Fools' Journey: Where did the Tarot come from?
© Rose Wilcox
The first known Tarot decks appeared in Italy around 1420 to 1440. As the International Tarot Society states on their website, "There is no evidence for it originating in any other time or place."
The symbolism of the original Tarot corresponds to European Christianity of its time. There are no exact correspondences with any other system of belief. In the 19th century, authors Vaillant and Papus popularized the ideas that the gypsies spread the Tarot into Europe from Egypt and other exotic parts. The gypsies actually used regular playing cards until, possibly influenced by popular demand, they picked up the Tarot in the 1900s.
The Tarot was originally used for a game of trumps. It is possible they were also used for divination since there inception, as were regular playing cards, but there isn't a lot of documented evidence of this use until the 1700s. Playing cards did not evolve from the Tarot as suspected; they predate the first know Tarot decks by around 50 years.
Following 1781, when Court de Gébelin and the Comte de Mellet first discussed the use of the Tarot for divination, tarot became an integral part of occult philosophy. The Rider-Waite deck, a.k.a. The Waite-Smith deck, widely held to be the "standard" deck, is a relative newcomer, created in 1909. It was widely available in the United States following its publication. Each new deck created adds to the Tarot mythology and the Rider-Waite deck was no exception. It was based on the philosophies of an occult society known as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, as well as cards and descriptions from earlier Tarot Decks.
In the 20th century, Tarot has flourished and expanded its meanings with the advent of many Tarot-based decks. For instance, my deck of choice, the Motherpeace, uses meanings and imagery based on the Rider-Waite and on the Goddess traditions that were discovered and elaborated on in the 1980s. Although both the history of the Tarot and some of the Goddess research of that time contain inaccuracies, that does not change my relationship with the deck which is visual and personal.
I believe Tarot's roots in my ancestry's religious beliefs, Christianity, only make the cards resonate that much more with my subconscious. The addition in our century of many "retellings" of the tales of the trumps only enriches our abilities as readers to pick decks that reflect our own personal preferences and belief systems. As in our world, Tarot's diversity is its strength.
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