designed by Etteilla, published 1890
Etteilla, ou maniere de se récréer avec un jeu de cartes (1770) was a discourse on the usage of regular playing cards (the
piquet deck, a shortened deck of 32 cards used in gaming, with the addition of an "Etteilla" card). Features included the "spread", or disposition on the table, and strictly assigned meanings to each card both in regular and in reversed positions, characteristics that are still central to
tarot divination today. In his preface, "Etteilla" explained that he had learned his system from an Italian; it remains unclear to what extent his assigned symbology was his own contribution. The book was reprinted the following year. He was working as a printseller, but from this time, approximately, he earned his livelihood by working as a consultant, teacher and author. In 1781, the French Swiss Protestant clergyman and occultist Antoine Court who named himself
Court de Gébelin published in his massive work
Le Monde primitif his idea that the Tarot was actually an ancient Egyptian book of
arcane wisdom; his work included an essay by the Comte de Mellet who first called tarot cards the
Book of Thoth and, crucially, claimed that the Egyptians used the cards for fortune-telling and described what purported to be their method of divination. There is no evidence to support the notion that tarot has an
Egyptian lineage but, influenced by de Gébelin, Etteilla responded with another book,
Manière de se récréer avec le jeu de cartes nommées tarots ("Way to recreate yourself with the deck of cards called tarots") in 1783. It was the first book of methods of divination by Tarot. In the book, Etteilla claimed that he had been introduced to the art of cartomancy in 1751, long before the appearance of Court de Gebelin's work. In 1788, he formed 'Société des Interprètes du Livre de Thot', a group of French-speaking correspondents through which he continued to discuss his ideas about tarot interpretation. The next year he published a special deck for divination that syncretized his ideas with older forms of French cartomancy. This was the first deck of cards specifically designed for occult purposes. In 1790, Etteilla founded the
Nouvelle Ecole de Magie (New School of Magic). Later that year, he published
Cours théorique et pratique du Livre du Thot (Theoretical and practical course from the
Book of Thoth), which includes his reworkings of what would later be called the "
Major" and "
Minor Arcana", as well as the introduction of the
four elements and
astrology. ==Publications==