Paul Chistian (1811-1877) first referred to the cards as Arcana Secrets, from which developed the terms Major Arcana and Minor Arcana. Although his Egyptian theories were based on fantasy rather than fact, he put forward a very persuasive argument, to the extent that his Egyptian theories influenced other authors.

The French Kabbalist Eliphas Levi (1810-1855) (who was influenced both by Court De Geblin and Etteilla) believed the Tarot was the Egyptian Book of Thoth.He drew correlations between Hermeticism Kabalah alchemy and Tarot. The most prominent part of his work was the synthesis of the Hebrew Kabalah and the Tarot. In 1854 he published two books: The Doctrine of High Magic and The Ritual of High Magic.

In 1889, we have the first redesign of the Tarot, by the Swiss occultist Oswald Wirth (1860-1943). Wirth was a follower of Levi and used some of his examples in his new design. In 1857, another Tarot myth escalated in a book by J A Vaillant connecting the Tarot with the Romany Gypsies.

In 1889, a founder member of The Cabalistic Order of The Rosy Cross (Rosicrucianism) writing under the name of Papus published the book The Tarot Of the Bohemians. Papus, a follower of Levi, refined the concepts of Levi's Kabbalistic Tarot.

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