Dear Mr. Deaver...
As an avid reader and fan of yours for many years, I have always relished the intricacy of your
stories and enjoyed the many characters you have created, especially those in the Lincoln Rhyme
series.
Of special interest to me are the extensive details you weave together to create a trail for
Lincoln and Amelia as they "walk the grid" toward a solution.
However....
In the Twelfth Card, (and I have only read up to the part where you have Kara, the "expert,"
explain the Tarot) the information...
rather...the
misinformation you have presented as an opening summary of what Tarot is, is blatantly in error.
To those who have a passion for the study of the history and iconology of Tarot, this
"introduction" to the Tarot rests on the multiple myths that have traveled through the ages and,
apparently, still survive, despite the large base of historical data now available.
The Tarot is an avocation of mine. I both read with the Tarot and study its orgins.
On page nineteen of The Twelfth Card, wherein Kara "explains" the Tarot, the overall tone used to
describe the Tarot, is not a complimentary one.
The Tarot did NOT originate in Egypt.
It was NOT a method of divining until the nineteenth century, although there are some early
references that suggest its use as a divinatory tool in the eighteenth century. Certainly the
use of the words "fortune telling" in connection with the Tarot, has fallen into disfavor,
especially among those who value the broader, richer tradition of this marvelous spiritual/art
form.
The Tarot cards were orginally used to play a game of "Trumps." It was simply a game of cards.
In a "standard" Tarot Deck, of which there are now thousands (cf. The Encyclopedia of Tarot
Volumes I, II, III and IV, by Stuart R. Kaplan, U.S. Games Systems, Inc) there are 56 minor
aracana, not 52. They do NOT correspond to the fifty-two-card playing deck. The "court" cards
have a history of their own in Tarot, with some similarities to the court cards in a deck of
cards today.
The major arcana, or atouts , or Trumps, do have 22 cards, but not necessarily ordered as 0
through 21. There is much in Tarot's history to support that the card with no number (the Fool,
0) may be the 22nd card, and not the beginning of a journey, as has evolved in more recent times
in part from the Golden Dawn movement.
This latter movement, based on a famous English occult society of the same name (late 1800's),
led to the development of one of the most popular decks, the Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) and clones
of this deck, the Rider-Waite-Smith. (drawn by Pamela Colman Smith, with meanings attributed by
Edward Arthur Waite and publishing by Rider).
The meanings of the cards have evolved over the years from many traditions, hence the meanings
attributed to the four suits vary although there are some larger consistencies across traditions.
So....the Twelfth Card, which usually is the Hanged Man in most traditions,
has mutlple meanings. The one which you have quoted, while it has a kernel of what many may
consider to be a core meaning, seems to be a summary dragged from authors who rely on a body of
"keyword" meanings for the Tarot.
We do not speak of "destructive" cards in Tarot. There is no such thing. Even the Devil and the
card with no name (Death) are not "destructive" cards. Each card calls forth a challenge to the
person to face certain stages of a path in life, either on a shorter day-to-day journey (minor
arcana) or on a larger scale, perhaps similar to archetypes represented throughout the Tarot in
the richness of its inconology.
While my own library has grown to close to 60 volumes on the subject of The Tarot, I refer you to
four additional resources that I feel are the most current and most in-depth examinination of the
Tarot and its origins.
There are also wonderful discussions in each of these books of "myths" surrounding the Tarot,
some of which you, or your researchers seem to have latched onto for purposes of setting an
underpinning to the motives of the person who attempted to attack Geneva.
These books are:
A History of the Occult Tarot (1870-1970) Ronald Decker and Michael Dummett (2002)
A Wicked Pack of Cards: The Origins of the Occult Tarot (1996)
Tarot Symbolism, R.V. O'Neill (recently republished - 2004-through the Association for Tarot
Studies, Melbourne, Australia)
The Tarot: History, Symbolism and Divination, Robert M. Place (2005)
I thank you for taking the time to read this e-mail...and most of all, I look forward to more of
your works, since your works are on the short list of my all-time favorite works of fiction.
