Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lissy Longbottom 
Cale rasied his hand, "They believe that playing cards, the basis of the tarot we use in Divination, originated with the Mamelukes of Egypt, and eventually led to the tarot cards that we use today being formed in Milan, Ferrera, or Bologna, which are all in northern Italy."
"
Good. Two points." Kapoor turned back to address everyone in the class. "
Any other places?". There was still at least one unmentioned.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
XanaSnape Will raised his hand. "No one definitively knows where the tarot originated. There is evidence of tarot in use in ancient Greece during the time of Pythagoras as well as between 1410 and 1430 from Milan, Ferrara, or Bologna, They are mentioned in the surviving text of Martiano da Tortona from 1418 and 1425. It was even mentioned in the ancient Qabbalah religious texts as well."
Kapoor nodded his head at the first half of Will's answer. "Three points!"
Quote:
Originally Posted by
XanaSnape "However... current thinking places the origin of tarot most likely as coming from the ancient Egyptian times, where they were tools of initiation into the priesthood. They can be traced to the time of the Pharoah Le-eet. In that time the cards were known in Le-eet speak as 'T3h Ra', or 'Teh Ra, The Sun God', as the cards were thought to be a divine gift for communication by the priests with the sun God Amun-Ra himself. However, over time the word changed to Tarah, and finally to the term 'tarot' that we use to this day."
Quote:
Originally Posted by
XanaSnape Will nodded, pleased with his answer. Which was totally, absolutely, accurate.
Kapoor stared blankly at the eh, almost correct answer uttered by Prefect Jones. He wanted to tell him that although Alliette theorized that the Major Arcana was the work of Egyptian priests, he'd never heard of this
'T3h Ra', but all he could think was,
'Tah-rah-rah Boom-d'ay! Tah-rah-rah Boom-d'ay!'