Demystifying the Tarot: The Turning Point of the Wheel of Fortune
To understand how the Tarot transformed from a parlor game into an object of fear, we must look at a single, pivotal card that bridges both worlds: The Wheel of Fortune.
The Renaissance Meaning: The Fickle Goddess
In Renaissance Italy, the Wheel of Fortune (La Ruota della Fortuna) was not a magical symbol. It was a common cultural warning about the randomness of life.
The Philosophy of Fortuna
The card’s imagery was inspired by the medieval philosopher Boethius. It featured the Roman goddess Fortuna turning a giant wheel. Four human figures were usually attached to it, representing the four stages of human fate:
- The rising figure: “I shall reign.”
- The figure at the top: “I reign” (often wearing a crown).
- The falling figure: “I have reigned.”
- The figure at the bottom: “I have no kingdom.”
To the nobility playing Tarocchi, this card was a reminder that wealth, power, and status could vanish in an instant. It was a secular lesson in humility, not a tool for predicting the future.
The Historical Pivot: Enter the Occultists
For over 350 years, European Christians played Tarocchi without any religious anxiety. Popes, monks, and pious executioners alike enjoyed the game.
That changed in 1781 in Paris, France.
Antoine Court de Gébelin’s Invention
A French Protestant pastor named Antoine Court de Gébelin visited a friend’s house and saw a group of aristocrats playing Tarot. He became obsessed with the cards, but he did not see a game. Instead, he claimed the cards were a secret, ancient Egyptian book of wisdom—the Book of Thoth—disguised as playing cards to survive the destruction of libraries.
De Gébelin reinterpreted the Wheel of Fortune. He claimed it was not a Roman wheel of chance, but an ancient Egyptian astrological calendar filled with hidden, magical codes.
Why the Fear Began: The Church’s Reaction
Once French mystics rebranded Tarot as an ancient pagan text, the cultural perception of the deck shifted overnight. The game was no longer seen as innocent fun.
The Threat of “Hidden Knowledge”
During the late 18th and 19th centuries, the Catholic and Protestant churches viewed any claim of “secret, non-Christian revelation” as heresy. If the cards truly contained ancient Egyptian magic, playing with them meant interacting with pagan deities and forbidden spirits.
The Birth of Forbidden Divination
Shortly after De Gébelin’s writings, an occultist named Jean-Baptiste Alliette (known as Etteilla) published the first definitive guide to reading Tarot cards for fortune-telling. He assigned specific, predictive meanings to each card.
When the Wheel of Fortune was used to peer into the unknown, religious authorities reacted with alarm. Seeking knowledge of the future outside of divine prayer was strictly forbidden by Christian doctrine. The innocent Renaissance game was officially labeled a tool of the devil.
Summary: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
The fear of Tarot did not come from the cards themselves, but from the 18th-century occultists who rewrote their history. By turning a game about human fate into a tool for manipulating fate, they accidentally created the modern myth of the “dangerous” Tarot deck.
“Once the world was taught to fear the cards, secret societies stepped in to hide them away. In Chapter 3, we explore how the tarot transformed from a forbidden game into a deep psychological mirror…”