About Tarot.

The tarot (/ˈtæroʊ/; first known as trionfi and later as tarocchi, tarock, and others) is a pack of playing cards (most commonly numbering 78), used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play a group of card games such as Italian tarocchini and French tarot. From the late 18th century until the present time the tarot has also found use by mystics and occultists in efforts at divination or as a map of mental and spiritual pathways. The tarot has four suits (which vary by region, being the French suits in Northern Europe, the Latin suits in Southern Europe, and the German suits in Central Europe). Each of these suits has pip cards numbering from ace to ten and four face cards for a total of 14 cards. In addition, the tarot is distinguished by a separate 21-card trump suit and a single card known as the Fool. Depending on the game, the Fool may act as the top trump or may be played to avoid following suit.[1] François Rabelais gives tarau as the name of one of the games played by Gargantua in his Gargantua and Pantagruel;[2] this is likely the earliest attestation of the French form of the name.[citation needed] Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play card games. In English-speaking countries, where these games are largely unplayed, tarot cards are now used primarily for divinatory purposes.[1][3] Occultists call the trump cards and the Fool "the major arcana" while the ten pip and four court cards in each suit are called minor arcana. The cards are traced by some occult writers to ancient Egypt or the Kabbalah but there is no documented evidence of such origins or of the usage of tarot for divination before the 18th century. The English and French word tarot derives from the Italian tarocchi, which has no known origin or etymology. One theory relates the name "tarot" to the Taro River in northern Italy, near Parma; the game seems to have originated in northern Italy, in Milan or Bologna.[4] Other writers believe it comes from the Arabic word طرق turuq, which means 'ways'.[5] Alternatively, it may be from the Arabic ترك taraka, 'to leave, abandon, omit, leave behind'.[6] According to a French etymology, the Italian tarocco derived from Arabic طرح ṭarḥ,[7] 'rejection; subtraction, deduction, discount'.[8] There is also the question of whether the word tarot is related to Harut and Marut,[citation needed] who were mentioned in a short account in the Qur'an. According to this account, a group of Israelites learned magic, for demonstration and to test them, from two angels called Harut and Marut.[9] What can be taken into account here is the phonetic resemblance of tarot تاروت to Harut هاروت and Marut ماروت. Similar stories about the two angels are also told in other sources than Qur'an such as the Jewish Midrash. According to Midrash the two angels were punished by getting hung by their feet in Babylon. This position is depicted on a Tarot card named the Hanged Man which is commonly found in the majority of decks and illustrates a man hung by one foot from a wooden cross. There is also an interesting correlation between the terms "Tarot" and "Torat" in that they are actually the same in reverse. Considering that "Torat" is a common pronunciation of Torah (تورات) in middle east, this strengthens the theory that Tarot cards have cipher messages from ancient Jewish sources. (Wikipedia)