Tarot and Geopolitical Divination (Court de Gébelin, 1781)

Around 1781, a French pastor, historian, scholar, and Freemason, Antoine Court de Gébelin published an essay on the Tarot and what he believed to be ancient esoteric knowledge encoded into the cards, namely, the magical traditions of the Egyptian high priests and high priestesses. The essay was part of a documentary compendium he worked on between 1773 and 1784, Le Monde primitif, analysé et comparé avec le monde moderne ("The Primeval World, Analyzed and Compared to the Modern World"). One of the articles in Court de Gébelin’s essay on the Tarot discussed use of the cards for geopolitical divination and how the suits, pips, and certain keys correspond with geographic locations, ethnic groups, civilizations, and economies. In this episode of Sightsee the Tarot, we’ll dive in to the late 18th century text, Monde primitif, and try our hand at geopolitical divination. This video is closed-captioned with English subtitles. BONUS VIDEO SIGHTSEE THE TAROT About the Series “Sightsee the Tarot” is a series on my channel through which I take you on a tour of tarot books, spreads, techniques and tips, different decks, and more. BENEBELL WEN Decks Pictured in the Opening: Tarot de Marseille; Rider-Waite-Smith 1911; Thoth Tarot; Pagan Otherworlds Tarot by Uusi; The Incidental Tarot by Holly DeFount; Golden Universal Tarot; Ostara Tarot; Spirit Keeper’s Tarot Main Deck Featured in this Video: CBD Tarot de Marseille by Yoav Ben-dov; Tattoo Tarot by Megamunden