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My nan is Church of England and tells me that tarot cards are evil. I just wondered where she thinks this for personal or religious reasons. I don’t want an arguement I just want to know. Many thanks.
Historically, the Christian church had no real objection to tarot and certainly didn’t think the cards were evil.
Tarot cards were created in mid 15th century Italy, comprising of a standard pack of Latin suited playing cards and a fifth suit of picture cards. These extra cards took as their theme, not an occult philosophy, but a Christian triumph procession, hence their early name of trionfi, meaning triumphs and from which we get our word trumps. It was the invention of tarot that marked the introduction of trumps in card games - and that is what they were invented for, card games that have grown into a large family and which are still played throughout continental Europe today!
Many occultists have claimed that the Church attacked tarot as evil and drove use of the cards ‘underground’. In fact, the games of tarot spread and were played openly and without opposition, throughout the counter-reformation. The only exception to this was in Spain, where the Church did object - not because they saw them as un-Christian images but because they did see them as Christian, they felt that their use in a game trivialized the sacred.
Looking at the cards today, the cards often strike people as looking rather mysterious and perhaps heretical. However, we must remember that we are looking at them with modern eyes, and a vision coloured by popular myth. To really understand what the cards are, we need to look at them in the context of the time and place of their creation. Let me give two examples.
Occultists often cite The Female Pope as being a heretical image that the church opposed. Well, we know the Church did not oppose it - but why? If we look at 15th century Italian art, we discover that The Female Pope was actually an established figure in Christian art of the time, being used to represent such things as The New Covenant, and the Virtue of Faith. It was no heresy at all!
Another card that strikes us as looking very esoteric is The Hanged Man. This card was misnamed by French card makers who would have been as puzzled by the figure of a man suspended by one foot as we are today. However, we know from written sources that this card was called The Traitor in Italy - and little wonder, as in Italy at that time, the executed their traitors by suspending them by one foot and leaving them to die rather slowly and publicly. Not very nice but not very mysterious either.
For about 350 years, the only recorded use of tarot cards was for card games. It was not until the end of the 18th century that a French occultist, ignorant of their actual origin, puplished the claim that the cards came from ancient Egypt, codifying lost wisdom, and having a use in divination. For about 100 years these ideas were limited to just France but at the end of the 19th century some British occultists imported the cards and the French myths to the English speaking world - and this is where religious opposition began. It is not an opposition to the cards themselves but to the use that they consider evil - after all, it makes no sense to stop drinking tea because some people try to tell the fortune with the leaves.
9 Responses to “Do some people think tarot cards are evil?”
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i dont think so i own tarot cards and there very accurate :)i never knew they were ment to be evil though it might be because of religious reaosns and my aunt whos a christian thinks the ouijja board is evil
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For me personally, I think they are questionable. I don’t understand the dynamics of it. I have mixed emotions of it. Aren’t you opening the devils door or something?
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of course tarot cards are non sense that is my personal view i think that they are outdated
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A lot of christians believe that they are an unnatural or evil
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Many years ago, anything that the church did not understand, or thought was a threat to it’s power, it labelled as ‘evil’ (machines, medicine, heavy metal music, other religions etc). Tarot was seen as something that people may choose to look at for answers, rather than go to church. If you believe that there’s only one god that has the answers, and somebody else says THEY have the answers, then it’s easy for the church to say they’re lying and that they must be evil.
Obviously we now have science to explain that tarot are just nicely printed pieces of card and religion is a form of mass hysteria.
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All the western religions have been taught from the time of their inception that unless guidance came via a priest/ father etc. it had no validity. And as tarot etc was predominantly used by female gypsies they were portrayed as being evil, as with nearly everything else that was remotely feminine orientated.
References :
Historically, the Christian church had no real objection to tarot and certainly didn’t think the cards were evil.
Tarot cards were created in mid 15th century Italy, comprising of a standard pack of Latin suited playing cards and a fifth suit of picture cards. These extra cards took as their theme, not an occult philosophy, but a Christian triumph procession, hence their early name of trionfi, meaning triumphs and from which we get our word trumps. It was the invention of tarot that marked the introduction of trumps in card games - and that is what they were invented for, card games that have grown into a large family and which are still played throughout continental Europe today!
Many occultists have claimed that the Church attacked tarot as evil and drove use of the cards ‘underground’. In fact, the games of tarot spread and were played openly and without opposition, throughout the counter-reformation. The only exception to this was in Spain, where the Church did object - not because they saw them as un-Christian images but because they did see them as Christian, they felt that their use in a game trivialized the sacred.
Looking at the cards today, the cards often strike people as looking rather mysterious and perhaps heretical. However, we must remember that we are looking at them with modern eyes, and a vision coloured by popular myth. To really understand what the cards are, we need to look at them in the context of the time and place of their creation. Let me give two examples.
Occultists often cite The Female Pope as being a heretical image that the church opposed. Well, we know the Church did not oppose it - but why? If we look at 15th century Italian art, we discover that The Female Pope was actually an established figure in Christian art of the time, being used to represent such things as The New Covenant, and the Virtue of Faith. It was no heresy at all!
Another card that strikes us as looking very esoteric is The Hanged Man. This card was misnamed by French card makers who would have been as puzzled by the figure of a man suspended by one foot as we are today. However, we know from written sources that this card was called The Traitor in Italy - and little wonder, as in Italy at that time, the executed their traitors by suspending them by one foot and leaving them to die rather slowly and publicly. Not very nice but not very mysterious either.
For about 350 years, the only recorded use of tarot cards was for card games. It was not until the end of the 18th century that a French occultist, ignorant of their actual origin, puplished the claim that the cards came from ancient Egypt, codifying lost wisdom, and having a use in divination. For about 100 years these ideas were limited to just France but at the end of the 19th century some British occultists imported the cards and the French myths to the English speaking world - and this is where religious opposition began. It is not an opposition to the cards themselves but to the use that they consider evil - after all, it makes no sense to stop drinking tea because some people try to tell the fortune with the leaves.
References :
For more about the history:
http://www.trionfi.com
The Game of Tarot by Michael Dummett (Duckworth 1980)
For more about the games:
http://www.tarocchino.com
http://www.pagat.com
Many people believe that tarot cards can open the door to evil. I used to have a friend that would always go to a tarot card reader and her life was a mess, and she had the worst luck. I often wondered if her life was a mess because she opened that door?
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Hello
Tarot cards are 78 pieces of laminated card, evil is a state of mind & not found within any neutral object.
Your Nan’s view will be based on age old superstition. Allow your own intuition to lead you forwards.
Sadhara
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