As we are uncertain of the actual origin of Tarot or the reasons behind the first pack of Tarot cards created, we have only the symbols on the cards to investigate. Historians state that Tarot began in Italy during the first half of the 15th Century. This explains the Italian influence seen on many of the depictions on the Tarot deck. It would appear that they were created simply for gaming purposes, although this is pure speculation, as we can't categorically prove for what purposes these cards were invented. It is believed however, that the Tarot deck has been used since those early days for fortune telling and the like. Unfortunately, there is no recorded history behind the creation or early use of Tarot. One of the most popular rumours is that the Gypsies introduced the Tarot to Europe, and this in turn has led to further legends connecting the Tarot with Gypsies!

Anyway, let us stick to what we know!

The Tarot deck consists of 78 cards. Twenty-two of these cards form the "Major Arcana", whilst the other 56 cards form the "Minor Arcana."

The cards of the Major Arcana do not belong to any suit, and can be considered to be "extra" cards, each being numbered, except for the card with the title, "The Fool."

The Minor Arcana is divided into four suits (Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles) of fourteen cards per suit. The fourteen cards in each suit comprise of numbered cards (from ace to ten, as in a standard deck of playing cards) and four court cards - Page, Knight, Queen and King

The usual method of "Tarot Card Reading" consists of shuffling, cutting and selecting cards, arranging them in a spread, and by interpreting the symbols and pictures of the cards in relation to their positioning, with relevance to a specific question or general current situations.

Whilst the exact origins of tarot are not entirely known, the earliest reliable information suggests that tarot originated as a game in 15th century Italy by the addition of 21 trump cards, a fool and four queens to a normal deck of cards. Some early tarot decks of Northern Italian origin, which date from the early to mid-15th century, have survived. These were called carte da trionfi, or "triumph cards." About a century later, the cards came to be known as tarocchi.

When the tarot was first used for divination is not known, but no documented examples exist prior to the 18th century. All available evidence indicates that cartomancy with more conventional playing cards predates tarot cartomancy. As early as 1540, for example, a book entitled The Oracles of Francesco Marcolino da Forli shows a simple method of divination using the coin suit of a regular playing card deck. Manuscripts from 1735 (The Square of Sevens) and 1750 (Pratesi Cartomancer) document rudimentary divinatory meanings for the cards of the tarot, as well as a system for laying out the cards. In 1765, Giacomo Casanova wrote in his diary that his Russian mistress frequently used a deck of playing cards for divination.

In 1781 Antoine Court de Gébelin wrote a speculative history and a detailed system for using tarot to foretell the future. Since the publication of this history, various explanations have been given for the origins of tarot, most of them of doubtful veracity. There is no evidence for any tarot cards prior to the hand-painted ones that were used by Italian nobles, though some esoteric schools say its origins could be in Ancient Egypt, Ancient India or even the lost continent of Atlantis.