For more than six hundred years, Europeans have been using Tarot cards mainly for playing games and foreseeing someone else’s future. Apart from telling fortune, Europeans attempted to preserve the ancient heritage of those mysterious cards. These cards represent an ancient tradition and an age-old custom of an ancient Europe. The real story of tarot cards is a big mystery. In all probability, Italy was the birthplace of tarot cards and available records suggest that people used these cards to play games, as well as tell others their fortune. In fact, people used tarots as tools for divination and occult. A brief round of tarot reading involves a seeker and a reader and the intricate relationship between these two people is the foundation for successful tarot reading.
A seeker is someone, who is looking forward for viable answers against personal questions posed by him or her. On the other hand, a reader is someone, who knows and understands how to read, analyze and interpret the tarot cards. A seeker will shuffle a deck of cards and cuts it to lay the cards in a specific pattern called spread. In a deck of cards, each one of them has a special meaning, while every spread provides a hidden message as well. The reader is a professional card maker and he or she can understand and comprehend the hidden meanings of all cards and later answer a seeker’s questions.
A typical pack of tarot cards contains fifty-two ordinary playing cards with an additional card (also called picture card) for every suit. This additional card, the Knight, will be placed between the Queen and Knave. All fifty-six cards are further divided into four suits, two black and two red, and each one of them will have the following designations:
- Clubs - Scepters
- Hearts - Cups
- Spades - Swords
- Diamonds - Disks or Pentades
Along with the above-mentioned fifty-six cards, a typical pack of tarot cards will have twenty-two numbered cards each with its own special name. These names are:
|
Twenty-two Numbered Tarot Cards | ||
|
0 - The Fool | ||
|
1 - The Magician |
8 - Strength |
15 - The Devil |
|
2 - The High Priestess |
9 - The Hermit |
16 - The Tower |
|
3 - The Empress |
10 - The Wheel of Fortune |
17 - The Star |
|
4 - The Emperor |
11 - Justice |
18 - The Moon |
|
5 - The Chariot (7) |
12 - The Hanged Man |
19 - The Sun |
|
6 - The Lovers |
13 - Death |
20 - Judgment |
|
7 - The Hierophant (5) |
14 - Temperance |
21 - The Fool |
The tarot deck has three main divisions:
- The initial one has twenty-one numbered cards,
- The second one has just one card (0),
- The third has fifty-six cards, that is four suits of fourteen cards each
Tip: There seems to be a real connection between the first and second parts because all fifty-six tarot cards of the third parts join together to equal the card (0)
Tarot looks at your future to seek divine intervention, study all possibilities as a reader, and help the seeker to know more about his or her life. Reading into tarot cards demands considerable amount of skills and knowledge as well.

