Most people who play cards don't realize that our modern deck of 52 cards is derived from the Tarot deck. In fact, the four suits correspond directly with the suits in Tarot. Here is how they match up:

Traditional Tarot Decks have 22 "trump" cards along with 56 "suit" cards. The trump cards include powerful archetypes like the Sun, the Moon, the World, the Lovers, the Magician, etc. The suit cards correspond closely to the 52 cards in a playing card deck, except that in Tarot we have not only Queen and King face cards, we have Page and Knight cards for each suit, which were combined into the single Jack card as playing cards developed over time.

Playing cards were once used for fortune-telling, too.
Tarot shows up first in Italy and France in the 14^th and 15^th centuries, possibly having traveled there from the Middle East. In the early days, both types of cards — Tarot cards and playing cards — were used openly to play games and for general entertainment, but both were also adapted and used for divination or fortune-telling purposes, mostly in secret. Some historians suggest that all card "games" were originally developed in part as a way to hide (from the medieval Church) the more serious application of the cards and symbols. The Church condemned divination and gambling both (in spite of the fact that divination is depicted favorably more often than not in the bible).

Tarot has been interpreted creatively by artists and sages through the ages, whereas the playing card deck has stayed pretty much the same. Tarot art is a rich and beautiful reflection of history and traces the evolution of these universal symbols in different periods and cultures, right up to modern times.

Consulting the Tarot cards is entertaining, even as we use it for advice or to decipher the deeper meaning of circumstances and events in our lives. In fact, you can approach Tarot like a game of spiritual solitaire!

Tarot.com offers authentic self-service Tarot experiences for you to try online. Shuffle and pick your cards, just as you would with a physical Tarot deck. The first 3 cards of a traditional 11-card Celtic Cross Reading are free. Give it a try... you'll be amazed at the insights and advice you'll receive. You can check out over 50 different Tarot decks, too!

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Some Tarot trump cards

Note: In some Tarot decks, the suits are given different names. Wands may appear as Sticks or Staves, Coins as Pentacles, etc.