Tarot Cards & Oracle Cards

Apr 12, 2023

What is Tarot all about?

It is believed that Tarot started out as a mere game of cards to amuse the nobles around the mid 1400's. The major arcana cards were at the time simply trump cards. Although the trump cards had no real significance they still had disturbing images that caused the church to ban the cards. The devil, hanged man and tower were among the worst offenders. These trump cards were not completely eradicated and remained in circulation for centuries in one incarnation or another. However, it wasn't until the 19th century the cards emerged once again with a correlation between them and the Jewish Kabbalah, the Hebrew system of mysticism and divination. From this point onwards the cards have been credited with mystic properties which crossed the boundaries of the known and unknown. The Tarot is comprised of archetypal images that cross linguistic, cultural, geographical, and temporal barriers and has been linked to almost every religion and magical system known. Early in the 20th century Arthur Waite had a deck commissioned with pictures representing all of the aspects of the cards meaning, which had never been done for the minor arcana previously. This was the forefather of the tarot as we know it today. For many decks the meanings are still the same it is just the images that have changed to reflect individual creativity and style. Some cards, like oracle cards have meanings of their own and simply tap into the same process used by the tarot.

A simple understanding

The mechanism that allows us to tap into and understand the symbology of the cards can be attributed to two beliefs. The first being that angels, spirits, or divine guidance points us to the correct cards to illuminate things in our lives that are causing us issue. The second is that the subconscious is all knowing and uses the cards as a form of communication with the conscious mind. No matter what you choose to believe there is only one simple mechanism that is at work. Ascribe some kind of meaning into any group of objects and then use that meaning to communicate with yourself or angels to bring truth to your conscious mind. Luckily for you the hard work has already been done by many talented artists and esoteric scholars that all you have to do is choose the system that resonates the best for you.