Tarot cards are both mysterious and accurate method of divination, or in other words, foretelling the future. But it's rarely known to people that are unfamiliar with the subject of occult, that tarot is probably the youngest of all major divination systems that are currently known to mankind, and it's known to us for less than five hundred years. Therefore, it cannot be compared to other divination systems such as Runes or IChing which are a lot older.
Tarot is very important part of both history and culture of European civilization. The mysterious and dark cards are directly connected to kings and dukes, governments, and great moments of European history. 78 cards are probably the most popular aspect of western occultism, too.
Tarot cards were created in Italy, probably in the city of Milan, around 15th century. The creator of first tarot deck is unknown to historians. But what we know for sure is the fact that the first deck was created as playing cards and nothing more. It was not meant for any divination or magical purposes at first. This deck contained cards from 1 through 10 in four suites, with two court cards - knight and king. To each court, a new card was added - a queen card. But that wasn't the only change made to Tarot cards, a number of 22 special cards was added as well. That was something new, something that wasn't present in any playing cards at the time. New cards were symbolic in nature, they contained pictures with special characters or subjects, for example Emperor, Pope, Wheel of Fortune, Death, Devil or the Moon. In this way, minor and major arcana was created.
And new game was created - similar to bridge, but because of new 22 cards, it outranked everything else that has been played during the 15th century. This game has been called A Game of Triumphs and it quickly spread throughout all of Europe, becoming popular in Italy, France, Austria and Germany. With time, decks developed, and numbers of cards disappeared totally, while pictures and images on cards changed into more complex pieces of art.
But it took few centuries before the Tarot became the symbol of the occult arts. It took place especially in France and in England - mystical potential of tarot cards was discovered, magical meanings were understood, and new divination system was born. Since then, Tarot cards are true symbols of western occultism, and today, they're the most popular European divination system in use.
I strongly encourage you to explore the subject of tarot history further, and learn names, dates and more historical events that are directly connected to Tarot.
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