ABSTRACT
One of the most interesting and popular of all occult practices is the use of the Tarot cards. Tarot cards are popularly held to have been handed down by the gypsies, and there is a certain veneer of superstition surrounding them. However, most of the legends concerning the Tarot cards are false. Antoine Court de Gebelin, a French theologian and student of mythology, was responsible for some of the early, fanciful tales about the Tarot. The next major theorist of the Tarot, and one who has perhaps influenced modern occultism more than any other, was Eliphas Levi. The Golden Dawn magicians used the Tarot cards as pathways into the mind, rather than as a means of divination, and the former is undoubtedly its most significant means of application. The modern occultist, therefore, uses the Major arcana of the Tarot as his doorway to greater consciousness, and cups and pentacles.
