Etteilla, the pseudonym of Jean-Baptiste Alliette (1738-1791), was a French occultist who first widely popularised the use of the tarot for divination and who coined the term cartomancy. The tarot deck he used, known as Etteilla's Book of Thoth or the Grand Etteilla, was specifically designed for use in divination. It differs in key respects to more recent tarot decks (such as the Rider-Waite deck which was influenced by it), particularly in the major arcana, and in this work he gave the theory and practical instruction in its use for:

foretelling an individual's future;divining the answer to specific questions; andinterpreting dreams.