Tarot Cards and Tarot Bags

Satin and Velvet Tarot Bags. Traditionally tarot cards are kept in the dark, away from outside influences. Many users of tarot cards feel a psychic bond develop between them and the cards and the cards are believed to absorb that psychic energy. Storing Tarot cards in the dark and away from other people is said to keep the cards active by sealing in the psychic energy and by avoiding the possibility of outside influences disturbing that energy.

The tarot (first known as tarocchi, also tarock and similar names), is a pack of cards (most commonly numbering 78), used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Italian tarocchini. From the late 18th century until the present time the tarot has also found use by mystics and occultists in efforts at divination or as a map of mental and spiritual pathways.

The tarot has four suits corresponding to the suits of conventional playing cards. Each of these suits has pip cards numbering from ace to ten and four face cards for a total of 14 cards. In addition, the tarot is distinguished by a separate 21-card trump suit and a single card known as the Fool. Depending on the game, the Fool may act as the top trump or may be played to avoid following suit.

Rabelais gives tarau as the name of one of the games played by Gargantua in his Gargantua and Pantagruel; this is likely the earliest attestation of the French form of the name. Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play card games. In English-speaking countries, where these games are largely unknown, tarot cards are now used primarily for divinatory purposes. Occultists call the trump cards and the Fool "the major arcana" while the ten pip and four court cards in each suit are called minor arcana.