Antoine Court de Gebelin's
Blood line

The entire esoteric Tarot tradition stems ultimately from the work of Antoine Court de Gebelin, a Protestant pastor, Freemason and savant who was the third child of Antoine Court (1695-1760) and his wife, nee Etiennette Pages.

The father, Antoine Court, himself the son of Jean Court and Marie Gebelin, was the most prominent French Protestant pastor of his day, at a time when Protestants, Knights Templars and anyone else who didn't strictly adhere with the pope's rules were subject to confiscation of all properties, being beheaded, severe torture, or life imprisonment in England and France.

In 1720, he visited Geneva, intending to stay for only a few weeks, but was inhibited from returning to France until August 1722 by an outbreak of the plague in the southern part of the country.

As all Knights Templars and other religions, de Gebelin was hunted by the church's soliders, and with a price on his head, Court escaped to Lausanne in November 1729. He remained in Switzerland for the rest of his life. Other than a highly dangerous visit of four months to France in 1744. This became the reason for the condemnation of Court (the father) as a deserter by some French Protestants.

Antoine Jr. Enters France

It was at the time of his entry into France, in 1762, that Antoine Court (the son), having up to then spent his entire life since infancy in Switzerland, adopted the suffix 'de Gebelin to his name. This suffix was simply a pseudonym of the type frequently adopted by French Protestants of the time: 'Gebelin' was borrowed from his paternal grandmother, while the preposition 'de,' to which he was not properly entitled, was a claim to aristocratic birth such as was made by many contemporary Frenchmen who attached it without warrant to their surnames.

After completing his seminary studies in Switzerland, Antoine Court de Gebelin was ordained pastor in 1754. Twenty seven years later, Antoine Court de Gebelin would begin to accidentally discover the hieroglyphic meanings of the Tarot deck. As he further studied the subject of tarot the result was profound. The use of the tarot expanded throughout the world.

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