Oswald Wirth: definition

Oswald Wirth (1860-1943) was an author and occultist of Swiss origin, an important figure in transmitting a symbolic and initiatory reading of the tarot's major arcana.

His name appears often when studying the history of esoteric interpretations of tarot, alongside other French occultists who renewed the symbolic view of the cards at the end of the nineteenth century.

With the support of Stanislas de Guaita, he designed a tarot of the twenty-two major arcana conceived as a support for meditation and initiatory study, rather than a simple divinatory instrument.

His written work, in particular his book on the tarot of the medieval image-makers, fixed many symbolic correspondences that still influence contemporary esoteric reading.

Wirth stressed the initiatory dimension of tarot: for him, the major arcana form a path of inner transformation, a series of symbolic stages rather than a repertoire of predictions.

Knowing his contribution helps situate today's symbolic readings within a tradition: many ideas that now seem obvious about the meaning of the arcana come, in part, from this lineage of authors.

His influence extends to numerous later authors who took up his initiatory approach; that is why, when studying the symbolic meaning of the major arcana, encountering Wirth's name is almost inevitable and helps understand where many widely spread interpretations come from.

Situating Wirth in his time helps read the esoteric tarot tradition with perspective, and to tell apart his brilliant symbolic constructions from the documented history of the cards as a game.