Tarot is the trick taking card game that brought forth the notion of a trump suit in card games. Tarot, like contract bridge and skat, has been called the “chess of card games” for good reason. Tarot has clearly made a valuable contribution to our game playing culture. This contribution is sadly being obscured by those who continue to sell tarot exclusively as a fortune telling or divination tool. Websites such as Tarot.com, Belief.net, Tickle.com and others have been misleading the general public into believing that tarot is nothing but an occult instrument. The notion that tarot cards are only used for fortune telling or the occult is completely false.

Paul O’Brien, CEO of Tarot.com, has made some assertions about tarot for which there is no evidence at all. “It was masquerading as a card game for a long time because people could be burned at the stake for using it” and “It was more related to alchemy than religion.” are some prime examples as quoted by Belief.net of O’Brien’s Da Vinci Code style campaign of disinformation. There is no provable historical link between tarot cards and astrology, Kabbalah, alchemy or any other esoteric phenomena. There is also no evidence to indicate that tarot cards were intended for any other purpose than for the play of card games. The business arrangement between Tarot.com and large corporations such as AOL (America Online) and Glam Media assures us that O’Brien’s pseudo-history is widely accepted as fact.

Another popular website guilty of distorting tarot is the social networking site Tickle.com, which is owned by Monster.com. On Tickle.com’s tarot reading page we find this false assertion “The practice of reading Tarot cards dates back to the Egyptians.” Contemporary research disputes Tickle.com’s false statement. Tarot cards began to appear in early to mid 15th century Italy. The practice of reading tarot cards dates no earlier than the 18th century.

The general public has been duped by the “new age” publishing industry and by the uncritical mainstream media regarding tarot’s true heritage. The connection of tarot cards with the occult is based on false histories concerning the decks origins. The occult activities should in no way be seen as genuine tarot. Genuine tarot is a type of card game. The tarot game is very popular right now in France, Canada, and practically any place the French language is spoken. There is also a similar game played in Austria and surrounding areas known as “tarock.” Many players of tarot card games, nowadays, use a more modern deck with double-ended court cards and conventional playing card suits of hearts, spades, clubs and diamonds and the trump cards sport arbitrary scenes of 19th century Europe. Not only is tarot currently played as a card game in continental Europe, there are efforts to import these games to other parts of the world. Unfortunately, the widespread promotion of fortune telling stereotypes in connection with tarot cards has had an inhibiting effect on cultural exchange and innovation.