French occultism and esoteric tarot

Jean-Baptiste Alliette (Etteilla)

1738 – 1791

Jean-Baptiste Alliette, who reversed his surname to create the pseudonym Etteilla, was the first known professional tarot card reader in history, making his living through cartomancy from 1783 onward in Paris and systematizing tarot divination in his multi-volume Manière de se récréer avec le jeu de cartes nommées tarots. He designed the Grand Etteilla deck (c. 1789), introducing Egyptian esoteric themes and establishing tarot as a vehicle for occult knowledge rather than mere card play — a transformation that preceded Lévi's tarot-Kabbalah synthesis and laid the commercial and conceptual groundwork for the modern tarot industry. Etteilla established the template of the esoteric tarot practitioner as professional diviner and occult teacher that persists to the present day.