The Tarot of Marseilles In the Tarot of Marseilles, the Pope wears a red cape and a blue robe, with his right hand raised in a blessing gesture. When the tarot was invented, the Pope controlled a large portion of central Italy, so the papacy was not just a religious authority, but was a political and military force as well. In modern decks he is called the Hierophant, applied by Antoine Court de Gébelin in the 18th century. According to Gébelin, the title Hierophant was used for the chief priests of the Eleusinian Mysteries in Ancient Greece. Gébelin was the first thinker to begin interpreting the Tarot as an arcane repository of esotericwisdom. He asserted that the primitive worldwide civilization had been advanced and enlightened, and that the Tarot contained a secret philosophy, driven underground by mainstream religion. According to Gébelin's theory, the priestes of Ancient Egypt had used the Tarot images to illustrate the Book of Thoth . He connected the Tarot cards with...

Five point stars, or pentagrams, were first found scratched into Stone Age caves. In ancient Babylonia, the five points represented the five visible planets in the sky. In ancient Greece, the mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras wrote that the number five represented the human, due to the fivefold division of the body, and the pentagram was used as a symbol of health. He also wrote that the five points of the pentagram represented the classical elements, the initials of which spelt out the name of the Greek goddess of health, HYGEA. Medieval Christians wore the pentagram as a symbol of Christ's five wounds, as it was believed to ward off evil. The pentagram was also believed to represent the five senses of touch, taste, sound, sight, and smell. According to the Kabbalah, the five points represent the five upper sephiroth of the Tree of Life, which are known as Justice, Mercy, Wisdom, Understanding, and Transcendence. The pentagram can be found in the stone work of Gothic ...