Other tarot creators keep the same number of cards but rename some of them, often with an eye to greater inclusivity. While most modern-day tarot decks also include 78 cards, some tarot creators add a card or two. All three of these decks have 78 cards divided into suit cards and a Major Arcana, but they have some different cards. Others are based on the Thoth Tarot, created by Aleister Crowley and first published in 1969 after his death, or the Tarot of Marseilles, a French tarot deck first printed in 1709. Today, many tarot decks are based on the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, containing familiar names like The High Priestess or The Emperor. You might look for one with beautiful art, one with figures that look like you, or one that reflects your particular interests (like cats, maybe?). If you’re shopping for your first tarot deck, pick the one that ~speaks~ to you.

Which is great news when it comes to representation, creativity, and all that good stuff. Thanks to crowdfunding campaigns, indie designers, and, y’know, the internet, we probably have more tarot decks to choose from than ever before. in the early 1900s, and the most well-known tarot deck, the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, was first published in 1909. In France in the 1780s, the occultist Jean-Baptiste Alliette (also known as Etteilla) created a new deck intended for fortune-telling and popularized tarot as a form of divination rather than a game. Influenced by these cards, a card game called tarocchi became popular in 15th-century Italy. The tradition of using cards to playfully predict the future likely goes back to the 14th-century Turkish cards called Mamluk, which were brought to Western Europe. Tarot actually has a long and fascinating history. These cards have names like Three of Cups, King of Wands, Ace of Swords, etc. They’re divided into four suits-Pentacles or Coins, Swords, Wands, and Cups. The other 56 cards are called the Minor Arcana, and they illustrate the day-to-day trials and tribulations of life. The Major Arcana features 22 cards numbered 0 to 21, and they represent the greater areas of life (Death is one of these, but in a tarot reading, it’s more likely to represent transformation than actual death death). Tarot decks typically feature two groups of cards: the Minor Arcana and the Major Arcana. You know, The Sun, The Empress, and, ( actually-not-so-) terrifyingly, Death. Let me introduce you to the 78 most important cards of your life: the tarot cards.

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