For all the #paranormal folks losing their shit over Tarot cards used in an investigation because the Tarot is some “portal to evil” please note that the Tarot is originally a *Christian* invention from Renaissance Italy: https://api.nationalgeographic.com/distribution/public/amp/magazine/2020/02/milan-italy-explore-tarot-centuries-old-history #KindredSpirits #Tarot

There are angels and Popes on these cards for a reason, and that reason is disappointingly un-magickal.

The Tarot’s original use was as a card game.

Worrying that the Tarot is some occult gateway to evil is like freaking out that your Uno deck will summon Satan.

Just like regular playing cards, a tradition rose up where the Tarot was used in fortune-telling.

Other common items used in fortune-telling that will not summon dark forces into your life: tea leaves; yarrow sticks; antique keys; shells; candleflames.

The Tarot’s prosaic origin does not undermine its use for divination & magick. Practically anything can be repurposed to good effect. The only limit is imagination.

The cards are simply one focus among many - a projection screen, if you will. The real magick’s in the user.

I wrote a whole book on the Tarot and have helped to design multiple decks, so I’m not just an armchair expert on the topic.

Seriously. The notion that the Tarot will somehow open a portal to dark powers is just Satanic Panic nonsense. https://www.amazon.com/Watcher-Angel-Tarot-Guidebook-creation/dp/0983816913

This is from the Visconti-Sforza deck, circa 1450. This is the Tarot trump currently known as the High Priest.

Its original name? The Pope.

To Tarocchi players in Renaissance Italy, he’d be immediately recognizable by his vestments & Papal crown:

The Tarot card that has evolved into the mystical High Priestess, initiatrix extraordinaire into the mysteries, was originally the Popess - aka, the Lady-Pope, likely a reference to the legend of Pope Joan: https://inpress.lib.uiowa.edu/feminae/DetailsPage.aspx?Feminae_ID=31945

Sure, it’s fun to believe that a deck of cards is actually the secret wisdom of Thrice-Great Hermes come down to us through the ages and originally safeguarded in a secret chamber beneath the paws of the Sphinx (just one popular Tarot myth).

But that is just a story.

And to all my Tarot readers and Tarot fans, let me be very clear that I am not dunking on the deck or debunking its usefulness.

The Tarot can both be a useful tool for divination AND originally a prosaic card game. Those two realities are not mutually exclusive.