The first known Tarot cards, the Major Arcana, originated in the first half 15th century in Northern Italy. It's believed they actually originated as a game for nobles to play
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Origin of Tarot Cards
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Versions of Trump cards such as Death, the Devil, and the Tower were considered offensive by conservative Nobles and caused religious leaders to attempt to ban them
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A Tarot deck typically consists of 78 cards, 22 being major arcana and 56 minor arcana
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Tarot as a means of divination is attributed to Antoine Court de Gébelin in 1781, who believed it had mystical knowledge encoded in the symbolism of the Trumps
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He theorized that the cards were the key to lost Egyptian magical wisdom written by Thoth, the Egyptian God of inspired written knowledge
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The first account of divination using of cards is attributed to cartomancer Jean-Baptiste Alliette (aka Etteilla), in 1770. His version of the deck was the first available to the public expressly for
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8 years ago Report
...the purpose of Cartomancy
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In the 19th century, occultist Eliphas Lévi developed a correlation between Tarot and the Kabbalah, the Hebrew system of mysticism, fuelling a new belief that the Tarot originated in Israel and conta
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8 years ago Report
...contained the wisdom of the Tree of Life
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This new theory brought all 78 cards together as keys to the mysteries even though there were no concrete facts to support it
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The Theosophical Society, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Rosicrucians, Church of Light, and the Builders of the Adytum helped secured the Tarot during the 19th and 20th centuries
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Occultist Aleister Crowley designed he Thoth deck to coincide with his study of Tarot but it wasn't released until years after his death
