The Real History of Tarot: From Italian card game to Modern Tool
If you pick up a Tarot deck today, it is easy to assume it was created by ancient mystics to predict the future. The images on the cards look secretive, ancient, and full of hidden magic. However, the real story of Tarot is very different, and much more interesting.
Tarot did not start as a magical tool. It actually began in the 1440s in Northern Italy as a high-society card game played by wealthy aristocrats.
Here is the true story of how a luxury Renaissance card game transformed into one of the world's most popular tools for self-reflection and personal growth.
The Renaissance Origins: 1440s Northern Italy
It’s story starts in 15th-century Northern Italy during the Renaissance. This was a time of huge rebirth in art, science, and poetry. Northern Italy was split into powerful city-states like Milan, Ferrara, and Bologna. These cities were ruled by extremely wealthy noble families, led by rulers called Dukes (such as Duke Filippo Maria Visconti and Duke Francesco Sforza of Milan).
Dukes loved showing off their status by spending money on grand art, poetry, and social parties. Around 1440, these rulers wanted a new, custom game to play with their wealthy guests.
How the First Tarot Deck Was Made.
Standard playing cards had already arrived in Europe from the Middle East a few decades earlier. A normal deck had 56 cards divided into four simple suits:
- Swords
- Cups
- Coins (later called Pentacles)
- Clubs (later called Wands)
To make things more interesting, Italian rulers hired court painters to create 21 extra special picture cards. These extra cards were called trumps because they could beat regular cards during play.
At first, the game was called Carte da Trionfi (Cards of Triumphs).
Around the year 1500, people stopped calling the game Trionfi and started using the word Tarocchi (which later became the French word Tarot).
Why the name change? Historians believe the word comes from tarocco, an Italian dialect word meaning "fool" or "foolishness."
It was likely named after The Fool card (Il Matto), one of the most famous and chaotic cards in the game. Calling the game Tarocchi was a playful way of calling it "The Game of Fools."
What Did the Illustrations Mean Back Then?
The 21 trump cards were not secret magical symbols. Artists painted figures that everyone in Renaissance Italy would recognize:
Power Figures: The Emperor and The Pope represented real societal leaders.
Virtues: Justice, Strength, and Temperance reflected the moral lessons of the era.
Poetry and Myths: Figures like The Wheel of Fortune and Death were popular artistic themes from famous poems of the era, like Petrarch's I Trionfi.
Because every card was painted by hand using real gold leaf and expensive dyes, only the rich could afford them. And no, nobody used them for fortune-telling. To the Dukes, it was simply a fun, clever game of strategy and points.
The Tarot de Marseille (1500s–1600s)
For its first hundred years, tarot remained an expensive game for nobility. But in the 1500s, two major things changed everything:
1. French Soldiers Discovered the Game: French armies invaded Northern Italy and fell in love with Tarocchi. They brought the game home to France, where it was called Tarot.
2. The Printing Press Was Invented: Instead of hiring painters to make hand-painted decks on gold leaf, workshop owners used woodblock printing to print hundreds of decks cheaply on paper.
Still Just a Game!
By the 1600s, card makers in Marseille, France, standardized this printed style. This colorful, printed deck became known as the Tarot de Marseille.
It is important to know that Tarot was still played purely as a card game. Regular people played tarot in French taverns and living rooms, just like people today play Poker or Bridge. Millions of Europeans played tarot for over 200 years without ever thinking about magic or fortune-telling.
The First Professional Reader & The Occult Shift (Late 1700s)
So, how did a French tavern card game turn into a tool for predicting the future? It started in Paris in 1781 when a French author named Antoine Court de Gébelin claimed that Tarot cards were actually a secret, ancient Egyptian book of wisdom called the Book of Thoth.
His claim was historically false, but the idea captivated Paris. One man in particular saw a massive opportunity: Jean-Baptiste Alliette.
Who Was "Etteilla"?
Jean-Baptiste Alliette was a former seed merchant and print seller in Paris who had been practicing card reading for years. Sensing that the public was hungry for mystery, he reversed his last name (Alliette became Etteilla) and launched a brand-new career as a full-time, professional tarot master.
Etteilla became the first person in history to earn a living solely as a professional tarot reader.
Before Etteilla, fortune-tellers used basic playing cards without standardized rules. Etteilla realized that if he created a formal, structured system, he could turn tarot from an informal hobby into a respected profession.
Working out of his Paris studio at 48 Rue de l'Oseille, he catered to everyday citizens, nobles, and curious Parisians during the turbulent years leading up to the French Revolution.
Etteilla realized that the traditional Tarot de Marseille was designed for gaming, not fortune-telling. So in 1789, he designed the world's first purpose-built tarot deck for divination, called the Livre de Thot (Book of Thoth).
His deck was completely different from older decks:
Egyptian & Astrological Imagery: He redesigned the pictures to incorporate Egyptian-style motifs, zodiac signs, and classical elements (Fire, Water, Air, Earth).
Printed Keywords: He printed helpful interpretation keywords directly on the top and bottom borders of every card (for both upright and reversed meanings).
Renumbered Cards: He changed the order of the Major Arcana cards to match his own theory of how the world was created.
By combining clever marketing, structured guidebooks, and a unique deck, Etteilla single-handedly laid the foundation for how tarot readings are conducted today.
The Modern Redesign: Waite, Smith, and the 1909 Revolution
By the early 1900s, interest in spiritualism moved from Paris to London. A secret society of artists and scholars called the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn wanted to redesign tarot for the 20th century.
Two key members came together to create the deck that millions of people use today: Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Colman Smith.
Who Was Arthur Edward Waite?
Arthur Edward Waite (1857–1942) was an American-born British scholar, mystic, and writer. Raised in London, he spent his life reading in the British Library, studying esoteric philosophy, Freemasonry, and Christian mysticism.
Waite wanted to create a new tarot deck that cleared away centuries of folklore rumors and focused on deeper spiritual themes. He conceived the overall framework, reordered key Major Arcana cards (like swapping Strength and Justice), and directed the project.
Who Was Pamela Colman Smith? (The Forgotten Genius)
Pamela Colman Smith (1878–1951), nicknamed "Pixie," was a brilliant British-American artist, illustrator, writer, and theatrical set designer. Raised in London, Brooklyn, and Jamaica, she grew up steeped in folk stories and theater arts, which gave her drawing style a dramatic, storytelling feel.
When Waite commissioned her in 1909 to draw all 78 cards, she was given just six months to complete the massive project.
Waite provided specific instructions for the 22 Major Arcana cards, but he gave Pamela complete creative freedom over the 56 Minor Arcana (the "pip" cards).
Why Their Deck Changed Tarot Forever?
Before 1909, suit cards in decks like the Tarot de Marseille were very plain, a Three of Swords was literally just three drawn swords on a blank background.
Pamela Colman Smith revolutionized tarot by drawing full, human story scenes on every single card:
The Three of Swords became a heart pierced by three blades beneath storm clouds.
The Five of Cups showed a cloaked figure grieving over three spilled cups while two full cups stand behind them.
The Eight of Swords showed a blindfolded woman surrounded by a fence of blades, illustrating feelings of being trapped.
Because every card illustrated a relatable human emotion, anyone, even a complete beginner, could look at the picture and instantly understand its meaning without memorizing a textbook.
Why Was Her Name Missing for Decades?
When the deck was published in December 1909 by William Rider & Son, it was simply called the Rider-Waite Tarot.
Pamela was paid a flat fee for her work, received no ongoing royalties, and received zero title credit on the box. After completing the deck, her art fell out of public favor, and she died in debt in 1951.
Only in recent decades have historians and the tarot community corrected this historical injustice by renaming the deck the Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) or Waite-Smith deck, ensuring "Pixie" gets the full credit she deserves as the true visual architect of modern tarot.
Tarot Today: From Fortune-Telling to Self Care
Today, how people use tarot is shifting once again.
While some people still use tarot for fortune-telling, millions now use it as a tool for mindfulness, daily journaling, and self-reflection.
The psychologist Carl Jung pointed out that tarot cards are filled with archetypes, universal symbols that reflect real human experiences, like starting a new adventure (The Fool), facing unexpected change (The Tower), or finding inner quiet (The Hermit).
Today, pulling a card in the morning can help you:
- Check in with your emotions.
- Think about a problem from a fresh perspective.
- Spark ideas for creative projects or personal writing.
A 500-Year Mirror for the Mind
Tarot didn't emerge fully formed from ancient pyramids or magical secret societies. It began as a parlor game for Italian nobles, grew into a beloved card game played across Europe, evolved into an art form through French occultists like Etteilla, and was transformed forever by the artistic genius of Pamela Colman Smith.
The real magic of tarot isn't that it magically foretells tomorrow, it's that its 500-year-old imagery provides an incredible mirror for where you are today. Whether you look at a card as a piece of Renaissance art, a psychological tool, or a ritual of daily mindfulness, the cards invite you to slow down and listen to your own intuition.
Ready to Begin Your Own Tarot Journey?
Now that you know the rich history behind these 78 cards, it's time to put that knowledge into practice!
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We'd love to hear from you: Were you surprised to learn that tarot started as an Italian parlor game? Which historical era of tarot surprised you the most? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts!