this is a page for

Daily Archives: August 11, 2025

Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers — The Architect of the Golden Dawn Tarot. Born: 8 January 

Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (1854–1918) was one of the founding members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the primary architect of its Tarot system. Building on earlier French occult theories, Mathers wove Tarot into a vast network of correspondences — linking each Major Arcana card to a…

Papus — The Philosopher of the Tarot – Born: 13 July 1865

Gérard Encausse — better known to the world as Papus — was the scholar-mystic of the French occult revival, a man who approached Tarot not merely as a tool for fortune-telling, but as a book of universal law. A physician by profession and a magician by vocation, he brought…

Jean-Baptiste Alliette — “Etteilla” – Born: 1 March 1738

In the late 18th century, Jean-Baptiste Alliette — known to history by the reversed spelling of his surname, Etteilla — transformed Tarot from a game into a dedicated tool of divination. Long before most of Europe saw the cards as anything more than a parlour pastime, Etteilla published the first Tarot…

Your Chosen Tarot Systems and Traditions — A Guided Tour

Tarot is like wine — every deck has its own flavour, body, and aftertaste. Some are bright and approachable; others are complex, demanding time and patience before revealing their depth. I work with several powerful lineages, and while each has its own history and personality, together they create a living library…

The Origins and History of Tarot — Schools, Masters, and Legends

Tarot is both a symbolic system and a mirror of human thought. Its history has two threads: one woven from documented fact, the other from myth and mystical tradition. To truly understand Tarot, we must walk through each school of its lineage — from Atlantis to the Golden Dawn — and meet…