fortune-telling. The first tarot decks were created in Italy in the 1430s by adding a fifth suit of 21 specially designed cards called trionfi (“triumphs”) and an odd card called il matto to an already existing four-suited pack (“the fool). (The modern joker, which was created in the late 19th century as an unsuited jack in the game of euchre, is not related to the fool.)
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What kind of religion are tarot cards?
Tarot cards are frequently cited as a component of New Age thought and practice along with astrology, aspects of Buddhism, paganism, and First Nations teachings in the eclectic scholarly approach to the New Age.
Who developed tarot cards?
Things become a little mystical around Halloween, when horror movies are playing nonstop on TV and your holiday-loving neighbors’ yards are decorated with grotesque decorations. We decided to explore the background of tarot cards in honor of one of the most enchanted seasons of the year.
Tarot cards were initially just another card game, one that was a lot like the bridge that is played today, despite the fact that we now link them with the occult. Like other decks, the earliest known tarot cards appeared in Europe in the fifteenth century, with the wealthiest households in Italy purchasing the most well-liked sets. It was expensive to commission what was practically dozens of tiny paintings because there was no printing press and only hand-painted cards were available.
These early tarot cards, known as tarocchi in Italian, included suits, trump cards, and even pips, just like any other deck.
While others experimented, the mainstream use of tarot cards for divination didn’t begin until Frenchman Jean-Baptise Alliette produced the first comprehensive book on tarot card reading in the late 1700s. Under the alias Etteilla, he published his own deck along with a user’s manual for the cards. He incorporated ideas about astronomy and the four elements to give each card a purpose. He asserted that he had taken extensive inspiration from the Book of Thoth, a work purportedly penned by Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom.
He incorporated ideas about astronomy and the four elements to give each card a purpose.
Etteilla was the first to allocate the cards to a certain sequence and spread, including a front-to-back method that is still in use today. He issued a revised edition of his manual in 1791 when his writings gained popularity, making him the first known professional tarot reader.
The next significant change to tarot cards occurred in 1909. You’ve probably seen the pictures for the Rider-Waite deck, created by publisher William Rider and tarot reader A. E. Waite. The Rider-Waite deck, like Etteilla, came with a written manual explaining how to interpret the cards and what each one meant. When the cards in this deck were arranged together, the intricate scenes presented a narrative. The Rider-Waite Deck was updated and reprinted in the 1970s, along with a new instruction manual by Stephen Kaplan, which led to the most recent tarot card renaissance.
On what do tarot cards are based?
There are still many gaps in the overall history of fortune-telling cards, despite the fact that historians like Kaplan and Matthews regularly publish fresh information on divination decks. Wolf notes that persons who utilize cards for divination frequently disagree with historians who are studying their past. “According to Wolf, there is a lot of disagreement among tarot historians and card readers over the history and use of tarot cards. “According to the evidence, they were initially created for games and only subsequently developed for use in divination. Personally, I think they were made for playing games, however I think the design is a little more advanced than many tarot historians seem to think.
“The earliest known tarot cards weren’t created with mysticism in mind; rather, they were intended to be used for a game akin to contemporary bridge.
By the middle of the 18th century, mystical card uses had spread from Italy to other regions of Europe. The tarot was said to be based on a holy book authored by Egyptian priests and brought to Europe by Gypsies from Africa by writer Antoine Court de Gbelin in France. Tarot cards really existed before there were Gypsies in Europe; they originated in Asia, not Africa. Despite its errors, Court de Gbelin’s nine-volume history of the globe had a significant impact.
In 1791, teacher and publisher Jean-Baptiste Alliette published Etteilla, or the Art of Reading Cards, which is now considered to be the first book on the tarot. (Alliette invented this ethereal alias) “Etteilla only by flipping his last name.) Etteilla’s writings claim that he initially learnt divination using a 32-card deck made for the game Piquet, coupled with his unique Etteilla card. The significator card is one of this kind and is often used to represent the person having their fortune read.
Did tarot cards come from Egypt?
The pack created by Pamela Colman Smith under the supervision of Arthur Edward Waite, whose book “The Pictorial Key to the Tarot” was released in 1910, served as the inspiration for the deck that is currently in general use and features a variety of artistic interpretations. Although a large portion of this research was male-dominated, the occult rebirth in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century produced some noteworthy studies. One exception was Helena Blavatsky’s writings, which connected the history of Tarot with Ancient Egypt by mentioning it in “The Secret Doctrine” and “The Unveiling of Isis.”
Tarot was compelled into the shadows in medieval Europe as a system of esoteric interpretation and mystical meaning. The Tarot was disguised as a game to allow users to continue using it without fear of retribution. The Christian Church referred to it as “The Devil’s Picture Book,” and those who used it were executed. Because of this, records are sporadic and the Tarot seems to only reappear sometimes. Those in the know always used it, although they could do it covertly if necessary.
In “The Book of Thoth: A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians” (OTO 1944), Aleister Crowley stated that the origin of tarot is quite immaterial, even if it were known. It must be judged according to its own merits.
Contrary to Crowley, a lot of people are interested in the origins of the Tarot, and among these historians, practitioners, healers, mystics, and writers, a lot of people hold the opinion that Ancient Egypt holds the key to the solutions. Theosophists, who claim that Ancient Egypt is older than we think and that the Ancient Egyptians guarded the wisdom and knowledge of Atlantis, are the alternative Egyptologists who followed Madame Blavatsky and her seminal work “The Secret Doctrine” (1888). These writers include John Gordon and Katy Noura Butler.
Is astrology a branch of tarot cards?
These days, almost everyone you know possesses a tarot deck and regularly receives readings. Tarot is no longer simply for the esoteric. Tarot has evolved over time into an intuitive art that may assist you in planning for both the best and worst scenarios. Tarot cards are filled with symbolism, but you might not be aware of how closely it is related to astrology. For instance: In the Major Arcana, a card corresponds to each sign of the zodiac.
Spirituality: Is it a religion?
Religion and spirituality might be difficult to distinguish from one another, but there are some rather clear differences between the two. A community or group usually shares a particular set of organized beliefs and behaviors that make up religion. It has to do with finding serenity and meaning in life and is more of an individual discipline.
Tarot cards or playing cards: which came first?
With the surge in popularity of alternative religions, witchcraft, and paganism, tarot reading and tarot cards have grown increasingly popular in recent years. It seems fitting that the Tarot is one of the most obvious and approachable gates to that path as topics like astrology, energy work, and more become more widely known. But how did the Tarot come to be used as a tool for divination and self-examination, and where did it originate?
At first glance, one may think that the Tarot has some kind of ancient history; some have even asserted that the cards represent the remains of an old Egyptian manuscript that was destroyed in the Alexandrian library fire. Were they aliens? the divine? Actually, no. We are aware of no ancient origins for tarot. It was most likely developed much more recently.
Since nobody actually knows who made the original card decks that would later develop into the Tarot as we know it, I suggest “probably.” It turns out that conventional playing cards work the same way. Sometime in the 14th or 15th century, playing cards initially arrived in Europe from, well, somewhere that wasn’t Europe. We don’t know if it was Arabia or China, but considering the lack of connection between Mah Jong and our current card decks, my money is on China. Therefore, it is difficult to say for sure whether Tarot or playing cards emerged first, while either might have happened and it is possible that they both descended from a single, long-lost ancestor.
Who created the playing card?
- Before the year 1000 AD, the Chinese developed playing cards. Around 1360, they made their way to Europe via the Mameluke state of Egypt rather than via China directly. The development of suitmarks reveals an intriguing interplay between words, shapes, and ideas. Goblets, gold coins, swords, and polo clubs made up the Mameluke costumes. Due to the fact that polo was not yet widely recognized in Europe, these were changed into batons or staves, which, along with swords, cups, and coins, are the typical suitmarks of Italian and Spanish cards. German card designers experimented with various suits that were loosely based on Italian ones in the fifteenth century before deciding on the still-used acorns, leaves, hearts, and bells (hawk-bells). The French began using stencils to create playing cards around 1480, simplifying the German shapes into the trefle (clover), pique (pike-heads), coeur (hearts), and carreau (paving tiles). These forms were employed by English card makers, but the names differed. Spanish suitmarks such as the spade (pique), which derives from the word espadas, which means swords, and clubs, which resemble the Spanish suit of staves, may have been used in the past. In addition to being the form of a paving tile, diamond may also still carry with it associations of richness from an earlier set of coins.
Do you know how to say “tarot”?
Depending on whether British English or American English is being used, the proper pronunciation of “tarot” in English significantly changes. The “t” in “tarot” is never uttered, in any scenario. The word “tarot” is pronounced “tah-row” in British English and “teh-row” in American English.
Did the tarot cards originate in Africa?
While scholarly research has shown that tarot cards were invented in northern Italy in the 15th century and confirmed that there is no historical evidence of the usage, some who use tarot for cartomancy believe the cards have esoteric connections to ancient Egypt, Iran, the Kabbalah, Indian Tantra, or the I Ching.