Editing Tarot (section)

== Cartomancy ==
{{Main article|Tarot card reading}}
[[File:The Major Arcana by Roberto Viesi.jpg|thumb|Deck of the 22 [[Major Arcana]] cards inspired by the Tarot of Marseilles, but with the author's graphic style]]

In English-speaking countries where these games are not widely played, only specially designed cartomantic tarot cards, used primarily for novelty and [[divination]], are readily available.<ref name="DummettGame" /> The early French occultists claimed that tarot cards had esoteric links to [[ancient Egypt]], [[Kabbalah]], the Indic [[Tantra]], or [[I Ching]],  claims that have been frequently repeated by authors on card divination. However, scholarly research demonstrated that tarot cards were invented in northern Italy in the mid-15th century and confirmed that there is no historical evidence of any significant use of tarot cards for divination until the late 18th century.<ref name="DummettGame" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Semetsky |first=Inna |title=Re-Symbolization of the Self: Human Development and Tarot Hermeneutic |publisher=Sense Publishers |year=2011 |isbn=978-94-6091-421-8 |location=Rotterdam |pages=33}}</ref> Historians have described western views of the Tarot pack as "the subject of the most successful propaganda campaign ever launched [...] An entire false history and false interpretation of the Tarot pack was concocted by the occultists and it is all but universally believed."{{sfnp|Decker|Depaulis|Dummett|1996|p=27}}

The earliest evidence of a tarot deck used for [[cartomancy]] comes from an anonymous manuscript from around 1750 which documents rudimentary divinatory meanings for the cards of the [[Tarocco Bolognese]].<ref name="Pratesi">{{cite journal|last1=Pratesi|first1=Franco|author-link=Franco Pratesi|title=Italian Cards: New Discoveries, no. 9|journal=[[The Playing-Card]]|date=1989|volume=17|issue=4|pages=136–145}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Dummett|first1=Michael|title=Tarot Cartomancy in Bologna|journal=[[The Playing-Card]]|date=2003|volume=32|issue=2|pages=79–88}}</ref> The popularization of esoteric tarot started with [[Antoine Court de Gébelin|Antoine Court]] and [[Etteilla|Jean-Baptiste Alliette]] (Etteilla) in Paris during the 1780s, using the [[Tarot of Marseilles]].<ref name="Jensen">{{cite journal|last1=Jensen|first1=K. Frank|title=A Century with the Waite–Smith Tarot (and all the others...)|journal=[[The Playing-Card]]|date=2010|volume=38|issue=3|pages=217–222}}</ref> [[French tarot]] players abandoned the Marseilles tarot in favor of the [[Tarot Nouveau]] around 1900, with the result that the Marseilles pattern is now used mostly by cartomancers.

[[Etteilla]] was the first to produce a bespoke tarot deck specifically designed for occult purposes around 1789. In keeping with the unsubstantiated belief that such cards were derived from the [[Book of Thoth]], Etteilla's tarot contained themes related to [[ancient Egypt]].<ref name="Jensen" />

In the occult tradition, tarot cards are referred to as "arcana", with the Fool and 21 trumps being termed the [[Major Arcana]] and the suit cards the [[Minor Arcana]],{{sfnp|Decker|Depaulis|Dummett|1996|p=38}} terms not used by players of [[tarot card games]].

The 78-card tarot deck used by esotericists has two distinct parts:

* The [[Major Arcana]] (greater secrets) consists of 22 cards without [[Suit (cards)|suits]]. Their names and numbers vary, but in a typical scheme, the names are: 
** [[The Fool (Tarot card)|The Fool]], [[The Magician (Tarot card)|The Magician]], [[The High Priestess]], [[The Empress (Tarot card)|The Empress]], [[The Emperor (Tarot card)|The Emperor]], [[The Hierophant]], [[The Lovers]], [[The Chariot (Tarot card)|The Chariot]], [[Strength (Tarot card)|Strength]], [[The Hermit (Tarot card)|The Hermit]], [[Wheel of Fortune (Tarot card)|Wheel of Fortune]], [[Justice (Tarot card)|Justice]], [[The Hanged Man (tarot card)|The Hanged Man]], [[Death (Tarot card)|Death]], [[Temperance (Tarot card)|Temperance]], [[The Devil (Tarot card)|The Devil]], [[The Tower (Tarot card)|The Tower]], [[The Star (Tarot card)|The Star]], [[The Moon (Tarot card)|The Moon]], [[The Sun (Tarot card)|The Sun]], [[Judgement (Tarot card)|Judgement]], and [[The World (Tarot card)|The World]]. Cards from The Magician to The World are numbered in [[Roman numerals]] from I to XXI, while The Fool is the only unnumbered card, sometimes placed at the beginning of the deck as 0, or at the end as XXII.
* The [[Minor Arcana]] (lesser secrets) consists of 56 cards, divided into four suits of 14 cards each; 
**Ten numbered cards and four court cards. The court cards are the King, Queen, Knight and Page/Jack, in each of the four tarot suits. The traditional Italian tarot suits are swords, batons, coins and cups; however, in modern occult tarot decks, the suit of batons is often called wands, rods or staves; the suit of coins is often called pentacles or disks and the suit of cups is often referred to as goblets.

The terms "Major Arcana" and "Minor Arcana" were first used by [[Jean-Baptiste Pitois]] (also known as Paul Christian) and are never used in relation to tarot card games.<ref>Parlett, David. "tarot game". ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', 9 August 2012, https://www.britannica.com/topic/tarot-game . Accessed 26 June 2022.</ref> Some decks exist primarily as artwork, and such art decks sometimes contain only the 22 Major Arcana.

The three most common decks used in esoteric tarot are the [[Tarot of Marseilles]] (a playing card pack), the [[Rider–Waite Tarot]], and the [[Thoth Tarot]].<ref name="Jensen" />

[[Aleister Crowley]], who devised the Thoth deck along with [[Lady Frieda Harris]], stated of the tarot: "The origin of this pack of cards is very obscure. Some authorities seek to put it back as far as the ancient Egyptian Mysteries; others try to bring it forward as late as the fifteenth or even the sixteenth century ... [but] The only theory of ultimate interest about the tarot is that it is an admirable symbolic picture of the Universe, based on the data of the Holy [[Qabalah]]."{{sfnp|Crowley|1969|p=5}}