Tarot History

The earliest origins of the Tarot are ambiguous and to this day, remain shrouded in mystery. One theory says that origins of tarot lies in the religious rituals and symbols of the ancient Egyptians, others speculate that this was brought to Europe from elsewhere possibly Egypt, China or India by gypsies. But they have been in existence for hundreds of years. The Tarot used today dates back to the mid 15th century. It was played as a game with an augmented deck in various areas of Europe and Italy in the 1440’s.

18th century saw the development of Modern Tarot Decks and the invention of occult Tarot. Mid 1700 saw a great development of Tarot along with growth in Tarot’s popularity. In 1780’s Etteilla, the world’s first professional cartomancer and two other French writers developed much of the occult lore and fortune telling methods that would re-invent Tarot in the late 1800’s. At present, the two esoteric systems, Kaballah and divination have become permanently attached to Tarot. In the early 20th century, Arthur Edward Waite, a Christian mystic and scholar came up with the mystical Tarot deck. His deck that we study today served as a model for hundreds of derivative decks. Allister Crowley deck by Thoth in the late 1800s to Rider Waite and then later to Osho with his Osho Zen cards, Tarot has witnessed a long journey.