There are many fascinating stories about how the Tarot cards came into existence. Some speculate they originated in ancient Egypt, others believe the Gypsies/Traveling People first brought them to Europe hundreds of years ago. Another theory claims a group of Moroccan intellectuals created them to preserve their ancient wisdom in the form of pictures. The cards’ origin is even claimed by some to be extraterrestrial. Whatever is true or false about these theories has only added to the popularity of the Tarot.

            It is known that a deck of cards for a game called “Tarocco” was made for the Vicsconzi-Sforza family of Milan in the late 14^th century. It became a popular pastime of the nobility of Italy to play this card game, and it also spread eventually to France. Some three hundred years later, the speculation that the cards represented great symbolism began to be accepted. This happened when a certain individual named De Geblen saw the game being played with a set of Marseilles cards that had evolved from the Vicsconzi-Sforza deck. Soon the idea that the Tarocco cards were a divination tool spread and another man, Alliette, helped to cement this belief into the mind of the general public. By the late 1800s, The Tarot of the Bohemians had been published and the Tarot was here to stay. This was also the time when the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn came into existence.

            It was a tradition within the Golden Dawn that its members had to create their own Tarot cards. The decks of two members, Aleister Crowley and Arthur Edward Waite, have become well-known to many. Crowley’s deck is The Book of Thoth and Waite’s cards are the popular Rider Waite Tarot. Both decks are filled with symbolism, but Crowley’s is considered to be more in-depth and complex. I have my own deck of The Book of Thoth, purchased some years ago in Salem, Massachusetts, and I can attest to its multifaceted symbolism.

In the early 19^th century, Eliphas Levi correlated the similarity of the Tarot with occult traditions, the Hebrew system of mysticism and the Kabbalah. De Geblen had also noted that there were 22 trump cards and 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. However, Levi tied the Tarot into the Tree of Life and considered the cards to be essential for a human being to develop herself/himself. The Tarot was a tool to achieve enlightenment.

            Throughout the 20^th century a number of different Tarot decks became available to buy. Many are a conglomeration or variation of the Crowley and Waite cards. If the reader feels drawn to the Tarot, I would advise her/him to examine different decks, and then work with the one with which s/he feels comfortable.

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