Antoine Court who named himself Antoine Court de Gébelin ( ca.1719 – May 10, 1784) was the Swiss former Protestant pastor, born at Nimes (Encyclopædia Britannica), who initiated the interpretation of the Tarot as an arcane repository of timeless esoteric wisdom, in an essay included in his Le Monde primitif, analysé et comparé avec le monde moderne ("The Primitive World, Analyzed and Compared to the Modern World"), volume viii, 1781. The chapter on Tarot with which his name is indelibly associated is a single section in his vast compendium that he published in series from 1773, to a distinguished list of subscribers, headed by Louis XVI. May 10 is the 130th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (131st in leap years). ... 1784 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Nîmes is a city and commune of southern France, préfecture (capital) of the Gard département. ... As discussed in more detail below, the Tarot is usually a deck of 78 cards composed of: the major arcana, consisting of 21 trump cards and the Fool card; the minor arcana consisting of 56 cards: ten cards numbered from Ace to 10 in four different suits; traditionally batons (wands... Esoterica is a band from the South East of England, namely Surrey. ... Louis XVI (August 9, 1754, Versailles – January 21, 1793, Paris) was King of France and Navarre from 1774 until 1791, and then King of the French in 1791-1793. ...

He had been ordained a pastor in 1754 before departing his native Switzerland and remained openly Protestant, a rational advocate for freedom of conscience in Enlightenment France. In Paris, he was initiated into Freemasonry at the lodge Les Amis Réunis, in 1771, and moved on to the lodge where he welcomed Benjamin Franklin as a lodge-brother. He was a supporter of American Independence who contributed to the massive Affaires de L'Angleterre et de l'Amérique, of the new theories of economics, and of the "animal magnetism" of Mesmer— in an electrical experiment with whom he died, apparently of an electrically-induced heart attack. The Age of Enlightenment refers to the 18th century in European philosophy, and is often thought of as part of a larger period which includes the Age of Reason. ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... the Square and Compasses Freemasonry is a worldwide fraternal organisation. ... Benjamin Franklin by Jean-Baptiste Greuze 1777 Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790) was one of the most prominent of Founders and early political figures and statesmen of the United States. ... Franz Anton Mesmer. ...

His great project had for its goal to set out to reconstruct the high primeval civilization. Reinterpreting Classical and Renaissance evocation of the Golden Age in mankind's early history, Court de Gébelin asserted that the primitive worldwide civilization had been advanced and enlightened. He is the intellectual grandfather of much of modern occultism. His centers of focus are the familiar ones of universal origins of languages in deep time and the hermeneutics of symbolism. Court de Gébelin presented dictionaries of etymology, what he called a universal grammar, and discourses on the origins of language. his volumes were so popular he republished them separately, as Histoire naturelle de la parole, ou Précis de l'Origine du Langage & de la Grammaire Universelle ("Natural history of the Word, or a sketch of the origins of language and of univerrsal grammar"), in Paris, 1776. A golden age is a period in a field of endeavour where great tasks were accomplished. ... For other uses of this term, see occult (disambiguation). ... Hermeneutics may be described as the theory of interpretation and understanding of a text through empirical means. ... Etymology is the study of the origins of words. ...

With regard to mythology and symbology, he discussed the origins of allegory in antiquity and recreated a history of the calendar from civil, religious, and mythological perspectives.

It was his immediate perception, the first time he saw the Tarot deck, that it held the secrets of the Egyptians. Writing without the benefit of Champollion's deciphering of the Egyptian language, Court de Gébellin's developed reconstruction of Tarot history, without any historical evidence produced, was that Egyptian priests had distilled the ancient "Book of Thoth" into these images, which they brought to Rome, where they were secretly known to the popes, who brought them to Avignon in the 14th century, whence they were introduced into France. Court de Gebelin is also responsible for the mystical connection of the Tarot's Major Arcana with the 22 letters of the hebrew alphabet. An essay appended to his gave suggestions for cartomancy; within two years the fortune-teller known as "Etteilla" published a technique for reading the Tarot, and modern Tarot history was born. Jean_François Champollion For the comet rendezvous spacecraft, see Champollion (spacecraft). ... Cartomancy is a form of fortune-telling or divination using a deck of cards. ... Etteilla, the pseudonym of Jean-Baptiste Alliette (1738-91), was the French occultist, who was the first to popularize divination by Tarot to a wide audience. ...

External links

• James W. Revak, "Biography of Antoine Court de Gébelin"
• Short Biography
• Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911: Antoine Court de Gebelin

Reference

• Ronald Decker, Thierry Depaulis, Michael Dummett, A Wicked Pack of Cards: The Origins of the Occult Tarot 1996