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.
