塔羅牌神話:世界上最被人誤解的卡片的神奇起源(多圖)

The Empress. The Hanged Man. The Chariot. Judgment. With their centuries-old iconography blending a mix of ancient symbols, religious allegories, and historic events, tarot cards can seem purposefully opaque. To outsiders and skeptics, occult practices like card reading have little relevance in our modern world. But a closer look at these miniature masterpieces reveals that the power of these cards isn't endowed from some mystical source—it comes from the ability of their small, static images to illuminate our most complex dilemmas and desires.
女皇、倒吊人、戰車、法官，這些有幾世紀歷史的肖像和古老的符號，宗教預言，以及歷史事件相雜糅，使得塔羅牌顯得那樣的神祕。對於外行和懷疑論者來說，閱讀卡片上的徵兆這種神祕主義的行爲和現代社會顯得格格不入。但是最近的研究表明，卡片上精美的微縮圖畫所具有的力量並不神祕——那小小的畫片本身正具有反映我們內心困惑和慾望的能力。

Contrary to what the uninitiated might think, the meaning of divination cards changes over time, shaped by each era's culture and the needs of individual users. This is partly why these decks can be so puzzling to outsiders, as most of them reference allegories or events familiar to people many centuries ago. Caitlín Matthews, who teaches courses on cartomancy, or divination with cards, says that before the 18th century, the imagery on these cards was accessible to a much broader population. But in contrast to these historic decks, Matthews finds most modern decks harder to engage with.
和外界所想的不一樣，卡片上預言的意思隨着時代變遷不斷改變，在不同的文化或者不同的人手中也不盡相同，顯示出不同的寓意和對現實事件的反映，這也是塔羅牌對於普通人來說不易理解的一個原因。Caitlín Matthews，一個教授紙牌占卜的老師，或者說算命師告訴我們，在十八世紀以前相信塔羅牌占卜的人數比現在多得多，而且和那些古老的塔羅占卜相比，現在的塔羅牌更加不容易理解。

"You either have these very shallow ones or these rampantly esoteric ones with so many signs and symbols on them you can barely make them out,"says Matthews. "I bought my first tarot pack, which was the Tarot de Marseille published by Grimaud in 1969, and I recently came right around back to it after not using it for a while." Presumably originating in the 17th century, the Tarot de Marseille is one of the most common types of tarot deck ever produced. Marseille decks were generally printed with woodblocks and later colored by hand using basic stencils.
“你會發現一副牌顯示出如此多的信息，或強或弱，搞得你根本無法作出解讀，”Matthews說。“我得到的第一副塔羅牌是1969年法國B.P.格利莫公司的馬賽塔羅牌，我已經很長時間沒有碰過它了，直到最近我又把它找了出來。”馬賽塔羅牌起源於十七世紀，是最流行的塔羅牌之一，一般使用木版印刷，再用孔版上色。

Top: A selection of trump cards (top row) and pip cards (bottom row) from the first edition of the Rider-Waite deck, circa 1909. Via the World of Playing Cards. Above: Cards from a Tarot de Marseille deck made by François Gassmann, circa 1870. Photo courtesy Bill Wolf.
上：幾張1909年印製的初版偉特塔羅牌
下：1870年Fran?ois Gassmann印製的馬賽塔羅牌

However, using cards for playful divination probably goes back even further, to the 14th century, likely originating with Mamluk Game cards brought to Western Europe from Turkey. By the 1500s, the Italian aristocracy was enjoying a game known as "tarocchi appropriati," in which players were dealt random cards and used thematic associations with these cards to write poetic verses about one another—somewhat like the popular childhood game “MASH.” These predictive cards were referred to as "sortes," meaning destinies or lots.
然而用紙牌進行有趣占卜的歷史大概更加久遠，上溯至十四世紀，有很大可能性是由土耳其的馬木留克騎兵傳入歐洲。到了1500年代，意大利貴族中流行一種叫做“tarocchi appropriati”的遊戲，人們選出隨機的牌，對應上面的主題爲別人寫下詩句，有點像現在流行的兒童遊戲“MASH”.這種卡牌預言的方式在拉丁語裏被稱作“sortes”，意思是命運或者抓鬮。

Even the earliest known tarot decks weren't designed with mysticism in mind; they were actually meant for playing a game similar to modern-day bridge. Wealthy families in Italy commissioned expensive, artist-made decks known as “carte da trionfi” or “cards of triumph.” These cards were marked with suits of cups, swords, coins, and polo sticks (eventually changed to staves or wands), and courts consisting of a king and two male underlings. Tarot cards later incorporated queens, trumps (the wild cards unique to tarot), and the Fool to this system, for a complete deck that usually totaled 78 cards. Today, the suit cards are commonly called the Minor Arcana, while trump cards are known as the Major Arcana.
即使是最早形式的塔羅牌，也不是按照腦中產生的神祕喻示來設計的，它是一種和現代的橋牌更加類似的遊戲。富有的意大利家庭使用昂貴的，名家制作的紙牌，稱作“carte da trionfi”或者說“強手牌”。這些牌上面的標誌是杯子，寶劍，錢幣，馬球棍（後來發展成權杖和魔杖），以及由一個國王和兩個隨從組成的法庭。接下來塔羅牌裏又在這個系列裏加上了皇后，王牌（塔羅牌中一張地位特殊的牌），和愚者，牌的總數發展到了78張。今天，副牌組被稱作小阿卡那，而主牌組被稱作大阿卡那。

Two hand-painted Mamluk cards from Turkey (left) and two cards from the Visconti family deck (right), both circa 15th century.
在土耳其發現的兩張手製的馬木留克牌（左）和兩張來自Visconti家族的紙牌（右），都製作於15世紀。

Graphic designer and artist Bill Wolf, whose interest in tarot illustration dates to his art-school days at Cooper Union in New York, has his own theories about the tarot's beginning. Wolf, who doesn't use cards for divination, believes that originally, “the meaning of the imagery was parallel to the mechanics of the play of the game. The random draw of the cards created a new, unique narrative each and every time the game was played, and the decisions players made influenced the unfolding of that narrative.” Imagine a choose-your-own-adventure style card game.
Bill Wolf是一名繪圖師和藝術家，當年在紐約的庫伯聯盟學院攻讀藝術學位時的興趣就是研究塔羅牌插畫的年代，對於塔羅牌的起源他有另一套理論。作爲一個並不用塔羅牌進行占卜的人，他相信，“那些圖畫的意義恰好表現了它們在這個遊戲中的玩法，每次隨意畫出的一張新牌，都會在遊戲中被賦予新的意義，而古老的玩家對它們的使用又繼續影響了這些意義的變化。”想象中那是一種隨意決定玩法的卡牌遊戲。

"The imagery was designed to reflect important aspects of the real world that the players lived in, and the prominent Christian symbolism in the cards is an obvious reflection of the Christian world in which they lived," he adds. As divinatory usage became more popular, illustrations evolved to reflect a specific designer's intention. "The subjects took on more and more esoteric meaning,"says Wolf, "but they generally maintained the traditional tarot structure of four suits of pip cards [similar to the numbered cards in a normal playing-card deck], corresponding court cards, and the additional trump cards, with a Fool."
“畫裏的寓意表現了當時人們所生活的年代中一些重要的方面，這其中明顯的耶教符號正顯示出當時社會強烈的宗教傾向。”他補充道。當它越來越流行被用來占卜後，圖畫中更表現出其設計者的傾向和喜好。“那些象徵被賦予了越來越深奧的意義，”Wolf說，“但是大體上保持住了傳統的塔羅牌結構，四套副牌（和現在帶數字的撲克牌比較類似），相對應的角色牌，和傳統的主牌組，加上一張小丑。”

This woodblock version of the classic Tarot de Marseille was published around 1751 by Claude Burdel. Photo courtesy Bill Wolf.
1751年由Claude Burdel印製的木版傳統馬賽塔羅牌，由Bill Wolf攝影

Even if you aren't familiar with tarot-card reading, you've likely seen one of the common decks, like the famous Rider-Waite, which has been continually printed since 1909. Named for publisher William Rider and popular mystic A.E. Waite, who commissioned Pamela Colman Smith to illustrate the deck, the Rider-Waite helped bring about the rise of 20th-century occult tarot used by mystical readers.
即使你對解讀塔羅牌並不熟悉，你也一定見過這些種類的牌，比如著名的偉特塔羅牌，從1909年起開始印製。以出版商Claude Burdel和知名神祕主義者A.E. Waite的名字命名，由著名畫師，藝術家，作家Pamela Colman Smith設計圖案，偉特牌帶動了20世紀中塔羅牌在神祕主義愛好者中間的流行。

"The Rider-Waite deck was designed for divination and included a book written by Waite in which he explained much of the esoteric meaning behind the imagery,"says Wolf. “People say its revolutionary point of genius is that the pip cards are ‘illustrated,' meaning that Colman Smith incorporated the number of suit signs into little scenes, and when taken together, they tell a story in pictures. This strong narrative element gives readers something to latch onto, in that it is relatively intuitive to look at a combination of cards and derive your own story from them.
“偉特牌一開始就是被設計用來占卜的，並附帶一本由Waite撰寫的書，解釋圖畫背後蘊含的意思，”Wolf說。“人們說他們帶來的最大改變就是副牌組也有了插圖，Colman Smith把原先上面的數字改成了小的圖案，幾張牌上的圖案可以連成一段話，占卜者可以從裏面牽強的意義裏附會出什麼東西，由此就可以按直覺把這些牌聯繫起來，從中得出一段預言。”

"The deck really took off in popularity when Stuart Kaplan obtained the publishing rights and developed an audience for it in the early '70s," says Wolf. Kaplan helped renew interest in card reading with his 1977 book, Tarot Cards for Fun and Fortune Telling, and has since written several volumes on tarot.
“直到1970年代初Stuart Kaplan得到了偉特牌的發行權，並把它推廣，這副塔羅牌才真正變得流行起來，”Wolf說。Kaplan用他1977年推出的《有趣的塔羅牌，預知未來》重新喚起了人們的興趣，並且之後發行了好幾個版本的塔羅牌。

A version of the popular Rider-Waite deck from 1920. Photo courtesy Bill Wolf.
一種1920年流行的偉特牌

Though historians like Kaplan and Matthews publish new information on divination decks every year, there are still many holes in the larger story of fortune-telling cards. Wolf points out that those who use cards for divination are often at odds with academics researching their past. “There's a lot of friction between tarot historians and card readers about the origins and purpose of tarot cards,” Wolf says. “The evidence suggests they were invented for gaming and evolved for use in divination at a much later date. Personally, I believe they were designed for game play, but that the design is a bit more sophisticated than many tarot historians seem to believe.”
儘管像Kaplan和Matthews這樣的歷史學家們每年都在推出新書，描述卡牌占卜的歷史，用卡片預知未來的歷史仍然有很多未解的地方。Wolf指出，那些仍然用卡片占卜的人與研究者之間往往不能達成一致。“關於牌的起源和意義，研究塔羅牌的歷史學家和占卜者之間經常發生摩擦，”Wolf說，“有證據表示紙牌被用於賭博和占卜是在比較晚的年代了，從個人來講我覺得它的起源就是一種遊戲，但是我覺得塔羅牌的設計應該比很多歷史學家想的更復雜一些。”

By the mid-18th century, the mystical applications for cards had spread from Italy to other parts of Europe. In France, writer Antoine Court de Gébelin asserted that the tarot was based on a holy book written by Egyptian priests and brought to Europe by Gypsies from Africa. In reality, tarot cards predated the presence of Gypsies in Europe, who actually came from Asia rather than Africa. Regardless of its inaccuracies, Court de Gébelin's nine-volume history of the world was highly influential.
在十八世紀中期，卡牌的神祕用途從意大利傳播到了歐洲的其他地方。在法國，作家Antoine Court de Gébelin堅持說塔羅牌源自一本古埃及祭司的聖書，並由吉普賽人從非洲帶來。而事實上塔羅牌在歐洲的出現要早於吉普賽人，而吉普賽人實際上來自亞洲，而不是非洲。先不管這些錯誤，Court de Gébelin寫的九卷本倒是廣爲傳播。

Teacher and publisher Jean-Baptiste Alliette wrote his first book on the tarot in 1791, called “Etteilla, ou L'art de lire dans les cartes," meaning "Etteilla, or the Art of Reading Cards." (Alliette created this mystical pseudonym “Etteilla” simply by reversing his surname.) According to Etteilla's writings, he first learned divination with a deck of 32 cards designed for a game called Piquet, along with the addition of his special Etteilla card. This type of card is known as the significator and typically stands in for the individual having their fortune read.
教師和出版家Jean-Baptiste Alliette在1791年寫了他的第一本關於塔羅牌的書，名爲《Etteilla, ou L'art de lire dans les cartes》，意思是“艾特拉，卡片中蘊含的祕密”（Alliette發明了這個神祕學詞彙“艾特拉”，就是把他的姓的拼寫顛倒過來）。在他對“艾特拉”的描述裏，他一開始是從一種叫做“皮克牌”的32張紙牌的遊戲中學會占卜術的，裏面再加上他特別的“艾特拉”牌，就被視爲一種典型而知名的用於個人占卜的卡牌。

A hand-colored set of tarot cards produced by F. Gumppenberg, circa 1810. Photo courtesy Bill Wolf.
1810年由F. Gumppenberg製造的一種手繪塔羅牌。

While the tarot is the most widely known, it's just one type of deck used for divination; others include common playing cards and so-called oracle decks, a term encompassing all the other fortune-telling decks distinct from the traditional tarot. Etteilla eventually switched to using a traditional tarot deck, which he claimed held secret wisdom passed down from ancient Egypt. Etteilla's premise echoed the writings of Court de Gébelin, who allegedly recognized Egyptian symbols in tarot-card illustrations. Though hieroglyphics had not yet been deciphered (the Rosetta Stone was rediscovered in 1799), many European intellectuals in the late 18th century believed the religion and writings of ancient Egypt held major insights into human existence. By linking tarot imagery to Egyptian mysticism, they gave the cards greater credibility.
當塔羅牌已經廣爲人知之後，它仍然不是唯一一種用於占卜的紙牌；其他的包括普通的撲克牌和一種叫做神諭卡的卡牌，那是一種綜合了其他所有占卜牌的特點而又和傳統塔羅牌截然不同的卡牌。“艾特拉”後來又發展成了現在所講的，其中蘊含着古埃及智慧的塔羅牌，Court de Gébelin從“艾特拉”中獲取了靈感，據說他從塔羅牌的插畫中辨認出了古老的埃及符號。雖然古埃及的象形文字直到現在都沒有被完全破譯（羅塞塔石碑在1799年才被發現），早在十八世紀晚期就有很多人相信古埃及的宗教和文化深遠地影響到了人類存續，通過把塔羅牌上的圖像和神祕的古埃及聯繫起來，他們給塔羅牌賦予了更多的意義。

Building on Court de Gébelin's Egyptian connection, Etteilla claimed that tarot cards originated with the legendary Book of Thoth, which supposedly belonged to the Egyptian god of wisdom. According to Etteilla, the book was engraved by Thoth's priests into gold plates, providing the imagery for the first tarot deck. Drawing on these theories, Etteilla published his own deck in 1789—one of the first designed explicitly as a divination tool and eventually referred to as the Egyptian tarot.
在Court de Gébelin把塔羅牌和古埃及聯繫起來之後，Alliette宣稱塔羅牌的起源來自代表古埃及智慧之神透特的聖書。據他所說，聖書被透特的祭司刻在黃金的薄片上，最初的塔羅牌圖案就來源於此。根據這些理論，Alliette在1789年出版了他的第一種明確用於占卜的牌，之後被稱作埃及塔羅牌。

A few of the cards from Etteilla's esoteric deck, reproduced by Grimaud in 1890.
1890年，Alliette的塔羅牌組。

"Etteilla was one of the people who actually made divination so esoteric," says Matthews. “He created a deck that incorporated all the things from Court de Gébelin and his book ‘Le Monde Primitif' ['The Primitive World'], which suggested an Egyptian origin for the tarot and all sorts of arcane things."Matthews makes a distinction between the tarot's abstract interpretations and the straightforward 'cartomantic'reading style that thrived during the 16th and 17th centuries, prior to Etteilla.
“像Alliette這樣的人將占卜變得更加神祕化，”Matthews說，“他的牌裏吸收了Court de Gébelin的書《Le Monde Primitif（世界始源）》裏所有的內容，包括塔羅牌起源於埃及和其他神祕的東西。”Matthews對於十六到十七世紀時早於“艾特拉”的塔羅牌占卜中“抽象解讀”和“直接解讀”這兩種方法進行了區分。

"When we used to send telegrams, each word costs money,"Matthews explains, "so you'd have to send very few words like, ‘Big baby. Mother well. Come to hospital.' And you'd get the gist of it. I read cards in a very similar way—starting from a few general keywords and making sense of them by filling in the words that are missing. This isn't the tarot style of reading where you project things, like, 'I can see that you've recently had a great disappointment. Mercury is in retrograde and da da da.' A cartomantic reading is much more straightforward and pragmatic, for example, ‘Your wife will eat tomatoes and fall off the roof and die horribly.' It's a direct way of reading, a pre-New Age way of reading."
“我們以前發電報時，每一個單獨的字都是要花錢的，”Matthews解釋，“所以你說的話得儘量短比如，‘母將到院，親'，從這幾個字裏你就可以找到要點。我的塔羅牌解讀方法是很簡單的，找到幾個關鍵字，再把中間缺少的部分補上組成一個完整的句子。這和那種需要察言觀色的占卜術不同，比如‘我發現你今天很沮喪，你的水星軌道正在倒退'之類。相比之下我的方法更加直接和實用，得到的結果會是‘你妻子將會在吃番茄後從屋頂掉下死掉'這樣直接的解讀，這是新世紀的占卜形式。”

One of Matthews'favorite decks is the Lenormand published by Bernd A. Mertz in 2004 based on a design circa 1840. Photo courtesy Caitlín Matthews.
Matthews最喜歡的一套牌，由Bernd A. Mertz在2004年印製，基於1840年的版本。

Matthews has authored several books on divinatory cards, and her latest, The Complete Lenormand Oracle Cards Handbook, will be published in October of this year. This 36-card deck was named after the celebrity card-reader Mademoiselle Marie Anne Lenormand, who was popular around the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, though the decks bearing her name weren't actually produced until after her death. The oldest packs in Matthews' collection are two Lenormand-style decks, the French Daveluy of the 1860s and the Viennese Zauberkarten deck from 1864, which were some of the first decks to be illustrated using the technique of chromolithography.
Matthews已經發行了好幾本關於卡牌占卜的書，而他最新的一本《萊諾門奧祕牌完全手冊》即將在今年十月出版。這種由三十六張牌組成的占卜牌是以著名的占卜家Mademoiselle Marie Anne Lenormand的名字命名的，而她活躍在十八到十九世紀之交，雖然直到她死後這種牌仍然沒有被髮明出來。Matthews手中最古老的收藏品就是兩副萊諾門牌，分別出自1860年代法國的Daveluy和1864年維也納的Zauberkarten之手，都是第一代用石版彩印技術印製的牌。

Oracle decks like the Lenormand tend to rely on more direct visual language than traditional tarot cards. "The tarot can often speak in broad, timeless, universal statements about our place in the world," says Wolf. "The imagery of fortune-telling decks is more illustrational and less archetypal. The images are generally more specific, simpler, and less universal, keeping the conversation more straightforward."
像萊諾門牌這樣的奧祕牌相對於傳統的塔羅牌來說可以表達出更多的視覺信息。“塔羅牌表現出了我們所存在的宇宙的永恆和廣闊。”Wolf說。“占卜牌上的圖像是具體而超前的，大體上它們都簡潔而蘊含着指向性的信息，讓靈性的對話更加直接。”

In contrast to most oracle decks, which don't include suited pip cards, Lenormand cards feature a unique combination of numbered playing-card imagery on top of illustrated scenes used for fortune-telling. "One of the earliest versions, called the Game of Hope, was made by a German named J.K. Hechtel and was prepared like a board game," says Matthews. "You laid out cards 1 to 36, and the object of the game was to throw the dice and move your tokens along it. If you got to card 35, which was the anchor card, then you're home, safe and dry. But if you went beyond that, it was the cross, which was not so good. It was like the game Snakes and Ladders." In this way, the Game of Hope fell into the Victorian-era tradition of board games that determined a player's life story based on luck.
和大部分奧祕牌不同，萊諾門牌獨特地含有副牌組，在它的有編號的每一張牌上都有用於預測未來的小圖。“它最初的版本是一種由德國人J.K. Hechtel發明的叫做‘希望遊戲'的桌遊。”Matthews說。“在桌子上擺開標着1到36的牌，遊戲的玩法就是你扔出一個骰子，按照上面的數字把棋子沿着數字移動，如果下到了35號的位置，就是所謂的‘錨地'，你就算回到老家了，乾燥又溫暖；如果你越過了錨地，就到了‘十字路口'，那可不是什麼好消息，它很像蛇梯棋。”這種希望遊戲在維多利亞時代發展成了一種預測玩家未來命運的桌遊。

This Lenormand-style oracle deck shows a mixture of playing card and fortune-telling illustrations, circa 1870. Photo courtesy Bill Wolf.
萊諾門式的奧祕牌混合了各種卡牌遊戲和占卜的風格。

The game's original instructions said it could be used for divining because the illustration on each card included both a symbolic image, like the anchor, and a specific playing card, like the nine of spades. "Hechtel must have seen that there were overlaps between divining with playing cards, which, of course, everyone did, and his game," says Matthews. "Many other oracle decks appeared around the same time at the end of the 18th century and into the early 19th century. They became really popular after the Napoleonic Wars when everyone settled down and became terribly bourgeois.
最初這種遊戲的玩法就顯示出它可以被用作占卜，因爲每一張牌上都畫有比如像錨這樣有象徵意義的圖案，或者其本身就有特殊寓意，如黑桃五。“德國人Hechtel肯定預見了他的紙牌遊戲和占卜之間會產生聯繫，當然，很多那時候的人也就是那樣做的，”Matthews說。“在十八世紀晚期到十九世紀剛開始之間產生了很多種神諭牌，它們之所以變得流行是因爲與拿破崙之間發生的戰爭結束了，社會變得安定下來，資本主義蓬勃發展。”

"Quite recently, it was discovered by Mary Greer that there was a prior source to the Lenormand cards," she continues. “There's a deck in the British Museum called ‘Les Amusements des Allemands' (‘The German Entertainment'). Basically, a British firm put together a pack of cards that has images and little epigrams on the bottom, which say things like, ‘Be aware, don't spend your money unwisely,' and that sort of thing. It's quite trite. But it came with a book of text that's almost identical to the instructions for later packs of Lenormand cards."
“到了近代，才由Mary Greer發現還有一種比萊諾門牌更早的形式，”她繼續道。“現在在大英博物館中還收藏着一副被稱作‘Les Amusements des Allemands（德國人的把戲）'的牌。”基本上它就是由一個英國公司發明的，在一副有插圖的牌背面都加上一個警句，比如‘謹慎運用你的錢財'之類。說句實話它非常的老套，但是附帶的一本使用說明卻代表了後來萊諾門牌的發展方向。”

"Les Amusements des Allemands," circa 1796, has many overlaps with Lenormand decks. Via the British Museum.
“Les Amusements des Allemands,”和萊諾門牌有很多相似之處，藏於大英博物館。

By comparing various decks from different time periods, tarot-card enthusiasts can identify the evolution of certain illustrations. "For example," says Matthews, "the modern version of the hermit with the lantern, you'll find that that was an hourglass and he was Saturn or Chronos, the keeper of time. You can see how that translates with the Tarot Bolognese meaning of delay or blockage. It was about time moving slowly, though that's not used as a modern meaning much now."
通過對不同時代的牌的比較，塔羅牌愛好者們可以總結出上面插圖的進化史。“比如，”Matthews說，“你會發現現代版本中提着燈籠的隱士旁邊有一個沙漏，他代表着羅馬神話中的薩圖恩或者說希臘神話中的克洛諾斯，時間之神。這張牌在古代意大利波隆那版本中只是拖延或者停頓的意思，和它的現代版本差異很大。”

Most card readers recognize that the associations and preconceptions of the person being read for are just as important as the actual drawings on the cards: Divination cards offer a way to project certain ideas, whether subconscious or not, and to toy with potential outcomes for important decisions. Thus, like scenes from a picture book, the best illustrations typically offer clear visions of their subjects with an open-ended quality, as though the action is unfolding before you.
相對於卡牌上的圖案所顯示的東西，很多佔卜者在給別人占卜時也利用對對方的觀察和推測，占卜牌提供了一種可能是在潛意識中表達具體意見的方式，可以對重要的決定產生潛在的影響。儘管根據塔羅書上講的那樣有無數種組合，牌面上插圖只能明顯的提供一個物象，其解讀是完全開放式的。

Matthews' favorite decks are those with straightforward illustrations, like the Tarocchino Bolognese by Giuseppe Maria Mitelli, an Italian deck created sometime around the 1660s. Matthews' owns a facsimile of the Mitelli deck, rather than an original, which means she can use them without fear of damaging a priceless antique. “The deck that I enjoy most is the Mertz Lenormand deck because of its clarity,” she says. “The background on each card is a creamy, vellum color, so when you lay them out in tableau, you can see the illustrations very clearly. I frankly get so tired of all the new Photoshopped tarots and the slick art, with their complete lack of any framework or substance.
Matthews最喜愛的牌組就是有喻意很直接的插圖的，比如1660年左右意大利人 Giuseppe Maria Mitelli發明的波隆那塔羅牌，Matthews收藏了一副這個價值連城的古董的收藏品。“還有一副我最喜歡的牌是梅茨的萊諾門牌，因爲它看起來清楚，”她說。“每一張的背景都是奶油色的，牛皮紙一樣的單色，所以你能清楚地看出上面的圖案。我已經受夠了現在那些新式的修圖過度，有無數漸變色，但是實在表達不出更多含義的牌。”

Trump cards from the Tarrocchini Bolognese designed by Giuseppe Maria Mitelli, circa 1664.
1664年，Giuseppe Maria Mitelli的波隆那塔羅牌。

"I also enjoy reading with the Lenormand deck made by Daveluy, which has been beautifully reworked by Lauren Forestell, who specializes in restoring facsimile decks—cleaning up 200 years' worth of card shuffling and human grief. The coloring on the Daveluy is very beautiful. Chromolithography gave an incredibly clear color to everything, and I think it was probably as revolutionary as Technicolor was in the days of the movies."
“我同樣喜歡Daveluy製作的萊諾門牌，Lauren Forestell現在把它重製過了，他是一個複製過上下近200年曆史的塔羅牌的專家，Daveluy的牌色彩豔麗，石版印刷術讓每一種顏色都顯得分明，我認爲這種技術革新的意義等同於彩色電影的發明。”

The illustration on some decks did double duty, providing divinatory tools and scientific knowledge, like the Geografia Tarocchi deck from around 1725. "The Geografia are extraordinary cards, almost like a little encyclopedia of the world with the oracle imagery peeking out at the top," Matthews says. "The actual bit that you read from is just a cigarette-card length. So for example, the hanged man just shows his legs at the top of the card, while the rest of the card has information about Africa or Asia or other places on it."
插圖不僅有占卜學上的意義，有些時候它也傳播了科學，比如在約1725年出現的地理塔羅牌。“地理塔羅牌是很特別的，幾乎就是一部小的百科全書，同時上面又印着占卜用的圖案，”Matthews說。“雖然你能讀到的部分只有煙盒一樣大小，舉個例子，倒吊人這張牌的上面只有他的腿，剩下的部分寫着關於非洲和亞洲的內容。”

On the Geografia deck, the symbolic imagery is reduced to a small colored segment at the top of each card; the rest is related to global geography. Via eBay.
eBay上的地理塔羅牌，占卜圖像只佔很小一部分，剩下的都是全球地理知識。

In contrast, the meanings in other decks are particularly difficult to decipher, like the infamous Thoth tarot developed by Aleister Crowley, notorious for his involvement with various cults and experimentation with recreational drugs and so-called “sex magick." Completed in 1943, the Thoth deck was illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris and incorporated a range of occult and scientific symbols, inspiring many modern decks. As Wolf explains, "with the rise of the divination market in the 20th century, more liberties were taken, and the imagery evolved into increasingly personal artistic statements, both in content and style of execution."
與這些知識相比，塔羅牌上的其他意思是很難解讀的，比如說1943年Aleister Crowley發明的著名的透特塔羅牌，就像綜合了各種宗教祭儀和嗑藥後的效果，被稱作“性感魔法”，它的插圖來自Frieda Harris女士，使用了一些神祕學和自然科學中的符號，它影響了後世的塔羅牌的風格。Wolf對此這樣解釋：“二十世紀占卜學興起之後，其風格越來越自由化，那些圖案本身的風格和對其的解讀都帶上了更強的個人風格。”

But to balance such arcane decks, there are divinatory cards that offer little room for interpretation, like “Le Scarabée d'Or"or The Golden Beetle Oracle, one of Wolf's most prized decks. "It's just fantastically bizarre. There's a little window in the lid of the card box, and when you shake it, the beetle appears, and points to a number,” he explains. "Then you find the corresponding number on a set of round cards, with beautiful script text on them, and read your fortune. Can you not imagine standing in a Victorian parlor in France, consulting the Golden Beetle? It was like performance art."
卡牌占卜越發神祕化之後，又出現了一些提供較少想象空間的占卜牌，比如“Le Scarabée d'Or”或者Wolf最喜歡的“金龜子牌”。“它獨特而有趣，牌盒上有一個小小的洞，你搖動它就會出現一隻甲蟲，指向一個數字。”他解釋。“然後你在一堆牌中找出這個數字，上面寫着一段揭示你未來的雋永的句子。想象一下維多利亞時代的你坐在法國的客廳裏向金甲蟲問卦的場景，那是一種藝術。”

The Art of Divination Cards

The Golden Beetle deck, circa 1860. Photo courtesy Bill Wolf.
1860年的金龜子牌]

The magic oracle box for the Golden Beetle deck. Photo courtesy Bill Wolf.
盛放金龜子牌的魔法盒子

Aces for the four suits in the Mitelli tarot deck, with engravings, circa 1664.
意大利那啥牌的AKQJ

Hannell's fortune-telling deck incorporated typical playing card suits along with its particular illustrations, circa 1808. Photo courtesy Bill Wolf.
1808年Hannell的預測未來紙牌，有現代紙牌的風格和特別的圖案。

This cartomancy deck from Austria included four language translation—German, Italian, French, and English—and shows signs of significant use, circa 1820. Photo courtesy Bill Wolf.
翻譯成四種語言的奧地利占卜牌，其德語，意大利語，法語和英語版本。

This vibrant deck of Marseille style tarot cards was published by François Gassmann, circa 1870. Photo courtesy Bill Wolf.
1870年，François Gassmann的馬賽牌。

This Lombardy style tarot deck was woodblock printed by Pietro Oletti, circa 1870. Photo courtesy Bill Wolf.
1870年Pietro Oletti木版印刷的倫巴第風格塔羅牌。

Eventually, artists incorporated all manner of mystical symbols to tarot illustrations, like this Tarot Astrologique designed by Georges Muchery, circa 1890. Photo courtesy Bill Wolf.
後來藝術家們總結出了所有塔羅牌上的神祕符號，比如Georges Muchery設計的這一副。

This double-ended Piedmont tarot was printed by Alessandro Viassone, circa 1893. Photo courtesy Bill Wolf.
1893年Alessandro Viassone的雙面塔羅牌。

This woodblock Etteilla deck printed by Z. Lismon, circa 1880, includes several layers of esoteric meaning. Photo courtesy Bill Wolf.
1880年Z. Lismon的木版艾特拉牌，不同的框裏寫着神祕的詞。

The Green Spade Pow Wow Tarok made by A. Petryl & Sons in 1922 featured Native American imagery. Photo courtesy Bill Wolf.
A. Petryl & Sons公司在1922年印第安人風格的塔羅牌。

Though finished in 1943, Aleister Crowley's highly esoteric Thoth tarot deck wasn't actually published until 1969.
1943年由Aleister Crowley設計，但在1969年纔出品的極其神祕的塔羅牌。