17/10/2025
I have just launched a fabulous new course:
'This is a deeply personal, erudite and very original journey through the main forms of Western mysticism, generating a set of new speculations.“
Professor Ronald Hutton, 2023
This course is based on my recent book, which traces the link between the Tarot and Ancient Egypt. A link between two things is generally thought to be where they are joined together. This can imply a causal connection, particularly when one thing occurs historically before another. A link can also be defined as where they have something in common. In this course, I will be looking at how several people, during the course of its history, linked Tarot to a range of ancient beliefs, in a very deliberate way, conforming to the former definition. However, the latter definition also applies. I will show how the Tarot has a structure and rationale that is similar to the beliefs of Ancient Egypt and possibly those from even earlier times. In the latter case, it is much more difficult to prove a causal connection. However, the similarities between these beliefs do point towards different times in history when people of different faiths were open to religious and spiritual debate; and influences can be traced from one to another.
I will argue that the Tarot can be linked to the knowledge of the most ancient civilizations, via the innermost secrets of the Egyptian and Greek Mystery traditions. This is a story of a transmission and exchange of ideas between people for whom the search for truth was more important than cultural prejudice. I will show how the religious and magical traditions of Europe, Egypt, Babylon and the Hebrew Diaspora are linked within the story of how the Tarot emerged in its present form. I will explain how the beliefs of these different cultures may have a common source that itself has been reflected in the structure and meaning of Tarot in a subtle and sometimes surprising way.
Each class will take 1.5 hours and the course will consist of 20 sessions. Dates/times can be booked to suit you, either on line or in person at the Tudor House Holistic Centre.
To book, contact me or go to http://tudorhouseholisticcentre.co.uk/