A Historical Overview Of Tarot Card Readings

By Christopher Hill


The first tarot decks originally appeared as far back as 1440 in Italy. In this case, the deck contained the 22 cards now considered to be the Major Arcana. During that time, these cards were often referred to as Visconti Trumps. Whereas, most psychic and tarot card readings are now performed with a variety of different decks.

It is believed that the Italian Trumps were originally developed and designed for royalty. Whereas, it was not until centuries later when the cards became popular once again. During that time, divination and psychic readings became popular uses for the cards. Prior to that time, the cards were most often used in different games by the Nobles.

It was long after the cards had become standardized in France during the eighteenth century that the cards once began became popular. For, before that time, those whom played the Trumps could often decide to substitute, exclude or discard cards as needed. As such, the Tower, Death and Devil cards were often thrown out because of rumors the cards allowed the Devil to steal the souls of the people who played with them.

It was not so much the meanings which have been tied to the cards imagery rather the titles which were offensive. In fact, there were times when religious leaders attempted to have these cards banished. It was a sermon by an Italian Franciscan Friar which caused the belief that the cards were inventions whom the devil named the Death, Tower and Devil, the latter being a self-titled namesake.

Even when only using the cards in game play, the Friar suggested that the devil was merely using the cards in an attempt to steal the souls of those whom played such games. As such, while the sermon condemned the use of the cards whether being used for games or other purposes, religious leaders failed to banish the cards which have since become popular with psychics and spiritualists around the globe.

The use of decks in divination, magic and witchcraft are attributed to Antoine Court de Gebelin in the late 1700s during what is considered a rebirth of tarot. For, de Gabelin believed the cards were of Egyptian origin and contained mystical knowledge. In addition, Antoine also believed the symbols were intentionally placed and included on various cards, especially the Trumps.

Antoine held a strong belief that tarot cards were keys to the lost mystical wisdom of the ages, originally produced and written by the Egyptian God of writing, Thoth. It was from this point that the Major Arcana started to evolve into cards which would later be produced and distributed by secret societies. Since that time, a number of psychics, mediums, mystics, and spiritualists have created decks on a number of topics.

In the beginning, regular playing cards were also used for divination, tarot readings and separating different suits of cards. Whereas, there were numerous decks published later which only featured the Major Arcana. Now, most decks feature the 22 cards of the Major Arcana along with all the minor suits.




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