Jean-Baptiste Alliette - Etteilla
(1738 – 1791)
Jean-Baptiste Alliette (Etteilla is a pseudonym drawn from his surname)
had worked great deal of his life as a merchant but was also the first publicly
renown occultist doing card divination.
His booklet, Etteilla, ou manière de se récréer avec un jeu de cartes
(Etteilla, or a Way to Entertain Yourself With a Deck of Cards) in 1770 was the
first serious review about cartomancy. He described a method using 32 playing
cards with addition of the special "Etteilla" card, using spreads and distinct
meanings of the cards depending on reversed/upright position thus laying a foundation of
the card divination. He claimed he didn't invent this
method by himself but he obtain it from an Italian he met. After publishing the book he
earned his living as an author and teacher. In 1781 when
Court de Gebelin
published an essay about the Tarot cards and connected them to divination, Etteilla promptly released another book
Manière de se récréer avec le jeu de cartes nommées Tarots (How to
Entertain Yourself With the Deck of Cards Called Tarot) in 1785. It was the
first book about the card divination with the Tarot. Etteilla claimed in the book he
knew about this kind of divination from 1751, long before that essay was
published.
Etteilla conceded with Monsieur le Comte de Mellet who proposed that
along with the Egyptian origin, tarot cards also had strong connection with
the Gypsies and that the Tarot cards are imprinted book of Hermes Trismegistus.
Around 1790 he published Cour théorique et pratique du Livre du Thot,
where he tried to interpret the Egyptian book of Thot. This book included his
vision of what we today consider Major and Minor Arcana and their connection
with four elements and astrology. By the end of his life he succeeded to create
his own deck for occult purposes.