ABOUT TAROT CARDS

Brief History

Tarot cards first appeared in Italy in the 15th century not long after playing cards were introduced. Like the playing cards of the time, the tarot deck included number cards (1 through 10) in four suits, and court cards page, knight, and king. But the tarot deck added a queen to each of the courts, and 22 special cards, not belonging to any suit. The tarot cards called carte da trionfi or "cards of the triumphs" were used to play a new type of card game, similar to bridge, but with 21 of the special cards serving as trumps, if one could not follow suit, a trump a trump could be played which would "triumph" over the suit cards and win the trick. Soon afterwards, the cards became known as Tarocchi. This game became popular, among the upper classes, and spread through northern Italy, eastern France and eventually throughout Europe. Changes were often made in the pictures, and also in the ranking of the trumps. The name Tarot was also adopted although they are still called Tarocchi in Italy.

It is not known exactly when tarot was first used for divination. However manuscripts from the 18th century show rudimentary meanings for the cards of the tarot, as well as a system for laying out the cards to be used for divination. We do know that it was in the 18th and 19th centuries when Tarot cards came to be associated with mysticism and magic when the Tarot became popular with mystics and occultists, who saw meaning in the symbolism of the cards. Because of this Tarot now has a reputation for being an occult artifact and a tool for divination.

The Tarot Deck

Tarot cards are now mainly used for divination purposes although in some European countries such as France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Germany; game playing is still seen as the primary purpose of the Tarot today. The typical 78-card tarot deck is structured into two distinct parts. The first, called the Trump cards, consists of 21 cards without suits, plus a 22nd card, The Fool. The second consists of 56 cards divided into four suits of 14 cards each. The trumps are usually called Major Arcana, while the other cards are known as the Minor Arcana. (Arcana is the plural form of the Latin word arcanum, meaning "closed" or "secret".)

The 14 cards in each suit consist of an Ace, nine cards numbered 2 through 10, and four court cards (not dissimilar from the structure of 52-card bridge/poker playing card decks, except that bridge/poker playing card decks have three court cards rather than four). The four court cards (or face cards) of the tarot deck traditionally consist of the King, the Queen, the Knight and the Page (or Knave).

The traditional Italian suits are Swords, Batons, Coins and Cups. In modern tarot decks, the Batons suit is commonly called Wands, Rods or Staves, while the Coins suit is often called Pentacles or Disks.

Differences Between Decks

Because Tarot cards serve many purposes, there are a variety of Tarot deck styles. Historically, one of the most important designs is now usually known as the Tarot of Marseille (French: Tarot de Marseille). The name Tarot de Marseille was coined in the 1930s by the French cartomancer Paul Marteau, who gave this collective name to a variety of closely related designs that were being made in the city of Marseille in the south of France. The Tarot de Marseille is one of the standards from which many tarot decks of the nineteenth century and later are derived.

An influential deck in English-speaking countries is the Rider-Waite deck (sometimes called the Rider deck). Its imagery, especially in the Trumps, is complex and includes occult symbolism but is known as a simple, easy to use deck. The images were drawn by artist Pamela Colman Smith, to the instructions of Christian mystic and occultist Arthur Waite, and originally published by the Rider Company in 1910. A major and important difference from 'Marseille'-style decks is that Smith drew scenes on the numeric cards to depict meanings derived from The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, of which both Waite and Smith were members. The design of the trumps are based on the earliest decks, but have been modified somewhat to reflect Waite and Smith's view of Tarot. However, the first deck to include completely illustrated numeric cards was the 15th-century Sola-Busca deck; however, in this deck, the illustrations apparently were not made to facilitate divination.

Modern decks created since the first publishing of the Rider-Waite deck in 1909 vary both in their card imagery and in the names given to the major arcana and the suits of the minor arcana. The variety is almost endless, and continues to grow. For instance, cat-lovers may have the Tarot of the Cat People, which is a deck that uses cats for imagery in every picture. The Tarot of Baseball has base ball related cards e.g. it has suits of bats, mitts, balls and bases; and baseball related major arcana cards like "The Catcher", and "The Rule Book".

Symbolism

Different people may find different meanings in the same image and they may also attribute different images to the same meaning so it is no surprise that with the Tarots long history interpretations of its symbolism have evolved with new images and reshaped meanings. However the symbolism of the Tarot is generally regarded as describing spiritual progress with each card describing a particular aspect of life. The essence of using the Tarot for divination is to find meaning in its symbolism and then relate this to our own lives. It is believed that in this way the symbols of the Tarot give us a further understanding of our lives and an insight into our future.

Psychology

Tarot cards can be seen as representing archetypes which are fundamental types of person or situation for example the Emperor may represent a farther figure. Carl Jung was the first psychologist to attach importance to the Tarot and may have seen the cards in this way.

Today some psychologists use Tarot cards to identify how a client views himself or herself, by asking the patient to select a card that he or she identifies with. It is sometimes used as a means of clarifying a client’s perception of a situation by asking the client to imagine his or her situation in terms of Tarot cards. This can allow the analysis of the subconscious mind at a conscious level.

Divination, or fortune-telling, is sometimes seen as an extension of the psychological use mentioned above. It may be that you are subconsciously aware of the possibility of a situation arising before you consciously admit it to yourself. For example you might be subconsciously aware that a relationship or job is in trouble. In that sense, a meaning may emerge from almost any selection of cards. Tarot diviners in general would disregard this believing that Tarot cards simply allow them to exercise a psychic ability to see the future. This may be the case but even if it is true it may be something that cannot be proven. However even if it isn’t true Tarot cards can still help us because when we use the cards for divination we are forced to look for the meaning in the symbolism and to do this we need to look at every aspect of our lives which in turn will give us a greater understanding of the meaning of our lives and the lessons we can learn from life. On top of this its use for spiritual growth is not limited to divination alone as it is also common to meditate using a particular card as a focus.