Mystical Angels

what is the house of major arcana?

I've read about it in a book but I've found just about nothing other than that a Queen of France created it. And I know that Major Arcana is a Tarot card reading

Public Comments

1. Well, no, the Queen of France didn't invent it. There are a lot of stories about the origin of tarot cards but here's the account given by the historians. Tarot was invented in mid 15th Italy for the Milanese court. It consists of two parts: a standard pack of Latin suited playing cards (that occultists call the Minor Arcana) and a fifth suit of picture cards (that occultists call the Major Arcana). These extra cards took as their theme a triumph procession, hence their early name of trionfi, meaning triumphs and from which we get our word trump! And this is what there were, a suit of fixed trump cards for use in a family of games that continues to be played throughout continental Europe today. It was not until the end of the 18th century that a Parisian occultist published the claim that they came from Ancient Egypt and contained the secrets and wisdom of Egypt's priests. He also published the first account of how to use the cards in divination. During the 19th century, a number of French occultists expanded these beliefs, claiming that the trumps corresponded to the paths of the Tree of Life. At the end of the 19th century, a group of British occultists introduced tarot to the English speaking world, integrating the cards into their magic system. This group was called the Order of the Golden Dawn and some of its members heavily redesigned the cards to create the type of occult packs that you will be familiar with today.