Tarot

A deck of 78 illustrated cards used for reflection and divination — 22 Major and 56 Minor Arcana.

Tarot is a 78-card deck read for insight rather than chance. It began in 15th-century Italy as a card game (tarocchi) and was only later, from the late 1700s, used for divination. Today it's used most often as a tool for reflection: a way to look at a situation from an angle you wouldn't have reached on your own.

The deck splits into two arcana. The 22 Major Arcana are the archetypal, life-shaping cards; the 56 Minor Arcana, divided into four suits, handle the texture of everyday life. A reading lays a few cards into positions that frame your question, and the images become a prompt for honest thinking.

It helps to know what tarot is not: it isn't a machine that fixes the future. A reading is a mirror — you bring the situation, the cards give you a fresh vocabulary for it, and the meaning is made in the reflection, not handed down as a verdict.

Related terms

• Arcana
• Major Arcana
• Minor Arcana
• Reading
• Cartomancy

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