A Wicked Pack of Cards

Ronald Decker, Thierry Depaulis and Michael Dummett trace the history of occult interpretations of the tarot, beginning with Antoine Court de Gébelin and Etteilla in eighteenth-century France and continuing through Eliphas Lévi and later French occultists. The authors show that tarot was originally a card game and that its esoteric associations are relatively recent. It is a rigorous historical study essential for understanding the origins of occult tarot.