History of Tarot

The origin of the Tarot cards -- which are actually cards with attractive pictures -- continues to remain vague despite considerable research. According to conservative estimates, they are at least 500 years old. Some scholars, however, place them in the 1st century after Christ. Others aver that they originated from the religious rituals and symbols of the ancient Egyptians.

The earliest documented set of Tarot cards is rooted in the second half of the fifteenth century and was painted in Italy. The Renaissance had already adopted the Greek Gods and the Greek philosophy, which is why it is Greek mythology, moral, spiritual and mystical elements which form the backbone of Tarot cards. The images and imagery portrayed on the cards reveals hidden things which would not be discoverable through purely 'rational' means.

The Tarot cards have much to tell you. The Tarot pack is set of cards which may be used either for divination, or as a philosophical machine for answering almost any kind of question put to it through a medium or someone familiar with its powerful symbolism.

The images on the Tarot, and the interest in predicting events through symbols, dates back to ancient Egypt and even older civilizations, right across the world. Tarot may have travelled to Europe from the Middle East at the time of the Crusades, in the 12th century. The earliest surviving Tarot deck, however, comes from 14th century Italy, where an Italian nobleman had a deck hand-painted as a present for his daughters' marriage.

Tarot cards show the major themes of life, and what we can learn about ourselves. Each card is called Arcanum, which means 'mystery'. The pack consists of two quite different, though not totally unrelated, groups of cards, totalling 78 in number. In addition to 22 major cards known as the Major Arcana, there are four suits of cards -The Suit of Cups (symbolizing water), The Suit of Wands (symbolizing fire), The Suit of Swords (symbolizing air ) & The Suit of Pentacles (symbolizing earth) -- which form the Minor Arcana.

In fact, the Tarot came to Europe about the same time as any other form of playing card, in the early/mid 1300's. It is most closely related to the 'Mamluk' deck of the Islamic world, which had suits cups, coins, swords, and polo-sticks. The Tarot was originally used for a game called 'tarocchi' in Italy, which is sort of a distant cousin to Bridge. Tarocchi is still played in some parts of the world, not usually with the same decks the 'fortune tellers' use. The game was quite popular for a time among the royalty in Italy, and sometimes a duke would commission an artist to create a really nice deck. Some of the earliest surviving Tarot decks come from this source. Plainer decks existed, but were not well made enough, or well thought-of enough, to survive the intervening 600 years.The Joker of 'standard' card decks is "not" related to the Fool of Tarot. The Joker was invented as a wild card for Euchre in the 1800's, in a part of the world where the Tarot was virtually or totally unknown. Most of the Tarot decks on the market were created this century, most of those in the last 20 years.

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