The origins of Tarot

 The history of tarot 

Ancient origins 

We can reliably trace the ancestors of tarot-style cards:

•  9th–10th century – China
The earliest known playing cards in the world appear during the Tang Dynasty (618–907), but they become more common under the Song Dynasty.

These were paper “money cards” or domino-like cards used for gambling games. They often had four suits based on denominations of coins (1–9 of Coins, 1–9 of Strings of coins, etc.). No picture cards or trumps yet.

•  Late 12th – 13th century – China
By the Southern Song and Yuan (Mongol) period, four-suit decks are clearly documented. Some sets already had court cards (king-like figures). These cards spread along trade routes with Chinese paper money technology.

•  13th century – Islamic world (Mamluk Egypt and Persia)
The direct ancestor of European cards appears in Mamluk Egypt around 1250–1300.
A nearly complete Mamluk deck survives (Topkapı Museum, Istanbul) from ~1400, but texts describe them earlier.
Four suits:

•  Cups

•  Coins

•  Swords

•  Polo-sticks (later became Batons/Wands in Europe)
Court cards: King, Deputy (Na’ib), Second Deputy — no queens yet.
Cards were long and narrow, hand-painted, with beautiful arabesque designs.
Games were trick-taking or gambling games similar to later European ones.

•  Late 13th – early 14th century – Arrival in Europe
Cards reach Europe through one or more of these routes:

•  Muslim Spain (Al-Andalus)

•  Trade ports in southern Italy (Naples, Sicily — both had strong Arab influence)

•  Crusader contacts or Mongol/Egyptian trade
First European mentions and bans appear almost simultaneously between 1367 and 1380 in Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Flanders.

•  1250–1370 – The “missing link” period
No surviving cards or pictures from this exact time in Europe, but dozens of city ordinances banning “cards” prove they were already widespread and causing social problems

When did reversal  of card meanings become common?

The practice of assigning distinct reversed (upside-down) meanings to tarot cards—treating a card drawn inverted as having a separate, often weakened, blocked, or opposite interpretation—is surprisingly recent in the history of tarot.m

Earliest documented use: Jean-Baptiste Alliette (Etteilla), circa 1780s–1790s in France.

•  First widespread popularization in the practice: Arthur Edward Waite and the Rider-Waite-Smith deck in 1910.

•  Before ~1780 there is no evidence that anyone interpreted upside-down tarot cards as having distinct meanings; the concept appears to have been invented for cartomancy (divinatory card reading) rather than inherited from the centuries-old card-game tradition.

So while Etteilla technically did it first, the reason most modern readers use reversals today is almost entirely because Waite included them in 1910, and his deck became the world’s most-cloned tarot deck.  

The Golden Dawn (S.L. MacGregor Mathers, Arthur Edward Waite, Pamela Colman Smith) develops the Rider-Waite-Smith deck (published 1909–1910). Waite’s accompanying book The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) explicitly includes reversed meanings for all 78 cards. This is the first widely distributed English-language tarot deck and book to treat reversals as standard

Cards played in medieval and how it tells the story of life in a medieval court

The traditional Tarot deck, as we know it today (78 cards, with 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana), originated in northern Italy in the early 15th century (around 1420–1440). It was not originally created for divination or occult purposes, but as a playing card game for the Italian nobility.

Key Historical Milestones

1.  1420s–1440s – Birth of the Tarot (Italy)
The earliest known tarot decks were handmade, luxurious card decks commissioned by wealthy Italian families, especially in Milan, Ferrara, and Bologna.

•  The Visconti-Sforza Tarot (also called Pierpont-Morgan-Bergamo Tarot) is the oldest partially surviving deck, created around 1450 for the Visconti-Sforza family of Milan. About 15 different 15th-century hand-painted decks (or fragments) still exist.

•  These decks had 78 cards: 22 figurative trump cards (the future Major Arcana) plus 56 suit cards (the Minor Arcana).

The game was called tarocchi (singular: tarocco) in Italian, and is still played today in parts of Europe under names like Tarocchini (Italy), Tarot (France), or Königrufen (Austria).

What the Original Decks Looked Like

•  Major Arcana: Included cards we still recognise (The Fool, The Magician, The Empress, The Emperor, The Pope/The Hierophant, The Lovers, The Chariot, Justice, The Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, Strength, The Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, Judgement, The World), plus The Popess (later High Priestess).

•  Minor Arcana: Four suits — Swords, Batons (Wands), Cups, and Coins (Pentacles) — with court cards (King, Queen, Knight, Page/Knave) and pip cards 1–10.

•  The imagery was late-medieval/early-Renaissance Christian and allegorical, reflecting the culture of the time (e.g., virtues, planetary influences, social hierarchy).

15th–17th centuries – Spread Across Europe

•  The game spread to France, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.

•  In France, the city of Marseille became a major production center in the 17th–18th centuries, leading to the famous Tarot de Marseille pattern (the direct ancestor of most modern tarot decks).

•  Decks were mass-produced using woodblock printing by the 16th century, making them cheaper and more widespread.

Late 18th century – Shift to Occult & Divinatory Use
Tarot was still overwhelmingly used for gaming until the late 1700s, when French occultists began interpreting it esoterically:

•  1781: Antoine Court de Gébelin claimed (incorrectly) that tarot originated in ancient Egypt and contained hidden wisdom from the “Book of Thoth.”

•  1783–1785: Jean-Baptiste Alliette (known as Etteilla) created the first tarot deck explicitly for cartomancy (divination) and published the first known guide to tarot reading.

•  19th century: Éliphas Lévi, Papus, and other French and English occultists linked tarot to Kabbalah, astrology, and alchemy.

5.  Early 20th century – Modern Tarot is Born

•  1909: The Rider-Waite-Smith deck (designed by Arthur Edward Waite, illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith) was published in England. It introduced fully illustrated Minor Arcana scenes (instead of pip cards) and swapped the order of Strength and Justice. This deck became the world’s most popular and influential.

•  1944: The Thoth Tarot by Aleister Crowley and Lady Frieda Harris added even more esoteric symbolism.

Why so many decks ?

Personal preference really and the creativity of card designers. Each deck is essentially the same with some minor changes at times or additions. Which deck is right ? The one you feel is right!

You can use as few or as many decks as you want so long as you use them correctly and understand the values of each deck you have. Try and visit a new age shop to run your fingers across some decks. If it feels warm and your hands tingle a little, get one of those decks BUT not the deck on display if you can avoid it or you are completely confident you can fully cleanse them before use.

Should you first deck be a gift? 

Mm, well that is generally accepted as a tradition. It is essentially a small ritual of passing the wisdom on to new readers and it was used to minimise how many people could actually get a deck of their own.

Oracle Cards: what’s the difference?

These simpler, easier decks are different to tarot. There use though is the same but with smaller spreads of less than 3 cards . Some people prefer the more direct and focused oracles instead of or indeed as well as tarot. Again, which you use is entirely your choice.