Trionfi, the predecessor to tarot was first recorded in the mid 15th century where personalized decks were made and used, usually hand painted with allegories, personified characters, and six "triumphs" honoring these characters: Love, Chastity, Death, Fame, Time, and Eternity.
It didn't start as a fortune telling game, and was first played amongst multiple people at once. The change to fortune tarot seems to have happened sometime in the early 16th century, still mostly in Europe. The name changed multiple times over the years, and the idea of the game even changed, but the cartomancy use of tarot did not really happen until much later.
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. The popularization of esoteric tarot started with Antoine Court and Jean-Baptiste Alliette in Paris during the 1780s, using the Tarot of Marseilles. 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.
That is what this virtual deck is. I'm going to do my best to explain the way that it works in simple terms because I am by no means an expert. All of the cards together are referred to as "arcana", which you can break into two groups, major and minor. The major arcana cards, or greater secrets, consists of 22 cards that don't have suits. Some examples are The Fool, The Emperor, The High Priestess, etc. The minor arcana, or lesser secrets, consists of 56 total cards divided up into 4 suits, knights, swords, pentacles, and cups.
Fortune tellers draw cards in a few different ways. On this site, you can pull a single card for general guidance or three cards for past, present, and future. (working on some other popular configurations). I've mostly done this to keep up on my programming and for fun. Also I really like tarot (as a game and idea). I've supplied my personal interpretation for each card based on what I've been taught. You can pull a card that is either upright or reversed (as they have different meanings). Hopefully this wasn't too confusing and that you enjoy the game!
By: outpeer (sun)