(Updated March 25, 2025)
There’s more to tarot than meets the eye. The idea of tarot readings may evoke images of eccentric self-proclaimed fortune telling psychics or taboo witchcraft and occult dealings, but in reality it’s a fascinating, fun and often insightful experience that can offer surprising value in unexpected ways. Today tarot readers use tarot cards is ways that have evolved beyond their mysterious origins.
While there’s an undeniable mystical quality to tarot readings, there’s also a practical and therapeutic nature to them. If you’re interested in learning to work with tarot cards, do readings for others, use them in your own personal practice, as a hobby, or if you’re curious about how it all works, this is a good place to start. This brief overview will give you a quick introduction into tarot. We’ll look at how it has evolved over time, how the cards provide insights, and we’ll explore various contexts and methods for working with tarot.
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What is tarot?
Essentially, tarot cards are a 78 card deck with illustrations on each card, and these illustrations make use of symbolism and motifs with various associated meanings about life. When a querent/seeker (the person on the receiving end of a tarot reading) has a question and gets a tarot reading, it is a tarot practitioner’s job to draw cards from the deck, interpret the artworks and convey the relevant insights to the seeker as answers.
The briefest history of the cards.
No one knows exactly where or how tarot cards first originated, but it’s widely thought that they evolved from playing cards sometime in the early to mid 1400s. European (likely Italian) artists created trump cards featuring allegorical and personified imagery, to add to the standard four suit card deck. From what we know, the practice of reading tarot cards to “tell fortunes” and other more occult uses dates back as far as the 1700s, when a 62 card deck called the Tarocco Bolognese was recorded as being used for divination in an unknown-source manuscript. Soon after, the French began assigning spiritual significance to the cards of one of the most popular decks at the time, the Tarot of Marseilles. This is when tarot card reading began its change from an entertaining pass-time game to a divine practice.
In 1780, the French occultist pioneering this shift, Jean-Baptiste Alliette, produced a deck of cards intended exclusively for spiritual and occult use, and this is the 78-card deck, divided into Major and Minor Arcana, that contemporary tarot enthusiasts make use of today. It’s around this time, the 1800s, that people began using tarot for divination; to predict the future and tell fortunes. In 1909, occult scholar and mystic Arthur Edward Waite and artist Pamela Colman Smith created the Rider Waite tarot deck, greatly influencing the standardisation of the deck which became the basis for modern tarot practises.
Tarot into the Modern Age.
Over the years, and especially in the last few decades, tarot card imagery, meanings and usage has evolved. The use and understanding of tarot cards has been shaped heavily by ideas in philosophy, spirituality and psychology (Dr. Carl Jung’s name often pops up when researching tarot history).
At times, tarot has been associated with New Age spirituality movements, Wicca, occultism and more, but in reality, modern tarot has no specific cultural or religious ties. In this sense, it operates much like astrology or numerology, in that it is accessible to anyone and everyone who may be interested in it. As a result, it’s now become far more common for people to use tarot as a personal development tool, to aid in self-reflection, self-analysis, and self-healing. Reader’s may still use tarot cards as part of their spiritual practices, and in some cases divination, but the scope of uses for tarot has broadened.
Additionally, many of the original, more general meanings and imagery assigned to the cards were developed and collated for societies and ideals that no longer fit in our current world. Modern decks now also show off artworks that are far more creatively and culturally diverse than their traditional predecessors, often featuring motifs that are non-traditional, inclusive, abstract, playful and relevant. They draw influence from anywhere and everywhere; from different cultures and belief systems, to popular trends in food, lifestyle, movies, books and more. All this new variety brings new meaning with it in the way tarot readers use and understand the cards. And, as understanding grows and evolves, so do the insights that the cards provide, as well as the ways that cards are worked with.
With the continually rising era of advancements in technology, online platforms, social media, and AI, tarot becomes more widely accessible. The introduction of professional tarot readers offering their services online, professional, amateur and hobbyist readers on YouTube and other social media platforms, pop-culture, pop-psychology, online-courses, trends in self-development, self-healing, the overlaps of spirituality and psycho-therapy are all carrying the resurgence of esoteric practices like tarot and astrology becoming more mainstream, at least temporarily.
How tarot works.
Using tarot cards is fairly straightforward. When a querent/seeker consults a tarot reader, with or without a question, the reader will shuffle the deck of cards, use one of various methods to randomly select some cards from the deck, and then analyse and interpret the meanings and imagery of the selected cards. A reader will then typically draw some associations and correlations between their interpretations of the cards and whatever is going on in the querent/seeker’s life. This process creates an opportunity to look at and discuss the querent’s life or query from different perspectives, based on the card meanings.
Not all tarot readers analyse simply interpret the cards in such a logical way, however. Many professional readers and practitioners, like myself, incorporate the use of other skills like psychic abilities, mediumship/channeling, or connecting with ancestors and Spirit guides to add to the interpretation of the cards. In these cases, the cards also function as a communication tool rather than just prompts for self-reflection. Professional readers often use the cards to convey spiritual guidance to the querent for their areas of concern, and identifying challenges, opportunities and life lessons that may arise in the querent’s path.
>Getting The Right Cards In A Tarot Reading (How Can Tarot Be Accurate?)
Having a personal tarot practice is also common for most tarot readers, including amateurs and hobbyists. This may involve conducting self-led versions of the readings mentioned above, incorporating tarot reading alongside spiritual practices, and even using tarot as a personal-growth and self-care tool together with other self-care activities, like journalling. An example is something like shuffling and drawing a card from the deck, using the themes and meanings associated with that card as a journalling prompt, and exploring how those themes show up in your life in your past and present.
There’s more to Tarot than Meets the Eye.
As a professional practitioner, working with tarot for ten years, I’ve had the pleasure of observing how tarot can help people to see themselves and their lives through new eyes, allowing querents to be led to more clarity, self-confidence, and even sometimes deep inner peace. It’s a fascinating practice, surprisingly fulfilling as a self-care activity, and an incredibly powerful tool for spiritual guidance.
Working with tarot or getting a tarot reading is much more than how it’s often represented in pop-culture. You don’t need to believe in magic or destiny, and there’s more to it than just playing with beautiful cards. Whether you get a reading for fun, or you genuinely want to address a particular issue, tarot can provide you with valuable insights and can be a useful tool in your personal-growth journey.
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Featured image & cover illustration credit: yonitasingh.com