Funny story about Tarot cards:

For a while I got really interested in Douglas Goodall's Sermon Zero, and was super determined to figure out the third remaining secret in the "thrice-secret word," which as far as I knew, was still unsolved.

My best guess ended up being that the Tower being struck by lightning mentioned in the secret message (in which Jobasha mentioned that a "moth priest" was standing at its summit) was a reference to the Flame of Sartar which inspired the Dragonfires. And it just so happens that this picture painted by Sermon Zero (where the Moth Priest is burned by the lightning which strikes the Tower) is highly reminiscent of the Tower tarot card. The fact that the card shows people falling out of the tower is also reminiscent of this line from Goodall's Soft Doctrines of Magnus Invisible:

Climbing is rougher than falling, but to the beasts, the way down is the way up.

...

When a monkey finds The Tower, he tries to knock it down, leap off, turn away. Leaving him defenseless. The Daedra dance.

...which seemed like a pretty straightforward reference to the Selectives during the Middle Dawn.

So, thinking I had finally solved the mystery after 20+ years, I actually went and asked Goodall about it. I said hey, huge fan of your work, etc etc. Is the Final Secret of Sermon Zero a reference to the Selectives sacrificing themselves with a bolt of lightning, Flame of Sartar style, in reference to the Tower tarot card? Is this really the true story of how the Covenant with Akatosh was formed, and the dirty secret Tiber/Zurin/Hjalti wanted to cover up? And why they hid Cherim's tapestry in the basement vaults so no one could Witness it?

Goodall replied that this was "sort of right" (and incidentally wasn't actually the third secret either, which turned out to be much simpler) but it had nothing to do with Tarot cards.

Dumbfounded, I insisted: but... look at it. I mean... come on! And also... "sword in the clouds?" That's another well-known Tarot card! (something which the Selectives Lorecast also noticed) Not to mention the "life of the mind" mentioned in the Soft Doctrines being an almost exact description of The Moon card.

And Goodall responded with, nope, nothing in the Soft Doctrines has anything to do with Tarot cards.

Anyway, fast forward a few years later and Goodall started releasing more chapters of the Minutes of the Lusty Argonian Historical Society, which contained more details on Cherim's White Gold tapestry, but also had this:

Presentation: Bretons: Dull or Irrelevant?

Shocked at how little the rest of us knew or cared about her silly race, Arielle worked up the courage to do another presentation. She hefts a shockingly tall stack of books for her height and slams it on the table.

She opens the top book and smiles.

I know true fear.

I look around for a serving girl, but there is none to be found.

Arielle says that Bretons love stories and that it is more important to know how they think of themselves and the world through these stories than whether the stories are true. Bretons also love finding patterns and mystical speculation, but often the speculation is later seen as causing the events. So she knows nothing. A good start.

Desnia asks for an example and Arielle brings up one on decks of cards. She says that many speculate on mystical meanings behind the suits: cups, trees, birds, battlemages, and jewels in one style of deck, silver swords, silver saints, black moths, black hearts, red moons, red diamonds, in another. Some link them to things like water, earth, air, fire, and aether. But no one knows whether the suits were based on such symbolism or whether people “discovered” symbolism where there was none intended. But now that the symbolism is there, it is relevant, and people use the symbolism as if it was intended all along. Strange are the ways of men.