S03 - E04 - Dec 16, 2019
The Tarot Card
Tarot Groundwork
(Shuffling or not shuffling on camera)
(Only a real reader has their comments closed on YouTube)
Egos
Trolls
Smug
- Comes from the old Italian tarocchi (Tear’ro’ki)
- Found as tarot in the 1590s in France
- To understand the tarot, we have to first understand playing cards
- Playing cards
- No one knows their specific origins
- Possible Chinese origins
- Written records from 14th C Europe mention “Saracen’s game”, hinting at Arabian origins
- All agree they spread from East to West
- Most early cards hand painted (no printing press just yet
- This made them expensive - a game for the rich
- Invention of printing press makes cards cheaper and easier to obtain
- French
- the most common deck of playing cards used today
- 52 cards - 54 counting jokers - divided into 4 suits (hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs) with each suit containing 13 cards
- Suit symbols are known as pips
- Extremely variable - varied from region to region
- Packs first recorded between 1440 and 1450 in Italy
- Not for telling fortunes, still just playing cards - tarot games
- Decks include the four suits plus one additional suit of 21 illustrated trionfi (triumphs) and one odd card, the fool
- The fool is not the origin of the joker card
- The joker is invented in the 19th C
- Illustrations typically allegorical
- Cartomancy appears in France
Tarot Cards
- 22 cards
- All numbered except the fool
- 56 cards
- Divided into 4 suits of 14 cards each (wands, swords, cups, pentacles)
- Used for addressing the large forces at play in a person’s life
- Questioner shuffles the deck, focusing on the question
- Deck is handed back to the fortune teller
- The fortune teller then lays the cards out in a spread
- One of the oldest, one of the most complex, and one of the most common
- Uses a total of 10 cards
- 6 set up the situation
- 4 reveal the outcome
- The large number of cards it uses means a more thorough, in depth reading
- Simplest and great for beginners
- Uses three cards laid in a line
- Typically read with the past as the first one, the present as the second, and the future as the third
- However, this can be altered to fit any situation with three things behind it
- Ex: Strengths/Weaknesses/Advice
- You/Your Partner/Your Relationship
- Cards are read both for face value, if they’re upside down or not, and what cards they’re next to
- Upright: positivity, optimism, freedom and fun
- Reversed (upside down): sadness, depression and pessimism
- Coupled with Death: imminent change for the best (end of the old leading to a positive outcome)
- Whether the card it’s next to is major or minor arcana also indicates the strength of the powers being exerted
- Nowadays, there are tarot cards with every theme imaginable - from cats to angels
- 3 common decks used
- The classic choice in America
- Published November 1909
- Pattern from which most other tarot is derived
- Earliest surviving card patterns are from 1650
- Published 1969
- Drawn under the direction of Alistair Crowley
Ravenloft
Drama
References