The History and Origins of the First French Tarot de Marseille

If you're into tarot cards, you're in for a fun ride! The deck is a cool set of 78 cards, divided into two main groups: the major suit and the minor suits. The major suit shines with 22 cards, known as the major arcana, each featuring amazing illustrations of people, animals, and symbols inspired by social life, mythology, and religious themes. The other 56 cards are split into four interesting minor suits. Each minor suit has an ace card, 14 numbered cards, and four court cards, which are the page, knight, queen, and king. What's really cool is the mystery of where they came from! The minor suits look a lot like playing cards that were super popular in China, then India, and later in Islamic countries during the Middle Ages, before they ended up in Italy. Meanwhile, the major suit takes us back to the late European medieval or early Renaissance times with its magical images of traditional political and religious figures, angels, demons, and even a skeleton with a scythe. It's awesome to think that the full 78-card tarot deck was used for games from the fifteenth century on. But by the eighteenth century, it found its mystical side with fortunetellers and mystics. How cool is that?