Spooky Special: The History of Tarot

This week, we’re taking a journey through time and trust me, it’s wilder than any Halloween story you’ve heard.
Tarot didn’t begin in the dark corners of an occult bookstore or a dusty Romani caravan (yep, we’re busting that myth). It started in Renaissance Italy as a card game for nobles who probably had more coin than conscience. So how did those gilded game cards become the magical, psychological, and spiritual tool we use today?
We’ll trace the transformation from the Visconti-Sforza decks and the Tarot de Marseille to Court de Gébelin’s “Book of Thoth” fantasy, through Eliphas Levi, the Golden Dawn, Pamela Colman Smith’s revolutionary artwork, and into modern tarot as a tool for reflection, ritual, and healing.
I’m breaking down the history, the myths, and the moments where humanity turned art and archetype into alchemy. Whether you’re witchy, clinical, skeptical, or just tarot-curious, this episode reminds you that the magic isn’t in the cards — it’s in you.

Listen if you want to learn:
•The real, documented origins of tarot in Renaissance Italy
•How myths of Egypt and “fortune-telling gypsies” shaped the story
•Why the Golden Dawn and Pamela Colman Smith matter more than you think
•How tarot evolved into a spiritual mirror for modern witches, pagans, and even therapists

If you love Halloween, history, and a little magical realism with your caffeine, this one’s for you.
Share this episode with your favorite tarot friend, your skeptical coworker, or anyone who loves a good story grounded in truth and mystery.
And if you have thoughts, feedback, or a favorite tarot myth I missed, use the feedback link at the top of the show notes or email me directly. I love hearing from you, and your messages help keep this podcast as authentic as a midnight coffee on night shift.
Stay ritual, stay curious, and remember,  the cards don’t have power. You do.

Chapters

• 0:20 Setting The Mission: Real Tarot History
• 2:18 Renaissance Italy: Cards And Triumphs
• 5:20 Myths Ignite: Egypt And The Royal Road
• 7:28 Etteilla And Romani Legends
• 9:28 Dance Break And Reset
• 10:13 Occult Revival And Lévi’s Kabbalah Links
• 12:17 Golden Dawn To Rider Waite Smith
• 14:18 Crowley, Thoth, And Modern Uses
• 16:30 Coffee, Crystals, And Reading The Cards
• 18:30 Three-Card Spread: Clarity, Power, Balance
• 20:40 Takeaways, Reflection, And Farewell

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:10

Welcome back to the Ritual Nurse Podcast. I'm your host, Reva, and today we're doing something a little different. It is October. It is spooky season. And if you know me, you know this is my favorite time of year. So I wanted to give you something special. Today, we are diving into the actual, documented, verifiable history of Tarot. Not the myths, not the mystical origin stories that you hear at every metaphysical shop. The real deal. But here's where it gets interesting. We are also going to talk about the legends, the rumors, and the wild stories that transformed a Renaissance card game into one of the most revered divination tools in modern pagan, Wiccan, and even secular spiritual practices. Because here's the thing: the history of tarot is not just about facts and dates. It is about how humans take something ordinary and breathe magic into it. How belief, culture, and a little bit of creative storytelling can turn 78 pieces of cardstock into a portal for self-reflection, guidance, and yes, sometimes a peek behind the veil. So buckle up, besties. We are going medieval Italy, Revolutionary France, Victorian England, and everywhere in between. We are meeting con artists, occultists, artists, and mystics. And by the end, you're gonna understand why Tarot is not just cards. It is a living, evolving system that reflects who we are, what we fear, and what we hope for. Let's get started. So, where did Tarot actually come from? Not Egypt, not ancient mystical temples, not wandering Romani caravans, though we'll get to those myths in a minute. Tarot was born in northern Italy in the mid-1400s, specifically around 1440 to 1450 in the courts of Milan, Ferrara, Florence, and Bologna. Playing cards had already been circulating in Europe since the late 1300s, brought over from the Islamic world via the Mamluk deck from Egypt and Persia. These early decks had four suits: cups, swords, coins, and polo sticks, which sound remarkably familiar to anyone who has picked up a tarot deck, right? But tarot added something new. The Italians created a special set of 22 trump cards called Trianfi or Triumphs. These cards featured allegorical images like justice, temperance, death, the Pope, the Emperor, and the Fool. These were not random. They reflected the moral, philosophical, and spiritual values of Renaissance humanism. Think of them as a visual lesson in virtue, hierarchy, and the human journey towards enlightenment. The oldest surviving tarot decks are the Visconti Sforza decks, hand-painted masterpieces commissioned by the ruling families of Milan in the mid-1400s. These were not mass-produced, these were luxury items gilded with gold and silver, created by artists like Bonifacio Bembo. And here's the kicker: they were used for playing games, specifically trick-taking games similar to bridge. Tarot was a courtly pastime, a way for the wealthy to show off their taste and engage in strategic gameplay. There is no evidence, none, that these early decks were used for divination. They were games. Beautiful, symbolic, philosophically rich games, but games nonetheless. The structure we recognize today, 78 cards total, 22 major arcana, and 56 minor arcana, was standardized pretty early. By the time Tarot spread to France in the 1500s, particularly to Marseille, the Tarot de Marseille became the dominant pattern. This deck, produced by card makers in southern France throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, is what most occultists eventually used as the foundation for divination work. But even then, for hundreds of years, Tarot was still just a card game. Popular? Yes. Mystical? Not yet. So what changed? How did a deck of playing cards turn into a tool for reading the future and exploring the unconscious? That, my friends, is where the urban legends and the occult revival come in. So let's talk about the myth that launched a thousand tarot decks. The idea that tarot came from ancient Egypt. In 1781, a French pastor, that's right, a clergyman and Freemason named Antoine Cours de Jebelin published an essay claiming that tarot was actually the Book of Fath, an ancient Egyptian text purportedly containing the secrets of the pharaohs and the priests. He said the word tarot came from the Egyptian words tar meaning road and ro meaning royal. So according to him, tarot literally meant the royal road. Here's the problem. He made it all up. Egyptian hieroglyphics had not even been deciphered yet. That would not happen until the 1820s with the Rosetta Stone. Corps de Jevelin had no evidence, no historical documentation, nothing. He saw a tarot deck for the first time, must have gotten really excited, and decided it must be Egyptian. Because, well, Egypt was trendy in Enlightenment Europe. To put it mildly, everything mysterious and esoteric was immediately attributed to Egypt back then. And quite frankly, I don't think we've stopped doing that. But the damage, or maybe the gift, was done. Once Corps de Jevelin published his theory, it spread like wildfire. Suddenly tarot was not just a game, it was a mystical artifact, a remnant of lost wisdom, a tool for accessing hidden ancient knowledge. Then came Atelia. Jean-Baptiste Alliette, a French occultist and professional fortune teller, took Corps de Jevelin's ideas and ran with them. In 1783, Atelia published the first book on tarot divination and later created the first tarot deck, designed specifically for fortune telling, not gameplay. He assigned meanings to each card, created systems for reading them, and essentially invented tarot as we know it today. Now, little side note, the French names I could very well be completely butchering. So if I am, I apologize. I'm trying my best to recreate the pronunciations that I looked up and pronounced them correctly. But here's where it gets even more interesting. Around the same time, another myth started circulating that Tara was brought to Europe by the Romani people, often disparagingly called gypsies at the time. The story went that the Romani, mistakenly believed to have come from Egypt, carried these mystical cards with them as they traveled, using them for divination and fortune telling. Now, there's some truth and some fiction here. The Romani did use cards for divination, and some still do to this day, but they typically used regular playing cards, not tarot. So cardomancy, or fortune telling with playing cards, was a widespread folk tradition across Europe, and the Romani were among many groups who practiced it. The association between Romani people and tarot was partly due to Orientalist stereotypes, and partly because fortune-telling became one of the survival trades for Romani communities facing severe discrimination and persecution. So, yes, Romani people have a real, documented connection to cardomancy and divination practices. But no, they did not invent tarot and they did not bring it from Egypt. That is a myth born from romanticization, exoticism, and a hefty dose of 18th and 19th century Orientalism. What matters here is this. These legends, true or not, became a widespread community gnosis, and it gave tarot a completely new identity. It was no longer just a game. In fact, it was no longer a game at all. It was a sacred tool, a bridge to the divine, a key for unlocking mysteries, and that transformation, that shift in perception, is what allowed Tarot to become what it is today. Right now, if you need to pause, it's a perfect time because we're at our dance break. Grab some water, stretch, light a candle if you're feeling witchy. When we come back, we're diving into the 19th century occult revival, meeting some truly wild characters and talking about how tarot became the cornerstone of modern Western esotericism. And we'll be right back. Welcome back. Let's talk about the 1800s. Because this is when Tara went from folk divination tool to full-blown esoteric system. Enter Elephus Levi. Born Alphonse Louis Constant in 1810. Levi was a French occultist, magician, and writer, who's basically the godfather of modern Western occultism. In 1854, he published a book called Dogme et Rituelle de la Haute Magie. Again, I'm probably totally butchering the pronunciation. But translated into English, it just means transcendental magic, basically. In this book, Levi did something no one had done before. He connected the 22 cards of the major arcana to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This was huge for Tarot. Levi linked Tarot to Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition. And suddenly, Tara was not just Egyptian, now it was also Kabbalistic. He associated each card with an astrological sign, elements, planets, and esoteric principles. He turned tarot into a comprehensive, symbolic system that could be used for spiritual development, magical practice, and divination. Now, scholars today will tell you that there's no historical basis for any of this. Tarot and Kabbalah developed completely independently. But again, what matters is not necessarily whether it's historically accurate. What matters is that it worked. It resonated. Massive engaging community gnosis. It gave people a framework, a language, a way to engage with tarot as something more than just pretty pictures on cardstock. Levi's work influenced just about every occultist who came after him, including the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a secret society founded in London in 1888. The Golden Dawn was a magical order that blended Kabbalah, alchemy, astrology, and tarot into a comprehensive system of ceremonial magic. Members included some of the most influential occultists of the time, like Arthur Edward Waite, Alistair Crowley, Dion Fortune, and others. The Golden Dawn placed Tarot at the center of their teachings. Each member was expected to create their own tarot deck as part of their training. They mapped the cards onto the tree of life, the central diagram in Kabbalah, and used them in rituals, meditations, and pathworkings. Tarot was no longer just for readings, it was now part of a spiritual practice and a tool for transformation. And this, this is where we get to the deck that changed everything. The Rider Waite Smith Tarot, published in 1909. Arthur Edward Waite, a member of the Golden Dawn, commissioned artist Pamela Coleman Smith to illustrate a tarot deck based on Golden Dawn teachings, but accessible to the general public. Pamela Coleman Smith, who's often completely left out of the history of Tarot, despite doing all of the actual artwork, created the first tarot deck where every single card, including the minor arcana, had a full illustrated scene. Before this, most tarot decks just had pips, like playing cards do. Smith's innovation made the cards intuitive, narrative, and deeply symbolic. She quite literally changed the face of Tarot forever. The Rider Wait Smith deck became the blueprint for almost every tarot deck created in the 20th and 21st centuries. It is the deck most beginners start with, it is the deck most readers reference, and it is the deck that brought Tarot out of secret occult societies and into the hands of everyday people. But we can't talk about modern tarot without mentioning Alistair Crowley. Love him or hate him, and trust me, people have some strong opinions. Crowley created the Thoth Tarot between 1938 and 1943, illustrated by Lady Frida Harris. This deck is dense, esoteric, and rooted in Crowley's Telema religion. It is stunning, it is powerful, and it is deeply controversial because Crowley himself was deeply controversial. The point is, by the early 20th century, Tarot had fully transformed. It was no longer a game, it was a spiritual tool, a psychological mirror, and a practice embraced by mystics, witches, magicians, agnostics, clergymen, and seekers of all kinds. That's right. I said clergymen. Remember who started all this? So where does that leave us today? Well, tarot is everywhere. It is in metaphysical shops, bookstores, online communities, therapy offices, and living rooms. It's been adopted by Wiccans, pagans, witches, agnostics, atheists, and people who just want a tool for self-reflection. Modern tarot is not bound by any one tradition. Some people still read tarot through a Kabbalistic lens. Others use it purely for psychological insight, drawing on Carl Jung's concept of archetypes. Jung himself never wrote about tarot directly, but his ideas about the collective unconscious and archetypal images mapped beautifully onto the major arcana, the fool as the innocent, beginning a journey, the devil as our hidden, repressed self, the world as the integration of all parts into wholeness. For many pagans and Wiccans, tarot is a way to connect with their deities, with the elements, with the cycles of nature. The four suits correspond to the four elements: wands to fire, cups to water, swords to air, and pentacles to earth. The cards can be used in ritual, in spell work, and in honoring the turning of the wheel of the year. And for a growing number of people, Tarot is not about predicting the future at all. It is about understanding the present. It is about asking questions, exploring possibilities, and reflecting on your own thoughts and feelings and patterns. Tarot has also become a mirror, not just a crystal ball. Here's what I find most beautiful about Tarot. It is a living tradition. It has evolved over 500 years, absorbing influences from art, religion, psychology, and pop culture. Every generation has reimagined it. Every reader brings their own interpretation. And that is exactly how it should be. Because at the end of the day, tarot is not about the cards themselves. It's about what we bring to them. It's about the questions we ask, the meanings we find, and the stories we tell. So where have we arrived at now? The real history of tarot is this. It started as a game in Renaissance Italy, became associated with mysticism through 18th and 19th century occultists, and was transformed into a spiritual practice by artists, magicians, and seekers throughout the 20th century. The urban legends, the myths about Egypt and Romani origins are not historically accurate, but they're not meaningless either. They reflect something deeper. Our human need for mystery, for connection to ancient wisdom, for tools that help us navigate the unknown and reflect and delve into our present. Tarot works not because it is ancient, but because it's archetypal. The images speak to something universal in the human experience. Birth, death, love, loss, transformation, choice. These are all themes that we all face. And tarot gives us a language to explore them. So whether you believe tarot is divination, psychology, art, or just a really interesting collection of art in card form, what matters is how you use it. What questions do you ask? What insights do you gain? What stories do you uncover? That is the magic. Not in the cards themselves, but in you. So before we close out, we gotta do our tradition. Coffee, crystals, and divination. So coffee of the week, okay, I gotta admit it, I love pumpkin pie and I abhor pumpkin spice. However, I love it for you. I totally love it for you. I've been obsessed with a dirty chai latte lately with the addition of protein. Protein cold foams and protein milks have suddenly kind of sprung up as this new addition, not new to everybody that's been mixing their own drinks on social media, but new to hit menus and be options out there. And the cold foam option has been amazing. But mixing a protein shake or the cold foam with protein powder or just milk and protein powder with a little bit of cinnamon, maybe some nutmeg on top. It's cozy, it's grounding, and it pairs perfectly with a tarot reading on a rainy October night. So I'm gonna do a live poll and a personal recommendation for our crystal of the week. My personal recommendation is Labradorite. This one is perfect for tarot work. It's known as the stone of magic, transformation, and it enhances intuition and psychic abilities. So if you're doing tarot readings, especially during spooky season, keep a piece of Labradorite nearby, maybe a bracelet, maybe a necklace. So let's see what our cards have to tell us for the rest of our crystal prescription for tarot. I was beyond excited to do this episode and actually look at the history of tarot. I personally have quite a number of decks that well, I'm 47 and my first deck I got when I was about 15 or 16. And I still have it. And of course, what do you think features prominently on it? Cats. And other decks that I've collected throughout the years, including the one that I routinely use here while I'm pulling for you guys. I've collected for various reasons, whether I feel like it called to me, whether the art drew me. I think each one kind of has its own unique draw. Well, communication. We drew Kayanite. So Labradorite and Kayanite are your crystals for this episode. And let's take a look at what Kainite has to say. So communication. Honesty, self-expression. This card demands unfiltered honesty as you amplify your voice and express yourself fearlessly. It's time to ditch the filters. Speak your mind unapologetically and let your truth and authenticity shine. Shout through your megaphone, communicate how you truly feel, and express yourself with confidence. I think this is absolutely phenomenal for a set of crystals for this reading. It's uplifting, it's enlightening, and it's directing us to really amplify our inner voices. And I am 100% here for it. I don't know why I just put them back in the box because of course I'm going to take pictures of them and put them on TikTok, or sometimes I put them in the Instagram stories on our socials. Now let's get to tarot. Let's see what our deck has for us for this special episode. I'm really interested in seeing what pops up. And shuffling like I do, I think I oh goodness. Okay. Well, it's a three-card spread, apparently. So the first one is the ace of swords, which is appetite. The second one is the magician, clear courts. And the third is temperance, celestial. So let's see. I love that the magician is the middle. It couldn't be more perfect. All right, so the ace of swords, let's see what we have. And I think I've explained this before, but whenever I get a deck of tarot, I always keep the accompanying book with it. When artists create these decks, the images that they include with them, they include for a reason. It's part of the meaning of the card, it's part of the symbolic imagery that's meant to evoke thoughts, evoke emotion. So I always include what the artist's intent was with the cards in terms of looking at them and taking them in. The meaning, the manifestation, the journaling, the introspection, the insight, all that comes from me. But I do bring in the artist's intention in terms of having respect for that and incorporating it into the reading of the card. So the Ace of Swords is focus, mental clarity, and truth. Appetite is mental clarity, wisdom, and expression. This is the mental breakthrough you've been waiting for. Fresh ideas and new ways of thinking are flowing to you. Channel this energy into starting and focusing on a new endeavor while keeping a successful mindset. Okay, I'm totally here for that. That's an amazing card. Now let's look at the magician. The magician, manifestation, creation, and resourcefulness. Clear quartz signifies amplifying, cleansing, and manifestation. The magician is the card for manifesting. When you pull this card, know that you have everything you need to start manifesting your destiny at this very moment. Proceed with confidence and create something magical. I think my tarot has a sense of humor. All right, temperance is the last one. And temperance is 14. So the cards that have the names to them, like the magician and temperance, are considered major arcana. So earlier I was talking about how the 78 cards are split into 22 major arcana and 56 minor arcana. The ace of swords would be considered minor arcana, and one of those 56 cards, whereas the magician and temperance would be part of the major arcana. So let's look at temperance. Temperance is balance, healing, and patience. Celeste is for calming, balance, and harmony. The temperance card is a gentle reminder to try to remain calm and patient when you have moments of stress to allow things to work out the way they need to. It's time to find balance and go with the flow. And I think this is so uniquely perfect for the combination of both the crystal prescription for this week and the message in the divination, which was all about manifesting, creating something magical, enlivening something, bringing something to fruition. And then that really gentle reminder stress might accompany that. And we need to stay balanced and have patience that it's going to work out. So it's kind of a call out, maybe. Don't do the ADH thing of starting the big thing and dumping all the dopamine into it. And then when we're not perfect at it immediately, the very first time, give up and I'm never doing it again. Believe me, I'm kissing the brick before I throw it because I'm throwing it at myself also. But it's just a really, really good reminder to ride the wave and just go with the flow and allow that manifestation and that energy just completely carry you through the project, knowing that there may be some challenges and adversity. And balance is how you're going to navigate that and continue forward rather than losing steam, rather than losing sight of it. So I think this was an absolutely amazing reading for this episode, especially focusing on the history of tarot and the magicians that created it. So thank you for joining me on this deep dive into the history of tarot. I hope you learned something new, questioned something old, and maybe felt a little spark of magic along the way. If you loved this episode, share it with your witchy friends, your tarot loving co workers, or anyone who appreciates a good historical rabbit hole with a little side of mysticism. Until next time, remember the cards don't hold the answers. You do. They just help you find them. Love your faces.