Tarot developed as a card game in fifteenth-century Italy. Occult interpretation became associated with it later. A modern practice can be meaningful without claiming an unbroken ancient Egyptian origin.
A documented chronology
Fifteenth-century Italy
Courtly cards survive in the Morgan collection as evidence of an actual card game.
Late eighteenth century
Occult interpretations emerged much later than the original game; alleged Egyptian origins are not established by the early cards.
1909 — Smith and Waite
Pamela Colman Smith created the deck under Arthur E. Waite’s direction.
1942 — Harris’s own account
The publisher’s booklet reproduces Harris’s statement dated July 1942 about the symbolic instructions supplied for her paintings.
A concrete object: the Vachier deck
The BnF describes a Marseille deck bearing 1639 on its Two of Coins. Its Two of Cups carries the workshop mark “À l’enseigne des deux rois”. These details document production and attribution; they do not reveal a prediction about money or love. Compare that evidence with the unproven claim “this is an ancient Egyptian oracle”: a symbol alone cannot bridge the missing historical record.
A common mistake
A familiar symbol does not by itself prove that different historical communities assigned it the same meaning.
Your next step
Choose one card and write separate notes for visible details, documented history and your present-day symbolic associations.
Continue learning
- Major Arcana Tarot: Meanings of All 22 Cards
- Rider–Waite–Smith, Marseille and Thoth: Comparing Tarot Decks
- Learn how to ask a focused question
Sources and scope
The sources below document objects, artists and later changes in use; personal symbolic associations are editorial interpretation.