O'Neill, Robert
From Tarotpedia
Contents |
[edit] Tarot contribution
[edit] Biography
[from book - needs editing for Taropedia]
ROBERT V. O’NEILL is a research scientist with a doctorate in biological science. He has authored over a hundred reports, articles, and books on the theory of environmental systems. He is a member of a number of professional societies and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has served on advisory committees for the National Science Foundation and the National Academy of Sciences. He has presented his research at Harvard, Cornell, Berkeley, and a number of other universities. He has also lectured in England, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Israel, and Venezuela.
Dr O’Neill’s interest in the mystical stems from early training for the Catholic priesthood, including several years in a religious cloister. For eighteen years he has studied Zen Buddhism through the martial arts. Combining his research experience with a concern for the transcendental, he has studied religious and secular mysticism across the breadth of human cultures. This research permitted him to find in the Tarot a truly Western approach to mysticism. He saw in the Tarot symbols a profound mystical philosophy, psychology, and methodology. This discovery led to a decade of serious study into the sources and meaning of the symbols.
While many people are familiar with the Tarot cards as a device for fortunetelling, few realize that they are not designed for this purpose. This book develops the thesis that the Tarot was originally a “cosmograph”, a pictorial representation of the universe and man’s role in it. The evidence indicates that the cards were designed during the Renaissance to represent a profound mystical philosophy to the common people. They are an expression of a Western mystical tradition with philosophical roots in Neoplatonism and religious roots in Gnosticism and the Mystery Religions.
To demonstrate his thesis, the author takes us on an exciting intellectual journey back to the sources of Western thought in Greece, Egypt, and the Middle East. He argues that the mystical insights of this early period began a tradition which endured throughout European history. Because unsupervised mystical experience was considered dangerous by the official Church, the insights were transmitted through enigmatic symbols which can still be found in Kabbalah, Alchemy, Numerology, and Astrology. All of these occult traditions were integrated during the Renaissance into the symbols of the Tarot. By carefully documenting every step of his argument, the author presents us with the first truly scholarly interpretation of the Tarot symbols.
[edit] Publications
[edit] decks
[edit] books
- Tarot Symbolism, Association for Tarot Studies, Melbourne, 2004 (republication of 1986 book) [ISBN 0975712209]
[edit] papers
online essays on tarot at tarot.com
- Iconology of the Early Tarot (26 essays)
- Catharism and the Tarot (originally a pdf book, now online as 11 chapter-essays)
- Magic and the Early Tarot (intended as a book, now online as 15 chapter-essays)
- Tarot Influences (6 essays)
[edit] Website
[edit] Books on this author
[in some cases, especially for earlier writers or influential ones, books may have been written on this author - please delete this section if not appropriate]
