Tarot cards have been in use since the 15th century. Their oldest edition was found in China.

The first set of modern tarot cards was first used in Northern Italy. It was similar to the playing cards we know today. At that time, the tarot deck consisted of numbered cards (1 to 10), a court cards page, a knight, a king in four suits, a queen to each of the courts, and another 22 special cards that do not belong to any suit. Symbolic pictures such as The Wheel of Fortune, The Devil, Death, the Moon, and the Pope marked those special cards.

Tarot card evolved over the years. A deck now consists of 78 cards, but they still carry the same symbolic pictures. A standard modern-day tarot deck consists of the following sets: (a) the "major arcana" (also called or trump cards) which consists of 22 cards, each card with a number and a name, and used to interpret higher consciousness; and (b) "minor arcana," which consists of 56 cards with four suits of Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles. They represent the elements of fire, water, air, and earth, respectively. As opposed to the major arcana, minor arcana are the cards with symbols that relate to everyday matters of immediate significance.

Back then, tarot cards were used in a game called "Game of Triumphs." The game was instantly made popular after it spread to other locales and nearby locations. It remained that way for some time, but centuries later, devotees saw other potential in the enigmatic symbolism of the pictures of the cards and began to use them differently. "Tarot card reading" emerged, and the trend started the fortune-telling business. Tarot cards also began to be utilized for other purposes, such as meditation, problem solving, self-improvement, artistic visualization, and others.