Introduction
Babylonian Tarot is based on the cosmology and legends of ancient Mesopotamia which is Greek for "the land between the rivers." Even older than mighty Egypt, Mesopotamia was the original cradle of civilization located in the Fertile Crescent valley between the Tigris and Euphrates riversan area now occupied by modern-day Iraq. Archeologists divide Mesopotamia into two sections: Lower Mesopotamia, which stretched from the river delta at the top of the Persian Gulf to what is now the city of Baghdad, and Upper Mesopotamia, which extended from Baghdad through Eastern Syria to the foothills of the Taurus Mountains in southeastern Turkey. It was in Mesopotamia, or Babylonia as it is often called, that the worlds first cities appeared during the fourth millennium B.C.E.
The city of Babylon has long been the primary symbol for all of Mesopotamia. The Biblical stories suggest only negative connotations of the cityhardly an unbiased account.
Ironically, many elements of Babylonian spiritual beliefs, practice, and mythos have found their way into the Hebrew Scriptures in such stories as the creation of the universe and the Great Flood.
Fortunately recent archeological discoveries have given us a more accurate and balanced description of a vibrant and deeply religious people.
The Fertile Crescent was the home of the ancient Sumerians the builders of the first civilization in Mesopotamia. Their culture eventually outlasted them and became the basis for all later Babylonian civilization. The Sumerian way of life, style of writing, and religious customs were preserved in the Tigris-Euphrates river valley throughout ancient times by the kingdoms that followed--the Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian empires.
The gods and goddesses of the Sumerians were adopted by successive Babylonian civilizations and although the names of these deities were often altered, their basic characteristics, personalities, symbolism, and cosmology changed little.
The Babylonians were an agricultural people who worshipped the natural forces of the universe that ruled the skies and governed the fertility of the earth. The relationship between gods and humans was compared to that between parents and children. There were cosmic gods, underworld gods, city gods, and gods of nature.
There were also personal gods who were thought to favor specific individuals. Oftentimes the functions of these different classes of divinities overlapped.
Certain gods were thought to be in charge of both cosmic forces and their earthly counterpartsthe cities of Mesopotamiawhose existence was maintained by the surrounding farmland.
It was considered the duty of humanity to carry out the gods will on earth, implementing a divine order that would secure the prosperity of the land and its people. The gods were honored with great temples that were the cultural and economic centers of the city-states. A city itself was considered the property of its primary deity, and the temple was the deitys earthly abode. It was in service to the gods that the Babylonians conceived many of their most important contributions to civilization, including writing, which developed from the need to keep track of temple assets. Every human endeavor, whether for peace, war, agriculture, or commerce, was performed for the benefit of the gods, whom the Babylonians depended upon for every aspect of their lives.
Below the realm of the celestial gods was the realm of spirits, both good and evil. Magical incantation developed as a method of appeasing friendly spirits and driving off malicious ones. As a result the practice of magic played a very important role in the religious expression of Mesopotamians.
The average Babylonian employed the services of astrologers and magi (hereditary priest-magicians) for divination, healing, blessing of amulets and talismans, purification, cursing, warding off evil, etc.
Private homes usually contained shrines to the owners personal god or goddess, where prayers and sacrifices were made to attract the deitys favor.
It is these most ancient deities and spirits of "the Land between the Rivers" that are the subject of Babylonian Tarot.
The deck is comprised of eighty-three cards divided into two sections, the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana consists of twenty-three Trump cards. The Minor Arcana contains sixty cards which are divided into two groupsthe pips, which are the small or numbered cards, and the court cards.
Seventy-eight of the cards represent the traditional cards of the tarot with zodiacal, planetary, qabalistic, and elemental attributions that correspond with those of modern Hermetic decks such as the Golden Dawn Magical Tarot. There are five additional cards in this deck, including one extra trump (the card of Genesis) and four extra court cards. As in most other decks, the four court cards of the King, Queen, Prince, and Princess correspond to the four elements of Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. Babylonian Tarot includes a fifth court card, the Kerub, which represents the element of Spirit.
There are four suits: Wands, Cups, Arrows (comparable to Swords), and Disks (comparable to Pentacles). In general, Wands indicate Fire, great energy and dynamic power; Cups denote Water, creativity, fecundity, and pleasure; Arrows indicate Air, intellect, communication, mental faculties, and sometimes trouble; and Disks suggest Earth, material or worldly affairs, business, or money. A complete listing of attributions for every card is given in the appendix.
The Babylonians provided us with humanitys earliest written records of social, intellectual, and...(Continues)
