Early Tarot

The history of Tarot begins in china where playing cards were first produced. In fact there are still huge similarities between the standard arrangement of tarot cards and of regular playing cards today. The earliest known packs come from Italy. The standard deck was built of a regular fifty six card deck with the addition of twenty two trump cards. This formed the seventy eight card tarot deck still familiar today.

Almost all Tarot packs from the 15th to the 17th centuries have the same design. The images used are similar to Christian art of the time. This is particularly the case for the Dance of Death and Triumph of Death images popular in Italy at the time. The design of the deck remained fairly static for many years, but with the huge rise in popularity of the cards during the twentieth century the designs began to develop and change. The most popular pack is the Rider-Waite deck. It has been popular for over a century because of its clear and straightforward design combined with its deep symbolism and meaning. It has been popular with psychics using the cards for readings as well as with general collectors.

The rise in popularity of the cards has ensured that today there is hundreds of different tarot designs available to choose from. There is a huge and inspiring variation in the different designs that are available. The tight structure of the deck gives a huge amount of possible variations in imagery and style and allows the imagination of designers to run wild.  Designs range from the traditional and serious to the modern and light hearted. Materials used to create the images are equally varied. There are some beautiful decks that have been created using water colors and others done in oils. There are also decks created with photographs and others using collage and cut up techniques. Some of the most modern decks have even utilized computer generated imagery to produce some wonderful decks.

Some of the most popular designs follow a medieval look and are designed to have a classic appeal; these will probably always remain among the most popular with psychic readers. Others have a much more up to date look and feel to them. Many of these decks are works of art in their own right and this has led to a huge interest in the collection of decks, which in turn has stimulated more designs and published sets. As well as the very artistic sets there are also a huge amount of novelty themed tarot packs. You will find decks based around popular films and cartoons as well as original and often bizarre designs with science fiction and fantasy themes.