Some historians trace the history of tarot back to ancient Egypt or the Kabbalah. The cards were considered to be the hieroglyphical keys to life. However, but there is no documented evidence of the usage of tarot for divination before the 18th century.
Other theories date tarot to sometime between 1420 and 1440 in Northern Italy as a story telling game. French occultists saw that there was more to the story and starting giving the cards more of a mystical significance.
Today, the most common deck used in the English speaking world is the Waite Rider deck, originally published in 1910. The cards were painted by Pamela Coleman Smith. The deck has 78 cards. 22 cards in the Major Arcana which represent the soul, 56 Minor Arcana cards divided into 4 suits and representing the trials and tribulations that we experience on a daily basis.
Some believe that tarot cards can tell the future or predict the unknown.
I think the cards are meant to reveal things to us about ourselves to help us learn and grow to reach our highest and best self. Tarot is meant to help you connect with your spirit guides and receive messages from the universe. Reading cards can make you look at a situation differently and open your mind to new ways of thinking.
