TAROT
What is Tarot?
Tarot is a divination practice in which a deck of 78 cards is shuffled and drawn, and the answer to a question is read from the imagery and position of the cards that appear. It excels at reflecting situations currently in motion, such as love and work, and is one of the most widely practiced forms of divination in the world.
Overview
- System
- Omen Reading (read from cards drawn by chance)
- Origin
- Italy (as a playing card game) → formalized as divination in 18th-century France
- What You Need
- A 78-card tarot deck (22 Major Arcana + 56 Minor Arcana)
- Best For
- Love, relationships, career choices, and other unfolding concerns
- Time Frame
- Present to a few months ahead
Origins & History
The forerunner of tarot was "tarocchi," a 15th-century Italian playing card deck originally used for games among the nobility.
In late-18th-century France, it became linked with mystical thought and was systematized as a divination tool. During the 19th and 20th centuries, British occult orders and similar groups helped establish the interpretive framework widely used today. The now-standard "Rider-Waite-Smith" deck was published in 1909.
How It Works
- 01Decide on a single question you want to ask.
- 02Shuffle the cards thoroughly and form them into a single deck.
- 03Following a chosen layout (spread), draw and lay out the designated number of cards.
- 04Read the meaning of each position together with the imagery and upright or reversed orientation of the cards drawn.
What It Reveals
Tarot is well suited to reading the flow of an unfolding situation and the feelings behind it, such as "how does the other person feel right now" or "how is this choice likely to turn out." However, it is not naturally suited to long-term fate readings based on birth date, such as reading lifelong tendencies; for that purpose it is often combined with fate-reading systems like Western astrology or Four Pillars of Destiny.
Related Methods
References
- Wikipedia: Tarot card reading (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot_card_reading)
- Wikipedia: Rider–Waite Tarot (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rider%E2%80%93Waite_Tarot)