History & Psychology of Tarot
Tarot's Beginning
During the mid 1400s early Tarot decks began to be made in Italy. They were the same as regular playing cards with four suits except additional cards were added which had allegorical images. In effect, these very first Tarot cards were simply regular playing cards with added allegorical picture cards.
The cards were used for playing games at this point, not for Tarot spreads inclined to divine extra knowledge about a person or receive messages from the spirit realm. Still, because card games often involved gambling, and since the Catholic Church - which was extremely dominant in Western Europe - viewed gambling as evil and sinful, the use of the Tarot cards for card games was condemned by some members of the Catholic Church at the time.
These cards were hand painted very exquisitely, and thus very expensive and only affordable for the wealthy. They were rare and used only by the rich to play card games.
Again, the only way Tarot cards were different from other more basic playing card decks was that they had extra cards with interesting, symbolic pictures - pictures such as a royal looking person in a great robe praying on their knees over a crouching person, or such as a royal looking woman in a great robe holding a baby while seated on a throne and with an old person beneath the throne, or such as a skeleton riding a horse. And while these cards did not seem to be used to find answers from God or any spiritual realm at all in any kind of divination, the pictures were certainly very allegorically suggestive, psychological-looking, and reminiscent of alchemy-like illustrations. They looked intriguing and were very beautifully done.
Thus they were used in Italy for wealthy people's card games for years and centuries onwards.
Tarot Began to be Used for Seeking of Answers
Around 1760 people in some parts of Europe began using standard playing cards for fortune-telling purposes on a somewhat widespread basis. Fortune telling with playing cards may have been going on for some time already, but more rarely. At this point using playing cards to tell fortunes became something of a more popular thing (see The Game of Tarot by Michael Dummet, 1980).
In 1781 a French clergyman named Court de Gebelin published a writing about Tarot cards, saying they were deeply symbolic, that some images must've come originally from Egypt, and that other images represented traditional Christian cardinal virtues such as Temperance and Strength. Essentially he wrote that the images had deep mystical, religious, and spiritual importance. He did not suggest the cards should be used for divination, but he did point out in a published writing that the pictures had extraordinary spiritual meaning.
Two years later a French spiritualist who practiced card reading with regular playing cards believed and popularized the idea that Tarot cards could be used for divination, divine seeking of meaning, and fortune telling and such. His name was Jean Baptiste Alliette, or simply "Etteilla" as he was popularly called. He believed, like Court de Gebelin, that Tarot imagery had roots in ancient Egypt, specifically saying that Tarot images must have come from The Book of Thoth. He, and the writings of Court de Gebelin before him, seem to have influenced people because people started using Tarot cards at this point for some divination purposes, not just for card playing.
This is the true time, 1783, when Tarot cards began to be really used by people in spiritual circles as instruments for the divine seeking of meaning, fortune-telling, and spiritual seeking of answers.
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Tarot Reading Spread Worldwide
Throughout the rest of the late 1700s and the 18 and 1900s Tarot reading spread worldwide. Many famed Tarot readers made their mark on its history since then, and many books have been written on the subject.
In 1909 the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck was created by Arthur Edward Waite with images drawn by Pamela Colman Smith under his direction. The Rider-Waite Tarot deck was based on previous images of historical Tarot decks but with some changes which many argue deepened the Tarot deck's connection to its original 1400s Italian alchemical imagery and roots. The Rider-Waite Tarot deck is the most common deck used by Tarot Readers today.
In the early 1900s the famous and greatly respected and insightful Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist Carl Jung sang the praises of Tarot cards in several of his lectures. He spoke of how Tarot images were reflective of the unconscious, and how they could connect someone to their inner thoughts and feelings. He also spoke about synchronicity, an energy phenomenon in the universe which caused seemingly different events to coincide together because they were connected in hidden ways. And this is one of the theories behind Tarot: that the energy of the cards is attracted to the subconscious energy of the person for whom the reading is done, either in their present or past or future, and that is why the card appears. Carl Jung was a fan and advocate of Tarot cards for their potential to cause psychological growth and enhance one's life.
Tarot can be Psychologically Useful even if One Doesn't Believe in a Spirit World
There are deep grooves in the subconscious of us all, thoughts and urges that we don't consciously think about but which affect us on a daily basis. These affect our mood, our outlook, our perspective, our goals, our interactions: pretty much everything.
Tarot readings bring out topics and suggestions that a person may not have been thinking about before. For instance, lets say the Death card comes up in a reading (which many people feel afraid of but there's really nothing scary about that card as it doesn't mean actual death, but rather the end of something and beginning of something new). That card then Guides the person to think about what it is in their life which may be coming to a close. It could be that their child is graduating from high school and this represents the close of a chapter for their life and the beginning of a new chapter for both themselves and their child. The Death card would be stimulating the person to think of that topic. Lets now say the next card in the spread, perhaps its in an "Advice" portion of the spread, is the Empress card. This card could be stimulating the person to think about how they can next nurture themselves and their growing child, that they will need new ways of doing this. They can still nurture their child with love and attention, but it will be different. And the Tarot reading would be stimulating the person to think about this.
The Tarot reading in the above example would be getting the person receiving the reading to think about this topic consciously, and, cause them to consider how they can move forward positively. Many people are a little sad when their child leaves the nest, and in this reading the Tarot reading is showing that this parent can still nurture their child, stimulating them to have hope about this and think about ways they can do this, sort of giving them that extra push forward in a positive direction. The memory of the Tarot reading can even be comforting to the person as they watch their beloved child leave for college and they feel a little sad - the memory of the Tarot reading can come to their aid: reminding them that they can still nurture their child in new ways but that its time to embrace this new chapter.
In this way Tarot is helpful psychologically even if the cards have no connection to the spirit world.
A person can be an atheist and still gain much from getting a Tarot reading. Even randomly selected cards from a Tarot reader who understands the symbols can help someone gain insight into the underlying psychological themes of their life.
Tarot is for anybody - spiritually inclined or not. Tarot has the potential to be helpful - whether a person is inclined to believe in the spirit world or not.
