Do Tarot Cards Featuring Anyone Other Than White Folks Exist?

A new study reveals that Black, Indigenous, and Latino American people are leading the rise in Tarot’s popularity. Tarot card decks now feature people of different races and ethnicities, with a push for inclusivity and representation in recent years. This diversity has led to the creation of decks that showcase diversity. Tarot cards have profound cross-cultural significance, with each culture adapting and interpreting them in unique ways. Some notable Tarot deck variations include the Tarot of Dreams, the Shadowscapes Tarot, and the Deviant Moon Tarot.

When choosing a Tarot deck, it is important to consider the unique symbolism of each card. Some decks feature majority black or Asian people, while others feature white people. Tarot card reading is a form of cartomancy where practitioners use tarot cards to gain insight into the past, present, or future. It is a form of therapy, much like psychoanalysis.

Tarot card images need to be secured for online or published material, and there is a potential lawsuit for copyright violation. Tarot’s association with Roma culture may have come from the racist European convention of associating occultism, witchcraft, and other issues. The art of finding meaning lies in the card design, and like other therapeutic practices, card reading taps into an internal conversation between the user and the Tarot.

What cultures use tarot cards?

Tarot, first known as trionfi and later as tarocchi or tarocks, is a pack of playing cards used in Europe since the mid-15th century for card games like Tarocchini. It has evolved into a family of games including German Grosstarok and modern games such as French Tarot and Austrian Königrufen. In the late 18th century, French occultists made elaborate claims about their history and meaning, leading to the emergence of custom decks for divination via tarot card reading and cartomancy. There are two distinct types of tarot packs in circulation: those used for card games and those used for divination.

Tarot has four suits that vary by region: French suits are used in western, central, and eastern Europe, and Latin suits in southern Europe. Each suit has 14 cards: ten pip cards numbering from one (or Ace) to ten; and four face cards: King, Queen, Knight, and Jack/Knave/Page. Additionally, the tarot has a separate 21-card trump suit and a single card known as the Fool. These tarot cards are still used throughout much of Europe to play conventional card games.

The use of tarot playing cards was once widespread across Europe except the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula. However, they later experienced a renaissance in some countries and regions. For example, French Tarot was largely confined to Provence in the 18th century but took off in the 1950s, becoming the second most popular card game in France. Tarock games like Königrufen have experienced significant growth in Austria, with international tournaments held with other nations.

How many types of tarot cards are there?

The modern tarot deck, based on the Venetian or Piedmontese tarot, consists of 78 cards divided into two groups: the major arcana (22 trumps) and the minor arcana (56 cards). The major arcana features pictures representing various forces, characters, virtues, and vices, numbered I through XXI. The cards are arranged in a series of order, from juggler to papess, empress to emperor, pope to lovers, chariot to justice, hermit to wheel of fortune, strength to death, temperance to devil, lightning-struck tower to star, moon to sun, last judgment to world, and the fool.

The minor arcana consists of four suits of 14 cards each, similar to modern playing cards. Each suit has 4 court cards (king, queen, knight, and jack) and 10 numbered cards, with the value progression in ascending order from ace to 10, then jack, knight, queen, and king.

Can anyone use tarot cards?

Tarot is a popular and accessible tool for anyone, according to author Michelle Tea. She believes that learning tarot involves becoming comfortable with the imagery, learning them by heart, and understanding how the cards interact. Tea’s book, Modern Tarot: Connecting with Your Higher Self through the Wisdom of the Cards, provides a beginner’s guide to tarot, guiding readers through each card in a deck, sharing reading tips, and ways to incorporate tarot into self-care practices. Tea emphasizes that anyone can learn tarot, as long as they are comfortable with the imagery and understand how they flow into a story.

What religion is tarot cards from?

This literature review examines the interconnection between Tarot cards and New Age religion, with a particular emphasis on their function within the context of the twenty-first-century New Age movement and their utilization by practitioners. It elucidates the religious import of Tarot cards and delineates the various methods through which they can be employed.

Do Japanese people use tarot cards?

This essay examines selected images from tarot decks designed in Japan, which reflect a deliberate adaptation process across cultural and temporal borders. The focus is on the under-analyzed and mostly female-gendered domain, focusing on the substitution of medieval European people and elements with images from Japanese art, history, and popular culture. These substitutions either gloss over gaps between Western and Japanese world views or meld them into a new form, allowing the tarot to enter into a different or hybrid metaphysical culture. Tarot cards are important because of their great economic and cultural impact in contemporary Japan, providing insight into domains of pleasure, spiritual exploration, and fandom.

Is it OK to pull tarot cards for yourself?

Tarot readings can be done by beginners, providing insight into current situations, honoring intuition, and forecasting potential outcomes. To begin, clean the energy of your space by burning herbs, ringing bells or chimes, taking a bath, or using crystals. A Selenite wand is a popular energy refresher that aids clarity.

Sit comfortably and close your eyes, focusing on the protective energy surrounding you. Take deep breaths, think about your question or needing guidance, and keep your mind and heart open to the answers that may come through the cards. Shuffle the deck, focusing on your desired query, and shuffle the cards in front of you. The pattern laid out is called a “spread”, and the meaning of each card in combinations builds up to the overall answer to your query.

Before beginning to shuffle, know which spread you will be working with. As answers come through, it’s important to draw additional cards for further clarity or start with a new question from a different perspective. Tarot readings can be a powerful tool for personal growth and understanding.

Are tarot cards against Catholic religion?

Tarot cards and fortunetellers are practices that aim to discover the future, but only God knows the future. The Catholic Church teaches that God can reveal the future to prophets or saints, but a sound Christian attitude involves putting oneself in the hands of Providence and giving up unhealthy curiosity about it. The Catechism of the Catholic Church prohibits all forms of divination, including horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, omen interpretation, clairvoyance, and mediums, which conceal a desire for power over time, history, and other human beings, as well as a desire to conciliate hidden powers. These practices contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear owed to God alone.

People seeking guidance from tarot cards, Ouija boards, and fortunetellers may be dabbling in something forbidden by God, as they may open themselves up to demonic influence. The only way these practices can be “real” is if a demon works through them, giving false guidance about the future. This “real” practice is a real danger and can negatively influence us.

What is the No 1 Tarot card?

The Magician, also known as The Magus or The Juggler, is the first trump or Major Arcana card in traditional tarot decks, used for game playing and divination. In the occult context, the trump cards are recontextualized as the Major Arcana and given complex esoteric meaning. In this context, the Magician is interpreted as the first numbered and second total card of the Major Arcana, succeeding the Fool. In French, Le Bateleur, also known as “the mountebank” or “sleight of hand artist”, is a practitioner of stage magic.

In Italian tradition, he is called Il Bagatto or Il Bagatello. The Mantegna Tarocchi image of the Magician is labeled Artixano, the Artisan, and is the second lowest in the series. 18th-century woodcuts of the Magician reflect earlier iconic representations and can be compared to free artistic renditions in 15th-century hand-painted tarots.

Is tarot card reading true?

Early French occultists claimed that tarot cards had esoteric links to ancient Egypt, the Kabbalah, Indic Tantra, or the I Ching. However, scholarly research reveals that tarot cards were invented in Italy in the early 15th century for playing games, and there is no evidence of significant use of them for divination until the late 18th century. The belief in the divinatory meaning of the cards is closely associated with a belief in their occult properties, which was propagated by prominent Protestant Christian clerics and Freemasons.

From its uptake as an instrument of divination in 18th-century France, the tarot went on to be used in hermeneutic, magical, mystical, semiotic, and psychological practices. It was used by Romani people when telling fortunes and as a Jungian psychological apparatus for tapping into “absolute knowledge in the unconscious”, a tool for archetypal analysis, and even a tool for facilitating the Jungian process of individuation.

Is tarot ok for Christians?

The notion that tarot cards can exert control over one’s life is a pervasive one, yet there is a paucity of empirical evidence to substantiate this claim.

What is the science behind tarot cards?

Tarot cards have been found to have psychological influences, but they can still have beneficial effects on a person’s mental health when used in a therapeutic context. A 2009 study found that regular users of Tarot cards used them as a tool for self-reflection, providing insight into their current life situations and providing comfort during difficult times. They also used Tarot cards as a tool for positive reinforcement, drawing cards intentionally and randomly to provide insights about their own lives.

Some co-researchers kept a card with them until their goals were resolved, claiming that Tarot does not reveal new information but can provide a new perspective on an issue that can influence a plan for a possible course of action.

This study highlights the potential of Tarot as an effective therapeutic tool, despite the foundational psychological effects behind its mainstream use. Further research on the beneficial impacts of Tarot in a therapeutic setting would involve examining a larger number of participants from a wider variety of backgrounds. Regardless of the reason behind a person’s use of Tarot cards, they have maintained a strong presence in society and have the potential to do more than just predict the future.