Free Tarot Basics
Tarot History
The first evidence of Tarot cards being used for divinatory purposes dates back to the 1500s in France.
Personally, I find this topic to be quite controversial. Over the years I have seen it spark many a debate simply because there is so much contradictory information written about the Tarot and its history. So, for the purpose of this exercise I will share with you what I find interesting and believe to be true.
The Tarot has a fragmented history and is shrouded in an air of mystery. The designs in the Major Arcana can be traced back as far as 1440 when the first known deck appeared in Italy. Originally the cards were designed as a game played by Nobles. The cards were first used like a normal playing deck of cards. The game played at that time was similar to that of what we call 500, bridge or trumps - it was called Tarocchi. A version of the game was based around the idea that the participants were to collect "tricks" in order to win the game. The cards represented those things that were of importance at that time. Gender, wealth and social status played a major part of what daily life was like and the role that was played. The cards covered such things as ranks of medieval society, virtues, cosmos and academic sciences.
The court cards were symbolic of how life was at that time. The trumps are a collection of images ranging from ordinary figures - The Fool and The Magician - through to powerful figures of the medieval world - The Emperor, The Empress and The Pope, to images of virtues - Fortitude, Justice and Temperance, to the great forces of life - The Wheel of Fortune, Death and The Devil, finally reaching rather cosmological imagery in such cards as The Sun and The Moon.
If the same game under the same conditions existed today these cards would show as "The Treasurer". "The Premier" and the "The Journalist". This would be followed by "Popularity", "War", "Economic Collapse" and "Scandal".
