Tarot Cards were originally like today's playing cards are to us. They were then used to play a game called tarocchi.

First off, tarot cards consist of twenty-one trump cards, the fool and an extra card per suit along with the usual suit of playing cards. Tarot cards are still used in many parts of Europe to play card games. But are more widely used for the purpose of fortune telling, or reading ones future.

The earliest use of tarot cards can be traced back to the 14th century. The popularity of tarot cards for fortune-telling is as old as a few centuries ago. Some believe that tarot cards were created around 1410 to 1430 in Italy and that some additional trump cards were later added to the suit. These new cards were known as the triumph cards. They began to be used to play a card game similar to bridge.

Later, in the 1700's people who believed in occult started regarding tarot cards as means of divination. The cards were believed to be an opening into the world of the occult. This led to the tarot cards being used as divination tools. The French and the English people were fascinated by the mystical symbolism of the tarot cards.

In the 1800's, many people were ostracised for such beliefs and the Tarot cards were believed to be particularly evil.

During the earlier times, the tarot cards were hand-painted, but with the invention of the printing press, tarot cards came to be produced on a larger scale.

Early 1900's Arthur Edward Waite wanted a deck which would appeal to the world of art and that would have significance behind the symbols and thus make the deck more important than tarot packs previously used for centuries. He persuaded Pamela Colman Smith to draw the images to his instructions and they were published by the Rider Company. He also wrote its companion volume Key to the Tarot. The result of this was the unique Rider-Waite Tarot deck which has endured as the world's most popular 78-card tarot deck. Over the years it has also been known as the Rider-Waite-Smith, Waite-Smith, Waite-Colman Smith or simply the Rider deck.

The 78 cards are split into two main sections called the Major Arcana, representing a stronger perspective in a reading and the Minor Arcana, that are a little less strong in their meanings. The Major Arcana contains 22 cards and the Minor Arcana, contains four suits, The Suit of Wands, The Suit of Cups, The Suit of Swords and The Suit of Pentacles. Each suit consists of 14 cards. The innovative cards, depict full scenes with figures and symbols.

This deck is still the most popular tarot deck today, especially for beginners.