The tarot (first known as tarocchi, also tarock and similar names), pronounced /ˈtɑːroʊ/, is a pack of cards (most commonly numbering seventy-eight), used from the mid fifteenth century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Italian Tarocchini and French Tarot. From the late 18th century until the present time the Tarot has also found use by mystics and occultists in efforts at divination or as a map of mental and spiritual pathways.
The tarot has four suits corresponding to the suits of conventional playing cards. Each of these suits has pip cards numbering from ace to ten and four face cards for a total of fourteen cards. In addition, the tarot is distinguished by a separate 21-card 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.[1]
Rabelais gives tarau as the name of one of the games played by Gargantua in his Gargantua and Pantagruel[2]; this is likely the earliest attestation of the French form of the name. Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play card games. In English-speaking countries, where these games are largely unknown, Tarot cards are now used primarily for divinatory purposes.[1][3] Occultists call the trump cards and the Fool "the major arcana" while the ten pip and four court cards in each suit are called minor arcana. The cards are traced by some occult writers to ancient Egypt or the Kabbalah but there is no documented evidence of such origins or of the usage of tarot for divination before the eighteenth century.[1]
