Secret Societies and the Origins of Tarot
Many presentations of Tarot history recount the transmission of great secrets of the Universe through an unbroken succession of secret societies. These societies are credited with communicating the wisdom from ancient times through oral instructions and initiations. The purpose of the present essay is to critically examine this concept.
It is certainly true that occult societies developed esoteric aspects of the Tarot in the 18th and 19th century. These developers constructed the elaborate theories of transmission through secret societies to account for the ancient wisdom in the symbols (Webb 1974). Our specific focus will be on the possible role of secret societies in the design of the original 15th century cards.
The modern Tarotist may have experienced some of the negativity associated with secret societies in our culture. The negativity is usually dismissed as propaganda: repression by Science and the Church of a valid but competitive view of the world. But we should be aware that some of the resistence comes from a fear that secrecy implies a hidden agenda.
This fear is not without merit. The Bavarian Illuminati of the late 18th century started as a masonic society but developed a subversive political agenda (Wilgus 1978). We will see below that secret societies may hide criminal activity. Claims of direct access to ancient wisdom through the Great White Brotherhood may be associated with the development of a cult (Kueshana 1963).
As a result of this suspicion, authors have often adopted the occultist version of history and used the claims of unbroken secret societies as evidence of a hidden agenda. In one notable case, the author used occultist history to prove the persistence of the "Jewish Peril" in European history (Webster 1924). In another instance, the ancient and secret search for 'enlightenment' is taken as proof that occultists are servants of Lucifer, i.e., the Light Bearer (Monteith 2000). Thus, reconstruction of the actual history should not be seen as a reductionist attempt to destroy an innocent mythology. Increased information on the actual history is probably also the best defense against malicious distortion of the search for individual spirituality.
In this spirit we can proceed to examine the actual secret societies that existed in Europe during the period immediately preceeding the design of the Tarot. Rather than begin with the questionable histories constructed by the later occultists (Marras 1865), we will begin by examining the historical record.
Some of the secret societies of the Middle Ages indeed used the characteristic combination of passwords, initiation ceremonies, and oaths of secrecy. But for the French 'Chauffeurs' of the 14th century, the secrecy covered criminal activity (Axelrod 1997). The Sicilian 'Vendicatori' was founded in 1186 to administer a kind of street justice and avenge public wrongs. The 'Beati Paoli' of the 12th century were also a Sicilian criminal organization that may have had connections with the Cathari heretics (Axelrod 1997). So there is some justification for the suspicion that secrecy may be a cover for criminal activity rather than enlightenment.
One of the societies sometimes mentioned in occult history, the Vehmgericht, operated in 13th century Westphalia. They became an unofficial system of justice during a period of anarchy. They were a secret society but do not appear to have operated in secret and trials were conducted publicly. They do not appear to have made any claims of access to or transmittal of ancient wisdom (Axelrod 1997). In 1371 their right to administer justice was officially recognized by the Emperor. The claims that they were the keepers of ancient wisdom appears to be a fabrication of later occultists (Webb 1974). Even their private documents are concerned with legal matters, such as whether they had authority to try and execute heretics and those that practiced magic (Daraul 1987).
Another group of societies that were absorbed into the occultist history were the religious military orders. These religious orders, living a traditional and orthodox monastic life, had as an element of their religious rule the duty to take up the sword in defense of the Christian faith. There is nothing that directly ties any of these religious orders to the Tarot. However, they must be discussed because of later occultist legends that one of these religious orders, the Templars, were part of the direct lineage of secret societies that conveyed the suppressed wisdom of the ancients. We will deal with the Templars at greater length in a separate essay. For the moment, it will suffice to point out that the Templars were not the first of these military orders, nor were they the last. Many of these orders still exist today, primarily as honorary investitures by the Catholic Church.
The oldest of the military orders seems to be the Order of the Golden Spur, also known as the Order of the Golden Militia (Axelrod 1997). It was probably founded in the 4th century and followed the rule of St Basil which is the standard monastic rule in the Eastern Christian Church. This order still exists with membership bestowed as an honorary investiture by the Church.
The oldest of the western military orders associated with the Crusades is the Order of the Hospital of St John the Baptist in Jerusalem, better known as the Hospitallers. The order was founded in 1050 to operate a hospital for pilgrims. In 1118, they added a vow to fight the enemies of the faith. Contrary to the "Holy Blood" myth, the Hospitallers and not the Templars were the favorite of Godfrey de Bouillon who gave them his own manor house in Brabant as a gift. The order became fabulously wealthy as a result of donations. The order still exists as a small religious community in Rome (Axelrod 1997).
There are two other military orders that preceded the Templars. The Order of St. Lazarus was founded in Palestine in 1060 to assist pilgrim lepers. The order appears to have disappeared although several Popes attempted to fuse it with other orders to help it survive. The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem was founded by Godfrey de Bouillon in 1099. As with many of these orders, it was united with the Hospitallers after the crusades. However, it regained independence in 1496 and still exists as an honorary Catholic society (Axelrod 1997).
Following the Templars, several other military orders were formed. The Brothers of the Hospital of Holy Mary of the Germans in Jerusalem, the Teutonic Knights, were founded in 1190. They originally operated a hospital and later added a military vow. The order still exists as a religious order recognized by the Catholic Church. Another group, the Militia of Jesus Christ was founded in Portugal in 1318. Since this group was given the Templar property in that country, it is likely that they were composed largely of the Templars who were never persecuted in Portugal. Still another group, the Order of the Collar, later called the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation, was founded in 1362 and was probably always an honorary society. The Noble Order of the Golden Fleece was founded in Bruges in 1430. It was originally a religious military order but eventually membership became simply an honorary award.
The Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, the Templars, were founded in 1119 and imitated the Hospitallers by incorporating military operations into their monastic rule. After the Holy Land was lost, their primary purpose was gone and the Pope sought to incorporate them into the Hospitallers, as was done with the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. The Order, however, ran afoul of the French king, Philip IV, who owed them a great deal of money. The king signed a formal treaty of allegience with the Templars in 1303 (Annan 1967) and yet seized their property in France in 1307 and tortured a few confessions of heresy. The Pope, under French 'protection' in Avignon, instituted a formal Council to investigate the allegations of heresy and finally unilaterally disbanded the order before the Council could issue its declaration of innocence.
If the above version of Templar history does not sound familiar, it is because later occultists rewrote the history of the Order. The occultist version makes for a more interesting story of a secret society preserving esoteric secrets learned in the Middle East. The occultist version is full of internal inconsistencies and conflicts with the historical record and is rejected by modern historians. However, the details are so complex and the mythologies so elaborate that it will require a separate essay to deal with them.
It should suffice for the present at make a few points. There is no reason to associate the Templars with the bloodline of Jesus since there were two other military orders that had prior and closer associations with the French monarchy in Jerusalem. The Portugese branch of the Order continued to exist, in their original quarters, but nothing ever emerged to associated them with either heresy or special esoteric wisdom. The great majority of the Templars were faithful to their vow of obedience to the Pope and joined the Hospitallers without protest or incident when he issued his order to disband the Order. If the Church actually believed the allegations of heresy it is strange that they continued to approve of new military orders and to this day bestows membership in these orders as its highest honor.
One of the reasons that the occultists recast the Templars as heretics was that they were considered to be a critical link in the theory of uninterrupted transmission of ancient secrets from the Middle East. The contention is that the knights learned the secrets from a Moslem Shiite sect known as the Ismaeli, later known as the Hashishim. The existence of the sect was reported in Europe by Marco Polo (Annan 1967). The radical sect existed from 1090 until the 13th century and were named after the drug Hashish used in their initiations. Their influence derived from their fanatical obedience to leaders and the assassination of political opponents. The power of the sect was broken by Mongol invaders mid-13th century and they never had much influence after that time.
Occultist history suggests that the Templars were actually derived from the Hashishim. The two military groups had similar organizations, bore similar colors and had the same commitment to the defense of their faith. However, the Templars bore the same similarities to earlier militant monastic orders which were far more likely to be the progenitors.
It is certainly true that the Templars, like all of the other military orders, had contact with the Hashishim. In fact, the Templars and Hashishim formed a brief alliance during the 1129 attack on Damascus (Wilgus 1978). However, by 1152, the Hashishim were under the control of the Templars and paying a crushing tribute. So if the Templars learned great secrets from the assassins, they had a strange way to show their gratitude.
Some occultist writers suggest that the Templars were actually converted to Islam. That assertion is difficult to maintain in light of the many Moslems they killed in battle. Further, Saladin (~1187) vowed death to every Templar. In detailed accounts of Saladin's victories, captured Templars were offered mercy if they would accept Islam. All refused and were killed. If they were, in fact, already Moslems then such accounts make little sense.
One piece of circumstantial evidence is sometimes offered to support the contention that the Hashishim had an influence on the Tarot designs. Henry, count of Champagne, travelled through Ismaeli territory of the Middle East in 1194. He recounts being shown a very tall tower. At a signal from the leader, two white-clad guards hurdled themselves headlong to their deaths. However, in other essays, we will find more convincing sources for the Tower card in the 14th century illustrations of Dante and in illustrations of the destruction of the Tower of Babel in the Apocalyptic artistic tradition.
In summary, there doesn't seem to be much substance to the allegation that the Templars learned the great ancient secrets from the Hashishim. First and foremost, there isn't anything to indicate that the Hashishim knew anything worth communicating! A drug-using cult that practiced assassination to achieve their political aims doesn't seem a likely candidate to transmit spiritual wisdom. Second, opportunity doesn't imply transmittal. Most readers have lived in the United States and therefore been in the right place at the right time to learn how to produce fissionable Plutonium. But have you in fact acquired that secret knowledge?
Along with the Templars, Freemasonry is often cited as a secret society that transmitted the ancient wisdom. Without doubt, Masons were active in developing the occult theories of Tarot from the 18th century onward (Decker et al. 1996, Decker and Dummett 2002). But they are unlikely contributors to the original 15th century symbols.
By the 14th century, there were guilds and journeyman of stone workers. These 'operational' masons developed passwords and secret handshakes so that qualified workers could be identified far from their home base. Documents, known as the Old Charges, date back to 1390 and 1425 (Jones 1967). But these were early labor unions and there were no hints of esotericism.
Esoteric doctrines began with 'speculative' Freemasonry in the 17th and 18th century, too late to have contributed to the design of the Tarot (Roberts 1972). By 1789, there were 600 lodges competing for a potential audience of 20 to 30,000 freemasons. Rivalry among competitive independent lodges in France led to the proliferation of fabricated histories designed to prove the ultimate authority of each new faction as it arose de novo.
Thus, the search for 14th/15th century secret societies produces no likely candidate that might have transmitted ancient wisdom to the Tarot designers. The few societies that existed at the right time, such as the Hommes de l'Intelligence (1398-1410), were in the wrong place, Brussels. And their leader's propensity for running about the city naked makes it hard to take them seriously.
But if there were actually no secret societies, then why the persistent rumors? The simple truth seems to be that later occultists fabricated the legends to legitimize their own authority. Charismatic leaders, as part of their claim to authority, declared unique access to wisdom transmitted from antiquity through secret societies and oral transmission. We know, for example, that the leaders of the Golden Dawn forged a 'Cipher Document' and letters of authority from non-existent German predecessors. Similarly, the Priory of Zion, formed in 1959, forged documents to legitimize their claims to antiquity.
There are several questions that must be asked about the occultist account of secret societies. If these societies carefully guarded their secrets for thousands of years, then isn't it disrespectful to reveal them now? If the motivation is not self-aggrandizement, then why isn't the revelation made anonymously? Initiation into secret societies involves vows of secrecy and acceptance of dire penalties for violation. If the occultist historians actually had access to the great secrets, why were they never subjected to punishment? The reader is free to disagree, but it appear fairly patent to me that the occultists manipulated history to enhance their own status and that of their newly formed 'secret society'.
But if there was not a direct oral transmission of the ancient secrets through secret societies, then how did they come into our hands? The first part of the answer is straightforward: the secrets were written and preserved through relatively orthodox means. There are two scholarly studies of the history of esotericism and magic, one classic (Thorndike 1923) and one recent (Flint 1991). Neither author found any hints of transmission through secret societies, nor any need to hypothesize such. The orthodox Christian writers were well acquainted with the details of magic, often explaining it in some detail before condemning it! The justification for the detailed explanation being that future generations needed to be able to recognize the evil! But however strange the contradiction seems to us, it remains true that the founders of the Golden Dawn found most of their secret wisdom in the Library of the British Museum.
There is a second important reason why oral transmission and secret societies are not needed to convey the ancient wisdom. As Jung clearly saw (Jung 1953-1967), the fundamentals of this wisdom are archetypic. There were certainly initiatory cults and secret societies in the ancient world complete with secret passwords and rituals. But the same elements occurred in Polynesia, China, Australia, central Africa and Mexico. Apparently, the belief in magic and initiation is a spontaneous phenomenon and no direct transmission is required to explain its reappearance at many times in European history.
Thus, although secret societies played an important role in later developments, there doesn't appear to be much evidence that they were influential in the origins of the Tarot. The only real candidates may be the religious Confraternities which we will deal with in a separate essay. The secret societies named by the later occultists seem unlikely candidates and there is absolutely no colloborating evidence to support the contention.
Some writers are suspicious that secret societies were primarily about criminal activity or political conspiracy. For some of the societies existing at the time of the Tarot's origin, the evidence seems to confirm that suspicion.
References
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