When trying to create a history of the Tarot cards, there are many holes in the available data and much of what remains is guesswork. In terms of Tarot history, Tarot cards likely evolved as a secret way of conveying occult teachings. A common idea put forward is that Tarot cards evolved as a way for teachers and students from a variety of countries and cultures to share universal knowledge. With different languages and levels of literacy, a pictorial guide was necessary to share spiritual truths.
The oldest remains of a Tarot deck date back to the 1390s; of the original deck, only 17 cards remain. Around 1420, an Italian artist, Bonifacio Bembo, painted what is the only complete deck of cards to have survived to modern times. Originally commissioned by the Duke of Milan, this early deck is now known as the Visconti deck, named for the Duke’s family.
While it is unlikely that Tarot cards existed before this time, the concepts illustrated in Tarot images are universal and have been around for thousands of years, both in common knowledge and in myth and legend. While many of the images in Tarot decks are common to the medieval period (the Fool, the Pope, and the Judgment), many of the other archetypes present, including the High Priestess, point to a pre-Christian system with roots in much earlier times. ancient. The need for a secret spiritual practice has been necessary for survival for thousands of years. The fact that the Major Arcana feature symbols depicting powerful men and the women strongly suggest that it significantly predates Christianity.
Being labeled a religious heretic in medieval Europe meant torture or death. Recording alternative beliefs through a pictorial key allowed these teachings to survive and created a more secure way of transmitting this information, with less chance of retaliation.
In the Renaissance period, a practice developed based on ancient Greek teachings that was a pictorial memory system. Working with this became an integral part of occult teachings at this time and was commonly used to aid meditation.
In later periods, astrology, gnosticism, Kabbalah, and magic have joined the history of Tarot cards. These practices, along with modern psychology, have played a role in the development of the meanings of each Tarot card. Many of the Tarot spreads and individual card meanings were reinterpreted during the occult revival that occurred during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Order of the Golden Dawn, a short-lived group of esoteric magicians, played a particularly powerful role in this regard. One member, AE Waite, created a pictorial key to the Tarot and worked with another member, Pamela Colman Smith, to create a new Tarot deck, the Colman-Rider-Waite deck (also known as the Rider-Waite Tarot deck). Another prominent member, Aleister Crowley, also created a Tarot guidebook and worked with a notable artist, Lady Frieda Harris, to design and create the Thoth Tarot deck. Crowley believed that the major arcana were based on images from the Egyptian Book of Thoth, hence the name of his deck.
The current history of Tarot cards sometimes claims that the cards were created for an evil purpose or make them much older than they are. While Tarot cards have been linked to various religions and occult movements, there is nothing inherently wrong or negative about them. Working through the Tarot cards in the Major Arcana is like moving through all the major phases of life, both internal and external. This short history of the Tarot cards should clear up any mystery about their past and give you a chance to connect with them in the present.
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