What is the history of the Tarot?
No-one knows the ‘true’ origin of the Tarot. The most common myth is that it was brought to Europe by the Gypsies – but this myth come from the fact that very early occultists who used the Tarot fancied that it came from Egypt. They were as wrong about that as they were about the homeland of the Gypsies. In fact, the Tarot came to Europe about the same time as any other form of playing card, in the early/mid 1300’s. It is most closely related to the ‘Mamluk’ deck of the Islamic world, which had suits cups, coins, swords, and polo-sticks. The Tarot was originally used for a game called ‘tarocchi’ in Italy, which is sort of a distant cousin to Bridge. Tarocchi is still played in some parts of the world, not usually with the same decks the ‘fortune tellers’ use. The game was quite popular for a time among the royalty in Italy, and sometimes a duke would commision an artist to create a really nice deck. Some of the earliest surviving Tarot decks come from this source. Plainer decks existed
