Origin of Tarot has not been clarified. Without any doubt, it is one of the oldest card games, making use of a whole world of symbols. There can be no doubt that it has been conveyed in an esoteric manner, more or less as a secret, through the centuries. The question of its origin is very difficult, if not impossible, to resolve.

Be as it may, whether it originated from China, India, Egypt, conveyed by alchemists, cabalists, or by a wizard greatest of all, such suppositions having been tried to prove, the Tarot reached us bearing an expressed Christian symbolics and mediaeval iconography. The complex of the Tarot's symbolics was definitely framed after adoption of patriarchal relations, which obviously derives from the meanings attached to two adjacent cards - the Moon, and the Sun; Moon, symbol of Great Mother, bears an expressedly unfavourable connotation, while the Sun, symbol of male supreme deities, holds an expressedly positive meaning. The horror attached to the Moon corresponds to the mediaeval Christian fears of witches, that were protagonists of the remaining symbols of power of female deities.

The oldest known decks date from XIV century, with numerous different decks appearing through the centuries, out of which only a small number to be preserved, at least partially. The first decks were created by painters; they were extremely expensive, and thus not for broad public, as they were produced per order and for the needs of individual ruling families. It is usually accepted that the first deck appeared in Germany in 1325, although that still not being the Tarot in full sense, rather a presentation of scenes from hunt, and portrayal of persons from the courts. During the course of XIV century several decks originated in France and in Italy, however only 17 cards having being preserved out of the deck produced in 1392 for King Charles VI. The oldest relatively well preserved deck is the one produced for the duke families Visconti-Sforza of Milan, about the middle of XV century, out of which 74 cards have been preserved to this day. Although these decks already feature a recognizable structure of the Tarot, symbolism thereof is connected with the symbolics and heraldic signs of the ruling families, and thus they still do not correspond fully with the modern-type Tarot.

It might be supposed that Minor Arcana had existed long before the Trumps, that were added in mediaeval times as conveyors of metaphysical realizations not advisable to write down. Syncretism, visible in every deck, points to the influence of the Templars. Gnostics, cabalists and alchemists, who introduced into the basic Christian iconography of the Major Arcana the astrological and alchemist symbols, as well as pictures of old deities. This is how the Tarot that we know today has been created - that language encompassing the symbolic tradition of the whole Euro-Asian history of Mankind.