Victorian Skeptics

Tarot

...interesting to note...

 People are often suprised to learn that Tarot cards were originally invented
 for playing games, that such games are still widespread and popular in
 continental Europe, and that the employment of tarots for divination and
 fortune-telling is a relatively recent perversion of their proper use, dating
 only from the eighteenth century.

"(The Penguin Encyclopedia of Card Games, by David Parlett)"

Modern decks of playing cards are a simplification of the old Tarot decks. Despite having less of the mystique of Tarot cards, the modern deck is also used for fortune telling.

It appears that the familiar "Major Arcana" picture cards such as "Death", "The Hanged Man", "The Hermit" etc, were originally not so dramatic, and merely displayed scenes from everyday life, or in some cases the Easter festival. Special Tarot decks used in certain Italian card games still follow this tradition.

If you're a fan of card games like I am, you'll most likely be familiar with the family of "trick" (round) based games such as 'Euchre', 'Solo', 'Five Hundred', 'Hearts', 'Up-and-Down-The-River' etc. Most of these games have the concept of "trumps", one of the four suits (changed each game), that has the power to beat ("trump") all the other suits. This system was devised at the time when the ornate "Major Arcana" picture cards were removed from the Tarot deck to form the modern deck. In many Tarot games it had been these cards that were always the winning "trumps", which in Italian is "tarocchi", from which we get the word "tarot".

The original religious opposition to Tarot cards appears not to have been based on any occult use, but rather part of a ban on gambling.

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Victorian Skeptics
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