Tarot cards have a relatively uncertain origin, documents regarding their existence date back to the 13th century and we know that by the 15th century they were already widespread throughout most of Europe as cards used both in games and divination, at which time these cards were also called Trionfi (Trumps or Triumphs). Many decks were produced in the Renaissance period under commission from certain aristocratic families. In these cases, the members of the family themselves were often depicted through religious allegories or with references to Greco-Roman mythology.
A Tarot deck is normally composed of 78 cards: 22 Major Arcana, or Triumphs, often with Roman numerals and a Name, and 56 Minor Arcana, or Court Cards and Numerals, marked with Arabic numerals and subdivided into the four suits of Wands, Denarii, Cups and Swords from which the suits of contemporary playing cards are derived. In English each suit has received a few alternative terms, Wands may be called sometimes Batons, Staves or Clubs, for example, Denarii are also referred to as Coins, Rings, Pentacles or Disks, and the suit of Cups may be named Vessels, Goblets or Chalices, while Swords have also been called Blades. Each suit of the Minor Arcana is often associated with a caste or social class, a human faculty or sphere and an element. The Wands represented craftsmen, creativity and will, and fire; the Denarii were associated with merchants, the physical body and material possessions, and the earth; the Cups were the clergy, emotions and feelings, and water; while the Swords represented the nobility and the military, reason and thought, and the element air.
Tarot cards have seen different uses at different times in history and with the influence of different cultures. Today we tend to associate them mainly with cartomancy: the reading of cards in relation to future events. Not always is cartomancy proposed as a form of divination or interpretation of a specific upcoming future, there are contexts in which the message of the cards is considered more like a suggestion or advice that the querent may freely choose to heed. There are also situations in which the reading aims to be a glimpse of possible futures according to the current state of things, according to the current position of the querent. To better understand this type of dynamic with the cards, try to imagine the querent as a chess piece in the middle of a game: depending on its current position, and thus also on the position of the other surrounding pieces at that instant, the querent has multiple potential moves, multiple potential futures yet to be realized, until a decision is made, action is taken and the turn is concluded. In each turn, the possibilities will vary, either because the chess piece in question has moved or because the surrounding pieces have changed place.
Today there is another type of Tarot use that I feel it is important to mention here and which has more recent origins: tarology, Tarología in Spanish, coined by Chilean artist and author Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky. In this case, the cards are used as a medium of inner exploration and self-awareness of the querent, rather than knowledge regarding external events. One observes the reactions that the querent has in relation to specific cards, their archetypal iconography, from psycho-emotional aspects to physical sensations. In such a context, the tarot becomes a potentially therapeutic tool of self-knowledge and awareness.
There are many decks with different styles that refer to varied cultures and imagery, nevertheless, a common symbolism is often preserved. The stroke may change, the colors and other graphic characteristics may vary, some elements of the setting or of the characters themselves may have a different declination in relation to the imagery it refers to, yet some visual common denominators can often be found, visual leitmotifs that probably make up an archetypal and collective symbolic baggage, as well as the basic semantic structure of each card, a sort of kokoro 心 (heart or soul).
There are as many types of decks as there are methods of reading and interpretation. There are those who, following a strong and common tradition, give a different interpretation depending on the direction of the card, so when the card is upright in relation to the reader its more positive characteristics prevail while, when it’s upside down or reversed, the opposite ones prevail, those characteristics that we usually consider negative. There are also those who do not pay too much attention to the direction of the cards and prefer to give priority only to the position and location in relation to the other cards present in the reading, or to the information that emerges at the instant of the reading itself in relation to the querent.
One thing that I consider fundamental to remember: cards, very much like words, like any other symbol, are not positive or negative in nature. Each card conveys a meaning as profound and complex as the emotions and thoughts it may arouse or stimulate, and that inevitably relates to the people and the world around them, like all things in this life.
