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…

I was cruising around another board and found a post where the person had been granted an opportunity to view a few fragments of Islamic playing cards from the 13th to 14th Century. The poster has put a pdf document on the 'net where he discusses his observations as well as containing a few photographs. It is not a terribly long document and is well worth the read; https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B15SAMYZtejMdXU3LWh1UzRiZU0/view

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…

(Not sure if this is the right place to put this thread but it seemed appropriate) I posted this over in another forum but thought I would see what other information I could get... I don't know much when it comes to tarot. In fact I don't know much about a lot of things, but I am working to remedy that I am curious to learn about the differences between deck styles (is that the right word?) such as Thoth, TdM, RWS, and any others that may be out there that I am unaware of. Are they read differently? In what way? How does the symbolism differ? Do card meanings change? Do they have different card orders? Why? Sorry if I have gone really wide with m…

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 …

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.

Ok the first thing I'd like to say is just @Rose Lalonde I was so happy to learn all you said in your first response about how the Golden Dawn influenced the RWS. I didn't even realize that Christian Mysticism was a huge interest of Waite but that is amazing to know and makes so much sense now with all the biblical imagery especially in cards like Judgement and The World. Secondly, I don't feel I am knowledgable enough about the Tarot to really add much to this conversation but I am learning a ton by reading through it so I will definitely be following the progression. @sixdegrees I will be looking forward to these posts now 🙂

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…

It might interest some readers to know that a period manuscript translation of the essays by Court de Gébelin, the Comte de Mellet, along with most of Etteilla’s Cahiers has recently been digitised and placed online on a library website. For those interested in these historical texts (or Etteilla’s reading methods), please see here. In passing, I will note that Donald Tyson has also just published his version of the first two essays, along with some other texts, but no Etteilla, in his “Essential Tarot Writings.”

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…

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

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/

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 decided to take a break from my studies for a bit and just read something.... So I grabbed The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic by Eliphas Levi off the shelf for a second read. This was my first Tarot book and I have to wonder, has anyone else here read this one? It is really an amazing book to me. At times I want to fall out laughing at the preposterous things, at others, I am enamored with the possibility of gleaning something unknown. Somehow in between all the errors and claims truth and nonsense, this work really does embody all that is tarot to us in the west. Each chapter describes the essence of each card. It is as simple as that. He did it first. Peopl…

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…

Hello everyone, I've been searching for "historic" spreads aside from the Celtic Cross and the Opening of the Key. I have used the CC so far and I am very interested in learning the OOTK but that's for later considering the amount of work required. So, I was looking for an alternative to the CC that would have some historical/influential origin but I haven't found anything... Do you have any recommendations?

Hi Guys Not too sure if this is the right place for this but it is a very historical account of all types of playing cards. It is (some of you may well have heard of it that I do not doubt) "The Devils Picturebook" and it is free to download, without any copyright issues (I think). Anyway I think @katrinka and @gregory would have an interest in it maybe @Flaxen too. I know you guys love a little bit of history when it comes to the cards 😉

Many people who know me as a Tarot historian asked me to explain why, after having worked for 30 years with great publishing houses, like Lo Scarabeo in turin and Dal Negro in Treviso, taking care of the re-edition of about 20 ancient Tarots and the project of about 25 modern decks of Tarots and Sibyls, I decided to start the "RINASCIMENTO PROJECT", which seems to follow the same editorial lines already started by other publishers. The answer is that the big publishing houses, wanting to be competitive on the global market, have to print large quantities of low price decks. To do this, they must print Tarot capable of being appreciated by a large audience. This choice…

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 …

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!!!

I kinda enabled myself and just bought the Il Tarocco di Besancon from Il Meneghello! The only place I could find it is here: https://tarotbg.eu/index.php?id_product=292&controller=product&id_lang=1 That deck looks marvellous! It's inspired by the Tarot of Marseille, but it is its own version, from Besançon. In short, it is a Tarot of Marseille, but with Jupiter and Juno substituting for the Papesse and Pope. Here is a great article on these versions: https://tarot-heritage.com/2017/01/03/besancon-decks/ There is a YouTube video that shows the deck @ 8:56: https://youtu.be/pRmRw7cPZsU?t=8m56s Do any of you already own that deck?

Hi All, Glad to be here. I'm a researcher as well as producer of playing card n tarot decks. I've got access to an Indian tarot or fortune telling deck which came into possession of an erstwhile queen in India. I will share a few pics shortly. Regards, Sunish

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”…