Tarot and oracle cards: a beginner's guide

Tarot and oracle decks often sit side by side, but they are built differently. A tarot deck has a fixed 78-card structure, while an oracle deck has no fixed suit or arcana system.

Where tarot came from

Tarot began as a card game. Cards called tarocchi appeared in Ferrara and Milan in northern Italy in the first half of the 15th century, where they were used for a trick-taking game.

The earliest surviving decks are the Visconti-Sforza cards, painted in the mid-15th century for the Dukes of Milan. About 15 incomplete sets survive in museums and private collections.

The fortune-telling story came much later. Antoine Court de Gebelin published a theory in 1781 claiming the cards held lost Egyptian wisdom, with no historical evidence. Jean-Baptiste Alliette, known as Etteilla, published the first book of methods for reading tarot in 1783-85 and the first deck designed for it in 1789.

What is in a tarot deck

A standard tarot deck has 78 cards. There are 22 major arcana, beginning with the Fool numbered 0, then I to XXI.

The remaining 56 cards are the minor arcana. They are arranged in four suits of 14 cards, running ace to ten plus four court cards. The court names vary by deck, so one box may use different titles from another while still following the same 78-card bones.

The Rider-Waite-Smith deck was first published in December 1909 by William Rider & Son of London. The Thoth deck's paintings were made between 1938 and 1943, and the first full-colour edition was published in 1969.

What an oracle deck is, and how it differs

An oracle deck has no fixed structure. The maker sets the number of cards and what each card means.

That is the main difference from tarot. Tarot has major arcana, minor arcana, suits and court cards; oracle decks do not have to use any of those parts.

Black Cats Oracle and Tarot Cards carries both words in its name, while Earth Alchemy Oracle keeps to oracle. The little distinction matters when a first deck is being chosen from a shelf of handsome boxes.

Choosing a first deck

For a first tarot deck, clear pictures help. Beginner guidance points to fully illustrated cards including the minor arcana, a guidebook in the box, and a card size that shuffles easily in smaller hands.

Psychic Oracle and Tarot Cards and Work Your Light Oracle and Tarot Cards both carry oracle-and-tarot wording in their names. Earth Alchemy Oracle is named as an oracle deck, and Black Cats Oracle and Tarot Cards brings black cats into the card cupboard.

A guidebook is useful because tarot has a fixed 78-card structure, while oracle decks set their own meanings.

Looking after cards

Cards are best kept in a rigid box or wrapped in cloth. They should be kept dry, out of direct sunlight and away from heat, because light and heat fade card stock and damp warps it.

Common ways people use a deck include one card a day, a three-card spread, and a journal of what came up. A reversed card is a card drawn upside down, and reading reversals is optional.

The care is simple and rather cupboard-like: dry cards, a safe box, no sunny windowsill.

A note on what cards are for

We sell tarot and oracle cards as a pastime and a starting point for reflection. UK rules say tarot and readings must be presented as entertainment only, with no claims of accuracy, no predictions of specific events, and no advice on health, pregnancy or money.

The old Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951 was repealed in 2008. Consumer protection law now sits in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.

That keeps the cards in their proper place: illustrated decks, guidebooks, spreads and journals, not promises. Tarot and oracle cards are on the site here: https://goldenhands.co.uk/collections/oracle-and-tarot-cards