Origin Of Tarot

Tarot is seen primarily by many as a means of divination or fortune telling. The Tarot deck was created and originated from northern Italy during the 15th century for playing card games. The idea of a trump suit which survives in such popular card games as Spades and Hearts originated with the game of Tarot. Tarot is a family of trick taking card games played with an enlarged deck of 78 cards which include an extra court card for each of the four regular suits, a permanent trump suit of 21 cards, and a kind of wild card called the Fool. This was how it was originated.

Eventhough Egyptian was once thought as source of Tarot, once a common belief, has long been dismissed by later scholars. There is also no record of Tarot cards being used for the occult or divination prior to the 18th century. The Tarot card readings popular at Renaissance Fairs are a creative license taken with historical fact and should not be viewed as authentic. Contrary to popular belief, conventional playing cards were not derived from Tarot decks and the Fool is unrelated to the Joker of conventional playing cards. The Joker was created in the USA during the 19th century originally for the card game Euchre.


Traditioanlly there are two main types of Tarot deck.

Italian suited Tarot

The traditional Italian suited deck of coins, cups, swords, and batons is currently favored by those using Tarot for divination, although in some countries such as Italy and Switzerland such decks are still used for game playing. Those practicing Tarot divination often call the coins “pentacles” and the batons “wands.” With few exceptions, the trump scenes of Italian suited Tarots differ little from deck to deck and are often seen by Tarot readers as containing symbolic meaning. The depictions of a Popess (II) and Pope (V) on Italian suited Tarots have been controversial in some areas. In Switzerland, these images were replaced by depictions of Juno (II) and Jupiter (V). In Bologna Italy, the papal figures along with the Empress (III) and the Emperor (IV) were replaced by four Moorish figures which are unnumbered and act as trumps of equal rank in the Bolognese variety of Tarocchi. The Italian or Spanish suit system is not confined to Tarot cards. This suit system is a common regional pattern of conventional playing cards in Southern Europe and in Latin America.

French suited Tarot

More modern deck using the French or international suits of diamonds, hearts, spades, and clubs is now used in such countries as France and Austria for game playing. In France and in southern Germany , the Roman numerals have been abandoned in favor of Arabic numbers, while in some countries such as Austria, the Roman numerals are still used. The trump images of French suited Tarots often depict arbitrary scenes of people at work and at play, animals both actual and mythological, and landscapes of regional locales. In countries like Austria and southern Germany, the deck is shortened to 54 cards by the removal of the lowest ranking pip cards. Different from the Italian suited decks, there is a great variety of imagery on the trump cards of French suited Tarots. On French suited Tarot decks, the Fool is often depicted as a musician, a harlequin, or some other kind of entertainer. French suited Tarots are seldom used for divination.

The above is a brief introduction to tarot and the cult of tarot card readings. It is easy and interesting to know but be a veterant cards reader would take a life time of persistent study and practice.