Episode 2 - Tarot Cards

You shift uncomfortably in the small tent. The smoke-filled air heavy with the strange scent of incense.

The hunched figure across from you shuffles slowly.

Your discomfort is an easy price to pay for what the woman across from you offers… Fortunes read, futures told.

She shuffles the deck once more, letting the paper of the cards slide across themselves with a low hiss.

She sets it down on the table between you. Gestures for you to cut the deck.

You reach forward, letting your hand trail over the cards. It catches somewhere just shy of halfway up.

You lift the cut cards away and aside.

She sets the rest of the deck on top, and the reading begins.

Lots of people have heard of Tarot cards. They have a reputation of the occult, but that is not where they got their start.

Most were for playing card games, such as Italian tarocchini, French tarot, and Austrian Konigrufen, collectively referred to as tarot or tarock games.

Over time, some were used for a style of divination magic called cartomancy. The method we primarily associate them with today.

Some, especially more recently, are meant exclusively as artistic pieces, with each card a work of art.

Welcome, listeners, to this exploration into an old magic. A magic used to gather advice, understanding, or even peer into the future. The magic, of Tarot Cards.
I am Andrew Eagle. And I invite you to join me, and come with me Through the Veil.

There are many variants of Tarot deck, with different suits and styles.

They date back to the mid-fifteenth century used for playing games.

Many of those games still exist today and are played in various places world-wide.

The Italian Wars from 1494 to 1559 carried the games across Europe, although it wasn’t until the 18th century that the games had a revival.

The 18th century is also when we find the first records of Tarot being used for divinatory purposes.

A document from around 1750 is the earliest confirmed record of tarot decks being used in cartomancy.

Unconfirmed claims suggest the practice dates back to Ancient Egypt and references can be found in the Book of Thoth, a series of manuscripts that are claimed to have been written by Thoth, the Egyptian god of writing and knowledge.

That claim, regardless of truth or lack thereof, was supported by Etteilla, a pseudonym for Jean-Baptiste Alliette, who produced the first tarot deck specifically for occult purposes. Etteilla filled their tarot deck with themes from ancient Egypt.

Etteilla is also responsible for the format that most tarot decks made for cartomancy follow to this day.

“What information do you seek?” She asks, staring at you intently.

“What questions do you want answered?”

Consider for a moment, dear listener, what your response would be?

Sitting across a table from someone who promises knowledge about any subject, answers to any question.

What question would you ask? What situation would you seek advice on?

She draws cards, one at a time, from the pile.

They are placed with care and

A pattern begins to reveal itself in the face down cards.

Divinatory Tarot Decks generally have 78 cards, broken into two distinct parts.

The Major Arcana, sometimes referred to as the greater secrets, consist of 22 cards without a suit. Each is named. The Magician, The Lovers, Justice, Death, The Sun, The Fool, to name a few. All of the Major Arcana are numbered from 1 to 21, with the exception of the Fool which is unnumbered. It is either placed as 0, or as 22.

The Minor Arcana, or lesser secrets, consists of the other 56 cards, divided into four suits of 14 cards each. Ten of the fourteen cards are numbered, 1 through 10, with the remaining four being the Court Cards.

Each suit has a Court consisting of a King, Queen, Knight, and Knave.

Knaves are sometimes called Pages or Jacks, and Knights are very occasionally called Cavaliers.

The traditional suits of the minor arcana are Swords, Batons, Coins, and Cups. As time progressed, those names occasionally change.

In modern occult tarot decks, Batons are often referred to as Rods or Wands.

Coins are sometimes referred to as Pentacles.

Modern Tarot decks meant to be used strictly as art often do not include the lesser secrets, choosing instead to simply contain only the 22 Major Arcana.

The spread in front of you takes the shape of an eye.

17 cards spread with precision.

“Focus now,” she whispers, “Keep your question clear in mind.”

You focus on the cards, waiting, not noticing that you are holding your breath.

The woman’s hand shifts forward, flipping the card that sits in the center of the eye.

“The center of your issue. The heart of the problem and the solution.”

She moves again, flipping another card. “Recent developments…”

Another. “An action that could help. Or a situation that could hinder.”

She flips six cards in total. Each receives an explanation, a piece of the puzzle.

Everything in the reading is important. Each Card has a purpose, and the position and orientation of each Card adds depth and detail to the meaning.

I won’t claim to be an expert by any stretch.

But I hope to supply a small breakdown of how occultists then, and to an extent now, read meaning from the cards.

We have Etteilla to thank again for many of the rules which became central to tarot divination.

He defined several features of a reading that impacted the meaning:

First and foremost, the cards. Etteilla claimed that each card had strictly assigned meanings.

These meanings were different depending on if the card was in the “Upright” position, where the card was right-side-up to the reader; or the “Reversed” position, where it was upside-down.

In addition, he posited that the position of the cards on the table and relative to one another affected the overall meaning of the reading without changing the meaning of any individual card.

As per Etteilla’s writings, each card had both an Upright meaning and a Reversed meaning.

The Major Arcana have fully unique meanings, each of the 21 plus the Fool possess their own individual meanings.

While the Minor Arcana cards each have individual meanings, the themes of a reading can generally be summed up by suit.

Wands are associated with fire. They represent passion, inspiration, and willpower. They represent creation and the beginning. They are action, ambition, and making plans. However they are also recklessness and lack of direction.

Cups are associated with water. They represent emotions, the unconscious, creativity, and intuition. They represent relationships and imagination. They also represent uncontrolled feelings, fantasy, and a disconnect from one’s self.

Swords are associated with air. They represent intelligence, logic, truth, ambition, conflict, and communication. They represent the power of intellect. They are double-edged and can represent both help or harm. In excess, they represent abuse, cruelty, or a lack of empathy.

Pentacles are associated with earth. They are the suit of the material. They are associated with financial fortunes, as well as themes of security, stability, health, and prosperity. They are also the suit of nature. In general, in a reading, they represent messages about the long-term future. Their negative implications are greed, envy, and boundless ambition.

As early as we had playing cards, sometime in the 14th century, people were using them to read the future. By modifying a standard deck, cartomancers assigned meaning to each of the cards and were telling fortunes well before Tarot-style decks existed.

It is easy to understand why it is popular.

And we should not be quick to dismiss it.

With a flip of a card we get some direction. A concept to examine and think about. A vocabulary with which to challenge our understanding and expectations.

It’s no wonder to me that readings are still done today. At its root it isn’t about looking into the future.

It’s about understanding who we are and the things that may keep us from our goals. Things we might not see without a second glance.

I hope that you have enjoyed this episode of Through the Veil and I’m glad you joined me.

If you found your time well spent, I hope you will subscribe to get new episodes weekly wherever you listen as we continue our journey through folk lore, legend, myth, and magic.

And as always, thank you for listening.