Which came first... Tarot or playing cards?

Which came first: Poker/playing Cards or Tarot Cards?

I have gypsy ancestors and have recently been researching about my heritage. Gypsies and fortune telling with crystal balls, card readings and palmistry go hand in hand. ( Pardon the pun, I couldn't resist)
It is fun for me to imagine having been gypsy's child with wanderlust blood, practising magic, the tinctures and remedies using potions and lotions, and fanciful colorful clothing including bangles, beads and scarfs. Thoughts of mystery and magic.

I have a particular fondness for Cher's song, "Gypsies Tramps and Thieves." Which feeds the rebel in me... and also seemed to explain to me Mothers reluctance to speak of a heritage that may have embarrased her. As an adult when I was just a babe she turned her back on the sinful ways of the gypsies in favor of Christianity, which clearly forbade divination, in all it's forms and she felt she needed to be forgiven for having read palms. As children it was even forbidden to have a regular deck of playing cards in the house, never mind Tarot ones! {{{ giggle}}} {{{ giggle}}} We found clever places to hide our playing cards.

I have picked up Tarot cards to look at them but I was never interested in learning to read them. I am not sure if this was from my upbringing or not. However, (20 years ago) after I heard a Doctor immediately diagnose a new born baby boy with "Downs Syndrome" when he saw the combined heart/head line in his palm print, I was fascinated. Needless to say I took up an interest (still a secret from mother... ok ) in palmistry. An interesting subject to be sure for the learning of this is never ending... and I by no means could sit and do a palm reading except for fun and entertainment. To be able to have the future predicted has always had a special attraction... and

It's interesting the line up of people who want to meet you when you sit at a gathering and start reading one persons palm ... (but that would be is a new topic)


I am new to the net (just one year) Searching for gypsy images I discovered that ALL Photographs, drawings and paintings show the card reading spreads to be just regular playing cards. Divination with regular poker cards, Now isn't that interesting? I wonder why that is. Not that it doesn't make sense that regular cards could indeed be used for readings; my very first carding reading (I was 20 and it cost 2 dollars ) was spot on and it was a regular deck of cards that the sweet little old lady used at her kitchen table. What I wonder is why did the Gypsies chose regular Playing cards... when it is known that Tarot cards go back at least a thousand years?

Which takes me back to my original on the history of Tarot. "Which came first... The Tarot deck or the Poker deck?"

Spoiler:

Logmadr wrote:

and as for your mother, I promise to never tell her if I meet her...

Logmadr

Thanks! I won't tell your Mom that you are here either... Looking at Your picture I do not doubt you have gypsy blood in you. You probably can't help your attraction to Paganism....

I am assuming that I am likely one of my ancestors... because I believe that Family members have Karmic bonds and re-incarnate together. I haven't figured out who yet, but I am seriously trying to figure out who is in our family tree. When something resonates with me I will let you know... We are Polish Gypsy's by the way... and for some reason Mothers family had to hide this fact... from the Germans, pre-WWII. Bummer no one likes to talk about these times...

I have been looking into learning to read the regular playing cards myself ... A winter project! When I feel comfortable... I will read for ya ... Logmadr ... with pleasure.

Hello Evie,

Perhaps these articles will help answer your question as a starting point.

Click here for details about Playing cards

Click here for details about Tarot cards

Gina has Romany Gypsy blood in her heritage from her Grandfathers lineage. History from any era interests me Evie and recent history (WWI and II) is of great interest, as it ceratinly should be. There are too many things in the world that are not talked about imho and I often fear that if we rely on oral history being handed down from generation to generation then all will be lost in the mists of time.

the minor acrana came first then playing cards then the major arcana

I've been thinking about this a little more. Tarot in the form that we know it and also playing cards can be traced back to specific parts of history but divination using pictograms and lettering (such as runes) goes back even further. Who can say whether or not Tarot's origins are more obscure than we realise, perhaps starting out as pictograms and then developing further after that.

Just a thought anyhow.