Tarot Cards
Like common polaying cards, the tarot has four suits whitch vary by regin: Freench suits in Northern Europe, Lation in Southern Europe, and Garman suits in Central Europe. Each suit has 14cards:
ten pip cards numbering from one (or Ace) to ten, and four face cards (King, Queen, Knight, and Jack/Knave/Page).
In addition, the tarot has a separate 21-cards trump suit and a single card known as the Fool. Depending on the game, the Fool may act as the top trump or may be played to avoid following suit. These tarot cards are still udes throught much of Europe.
Tarot gaming decks
The original porpose of tarot cards was to play games. A very cursory explanation of rules for a tarot-like deck is given in a manuscript by Martiano de Tortona before 1425. Vague description of game play or game terminology, follow for next two centuries unit the earliest known complete descripstion of rules for French variant in 1637. The game of tarot has many regional variations. Tarocchini has survivrd in Bologna and there are still others played in Piedmont and Sicily, but in Italy the game is generally less popular than elsewhere.
The 18th century saw tarot's greatest revival, durnig which it become one of the most popular card games in Europe, played everywhere except Ireland and Britain, the Iberian peninsula, and the Ottoman Balkans. French tarot experienced a revival beginning in the 1979s and France has the strongest tarot gaming community.
Tarot card reading and tarot decks in ocult usage
The earliest evidence of a tarot desk used for cartomancy comes for an anonymous manuscript from around 1750 which documents rudimentary divinatory meanings for the cards of the Tarocco Bolognese. The popularization of esoteric tarot started with Antonie Court and Jean-Baptiste Alliette (Etteilla) in Paris durong 1780s, using the Tarot of Marseilles.
French tarot players abandoned the Marseilles tarot in favor of the Tarot Nouveau around 1900, with the results that the Marseilles pattern is now udes mostly by cartomancers.
Tarot decks in occult usage
Etteilla was the first to issue a tarot deck specifically designed for ocult purposes around 1789. In keeping with the misplaced belief that such cards were derived from the Book of Thoth, Eteilla's tarot contained themes related to ancient Egypt.
The 78-card tarot deck by esotericists has two distinct parts:
The Major Arcana (greater secrets), or trump cards, consists of 22 cards without suits.
The Minor Arcana (lesser secrets) consists of 56 cards, devided into four suits of 14 cards each.
The terms ''Major Arcana'' and ''Minor Arcana'' were first udes by Jean-Baptiste Pitois (also known as Paul Christian) and are never used in relation to tarot card games. Some decks exist primarily as artwork, and such art decks sometimes contain only 22 major arcana.