Tarot Card Origins

First published in Psychic News Magazine:

 Playing cards for recreational games of chance and skill were first developed in China and were printed on bamboo strips for use by the leisured class. Due to advances in paper and wood block print technology in the 9^th century Tang dynasty and, over several centuries, a large variety of these card games spread westward along the Silk Routes to appear in the Middle East with ornate calligraphy and elaborate abstract designs. These were known as Mamluk cards (in the Topkapi Palace Museum) and were used by the Sultinate in Egypt from late 1200s with Moorish and Saracen associations. In the 1300s, card games reached Europe with designs of birds and Roman Gods, some included astrological symbols and elements (such as the Minchiate deck) and depicted people in medieval costumes. Cards were used by wealthy nobles, merchants and scholars and were often hand painted and with gold leaf. 

 

Cartomancy (using cards to tell fortunes) used playing cards until the acceptance of Tarot cards which were based on a similar format to playing cards and were originally used as playing cards. The oldest surviving cards with a trump suit were commissioned by the Duke of Milan. These cards were used a Bridge like game originally and known as tarocchi. The game spread to France where it was known as ‘tarot’ and included early ‘Tarot de Paris and ‘Marseilles’, mid 1700s decks that used wood blocks with additional hand colouring. In England, it was a game called Trumps. Most card decks included 4 suits, pip cards and court cards, like the original playing card decks, but with an added group of named cards that included a Fool or Joker card. In 1628, Charles I imposed a card tax, granted a charter to a Livery company that is still in existence, and placed an embargo on the importation of playing cards because they were so popular. In the 1700s cards became used for fortune telling when interest in the occult mushroomed with royal support. Many leading lights of the past have had a deep interest in tarot for divination, such as French Antoine Court de Gebelin (1800s), French publisher and occultist, Jean-Baptiste Alliette (Etteilla) who released the first book on tarot for divination in 1791, French Eliphas Levi (1800s) to a deck we would all recognize by American poet, and mystic A E Waite. Today the pips and court cards in their four suits are known as the Minor Arcana and the individual named trump cards as known as the Major Arcana (the word ‘arcana’ means ‘secret’). Many experts have suggested origins of the card images and meanings from gypsies and the Kabbalah, to Cathar secrets.

There are a number of playing card decks, created in 1400s Italy for the aristocracy but often the full deck has not survived. One of the most popular decks was commissioned by Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan in Northern Italy in approx. 1425 and by his successor, Francesco Sforza. The hand painted cards depicted family members in the period dress of the time. He asked his secretary, Maurizio da Tortona to create a game based on virtues and temptations that was painted by favourite artists. They show life in Italy during the Renaissance with authentic medieval scenes.

There are many hundreds of tarot decks on the market that are sought by collectors and professional readers, from early antiques, renaissance, to ultramodern, with specialist decks from all countries of the world, by formally trained fine artists to computer graphics, some have astrology, kabbala, symbols and other motifs, some have goddesses, animals, flowers, trees, and natural elements, and there are cards for every interest and every event.

Christian Dior was a French haute couture fashion designer and founder of a highly successful luxury French fashion house under his name. He loved mysticism and superstition and often sought advice from clairvoyants and fortune tellers. His sister, Catherine was in the French Resistance during WWII and was imprisoned in Ravensbruck Concentration Camp at a time when the family did not know where she was. When she was liberated, she loved gardening and inspired her brother in many of his designs. He died playing cards whilst on holiday in Italy in 1957 at the age of 52 yrs.

Currently, Italian Maria Grazia Chiuri is the Creative Director of Dior and has produced previous women’s fashion collections that feature inspirations and influences from tarot card images. In 2018, she produced the Cruise Collection that used outdoor runways from the extraordinary Californian location, the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Reserve where Karen Vogel and Vicki Nobel’s Goddess focussed Motherpeace Tarot illustrations were presented on full length skirts, dresses and tops.   

For Spring and Summer 2021 Collection, tarot trumps are centre stage. They were chosen during this period of upheaval in the world as difficult times require an understanding of life and knowledge of who we are. The tarot deck that was used for inspiration is the 15^th century Visconti-Sforza deck from Milan that has a background of gilding, complex geometric designs, floaty organza, velvets, lace and silks, brocades and embroideries, long flowing gowns, high wasted corsets, and muted colours of aristocratic life during the Italian Renaissance. A video has been created to display a fairy tale collection of soft pallets, glitter and gold, antique beauty and magical moments. The Tarot Trumps are said to offer a progression through life’s ups and downs and offer wisdom along the way for each phase of life. 

The Dior video was filmed in the Moorish Castle of Sammezzano by Matteo Garonne. It shows an imaginary setting where a girl has a reading and chooses a card to enter the Arabesque Castle of Tarot. Inside there is an inner world labyrinth of corridors where she meets tarot figures in Dior haute couture gowns. She also meets her inner male figure, dressed in black. He assists her in making decisions and in developing courage and confidence. She meets the seated High Priestess, the Divine Feminine, mysterious, intuitive, wearing a green gown and 3 tiered crown. She is holding a book of secrets. The girl takes the key that unlocks potentials and inner guidance and opens the doors to Justice with her balanced scales of fairness, responsibility and moral codes. A playful Fool in a court jester’s dress represents naivity and innocence, but is distracting, the laugh and whistle echoes and invites opposing directions to the inner male. The path taken leads to an inverted Hanged Woman showing life in a different perspective, surrender, enlightenment and metamorphosis and points to a false door which opens to reveal Temperance as higher learning, moderation and self-control, transfers water from its jugs to measure and balance. The Devil in ram’s horns and bat wings is in its lair and it touches her sensually as she considers her shadow self, her self-indulgence, decadence and her character weaknesses. On the veranda, there are dancing stars, the magical components of life, of hope and joy and beauty, and from an opulent bed she sleeps and dreams of the Moon with a golden crescent head-dress. Death as an executioner, in a gold lace mask unclothes her, this is the end of one phase and the beginning of another, a rebirth as a more mature and knowing personality. She and her male self bathe as lovers, naked together in a steamy bath, they gently kiss, integrating the male and female, completing the individuation process of uniting polarities of the self to come into her own in wisdom and maturity.    

When a well at Sforza Castle in Milan was cleaned, some playing cards were discovered that dated to approx. 1500 and are thought to be what are ascribed to “Tarot of Marseilles” designs thought to have originated in France and brought to Milan by merchants and travellers, but could also have originated in Milan and been taken to France by invading soldiers. I would like to recommend The Pierpont Morgan Visconti-Sforza Tarrochi Deck, published by U S Games Systems Inc. at £45. It’s a deluxe edition of 80 cards, the two additional cards are portraits of Bianca Maria Visconti and Francesca Sforza. The deck has reproduced original hand painted cards that were commissioned in 1450 Milan in their authentic antique colours and is presented in a pack with an expanded guidebook by tarot expert, Stuart R Kaplan who includes details of the origins of the deck. 

Article by Wendy Stokes https://wendystokes.co.uk