Tarot cards exist in hundreds of variations, and each deck usually comes with its own book of interpretation for each of its cards. Understanding the tarot from a historical perspective is suprisingly difficult as our knowledge of the development of tarot is very sparse, although we do know that tarot is very old indeed.
According to some, the tarot is named after the Torah, or law in Hebrew, comprising the first five books of Moses and the Old Testament (as Christians see it). The first five books are the written code of Judaism and to which Greek translators gave the name of pentakeukhos (to be known as the ‘pentateuch’) meaning a collection of five books.
For others, the origin of the word ‘Tarot’ is to be found in the Latin word for wheel, rota.
Finally, others saw a link between the tarot and the book of Thoth, a god of ancient Egypt; the wise, fair and supreme judge of the divine tribunal. He is depicted as a scribe with the head of an ibis.
Whilst its true that the cards of the major arcana of the tarot show similarities to the number and letter correspondences of the Hebrew alphabet, they are not an exact fit with that tradition.
Together the cards symbolise the wheel of life and contain elements of all the cultures and pantheons that they travelled through to reach us today. The tarot is a body of work influenced, but not limited to, the ancient world. As well as this ancient ‘backdrop’, the philosophy of western mysticism found (and often inserted) in its pictures a place where their wisdom could be kept safely from the ravages of the inquisition. Only an initiate would know the exact, inner meanings of these strange pictures. Later this secret (‘arcane’) information was first made public during the late 18th Century from an occult brotherhood called ‘The Golden Dawn’. From this organisation Paul Foster-Case revealed a deck of cards, but it was Arthur Waite who was later to create the definitive modern tarot, the Rider – Waite Deck, also the first to assign pictures to the minor arcana as well as to the major arcana cards.
It is from this foundation that the modern plethora of tarot decks arose, some as direct descendants of the Rider-Waite Deck (especially the highly recommended Universal Tarot) and others that are linked only in format and not in content. When choosing your pack, you should work by the same principals as choosing crystals. Allow the pack to choose you, do not be in a hurry to own a pack. Remember you have to be in tune with the symbols and inner structure that they employ, or you will find great difficulty working with them. Allow you intuitive instincts to work with you; you will know if the pack you choose is right for you, because you will feel it!
Although each pack comes with its own booklet with the author’s interpretation of each card, the interpretations are only guidelines to help you.
To read the cards, don’t just use your eyes, use your feelings too, it’s what you feel you need to say that is important. Use the image on the card as well as the colours, every picture tells you a story and the more in tune with the cards you are, the more accurate the reading.
You can also build a link with spirit in your service with the tarot. Pass on what they have to say, and remember to give the person for whom your reading is for the evidence of the spirit person you have with you. A good description of this spirit person is worth more to them than the reading sometimes.
