Tarot Cards: Thy Name Is Misconception

I am not bringing religion into this hub. So, I ask that you don't either!

This hub is just about the facts surrounding the history of Tarot cards. Not whether they are blasphemous against any deity or if it is connected to devil worship, or any other type of theological conversation.

As a warning: Comments that speak about how satanic Tarot cards are or are forcibly religious in nature will not be approved, because that is not what this hub is about. Thank you.

In America, Tarot cards are purely thought of as a tool to predict the future. It's much like a Ouija board or horoscope, something that you do to figure out whether you should have left the house today or not. That is the only reason, to many Americans, to ever go near a Tarot deck. And even those Americans view the "The Devil" and "Death" cards as the worst cards in the deck.

Tarot Deck, thy name is misconception!

Point one: The Tarot Deck was created and had been around for a long time before someone decided to try to predict the future with it.

Point two: The names and the meanings of the cards all rely on personal interpretation. There are some set meanings that you can learn--from little rhymes and published books, but you get meaning by looking at the picture on the card. It's personal interpretation.

Point three: You can use anything to "predict the future" or be apart of the occult. Just because it's a deck of cardboard with pretty pictures on it does not mean that it predicts the future or is one of the only things to predict the future.

Real quickly, let's discuss what the deck actually is and what it features.

We all know that a regular deck of playing cards as 4 suits--hearts, clubs, spades, and diamonds. Each suit is comprised of thirteen cards, making52 cards in total (hence the game that no one wants to play, "52 pick-up"). The suits have the court cards--the king, queen, jack, and ace (I consider the ace a court card)--and nine number cards. What makes this deck interesting is the history behind the court cards, but that is a different topic.

A tarot deck has 78 cards and also has 4 suits--pentacles, wands, swords, and cups. Each suit has their court cards, which are the king, queen, knight, and page. Each suit has ten number cards. If you're counting, you will realize that we are missing some cards, since there are 78 cards in a Tarot deck and the four suits only makes 56 cards. You're right. The last 22 cards are "trump" cards. These cards are referred to as the Major Arcana and the 4 suits are called the Minor Arcana.

In terms of the occult, each card has a different meaning which continues to be different when the card is "reversed", or drawn upside-down.

Tarot cards have actually been around since the 1400's, and these weren't actually cards that we all would call "Tarot". Those cards from the 1440's were actually the ancestors cards of modern Tarot. These cards were apparantly called "Triumph Cards", and were quite different from regular playing cards that came to the Western nations in the 1300's. And were they used for the occult? No, they weren't.

Triumph cards were just used for a card game, of which the rules were apparently never written down, and the Major Arcana were permanent trump cards which altered the rules of the game. Just think of any card game you've ever played where someone pulled out a joker card and made all the high cards low permanently and you get an idea of how the Major Arcana were used. But this game is viewed as being more similar to Bridge. Sounds fun.

The name "Tarot" is thought to have come about around the year 1530. It's French, but there is an Italian version--"tarocchi".

Some people believe that the playing cards that eventually made it into Europe and became the Tarot deck actually came from the Islamic nations. That might be true, because the Islamic nations during that time period in history were a center of wisdom and knowledge, whereas European nations were in the Dark Age. Other believe that Tarot originated in ancient Egypt, and the cards are hieroglyphs that tell the answer to many of life's riddles. No one really knows about that, though.

Tarot as we know it today really didn't start to take place until the 1800 to 1900's. The start of that did happen in the 1700's, but it was a little legend. It didn't start to take hold until later. The start of the legend was really just made up. But people believed that Jewish mystics and Egyptians really had a hand in this occult and it was really used the way that people thought it was used. It wasn't until the 1800 and 1900's when people began to dabble in the occult for fun that Tarot took off and was branded as something . . . evil.

Look at the picture above of "The Fool" card. Think of the title. Think of what the character is doing. Now think of what it could possibly mean.

You wanna know what it means? It means an innocent person, potential, the start of a great journey, and folly. Is that what you thought the card would mean by looking at the picture? You probably got "folly" right, or close to it. But I'm betting the other stuff kind of went by the wayside.

Now, the idea behind "predicting the future" is that you find one method to do it and you stick with that one method. The more you use that method, the more of your energy and spirit you put into it, and the more accurate the outcomes are. The "cards" begin to know you and begin to know how you will interpret them.

But modern society, in the obsession of Tarot, have stream-lined the meanings. If you buy a deck of Tarot cards, chances are you will be given a little meanings book. To read tarot, though, you needed to look at the pictures and understand what was being said. And back in the old days when Tarot reading was a harmless parlor game (and it was), there were rhymes that you could memorize to remember the meaning of the cards. But poetry is up to personal interpretation too, isn't it?

Basically, all in all, the pictures can mean something different to every person. Meanings can be very different. And a big example of this is "The Death" card. That just means that it's an end of a chapter of your life, like you quit a job or you moved to a different town. It doesn't mean you will die. One of the worse cards in the deck, though, is "The Tower".

Hopefully, the past two sections set the groundwork in explaining that humans made Tarot into something of the occult. It wasn't occult to begin with, but it was changed into it. Also, I hope that it was explained that the meanings are really personal interpretations, and two people can view the same card very differently. This section is to show you many ways to "predict the future".

But first!

Can you really predict the future with Tarot, as it stands in the occult? Well . . . yes and no. The idea behind Tarot to many Tarot readers is that you think of a certain event and draw your cards. The cards will be able to help you see how the event unfolded, where it stands now, and where it may possibly go. You may say, "I am living the event. I know how it started and where it is already!" Maybe not. It is easier to appreciate some works of art while standing at a distance, and Tarot helps you get another perspective by putting you at a distance away from your own life.

Did you know that the Salem Witch Trials started because of three little girls staring into a bowl of water and cracked eggs? And then they got caught and said they were possessed by the devil and started accusing people of being witches. They just looked for shapes or images in it. Pretty simple and not so occult-ish. Just staring at egg yolks in water. Well, here are some other ways you can "predict the future" without Tarot cards, a Ouija board, or a crystal pendulum.

1. A regular deck of playing cards can be used with simple "yes or no" questions. Hold the deck face down and then ask a question that you know is true. Flip the first card of the deck face up and see what color it is. That color would mean that the answer is yes. Now you can ask all the yes/no questions you want! Predict away!
2. Drop a stone. Drop the stone four times (don't throw it). With each drop, ask what direction means "yes", what means "no", what means "maybe" and what means "I don't know". Then drop the stone all you want while asking questions.
3. Interpreting your dreams can be used to predict the future. A dream dictionary can help you with that.
4. You can predict the future with your cat. Depending on which way your cat is jumping or what your cat is doing can predict the future. It's called felidomancy.
5. You can use your butt or urine. I'm not going into that. But you can look it up! It's called Rumpology and Uromancy respectively.
6. Your fingernails can predict the future. The white spots, the shape, the half-moon shape on the nails, how your nails bend--your nails can predict the future. Called Onychromancy.
7. Your stomach noises can be used. Called Gastromancy.
8. How about spinning around until you fall. Yeup, that's a good one. Called Gyromancy.
9. Cheese. Called Tyromancy.

If you can think of it, then there's a way to use it to predict the future. Kind of like a Rule 34.

That's it. Tarot was just a card game until something happened to change it. Now it is a vital form of the occult, much like a scrying mirror, a crystal ball, or a crystal pendulum. But it is a huge mass of a misconception!

Tarot was just a card game. Meaning is up to personal interpretation. Tarot really doesn't predict the future, but gives a person another perspective. And you can "predict the future" with pretty much anything.

Tarot had a very interesting history, and like anything that was interesting, it was changed time and time again. But still, I say, "Tarot! Thy Name Is Misconception!"