of its decline, having taken on the role that once, in the constant ebb and flow of history, belonged to Athens. Alexandria, which with its illustrious Library became an extraordinary point of attraction, in effect offered the possibility to cultivate the sciences, mathematics, geometry, astronomy, music, history, literature, art, etc, in a word the most diverse of disciplines in the most various areas. In such fertile soil, there also developed a meeting of the tendencies of different philosophical and religious currents of thought of late antiquity. This capital was transformed into the cradle of that which is today called the metaphysics of Christian theology. In fact it is here, where the elaborate traditions of the East flowed from Egypt and Greece, that grew among the other schools, the Didaskaleion,16 one of the most important theological centres of early Christianity, which the Church traces back to the figure of Saint Mark and whose historical data leads to Clement (150-205 AD), disciple of Pantenus and Origen Adamantius (185-254). This last in particular, was certainly one of the most significant Christian philosophers of all time, revealing his genius in the convergence and fusion between the non-philosophical heredity of the new Christian religion and the Gnostic and neoplatonic tendencies of his own century.
In primitive Christianity, therefore, certain personages such as Origen, traditionally counted among the Fathers of the Church, acted as a bridge between the ancient Greco-Roman mystery cults of Egypt, the Gnostic current of thought, and the rising framework of Christian theology. Observing modern Christianity, it appears quite variegated with all of its latrias, from Baptists to Orthodox, from Calvinists to Roman Catholics and many others; but if we look at the first centuries after its birth, the variety was even greater. In those times, neither canon for writing the New Testament, nor creed nor specific structure existed – they would be established only later – on which all Christians could unanimously agree. Thus, it is indubitable that the initial formation of this new belief system was forced to confront other, far more ancient religions, including those Gnostic doctrines which, from India to Egypt, appeared, disappeared, and reappeared in the form of the most disparate of beliefs. Gnosticism, more than an organization or a well-defined doctrine, has always presented itself as a philosophical, religious and esoteric concept with many ramifications.
This proposed knowledge, which purported to be a revelation of a nature superior to the common tradition of the Church, from the II and III centuries AD was severely criticized and was forced to continue the teachings of its fundamental principles in secrecy and clandestinity. After all, as history is written by the winners, certain pre-Christian faiths as the Gnostic or other archaic religions, when not englobed by Christianity, were condemned and accused of paganism. Consequently, they were persecuted and decimated as teachings contrary to the truth taught by the current, more powerful, religion. In any case, after the accidental discovery in 1945 of 13 antique papyri, Gnosticism became a burning topic for researchers, who analyzed it with great care in the attempt to better focalize certain historical truths which the Christian religion had not completely clarified. These Egyptian manuscripts, called The Nag Hammadi Codes,17 are for the most part Gnostic writings dated between the II and IV centuries AD, and include three works belonging to the Corpus Hermeticum,18 as well as a partial translation of Plato’s Republic. They are thought to have been property of the library of a Pacomian monastery of the area, where the monks had hidden them in order to save them from certain destruction, precisely when Gnosticism was beginning to be persecuted as hereticism.
Briefly, therefore, early Christianity was a religion indebted to many ancient traditions and influences; and the first-century hermits of the Egyptian desert may be considered the explicit witnesses of this continuity. Around the IV century AD, this form of Eastern Monasticism19 was put again upon the interrupted road of Clement and Origen by an avid reader of the works of this last, Evagrius Ponticus. Born circa 345 AD, he included a teaching on the rules of monasticism in a treatise known as Praktikos. Retiring later to contemplative life in one of the many hermitages in the Egyptian desert, he was the teacher of an essential personage in the history of the Tarot, the monk John Cassian. As is known, the ascetics, who lived in an anchoritic state or among the organized monastic communities20, consecrated their life to an experience of total spirituality. Knowing the immense cultural, religious, and esoteric richness of the Egypt of those centuries, it should not surprise us that those who in those times desired to have contact with a different and superior knowledge, decided to travel to this country and with this specific motivation. Cassian himself, disciple of Evagrius, spent many years in the desert Thebaid regions in close contact with these Holy Fathers who gave such prestige to early Christian tradition.
John Cassian (Giovanni Cassiano)
In spite of historical uncertainty as to his origin (he was born probably around the year 365 AD, in Scythia Minor, the modern Dobruja), we know that Cassian, raised in a rich and religious family, followed classical studies and after these, embraced the monastic life. With his friend Germanus he departed for Palestine, “to join the spiritual militia” where, welcomed into the cells of Bethlehem, they encountered the Cenobites of that region, of Syria, and perhaps of Mesopotamia. However, “after having received the first rudiments of the faith and having gained profit thereof, we felt the desire of a higher perfect
ion and decided to travel to Egypt.”21
Attracted by the inland, they left again in search of the anchorites living in the deserts where he spent ten, or possibly twenty, years of his life, near wise men such as Macarius the Egyptian, the abbot Piamm, the Blessed Pannunzio, and also Evagrius . He thus discovered a new teaching of which, as he himself averred, he had never heard before.
Having returned to the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, Cassian was ordained a deacon; but owing to involvement in the dogmatic and political conflicts between Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, and the Patriarch of Constantinople John Chrysostom, Cassian was forced to flee to Rome. Here he became a friend of the future Pope Leo and was consecrated priest. Enrich by such meaningful experiences, towards 415 he journeyed to Marseilles to found the monastery known as the Abbey of San Vittore (Saint Victor). The principle object of this mission was to restore a more complete and spiritual way of living the monastic life in the region of Provence, in a word, to restore strength and splendour to the so-called Western monasticism.
In practice, with the mediation of Cassian, religiosity and the knowledge of the ancient Eastern traditions were transmitted to the West as well, specifically in Provence. In fact, his written works of this period, among which the Collationes (The Conferences of the Fathers), from circa 420 AD and De institutis cenobiorum (The Cenobitic Institutions), will be an essential contribution to to the entire later progression of Western spirituality. In the “Cenobitic Institutions”, in particular, inspired by his Master, Evagrius, Cassian explains the purpose and right conduct of a monk. These writings were of such calibre and ascetic profundity that Saint Benedict of Norcia drew on them in conceiving, elaborating, and living a morality appropriate for Latin individuals, described in detail in his Rule. He wrote, in the last chapter of his work:
“We have written this Rule because, by observance of it in the monastery, we show a certain restraint of manner or the beginning of spiritual life. But for those who have urgency to arrive at the perfection of this spiritual life, there exist the teachings of the Holy Fathers, the practice of which leads man to the summit of perfection. Indeed which page and which voice of divine authority of the Old or New Testaments, is not a just rule of human life? Which work of the Holy Catholic Fathers does not exhort us to reach our Creator by the most direct way? The “Conferences” of the Fathers and their “Institutions” and “Lives”, as also the Rule of our Holy Father Basil, are these not a virtuous means for good and obedient monks?”
Does it not seem curious that Saint Benedict, spiritual father of the Benedictine Order, chose to build his monastery in Cassino, thus closely allied with the name Cassiano and the Cassinite order...? That John Cassian had been the Teacher whose precepts Benedict affirms to heed in the prologue to his Rule...? Beyond these curious and unexpected questions, it is in any case certain that there was a direct historical tie between the Hermits of the Egyptian desert and Provence; or between the Eastern, Egyptian teachings, John Cassian (with the Abbey of Saint Victor, founded by him) and Western tradition. Why is it then, that in this context, such a long and elaborate introduction had been necessary? The answer is:
Cassian was a leading figure in the vicissitudes of the Tarot, guarding them and handing down their authentic Teaching.
The graphic appearance of the Arcana was re-elaborated by a group of Gnostic initiates of the first centuries. In this version, they may be considered the testimony, in the form of a silent Book composed only of images, of Knowledge and Faith derived from an even more Ancient Wisdom. They represent, therefore, a joining link between Egyptian and Christian knowledge, a spiritual and sapiential continuum between East and West.
The history of the Abbey of Saint Victor is closely tied to the annals of these cards, as we will see presently. John Cassian22, with the Order that bears his name, had a great religious and esoteric influence on Provence and on the whole of Europe: we have only to think that, in the various confraternities, the study of his theological vision continues even today. This monk and his disciples, initiated in the same principles, made it their task to preserve and propagate these Icons today known as the Tarot, in all the territory of the spiritual influence of the Abbey, also thanks to the fact that in those days the profession of amanuensis was cultivated, precisely, in religious locations23 (in Italy in particular, in the Benedictine monasteries). Therefore, Cassian proved to be an authentic and fundamental Teacher of Christianity, one of the essential guardians of Western spirituality, whose works and accuracy it is impossible to doubt.
2.2 From 1000 to 1500
In Western Europe, the period of political instability and the lack of resources, cause and consequence of the fall of the Western Roman Empire were still underway. The Eastern Empire suffered the repercussions of the centuries past while the Arabs and the Muslim peoples enjoyed constantly increased means and contributions. The expansion into southern France followed strategies already adopted elsewhere, raiding, plundering and occupying, or the foundation of coastal centres for penetration inland. For Christianity and its locations, including the territory and activity of the Abbey of San Vittore, these were times of great difficulty and continuous retreat.
However, in the centuries following the year 1000 was seen a new prosperity for the Christian faith, thanks also to religious groups and orders, such as Cathars and Templars, who defended the original principles of the faith and brought to the front once more its purity and authenticity. San Vittore itself, guided by the Spanish monk Isarno, recovered its position, becoming one of the most authoritative and influential institutions in the West. We concern ourselves greatly with this Abbey and the territory directly under its control, as in these locations was found the most ancient documents regarding the Marseilles Tarot. The hypothesis is that the Abbey produced these Icons, today known as Tarot cards, distributing them to their dependencies over this vast area, even to the regions farthest east, as the Duchy of Milan (site of the deck considered the most ancient of all). This supposition is strengthened by the presence of an historical tie between San Vittore, Marseilles, and the Visconti family.
Saint Victor and the Visconti family
Simple Lords of Marseilles and Trets before the year 977, the Visconti were able to create their own sovereignty in French territory without the obligation of rendering fealty to the Counts of Provence. Their tie to Saint Victor, in any case, is certified by the habitual rapport of shared territory, but also by some particular facts. According to tradition, Guillaume de Grimoard (1310-1370) was the 200th Pope of the Catholic Church, from 1362 until his death. He took the name of Urban V and in 1870 was proclaimed Blessed by Pius IX. Already a Benedictine monk at an early age, theologian and Doctor in Canonical Law, he was Abbot of Saint Victor for a number of years. Among his many merits, the future Pope distinguished himself in various diplomatic missions to Italy for the Curia of Avignon, from1352 to1362. In one of these, the Pope Innocent VI sent him to Milan, to the Visconti, to attempt to put an end to the bitter conflict arising from the refusal to acknowledge the temporal sovereignty of the Church.
It seems clear, then, that there existed a direct relationship between Marseilles, Milan, and the Tarot. Equally evident is the consequence: The Icons, exiting the walls of the ancient monasteries, became, over the centuries, a recreational and popular pastime, mere playing cards. What happened? The answer is much simpler than it appears. Precisely because of the changeable happenings of San Vittore and its dependencies, the images underwent a vulgarization. In this way, losing the exclusivity of religious and esoteric environments, they came to be known by a public uneducated in the authentic wisdom of certain Teachings. In those days, the fidelity of a copy of the illustrations, as with text, depended above all on the quality of the original and on the ability of the copier. The decline of this proficiency, caused by chaos which had erupted through the monastery territories, caused a gradual worsening of the features and colours of the illustrations; at the sa
me time, copying, in the hands of individuals who had no knowledge of their true symbolism, degenerated into an inevitable modification of the original. Thus, they who decided to re-design the deck for various purposes, not having at their disposition exact copies of the originals, had progressively (although involuntarily) deviated the authentic ancient Tradition. Over time, the symbols and even more the figures, on the basis of a vastly incomplete graphic (“written”) tradition and on an - inadvertently - erroneous oral transmission, were dispersed and scattered, becoming many different decks. In order to clarify this, we will examine these two cards:
Fig. 4
Visconti-Sforza Tarot, 1400 circa
Fig. 5
Marseilles Tarot of 1760 (Restored)
As you will note, both figures of the Hermit hold an object in the hand: in the first case, an hourglass, in the second, a lantern. We know, from the Codes, the Coded Structure to which we repeatedly refer and which we will explain at length, that the Hermit has within himself the concept of time. Therefore, since in all probability this information was known and orally transmitted, it is understandable that the author of the Visconti image drew an hourglass in the hand of the figure. It is to be supposed that not having the original available, the copier trusted himself to a simple act of memory. In any case, as we will see later, thanks to the system of Codes, the symbol is incorrect because only the lantern confers an accurate and perfectly correspondent meaning to the general esoterical structure, guaranteeing a plurality of sense which is totally lacking in the case of the hourglass.
The Tarot Code Page 4
