I will not be going into a detailed history of the tarot here, it is not that important. However, for those of you who still wonder, I quote Joan Bunning.
"The origin of the tarot is a mystery. We do know for sure that the cards were used in Italy in the fifteenth century as a popular card game. Wealthy patrons commissioned beautiful decks, some of which have survived. The Visconti-Sforza, created in 1450 or shortly thereafter, is one of the earliest and most complete.
Later in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the cards were discovered by a number of influential scholars of the occult. These gentlemen were fascinated by the tarot and recognized that the images on the cards were more powerful that a simple game would suggest. They revealed (or created!) the "true"history of the tarot by connecting the cards to Egyptian mysteries, Hermic philosophy, the Kabbalah, alchemy, and other mystical systems. These pursuits continued into the early part of the twentieth century when the tarot was incorporated into the practices of several secret societies, including the Order of the Golden Dawn.
Although the roots of the tarot are in the occult tradition, interest in the cards has expanded in the last few decades to include many perspectives. New decks have been created that reflect these interests. There are Native American, herbal, mythological, and Japanese decks, among others.
The tarot is most commonly viewed as a tool for divination. A traditional tarot reading involves a seeker - someone who is looking for answers to personal questions - and a reader - someone who knows how to interpret the cards. After the seeker has shuffled the cards and cut the deck, the reader lays out the chosen cards in a pattern called spread. Each position in a spread has a meaning, and each card has a meaning as well. The reader combines the two meanings to shed light on the seeker's question.
A simple process, but rarely presented in a simple way. In films, we always see the tarot being used in a seedy parlor or back room. An old woman, seated in shadows, reads the cards for a nervous, young girl. The crone lifts her wrinkled finger and drops it ominously on the Death card. The girl draws back, frightened by this sign of her impending doom.
This aura of darkness clings to the tarot even now. Some religions shun the cards, and the scientific establishment condemns them as symbols of unreasoning, a holdover from an unenlightened past. Let us set aside these shadowy images for now and consider the tarot for what it is - the deck of picture cards. The question becomes, what can we do with them?
The answer lies with the unconscious - that deep level of memory and awareness that resides within each of us, but outside our everyday experience. Even though we ignore the action of the unconscious most of the time, it profoundly affects everything we do. In his writing, Sigmund Freud stresses the irrational, primitive aspect of the unconscious. He thought it was the home of our most unacceptable desires and urges. His contemporary Carl Jung emphasized the positive, creative aspects of the unconscious. He tried to show that it has a collective component that touches universal qualities.
We may never know the full range and power of the unconscious, but there are ways to explore its landscape. Many techniques have been developed for this purpose - psychotherapy, dream interpretation, visualization, and meditation. The tarot is another such tool...
... Projection is one reason why the tarot cards are valuable. Their intriguing pictures and patterns are effective in tapping the unconscious. This is the personal aspect of the tarot, but the cards also have the collective component. As humans, we all have certain common needs and experiences. The images on the tarot cards capture these universal moments and draw them out consistently. People tend to react to the cards in similar ways because they represent archetypes. Over many centuries, the tarot has evolved into a collection of the most basic patterns of human thought and emotion...
...Meaning is a mysterious quality that arises at the juncture of inner and outer realities. There is a message in everything - trees, songs, even trash - but only when we are open to perceive it. The tarot cards convey many messages because of the richness of their images and connections. More importantly, tarot readings communicate meaning because we bring to them our sincere desire to discover deeper truths about our lives. By seeking meaning in this way, we honor its reality and give it a chance to be revealed."
Technorati Tags:
tarot origin, tarot meaning, tarot blog, learn tarot
