Using Tarot Cards in Divination

Tarot cards have long been used by readers to divine the future for individuals. The use of them is believed to be part psychic and part magic. A tarot card deck normally contains 78 cards and readers get attached to one deck in particular from which they find they can divine the future more easily than others.

As with many areas in life, practice is important to become a good reader of tarot cards. The more a tarot card reader works with a deck the clearer the meanings that are divined. Reading tarot cards becomes a deeply personal experience as the use of magic, divination, and intuition come together.

Though tarot cards go back hundreds of years, the idea of using the cards to predict the future is relatively a new concept and was first implemented by the Order of the Golden Dawn and worked with the Tree of Life and magic.

The Order of the Golden Dawn

Though Gypsies and the Egyptians used their own set of cards for divination, tarot cards that we use today were used for three purposes by The Order of the Golden Dawn. They are
Straight divination
Spell work – which features especially designed decks
Tree of life – often used to bring about a great use of magic.

Divination and the Tarot Deck

Tarot decks for divination, like all magical tools must be personalized through keying. Keying forms a bond with you and the universe, so each draw of a card or throwing the deck also means you are changing the universe.

To key the cards and thereby form the bond, it is important to study other magical tools such as the plate, Athame, and sun candles as these tools will be used to key your cards. Decks thrown that are not keyed will be less accurate as they have no bond to the cosmos.

History of Tarot Cards

Playing cards entered Europe via Mamluk Egypt in the 14th century or thereabouts. Their suits would have been similar to those found in the tarot decks. The first documented evidence originates from Bern, Switzerland where a ban on their use was first imposed.

From a divination perspective, the earliest documented evidence goes back to 1540 from a book entitled The Oracles of Francesco Marcolino da Forli, which featured a method of divination. Manuscripts from 1735 such as The Square of Sevens and 1750 Pratesi Cartomancer both show rudimentary divine meanings taken from the symbols and pictures on tarot cards.

Tarot Cards and Psychoanalysis

Carl Jung firs attached importance to tarot symbolism. It is possible he may have seen tarot cards as representing archetypes, or if you prefer, fundamental persons or situation embedded in the collective unconscious of all human beings. In the psychoanalysis world, a picture of how a person is can be gauged by asking them which tarot card from the tarot deck they identify with themselves.

A far cry from divination but this still shows a link between the tarot card and a human being.

We sell a variety of Tarot cards and decks on our shopping pages:  Tarot Cards