Historical Tarot

A collection of meanings and interpretations Sola Busca Tarot It is not easy to find different meanings and interpretations for the Sola Busca cards on the internet. I made a collection from various sources (Mentioned below). Various meanings and interpretations Sola Busca cards Triumphs, Majors, Court Cards, Minors and numbered cards. Major Arcana – Triumph cards 0. MATO a. 0: strangeness, infantilism, holiday, detachment from worries, madness. b. 0. MATO: upright: Foolishness. reversed: Insanity. c. 0. The Fool (Mato): It doesn't matter if you are misunderstood, as long as you are true to yourself. Ther…

The Morgan Library & Museum is hosting an exhibition from June 26 through October 4, 2026. I just stumbled over this info in an article in The New Yorker. There was a fun illustration that is probably not part of the exhibition but was done by an illustrator for the magazine (Nicholas Stevenson). So, what do we have here? The 2 of Swords, the Hermit and the King of Wands (?), I suppose. And our psychotic psychic (Yayoi Kusama) is holding up the Sun. So mainly it's about us having fun, sharing and feeling free in our expression. But there is a lot of ambivalence, evaluation or perhaps even retreat preventing us…

Just to let you know that an exhibition about the history of tarot will take place in Bergamo in Italy, from 02/27/2026 to 06/02/2026. We can expect to see several cards from the Visconti-Sforza deck, and, hopefully some cards from other gilted decks from the XVth century. Link : https://lacarrara.it/en/mostra/tarocchi-2026/

Don't miss this video of the Victoria and Albert museum, presenting historical decks, including 4 gilded cards from the XVth century : Other links from the V&A museum : Bat for Lashes Explores the Cards A history of tarot cards

I don't want to repeat a labour anyone else already has done, so I write this message. Has anyone analysed the place of "Adelgonde Perenna" (pseud. for Gabrielle Paban, 1826) and "Johannès Trismégiste" (1843) in the history of the evolution of French style cartomancy? Paban/Perenna wrote L'Art de tirer les cartes et les tarots, ou cartomancie Française, Égyptienne, Italienne et Allemande; moyen infallible de dire la bonne aventure, Expliqué d'après les découvertes profondes des Égyptiens, des Bohémiennes, des Sibylles et des Cabalistes célèbres de tous les pays (1823). "Trismégiste" wrote L'Art de tirer les cartes, révélations complètes…

I'm not sure if this blog has been shared on the forum before, but I found it a few days ago and thought it worth sharing for those interested in pythagorean number symbolism and Etteilla's deck: https://neopythagoreanisminthetrot.blogspot.com/2012/05/magician-and-aces.html?m=1 I've yet to read it all, but so far it's proven to be a really interesting blog that does a great job comparing pythagorean sources on the meaning of numbers and Etteilla's (and other decks) majors and pip card meanings. The author has a few other blogs too, all Etteilla related, which can be found on the homepage Hopefully new and experienced Etteilla fans can get some…

I've just had the idea to display several historical decks side by side. Click on the pictures to see a high resolution version. From top to bottom : Visconti di Modrone tarot (around 1445). The cards with a red cross are not originals. Rosenwald sheet (around 1500). The cards with a red cross are not originals. Minchiate Gaetano - All Aquila (1763, restored). Pierre Madenié tarot (1709). Marseille Vintage Tarot (2022, rebuilt from Conver, 1760). Tarot de Besançon, Grimaud (around 1895). The order presented here is a hybrid between order A1, with the three virtues, Te…

I am delighted to present a translation of Robert Klein's seminal article "The Illuminated Tarot Cards of the 15th century", with an illuminating introduction and notes by Ross Caldwell. This is a landmark article on the history of the early Visconti tarot decks.

After @MuninnMissinHuginn did a reading for me using the Sola Busca, I dug up my 1995 Lo Scarabeo edition. The images appear tiny, have black borders, and are polished (I guess this seller just trimmed the black borders of the 1995 edition). So, I figured I'd treat myself to a new old version of this deck. There are several editions on the market. I watched some comparisons on YouTube and am almost set on the Il Meneghello. But before clicking the buy button, I wanted to ask you knowledgeable folks for your opinion. Which version do you own, and what do you like about it? Here are the ones I took into consideration. Are there others I didn't list (besides t…

I open this discussion to share some paintings and depictions of Strength, Justice and Temperance across history, that I found on the web. It is interesting to compare them with the pictures that we can see in tarot. These three arcana are part of the seven christian virtues, that include four cardinal vitues: Fortitude (Strength), Justice, Temperance and Patience, and three theological virtues: Faith, Hope and Charity. But only three of them made their way into the tarot. The topic will be divided into several posts, as only three pictures are allowed by post. All pictures are from free sources, and all links to the originals are included. Let's first…

I can't find any thread about the timeline of tarot, so I begin a new thread about that subject matter. I invite you to add more information, preferably well-attested information using critical methods ('Channeled' matter does certainly not count as critical methods). TAROT TIMELINE 1351-1374. Petrarca writes the collection of poems, known as Trionfi. This title will later be used about the non-suite cards of the tarot, and the English word trumps is derived from this. 1371. Ordinary playing cards attested in Spain. 1376. Ordinary playing cards attested in the Italian peninsula. 1377. Ordinary playing cards attested in Switzerl…

Hey everyone, So I've had this deck for a while now, though it's never been read with. More because of a huge lack of information around it. I did find one site which is now on the wayback machine that took a stab at making an attempt to understand this deck, but the webpage ended up being taken down due to lack of interest. My main question is, who in the world are on these court cards? I've tried to take as good a picture as possible, please let me know if I should take others. I'll probably be ignorantly blending Greek and Roman mythology together, so I apologise in advance. This whole deck has existed in a va…

I'm aware that the Tarot Deck was used for playing card games before it became the standard cartomancer's tool, but I don't have any in-depth information about it, or the kind of games that were played with it. I have an interest in historic board, card and dice games, so it would be nice to add some authentic historical Tarot-based games to my library.

Last night, I did a reading on myself. I cleansed my room, my aura, and the cards. I asked Spirit to reveal my shadows energy. While shuffling for about 1 minute, 5 cards plopped out of the deck at once. As I flipped them over, the 1st card is the six of wands in reversed. The next 4 are major arcana cards. 1. THE HIGH PRIESTESS. 2. JUDGEMENT. 3. THE HIEROPHANT. 4. THE WORLD. I WOULD LOVE SOME CLARITY ON THIS MESSAGE, IF THE COMMUNITY WOULD BE SO KIND AND OFFER YOUR FEEDBACK. SEnding Love and Light to all!!!

What is the earliest deck dating back in or before the 14th/15th century with original illustration?

A few months ago, at a fair, I bought a vintage copy of the Richard Gardner Tarot https://www.abriefhistoryvintage.com/sold1/1970-richard-gardner-rare-tarot-card-set-2005-tarot-book-78-cards-england (I paid much less than the price quoted here!). I have the corresponding book too (The Tarot Speaks). The Gardner Tarot is a brighter version of the Insight Institute Tarot, apparently https://www.wopc.co.uk/tarot/insight-institute. The latter is rather lovely with its muted colours. Both decks seem a curious mix of different Tarot traditions. Has anyone worked with either of these decks?

I got my copy of J-M David's Reading the Marseille Tarot yesterday. Haven't read much of it yet, but just came across this in the chapter on Le Batteleur: "... possibly the first description of an actual performance of the cups and balls that has survived is from Alciphron of Athens, who, in the second century C.E., described a performance of the cups and balls by a man using 'a three-legged table, upon which he placed three small dishes, under which he concealed some small white pebbles.'" (p. 32, emphasis in the original) There’s that three-legged table! I have long been skeptical about how much influence “ancient sources”…

Hello, I recently read about the symbolism of the Column is some of the older Italian Strength cards (Tarot and Minchiate) that show a woman holding a column. Sometimes broken, sometimes whole. According to the source I read … it is a specific column with a specific meaning … NOT intuitive “a pillar symbolizes xyz”. I want to say it references a biblical story or Solomon’s temple …? Anyway I can’t find my source now and didn’t take very good notes. Anyone know the specific symbolism of this column? Thanks if you do!

Strange Attractor Press and the Magic Circle Museum in London are currently running a Kickstarter to produce the first ever reproduction of Austin Osman Spare's long-lost Tarot deck. Spare was a legendary English artist, a one-time friend of Aleister Crowley, and an innovative occultist often considered the father of Chaos Magic. In 1906, Spare created a unique Tarot deck featuring marginal drawings which can link the cards together to form specific cartomantic meanings. His card designs drew from hundreds of years of both Tarot cartomancy and standard card-reading traditions. Lost for decades, the cards were recently rediscovered by Jonathan Allen in the archives of the …

This N. Conver deck was published by Camoin between 1890 and 1900. It is from the Paul Marteau collection. What is of interest to me are the inscriptions on the Majors cards. What are your thoughts about these? For instance, on frame 147, the Moon card, you can see the words "ombre, or, reflet," or "shadow, gold, reflection." https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10539497f/f147.item.r=camoin tarot Others are simpler (and more positive than I'm used to) such as a meaning for the Tower (f143): "balance" (équilibre) https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10539497f/f143.item.r=camoin tarot Ho…

I was wondering if there is a Lismon Etteilla (Etteilla II) facsimile-deck currently available to purchase anywhere? I’m also looking for a facsimile of Jeu de la Princesse. I have managed to order Lo Scarabeo’s 1996 Ancient Esoteric Tarot. It is described as a ‘modified’ version of Princesse but I’m unsure as to how/if it differs from the earlier Dusserre edition. Any information would be great!

I decided this might be the best place for this topic and my apologies if it hasn't been. Are there any good books or other resources that have been published the trace the historiography of modern tarot, especially from the 1930s to 2000+ ? So much is out there on the timeline until the 1930s and then it seems to stop and get summarized as "and then the tarot got popular again during counter-culture and we have Stuart Kaplan to thank for making modern tarot a Big Thing." XD I'm looking for things that go a lot more in-depth than that.

When did, and why did, the pictures for the minor arcana change from simple depictions of the suits? Meaning a picture of two swords change to two people with swords, etc. Also, prior to the more illustrative minor arcana were the cards interpreted solely with numerology (and what flavor) mixed with the suit meaning? If this has already been discussed elsewhere, all apologies, and could a link be placed? Thank you.

Recently, I've been seeing a lot of readers say that The Hierophant and the High Priestess are counterparts (similar to the Empress and the Emperor) but that doesn't make any sense to me. When I first started reading tarot I assumed that the High Priestess and The Magician were counterparts seeing as how they come right after one another and the High Priestess deals with spirituality, intuition, psychic abilities while the Magician deals with manifestation, creation in the physical world, beginnings. To me those two just seem to go together. I'm wondering if there is any history behind the Hierophant and High Priestess being considered counterparts…

Here is the question! Actually a few Tarot of Besançon decks (TdM) are very nice, but for those who don't know, there are 2 cards in them that are different from the other TdM decks: the Popess and Pope. From what I understood, because of the French Revolution, they didn't want to depict ecclesiastical people anymore, and so replaced the Popess by Junon, and the Pope by Jupiter. But how do you interpret these cards in the Tarot of Besançon? Do you just ignore these changes and apply the meanings of the Popess for the Junon card and the meanings of the Pope for the Jupiter card, or do you apply some particular meanings there, in relation to mythology …