Tarot Cards: How A Deck of Cards Can Explore Your Mind

Tarot is a type of deck of cards that are popular among the spiritual community. There are 78 unique cards that each have their own meaning. These cards are usually used for self-reflection and to better understand what is going on in your life. Tarot cards weren't always used this way though; their history is quite interesting.

The Origins of Tarot

Tarot cards originated from northern Italy in the 1430s as a parlor game for aristocrats called tarocchi. People would use these cards to play trick-taking games, and the cards were only used for games for about 300 years. The shift occurred in the 18th century, where French intellectuals falsely claimed that the cards held secret ancient wisdoms from Egyptian priests. Because of this, numerology and astrology started to be incorporated into tarot cards, making it not only a game now. In 1909, British occultist A.E. Waite and artist Pamela Colman Smith created the Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) tarot deck, which was specially made for divination and psychological reflection. This deck is the most popular deck used for tarot reading today.

A Basic Guide for Tarot Cards

Tarot cards may seem confusing to use at first, but once you learn what some of the cards mean and how to do a reading, it becomes a fun party trick you can do with your friends.

A deck of tarot cards is split into two sections, Major Arcana and Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana section has 22 cards that represent major life events, overarching themes, and universal archetypes. The Minor Arcana section consists of 56 cards that represent day-to-day manifestation of the archetypes. This section is divided into four suits that each have their own cards, meaning, and element.

• Cups (water): emotions, intuition, relationships

• Swords (air): mind, communication, intellect, conflict

• Wands (fire): inspiration, passion, action

• Pentacles (earth): material wealth, work, the body, home

To do a reading, the cards should be well shuffled first. Cards are usually drawn from whoever is receiving the reading, picking cards that they are drawn to without seeing what is on it. These cards are then arranged into a layout called a spread. There are many different types of spreads based on what your reading is about (a relationship, big decisions, etc.). The cards are then flipped over to reveal its meaning. The meaning of card depends on if the card is upright or upside down. Each card's meaning comes together to create one message based on what you wanted to reflect on.

Since there are many cards in a tarot deck, it can be difficult to memorize each meaning of every card. There are many resources online that dive deep into what each card means to help with your readings, but here are the meanings of a few cards.

• The Fool: New beginnings, spontaneity, innocence, and taking a leap of faith.

• The Emperor: Structure, authority, stability, and creating order out of chaos.

• The Lovers: Love, relationships, harmony, and significant moral or emotional choices.

• The Hermit: Introspection, soul-searching, and taking time for solitude.

• Death: Profound transformation, endings, and new beginnings (rarely physical death).

• Justice: Balance, fairness, truth, and taking responsibility for cause and effect.