What is Tarot?
Tarot is shrouded by intrigue and mystery, no one knows quite for sure where the cards-originate. They are a fusion of visual symbols and images, consisting of seventy-eight cards, I interpret the cards, rather like telling a story with an unbound book...I use my psychic gifts to go deeper into the reading.
Influenced by many cultures, they contain a unique symbolism which cannot be traced to one specific culture. Some scholars believe the tarot was based on ‘the holly book of Thoth’ which supposedly belonged to the Egyptian God of wisdom, written by priests. The cards were spread throughout Europe by gypsies.
Royal families in Italy commissioned expensive hand painted decks known as cards of triumph. These cards were marked with suits of cups, swords, coins. decks weren’t designed with mysticism in mind, they were actually meant for playing a game, similar to modern day bridge.
The cards spread from Italy to other parts of Europe. The Rider-Waite tarot deck originally published in 1910 is still today one of the most popular tarot decks in use today. ‘Arthur Edward Waite’ is credited with the renaissance of the tarot in the twentieth century. A.E Waite was a spiritual seeker and mystic. His fascination with the occult scene drew him into membership in the ‘Hermetic order of the Golden dawn’. He commissioned the illustrator ‘Lady Pamela Colman-Smith’, to create what he called the ‘rectified Tarot’ this became the most popular deck of the twentieth century. Pamela was known for her clairvoyant abilities, going onto a trance and channelling drawings whilst listening to music, she created the The-classic images that we know today, they hold a wealth of symbolism a fusion of her channelled creativity and researched knowledge sauced in the British museum, we know this because she lifted some images directly from the fifteenth century ‘Sola Busca’ deck.
Consulting the Tarot awakens our intuitive abilities and leads us on a path of insight and self-discovery. The major arcana (Latin for Big secret) represents a person’s experience through life and periods of time that are significant in their personal journey.
The modern-day tarot deck is made up of seventy-eight cards. The first twenty-two cards are known as the Major Arcana. The fifty-six remaining cards are called the Minor Arcana. The minor arcana corresponds with the elements earth, wind, fire and water. The Tarot is a powerful trans-formative guide, that incorporates Astrology, numerology, colour and symbolism.
