Tarot Basics: From Card Game to Reflection Tool

This is a fortune corner for fun. Tarot does not predict the future, and unlike the other tests on Nadapge it is not research-based. It is separate from your analysis results, so enjoy it as a set of prompts for looking inward.

Tarot began as a card game

Tarot started out as a game, not a form of divination. In the 15th century, nobles in northern Italian cities such as Milan and Ferrara added a set of special picture cards to the ordinary deck and played a game called trionfi (“triumphs”). Those picture cards are the ancestors of today’s Major Arcana, and in play they acted as trumps that beat the other cards. The game soon came to be called tarocchi in Italian and spread across Europe; in France and elsewhere, people still play tarot as a card game today.

The occult reading came later

The idea that tarot holds hidden mystical meaning appeared in France in the late 18th century. The scholar Antoine Court de Gébelin claimed the cards preserved the wisdom of ancient Egypt, a theory with no historical basis. Soon after, a man working under the name Etteilla produced a deck designed for fortune-telling, and in the 19th century occultists such as Éliphas Lévi built elaborate systems linking the cards to the Hebrew alphabet and astrology.

The Rider-Waite-Smith deck (1909)

The best-known tarot today was published in London in 1909 by the Rider company. Arthur Edward Waite, a member of the occult society known as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, designed the deck, and the artist Pamela Colman Smith painted all 78 cards. In older decks the number cards simply showed the right count of cups or swords, but Smith gave every number card its own scene, so even a newcomer could read a story from the pictures alone. The card images on Nadapge come from public-domain scans of this deck.

How the 78 cards are organized

A tarot deck has 78 cards.

• 22 Major Arcana: from 0, the Fool, to 21, the World, these cards depict life’s big themes. They are often read as a journey in which the Fool meets a series of figures and situations and grows until reaching the World.
• 56 Minor Arcana: four suits (Cups, Swords, Wands and Pentacles), each with 14 cards (numbers 1 to 10 plus four court cards). They deal with everyday feelings, thoughts, drive and practical matters.

Nadapge uses only the 22 Major Arcana. With fewer cards, newcomers have room to take in each card’s story properly.

Reading a three-card spread

The way cards are laid out is called a spread. The Nadapge three-card spread works like this:

1. Now: a card that mirrors your current state of mind and situation
2. Advice: a card that offers an attitude worth trying
3. Flow: a card that hints at where things may go if you carry that attitude forward

A card that comes up upside down is called reversed. A reversal is not a bad omen; it simply suggests the card’s energy is blocked or still turned inward. That is why Nadapge’s reversed readings focus on “how could this start flowing again?”

Using tarot as a reflection tool

Tarot images do not have one fixed meaning, so your own mind tends to show up in how you see them. That makes tarot a handy tool for reflection.

• Before drawing, write your concern down in one sentence. Just putting the question into words helps clarify your thinking.
• Before reading the interpretation, look at the picture for about a minute and notice what catches your eye first.
• Focus less on whether the reading is “right” and more on what thoughts it brings up. If a sentence snags your attention, it is probably pointing at something you care about right now.
• Write a short answer to the question that comes with each card. That answer is often a more valuable record than the reading itself.

Please keep this in mind

Cards are drawn at random, and there is no scientific evidence that tarot can reveal the future. Nadapge’s tarot is meant for fun and self-reflection; for important decisions about health, money or legal matters, please consult a qualified professional. Rather than drawing again and again until you get the answer you want, you will usually get more out of quietly examining the first thought that came to mind.