There is more than one mythic history of the Tarot. It's important to note that by mythic I don't simply mean that the stories were made up and imaginary. Rather, myths are information conveyed in a story to indicate the importance of something. Aesop's fables, for example, are myths explaining timeless truths in simple stories. Although the Tarot has been used for hundreds of years, its active use as part of ceremonial magick really only dates back to the late 19th century. The key to this was the linking of the Tarot to the Kabalistic Tree of Life. This first appeared in print in an article by the Comte de Mellet in the 1781 book, Le Monde Primitif by Court de Gébelin, which noted

Aleister Crowley thought that developing the "magickal memory" was an important part of magickal training. The magickal memory is the ability to recall past lives. In Magick Without Tears, chapter 37, he points out that one of the values of remembering past lives is that it helps you overcome a fear of physical death. In Liber ThIShARB he goes into methods for remembering past lives, but for a different reason. Here, there is far more than merely overcoming the fear of the inevitable. Rather, remembering past lives has the goal of seeing a thread that unites all of the past lives and how those lives apply to your current life: "let him apply them [memories] to his own career, forging the

Why is it magical people are so interested in the Tarot? There are numerous forms of divination. Currently, I'm beginning to study palmistry. Here are a few great resources if you're interested: You Can Read Palms by Richard Webster Instant Palm Reader by Linda Domin Palmistry Quick & Easy by Peter Hazel Palm Reading for Beginners by Richard Webster and The Hand from A to Z by Judith Hipskind There is a good reason for palmistry's popularity: you don't need any props. You don't need cards or runes, tea leaves or crystal balls. All you need is your hands. But it's not the Tarot. For magicians, the Tarot has far more uses than divination. The great occultist, Eliphas Levi,