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.
当塔罗牌已经广为人知之后,它仍然不是唯一一种用于占卜的纸牌;其他的包括普通的扑克牌和一种叫做神谕卡的卡牌,那是一种综合了其他所有占卜牌的特点而又和传统塔罗牌截然不同的卡牌。“艾特拉”后来又发展成了现在所讲的,其中蕴含着古埃及智慧的塔罗牌,Court de Gébelin从“艾特拉”中获取了灵感,据说他从塔罗牌的插画中辨认出了古老的埃及符号。虽然古埃及的象形文字直到现在都没有被完全破译(罗塞塔石碑在1799年才被发现),早在十八世纪晚期就有很多人相信古埃及的宗教和文化深远地影响到了人类存续,通过把塔罗牌上的图像和神秘的古埃及联系起来,他们给塔罗牌赋予了更多的意义。
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把塔罗牌和古埃及联系起来之后,Alliette宣称塔罗牌的起源来自代表古埃及智慧之神透特的圣书。据他所说,圣书被透特的祭司刻在黄金的薄片上,最初的塔罗牌图案就来源于此。根据这些理论,Alliette在1789年出版了他的第一种明确用于占卜的牌,之后被称作埃及塔罗牌。
A few of the cards from Etteilla's esoteric deck, reproduced by Grimaud in 1890.
1890年,Alliette的塔罗牌组。