Tarot Guide

The first major publicity about the divinatory use of the tarot came from a French occultist named Alliette under the pseudonym "Etteilla" (his name to the contrary), who acted as a fortuneteller and fortune-teller shortly after the French Revolution. Etteilla designed the first esoteric deck, adding astrological attributes and "Egyptian" motifs to various cards, altered elements of the Tarot of Marseilles, and including texts with divinatory meanings written on the cards. Later Mademoiselle Marie-Anne Le Normand popularized the divination during the reign of Napoleon I, by the influence that exerted on Josefina de Beauharnais, first monarch's wife. However, she did not use the typical tarot.

The term esoteric tarot refers to the use of tarot cards as an integral part of modern occult, along with astrology, alchemy and cabal.

Tarot reading is performed by means of a specific technique, games and methods to be studied. However, it has been observed that it is not so simple to play the tarot, as popular imagination makes you believe. Mediums, chosen or scholars should follow a long study for a serious tarot reading, each within its context. In a mediumistic process, the tarot would be a spiritual link between the being and the higher plane as any other instrument would do, such as crystalpower or pyromancy. On the other hand, there are reading techniques based on a consistent theory which, in this case, serves both the readings and the search for self-knowledge and spiritual development.