Tarot's origin - any evidence?

[zenmaster]

Thanks for posting zenmaster! I have had considerable difficulty understanding the tarot as described by Ra in the LOO. Maybe this will help my understanding. I pulled up your second link and that looks helpful at first glance:

The main thing was finding a deck that was similar. The deck is certainly the Brotherhood of Light, but I'm not sure we'll ever know which version was actually used in the readings. I have both of these:
The BOL deck: http://www.green-door.narod.ru/zaintarot.html
The deck published by U.S. Games, as 'The Egyptian Tarot', in 1980: http://www.floating-world.org/Tarot.htm

I am a bit hesitant about teachings that stem from the occultic movement in the beginning of the 20th century, I find it somewhat "creepy"...just my own bias, but I feel some of the ascension teachings that came out of that were very ungrounded and missed the breadth and depth of spiritual evolution covered by L/L Research in the LOO.

Well you could look at it like archaeology. Remember, a lot of the terms used in the Ra material came out of that period, when Theosophy was getting started. For example: 'inner planes' and 'ectoplasm'.

I will check it out though, because I would like a deeper understanding of archetypes and the Logos plan for creation.

Notice that the positions of strength and justice cards are reversed between the BOL modern decks (Rider-Waite).

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One of the earliest accounts of the Egyptian 'magical' teachings is from Iamblichus/os.
http://www.esotericarchives.com/oracle/iambl_th.htm
http://books.google.com/books?id=Mf4LAAAAIAAJ

Iamblichus apparently inspired C.C. Zain:
http://www.luxlapis.co.za/at/iamblichus.htm .