So the pentacle is decidedly Jewish in origin, and to a lesser degree was used in Christian mysticism that drew from Kabbalistic rituals in their magic.
The western occultists are decidedly anti-christian and rely on old Hebrew magic for justification.
This bleeds into tarot hard, which I now find disappointing.
All this imagery of the Devil and Adam and eve, etc, mixed with Hebrew symbology is nothing but a bastardization of even older magic.
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I think a divining system of cards based on something like tantric Hinduism would be much more appropriate, but it would have to take into account and remove the hidden Jewish themes.
For instance, the 22 Major arcana are arranged to represent the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
I agree. Mostly. Yes about the Olympics. No about Egyptian tarot.
Playing cards from China made their way to Egypt before being adapted.
There is no evidence these cards were used to divine.
The decks from Egypt made their way to Europe in the late 1300s.
The Italians added Major Arcana, adding religious significance to them, like images of the pope, etc.... but these still were not used to divine.
The first written use of the cards being used to divine was from Spain in the 1400s.
Dividing with cards became a European folk hit for several hundred years before the French first developed a manual on divinatiry messages and created the first tarot deck. This was in the 1700s.
The French added Egyptian symbology as a nod to their mysticism, but they knew so little about it that is was mostly intended to grab the attention of other europeans who loved it.
Finally, the modern tarot from France was adapted by members of the Golden Dawn to align more closely with Hebrew mysticism.
This culminated in the rider-waite decks. The most popular ever created.
