The Dallas Psychic Fair And The History of Tarot

With another Dallas Psychic Fair coming up I started thinking about getting a Tarot reading. And that started me thinking about the history of Tarot cards and Tarot readings. So I did a little research and here is what I found.

Tarot reading is based on the belief that the cards can be used to gain insight. A Tarot reader looks into the current and possible future situations of the subject. Some believe they are guided by a spiritual force, such as Gaia, while others believe the cards help them tap into a collective unconscious or their own creative, brainstorming subconscious. The divine meanings of the cards are derived mostly from the Kabbalah of Jewish mysticism and from Medieval Alchemy.

The original purpose of tarot cards was for playing games. Tarot cards would later become associated with mysticism and magic. Tarot was not known to be adopted by mystics, occultists and secret societies until the 18th and 19th centuries. The earliest known use of tarot cards for divination was in Bologna Italy, around 1750. Historically they used a set of divine meanings entirely different from modern divinatory tarot.

Modern occult tarot begins in 1781, when Antoine Court de Gébelin, a Swiss clergyman and Freemason, published Le Monde Primitif, a speculative study which included religious symbolism and its survivals in the modern world. Gébelin claimed that the name "tarot" came from the Egyptian words tar, meaning "royal", and ro, meaning "road", and that the Tarot therefore represented a "royal road" to wisdom.

De Gébelin also asserted that the Gypsies, who were among the first to use cards for divination, were descendants of the Ancient Egyptians. H believed they introduced the cards to Europe. Other scholars found nothing in the Egyptian language to support de Gébelin's fanciful etymologies. Despite this, the identification of the Tarot cards with the Egyptian "Book of Thoth" was already firmly established in occult practice and continues in modern urban legend to the present day.

Dallas Psychic Fair Readings

In the early 1900's Tarot became increasingly popular in the New World (America). It has grown so much in popularity that it can be found in most any town or city in America. Tarot has an interesting history. Just as interesting, to me at least, is why a simple trip to the Dallas Psychic Fair took me down this path of research. Oh well, go with the flow I guess.

Why the Dallas Psychic Fair

It has been about 8 years since I've been to the Dallas Psychic Fair and 5 years since I had a personal Tarot card reading. It was a very powerful and insightful experience. We're fortunate to have good Tarot readers in Dallas. I'm way overdue so I plan to go. Perhaps I'll bump into you at the Dallas Psychic Fair. See you there!

Oh, and if you can't wait, then go to the Dallas Psychic Directory, find someone to work with and get a reading now!