THE MAGIC OF THE FOUR ELEMENTS
Tarot Revolution:
The Original Masters' Heritage
Knowledge forgotten for 500 Years
The Mystery about
the original significance of the Tarot
has been solved!
tarocchi – players in court costume around 1440
Palazzo Borromeo, Milan
How it all began
Five hundred years ago, the Tarot began its triumphant advance onto the gaming tables of Europe.
People played passionately in both taverns and grand salons. Due to their widespread popularity and prevalence, the cards were an ideal medium for hidden messages.
And indeed, unknown Renaissance scholars hid the key to the meaning of all Tarot cards in a magic square on the highest trump of the deck we now know as the Tarot de Marseille.
What scholars and explorers of our day did not know: Half a millennium ago, the 22 Tarot cards contained an invitation to alchemistic self-transformation. The Four Elements served als guides for initiates.
After twenty years of analysis, I have succeeded in reconstructing the original coding method used by the creators of the Tarot de Marseille.
You are invited today to discover for yourself the secret order in which the 22 Major Arcana begin to explain each other!
REVOLUTION no. 1
The Secret Key on Card XXI
… unrecognized for 500 years
... overlooked by millions of eyes
... now rediscovered
The original Tarot deck was invented during in the Renaissance, the era of daVinci, Galileo and Columbus. It was a time of revolutionary transformation: from faith to science, from submission to individuality, from religious dogma to spiritual awakening.
In the shadow of religious frenzy with original sin and purgatory, the Tarot de Marseille became a figurehead of the Christian-Platonic reform movement for personal self liberation.
Soon, the secret message of the cards circulated unrecognized throughout Europe.
Philosophers, alchemists and natural scientists deciphered the intricately encoded messages of the Tarot masters. The initiated were told about an welcoming universe created from eternal light by the Four Elements. A world that invites its inhabitants to leave behind the treadmill of constraints and fear and immerse themselves in the magical chaos of love.
This cheerful worldview had been kept secret for centuries. As a vivid alternative to the dogmas and threats of religion, it was beeing explored only by the most adventurist scholars of the time.
It was advisable not to talk about it in public.
500 years ago, the Tarot game began its triumphal journey as a viral guerrilla media campaign.
The cards showed more than meets the eye.
WHAT THE CENSORS SAWThe wise know two languages, one to tell the truth the other to say what is appropriate.
Euripides
Inquisition trial
The painting showed the utter helplessness of the defendents.
Francisco de Goya, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
REVOLUTION no. 2
What can the Four Elements tell you today?
Imagine:
Without special book knowledge, you can grasp the basic meaning of each Tarot card at a glance.
How is that possible?
Each card in the Renaissance Tarot deck was once associated with one of the Four Elements.
Anyone who knew the function of the element received an important hint concerning the meaning of the card.
Can exploring the cards work that reliably?
Here, you may try it out.
The Alchemist's Message
Glass vials in the alchemical laboratory
Prague Castle, around 1600
Tarot
Alchemy
Alchemist Vials on trump card XXI
and in the private studiolo des Palastes of Lorenzo d’Medici
Florence 1570.
Alchemical Imagery in the Renaissance Tarot
Take a look at how the alchemical worldview was expressed in the Tarot imagery of that era.
Detail of trump card XXI
Nicolas Conver deck of 1760 restored by reality publishing 2020
View Original 1760 Deck >
The central figure on trump card XXI is the Soul of the World – the creative force of the universe. In right hand she carries a flask: the vial, traditional emblem of alchemy.
The French research team Jodorowsky/Camoin made this revealing discovery around the year 2000.
Thanks to them, we can today look at the ancient card game from the perspective of the alchemical movement of that time.
Here is a selection of historic examples:
Vial in the Alchemist Furnace.
This animation by Sylvain Dromain was the outset
for the development of the following
Tarot Matrix Quiz.
Discover the Original Meaning
of the 22 Atous !
INVITATION
TO CRACK THE
TAROT MATRIX QUIZ
This is how it’s done
Hidden here is the alchemical matrix, which associates one element to each of the 22 trump cards.
Four colored glass flasks represent the Four Elements.
Find the right places for the vials.
Check results (hitting the candle)
After your playful decoding of the alchemical matrix, you will be invited to discover, free of charge and without obligation, the history, development and practical application of this extraordinary key arrangement, in which the
22 Arcana Major begin to explain each other !
FIRE
AIR
WATER
EARTH
A hundred keys – None fits
In Persuit of the Secret Key
For over a hundred years, it has been rumored that Tarot cards reveal their hidden meaning to those who know how to arrange them correctly. Countless authors have attempted to do so. On this page, you will find a collection of interesting approaches.
DISCOVER THE ORIGIANL RENAISSANCE ORDER OF THE 22 ATOUS !
– Click here for PC and Mac –
Unfortunately, Waite and Crowley, in their re-designs, greatly altered the meaning of the originl game:
Waite changed the card’s order by seeking to subordinate their sequence to the cycle of the Zodiac.
Crowley invented entirely new names and meanings for his ‘Egyptian Tarot’ such as Lust, Art, Aeon.
Thus the two most successful decks of the century not only obliterated the genuine old system, but also made it unreadable.
Card reading can be done with many different decks and methods.
The secret wisdom of the Original Tarot Masters can only be brought to life
by their own original cards, today known as the Tarot de Marseille .
Our faithful restoration has brought Nicolas Convers’ original 1760 deck back to life.
Card XXI once contained secret philosophical and alchemical knowledge.
Dicover the hidden Symbols ?
On the history and renewed role of the princess in Tarot:
Clic the card
Original Tarot Deck from 1760
Special edition with 4 Princesses added
For Divination: Check out the Quick Start Booklet >
REVOLUTION no. 3
The Princess and the End of Male Dominance in the Tarot World
The figure of the Princess in Tarot is as old as the game itself.
On antique, hand-painted cards we find noble ladies in sophisticated costumes and unusual roles. They reflect the changing image of women in the Italian Renaissance.
In our restoration of N. Conver’s legendary 1760 edition, we have added a Princess to each of the four Valets.
Admire the gentle transformation by the hand of French graphic artist Élodie Tribut:
2 male + 2 female figures
Such balance was once the hallmark of the Hermetic Four Elements lore, on the secret basis of which the tarot game was originally created.
And most useful:
The Princesses give valuable hints for card readers: For instance when one should let go .
Modestly on side-saddle, yet armed.
Milan around 1440
View all Visconti-Sforza cards:
Beinecke Library Collection / Yale University
The History and Character
of the PRINCESSES
in the Tarot of the 4 Elementes.
Read the English excerpt from my Book.
It’s interesting and it’s free:
Tarot Lovers
discover
the
Original
Master’s
Legacy
The Tarot World Project is in its initial phase of presentation, and mostly still in German.
We are looking for translators (deepL), contributors and commercial representatives in English-speaking countries.
Feel free to contanct me: