The first egyptian cartomantic deck : R.Falconnier and Egyptian Tarot

Case : 203

In 1781, Court de Gébelin referred to the Tarot as a book preserving the pure wisdom of ancient Egypt. The early designs are referred to as Etteilla’s decks. But in spite of their titles, these early 'Egyptian' designs were not passed down from Egyptian culture nor did they even portray convincing Egyptian symbology. Perhaps the watershed event for the Egyptian pattern was the 1896 publication of the book Les XXII lames hermetiques du tarot divinatoire by R. Falconnier. Here, for the first time, could be seen designs more authentically Egyptian symbology, which mark the birth of the Egyptian Tarot as we think of it today. The images of Falconnier’s Egyptian Tarot were drawn by M.O.Wegener and based on the detailed descriptions by Paul Christian in his book titled L'homme rouge des Toileries (Red Man of the Tuileries), published in 1863. After that, Comte C. de Saint Germain’s Tarot (1901), Gloria Beresford’s Tarot (1936), John.H.Dequer's Tarot (1944) and Madame Aida’s Tarot  (1920) could be counted as the most famous Egyptian decks.