Category: Tarot

Well hello there, Coven!

Today we are going to discuss the actual history of Tarot. The reason I am doing this is because I am seeing a lot of arguments on social media about the origins of Tarot and if it is a closed practice or not. So worry not, I deep dived and am sharing the knowledge below…

Top Level Overview: 

• Tarot reading is not a closed practice and open to everyone who has a calling to learn divination 

• “Dukkering” or ‘Bocht’ which is the Romany style of ‘future telling’ Cartomancy is closed. As this is only taught Romany to Romany via word of mouth and actually living the Romany life. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that you will ever come across the knowledge or life experience to appropriate this. (See below quote)

• You do not need to be gifted Tarot cards to begin practicing 

• There is no initiation into Tarot but you can make it ceremonial  

The Origins of Tarot 

The Tarot actually started in Europe and was considered a parlor game for the first few hundred years. The 78 card deck that we now and love today originated in Renaissance Italy around the 1430’s when they added a 5th deck to the standard 4 deck playing cards. This new 5th deck was called ‘Triumphs’ but we know it as the ‘Higher Arcana’ in modern day. The 4 other decks are commonly known as the ‘Lower Arcana’. Translated into the modern standard playing card decks (also known as the French Deck) these are:  

These Italian “carte da trionfi” or “cards of triumph” were played like you would play bridge and wealthy families would commission artists to create their own decks so the illustrations differed widely. 

Oracle cards were also gaining in popularity over the 18th century onwards for divination and these were commonly known as Lenormand cards until recently due to celebrity card-reader Mademoiselle Marie Anne Lenormand, making them so popular in the 19th Century – although her 36 card deck wasn’t published in her name until after her death. 

I recently acquired some Lenormand cards and they are simply beautiful to look at and I will do a full post on them as well….but for now, let’s focus on the history of Tarot! 

The move from Tarot as a game, to Tarot as Divination

As the game moved on from it’s Italian origins into the courts of France, Teacher and publisher Jean-Baptiste Alliette wrote his first book on the tarot in 1791, called “Etteilla, ou L’art de lire dans les cartes,” meaning “Etteilla, or the Art of Reading Cards.”. This book implied incorrectly that the art had come from ancient Egypt but he introduced to the masses the concept that the cards can be used for divination. 

The modern standard Tarot deck that we widely use today is called the Rider Waite Colman Smith deck – but is often abbreviated as just the ‘Rider Waite’. William Rider was the publisher, and popular mystic A.E. Waite, who commissioned Pamela Colman Smith to illustrate the deck wrote a book to accompany the cards. This was released in 1909 and hasn’t been out of print since. 

What Pamela Colman Smith did to revolutionise the deck was to create scenes for every card in the lower Arcana, so that a narrative could be easily picked up from each card. Now, rest assured I am working on her blog post as I type this. As a Female and person of Colour, she certainly deserves her name to be known widely within the Tarot Community as the history of most occult topics tends to be a bit of a pale sausage fest and doesn’t reflect the women who also helped develop the craft. 

Tarot really took off in the late 1970’s when Stuart Kaplan obtained the publishing rights and released his 1977 book, Tarot Cards for Fun and Fortune Telling. He has since written several more books on the subject of Tarot and that audience has grown and shared their love for Tarot with others…and I guess the rest is history? But there is one last thing that we need to clear up on the history of Tarot…

The Romany Traveller Tarot Connection  

The Romany are a beautiful community of travellers who have become deeply connected with Tarot. This is because in the 18th Century onwards the Roma people people took Tarot into their hearts and offered readings as they travelled around Europe and beyond. The Roma are fans of Cartomancy in general and in fact, often used the traditional French standard deck that we use for playing cards for their readings rather than the 78 card Tarot deck that is most commonly used today. 

The Roma have two words when referring to their style of Cartomancy and they are: 

• “Dukkering” – modification of a Wallaco-Sclavonian word meaning something spiritual, other worldly or ghostly

•  ‘Bocht’ – a Persian word meaning or connected to the Sanskrit bhagya, which means fate

Regarding the closed practice question, the fabulous Lisa Boswell, a Romany Tarot reader explains this very well on her blog Divinerisim (Do check her out!) 

‘Only someone who was raised in a traditional manner will be able to read your fortune in ‘Gypsy’ style. Anyone advertising as a Gypsy and advertising chakra cleansing, aura sprays, yoga, or anything similar (I can confidently say) does not read in the traditional Gypsy manner. I know this because their reading style is clearly influenced by Gorger (Non Romany) culture and only a tiny percentage of Gypsies know what these things are….Like I said before, it is not sufficient to be 100% Romany; you have to be raised like us, to be one of us.

It is possible for Gorgers to, hypothetically, learn how to read like a Romany person through an understanding of our symbolism. However, our spirituality is tied mostly to the way which we live which, in turn, is tied to our upbringing. This worldview is not something you can learn from a book; we live this way from when we wake in the morning to when we go to sleep at night, and our laws and rules affect every area of our life.’

Lisa Boswell

Fabulous resources here for more on the history of Tarot, the Romany Tarot spread and Romany Cartomancy history: 

• https://tarotamber75.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/history-of-the-gypsy-tarot-spread/
• https://divinerism.com/romany-gypsy-spirituality/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune-telling
• https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/the-surprising-origins-of-tarot-most-misunderstood-cards/

Ah, that was a lovely lesson wasn’t it? Just knowing the history of Tarot makes me love it even more. Hopefully, you enjoyed it too and maybe learned something you didn’t know before? I’d love to hear your thoughts below and on my social channels. 

Until next time, Darlings! 

Top Image: “Tarot” by kpishdadi is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Hello Coven, 

So you have your first deck of Tarot cards, yassss! So, ermm, what next? Well, if you are anything like me you will have ripped the packaging off and started trawling through every single card whilst gulping down whatever drink you’d purchased in the pub in celebration. Now, after I have done that, I like to put them away for later so I can get all excited about my new present to myself and so I can get my ceremony on as it were. 

Yip, you heard me correctly, I get all ceremonial on my deck’s ass, and to be honest, I get ceremonial about everything’s ass if I can. It doesn’t even need to have an ass. If I can add an outfit to the ceremony I’m having upon a metaphorical ass then you can bet, I am already wearing the outfit*.

Now, the below post is full of privilege. It reeks of someone being able to have time alone, in their own safe space. The money to get the extras I mention. It presumes you’re in a craft tolerant household. Many of you I know won’t have this, but this doesn’t mean that your cards are any less special – celebrating your cards any way you can is more than enough. The joy of practising any aspect of spiritual craft is that it is personal and unique to you. I certainly know what it is like to have to hide your celebration of the craft and what it brings to your life and I guess this is why I like to make a song and dance out of everything now I am older and living with a fellow witchy type. It does get better…Huzzah! 

So here are some of the ways I get myself in the ceremonial mood…

Get yourself a snazzy lil’notebook

It doesn’t even need to be snazzy, a random wad of paper will do, but if you haven’t figured it already, I’m all for the drama! If there is one piece of advice I would say to any newbie Tarot reader or Witch is to start taking notes, immediately. Recording the random learnings you’ve made that day or things you have felt or dreamt of after a reading/spell casting will prove really useful.  As you delve further into your practice you will begin to spot patterns in the card meanings and it will allow you to highlight key areas of your intuition. Plus it’s always nice to be able to look back on how far you’ve come! 

If you’re just starting your Tarot journey and this is your first deck then it’s always good to write down how you feel about each card as you first see them. Noting down anything that calls out to you when you’ve first seen the card. The fish coming out of the cup? The bunny jumping out of the corner? Did a certain card make you immediately feel happy or sad?…

If you’re established but this you’ve decided to try a new Tarot deck, the same practice is always really useful as each deck has a different feeling and illustrations so again, responds to each reader differently. It’s like meeting a new friend, each deck has it’s quirks and I love them for that!

Shuffle, shuffle! 

Once you have gone through each card and taken your notes the next step is to suffle them and I mean shuffle them. I really go to town with my shuffles. I recommend when starting a new deck to make sure to do get a flat surface and place them all on the table and basically mix them all together for a minute or two. Then I make sure to keep splitting them into groups and them remixing them into different groups again, and again. Once together in a neat pile they are ready to be cleansed. 

Mix….

And split… 

Candles and Incense 

Like most Witchy types I am partial to a bit of incense and love me a fine candle. I use them a lot to cleanse my surroundings. They are also great tools to create ‘The Magic Mood’…you know what I am talking about. That cosy lighting and warm snuggly feeling. There is just something powerful about a candle isn’t there? If you’re able to, you can smoke cleanse your new Tarot deck over a burning candle. I like to do this regularly with all my decks as I find my cards tend to get a bit niggly after a few readings. 

Some people even like to leave their cards in the moonlight overnight but I can never wait that long and want to play. 

Music

Now, when it comes to any form of magic I am a huge fan of making it to music. This may be my Pisces placements screaming out as I have musical manifestation lists of all varieties on my Spotify. Eg. If I want to manifest money, I‘ve been known stick some Cardi B on. New Moon Ceremony? A bit of Bowie and Kate Bush if you please.  There are no rules if something makes you feel empowered in a particular energy that you want to tap into, go for it, my friend. Remember,  you are the magic, any tools we Witches use is just help us connect with that magic.

Tarot Card Storage: 

This varies from person to person – for me, I like to keep mine in their original boxes and my main deck is a playing card sized deck in a tin, so easy to transport around. Some people really love to store there in special boxes and drawers and I am here for this, in fact, my first alter was hidden in a drawer. You can make your own tarot bags and there great tarot box and bag makers over on Etsy and ebay which you can check out as well. 

Hopefully, I’ve inspired you have a little magic moment between and your Tarot deck. If so make sure to let me know below or on my social channels and I love to hear from you! 

Love, Love 

Ems x

*I sincerely didn’t expect to be saying the word ass so much in this post. Huh. 

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Well, hello Coven, 

We all love Tarot (well, unless you think it’s the work of the devil, in which case, hell yeah!) but I am often asked by those curious to learn – where should I start? My answer is very simple my darlings, like with all magic, the true power is in the action. So shorthand, the best way to learn tarot is to simply DO Tarot. By that I mean, get yourself a sweet deck of cards and begin to play…that’s how you begin to bond with your cards (more on that later) and get to learn each individual cards meaning.

Below are my top tips for helping you dip your toe into the World of Divination. 

What is the best Tarot Deck for beginners? 

The Tarot deck most non-witchy types will recognise is the Raider Waite Tarot deck. Now, this isn’t the oldest deck or even the original card designs…in fact, the actual illustrator Pamela Colman Smith doesn’t even feature in the title…but that’s a whole other blog post, my friends and her input into Tarot needs to be amplified to the max! If I was to recommend a starter deck, this would be it as it’s got the most resources related to it…plus, I think it looks cool. It’s also considered the Tarot standard deck.

My honest answer though? Whichever one you are drawn too. If you like the designs and feel connected to the deck, trust that gut instinct. The cards are representative of energies and life situations so whilst Raider Waite may be the most famous and widely used, any tarot deck can do the trick. Plus, as I have already alluded to, you will realise that each deck of cards has a personality. My favourite deck likes to troll me for example, even when reading for friends. 

Do Tarot Cards have to be gifted to you? 

This is a myth. 

Tarot started out as a game and then developed this air of mystery…as all witches do, it’s kinda our thing, you know? So whilst you may have heard this myth, most professional Tarot readers will agree with me that no, if you are drawn to the cards don’t wait around to be gifted. Heed that call and learn more about that calling! 

My first deck was brought by myself at 11 years old from the Mall. Ah, Madam Legna. I am to this day trying to find that deck again so we can be reunited. I’ve found it a few times but it’s super expensive so alas, I’ll patiently wait until the universe decides its the right time. Also, these were ‘fortune reading’ cards rather than official Tarot but, they led me to Tarot. We find our paths in different ways and that’s part of the fun! 

What is the quickest way to learn Tarot? 

Simple, learn about the tarot cards first! The easiest way to do this is when you get your first deck, put some time aside…. I’m talking candles, incense, music whatever makes you feel all cosy and connected so you can go through and look at each card and really get a feel for them. I’d also recommend that you keep a notebook and take notes from this very first engagement. Then do your smoke cleanse and various shuffles before you begin the next step which is to ‘pull’ a card a day. 

Basically, every morning ask the deck to provide you with a card with a message for that day. This is a great way to learn the card meanings and also build an understanding of what those cards mean to you personally – as well as learn your own style of shuffling. Once you have been doing this for a few weeks or even sooner depending on how you feel, the fun can really start and you can attempt your first readings. 

What is the best Tarot spread for beginners? 

I, personally always recommend a four-card spread. So simple, so to the point and great for helping you hone your skills in seeing the patterns and how the cards can feed into each other. 

My personal fave spread is:  

The reason I like it is that it can answer most questions, if you want to delve a little deeper you can add other cards to the mix etc which I very rarely have to do. It’s certainly a very nice foundation to start practising readings. 

Hopefully, I’ve managed to give you the confidence to get started and inspired you to start reading. Make sure to get in touch and let me know as I love hearing from you and you’re learnings. 

Until Next Time, 

Ems 

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