 |
 |
| Jean - Baptiste Alliette aka Etteilla 1738 - 1791 |
| In the year 1738, Jean-Baptiste Alliette was born in Paris, France. His father was a food caterer. Most guess that his education was modest and that he was largely self taught from his command of literary french and his style of writing. Besides this there is not much known about his younger life. There are records that show that in 1763 Alliette was working as a seed merchant. He married, but seperated from his wife 6 years later. In 1770 Alliette published his first book under the name Etteilla, which is his surname spelled backwards. His book, "Etteilla, Or a Way to Entertain Yourself With a Deck of Cards", explained the use of regular *playing cards, (with the additional Etteilla card) for divination. We are not sure where he gained this information. He said that he had learned to read cards from "an Italian", but we don't know who this was. He may also have been inspired by folk wisdom. Reguardless of where he gained his information, the book was a success. Etteilla was working as an antique print dealer in Paris, (and for a short time in Strasbourg) during this time. Etteilla wrongly attributed the Tarot to the Egptians. He claimed that the tarot was made by 17 Magi. The Magi were supposed to have been decendents of Mercury-Thoth. Without any evidence to support his claims he said that the cards were created at the Temple of Fire near Memphis exactly 1,828 years after the creation. A terrific story, one that did attract attention, but a story was all it was. This aside, he did publish, for the first time, divinatory meanings to the Tarot. He also developed methods for conducting readings, one of which was quite complicated, that brought together his vision of the Tarot and astrology. In approximately 1788 Etteilla published the first Tarot Deck designed specifically for esoteric reasons. Etteilla's Deck was made up of 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana. His first 7 Trump cards contained a Creation Myth, he assigned the zodiac signs and elements to some cards and he used caption on all cards. Etteilla eventually earned his living from astrology, Tarot and other occult sciences. Besides writing books he taught and did consultations. His trainees spread his methods and his deck. He founded the Society of Interpreters of the Book of Thoth in 1788, which was the first organization devoted exclusively to the study of Tarot. At age 53, three years after forming the Society, Etteilla died. He was succeeded by his disciples who included La Salette and D' Odoucet. Etteilla's legacy is a mixed one. Some of his connections between Tarot, astrology and elements have become unpopular in occult teachings. He did waver from historical facts. His deck has been questioned by some taditional occultists, even though many still borrow much from his ideas. His intellegence has even been put into debate. His style of writing was crude, and not always lucid. He also lacked the flair of many of the occultists that came after him. That said. Etteilla was the first to publish a book with a grammer and methodology for Tarot. He created the first Tarot Deck that was to be used for only esoteric purposes. He sparked the popularization and the furthur study in Tarot, which helped many other occultists. He was a pioneer in occult teachings and practices. |
 |
 |
| Illustration (above): Etteilla at work, frontispiece (detail) from Etteilla�s Cour th�orique et pratique du Livre du Thot (1790) (in Decker, Depaulis, & Dummett�s A Wicked Pack of Cards, � 1996 Decker). |