Many things (true, false, and speculative) have been written about the history of the tarot. This sheet addresses some oft-repeated statements about the tarot that may seem like historical fact, but are actually without basis in the evidence presently available. This is not to say that there is no room for speculative or non-factual stories about the tarot. Myths and lore express the human soul and creativity. These myths tell us much about the significance tarot has on an inspirational growth level. They speak an inner truth that is, at times, more personally true than external facts. However, both history and myth may suffer when the two become confused.
The information given here consists mostly of conclusions that recent tarot historians have drawn from studying the evidence of written documents and cards that have come down to us. Other interpretations might be drawn from the same body of evidence. Readers interested in examining the evidence for themselves and drawing their own conclusions are directed to the references listed at the end of this sheet for useful starting places. Readers should also be aware of the limitations of relying on documentary evidence alone. Although written records are our most reliable contact with centuries past, they do not preserve everything that people thought or did, especially pertaining to an aspect of popular culture, such as the tarot.
The information on this sheet may be freely used, although direct quotations must be credited and an acknowledgement would be appreciated if you found this sheet especially useful. Permission is granted to photocopy for educational, nonprofit uses.
The time and place of the origin of the tarot
Inaccurate: The tarot comes from Egypt; India; China; Fez, Morocco; the Sufis; the Cathars; Jewish Kabbalists or Moses; or the origin of the tarot is unknown.
Current Historical Understanding: The tarot originated in northern Italy early in the 15th century (1420-1440). There is no evidence for it originating in any other time or place. The earliest extant cards are lavish hand-painted decks from the courts of the nobility.]
The origin of the word "tarot"
Inaccurate: The word is Egyptian, Hebrew, or Latin; it is an anagram; it holds the key to the mystery of the cards.
Current Historical Understanding: The earliest names for the tarot are all Italian. Originally the cards were called carte da trionfi (cards of the triumphs). Around 1530 (about 100 years after the origin of the cards), the word tarocchi (singular tarocco) begins to be used to distinguish them from a new game of triumphs or trumps then being played with ordinary playing cards. The etymology of this new word is not known. The German form is tarock, the French form is tarot. Even if the etymology were known, it would probably not tell us much about the idea behind the cards, since it only came into use 100 years after they first appeared.
The cultural source of the tarot symbols
Inaccurate: The symbolism of the trumps comes from Egypt (or India, or other exotic locale).
Current Historical Understanding: The symbolism of the trumps is drawn from the culture of Medieval and Renaissance Europe. Most tarot subjects are distinctive to European Christendom. Illustrations virtually identical to each of the tarot subjects can be found in European art, and such precise analogs are not found in other cultures.
Relationship between tarot and ordinary playing cards
Inaccurate: The 52-card deck evolved from the tarot, leaving the Joker as the only remnant of the major arcana.
Current Historical Understanding: Playing cards came to Europe from Islam, probably via Muslim Spain, about 50 years before the development of tarot. They appeared quite suddenly in many different European cities between 1375 and 1378. European playing cards were an adaptation of the Islamic Mamluk cards. These early cards had suits of cups, swords, coins, and polo sticks (seen by Europeans as staves), and courts consisting of a king and two male underlings. The tarot adds the Fool, the trumps, and a set of queens to this system. Some time before 1480, the French introduced cards with the now-familiar suits of hearts, clubs, spades, and diamonds. The earlier suits are still preserved in the tarot and in Italian and Spanish playing cards.
The Joker originated in the United States around 1857, used as a wild card in poker and as the highest trump in Euchre. It appears to have no direct relationship to the Fool of the tarot.
The "Charles VI" or "Gringonneur" tarot cards
Inaccurate: The tarot was invented to amuse Charles VI of France in 1392, as evidenced by a deck by Gringonneur in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris.
Current Historical Understanding: It is recorded that in 1392, Jacquemin Gringonneur was paid to paint three decks of cards for Charles VI. These were probably playing cards, not tarot. The deck in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France is a late-15th century hand-painted deck of the Northern Italian type (probably from Venice or Ferrara).
Tarot and the Hebrew Alphabet
Inaccurate: Eliphas Lévi (c. 1850) was the first to ascribe Hebrew letters to the tarot.
Current Historical Understanding: The Comte de Mellet, whose short article on the tarot was published in Court de Gébelin's Le Monde Primitif (1781), was the first to write of a connection between the Hebrew letters and the cards. Court de Gébelin also mentioned the idea in passing in his own essay.
Tarot censored by the church
Inaccurate: The Catholic and Protestant churches outlawed tarot and all who used it in an effort to stamp out either heretical teachings or a work of the Devil.
Current Historical Understanding: The Inquisition documented in considerable detail what the church regarded as evidence of heresy and the tarot is never mentioned.
Many printers made their living printing both religious cards and playing cards. Playing cards were sometimes restricted or outlawed because of their use in gambling. Tarot cards were, in fact, sometimes explicitly exempted from bans on playing cards, perhaps because of their association with the upper classes. In 1423, playing cards (tarot cards were not mentioned) were among many things thrown on the fires in Bologna by followers of Bernadino of Sienna during an attack against all studies and pastimes not focused on religion.
After the Reformation, the church did object to the cards depicting the Pope and Papess, and cardmakers substituted less controversial images.
Original use of tarot cards
Inaccurate: The tarot was originally used for divination/magic/teaching secret doctrines/etc.
Current Historical Understanding: Written records tell that the tarot was regularly used to play a card game similar to Bridge. The game was popular throughout much of Europe for centuries and is still played today, particularly in France. Early poets also used the titles of the trump cards to create flattering verses, called tarocchi appropriati, describing ladies of the court or famous personages. Although it is possible that tarot cards might also have been sometimes used for other purposes, there is no clear evidence of such use until long after the cards were invented. Records from a trial in Venice in 1589 suggest that tarot may have been associated with witchcraft (at least in the minds of the accusers) at this date, about 150 years after the appearance of the tarot. After this, there are no references connecting tarot with magic or divination until the 18th century. (See also next three questions.)
Topic: Tarot and divination
Inaccurate: Tarot was not used for divination before Etteilla and Court de Gébelin around 1781.
Current Historical Understanding: There is evidence of such use, but it is fragmentary and suggestive rather than conclusive. Tarot was used as early as the 16th century to compose poems describing personality characteristics (tarocchi appropriati). In one case (1527), the verses are presented as relating to the person's fate. There are records of divinatory meanings assigned to tarot cards in Bologna early in the 1700s. This is the first unambiguous evidence of tarot divination as it is commonly understood. However, it is known that ordinary playing cards were connected with divination as early as 1487, so it is reasonable to conjecture that tarot was also. From the 1790s with Etteilla's deck we find tarot design being modified specifically to reflect divinatory and esoteric meanings.
Occult philosophy and the original design of the tarot
Inaccurate: There are no hermetic, heretical, or kabbalistic characteristics in the original tarot.
Current Historical Understanding: This topic is still open. The early Italian Renaissance, which gave birth to the tarot, was a time of great intellectual diversity and activity. Hermeticism, astrology, Neoplatonism, Pythagorean philosophy with roots in Alexandrian Egypt, and heterodox Christian thought all thrived. Any or all of these may have left their mark on the design of the tarot. Although it should be remembered that all of the symbolism of the tarot has close analogs in the conventional Christian culture of the time, many scholars today believe that these philosophies, which are foundations of occultism, were important in the design of the tarot.
Tarot and the western esoteric tradition
Inaccurate: The tarot has always been a pillar of the western esoteric tradition.
Current Historical Understanding: The first occult writers to discuss the tarot were Court de Gébelin and the Comte de Mellet in 1781. For the first 350 years of its history, the tarot was not mentioned in any of the many books on occult or magical philosophy. Following 1781, occult interest in tarot blossomed and the tarot then became an integral part of occult philosophy.
Astrological, elemental, and kabbalistic correspondences
Inaccurate: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (or Eliphas Lévi, Papus, Zain, Case, etc.) knew the true astrological, elemental, and Kabbalistic correspondences to the Tarot and corrected previous errors.
Current Historical Understanding: There are many, many systems of correspondences for the tarot. None can be shown to go back to the tarot's origins, although the French tradition exemplified in the works of Eliphas Lévi predates the English tradition now familiar through the works of Waite and Crowley. Most sets of correspondences have a rationale and system that make them meaningful and useful when studied within their own tradition. Correspondences are a matter of individual choice and of intention or adherence to a school of thought rather than right or wrong.
The Waite-Smith Tarot
Inaccurate: The Waite-Smith (or "Rider Waite") Tarot is the original, standard, or most authentic tarot.
Current Historical Understanding: The Waite-Smith deck was created in 1909, making it a relative newcomer in the almost-600-year history of the tarot. A. E. Waite was a prominent member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The deck owes much of its symbolism to that group and represents a departure from the earlier French tradition. The artist, Pamela Colman Smith, contributed her own vision, especially in the innovative creation of fully illustrated scenes for the minor arcana. For many years, the Waite-Smith deck was the only one readily available in the US, so it became familiar to whole generations of tarot readers. There is actually no "definitive" version of the tarot.
The well-known Celtic Cross spread, publicized by Waite as "an ancient Celtic method of divination" is also relatively recent, although it was not invented by Waite.
Some things to be careful of when writing about tarot history
The terms "major arcana", "minor arcana", "High Priestess", and "Hierophant" are anachronistic when referring to the older tarot decks. The historically appropriate terms are "the trumps and the Fool" (the Fool was not usually regarded as a trump), "the suit cards", "Papess" or "Popess", and "Pope". Likewise "pentacles" and "wands" are relatively recent substitutions for the traditional suit names of "coins" and "staves" or "batons".
The original Italian titles of the cards were in some cases different from the later French titles (and their English translations) that have become familiar to us through the Tarot de Marseille and its descendants. Also, the ordering of the trumps varied considerably in Italy where the cards originated; it is not known which ordering is the earliest one. Even the number of cards in the deck varied a great deal! So care should be used in making statements about the original meaning of the cards based on the familiar titles and ordering.
The intention of the original designer(s) of the tarot in selecting the symbols for the trump cards is unknown, although there are many conjectures, some more plausible than others. Writers should avoid giving the impression that the intention is known or obvious.
