by Jason Sorrell

Created on: January 27, 2009   Last Updated: January 27, 2010

The history of the Tarot is a hotly debated issue amongst Tarot enthusiasts, despite its having little bearing on understanding or reading the Tarot itself. The Tarot has endured numerous issues throughout the history of the system that we are aware of and continues to amaze and enchant, even without a clear understanding of its origins. Despite this, some authors and students seem fixated on establishing a glorious occult history behind the Tarot in order to validate the system.

There have been attempts to attribute the Tarot, either in its modern state or the basis for its symbols, to ancient cultures, such as that of Egypt. Modern interpretations of the Tarot have even gone as far as reworking the symbols to directly make this link. However, there is no hard evidence that this is the case. The only tentative connection that can be made between the Tarot and the practices of ancient Egypt is through the reflection of occult ideas which may have had their origins in that culture, carried forward in time in many forms, and eventually expressed in the Tarot system. This is akin to saying that the French Leer jet was of American origin, because the Wright Brothers first accomplished flying a motorized manned vehicle at Kitty Hawk. Even more fanciful explanations, such as originations in Atlantis, should be totally disregarded. The Tarot history and mythology is muddled enough without further confusion from other myths.

The Tarot is, of course, an allegorical system. Those symbols, however, are universal in nature, and thus can easily be attributed to a variety of cultures. That is the beauty of the Tarot; the images can be accurately interpreted by nearly anyone, no matter what their nationality or level of experience in the occult.

In actuality, no Tarot cards exist which predate the 14th century. The images themselves have a medieval flavor, reflecting structural symbolism that was prevalent in those times, and imagery which was common in medieval life. If Tarot images had predated this era, we should expect to find some evidence of their existence, even if reflected in the imagery used in later designs. The original designs reflected the imagery of the times, thus we can assume that the designers, having nothing from the past to draw from, instead drew from the world around them.

As the Tarot developed, Renaissance imagery was added, reflecting the contemporary models of the image represented. It is doubtful, however, that the Tarot arose whole and complete

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