The History of Tarot

The History of Tarot is pretty much shrouded in mystery to this day. Way back when I started my personal journey with the Tarot, I discovered that the word Tarot came from the Italian word Tarocchi. The word Tarocchi is from the 16th Century when this was created as a “game”.
Digging a little deeper, I discovered that the word Tarocchi’s root word is Taroch (Tarach) which is actually German. The German translation is “foolishness”.
I kept digging, and found that the word Tarach comes from the ancient Hebrews that were in Egypt. The true translation on the word Tarach which was found in the Bible also is “To Burden”.

So, with all that said my assessment of the History of Tarot and its translations is “Game of Foolish Burden”. It is further my opinion that this is quite true and understandably the true translation because it’s the truth.

If you “dabble” in Tarot, and truly do not understand what you’re doing or respect the insight it’s foolish of you. Additionally to bringing in a level of foolishness to your life it can create burden based off of opening windows you don’t know how to close. Honoring tarot as a divination system instead of doing it for fun is imperative to creating clarity.

Tarot cards connect to all of the elements, align with the stars (The Zodiac), and numerology. These are all ancient practices that are still used today.

The oldest Tarot deck that is in existence is the Visconti-Sforza deck that was painted in the 15th Century for the Dutch rulers of Milan.

There are other decks that have been reworked multiple times that have spanned centuries as well.

A few of them being :

• Tarot of Thoth
• Tarot of Marseille
• Sola Busca
• The Della Rocco Gumppenberg Tarot
• The Rider Waite

For the purpose of this course, I will be cross referencing the Rider Waite Tarot because this deck specifically unlocks all other decks. All Tarot Decks are inspired from this deck utilizing the suits, Minor Arcana and the Major Arcana.

I personally like using decks that have characters I can relate to culturally because it provides a level of “safety” mentally and spiritually .

Some decks I do like are :

• The Afro Tarot by @Jessi.Ujazi (formerly known as Jessi Jumanji)
• Melanated Classic Tarot
• Akamara Tarot
• African Tarot
  
• Native American Tarot
• Medicine Woman Tarot
• Mother Peace Tarot
• The Hoodoo Tarot
  

Fun Fact: The Rider Waite deck was illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith- a woman of Jamaican and English descent. I just like to share that little tidbit because it gets lost.

If you do look closer at the Rider Waite tarot deck, you can see the influence of melanin hidden within the images based off of the time in history (I’m sure).