TL;DR: Tarot originated as a recreational card game among Italian nobility in the 15th century, and only about 300 years later was it associated with divination and esotericism in Europe, starting in France with Court de Gébelin and Etteilla around 1780.
The real history of Tarot: from a 15th-century Italian card game to an esoteric tool
What is the true origin of Tarot cards?
Many people believe that Tarot originated in ancient Egypt or in the ancient secret arts of the East. According to a popular myth, the deck is the "book of Thoth" left over from Egyptian civilisation . However, this is a misconception with no verifiable historical evidence. The card historian Michael Dummett, in The Game of Tarot (1980), points out that the Tarot deck came into being in northern Italy in the 15th century as a card game, and was only given a mystical origin from the late 18th century. Ronald Decker, Thierry Depaulis and Michael Dummett, in A Wicked Pack of Cards (1996), show that the transformation of Tarot into an esoteric tool took place in France, beginning with Court de Gébelin and Etteilla around 1780, then continuing through Éliphas Lévi. Helen Farley, in A Cultural History of Tarot (2009), describes the next stage: from a playing deck of the Italian nobility to a tool of divination and personal development in the 20th century.
The myth that Tarot is the Egyptian "book of Thoth" began with Antoine Court de Gébelin, with the essay "Du jeu des tarots" in volume 8 of Monde primitif (1781). This is the original text of the myth: it only proves that Court de Gébelin wrote such a thing, not that Tarot really has Egyptian roots. Decker, Depaulis and Dummett (1996) point out that this myth has no basis.
The oldest Tarot deck still preserved today is the Visconti-Sforza deck, elaborately hand-painted for the noble Visconti and Sforza families in Milan around 1440-1450. This was not a divination tool, but a deck used to play a card game with rules similar to bridge today, favoured by the European nobility at parties and entertainments.
The original structure of Tarot consists of 78 cards, divided into two parts: 56 cards in four suits (Minor Arcana) identical to an ordinary Western deck (Cups, Swords, Wands, Coins, corresponding to Hearts, Spades, Clubs, Diamonds later), and 22 special cards belonging to no suit, called "trionfi", the predecessor of today's Major Arcana. These special cards carry symbolic images such as the King, the Pope, the Wheel of Fortune, Death, reflecting the philosophy and religion of the Renaissance.
The main milestones in the history of Tarot from the 15th century to the present.
| Time | Event | Place | Related figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| Around the middle of the 15th century | The Tarot deck came into being under the original names tarocchi or trionfi | Northern Italy | |
| Around 1440-1450 | The oldest surviving Tarot deck is Visconti-Sforza, hand-painted for a noble family | Milan | The Visconti and Sforza families |
| 1781 | A work claiming that Tarot contains the esoteric wisdom of ancient Egypt was published | France | Antoine Court de Gébelin |
| Late 18th century | The first Tarot deck used specifically for divination and a guidebook for spreads were published | France | Jean-Baptiste Alliette (Etteilla) |
| 19th century | The Tarot symbol system was developed, tied to astrology and Kabbalah | England | Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn |
| 1909 | The Rider-Waite-Smith deck was published | England | Arthur Edward Waite, Pamela Colman Smith, the publisher Rider |
How did it go from an entertainment game to an esoteric tool?
For more than 300 years after its creation, Tarot was simply a popular card game in Italy, France and a number of other European countries, entirely unrelated to divination or spirituality. The great turning point came in 1781, when the French scholar Antoine Court de Gébelin published a work claiming that Tarot contained the esoteric wisdom of ancient Egypt, even though he had no archaeological or textual evidence to prove it. This hypothesis, though long rejected by historians, spread widely and shaped how Tarot was viewed for the next two centuries. According to Decker, Depaulis and Dummett (A Wicked Pack of Cards, 1996), it was precisely the period from Court de Gébelin and Etteilla around 1780 to Éliphas Lévi in France that Tarot was transformed into an esoteric tool.
After that, the French esotericist Jean-Baptiste Alliette (also known as Etteilla) was the first to design a Tarot deck used specifically for divination and to publish a guidebook on how to lay out spreads in the late 18th century. In the 19th century, esoteric secret societies in England such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn continued to develop the Tarot symbol system, linking it with astrology, Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) and other Western philosophical schools.
What is the significance of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck?
The greatest influence on the image of Tarot as we know it today comes from the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, published in 1909 in England. This deck was a collaboration between the esotericist Arthur Edward Waite and the artist Pamela Colman Smith, issued by the publisher Rider.
The breakthrough of this deck is that Pamela Colman Smith drew full illustrations for all 56 Minor Arcana cards with vivid narrative images, instead of merely drawing the simple number of suit symbols as in earlier decks. Thanks to this, beginners can interpret the meaning of a card based on visual images without having to memorise hundreds of rules. Precisely because of this accessibility, Rider-Waite-Smith has become the most popular Tarot deck in the world and the foundation for most modern decks since, including those redesigned in contemporary artistic styles.
Tarot in modern life
Today, Tarot is used more diversely than ever: as a tool for inner reflection and personal development, as a means of divination for entertainment and reference, and also as an artistic subject explored creatively by many artists. Although views differ, understanding its history correctly, from an Italian noble card game to a global esoteric symbol, helps Tarot practitioners appreciate more deeply the cultural depth of this deck.
Overview article on the topic: Tarot Basics: The 78 Cards and the Meaning of the Major/Minor Arcana Groups
