Tarot

The tarot is a deck of cards used to play games and more recently for divination, a practice aimed at telling someone's fortune. Originating in fifteenth-century England, the deck contains seventy-eight cards divided into the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana consists of twenty-two cards that represent universal ideas. The Minor Arcana contain four suits numbered one through ten with four court cards. Originally the tarot deck was used to play games in areas of Europe. Tarot was later used for divination, which became its primary function after the eighteenth century.

Background

Tarot was first developed in Italy in the fifteenth century. Custom-made, ornately decorated card decks known as carte da trionfi or "cards of triumph" were commissioned by rich Italian families to play card games similar to the modern game of bridge. These early Italian tarot decks were divided into four suits: cups, swords, coins, and polo sticks. Polo sticks were later changed to staves and wands. The deck also had court cards consisting of a king and two male pages. The decks later integrated a queen, fool, and trump cards, which were specific to tarot decks. In total, the decks usually amounted to seventy-eight cards, with the suit cards being referred to as the Minor Arcana and the trump cards being referred to as the Major Arcana. Although tarot cards were primarily used for playing card games, the decks were also used for divination, the practice of predicting the future through supernatural methods.

Early tarot card imagery often alluded to reality and incorporated Christian symbolism. Some scholars believe this imagery was used in narrative-based card games. Players would draw random cards, and the images on the cards dictated the player's adventure in the game. Tarot imagery changed as divination became more popular. Illustrations were tailored to the card designer's divinatory intentions, and the symbolism within the decks became much more cryptic. The deck structure remained essentially the same, keeping the traditional four suits, court cards, trump cards, and a fool card.

By the eighteenth century, tarot card divination had spread to other areas of Europe. French writer Antoine Court de Gébelin spread a story claiming gypsies from Africa brought the tarot to Europe. He also claimed tarot was based on an ancient text written by Egyptian priests and detailed this claim extensively in his 1781 work, The Primitive World, Analyzed and Compared to the Modern World. Stories connecting tarot to ancient Egyptian wisdom persisted throughout the modern era. Egyptology was a favorite research topic among European intellectuals of the eighteenth century, and many believed the texts and religion of ancient Egypt were historically significant objects of study. Aware of this fact, tarot readers connected tarot to Egypt to make tarot divination more believable, referring to these theories as tarotology.

Author and educator Jean-Baptiste Alliette's 1791 book, Etteilla, ou L'art de lire dans les cartes (Etteilla, or the Art of Reading Cards), propagated Gébelin's claims, stating knowledge of the traditional tarot deck was passed down by mystics of ancient Egypt. Alliette used these theories to create his own tarot deck in 1789. His deck, which he called the Egyptian tarot, was one of the first tarot decks specifically designed for divinatory purposes. Alliette was the first to introduce elements of astrology into tarot reading, and many of these interpretations remain a part of tarot divination methods.

Over the next two centuries, tarot cards became primarily associated with divination. The cards themselves were given varying meanings that corresponded to the fortune-telling process. The Major Arcana, or trump cards, became the focal point of many divination methods, and their meanings were often associated with omens and premonitions. The tarot deck was renovated in 1909 by publisher William Rider and mystic A.E. Waite. Waite commissioned artist Pamela Colman Smith to design new illustrations for each of the seventy-eight cards, including the previously unillustrated numbered suit cards. The new deck became the standard divinatory deck for twentieth- and twenty-first-century tarot readers.

Overview

Although tarot decks are still used to play card games in parts of the world, modern tarot cards are primarily used for divination. In a typical tarot deck used for divination purposes, seventy-eight playing cards are divided into the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana, or trump cards, contain twenty-two cards without suits. These cards are meant to symbolize universal ideas about human existence. Many of these cards illustrate a number of archetypes, such as the magician, the hermit, the lovers, the devil, and the fool. Other cards have astronomical names such as the sun, the moon, and the star, which represent the mystical forces tarot card readers associate with these celestial objects. Some cards are also named after direct concepts such as justice, temperance, and strength.

Major Arcana cards are read as having more significance than the Minor Arcana. They represent the most major emotions and impulses, and tarot readers often employ concepts of numerology and astrology when interpreting a reading. Except for the fool, each card is numbered in Roman numerals from one to twenty-one. According to tarotology, the Major Arcana are markers of personal development, and incorporating the information gleaned from a reading is meant to help a person achieve inner growth and a sense of wholeness.

The Minor Arcana comprises fifty-six cards divided into four suits. Each suit contains fourteen cards: ten numbered and four court cards (king, queen, knight, and page or jack). The original Italian tarot decks had suits of coins, cups, batons, and swords. Modern tarot decks kept these suits but renamed batons wands or rods, while coins became pentacles. Each suit also corresponds to a certain earthly element. While the Major Arcana stands for universal themes, the Minor Arcana contains more immediate messages related to everyday activities, emotions, and worries.

Each Minor Arcana suit symbolizes different life experiences. Wands represent creativity, movement, and action. The cups suit represents emotions and spirituality. Swords are the suit of reason, intellect, and thought. Finally, the pentacle suit represents practical concerns related to security and material needs. Each numbered and court card within the four suits represents specific experiences. Tarot card readings utilize several different ways to spread the deck, and each spread serves varying divinatory purposes. Individuals having their divination read are instructed to begin their reading with a general question in mind related to their future. This practice is meant to help the tarot reader better interpret the individual's fortune.

Bibliography

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