The Tarot deck now used in English speaking countries for predicting the future consists of four suits: Coins, Cups, Sticks, and Swords. It includes 22 picture cards, including a wheel of fortune, a hanged man, and a collapsing tower. Those who use the deck for fortune telling believe that the cards' images originated in ancient Egyptian rites and that the decks were used first for mystical purposes and later for games. These beliefs were so pervasive that they still appear stated as fact in reputable books on the subject.
Recent research does not support these beliefs. The Tarot deck appears to have developed in Northern Italy during the fifteenth century when the picture, or trump, cards were added to the deck then in use for playing games. This deck is still used in Southern Europe. The trump cards were added to play a new game called Tarot. The game spread north and west into Europe, and was popular in France until the early 1600's.
By 1650, the game had died out in France, although it persists today in Italy and elsewhere. The game long forgotten, the Tarot deck and its strange symbols seemed quite mysterious to Parisians of the 1700's. The first person to use the cards for divination was a French occultist named Etteilla. Other French occultists delved into Hermetic Greek texts. They mistakenly believed these were translations of ancient Egyptian texts. On the basis of this belief, they developed elaborate interpretations of the Tarot cards as representations of ancient Egyptian wisdom. Other French occultists tied the Tarot to the the Hebrew alphabet, the Jewish Cabala, and astrology. None of these is supported by historical evidence.
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