I always believed that the origins of tarot were a mystery. Certainly all the reading I had done on it suggested that this was the case, no book had a clear definitive answer as to where they came from. Not knowing how they started or came to be certainly added to their allure for me, however there was one story of their beginning that I did sort of believe (or liked!) because of its fairy tale quality.
...Apparently there was a rich Italian King who wanted to give his Princess daughter a special gift and so he ordered that a unique set of playing cards was created for her - The Tarot... I think this version appeals to me because I always imagined the King to be the Emperor and the Princess the Empress. I guess that through my fictionalising the tarot I never expected to come across anything that gave it roots. So whilst visiting Malta recently I was very surprised to find some the symbolism of the Tarot in a church of all places!
St John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta is an absolutely stunning catholic church - incredibly ornate and beautifully decorated it really is impressive to look at. The floors are covered with rectangular pictures of skeletons, cherubs and towers - when I saw these it seemed to me that the floor was covered in Tarot cards. However it turns out that these huge rectangular tiles are infact tombstones...
Much of Malta's history has been marred by regular invasion by bigger countries, often they were saved by the Grand Masters and Knights of St John. One Grand Master donated some hand written books which have highly detailed and decorated margins. In these margins you can see the Ace Swords, possibly the fool and there are many fruit trees which look to me like the pentacles suit...
Well that ended all my fantasies of the tarot origins being all mystical but bizarrely there may have been one shred of truth in the story of the King and the Princess. The art work in the church and Grand Masters were in the main Italian, like the King. So maybe Italy is where the Tarot comes from...
And even if I could trace all the imagery of the tarot back to Italy - how the card readings work will always be a mystery.
It was my birthday on Wednesday and my lovely friend Kira bought me some quartz crystal runes... I've ordered three books from Amazon today about how to read them - very excited about learning another method of divination!