cards were the only ones to survive as part of the ancient Egyptian culture and history. It then travelled to Europe where it was used as playing cards. There are various speculations about the history of Tarot, some believable, some not, some exciting and some sceptical. I’ll tell you about some that sound credible to me. I leave it to you to form your derivative of Tarot’s history from what you read here.
Tarot cards became popularly used as play cards somewhere in the 14th century in China. The Chinese used these cards merely to play or even to gamble. Tarot was also believed to be used as a source of money to bet on other types of card games. Around this time these cards were just the normal 56 cards with pictorial representation and used for playing card games. The 22 major Arcanas (main cards that predict the distant future) were added much later. From here it travelled down to the Islamic countries and is believed to have moved from here to Europe where, somewhere around the 15th century, it got its full form of 78 cards as well as its occult bearing. No one knows how these 22 major Arcanas came into being, who made them or when they made their first appearance.
In Europe, according to speculation, the Duke of Italy once wrote to a respected statesman asking about the trump cards of tarot. These trump cards are the court cards like the King, Queen and the Knight, along with the 22 major Arcanas. This is the only evidence in history which confirms the existence of the entire 78 cards as one deck. By this time the deck was formed and was still used for playing purposes. As the cards reached Italy, they started using local Latin suits of swords, cups, batons and coins. However, in other places, this deck still comprised of the normal suits of spades, hearts, diamond and clubs. Italy is the place where Tarot went through its major transformation and also received its occult value. Until then, the cards were being used to play a game called Triumph, known today as Bridge.
The history of Tarot and its occult value raises many questions and much speculation. This deck gained huge popularity across Europe and its use was widespread, but still used only as playing cards. No one knows how it got its occult symbolism; there is a lot of speculation around it, but it is generally accepted that in time the Italians discovered its magical powers and called it the Tarocchi, later translated into French as Tarot. This deck had a royal bearing as the duchess and dukes exchanged letters referring to the Tarot deck for entertainment and play.
It is also believed that somewhere around the 17th Century, Tarot found its occult value in France and England. Here the followers of occult discovered in Tarot a medium to predict the future. They developed divinatory meanings for the pictorial representation of tarot cards and thus invested it with occult significance. These cards were used by occult writers and thus it became part of the occult philosophy. As time passed, Tarot graduated from being used as playing cards to being used for occult purposes. As of today, Tarot is used by the occult, the pagan, Wicca and the common man as a tool to predict the future, know the unknown, and help achieve a certain change or balance needed in life to arrive at the desired outcome.
What is a Tarot Deck
A normal deck of cards has four suits—Club, Heart, Spade, Diamond and Court cards, a total of 56 cards. Tarot also has four suits—Cups (signifies emotions), Pentacles (signifies health and wealth), Swords (signifies thoughts and deeds) and Wands (signifies career or ambition) along with Court cards like the King, Queen, Knights and Pages; it has an additional 22 trump cards, a total of 78 cards. The total of four suits and four court cards for each suit make a total of 56 cards. These 56 cards are called the Minor Arcana. The Minor Arcana are cards that predict one’s future or reveal one’s past or present for a short period. The Minor Arcanas have ten cards in each suit starting from Aces to the Ten and each denotes a certain stage of your life. The 22 trump cards are called the Major Arcanas which predict one’s characteristics and the distant future ranging from over one to five years or more at times. The combination of these big and small cards, both the major and minor arcana form the Tarot deck, a total of 78 cards that go towards predicting your future. The Major Arcana starts with the Fool cards which marks the beginning of one’s life’s journey and ends with the World card that stands for completion and accomplishments of desired goals.
Major Arcanas are also widely used to predict personality type and characteristic features. I too have used Major Arcanas to describe you in correlation to your zodiac sign in this book. This will give you an interesting perspective of how Tarot perceives you at its best. The 56 Minor cards and 22 major cards can also be segregated into four elements namely Earth, Fire, Water and Air that form our existence in this Universe. In the four suits, Cups stands for WATER, Wands denotes FIRE, Swords signifies AIR and Pentacles EARTH. Similarly the 22 trump major arcanas too can be divided into these 4 categories. I have divided the 12 zodiac signs into the 12 tarot trump cards associated with them under these four elements:
Aries- The Emperor (fire)
Taurus- The Hierophant (earth)
Gemini- the Lovers (air)
Cancer- The Chariot (water)
Leo- The Strength (fire)
Virgo- The Hermit (earth)
Libra- The Justice (air)
Scorpio- The Death (water)
Sagittarius- The Temperance (fire)
Capricorn- The Devil (earth)
Aquarius- The Star (air)
Pisces- The Moon (water)
Each of these 78 cards is numbered. These numbers have a bearing on the person’s readings as and how these cards appear. The numbers especially on the 12 major Arcanas mentioned above delve into the individuals’ characteristic traits and other qualities associated with their personality.
How is Tarot Reading done?
Tarot reading involves two key elements:
The Tarot card Reader
The querent (one who questions the reader)
The process of tarot reading is an exchange of energy levels and aura which travels from the querent to the reader and then to the tarot cards which finally reveal the answers to your questions. Much of the occult and magical powers that tarot exhibits come from the Tarot Reader’s psychic ability. The stronger a psychic’s ability, the more accurately does the Tarot perform as a tool to predict the past, present and future. So it eventually boils down to how a Reader uses her skills to interpret your destiny from these cards, thus giving them their occult touch.
The querent may start by asking a few questions or giving a brief of concerns for which the querent seeks guidance from the reader. On the basis of the keys concern areas, the reader will formulate precise and direct questions with the querent’s consent and get the answers to them through the querent’s cards. The precision and clarity of the querent’s questions will determine the precision and clarity of the reader’s questions and thus, the response from the cards. It is thus the responsibility of both the reader and querent to be clear and distinct about the nature of queries put forth to the cards. If the querent is clear in her queries, the reader will be in a position to ask pointed or accurate questions and thus arrive at accurate and certain responses from the cards.
Tarot works primarily through the Aura one brings at the time of reading. Aura can be better explained as the energy frequency that the mind and body exude at a given time. This frequency can be happy, sad or simply confused. The energy that you emit is your aura. When you sit for a reading, Tarot predicts your fate on the
