Out of Character (OOC):
Artifact: The First Tarot
"Most of the leading modern interpreters of the Tarot have redesigned the cards to fit their own explanations of them, a process called ‘rectifying’ the pack if you agree with it, and ‘obfuscating’ it if you do not."
— Richard Cavendish, The Tarot
The following is an collection of Artifacts that keep cropping up in our current Chronicle: Mage II - The Dethroned Queen. Characters find them in tombs that haven't seen light in 5,000 years, stuck to the bottom of their shoes, and in the bodies of slain enemies. No one knows what it means, but it implies that an unseen force is influencing the cabals, laying out a path of destiny that they cannot see or hope to change. Perhaps all the cards will come together again. What will it portend?
Source: As seen as in the Keys to the Supernal Tarot sourcebook for Mage: The Awakening 1st Edition and the Mage: The Awakening Tarot, updated to Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition rules. Incidentally, if you want to buy Keys to Supernal Tarot sourcebook or the Supernal Tarot you can click the links in this sentence.
History of the Tarot Despite occasional claims that the Tarot originated in Egypt, with the Cathars or in any of a dozen other exotic locations, the first known deck of Tarot cards originated in northern Italy in about 1470 AD. The cards were lavishly painted and embellished, and were used not for divinatory purposes, but for gaming. The first decks included the 56 cards that would come to be called the “minor arcana,” and archetypal and allegorical cards based on such concepts as Death, Love, and the Cardinal Virtues were added later.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, the game spread across Europe, and was used in a parlor game that involved making up poetry and descriptions of other players — verses called tarocchi appropriati — using the imagery suggested by the cards. This was probably the first time the cards had been used in any kind of descriptive or revelatory fashion, even though it predates true divination using the Tarot.
While playing cards (which probably granted the Tarot its four suits, rather than the other way around as is sometimes stated) had been used in divination since the mid-15th century, Tarot remained a game of the upper classes until roughly 1781. Its use in divination truly began with Etteilla and Court de Gébelin, who looked at the deck and saw (through the lens of the interest in ancient Egypt then so popular) a “universal key,” a way to interpret the Tarot as being of Egyptian origin. Court de Gébelin also theorized that the Tarot had been conceived by Egyptian priests, who disguised their knowledge in the symbolism of a game to avoid it being stamped out by Christianity, before it was brought to Europe by the gypsies. This theory ignores the actual history of the Tarot, of course, but it lent a mysterious and occult air to the cards, and further correspondences between the Tarot and other ancient symbols and practices (Kabbalah, Hebrew lettering, and so on) continued to be drawn.
The next major occurrence in the Tarot’s history was in 1909, when occult author and member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Arthur Edward Waite designed his own Tarot deck. It was illustrated by fellow Golden Dawn member Pamela Colman Smith, and published by a company called Rider (hence its common name, the “Rider-Waite” deck). The Rider-Waite deck, full of layers of imagery and symbolism, some Christian, some Hermetic, is probably the most recognizable and popular one to this day. Waite himself eventually rejected the notion that the Tarot had any correspondence to Hebrew lettering, and postulated sarcastically that someday someone would try to link it to the Cathar Heresy (which, indeed, came to pass).
Since then, hundreds of different Tarot decks have been produced. Some hew closely to Waite’s design, some try to approach the “original” Tarot (but don’t always seem to understand what that means). Many specialty Tarot decks are available, with imagery ranging from representations of
popular fiction, to role-playing games, to erotica, to science fiction or modern technology.
For the skeptics who dig for knowledge of the Tarot, they find facts that state that the Tarot grew out of playing cards, not vice versa (in fact, although the Joker in a standard playing deck is often equated with the Fool, the Joker was added to the standard deck in the mid-19th century
with no regard to the Tarot whatsoever). The development of the Tarot as a fortune-telling device was the product of fascination with ancient cultures, not some deeper mystical truth. Tarot reading, like other forms of divination, “works” only to the extent that an empathetic and intuitive person might make some correct assumptions about a querent and give him some good advice. An unethical
fortune-teller, of course, can use the same “cold reading” techniques that mediums and fraudulent
psychics have used for centuries to make a quick buck.
((The following information is fully known among active mage cabals and characters in play))
In the Fallen World, however, the Tarot, like so many other occult trappings, resonates with the Supernal Realms. In the case of the Tarot, some mages know of a deck of cards that originated in the Supernal Realms. The deck has been assembled over a long period of years by mages across the world. Awakened scholars refer to the deck as the First Tarot.
1. The First Tarot always gives an accurate and useful reading on any topic, but only if the person doing the reading is able to maintain complete focus while laying out the cards. If anything distracts the reader, the message can be diluted with whatever is in the reader’s mind at the time.
2. The deck is incomplete; besides the 10 missing cards, Keys to the Major Arcana exist beyond Key XXI (The World). They just have not been found because mages aren’t looking for them.
3. In certain temples of the Time Before, there is a place where a card from the First Tarot can be inserted. If a visitor inserts the correct card, all of the temple’s defenses become inert and the temple’s guardians obey the mage’s commands. Of course, inserting the wrong card probably spells certain death.
4. Any of the cards in the First Tarot can act as a dedicated magical tool to any mage.
5. Seers of the Throne cannot see a mage carrying a card from the First Tarot. Even if the mage casts a spell or attacks the Seer, the Oracles mask the card carrying mage from the Exarchs’ pawn. Specifically, lore surrounding the cards states that it "hides the bearer from the agents of the Lie."
6. The Tarot contains cards from Supernal Realms beyond the five that contain Watchtowers. Presently, only two cards from other Realms are present in the deck (rumors vary as to which one, but usually the World is mentioned), but the 10 missing cards are among them.
7. The First Tarot isn’t an Artifact. It’s an imbued item, one created by a mage with a fantastic degree of skill (actually, probably created by a cabal of such mages). It’s become one of the most elaborate hoaxes in the history of the world, one that only a few people know about. The resonance is real, and the deck does indeed hold Mana, but it has no other powers beyond those of a normal Tarot deck — that is to say, none of its own. But, over time, the Awakened have built up such reverence for the deck that revealing it to be a hoax now would be akin to crying loudly that the emperor is naked — is there a fool brave or innocent enough to do that?
Discovery
The first verifiable record of the First Tarot comes from the isle of Cyprus. In the 15th century, a Mysterium cabal discovered a chest in the waters just off the eastern coast of the island. They retrieved the chest (using magic, of course — the chest was in water far too deep for them to have recovered it through mundane means), and inside discovered four cards: the Hermit, the Magician, the Moon, and the Fool. One of the mages happened to be a cartomancer, and recognized the cards from legends he’d heard of the Tarot of Atlantis. Studying these cards, though, he realized they were Artifacts, though he couldn’t identify from which of the Realms they came.
Back in Greece, the cabal sent out missives to other Mysterium cabals, searching for other leads. Over the next few years, they received responses back. Several other cards had been discovered, some in temples, some in the hoards of ancient mages, some in the libraries of the Church. Of course, the owners of these cards weren’t about to send these treasures overland to mages they didn’t know, and so the cabals were reduced to descriptions of the cards and experiments they had performed with them. Word also eventually reached the European mages that several cards that seemed to be part of the First Tarot had been discovered in China, but these reports were not verified for many years. The prevailing opinion was that the true nature and power of the deck would not be known until it was entirely assembled, but the mages of the time weren’t optimistic about that ever happening.
By the middle of the 17th century, most of the Major Arcana had been accounted for. Some of the owners of the cards had met and merged their collections, and all of the known cards had been liberated from Sleepers (including, with some difficulty, those that the Church held). Travel and communications were improving, and it seemed likely that within a few years a meeting might be possible to assemble data on the deck. But then, within a fortnight, all of the cards disappeared from their owners.
The First Tarot remained in London for more than two centuries after the Great Fire. During that time, mages could petition the London Consilium for permission to use it in divination, but the process was so long and involved, and required so many interviews and magical examinations, that most supplicants found it more expedient to use other methods. Cartomancers, however, often made it a point to at least see the deck, even if they didn’t actually use it.
At the turn of the 19th century, though, a powerful and well-respected mage performed a reading (behind closed doors) and predicted that war was coming to England, and that the Tarot needed to be moved as soon as possible. The fact that this mage’s son was pulling up stakes for America the next week, some cynical Awakened felt, might have influenced this reading a bit, but the mage who did the reading insisted the war would be devastating, and that the Tarot must not be lost. And, yes, his son would be perfect to take it to New York and keep it safe. World War I broke out more than a decade later, but based on the mage’s flavorful descriptions, it was more likely he was referring to the
To magical scrutiny, the cards are obviously Artifacts. But the resonance of the cards themselves is more complex. Scrutinizing an individual card reveals resonance appropriate to that card’s meaning, in very general terms. So scrutinizing the Moon reveals a nightmarish or frightening resonance, while scrutinizing the Lovers reveals a resonance of purity and love.
Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler
Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum
Artifact: The First Tarot
Part One
"Most of the leading modern interpreters of the Tarot have redesigned the cards to fit their own explanations of them, a process called ‘rectifying’ the pack if you agree with it, and ‘obfuscating’ it if you do not."
The following is an collection of Artifacts that keep cropping up in our current Chronicle: Mage II - The Dethroned Queen. Characters find them in tombs that haven't seen light in 5,000 years, stuck to the bottom of their shoes, and in the bodies of slain enemies. No one knows what it means, but it implies that an unseen force is influencing the cabals, laying out a path of destiny that they cannot see or hope to change. Perhaps all the cards will come together again. What will it portend?
Source: As seen as in the Keys to the Supernal Tarot sourcebook for Mage: The Awakening 1st Edition and the Mage: The Awakening Tarot, updated to Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition rules. Incidentally, if you want to buy Keys to Supernal Tarot sourcebook or the Supernal Tarot you can click the links in this sentence.
Lore
History of the Tarot Despite occasional claims that the Tarot originated in Egypt, with the Cathars or in any of a dozen other exotic locations, the first known deck of Tarot cards originated in northern Italy in about 1470 AD. The cards were lavishly painted and embellished, and were used not for divinatory purposes, but for gaming. The first decks included the 56 cards that would come to be called the “minor arcana,” and archetypal and allegorical cards based on such concepts as Death, Love, and the Cardinal Virtues were added later.
While playing cards (which probably granted the Tarot its four suits, rather than the other way around as is sometimes stated) had been used in divination since the mid-15th century, Tarot remained a game of the upper classes until roughly 1781. Its use in divination truly began with Etteilla and Court de Gébelin, who looked at the deck and saw (through the lens of the interest in ancient Egypt then so popular) a “universal key,” a way to interpret the Tarot as being of Egyptian origin. Court de Gébelin also theorized that the Tarot had been conceived by Egyptian priests, who disguised their knowledge in the symbolism of a game to avoid it being stamped out by Christianity, before it was brought to Europe by the gypsies. This theory ignores the actual history of the Tarot, of course, but it lent a mysterious and occult air to the cards, and further correspondences between the Tarot and other ancient symbols and practices (Kabbalah, Hebrew lettering, and so on) continued to be drawn.
The next major occurrence in the Tarot’s history was in 1909, when occult author and member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Arthur Edward Waite designed his own Tarot deck. It was illustrated by fellow Golden Dawn member Pamela Colman Smith, and published by a company called Rider (hence its common name, the “Rider-Waite” deck). The Rider-Waite deck, full of layers of imagery and symbolism, some Christian, some Hermetic, is probably the most recognizable and popular one to this day. Waite himself eventually rejected the notion that the Tarot had any correspondence to Hebrew lettering, and postulated sarcastically that someday someone would try to link it to the Cathar Heresy (which, indeed, came to pass).
Since then, hundreds of different Tarot decks have been produced. Some hew closely to Waite’s design, some try to approach the “original” Tarot (but don’t always seem to understand what that means). Many specialty Tarot decks are available, with imagery ranging from representations of
popular fiction, to role-playing games, to erotica, to science fiction or modern technology.
Sleeper Knowledge
with no regard to the Tarot whatsoever). The development of the Tarot as a fortune-telling device was the product of fascination with ancient cultures, not some deeper mystical truth. Tarot reading, like other forms of divination, “works” only to the extent that an empathetic and intuitive person might make some correct assumptions about a querent and give him some good advice. An unethical
fortune-teller, of course, can use the same “cold reading” techniques that mediums and fraudulent
psychics have used for centuries to make a quick buck.
Mystical History
In the Fallen World, however, the Tarot, like so many other occult trappings, resonates with the Supernal Realms. In the case of the Tarot, some mages know of a deck of cards that originated in the Supernal Realms. The deck has been assembled over a long period of years by mages across the world. Awakened scholars refer to the deck as the First Tarot.
The First Tarot supposedly predates mundane Tarot by many years. Records indicate that at least two of the cards were discovered in the Awakened City (the Tower and the Hierophant), though these
records obviously cannot be confirmed. Awakened cartomancers covet the First Tarot above all else, and even mages with no particular interest in the Tarot trade stories about the deck.
Rumors
3. In certain temples of the Time Before, there is a place where a card from the First Tarot can be inserted. If a visitor inserts the correct card, all of the temple’s defenses become inert and the temple’s guardians obey the mage’s commands. Of course, inserting the wrong card probably spells certain death.
4. Any of the cards in the First Tarot can act as a dedicated magical tool to any mage.
5. Seers of the Throne cannot see a mage carrying a card from the First Tarot. Even if the mage casts a spell or attacks the Seer, the Oracles mask the card carrying mage from the Exarchs’ pawn. Specifically, lore surrounding the cards states that it "hides the bearer from the agents of the Lie."
6. The Tarot contains cards from Supernal Realms beyond the five that contain Watchtowers. Presently, only two cards from other Realms are present in the deck (rumors vary as to which one, but usually the World is mentioned), but the 10 missing cards are among them.
7. The First Tarot isn’t an Artifact. It’s an imbued item, one created by a mage with a fantastic degree of skill (actually, probably created by a cabal of such mages). It’s become one of the most elaborate hoaxes in the history of the world, one that only a few people know about. The resonance is real, and the deck does indeed hold Mana, but it has no other powers beyond those of a normal Tarot deck — that is to say, none of its own. But, over time, the Awakened have built up such reverence for the deck that revealing it to be a hoax now would be akin to crying loudly that the emperor is naked — is there a fool brave or innocent enough to do that?
The first verifiable record of the First Tarot comes from the isle of Cyprus. In the 15th century, a Mysterium cabal discovered a chest in the waters just off the eastern coast of the island. They retrieved the chest (using magic, of course — the chest was in water far too deep for them to have recovered it through mundane means), and inside discovered four cards: the Hermit, the Magician, the Moon, and the Fool. One of the mages happened to be a cartomancer, and recognized the cards from legends he’d heard of the Tarot of Atlantis. Studying these cards, though, he realized they were Artifacts, though he couldn’t identify from which of the Realms they came.
Back in Greece, the cabal sent out missives to other Mysterium cabals, searching for other leads. Over the next few years, they received responses back. Several other cards had been discovered, some in temples, some in the hoards of ancient mages, some in the libraries of the Church. Of course, the owners of these cards weren’t about to send these treasures overland to mages they didn’t know, and so the cabals were reduced to descriptions of the cards and experiments they had performed with them. Word also eventually reached the European mages that several cards that seemed to be part of the First Tarot had been discovered in China, but these reports were not verified for many years. The prevailing opinion was that the true nature and power of the deck would not be known until it was entirely assembled, but the mages of the time weren’t optimistic about that ever happening.
Theft of the First Tarot
By the middle of the 17th century, most of the Major Arcana had been accounted for. Some of the owners of the cards had met and merged their collections, and all of the known cards had been liberated from Sleepers (including, with some difficulty, those that the Church held). Travel and communications were improving, and it seemed likely that within a few years a meeting might be possible to assemble data on the deck. But then, within a fortnight, all of the cards disappeared from their owners.
The identity of the thief has never been uncovered, but modern scholars agree that more than one culprit was involved and that these thieves were assuredly not mages. They were able to enter and exit locked rooms, steal the cards away from powerful spiritual and mundane guardians, and deliver them to a mage in London within hours (even the cards stolen from China). The identity of the mage that arranged the theft, however, is a matter of record with the London Consilium. This mage, an Acanthus calling herself Flight, begged for the death sentence at her trial.
She said she had defaulted on a deal with a hideous power, one beyond the reach of Man and God. The trial was never concluded, however — the Great Fire of 1666 interrupted it. Flight was presumed to have died in the fire, though for months afterwards, the mages at the trial reported seeing her image in mirrors, screaming pain, bleeding from thousands of wounds from lashes.
The Tarot itself was recovered from Flight’s home, wrapped in what appeared to be thread spun from pure iron. The First Tarot was only 10 cards from being complete. Flight, apparently, had promised it to some otherworldly power, but whatever that power was, it has never since attempted to claim the deck.
The Deck in the New World
The First Tarot remained in London for more than two centuries after the Great Fire. During that time, mages could petition the London Consilium for permission to use it in divination, but the process was so long and involved, and required so many interviews and magical examinations, that most supplicants found it more expedient to use other methods. Cartomancers, however, often made it a point to at least see the deck, even if they didn’t actually use it.
At the turn of the 19th century, though, a powerful and well-respected mage performed a reading (behind closed doors) and predicted that war was coming to England, and that the Tarot needed to be moved as soon as possible. The fact that this mage’s son was pulling up stakes for America the next week, some cynical Awakened felt, might have influenced this reading a bit, but the mage who did the reading insisted the war would be devastating, and that the Tarot must not be lost. And, yes, his son would be perfect to take it to New York and keep it safe. World War I broke out more than a decade later, but based on the mage’s flavorful descriptions, it was more likely he was referring to the
bombings of London in World War II, assuming he wasn’t just making the whole thing up.
Whatever the case, the Tarot moved to the United States. Its courier died in a street brawl a few months later, and the Mysterium collected the deck shortly thereafter. Presently, it is ostensibly available to any order mage who wishes to use it, but no one is ever left alone with it and all readings are recorded. The deck is still incomplete (the missing cards are listed below).
The Magic of the First Tarot The cards of the First Tarot aren’t uniform. The backs of the cards sport a variety of patterns. Some look Celtic in design, others Chinese, and some bear art that looks distinctly Native American. The design of the cards often represents the culture of the area in which it was found (this is one reason why the rumor about the Tower and the Hierophant being from
Atlantis persist, because they are the only cards with Atlantean runes on them). The art, likewise, boasts a wide variety of styles and mediums. Even the cards themselves aren’t all made of the same material. Some are wood, some are thick paper or vellum, and some appear to be made from beaten metal. The more recently discovered cards (including the Page of Cups and the Seven of Wands) seem to be made from cardstock and printed using modern techniques.
Analysis of the Cards
To magical scrutiny, the cards are obviously Artifacts. But the resonance of the cards themselves is more complex. Scrutinizing an individual card reveals resonance appropriate to that card’s meaning, in very general terms. So scrutinizing the Moon reveals a nightmarish or frightening resonance, while scrutinizing the Lovers reveals a resonance of purity and love.
But when two or more cards are scrutinized together, the resonances merge. Keeping with the example above, studying the Moon and the Lovers together might show a resonance blending fear and love, perhaps a feeling of love at first sight or the fear of never finding love. It might also present as a fear that a loved one is in danger. Adding more cards just complicates things further, and scrutinizing the entire deck, incomplete though it is, is impossible. Mages have attempted to find the purest resonance of the deck by studying it for hours, using as many versions of Mage Sight as they know, but they still haven’t been able to look past all of the potential combinations to find the highest truth.
Of course, some mages posit that this is because there is no highest truth. The Tarot, like the world itself, is too complex to be known through magic. It must be experienced.
At last reporting by the Mysterium, deck presently contains 68 cards. To make a complete Tarot deck, the following cards would be necessary:
1. The Hanged Man (Found by Overwatch during The Collective)
2. Death (Found by Nergal during What Dreams may Come)
3. Knight of Swords
4. Two of Swords
5. Ace of Wands (Found by Ikiyouyou during The Scepter)
6. Ten of Cups (Recovered first by Casstiel in The Lovers and later retrieved by Chimera during Cups Runneth)
7. Page of Wands
8. Queen of Pentacles (Previously associated with Lashiel and/or Tessa of the Order of Judas)
9. King of Pentacles (Previously associated with the deceased Nicodemus of the Order of Judas)
10. Knight of Pentacles
The missing cards and their significance are points of discussion among cartomancers. The fact that of the four “face” cards in the suit of Pentacles, only the Page has been found leads some mages to believe that the Pentacle orders are lost, needing strong leadership to find their way again. Some mages feel that since the Hanged Man is among the missing cards, the Awakened community needs to learn patience and humility through suffering. Others feel that this is already happening, and only when mages accept the world as it is and yield, rather than trying to change the world, can Death (another missing card) finally arrive and herald a new beginning.
The fact that the deck is incomplete has never stopped mages from using it to perform readings. Some mages add in the missing cards from mundane decks, but they never come up in divinatory attempts.
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