50 Fun Facts About Tarot

How many cards are in a full tarot deck?

That is four suits of 14 cards plus 21 trumps and the Fool.

Tarot cards were originally created for what purpose?

Trick-taking tarot games were played across most of Europe from at least the mid-15th century.

In which country did tarot cards first appear, in the mid-15th century?

The earliest records come from Ferrara and Milan, where 21 trumps were added to an ordinary pack.

What were tarot trumps originally called in 15th-century Italy?

The word became 'trumps' in English; 'tarocchi' only appeared around 1502.

The oldest surviving tarot cards were painted for the rulers of which duchy?

About 15 Visconti-Sforza decks survive from the mid-15th century.

Early European playing cards were probably based on the deck of which Egyptian dynasty?

The Mamluk deck was invented in or before the 14th century, after paper reached Western Europe from Asia.

The first European record of playing cards, from 1367, comes from which city?

Within a decade John of Rheinfelden was describing a 52-card, four-suit pack in Freiburg.

Which four suits make up the traditional Italian tarot pack?

Occult decks often rename batons as wands and coins as pentacles.

How many trump cards does a tarot deck have, not counting the Fool?

Depending on the game, the Fool may be the top trump or a card played to avoid following suit.

Which Florentine expanded tarot deck ran to 97 cards?

It added astrological symbols and the four elements; it was first mentioned as 'germini' in 1506.

After a 1950s boom, French Tarot became the second most popular card game where?

It took off in the 1950s after being confined largely to Provence; a national federation followed in 1973.

The oldest surviving Tarot of Marseilles cards were made in 1639 by whom?

They came to light recently and went up for sale in 2023.

The name 'Tarot de Marseille' was coined in 1856 by which French card historian?

Occultists Éliphas Lévi and Papus later popularised the label.

In the Tarot of Marseilles, the Tower card is named what?

Italian decks called it the Arrow, the Lightning, the House of the Devil or simply Hell.

In Italian decks, the Hanged Man (Le Pendu) was known as what?

The upside-down pose echoed the 'shame paintings' of traitors in Renaissance Italy.

In modern Italian, 'Tarocco' as a noun names a cultivar of which fruit?

The verb taroccare means to fake something, from a tarot card played in place of another.

Who in 1781 first claimed the tarot was a lost book of Egyptian wisdom?

A Protestant pastor, he wrote before Champollion had deciphered hieroglyphs and offered no evidence.

Court de Gébelin's tarot essay appeared in which of his vast works?

Volume eight of his compendium, 1781; Louis XVI headed the subscriber list.

Court de Gébelin welcomed which American as a lodge-brother at Les Neuf Sœurs?

He backed American independence and was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1783.

Etteilla, the first to assign divinatory meanings to tarot, was the pseudonym of whom?

Etteilla is Alliette spelled backwards; he published his Book of Thoth treatise in 1785.

Around 1789 Etteilla produced the first tarot deck designed for what?

Its themes were Egyptian, following the belief that the cards came from the Book of Thoth.

The earliest evidence of tarot used for fortune-telling, c. 1750, concerns which deck?

An anonymous manuscript gives rudimentary meanings for its cards.

Who first used the terms 'Major Arcana' and 'Minor Arcana'?

Better known as Paul Christian, he published his Histoire de la magie in 1870.

How many cards make up the Major Arcana?

The Fool plus the 21 numbered trumps, from the Magician to the World.

Which is the only unnumbered card in a typical Major Arcana scheme?

It is sometimes placed first as 0, or last as XXII.

What is the Fool called in the Tarot of Marseilles?

Italian decks call him Il Matto; both mean 'the madman'.

In the Rider–Waite deck, the Fool walks toward the edge of a precipice with which animal?

He also holds a white rose, a symbol of freedom from baser desires.

What is the number of the Death card in most traditional tarot decks?

Some decks, like the Marseilles, leave the name off and call it 'The Card with No Name'.

In the Rider–Waite Death card, the skeleton carries a black standard bearing what?

His horse steps over a prone king: not even royalty can stop change.

In which year was the Rider–Waite Tarot first published?

William Rider & Son of London printed it in December 1909 in a very limited run.

Who illustrated the Rider–Waite Tarot?

She was a fellow member of the Golden Dawn; many readers now call it the Smith–Waite deck.

Both Waite and Smith belonged to which occult society?

Yeats introduced Smith to the order, which she joined in 1901.

Which two Major Arcana cards did Waite swap to fit the Golden Dawn's astrology?

Strength became VIII for Leo and Justice XI for Libra; the Sola Busca deck already had Strength there.

In the Rider–Waite deck, the Papess was renamed what?

Her papal tiara was removed; the Lovers became Adam and Eve in Eden.

What innovation did Smith bring to the Minor Arcana of the Rider–Waite deck?

Earlier decks, with rare exceptions, showed only simple pip designs on the suit cards.

Roughly how many copies of the Rider–Waite deck are estimated to be in circulation?

It circulates in more than 20 countries and has spawned countless imitations.

What was the title of Waite's 1911 revised guide to the deck?

It carried black-and-white plates of all 78 of Smith's illustrations.

What was the illustrator Smith's nickname?

The actress Ellen Terry is said to have given it to her at the Lyceum Theatre.

In which country did Smith's family live from 1889, inspiring her Annancy Stories?

Her two books of folklore retold Anansi the Spider tales.

Smith illustrated the last novel of which Lyceum Theatre colleague in 1911?

The Lair of the White Worm; Stoker had also written a book on Ellen Terry that she illustrated.

In 1907 Smith became the first painter shown at which New York photography gallery?

Alfred Stieglitz was intrigued that she painted visions that came to her while listening to music.

Smith died in 1951 in which Cornish town?

Her gravesite is unknown; she was probably buried in an unmarked grave.

Who painted the Thoth Tarot for its occultist creator?

Planned as a six-month job, it took five years, from 1938 to 1943.

The Thoth Tarot, meant to take six months, took how many years to paint?

Crowley also published a 1944 book, The Book of Thoth, to accompany it.

Where are the original Thoth Tarot paintings stored?

A conservation project completed in 2011 cleaned them and replaced acidic backings.

Which Éliphas Lévi book does Dummett say the whole modern occultist movement stems from?

Lévi, born Alphonse-Louis Constant, trained at Saint-Sulpice and was ordained a deacon.

Which cartomancer claimed to be the personal confidant of Empress Josephine?

The 36-card Petit Lenormand deck was published in her name after her death in 1843.

Who first published the Golden Dawn's tarot text 'Book T' openly, in 1912?

It appeared in his periodical The Equinox; the order itself never sold a deck to the public.

Which philosopher called occult tarot 'the most successful propaganda campaign ever launched'?

Dummett also wrote The Game of Tarot (1980), the standard history of the playing-card tradition.

In 1997 which filmmaker completed a reconstructed Tarot of Marseille with Philippe Camoin?

Camoin is heir to a Marseilles card-making house that traces back to Nicolas Conver.