The Tarot is a deck of 78 divination cards,
which consists of 22 trump cards, 40 cards in four colours,
numbered from 1-10, and four court cards in four colours,
with a "knight" card in addition to the usual
"jack", "queen" and "king"
card.
The earliest extant specimens of Tarot decks
are of North Italian origin and date to the mid-15th century.
These were called carte da trionfi or "cards of the
triumphs". Soon afterward, comparable decks were used
in the game of Tarocchi. In the 18th and 19th centuries,
the cards became popular in occult studies, initiated by
occultists such as Etteilla and Antoine Court de Gebelin.
The set of 78 images is considered by students of this form
of Tarot to be independent of details of any particular
representation.
HOW TAROT CARDS WORK
You don't have to have a special psychic gift
to read the Tarot Cards. It is a common misconception that
tarot readers are clairvoyants. Tarot Card reading, like
palmistry, is an interpretative skill that can be learnt
from books. With so many people jumping on the New Age bandwagon
the buyer must beware. Today finding someone who can interpret
the cards and who also has a psychic gift is very much the
luck of the draw.
So how do you tell the future with cards? The
psychologist Carl Jung gave us the scientific theory of
Synchronicity that states that "Anything done at a
particular moment in time has the qualities of that moment
in time" In other words the fall of the cards is decided
by past, present, and future events.
Every Tarot card has a specific meaning represented
by the symbolism of the card's pictures. The imagery is
a mixture of good and bad auguries.
The 78 card pack is divided into two sections:
the major and minor arcana. The 22 major cards show dominant
forces in the querant life and the 56 minor cards fill in
the detail. The minor cards are subdivided into four suits
representing different qualities: Cups-emotions, Swords-
troubles, Coins- money, Wands- enterprises. (Our modern
playing cards evolved out of the Tarot. Cups became hearts,
swords- spades, coins- diamonds and wands became clubs.)
Depending on which place the cards fall,
and taking into account the surrounding cards, the tarot
reader can interpret the symbolism to ascertain the past,
present and future events. But remember, no matter what
the cards or 'clairvoyants' say, fortune telling only tells
us the potential future. What we make of it is in our own
hands.
