The birth of occult Tarot
Etteilla
Jean-Baptiste Alliette
The man who turned Court de Gébelin's speculation into an actual system of divination, and perhaps the first professional Tarot reader.
- Dates
- 1 March 1738 – 12 December 1791
- Dating
- documented dates
- Born
- Paris
Place in the tradition
Upright and reversed meanings, astrological and elemental correspondences, and purpose-built esoteric decks all start here.
the written record
Principal works
-
installments 1783–1785
Manière de se récréer avec le jeu de cartes nommées Tarots
The first systematic published instructions for divinatory Tarot. It assigns upright and reversed meanings and integrates astrology and elemental correspondences.
-
1785
Fragment sur les hautes sciences
Further develops his 'higher sciences'.
-
c. 1790
Cours théorique et pratique du Livre de Thot
A late synthesis of his Tarot theories.
-
1789
The Etteilla Tarot
Not a book but a specially constructed occult deck — the ancestor of every later purpose-designed esoteric Tarot.