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Before beginning on the Tarot deck itself, the importance of relating some of
the history behind its evolution is necessary in order to fully grasp the depth
in meaning. There are various stories regarding the history of the Tarot deck
and the most common one begins below. The oldest examples of the Tarot now in
European museums date back to roughly 1390 A.D. with their origin approximately
around 1200 A.D. Other documentation suggests that the Tarot has roots in China,
the Middle East and Egypt as long 15,000 years ago. As the story goes, a group
of people used to meet in the city of Fez, Morocco at pre-determined intervals
after the destruction of Alexandria. It was during this time that Fez became the
meeting place for important things like literature and science, as it was then
the capital of the known world. These meetings brought people speaking different
languages from all parts of the globe. The picture book of Tarot was developed
to enable everyone to communicate to each other regardless of the language
differences. The ideas in the book of Tarot were painted pictures which also
included symbols and numbers which were understood by everyone at the time
including Japan, Korea and Asia. The symbols and pictures on each of the pages
(now cards) became the common language so that everyone could understand each
other. The symbols and numbers were derived from the Qabalah, or Secret Wisdom
of Israel, which was similar to the secret schools in China, Tibet and India.
This introduction to the Tarot will help you to become familiar with what could
be considered a standard which has been used during the learning process. There
are a few Tarot decks with fairly standard interpretations which will be
discussed. For the purpose of this endeavor, standardized decks should be used
because they tend to follow similar interpretations and familiar symbols. Dr.
Arthur Edward Waite's research regarding the Tarot let to his book, Key to the
Tarot, which was published in London by William Rider and Sons in 1910. This
book led to the deck referred to as the Universal Waite Deck and is still widely
used in teaching and learning the Tarot. The Universal Waite Deck is one of the
most popular and simple examples of many decks and has limits as to depth in
meaning, however, it is still widely used to begin learning because of its
simplicity.
In order to really become familiar with a Tarot deck, it is important to stick
with one deck while you are learning the basics. When you get to the point where
you have learned as much as you can from your first deck then it is much easier
to find another deck that interests you to increase your use and knowledge.
After your knowledge base is attained and you feel comfortable with the
Universal Waite Deck (which is highly recommended) other fairly standard decks
to consider:
- Palladini Tarot
- Golden Tarot
- Marseilles Tarot
- Aquarian Tarot
- Colman Smith Tarot
- Llewellyn Tarot
To simplify and take some of the mystery out of the learning process, most
standardized decks are heavy in symbolism, but more important, contain pictures
on them. To help take the confusion away, there are many definitions and
meanings for each card depending on who writes about it. That being said,
ultimately it comes down to what the cards mean to you. While it is important to
read up on the different divine interpretations to get a basic idea of its
possible meanings, at the end of the day it boils down to an art that is highly
dependent on intuition.
There are so many different opinions by experts on each card's meaning that it
can become confusing. To correctly interpret cards try to keep in mind that
there is no one meaning or way to 'read' cards as you may 'see' or 'feel'
something different than another person using the same deck and layout or
spread. Try to keep an open mind and don't let other's opinions affect what
you see in the cards, as everyone may describe them in a different way. This all
boils down to what they mean to you.
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