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Appendix: The Tarot and Paganism

(For a detailed 192 K picture of the secret Tarot spread that will take about 1.3 minutes to load at 28.8, click on the Wheel below.)

Among other things, Sanctuary of the Gods introduces the Tarot cards in an entirely new way. The novel provides an intriguing and entertaining way of sharing in some of Nathan Cate's discoveries concerning the cards, but for readers who wish to go more deeply into the subject than the story allows, there is an extensive appendix.

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Not always, but it happens, and this is one of those situations. After centuries of speculation, a new and surprisingly comprehensive explanation of the Tarot's meaning and significance has become possible. The cards are vastly more interesting than most Tarot enthusiasts ever dreamed, and more magical in their intent and achievements than a rationalist's worst nightmare. And now, through this book, the truth about the Tarot is open to anyone who wishes to discover it. If you doubt the extraordinary conclusions Nathan Cate has drawn, all the information needed to make up your own mind is included in the book. There is no need to accept anything on faith. 

• The Tarot was designed to initiate the viewer into mysteries that lay at the secretive center of the ancient Greek religion. 
• In doing so, the cards describe an ancient path to mystical wisdom. 
• They describe a Sun Wheel from Apollo's temple at Delphi, a wheel used to divine the past and future of any questioner who sought the oracle's guidance. 
• They provide a key to the metaphoric language used in Greek myth, a sort of Rosetta Stone, allowing the mysterious stories of the ancient poets to finally be understood as their creators understood them.
• The card's creators believed they were laying the foundations of a new age when they invented the Tarot. In fact, it was to ensure the rebirth of civilization in the West that they remained in hiding throughout the centuries of darkness after the fall of the Roman Empire.
• Perhaps most striking of all is the mountain: the Tarot cards contain a hidden map directing their decipherer to a mountain in Northern Italy. This Mountain and the valley beneath it was, for nine long centuries following Rome's conversion to Christianity and the collapse of Western Civilization, the last surviving sanctuary of the ancient Greek religion. It remained in hiding from a hostile world until the very threshold of the European rebirth, only to perish in the Great Plague that struck Europe at the end of the middle ages. It was then that the cards were invented, to achieve what the guardians themselves could not: to survive down to a more civilized age when people might once again wish to hear the voices of their ancestors, and receive from them the sacred things they had guarded through the long night.

The Tarot has been the focus of incredible claims before, but surely none more incredible than these. And yet as improbable as they may seem, they are unique in the history of the cards because there is literally a mountain of evidence to back them up. All the essential facts have now been made available in Sanctuary of the Gods, and readers are invited to view them for themselves in the appendix. The more you know, the harder it will be to dismiss the body of evidence that lies behind this remarkable story. Coming to light at the beginning of a new millennium and what many believe is the dawn of a new age, this book provides us with a new understanding of where we have come from and why, as well as offering ancient but timeless insights into the world around us, and the world within. But whether you choose to view the book as an entertaining and imaginative tale--and leave it at that--or pursue the matter further, it will prove to be a thought-provoking and entertaining glimpse into another universe. Either way it is a story unlike any you have ever read before or are likely to read again...

Click on the link below if you would like to see a sample of the Appendix.

Sample 2

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