Tarot

:This article is about the structure, card imagery, and history and origin of tarot decks, which are used for spiritual, esoteric, psychological, occult and/or divinatory purposes. See Tarot (game) for information about the traditional European card game.

The Tarot Deck

The typical 78-card tarot deck is structured into two distinct parts. The first, called the Major Arcana, consists of 21 cards without suits typically referred to as "trumps", plus a 22nd card, The Fool. The second, called the Minor Arcana, consists of 56 cards divided into four suits of 14 cards each. The traditional Italian suits are Swords, Batons, Coins and Cups. In modern tarot decks, the Batons suit is commonly called Wands, Rods or Staves, while the Coins suit is often called Pentacles or Disks. (Arcana is the plural form of the Latin word arcanum, meaning "key".)

Related Topics:
Major Arcana - Suits - Trumps - Minor Arcana - Italian - Sword - Baton - Coin - Cup - Wand - Staves - Pentacle - Disk - Latin - Arcanum

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The 14 cards in each suit consist of an Ace, nine cards numbered 2 through 10, and four court cards (not dissimilar from the structure of 52-card bridge/poker playing card decks, except that bridge/poker playing card decks have three court cards rather than four).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The four court cards (or face cards) of the tarot deck traditionally consist of the King, the Queen, the Knight and the Page (or Knave). In bridge/poker decks, the court cards typically consist of the King, the Queen and the Jack. The Jack corresponds to the tarot deck's Page.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the Western world today, the Tarot is usually seen either as a means of divination, the practice of ascertaining information from supernatural or other sources, or, in a more modern view, as a psychological tool for accessing the unconscious. However, early references such as a sermon refer only to the use of the cards for game-playing and gambling; and in some European countries such as France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Germany, Tarot is still a widely played game.

Related Topics:
France - Italy - Switzerland - Austria - Germany

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The relationship between Tarot cards and playing cards is well documented. Playing cards appeared quite suddenly in Christian Europe during the period 1375-1380, following several decades of use in Islamic Spain: see playing card history for discussion of its origins. Early European sources describe a deck with typically 52 cards, like a modern deck with no jokers. The 78-card Tarot resulted from merging the 21 Trumps and the Fool into an early 56-card variant (14 cards per suit).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~