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What is Tarot?

Tarot is derived from a 15th Century Italian card game called Tarocchi,which is similar to bridge and was popular with the nobility. The Tarocchi deck, like our modern playing cards, is divided into four suits—Staves (clubs), Cups (hearts), Coins (diamonds), and Swords (spades). Unlike our modern playing cards, the Tarocchi has an additional 22 cards that includes archetypal/allegorical images.

It wasn't until the19th Century that those involved in occult practices developed an interest in the Tarocchi deck, and it wasn't until the 20th Century that gypsies began using Tarot cards for fortune telling.

While today the Tarot is most commonly associated with fortune telling, there has been a wide-spread movement among Tarotists to use the cards as a tool for self-reflection and counseling.

The Tarot deck is made up of 78 cards, divided into parts:

The Major Arcana (also known as the Trumps or Archetypal cards) consists of 22 cards, numbered 0 through 21. Each of these cards is typically titled as follows:

0 = The Fool
1 = The Magician
2 = The High Priestess
3 = The Empress
4 = The Emperor
5 = The Hierophant
6 = The Lovers
7 = The Chariot
8 = Strength (In some decks, 8 is Justice and 11 is Strength.)
9 = The Hermit
10 = Wheel of Fortune
11 = Justice
12 = The Hanged Man
13 = Death
14 = Temperance
15 = The Devil
16 = The Tower
17 = The Star
18 = The Moon
19 = The Sun
20 = Judgement
21 = The World

The Minor Arcana (also known as the Pips or Situation cards) consists of four suits: Wands (or Staves or Batons), Cups, Swords, Pentacles (or Coins). The cards in each suit are numbered from 1 to 10. Each suit also has court cards: most typically Pages, Knights, Queens and Kings.

In early Tarot decks, the Minor Arcana looked very similar to our modern playing cards. For example, the Ten of Cups simply illustrated ten cups as shown below.

From the 15th Century Visconti-Sforza Tarocchi Deck

In 1909, Arthur Waite, a member of an occult group called The Order of the Golden Dawn, commissioned artist Pamela Colman Smith to execute his vision for a new Tarot deck. It was Colman Smith's innovative approach that made the deck a classic. She broke tradition for the Minor Arcana by incorporating the symbols of the suits into scenes that reflected the meaning of the cards. See below.

Pamela Colman Smith's illustration of the Ten of Cups
for the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck

Today, many in the Tarot community refer to the Rider-Waite deck (Rider was the publisher) as the Rider-Waite-Smith deck to honor the artist who died in poverty and obscurity.

While there are currently thousands of decks on the market, the Rider-Waite-Smith deck continues to be the most popular. Many subsequent decks have been based on Colman's Smith's work.

If you would like to read more about the Tarot, visit The Hermitage: A Tarot History Site. Be sure to take a look at the TarotL Tarot History Information Sheet which dispels myths about the history of Tarot.

Illustrations from the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck reproduced by permission of U.S. Games Systems, Inc., Stamford, CT 06902 USA. Copyright 1971 by U.S. Games Systems, Inc. Further reproduction prohibited. The Rider-Waite Tarot Deck is a registered trademark of U.S. Games Systems, Inc.