Where do Tarot cards come from?

The Smith Waite deck (commonly known as the Rider Waite) has two sets of parents…

Tarot cards themselves turned up in the fourteenth century, around the same time as playing cards. They were closely connected to gypsies and it’s possible that the Roma brought them into Europe when they migrated from the Middle East. The Roma are not native to the Middle East but from India. Perhaps the earliest origins of Tarot lie there?

The Smith Waite deck was designed by two people who were part of a spiritual organisation called The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. This was a secret society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries dedicated to the study and practice of metaphysics. The knowledge taught in this organisation seeped into the images on the cards.

The Smith Waite deck is thus the product of several powerful spiritual traditions.

Which is why I love it!

Which deck do you prefer?