Tarot History
Tarot History dates back many centuries, and is believed to have started in the 14th or 15th Century.
There is a common belief that the Tarot comes from the gypsies, who were often fortune telling, but the Tarot Cards were in Europe before the gypsies. The gypsies though did developed the fortune-telling uses of the cards.
Tarot History indicates that the tarot was said to have developed in the 14th Century in Arabia, influenced by the interchanges between the Middle East and Europe. The word Tarot is thought to have come from the Arabic “turuq”, meaning “four ways”.
The Visconti family from Milan are said to have had the first Tarot cards, which were designed and hand-painted, by Bonifcio Bembo, an artist, on instruction from Maria Visconti, and known as the Visconti-Sforza tarot deck. This pack has 66 cards, and is on display at Yale University.
In Italy, in the 15th Century, a popular card game called “tarocchi” was played with cards that were similar to the current Tarot decks. These were early forms of the modern playing cards and were used to play Tarocchi game, which was not for divination. The trump cards were the 22 major arcana cards, and the four suits of the minor arcana, 56 cards, were similar to current playing cards of today.
The cards spread through Europe and Egypt. They became associated with fortune-telling, mysticism and magic. The Tarot Cards are very deeply layered with symbolism.
In the 1700’s, a member of a secret society, became interested in the tarocchi and believing in the symbolism, particularly related to Egyptian lore, he wrote an extensive book. ”Le Monde Primitif” , a nine volume book, by Court de Gebelen, elaborated on the symbolisms and meanings of the tarot. This seems to have been a major instigator of the developing use of tarot for divination.
Eliphas Levi Zahed, a famous mystic, connected the Tarot with the Hebrew Kabbalah. The tarot was seen as a key to life and a tool to be used in self-development, and finding one’s path.
A deck of tarot cards today consists of 78 cards, 22 of the Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana in four suits. They are used as a method to look more deeply into one’s life and assess the current position and potential future choices. They are used intuitively and can be helpful both in gaining a new perspective, and looking within.
Tarot has also been thought by some to be a tool of the Devil. Although there have been concerns at times about a “dark occult side” to tarot card reading, the concern is only that one does not become too dependent on the cards, or place too much dependency on them, without the equal application of practical thought and planning in life decisions.
Many different artistic interpretations have been created. There are card styles connected with different countries, and with different outlooks. Some are light and fanciful, and some heavy and dark in their imagery. Often the tarot reader will have a favored Tarot Pack, and sometimes a couple of secondary Tarot decks with alternative art styles. With the wide choice of artwork on the Tarot Packs, the tarot reader can choice the style that they feel most connected to.
Also, over time, different variations of “spreads” have developed. The Spread is the way in which the cards are set out in preparation for the card reading.
Other rituals have become part of the Tarot use, such as keeping the Tarot Cards wrapped in a velvet cloth and stored in a dedicated tarot box or bag. The tarot reader may also “cleanse” the cards between readings, and may restrict the handling of the cards by others.
The imagery of Tarot Cards provided entertainment to many before reading was popularized. Reading used to be only available to a select few, such as Clergy, but as the population began to read, and to have access to printed materials, there was not a dependency on the church and aristocracy to “inform” the people.
The “New Age” is a term that was used as people read more widely and began to adopt more broad views. With the “New Age” came a renewed interest in the development of intuition and the use of divination tools such as the Tarot Cards.
Today, Tarot Cards are considered both an entertaining game of fortune telling, and also a tool for contemplation and the study of life, and its challenges and rewards.
*******
*******
Mail this post
