Tarot Card Reading History

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History of Tarot

The Tarot is a mantic tool for awakening our intuitive faculties, for putting us in touch with our inner world, in essence our connection with the Universe and all knowledge. Tarot cards are used by most psychics whilst doing psychic readings. It is believed that the use of Tarot cards began more than 6,000 years ago in ancient Egypt. But historians say that the early records date from the fourteenth century. According to Arthur E Waite the auther and creator of the modern Rider Waite deck of tarot cards, there is no historical evidence of Tarot prior to that date.

People used early Tarot decks for card games; early records show the Tarot first appearing in I around 1332, when King Alfonse XI of Leon issued a proclamation against their use. The Roman Catholic Church also condemned the Tarot and refereed to the cards as “ The Devils Picture Book “. From the fourteenth century onwards, a nomadic tribe from Persia and Egypt called the Rom, or better known as Gypsies spread the practice throughout Europe. With the modern scientific view of the world, psychics and tarot fell into ill repute and the domain of the sea front fortunetellers.

The flamboyant magician Eliphas Levi produced some of the most important writings on the subject. And believed tarot to be a practical tool through which the spirits could be contacted and revelations regarding the past, present and future could be made.
Today there are hundreds of different tarot decks and books on the subject available to psychics and people interested in learning. The most thorough book on the subject is Rachel Polacks seventy-eight degrees of wisdom. The most popular deck is the Rider-Waite deck. Waite created it along with American artist Pamela Coleman-Smith. And is recommended for both learners and advanced psychics using tarot, as it draws on the traditional interpretations laid down by Waite whilst an initiate in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

The Tarot deck consists of seventy-eight cards and is divided into two groups. The major Arcana consisting of 22 cards represents the Fools journey through a series of Archetypes to the ultimate goal of enlightenment. The forty Minor Arcana include four suits; Earth represented by Pentacles, Fire – Wands, Water – Cups, Air – Swords. These cards represent the daily situations and emotional states of daily life. There are also sixteen Court cards consisting of Pages, Knights, Queens and Kings. These can indicate aspects of ourselves or others or can represent actual people.

To use the tarot cards in a psychic reading requires a certain degree of ritual in shuffling and selecting the cards and laying them out on the table in the form of a ‘Spread’. Spreads can be traditional formations as in the Celtic cross or Gypsy spread. The random selecting of the cards that represent answers to the querants question is the most mind boggling mysterious process. It is believed that the universe/spirit has guided the reader or psychic to choose the appropriate cards. Tarot cards are interpreted according to their position in the spread, and intuitively. However the tarot represents a language of symbols and Archetypes and can also be read as one would interpretative any other language. The cross-reference of elements with numerical values, based on the Pythagorean system of numerology can also give a strong indication as to the interpretation. Some readers and psychics also mix the cards so that some are laid up-side- down, which have a different interpretation to the ones laid right–way-up.

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