Throughout time, men and women have looked to find meaning in and guidance for their lives. For over 500 years, tarot cards have provided one of the many ways to seek that guidance. With the seventy-eight card deck, people have been able to reach beyond the restrictions of conventional thought and tap into the help available to them from their own inner minds, via the cards.
The various pictures of the tarot reveal potential paths for people to follow that will clarify decisions or offer new insights while traveling down the road of life.
The earlist recorded history of tarot cards apeared in northern Italy sometime between 1420 and 1440. Current tarot historians have discovered (and documented) that many of the romantic theories behind the tarot--that they were handed down from ancient Egypt, or from the Gipsies (Gypsies), for example--are just that: romantic theories, not based in fact or reality.
Knowing these new facts does not remove the magic of the cards, it simply gives us a firmer footing in reality.
Recently, historically speaking, a connection has been made between the tarot and the Hebrew alphabet, first mentioned in 1781 by Court de Gebelin.
Wikipedia has made connections to ancient Arabic and other regions of origin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot
References: Your guide to the Tarot by Janet Berres, Wikipedia, Origins of the Tarot.
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Comments: 32
As to reversed, yes I see great value in them. The world isn't all light and happiness, and reversed card spell out where the obstacles are. And in the round cards, I've learned to interpret tilted to the left as indicating the passive acceptance of the energy symbolized by the card, and tilting right as the ative pursuit of the energy indicated. But that's just me and how I look at the world.
And, to be educated more on the subject is wonderful to me.
But then, since I'm holding a tarot card in my photograph, I'm rather biased, aren't I?
Your own tarot, how ambitious! I can see how the job can become tedious after the Major Arcana were done!
interesting, to use the tarot for inspiration for writing, I shall have a go!