Egyptomania by Robert Place

In this two-hour class, we will cover the history of the phenomenon known as Egyptomania and come to understand why both of the first occultists to discuss the Tarot, Antoine Court de Gébelin and Comte de Mellet, believed that Egypt was the source of the Tarot’s mystical trumps. Although it is often said that these occultists were inspired by the enchantment with ancient Egypt called Egyptomania, technically this term refers to the fad for things Egyptian that stemmed from Napolean’s invasion of Egypt seventeen years later and his men’s discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799. We will learn, however, that this fascination with ancient Egypt has been a constant source of inspiration for European culture, beginning in ancient Greece and continuing into the Latin world when the cult of Isis spread through the Roman Empire.