Tarot Card

It wasn't until 1440 that the cards that were most likely the origin of Tarot cards were first mentioned. It does appear, however, that the first Tarot decks were created as a game.

There were four suits with tarot cards numbered one through ten and also court cards that included a queen, king, knight and page. The tarot deck also included 22 symbolic picture cards that did not belong to any suit.

The Tarot card decks were used to play a game called triumph that was similar to bridge. In triumph, 21 of the 22 special picture tarot cards were permanent trump cards. The game spread quickly to all parts of Europe. People began referring to as tarocchi, which is an Italian version of the French word tarot, around 1530.

In 1781, in France and England, followers of the occult discovered Tarot cards. They saw the symbolic pictures of the cards as having more meaning than the simple trump cards they were used for at the time. They used the cards as a divination tool, and occult writers wrote about "the Tarot." After this, the Tarot became a part of occult philosophy.