Tarot Card Origins

The origin of playing cards goes back more than a thousand years to ancient China. They were carried by traders and travellers, soldiers and pilgrims through Mongolia to the Middle East and then into Europe. Cards provided games of chance, skill and entertainment and they developed as they passed from one hand to another. The casting of lots with sticks, bones and dice was common throughout many cultures and cards became yet another way to give advice.

Playing cards with 4 suits and including court cards in each suit with the 10 pip cards, created a card deck of 52 cards. Some believe that the cards were used to represent the weeks of the year and the four weeks of the month or perhaps the seasons, so cards may have been an educational value. Playing cards came to Europe in late 1300s and by 1440 there is a letter from the Duke of Milan requesting several decks of playing cards for a game known as ‘triumph’ which was similar to bridge and included the playing card deck and 22 extra picture cards. Around 1530, in Italy, these cards were called ‘Tarocchi’ and in France ‘Tarot’. By 1781, they were used in England for divination. During the Victorian era in England, there was a revival of alternative spirituality and occult pastimes became popular. From that time to the present day, Tarot cards have been increasing in popularity; the market has grown and developed with new ideas and understanding for using the cards in sophisticated ways for fortune telling, personal development and meditation, and are now made in their thousands with creative focus far beyond the original images, such as animals, angels and fairies.

To read Tarot cards, a three card reading can be used for ‘past, present and future’. Larger spreads are possible, such as the 10 card Celtic Cross spread. There are hundreds of books on the market with suggestions on how to perform a reading, lay out the cards and relate their meanings. Usually, the Querent comes to the Reader with a question that they wish to have answered. Shuffling, cutting and spreading the cards out face down and turning the cards over, one by one to reveal their faces can be a moment of high drama and expectation. The Reader will partly rely on standard card meanings and partly on their mediumship abilities. Tarot cards are read both upright and reversed, creating the possibility of very large numbers of combinations.

Tarot, Lenormand and Kipper are used throughout the world and there are specialised card decks for every taste and pocket, from the earliest of known card designs to classical, modern, hand painted, roughly sketched, computer created, mass produced and limited editions. Many card readers like to create their own. One of the beauties of card decks is often the wonderful pictures that appear on the cards, so to possess a deck is also to possess many wonderful artworks, some so finely detailed that they can be viewed under a magnifying glass to completely appreciate the detail. Cards can be used for readings for oneself or for readings for other people. Most decks include an insert with instructions on how the cards are to be used and interpreted, though many card readers rely entirely on their intuition.

We must not leave this article on cards used for divination without mentioning the many highly popular and exceptional Oracle card decks that are also available. There are a huge number of designs to choose from and most decks have approximately forty cards. Choosing a card for the day is easy for any beginner, no matter of age or understanding. Many Oracle decks have specialities, such as animals, the goddess, runes, kabbalah, etc. Most are used for entirely positive readings and are only read upright. The cards usually have a number, title and subtitle on the card front and are sold in a box, with an explanatory booklet. 
By Wendy Stokesfirst published in Psychic News Magazine    Visit    https://wendystokes.co.uk