The Tarot is a “Machine for Creating Stories”
Though many people associate the Tarot with European culture, it originated from the original playing cards brought to Europe by Islamic soldiers invading northern Italy and Spain in the 1300s. The playing cards were called Mamluk, the game played na’ib, the “game of lieutenants.” These are the origin of all Western card games, from bridge to poker to the tarot.
The calligraphic texts along the top and bottom of the Mamluk cards consist of rhyming aphorisms which are often very enchanting, sometimes strange, but always interesting:
“Oh thou who hast possessions, remain happy and though shalt have a pleasant life” and “Rejoice in the happiness that returns, as a bird that sings its joy.”
Once introduced into Italy, Italian noble families co-opted the cards and added the “trump” cards known today as the Major Arcana, for a game called “carte de trionfi” or cards of triumph, an early form of the card game bridge.
The cards were also used for a game called “tarocchi appropriati,” or appropriated Tarot, where cards from the Major Arcana were dealt randomly or intentionally by another player and the game consisted of writing poems from the cards dealt to make inside jokes, flatter, or associate themes with someone. It was a game of creativity, verse, wit and flattery.
In parallel to this people began to consult the cards for divination, which was then more systematized and professionalized in the 17th century in France by occultists. This is what the Tarot is most known for today in English speaking countries, but the Tarot deck is still widely used to play games across Europe today.
The Tarot has a history of being used for creativity, from W.B. Yeats, William Blake, and Piers Anthony to the great Stephen King. Italian author Italo Calvino described the Tarot as “a machine for constructing stories.” He wrote The Castle of Crossed Destinies using the Tarot cards and uses them heavily within the novel. Books and short stories have been written using the Tarot, and there are a plethora of books available to help writers and artists use the Tarot for writing and creativity.
Now, you can use these spreads/Modes with any Tarot deck, our game just gives you Topic Prompts and Situation Prompts to more directly guide your story and writing. You may find that the Prompt doesn’t fit the question, in which case we recommend you consult your preferred tarot guides (we recommend this numerology source and this Tarot resource) for a more full description to guide your reading.