22 tricks: How cunning trickery achieved victory over brute force and violence (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781923443044)

When author Katrina Hunter visits the Abbey of Fontfroide, home of the papal legate, Peirre de Castelnau whose murder launched the Albigensian Crusade. She stumbles on a connection - The Fool from The Tarot of Marseille depicted in a medieval statue. What if the Tarot was never meant for fortune telling, but for something far more dangerous? In 22 Tricks, history and mystery intertwine as Katrina deciphers secret messages concealed within the Tarot's Major Arcana. Through allegory, iconography, deception, and trickery, 13th-century troubadour Peire Vidal encodes an epic tale of war into 22 cards, evading the Inquisition's grasp. But what forbidden knowledge did he hide? And what secrets and lost philosophies have remained buried for centuries?