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History & Origin of the Tarot

The true origins of the modern day Tarot Cards not entirely certain though some scholars hypothesize that they were in use in ancient Egypt, India or China and may have originated there. This premise is further supported by the fact that many gypsy (a word that indicated an Egyptian origin to the Romany peoples--though they themselves were actually of East Indian ethnicity) tribes throughout the United Stated and abroad have suggested that they brought the tarot cards to the West when they migrated from their homeland thousands of years ago. One such scholar, Court de Gebelin suggested this gypsy connection in his early work Le Monde Primitif written in 1781. However, the controversy remains and many scholars disagree with this ancient beginning of the tarot and maintain instead that the tarot deck we are familiar with today began not thousands of years ago in the East, but rather hundreds of years ago in Italy. In fact the earliest known tarot cards are dated as late as the 14th century.

Despite the lack of more concrete evidence of the tarot's ancient beginnings, many connections to occult teachings of the Kabbalah suggest that a more historic influence than Medieval (and thoroughly Christianized) Europe.

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