LONDON — Ask any tarot reader in regards to the origins of the favored cartomancy observe, and also you’ll get a wide range of solutions. “It’s from ancient Egypt.” “It was Renaissance Italians.” “They’re connected to playing cards.” “Nobody really knows.”
Tarot – Origins & Afterlives on the Warburg Institute begins by this historical past, with out overshadowing the magic on this observe. “When an aesthetic or visual form is doing so much work in culture, as tarot is, I want to know why,” famous Jonathan Allen, one of many present’s curators, in an interview with Hyperallergic. “One can start beginning to answer the question by looking at the history of the phenomenon — why is tarot doing all this conceptual work and what kind of work is it doing culturally?”
Grounded partly within the analysis of the institute’s namesake, artwork historian Aby Warburg, the present options Warburg’s analysis in 1909 into tarot within the part Tarot Atlas. Among the many uncommon objects on view are the Fifteenth-century Mantegna Tarocchi, a precursor to the fashionable tarot deck (probably used extra for play than divination), and the Nineteenth-century woodcuts that make up the Tarot of Marseille, a deck nonetheless in frequent utilization right this moment.
“The Juggler” card from the Austin Osman Spare tarot deck (c. 1906) (courtesy The Magic Circle Assortment)
The exhibition additionally dives into a significant historic turning level within the historical past of tarot. Within the 1780s, French Freemason and scholar Antoine Courtroom Gébelin declared that it “was not a mere pack of playing cards,” the exhibition textual content states, “but a repository of arcane wisdom known as the ‘Book of Thoth,’ originating in Ancient Egypt.” Different fascinating objects are notions of tarot as a “story machine,” via a novel by Italo Calvino through which the characters can solely talk with tarot playing cards, and Suzanne Treister’s well-known HEXEN 2.0 and HEXEN 5.0 decks, which assist orient us to different futures; a full view of the favored Rider-Waite-Smith deck, illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith; and a Tarotkammer, a set of up to date decks impressed by the Renaissance-era Wunderkammer, or cupboard of curiosities.
I requested Allen and his fellow curator, Martina Mazzotta, about tarot’s enduring enchantment. “Tarot and its combinatory system of symbols mean it is ideally suited to telling stories in many different areas and [for] different purposes,” Allen defined. “This functional diversity surfaces throughout our exhibition.” It’s additionally, as Mazzotta stated, “a source of wonder.”
Set up view of Tarot – Origins & Afterlives on the Warburg Institute that includes King Khan and Michael Eaton’s Black Energy Tarot, John Walter’s Lockdown Tarot, and Sharon Gal’s Etudes. (photograph Jonathan Allen, courtesy The Warburg institute)
Maybe one of many extra fascinating insights that emerges from the exhibition is the way in which tarot has been embraced within the fashionable period — someplace in between a physique of esoteric data and a sport. “There’s a snowball effect where tarot is now like a complex game that has more in common with its ludic and recreational origins than it does with its deeply occult history.” Allen noticed. “It’s a third phase of the tarot — a serious game, modeling complexity.”
The curators politely declined my invitation for them to provide a studying throughout our interview — they famous that they’re students and never practitioners — however they did share two playing cards that they love: “The World” from Tarocchino Mitelli (1660) and “The Juggler” from the Austin Osman Spare tarot deck (1906). Whereas “The Juggler” doesn’t seem in most modern tarot decks I’ve seen, it visually resembles “The Magician” from the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, whereas the Seventeenth-century Tarocchino Mitelli card remembers the legendary picture of the Greek Titan Atlas.
The world certainly feels very heavy proper now, as so many people, like Titan, carry the burdens of our time. If I had been to take the freedom of mixing these playing cards right into a significant studying, I’d level out that they accomplish precisely what tarot permits for therefore many people right this moment — bringing forth a wise combination of play and historical knowledge which may assist us juggle our actuality, with a minimum of a few of the will and dexterity of “The Juggler.”
“The World” card from from the Tarocchino Mitelli, Giuseppe Maria Mitelli (c. 1660); Personal Assortment (courtesy The Warburg Institute, London)
Set up view of Tarot – Origins & Afterlives on the Warburg Institute that includes Suzanne Treister’s HEXEN 2.0, Courtney Alexander’s Mud II Onyx, and Anna Zett’s Industrie & Glück. (photograph Jonathan Allen, courtesy the Warburg institute)
Tarot – Origins & Afterlives continues at The Warburg Institute (Woburn Sq., London, England) via April 30. The exhibition was organized by Jonathan Allen, Martina Mazzotta, and Invoice Sherman (whose favourite deck is the Sola Busca).
The Warburg Institute will host a sequence of associated occasions on April 24, 26, and 30. Test the web site for particulars.
