It is one thing to think of tarot cards as a vehicle for fortune telling, but it is quite another to envision them as a map for a mystical journey. And many people will dismiss them out of hand on either account. However, Robert V. O'Neill has shown in this book how the tarot cards, which first appeared in Italy in the early 1400s, are a unique and colorful mirror of the philosophical, religious and aesthetic preoccupations of that brief moment in the history of the West.

During the 18th century several French occultists began circulating a mass of misinformation about the origins and history of tarot cards, and this is where their use as tools of fortune telling arose. This was followed by a "flowering" in England in the 19th and early 20th centuries of similar occultist preoccupations led by, among others, the Brotherhood of the Golden Dawn and its offshoots including the ever popular Arthur E. Waite and his ubiquitous Rider-Waite deck. I have found that most of what is available today about tarot cards and their interpretation bears little if any resemblance to what the original Renaissance designers seem to have had in mind. There is no evidence of such use during the period in which they originated.

Indeed, O'Neill argues that key elements of Renaissance trionfi (triumphal processions), humanism, Neoplatonism, gnosticism, mystery religions, hermeticism, Christian mysticism, kabbalah, alchemy, numerology, the art of memory, astrology, the planetary spheres and the Great Chain of Being are all amalgamated into the 22 cards that make up the so-called Major Arcana or Trumps. The cumulative effect of all of this is astonishing and would overwhelm the reader if it did not make such perfect sense in view of the historical milieu in which it all arose.

My own interest in tarot was piqued because of the strong archetypal elements in the cards. And come to find out, Robert O'Neill must have been thinking along the same lines, for he has written a book that summarizes and articulates many things that have occurred to me over the years but I lacked knowledge of Renaissance intellectual history to formulate any kind of a coherent theory of the cards. But O'Neill has done it for us in his well researched and comprehensive study of the various historical influences that culminated in production of the tarot cards.

O'Neill, who has a doctorate in biological science, has approached his task as a scientist would by devoting a chapter to each of the main historical threads listed above, explaining the background of each and how it relates to some or all of the 22 archetypal images. According to the back cover of the book, his "interest in the mystical stems from early training for the Catholic priesthood."

Over and over again, Dr. O'Neill argues that because of the Renaissance preoccupation with mysticism, "we are able to argue that the Tarot is not only a Neoplatonic system of philosophy but a mystical system as well." In fact, while Joseph Campbell had identified the same 22 archetypal cards as a reflection of the Hero's Journey, Dr. O'Neill has demonstrated how it is a mystical journey showing a pathway to realizing one's ultimate desires — in Neoplatonic terms, a union with God. This is all admittedly very strange to the typical 21st century reader, but in the Renaissance context, it was not strange at all.

There is no lack of information on the topics listed above together with copious notes; however, there is no comprehensive bibliography and the book suffers from lack of illustrations and an index. Despite these frustrations, this is an excellent book for what it is. Incidentally, Tarot Symbolism is a difficult book to find and if you do find a copy, it will be expensive. But readers who are interested in this subject will find it well worth reading as much for what it says about Renaissance preoccupations as about the history of tarot cards. ( )