I was asked by a fan to do a post on tarot so this will be a 2 part post. The first part is going to talk about what tarot IS. The second part will be about choosing your cards and what cards I personally own.
What is Tarot?
Tarot originated in Renaissance Italy and was first known as trionfi, and later as tarocchi or tarock. In the 16th century, the French shortened the name to tarot. The name of tarot does not seem to have any meaning. It was first created in 1451 in Italy. The oldest known tarot deck, the Visconti-Sforza, was produced for Tarocchi gaming. They first developed into a set of cards depicting virtues like Strength and Temperance. Some speculate the Major Arcana were called trumps as a model after the Italian ‘triumph’ morality parades, which featured figures such as Death, Temperance, and Father Time who eventually became the Hermit.
They then developed into more elaborate sets of different numbers of cards and different orders. They used throughout various parts of Europe where it was primarily used by the aristocracy as the method of production for cards at that time was not cheap. Each card was hand painted on request.
It began to be used for divination via cartomancy which lead to custom packs being developed for occult purposes. Some occult enthusiasts make relative claims to ancient Egypt, the Kabbalah, Indian Tantra, and many other occult references but there is no documented evidence of such origins or of the usage of tarot for divination before the 18th century.
Playing cards first entered Europe in the late 14th century, most likely from Mamluk, Egypt. The first documented tarot packs were recorded between 1440 and 1450 in Milan, Ferrara, Florence, and Bologna. The oldest surviving tarot cards are the 15 or so Visconti-Sforza tarot decks painted in the mid-15th century for the rulers of the Duchy of Milan.
The Visconti-Sforza tarot is used collectively to refer to incomplete sets of approximately 15 decks from the middle of the 15th-century, now located in various museums, libraries, and private collections around the world. No complete deck has survived; rather, some collections boast a few face cards, while some consist of a single card.
The earliest evidence of a tarot deck used for cartomancy comes from an anonymous manuscript from around 1750 which documents rudimentary divinatory meanings for the cards. The popularization of esoteric tarot started with Antoine Court and Jean-Baptiste Alliette (Etteilla) in Paris during the 1773. Etteilla was the first to issue a tarot deck specifically designed for occult purposes around 1789. Aleister Crowley published his own tarot deck: the Thoth deck, in 1969. It became a widely copied template for future decks. In keeping with the misplaced belief that such cards were derived from the Book of Thoth, Etteilla’s and Crowley’s tarot contained themes related to ancient Egypt.
The 78-card tarot deck used by esotericists has two distinct parts. A full Tarot is a set of 78 cards, divided into two sets: the major and the minor arcana. The major arcana contains 22 cards and primarily depicts major archetypes like death, temperance, and the fool. The minor arcana is based on the traditional playing card deck of 56 cards.
In it are the four suits of 14 cards; pentacles (disks), cups (hearts), swords (spades), and wands. Each suit has 10 numbered cards, ace to 10, plus the four court cards. These are page, knight, king, and queen. Some but not all tarot decks have picture images on each of the numbered cards.
The Major Arcana (greater secrets), consists of 22 cards without suits:
The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant, The Lovers, The Chariot, Strength, The Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, Justice, The Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, Judgment, The World, and The Fool. Cards from The Magician to The World are numbered in Roman numerals from I to XXI, while The Fool is the only unnumbered card, sometimes placed at the beginning of the deck as 0, or at the end as XXII.
The Minor Arcana (lesser secrets) consists of 56 cards, divided into four suits of 14 cards each;
Ten numbered cards and four court cards. The court cards are the King, Queen, Knight and Page/Jack, in each of the four tarot suits. The traditional Italian tarot suits are swords, batons, coins, and cups; in modern occult tarot decks, however, the batons suit is often called wands, rods, or staves, while coins suit is often called pentacles or disks.
How does it work?
Tarot images are archetypal ideas which mingle with the ordinary constituents of the flow of the unconscious, and therefore is applicable for an intuitive method that has the purpose of understanding the flow of life, possibly even predicting future events, leading to the reading of the conditions of the present moment.
Simply put, tarot allows us to tap into our subconscious understanding of what’s happening and invoke synchronicity in our lives.
Tarot is a fun practice to add to your craft! I have 2 particular decks that I mainly use, although I do possess 9 different decks. Some people buy decks because the artwork is beautiful and others buy decks because they call to them. For me it is a little of both which I will get more into in the next post.
From our altar to yours, with love from the sea,
