The early French occultists claimed that tarot cards had esoteric links to ancient Egypt, Kabbalah, the Indic Tantra, or I Ching, claims that have been frequently repeated by authors on card divination.

In English-speaking countries where these games are not widely played, only specially designed cartomantic tarot cards, used primarily for novelty and divination, are readily available. These tarot cards are still used throughout much of Europe to play conventional card games.

Depending on the game, the Fool may act as the top trump or may be played to avoid following suit.

In addition, and unlike standard packs, the tarot also has a separate 21-card trump suit and a single card known as the Fool. Each suit has 14 cards: ten pip cards numbering from one (or Ace) to ten and four face cards: King, Queen, Knight, and Jack/Knave/Page. Like the common playing cards, tarot has four suits that vary by region: French suits are used in western, central and eastern Europe, and Latin suits in southern Europe. However, some older patterns, such as the Tarot de Marseille, originally intended for playing card games, are occasionally used for cartomancy. Thus, there are two distinct types of tarot packs in circulation: those used for card games and those used for divination. In the late 18th century French occultists made elaborate, but unsubstantiated, claims about their history and meaning, leading to the emergence of custom decks for use in divination via tarot card reading and cartomancy. From their Italian roots, tarot-playing cards spread to most of Europe, evolving into a family of games that includes German Grosstarok and modern games such as French Tarot and Austrian Königrufen. Tarot ( / ˈ t ær oʊ/, first known as trionfi and later as tarocchi or tarocks) is a pack of playing cards, used from at least the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Tarocchini. Card player with Austrian tarot cards ( Industrie und Glück pattern) Trumps of the Tarot de Marseilles, a standard 18th-century playing card pack, later also used for divination For other uses, see Tarot (disambiguation).

Antique old maid playing card