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THE MAGIC OF THE FOUR ELEMENTS

Knowledge forgotten for 500 Years

Tarot Revolution:

The Original Master's Heritage

The Mystery
about the original order
of the Tarot Cards has been solved !

tarocchi – players in court costume around 1440
Palazzo Borromeo, Milan

How it all began

Five hundred years ago, the Tarot game began its triumphal march on the gaming tables of Europe.

In inns as well as in princely salons, people gambled passionately. Their general popularity and wide distribution made the cards an ideal medium for covert messaging .

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 game we now know as the Tarot de Marseille.

In twenty years of analysis I have succeeded in reconstructing the original coding procedure of the creators of 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.

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.

The church suspected that insiders could make the popular game’s cards talk in entirely new (and forbidden) ways.

And rightly so: while the church censors recognized nothing more than the innocuous symbols of the four evangelists in the corners of the highest trump card XXI, alert eyes and a trained mind could discover the hidden treasure: A Magic Square of the Four Elements. The key to the entire game.

In the shadow of religious frenzy about original sin and purgatory, the secret message of the cards circulated unrecognized throughout Europe.

The 22 major arcana once described the adventurous emergence of a soul from Cosmic Light and the return of humanity to its natural destiny.

Philosophers, alchemists and natural scientists soon deciphered the intricately encoded message of the tarot masters.

It told initiates about a welcoming universe created of Light by the Four Elements. A world that invites its inhabitants to abandon the treadmill of need and anxiety and instead 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.

The 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 Alchimist's Secret

Glass vials in the alchemical laboratory
Prague Castle, around 1600

Alchemical Imagery in the Renaissance Tarot

For the first time after 500 years, we are able study the old card game from the perspective of its original creators.

Take a look at how the alchemical worldview was expressed in the Tarot imagery of that era.

Detail of trump card XXI

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:

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.

FIRE

AIR

WATER

EARTH

Starting Here Today
On this Magic Date
22022022

 

Test your Decoding Potential on our Interactive Tarot Quiz Matrix.

  • Find the right places for the vials.
  • Check results  (hitting the candle)
  • Relate the 4 colors to the Four Elements.
  • Consult the simple rules of the Elements on this website and apply them to the 22 cards.
  • Compare your previous intuition and knowledge of the cards.
  • Find out more. Ask questions. Talk to others. Talk to us.
    INFO(at)TAROT-WORLD-PROJECT.ORG

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 .

Original Tarot Deck from 1760

Special edition with  4 Princesses added

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 old, hand-painted cards we find noble ladies in sophisticated costumes and unusual poses. 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: