How To Play French Tarot

The cards are played when the discard is finished. Leading to the first trick is the player to the dealer’s right.

The highest trump in the trick, or the highest card of the suit led if no trumps were played, wins each trick. A trick proceeds according to who won it.

If possible, you must follow suit, and if you don’t have any cards in the suit that was led, you must play a trump. If trumps are led, the other players must follow if they are able to do so with trumps.

Whenever you must play a trump (either because trumps were led or because you lack cards of the lead suit), you must, if at all feasible, play a trump that is higher than the highest trump that has been played to the trick thus far. If you are unable to do so, you are free to play any trump, but you are still required to do so even if you are unable to use it to win the trick.

Playing the excuse

The aforementioned guidelines do not apply to the justification. No matter what was led or whether you have that suit or not, if you have the excuse, you may play it to any trick you choose. The trick is always won by the highest trump or, in the absence of trumps, by the highest card of the suit led, with one notable exception (see below).

It is acceptable to lead the excuse in this situation, and the second player to the trick is free to play any card. The second card then specifies the suit that needs to be followed.

The team who played the excuse keeps it in their trick pile even if they may have lost the trick to which it was played, so long as it is played prior to the last trick. The team that played the excuse must move one card from their trick pile to the trick winners in order to make up for the missing card if the trick was actually won by the opponents of the player of the excuse. If they don’t already have one in their tricks, they can wait until they take a trick that contains one before transferring this 0.5 point card.

The team that wins the trick takes the excuse if it is played in the final trick. (Note: Although the official rules of the Fdration Franaise de Tarot (FFT) are significantly different, this rule was provided by the majority of books, at least until the 1990s. The Excuse is said to switch sides if played to its final trick. Therefore, in accordance with the FFT rule, the declarer captures the Excuse even if he loses the trick if the bidder’s opponent plays it to the last trick.)

The excuse can only win a trick in one exceedingly uncommon circumstance: if one team has won all but one trick and then leads the excuse to the final trick, the excuse triumphs.

Other variants for five players:

  • There are 8 cards in the chien and 14 cards are dealt to each player, however the taker is the only one playing. Rarely is this variant played.
  • Instead of participating in the hand, the dealer deals to the other four players, who play similarly to the four-handed game. The same dealer deals again if everyone passes until someone places a bid.

Some players in the five-player game with a called king play that you cannot lead the king’s suit in the first trick, with the exception that the king itself may be led if the king’s holder is on lead.

Variations in the bidding

Some players still permit the pousse bid, which was once made between petite and garde; the terms are the same but the score is different. On the other side, some people play sans petite, resulting in garde as the lowest offer.

Petit imprenable

Some games allow a player who is dealt the petit (1 of trumps) alonethat is, without any additional trumps or an excuseto proclaim the petit imprenable rather than cancel the hand (untouchable one). The player then uses the petit as if it were yet another defense; although the trick is lost, the player still retains possession of the card. The declaration of “petit imprenable” varies depending on whether the player plays to the first trick right away after the deal, or waits until the petit itself is played.

Some games allow the player who receives the excuse but no more trumps to cancel the hand as well.

Scoring

There are numerous alternate scoring systems in use in addition to the tournament scoring provided in the official account. For instance:

Scores are as follows: 80 for Garde, 160 for Garde Sans, 320 for Garde Contre, 500 for a petit chelem, and 1000 for a grand chelem. Card points that are above or below the minimum required for the contract are rounded to the nearest 10; there are no multiplying factors; all other scores are as stated above.

Another variation is: petit x1, garde x2, garde sans x4, garde contre x5, grand chelem wins 400 if made and announced, loses 200 if made and announced but wins 200 if made without announcement, and petit chelem (all but one trick) scores zero if made and announced but scores 300 if made and announced but loses 150 if made and announced and lost.

The multipliers available when using the pousse bid are: petite x1, pousse x2, garde x4, garde sans x8, and garde contre x12.

Pools were used to play French Tarot in the past (mouches). For club and tournament play, this method has been abandoned due to its inconvenience, but it is still occasionally used in casual games. Everyone pays the same amount (let’s say $10) to establish a mouche at the start of the game and thereafter anytime there are no mouches, plus the dealer adds an additional $5. A declarer who loses pays into a new mouche that is the same size as the largest mouche; a player who wins a contract takes the largest mouche. The dealer adds 5 to (one of the) largest mouche at the start of each deal (s). When using mouches, there may be no base payment for the gamejust payouts for card points won beyond the required minimum.

Tarot for Two Players

The rules of the game are essentially the same for four players as they are for two players, except that each player has 21 cards in their hand and 18 more on the table in six heaps of three, with the top card of each pile facing up.

The deal is as follows: Deal three cards, one at a time, face down, side by side, to your opponent; follow that with three cards to yourself; next, deal three more cards to your opponent beside the previous three; and last, deal yourself three more cards.

Currently, each player is facing a row of six cards that are all face down. Repeat the process so that each player has six face-down stacks of two cards by dealing new cards on top of existing ones. Then repeat the process while dealing face-up cards on top of the piles, creating six piles of three cards for each player with a face-up card on top. The remaining cards are dealt to the two players three at a time, giving them each a hand of 21 cards.

There is not an auction. The play proceeds according to the standard rules, which are that you must follow suit, trump if it is invalid, and when a trump is led, it must be beaten if at all feasible. You can play tricks with the face-up cards on your piles just like you would with cards in your hand. If you have played from a pile, turn the following card from that pile face up at the conclusion of each trick. The winner is decided using the standard targets at the conclusion of play, when both players have used all of the cards in their hands and piles. For instance, if you have two bouts and your opponent has one, you win if you have 41 or more points, while your opponent needs 51 or more to win. If you choose to keep score, the winner receives 25 points in addition to 1 point for each card point they have over their goal. If the petit is played down to the last trick, the trick winner receives an additional 10 points for the petit au bout. For poignee, there is no score.

Is using tarot cards acceptable?

You truly enter another world when you experiment with psychic abilities such as mediumship, channeling, Tarot, psychic development, and meditation.

Many people worry that by removing the barrier between the material world and the spiritual world, you might be inviting not only good spirits and energies but also bad ones.

But is there really a chance that using Tarot cards could bring unfavorable energy into your life? Or do my religious relatives just constantly bring this up?

Tarot card use DOES carry some risk, but not the one you might expect. Opening a deck of Tarot cards won’t summon a demon, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a dark side. We’ll get to that in a moment.

The purpose of Tarot is frequently misunderstood, and it is grouped in with things like Ouiji boards, seances, and other such things.

Tarot is a tool for self-examination, not for communicating with the dead or conjuring spirits. Tarot is used to interact with your higher self or deeper wisdom, whereas a Ouiji board is used to converse with spirits. And how on earth could that be harmful?

Here’s an illustration you won’t soon forget: Utilizing a Ouiji board is comparable to attending an orgy where you don’t know anyone and foregoing condom use. Tarot card use is equivalent to staying in and masturbating. It’s fairly secure.

Who created the tarot cards?

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).

A Marseille deck is what?

The well-known Tarot of Marseilles is faithfully reissued in the Tarot de Marseilles deck. French academics have meticulously recreated the ancient Tarot using the original woodcut pictures.

Is tarot a French word?

Tarot (n.) 1590s, from French tarot (16c. ), from Old Italian tarocchi (singular tarocco), an unrelated term that may have originated from the Arabic word taraha, which means “he rejected, put aside.” Although not in Britain, they were initially a common game deck, but their usage for occult and fortune-telling appears to have started in the late 18c.

The Marseille Tarot dates back how long?

In his workshop, Nicolas Conver engraved the TAROT OF MARSEILLE in 1760. The Tarot of Marseille has been restored by PHILIPPE CAMOIN, a member of the House who has carried on the tradition, following years of mutually beneficial historical research with Alejandro Jodorowsky.

IVORIIER ZAHM

For many years, your family has published the Tarot of Marseille in Marseille.

Yes, we have for many generations. PHILIPPE CAMOIN The Camoin factory was founded in 1760, according to records. Our family’s company was started by Nicolas Conver, a master card maker and engraver for the king’s court.

PETER CAMOIN

The geographical and historical roots are intricate. The majority of historians concur that the Tarot originated in Italy in the 14th century. But Alejandro Jodorowsky and I found that the Tarot of Marseille actually came into existence in the first century, not the 13th or 14th.

PHILIPPE CAMOIN Yes, countless years of study. I had to educate myself on all cultures and religions. I also discovered a link to the Coptic Orthodox Church, which was established in Egypt during the early centuries of Christianity. I even managed to show that there is a link to Mary Magdalene. I’m releasing a 600-page book on the exact same topic.

IVORIIER ZAHM

Was Tarot in some way made popular by the humanist fervor of the Italian Renaissance?

Yes, it is similar to the Apocryphal Gospels, which vanished during the fifth century and reappeared at the beginning of the 20th century. PHILIPPE CAMOIN The Tarot was extremely well-liked throughout the Renaissance, although more as a game than for its occult iconography. Although many people were interested in Tarot during the Renaissance, this does not imply that the Tarot was actually created at that time.

Did people at that time solely utilize the Tarot for divination, or did they also have other uses for the cards? OLIVIER ZAHMD

PETER CAMOIN

They may have been employed for divination later, around the 19th century, according to historians.

PETER CAMOIN

The Tarot offers metaphorical and mental support for visualization and meditation. It enables communication with the divine.

Which Tarot deck is the oldest?

The origin of playing cards is unknown, although they initially arrived in Europe in the late 14th century. The earliest records, mostly of card games being outlawed, are from Berne in 1367, and they appear to have spread throughout all of Europe quite quickly. Little is known about the design and quantity of these cards; the only significant information is found in a text written in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1377 by John of Rheinfelden, who, in addition to other versions, describes the basic pack as consisting of the four still-in-use suits of 13 cards, with the courts typically being the King, Ober, and Unter (“marshals”), although Dames and Queens were already well-known by that time.

The suits of Batons or Clubs, Coins, Swords, and Cups were one of the earliest card patterns to emerge. These suits are still present in classic decks of playing cards from Italy, Spain, and Portugal, as well as in contemporary (occult) tarot cards that originally appeared in the late 18th century.

Between 1440 and 1450, in Milan, Ferrara, Florence, and Bologna, additional trump cards with allegorical pictures were added to the conventional four-suit pack, resulting in the first known tarot decks. The additional cards, known simply as trionfi, later became known as “trumps” in English. These new decks were known as carte da trionfi, triumph cards, and trionfi. The first recorded account of trionfi can be discovered in a 1440 Florence court document referring to the transfer of two decks to Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta.

The about 15 Visconti-Sforza tarot decks that were painted in the middle of the 15th century for the rulers of the Duchy of Milan are the oldest surviving decks of tarot cards. Martiano da Tortona likely wrote about a missing tarot-like pack that Duke Filippo Maria Visconti had ordered between 1418 and 1425 because the painter he describes, Michelino da Besozzo, left for Milan in 1418 and Martiano himself passed away in 1425. He spoke of a deck of 60 cards, 16 of which featured Roman gods, and four different bird suits. The sixteen cards were referred to as “trumps” because Jacopo Antonio Marcello said that the now-deceased duke had created a new and magnificent category of triumphs in 1449. The Sola-Busca and Boiardo-Viti decks from the 1490s are two other early decks that also had classical themes.

The Minchiate enlarged deck was in use in Florence. Along with conventional tarot imagery, this 97-card deck also features astrological signs, the four elements, and other themes.

Tarot was not routinely condemned in its early history, despite a Dominican priest railing against the sinfulness of cards in a sermon from the 15th century (mostly because of their usage in gambling).

The initial decks of tarot cards are said to have been few in number because they were all hand-painted. The printing press was the first tool that made mass production of playing cards feasible. During the Italian Wars, tarot began to spread outside of Italy, first to France and then to Switzerland. The Tarot of Marseilles, which has Milanese origins, was the most widely used tarot deck in these two nations.

Questions you don’t really want answered

Even though it might seem apparent, it’s advisable to refrain from asking the tarot cards questions that you aren’t prepared to hear the answers to. That’s because answers to these questions can reveal information you’re just not quite ready to hear.

“Tarot can definitely come off as offensive if you’re not willing to hear the truth or consider an opposing opinion. Tarot reading Nicole Fortunaso

According to tarot reader and life coach Nicole Fortunaso, “tarot may truly come out as offensive if you are not willing to hear the truth of the problem or look at an alternate viewpoint.” She advises analyzing why you’re reacting the way you are in order to reflect on how to effectively address the underlying problem if you ask the question and aren’t satisfied with the response.

How should my tarot deck be cleaned?

While rearranging the cards in the tarot deck is a good approach to purify and clear their energy, there are some circumstances in which you might wish to perform a more specialized ritual. If you’re just getting started with tarot, cleaning your deck can be an excellent place to start.

You might want to clean your tarot deck for a variety of reasons, including:

  • beginning with a fresh deck
  • readings for other people
  • You think you need to recharge.
  • Your card readings seem a touch “odd” or “disconnected”
  • Your deck hasn’t been used recently.
  • Your deck has been handled by others
  • You think you’ve been utilizing your deck a lot. A LOT, especially for books with strong emotional content

Why should you cleanse or clear your tarot deck?

Tarot deck cleansing helps keep the energy flowing between you and your deck. Consider it as a little spiritual hygiene to maintain a strong and clear connection. It’s not necessary, but if you have any of the aforementioned symptoms, try a few of the energetic cleansing techniques listed below and note which ones seem to work the best for you.

How often should you cleanse your tarot deck?

This is another way of stating USE YOUR INTUITION: there are no hard and fast laws. Don’t stress if you don’t believe it is necessary for your deck. Alternately, if you like to cleanse them once per week or once per month, that’s great. If it feels appropriate to you, you can even place your favorite crystal on the balcony each night.

If you frequently place crystals on your deck and store it on an altar while not in use, you might not feel the need to cleanse it frequently because this quick ritual will likely be sufficient to keep your deck feeling nice.

There are numerous ways to cleanse your cards, just as there are numerous reasons why you might desire to do so.

Different ways to cleanse your tarot deck

Use holy smoke. Light a dried rosemary, lavender, cedar, sage, or palo santo cleansing wand until it begins to smoke. Hold the smoke a safe distance below the deck while holding the burning herbs in one hand and the deck in the other so that the smoke drifts upward onto the cards. Turn the deck so that the smoke covers it from all angles. Next, safely put your deck to the ground and put out the fire.

On the deck, set a selenite stone (or a black tourmaline or a transparent quartz). It works well to leave it like way for an hour, but I prefer to leave it overnight.

Set them on display during a new moon. The New Moon is energy of a blank slate; you can purify the deck by setting it on a window sill on a new moon night. At this moment, you can also make a brand-new intention for your deck.

Place the cards in a salty dish. A strong and stabilizing cleaner is salt. My preferred choice for a thorough cleansing is this. Allow it to sit anywhere from one to eight hours in a dry area.

Unorderly shuffle. Spread the cards out on the ground, then shuffle them around like a child playing in dirt. This method’s freedom and randomization serve as an excellent reset.

the shuffle and sort. Set up the deck in rows of seven cards across, commencing with the Major Arcana numbers 0 to 22. (see photo above). Next, arrange the cards, Ace through King, one for each suit, as follows: Swords, Pentacles, Cups, and Wands. View the deck in this configuration, then mix everything up (like the chaotic!) and shuffle it thoroughly.