15th Century
Earliest references to Tarot in Italy, as a card game with Cups, Swords, Batons, and Coins, also including the 21 trump or “tarocchi” cards and the Fool, aka the wild card or what is today known as a Joker card.
18th Century
After the game migrated to France (likely during the Italian Wars 1494 -1559), they were eventually given further depth and significance via the revived Egyptian and ancient Hermetic philosophies by French Occultists.
In 1781 Antoine Court de Gébelin (1725 - 1784), a French clergyman, released a dissertation on what he believed to be the origins of the tarot imagery, relating the art to ancient Egyptian Theology. In his work, Gébelin claimed the name Tarot came from the Egyptian words Tar for “road” and Ro or Ros meaning “Royal”, and gave his translation to mean literally “Royal Road of Life”. Among his claims were that the 22 Trump Cards matched to the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, so the origins also had ties to the Jewish Kabbalah, and that the cards made their way to Rome, being used in secret by the Popes, where eventually they made their way to France, when the papacy was based in Avignon during the 14th century. Subsequent research by Egyptologists disproved Gébelin’s claims, but Tarot’s link to Egyptian origins persisted and continues in present day.
Jean-Baptiste Alliette, aka “Etteilla” (1738 - 1791) was the first French occultist to contribute to the esoteric development of tarot cards for the purpose of divination, including references to the elements, astrology, and the four humors, in 1783. In 1789, he published the Tarot de Marseille. Etteilla would continue in Gébelin’s footsteps to insist the tarot’s origins were from Ancient Egypt, creating a cartomantic treatise of tarot as the Book of Thoth, go on to create a society for tarot cartomancy, and created the first Egyptian Tarot deck to be used exclusively for divination including a directional book called Dictionnaire synonimique du Livre de Thot. He also suggested that tarot was ancient wisdom from Hermes Trismegistus, and argued that the first copy of the tarot was made on leaves of gold.
**There is debate on which French men originally created the “occult” tarot first: Gébelin or Etteilla, though the latter claims he was involved first.
Marie Anne Adelaide Lenormand (1772 - 1843) was a necromancer and cartomancer of the Napoleonic era, influencing cartomancy in France for centuries. It is believed she was a fortune-teller for Empress Josephine and Tsar Alexander I. She was heavily influenced by Etteilla’s work. Lenormand Decks exist today though they differ from tarot in many ways and there is controversy over their origins.
19th & 20th Century
Author Jean-Baptiste Pitois (1811 - 1877) was the first to use the terms “Major Arcana” and “Minor Arcana”, believing the symbolism was linked to Egyptian mystery cults and their doctrines or “arcana”.
Éliphas Lévi (1810 - 1875), a esotericist, poet, and ceremonial magician, who wrote over 20 books on magic, religion, and occultism, furthered Tarot correspondences within his own Kabbalistic system. In 1884 the French Theosophical Society and later in 1888 the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Cross furthered developments of tarot and Lévi’s influence on it across France.
In 1887, the Marquis Stanislas de Guaita (1861 - 1897) and artist Oswald Wirth (1860 - 1943) created a production of Lévi’s version of the tarot. It was the first “neo-occultist” cartomantic deck not derived from Egyptian work of Ettellia’s, called Les 22 Arcanes du Tarot kabbalistique, consisting of only the 22 Major Arcana cards.
From the 1840s to 1920, Spiritualism, a social religious movement focused on communication with the spirits of the dead became popular. Along with Ouija Boards and seances, Tarot Cards and other forms of cartomancy were used for half a century by mediums and mystics.
From 1887 to 1903 The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn produced many devoted occultists that would go on to contribute heavily to the history of the Tarot. In 1886 Academic and Mystic Arthur Edward Waite (1857 - 1942) published Mysteries of Magic, a collection of Lévi’s writings, translated into English, that would become the first occult tarot source published in England, and in English-speaking countries. In 1888 the occult tarot became an established tool for Magicians and Mystics.
Other members of the Golden Dawn Samuel Liddell Mathers and William Wynn Westcott published their own occult tarot text prior to the founding of the order. Mathers printed an 1888 booklet titled Tarot: Its Occult Signification, Use in Fortune Telling and Method of Play. Westcott included ink sketches of the major arcana in his treatise Tabula Bembina, sive Mensa Isiaca, in 1887.
In 1909 Arthur Edward Waite along with Artist, Writer, and Occultist Pamela Colman Smith (1878 - 1951), produced the Rider-Waite Tarot (now referred to today as the Rider-Waite-Smith, the Waite-Smith, or the Rider Tarot, if not altogether boycotted by some readers for the lack of Colman’s representation in its production), published by the William Rider & Son Company.
Beginning in 1938, Aleister Crowley (1875 - 1947) and Lady Frieda Harris (1877 - 1962) would produce the Thoth Tarot in 1943, and accompanying Book of Thoth in 1944.
Today
There are three decks that have survived since the 15th century, each being held (some in parts) at different locations around the world. All three decks are said to come from the hands of Bonifacio Bembo, a Milan court painter.
The “Visconti Tarot”, made for Filippo Maria Visconti, the last duke of Milan (d. 1447). 69 cards are currently preserved at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, New Haven Connecticut, United States.
The “Visconti-Sforza Tarot” made for Francesco Sforza near 1450, is now divided: 26 cards are at the Accademia Carrara, in Bergamo, Italy and 35 are at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, United States. **Francesco Sforza, a mercenary commander who served in both Milan and Venice and married the only child of Filippo Maria Visconti.
The “Brambilla Tarot” or the “Brambilla Deck” was also painted for Visconti and can be found at the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy.
Tarot card reading is a form of cartomancy, where tarot readers and their “querents”, lay out a spread to divine an answer to a question, or gain insight into the past, present or future.
There are 78 cards which are split into two groups: The Major and Minor Arcana. Within the Major Arcana are 22 cards (or 21 Cards and a Fool Card). The remaining 56 make up the Minor Arcana, consisting of four suits: The Cups (Chalices), The Wands (Staves, Rods), The Swords (Knives, Blades) and the Pentacles (Coins, Stones), with 10 numbered cards and 4 court cards: The Page, Knight, Queen, and King.
Each card in the deck has its own correspondences gained over the years from Astrological, Hermetic, Christian, Numerical, and Egyptian influences, and can bring more to the meanings of the cards based on their associations.