The first occultist cartomantic deck : Oswald Wirth and Wirth Tarot

Case : 241.

In 1887 the Marquis Stanislas de Guaita (1861-1897) met the amateur artist Oswald Wirth (1860-1943) and subsequently sponsored a production of Lévi's intended deck. Guided entirely by de Guaita, Wirth designed the first neo-occultist cartomantic deck (and first cartomantic deck not derived from Etteilla's Egyptian deck). Known as the Arcanes du Tarot kabbalistique it consisted of only the twenty-two major arcana, so called Wirth Tarot. Wirth drew his first version of the 22 major arcana cards in 1889, basing them on the Tarot of Marseilles and other decks of the time. These cards were used to illustrate Tarot des Bohemiens by Dr.Papus. Wirth redrew his cards shortly thereafter, but the revised deck was not published until 1927 along with a book on the cards called Tarot des Imagiers du Moyen Age. The Wirth deck is significant in the history of the occult tarot for being the first in a long line of occult, cartomantic, and initiatory decks.