Tarot card reading : A journey through the cards.

The Chinese were probably the first people to manufacture paper from paper mills and distribute this knowledge widely( see http://www.articlesbase.com/tarot-articles/what-benefits-could-a-tarot-reading-provide-1815235.html ). Therefore, the Chinese may have been the first people to have the resources to manufacture a blank cutout which could be decorated with Tarot symbols for shipping abroad along the trade routes. The Chinese had a practice where yarrow stalks were cast and divinations made from interpretation of the patterns created. The Book of Changes- the 'I Ching' written in the 5th century BC explained things in yin and yang. These elements were believed to be found in everything and yin was linked with the feminine (earth,dark,moisture,coldness and passivity) while yang was linked with the male (light,dryness,warmth, activity). Wen, of the Chou dynasty, made meaningful trigrams and hexagrams of these elements (Leeming,2002).
The Tarot has been incredibly popular at times with many cultures claiming to have invented Tarot. These include theories of ownership from the Kabbalah faith, the Knights Templar and alchemists. Many people believe that the Egyptians invented them and Indian cultures say that they were responsible for them and that they mirror some of their deities,especially the warlike ones.
One thing can be said, that they came broadly from the Middle East/Eastern countries and not the West.
The Tarot travelled over the next few centuries via the Silk Route to Europe and the next place that they appear in is Bredfeld,Switzerland where it is documented that Brother Johannes described decorated cards that he could use to describe the societys strata of the day and also use as a social control tool to keep people in their roles. The suit of Cups were meant to depict the Church, Swords described the aristocracy, Coins (Pentacles) represented Merchants and Rods ( Wands) depicted the lowest social group of peasants( Sharman-Burke,2007). Tarot was definitely in Italy during the Mid 15th Century as cards from that era were found. Eventually, Tarot was found in France and then other countries including England.

Tarot decks had arrived in Switzerland in 1377. When Tarot appeared in Italy it was called Tarocco, and was a card game played by the nobles of Italy. The game was centred on 'trick taking' and scored on the number of points allotted to the cards in the hand of cards played. The deck comprised 21 Trumps, a card with no number (the Fool) and 4 suits (swords,cups,batons and coins) with 10 pip cards and 4 court cards each ( Economic Expert , 2010). The families who are known to have played Tarocco were the Viscontis of Milan. They played with a deck decorated by the artist Bonifacio Bembo, where the Bembo deck originated from and the earliest example of this deck was traced back to 1450 AD ( Soraya, 2007). However,there are those who believe that Francesco Zavattari who was the artist behind the Bembo Tarot deck ( Sharman-Burke,2007). The Visconti-Sforza Tarot deck was also available in the mid 15th Century.
At this time the Tarot deck comprised 78 cards in total made up of 56 Minor Arcana, and 22 Major Arcana. The Minor Arcana had four different suits, comprising Pip cards and court cards. The decoration on these cards were symbolic of the Minor Trumps and were the Pentacles, the Cups, the Wands and the Swords. The pentacles were sometimes Coins and the suit of Wands were also depicted as rods or staves.
The French called Tarocco 'Tarot' and was widely popular at times. Antoine Court de Gebelin, a clergyman, had a theory that the symbols resembled heiroglyphs created for the Book of Thoth. Thoth, an Eygptian god, had a Book of the Dead. The title for this book was the 'Book of going forth by day' which was filled with all the information a deceased Egyptian would need to know when encountering the afterlife in the form of spells( Leeming,2002) . These spells arose in the New Kingdom era of Egypt from 1580 BC where an artistic movement was in vogue under Thutmose I,II and III and especially with the reign of Amenhotep III (1417-1366 BC) (Leeming,2002) who was the grandfather of Tutankhamen (whose granite head has just been unearthed). Amenhotep III was the man behind the creation of the city of Thebes, Luxor Temple and the pylon at Karnak and colossi of Memmon(Chambers Biographical Dictionary,2002,MacGovern).
In Eygpt, priests used to determine the future by interpreting the pattern made by rods which were thrown to the ground. Gebelin believed that the priests put these interpretations on paper to make a portable set of rods in the form of a deck of cards. This was similar to the Chinese practice of throwing yarrow stalks as a divination tool ( Leeming,2002). Gebelins theory suggested that Gypsies originating from Eygpt brought the Tarot deck with them to Europe( Sharman-Burke,2007 ).

References to Tarot and Tarot linked symbolism can be found in King Lear by Shakespeare. King Lear was written in 1605-6 therefore it was possible that William Shakespeare had encountered Tarot cards when mixing with fashionable society in London.
One quote is 'The wheel has come full circle' spoken by Edmond in the play King Lear and refers to the Wheel of Fortune.
The poet WB Yeats(1865-1939) the Nobel Prize winner for Literature formed a 'Dublin Hermetic Society' in 1885. He researched Irish folk tales and fairy mythology and had an interest in psychical research. These influences prompted him to write 'Wild Swans at Coole' and 'A Vision' and he also designed pictures for a Tarot deck( Oxford Biographical Dictionary,2002, MacGovern).
Sylvia Plath was influenced by spirituality and Tarot and wrote Ariel. Her husband Ted Hughes was also noted as being extremely interested in the occult and spirituality in his biography by E Feinstien( 2001). The artist Salvador Dali also created pictures for a Tarot deck.

The Tarot deck has evolved into a 78 card pack. The deck is divided into the 22 cards of the Major Arcana numbered 0 to 21 and the 56 Minor Arcana cards. The Minor Arcana is divided into 4 suits with 10 pip cards and 4 Court cards in each. The Court cards have a King and Queen and then a knight and knave or variations of these two positions( Prince, Princess,Page etc) according to which Tarot deck you have.
The symbols on the Tarot deck are those of Swords, Wands (staves, or batons), Cups and Pentacles ( or coins). Originally, each symbol could have represented the nobility, the peasantry, the religious orders and merchants. Jung believed that archetypes of people could be found in Tarot cards(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot), which is interesting as in some spreads ( orders of cards lain out for readings) use significators which make a best-fit between the querant and the relevant card ( eg young fair woman, page or princess of cups).
The suits each have links with different elements. Swords have a link with the element of Air and has an intellectual link and the colours around this suit are golds and yellows. Wands are linked to the element of Fire and things of an instinctive, intuitive nature and with reds and russet colours. Cups are a suit connected with the element of Water and blue colours and is a suit connected with emotions. Pentacles are an earth bound symbol with greens and browns connected with the element of Earth and with endeavour rewarded.
The decoration on the cards can be highly ornate, or themed or quite plain.It really is a matter of personal taste. Some say that you should have your Tarot deck bought as a gift for you, others, that you should choose your deck. I feel that choosing my Tarot Deck is personal to me and I instinctively knew that my cards suited me.
For readings, traditional layouts of the Tarot cards have been used and many, many variations have arisen. They vary from using one card, to the simple 3 card spread and more complex spreads such as the Celtic Cross and the Horoscope spread. From the position of a particular card the reader may make their interpretation of the Tarot cards for the querant ( questioner), which makes it a subjective tool to use.

Tarot cards have been in and out of fashion and popularity since their emergence. The symbols on the Major Arcana of the Devil and the Tower in the Visconti-Sforza deck were removed possibly intentionally as they may have inferred meanings that were not popular. In the 18th and 19th century groups and their individuals such as Court de Gebelin and Crowley had intimated occult use of the Tarot .
During the 19th Century an 'Hermetic order of the Golden Dawn' was founded which further popularised the Tarot. Aleister Crowley(1875-1947) a Cambridge graduate was a member of the order but was expelled for 'extreme practises'. He formed his own order the 'Silver Star' and lived for a while in Sicily. He was then expelled from Italy after a scandal involving drugs,orgies and rumours of baby sacrifices. His notoriety from a newspaper article in 1921 which called him a 'great beast' pleased him and there appeared to be an air of ill luck for those around him ( Oxford Biographical Dictionary,2002,MacGovern). He designed a Tarot deck and this linked Tarot with the occult further to the public. Occult has its origins in occultus, the latin for hidden( www.religioustolerance.org/occult1.htm) and has a loose definition as a practice involving the esoteric, the supernatural and gifts in excess of the five senses given to us.
A popular Tarot deck was the Tarot de Marseilles. Alphonse Louis Constant expanded further on this theory and came up with the popular Rider-Waite deck. Waite designed his Tarot deck in 1910
At present , the New Age movement has ushered in a feeling of open mindedness and some people have become interested in exploring their surroundings and have become open to alternative thinking or lifestyles. This may have contributed to making practices such as Tarot cards and readings popular again.

The author works as a Tarot card reader at http://www.emailtarotreadingbyjulie.co.uk
and blogs at http://julietarot.blogspot.com

http://www.articlesbase.com/tarot-articles/what-benefits-could-a-tarot-reading-provide-1815235.html
www.Economic Expert.com,Tarocchi,2010.
http://www.emailtarotreadingbyjulie.co.uk/page2.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot
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Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 2002,Ed;U MacGovern,Chambers,Edinburgh
Tarot,2007, Soraya,Geddes and Grosset,New Lanark
Ted Hughes,The life of a poet, 2001, E Feinstein, Norton and co;London
The Oxford Companion to World Mythology,2005,D Leeming,Oxford University Press, Oxford.
The new complete book of Tarot, 2007, J Sharman-Burke,Connections Book Publishing,London.
Three packs of Italian Tarocco cards, Count Emiliano di Parravicino, 1903, The Burlington.