From Parlour Game to Spiritual Tool
Tarot cards began as a card game called tarocchi in 15th-century Italy and were not used for divination until the late 18th century. The journey from parlour game to spiritual tool is one of the most documented stories in the history of Western esotericism.
The Rider-Waite-Smith Tradition
The deck most modern readers use is the Rider-Waite-Smith, published in 1909 by A.E. Waite with illustrations by Pamela Colman Smith. Its innovation was fully illustrated minor arcana — every card tells a story, not just the major arcana. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911) documented the system. The Tarot tool on SpiritWave Labs works in this tradition.
Related Traditions
- Consult the Tarot — the working tool
- The Vizcroft Method — advanced 78-card Grand Orient synthesis
- Celtic and British traditions — the cultural context of the modern tarot revival
- The Cosmic Library — all divination traditions