The 22 Major Cards in Tarot

Anyone who has a smattering of knowledge about the Tarot has heard of the Major cards or Major Arcana as some people prefer to call them. But what are they? The major cards are 22 archetypal symbols which relate to human nature. Mankind has become aware of these absolute truths in every culture throughout history.

Confessions Of A Tarot Card Skeptic

by Bob Olson

I must confess that I as I sit here and write, I can’t help but to ask myself, “What has become of my life?” Life used to be so simple and predictable. I knew what was real and what was fantasy. I knew what to believe and what not to believe. And I was smart enough not to be fooled by charlatans and schemers claiming to have abilities of supernatural design. Of course, they were all phonies in my mind, so it was easy to protect myself from their frauds.

Intro to divination

The word divination is based on a Latin word that means "the faculty of foreseeing." Through the art of 
divination, practitioners seek to discover the divine meaning behind "chance" events.

Divination can open up the mind to the wonders of the spiritual world and the unseen forces at work in the 
shadows of the visible universe. 

Tarot famous people

Antoine Court de Gebelen (1725-84) De Gebelen was a member of a secret society of occultists, and was greatly influenced by Egyptian thought. The story is that he saw the game of tarocchi being played and saw in the cards a vast amount of symbolism which he attributed to ancient Egyptian lore. The deck he saw at the time was the Marseilles type, which had evolved and changed from the Visconti-Sforza deck. It is thought that the changes in the cards occurred when members of a secret society put occult symbols and artwork into the cards. De Geblen didn't realize that the cards he saw weren't the original cards, and so when he wrote his treatise, "Le Monde Primitif", which was the start of written works about the secret meanings of tarot cards, he was writing about the modified tarot. It is from his treatise that all the common misconceptions relating the tarot to Egypt stem from.

Tarot History

The Tarot has a fragmented history that intrigues historians, scholars, hobbyists, and spiritualists alike. Drawing on the concrete facts that are available, we will attempt to briefly explain the origins of the Tarot, and trace some of its milestones through the centuries.

The designs of the 22 cards in the Major Arcana can be traced back as far as 1440, when the first known deck appeared in Italy. The 3 decks called the "Visconti Trumps" are generally regarded as the "forefathers" of the decks that are widely available today. It is believed that they were originally created as a game for Nobles. It is not until centuries later that the cards reemerged, this time as a tool of divination. In the latter half of the 15th century, the cardmakers in Marseilles, France began to standardize the Trumps. Before this organized production, those who played the Trumps could dictate which they wanted to include, and which they wanted substituted or eliminated. Certain cards; Death, the Devil, and the Tower in particular; were considered offensive by the more conservative Nobles. These images caused religious leaders to attempt to ban the Trumps.