

The Origins of Tarot Cards - mr_golyadkin
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/the-surprising-origins-of-tarot-most-misunderstood-cards/

======
prawn
Very interesting, but especially so for me since through my Italian/Slovenian
mother we were introduced to Briscola, a trick-taking card game which uses
cards derived from these. The second image in the article is very reminiscent
of those we still play with today.

Briscola is easy to play with a standard Western deck, just removing 8, 9 and
10 of each suit, though it loses some of the charm IMO.

Wikipedia page:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briscola](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briscola)

Pictures of the cards here:
[https://www.google.com.au/search?q=briscola&safe=off&es_sm=1...](https://www.google.com.au/search?q=briscola&safe=off&es_sm=119&source=lnms&tbm=isch)

------
minopret
So that sort of explains the new Unicode 7.0 characters "fool" and "trump-1"
through "trump-21" as well as the existing "knight" playing-card characters.
Wikipedia helps too.

'A Tarot deck corresponds in every particular with those called Tarocchi by
writers of the 16th century. It consists of 56 numeral cards of four suits and
22 emblematic cards called atouts (trumps). Each suit consists of fourteen
cards: ten "number" or "pip" cards, and four "court" cards, the Roi (King),
Dame, (Queen), Chevalier (Knight), and Valet (Jack). Of the atouts, 21 are
numbered from 1 to 21, and a non-numbered card called "Fou" ("Fool", also
called "Mat" or "L'Excuse" in play) has various meanings depending on the
particular Tarot variant being played...'
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot,_tarock_and_tarocchi_gam...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot,_tarock_and_tarocchi_games)

------
devindotcom
Interesting article for sure. Personally I get a lot of value out of Tarot
because I love the flexibility of the concepts. Things like the hanged man,
death, the falling tower, the hierophant - they all take on multiple meanings
depending on the context. Not as a fortune-telling mechanism, of course, just
as concepts, archetypes. You start recognizing empresses and pages of
pentacles wherever you go because the ideas go so far back - long before Tarot
was invented. Reading up on the fascinating ways of interpreting cards in
light of other cards or information is a great way to spend an hour or two.

