The VERY First Tarot Card Deck

Picture provided by: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visconti-Sforza_tarot_deck

Everyone thinks of Tarot Cards as being a supernatural, black magic witchcraft. But what's fascinating, is that the first Tarot Cards, was not intended for supernatural purposes. Yes, believe it or not, The first Tarot decks had been used as playing cards.

Back in 1425, the games known as Tarot games, were played exclusively by the Italian Wealthy Classes, This was their sport created as an activity just for the noble men and women. The tarot as we know it today, did not have the same meaning it did in the 1400s.

The deck use to be composed of 22 very fancy painted cards. As a matter of fact, these cards was also different from cards that the Chinese created in the 12th century to entertain their kings concubines with.

The Italian Nobility, back in 1440, is the only confirmed ancestors that used three decks resembling our modern day tarot deck, which they called Visconti Trumps. The first deck had cards numbered 1 to 10 in four suits, just like all the other card decks of those days. The second deck was the court cards; page, knight, queen and king. The third deck, consist of 22 cards not belonging to any suit. Those 22 cards bore a resemblance to today's "Major Arcana" in the Tarot Deck. These cards in the 1440 decks had symbolic pictures with subjects like the Pope, Emperor, Wheel of Fortune, Devil and Moon. Again, much like the tarot cards we use today.

Triumphs, was the name of a new type of card game played using the Visconti Trumps, which was similar to the game of bridge that is played today. The 22 cards served as trump cards and out ranked all the other cards, including the court cards. This sport became famous amongst the Italian Nobleman and wealthy classes, and then spread to the North of Italy and the East of France. It later unfold to Northern Sicily, Austria, Germany and the lower geographical countries.

There is proof that in the 16 century, Trump cards had been used as a guide to write poetry, primarily based on the character description associated with each card. The poets would come up with flattering verses for the ladies of the court based on the title of the trump cards. The closest example displayed using the cards for prophecy, was in 1572, which a poem was written fore telling a persons destiny, all based totally on the Trump card titles. It has been documented however, traditionally, the Early Cards were used in predicting the future as far back as 1487, but the meanings of the cards were not as we know them today.