Around 1789, Etteilla was the first to publish a tarot deck created especially for esoteric uses. Etteilla’s tarot included themes pertaining to ancient Egypt, in keeping with the unfounded assumption that such cards were originated from the Book of Thoth.
Esotericists utilize a 78-card tarot deck that is divided into two parts:
- 22 cards without suits make up the Major Arcana (greater mysteries), sometimes known as the trump cards:
- The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant, The Lovers, The Chariot, Strength, The Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, Justice, The Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, Judgement, The World, and The Fool are just a few of the characters mentioned. The Fool is the only card in the deck that is not numbered; it is sometimes dealt at the start of the deck as 0 or at the end as XXII. Cards from The Magician to The World are numbered in Roman numerals from I to XXI.
- 56 cards make up the Minor Arcana (lesser secrets), which is divided into four suits of 14 cards each.
- Four court cards and ten numbered cards. The King, Queen, Knight, and Page/Jack in each of the four tarot suits serve as the court cards. The four suits of the classic Italian tarot are swords, batons, coins, and cups; however, in contemporary occult tarot decks, the coins suit is frequently referred to as pentacles or disks, while the batons suit is frequently referred to as wands, rods, or staves.
The words “Major Arcana” and “Minor Arcana” are never used in relation to tarot card games, which follow a different set of rules, and were initially coined by Jean-Baptiste Pitois (also known as Paul Christian). Some decks only exist as works of art, and these decks may only include the 22 Major Arcana.
The Tarot of Marseilles, the Rider-Waite-Smith, and the Thoth tarot decks are the three most popular esoteric tarot decks.
Aleister Crowley, who devised the Thoth deck along with Lady Frieda Harris, stated of the tarot: “The origin of this pack of cards is very obscure. Some scholars want to date it back to the Mysteries of Ancient Egypt, while others want to move it forward to the fifteenth or possibly sixteenth century. The only notion about the Tarot that is truly intriguing is that it represents the universe admirably and symbolically, using information from the Holy Qabalah.”
In This Article...
What additional tarot decks exist?
Tarot Cards
- the Rider-Waite Tarot.
- Centennial Smith-Waite Tarot Deck in Tin.
- From “The Elemental Tarot”
- The Major Arcana of the Black Power Tarot.
- Author: Jerico Mandybur, “Neo Tarot”
- The 78-Card Light Seer’s Tarot Deck and Guidebook.
- Tarot Cards for Witches Today (Modern Tarot Library)
What do traditional tarot cards look like?
Standard Deck
- Big Arcana. The Dunce. a Devil. A star.
- Those Wands. Wands of Ace. Wands Seven. The Nine of Wands
- Those Cups. The Ace of Cups Seven of Swords. Cups number seven.
- The Blades. Swords, Ace of. Swords, five of. Swords seven. Swords, eight of. Swords, ten of.
Are tarot cards unique?
There are some significant differences between tarot cards and oracle cards, despite the fact that both can offer insight. The Rider-Waite deck, the first tarot deck, is the model for the majority of tarot decks. They probably contain 78 cards, each of which offers comprehensive information about a certain circumstance.
Which tarot deck is the best?
The following are the top 5 tarot card sets, in the opinion of expert readers:
- the tarot deck by Rider-Waite-Smith. Amazon.
- The Modern Tarot Library’s Modern Witch tarot deck. Amazon.
- Tarot deck from St. Croix.
- Tarot deck by Morgan-Greer. Tarot.com.
- The tarot deck and book set called The Wild Unknown. The Unknown Wild.
How many tarot card variations exist?
The Renaissance allegorical motifs are abandoned in the pictures of the French-suited tarot trumps, which significantly deviate from the earlier Italian-suited design. French-suited tarot cards are almost exclusively used for card games, with the exception of novelty decks. Around 1740, the first French-suited tarots appeared. These cards were known as “Tiertarock” because they featured animal pictures on the trumps. Around 1800, a wider range of decksmany with genre art or vedutabegan to appear. There are now four patterns for French-suited tarot decks:
- Industrial and Gothic Roman numerals are used for the trumps in the Central European genre art tarock deck known as Industrie und Glck (“Diligence and Fortune”). The red suits 5 to 10 and the black suits 1 to 6 are not included in the set of 54 cards that are sold with it. There are 3 patterns: Types A, B, and C, with Type C being the norm while Types B and C are only offered sometimes or as specials.
- A 78-card deck of Tarot Nouveau, often known as Tarot Bourgeois, is available. In France and Denmark, it is frequently used for Danish Tarok and Tarot games. Cego is occasionally played in Germany as well. Arabic numerals in the corner indices are not as important as the genre art.
- Use of the Adler-Cegothis animal tarot is widespread in the Upper Rhine Valley and nearby mountainous areas like the Black Forest and the Vosges. It features 54 cards that are arranged similarly to how the Industrie und Glck packs are arranged. Arabic numbers are used in its trumps, but only within centered indices.
- The Schmid-Cego pack, designed by F.X. Schmid, features Tarot Nouveau-style genre pictures, but the Arabic numerals are centered like in the Adler-Cego pack.
The purpose of oracle cards
Decks of Oracle Cards to Consider The cards, according to the author, are intended to aid in the development of your intuition, self-love, inner beauty, and emotional well-being. They can be used daily for contemplation, meditation, or in a tarot-inspired spread.
What Tarot deck is the most popular?
The RiderWaite tarot deck is one of the most extensively used decks for reading tarot cards. It is also referred to as the RiderWaiteSmith, WaiteSmith, or Tarot deck. The cards were first released by the Rider Company in 1909, based on the guidelines of scholar and mystic A. E. Waite and illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith, both of whom are members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The deck has been released in several versions and served as the model for numerous variations and knockoffs. The deck is thought to exist in more than 20 countries in more than 100 million copies.
What kind of religion are tarot cards?
Tarot cards are frequently cited as a component of New Age thought and practice along with astrology, aspects of Buddhism, paganism, and First Nations teachings in the eclectic scholarly approach to the New Age.
Is tarot complicated to learn?
The use of astrology to forecast how wonderful you’ll feel in a month’s time, interpret your current “I detest everything and have no idea why, or picking the right day to slip into your crush’s direct message. However, there are occasions when you just need to delve a little deeper (and, okay, splurge on something cute for your coffee table). Similar to astrology, using tarot cards can help you establish a more profound connection with the cosmos while also being a decent party trick.
The amount of information you need to study and memorize to read tarot, though, can seem overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be that way, and that’s what we’re here to tell you. You’ll be an expert by the time your friends from college come around for drinks tonight if you just follow our quick-start tarot instruction.
Tarot reading has been practiced since the 14th or 15th century and may have started out as a card game, similar to poker, rather than a spiritual activity. Nevertheless, a spiritual component emerged, and tarot cards started to be employed for divination in the late 18th century. They have also been applied to psychological research. Even Carl Jung believed that using cards to depict the “human archetypes.
The majority of 78-card tarot decks follow the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition and make use of related archetypes and iconography.
Additionally, there are tarot decks from various traditions, such as Marseilles tarot decks, as well as oracle cards, which can have any quantity of cards with their own particular imagery. But chances are, if you’re new to tarot, your deck is a Rider-Waite-Smith one.
Each of the 78 cards in these tarot decks has a distinct meaning. You don’t have to keep all of that in your head, even though it is a lot to know about them. The following are the key facts to be aware of:
1. The Minor Arcana and the Major Arcana are the two categories of Tarot cards.
Similar to a standard deck of playing cards, the 56 Minor Arcana cards are divided into four suits: Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles. The total journey of your life is covered by the 22 Major Arcana.
Pentacles
2. The Minor Arcana deals with everyday problems, whilst the Major Arcana cards (such as The Lovers and The Tower) deal with significant milestones.
3. The Minor Arcana’s Page, Knight, Queen, and King cards are typically connected to people in your life. The court cards are those things. If these appear, associate them with a person who has that personality type.
4. The Minor Arcana has four court cards as well as cards with a number from ace to ten in each suit. The Ace of Wands, for instance, may symbolize the thrilling beginning of a new endeavor, while the 10 of Wands may emerge when you feel overburdened with labor. In general, they depict a progression.
The symbology of each card is described in a handbook or guidebook that most tarot decks include. Keep in mind that there are no regulations prohibiting you from using your guidebook while reading! Tarot reader Angela Lucy of New York City advises undertaking a self-guided meditation with each card if you do want to get to know them better. Lucy instructs, “Put yourself in front of the card and then walk within it in your thoughts. Or, just before a test, memorize them using flash cardswhatever suits you.
1. Create an inviting atmosphere with elegant candles or other relaxing decor.
2. Craft your query. Generally, open-ended inquiries are preferable. Ask yourself, “What can I do to make my relationship with my partner stronger? or “What factors should I take into account when I examine the future of my relationship? not, “Will we end this relationship?
3. While contemplating your query or hearing your friend’s answer, shuffle the cards. You might as well take your time because tarot cards are frequently larger than playing cards (and hence a little more difficult to shuffle).
4. Divide the deck into three stacks (or have a friend do it for you), then choose one of them to deal from.
5. Select the design that best suits the question. (A simple query leads to a basic design.)
6. Remain focused on the big picture rather than the minute details.
According to Lucy, tarot cards can be compared to the pages of a book. “You witness the important travels everyone takes, and occasionally the photographs by themselves just stand out and speak to you. The greatest way to predict the future broadly is to use tarot.
Five-Card Spread
This one is fantastic for more in-depth explorations of your current circumstance, responsibilities at hand, upcoming problems, general strength, and the outcome that would be best for you right now.
Tarot is a terrific tool for overcoming doubts that are getting in the way or for strengthening your ride-or-die relationship. That’s how easy it is, in fact. According to Brigit Esselmont, founder of Biddy Tarot and author of Everyday Tarot, “People assume you have to be highly psychic or that maybe you’re doing something evil. They’re missing the genuine beauty of what tarot is: an excellent instrument for self-discovery.
How do you begin studying the tarot?
If you find this daunting, Howe advises you to take a deep breath and believe in your own initiative. “In order to see it less as “This holds all of these secret meanings that I have to do all this work to access” and more as “I know all the meanings; it’s just a matter of establishing the connections and being able to articulate them,” use language or knowledge that you already possess. She points out that the four elementsearth, water, fire, and airplay a significant role in the tarot, which is advantageous because the majority of people already have an understanding of the meanings of each element. ” If you do that, your viewpoint will be more personal, and you will be able to express yourself more freely.
Howe suggests the three-card draw and the Celtic Cross as the two fundamental spreads for beginning readers. In the former, three cards are chosen at random from the deck to symbolize the subject’s mind, body, and spirit, or past, present, and future. According to Howe, you could even up the stakes and use a six-card draw, with one card for each location.