The tarot (/ˈtæroʊ/; first known as trionfi and later as tarocchi, tarock, and others) is a pack of playing cards (most commonly numbering 78), used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play a group of card games such as Italian tarocchini andFrench tarot. From the late 18th century until the present time the tarot has also found use by mystics and occultists in efforts atdivination or as a map of mental and spiritual pathways.
The tarot has four suits (which vary by region, being the French suits in Northern Europe, the Latin suits in Southern Europe, and the German suits in Central Europe). Each of these suits has pip cards numbering from ace to ten and four face cards for a total of 14 cards. In addition, the tarot is distinguished by a separate 21-card trump suit and a single card known as the Fool. Depending on the game, the Fool may act as the top trump or may be played to avoid following suit.
François Rabelais gives tarau as the name of one of the games played by Gargantua in his Gargantua and Pantagruel; this is likely the earliest attestation of the French form of the name.[citation needed] Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play card games. InEnglish-speaking countries, where these games are largely unplayed, tarot cards are now used primarily for divinatory purposes.[1][3]Occultists call the trump cards and the Fool "the major arcana" while the ten pip and four court cards in each suit are called minor arcana. The cards are traced by some occult writers to ancient Egypt or the Kabbalah but there is no documented evidence of such origins or of the usage of tarot for divination before the 18th century
The tarot (/ˈtæroʊ/; first known as trionfi and later as tarocchi, tarock, and others) is a pack of playing cards (most commonly numbering 78), used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play a group of card games such as Italian tarocchini andFrench tarot. From the late 18th century until the present time the tarot has also found use by mystics and occultists in efforts atdivination or as a map of mental and spiritual pathways.
About Tarot Cards in general
When talking of tarot cards, either the set of 78 cards or any individual card or group of cards may be referred to.
The set is usually divided either into two, three, or five sections. When divided into two sections, the trumps (or 'major arcana') is distinguished from the rest (often called the 'minor arcana' or 'suits' – though this last term may be confusing for reasons that will be apparent); when divided into threesections, the trumps, court cards, and pips (the last two of which form the 'minor arcana') are distinguished – this threefold division is a common one for especially pedagogical purposes and therefore often used in tarot courses; when divided into five sections, the trumps, batons, cups, coins, and swords are distinguished as five suits.
Sections below divide the cards into, initially, two groups (trumps, and court and pip cards), with the second group divided into its four suits with the court cards separated within each suit for the sake of clarity.
[edit]card stock
Tarot cards are usually printed on cardboard stock, rather than the plastics used for many ordinary playing cards. Most tarot card publishers now use a specialist card stock that has an inner layer of carbon, this helps to protect the card against bends and tears. In our digital age, some decks remain purely cyber-decks, with at least one deck designed for the mobile environment.
Most decks (both printed and cyber) usually have a common back, though some very early cards appear to have had various back images.
[edit]extra cards
Blank cards will appear in some decks because a deck is typically printed on a sheet large enough for eighty cards. As a typical deck has 78 cards, publishers will often use one of the extra cards for some sort of information or advertising, and at times leave the other blank.
Some readers have chosen to use the blank card in their readings, assigning it a range of possible meanings, such as 'the possibilities reflect a blank canvas'.
Other decks have also added various trump cards, one of the earliest being the 97-card Italian Minchiate pattern. The manner in which these have been added varies from deck to deck. Examples include claims that previously 'lost' cards now complete the deck, or various designs were made for the same card and included in the set (for example, the three Magicians of the Crowley-Harris deck), or simply that one (or more) additional card exemplifies some essential quality of the deck in question.
As a living tradition, some have seen the addition of cards as exemplifying an ongoing development, whilst others see in the same action a diminishment of tarot and a lack of understanding this same living tradition.
The Cards and Their Meanings
The following is a list of cards in a typical tarot deck (although there is some variation across decks) with links to separate pages for each card.
Trumps
The trumps are also often referred to as atouts or major arcana. Numbering and titles on very early decks did not appear, and of those that show either, differences in ordering, image rendition, and titling occurs. Nonetheless, a standardisation appears to have occurred with the development of what has come to be referred to as the Marseille pattern. Variations, to be sure, continues to occur amongst decks, and the twentieth century has seen a preponderance of decks that, for example, commonly interchange the numbering (and hence relative position) of Justice and Strength.
]common or 'Marseille' pattern
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[edit]Court cards and Pip cards
These, forming the other four suits in addition to the above trumps, are at times collectively referred to as the minor arcana. In the list below, the English translation of the earliest suit names are used. For the Court Cards, 'Knight' has been used in preference to the more accurate 'Cavalier' (or 'horseman'), and 'Valet' as the more accurate rendition to the more common designation as 'Page'. It should be noted that numerous other titular alternatives have been used on the thousands of different decks that have been designed.
] Batons
also commonly referred to as 'Wands'
| ] Cups
also at times referred to as 'Chalices'
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] Coins
also commonly referred to as 'Deniers' or 'Pentacles'
| ] Swords
also commonly referred to as 'Epées'
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