I can't believe how many words I wrote yesterday -- scattered over about four (or more) different subjects ... and none of it publishable yet.  (Sigh.)  

I'm also dredging back through 17 years of once-published material from our website crash a few years ago and pulling out essays that need to be propped up, redone, published again -- doing something besides residing in the bowels our our old database where I'm the only person on Earth who can find them.  (Well, @catweasel could find them, too.  But he doesn't count because he never goes looking.  In fact he could care less, but that's a story for another time.  Maybe.)

I'm thinking of pulling out the Beginning Tarot class I wrote ... oh, God, *so many years ago* ... and re-working / re-publishing it.  Somewhere.

This is one of the intro pieces that needs some additions before I'm satisfied with it.  That's one of the beauties of the internet.  I don't have to consign anything to print publication *forever.*  I can write it, edit it, publish it, re-edit it ... all by myself, whenever I feel like it.  Something about that is just *so appealing* to me.  That's one of the big quarrels I have with Steemit -- that "locked forever after a week" aspect.

That's one of the things that keeps me from putting a lot of work here, but I'll find a way around it.  It just probably won't be here ... for anyone keeping score, or keeping track ... or just trying to keep up.  I need a lot more control and flexibility -- and indexing features -- and notifications -- and editing rights ... and there are places that offer this -- including my own damn website where I can do it *"my way."*  (Always a plus!!)

So this afternoon -- a holiday week-end when even less people are around and reading (Is that even possible?) -- I'm publishing this, with the caveat that it will be lengthened, edited, rearranged, reset in a broader context ... sometime soon.  (Consider this basically a teaser.)  If I get all that done before the guillotine blade hits the block seven days from now, I'll put it here.  If not ... well, que sera, sera.  It'll go somewhere.

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<center><H5>What IS the Tarot?</H5></center>

This is a very complex question -- whose answer is often controversial. I will keep this answer brief, simple and factually correct, but I invite those who are interested in more information on the history of the Tarot to research it either in libraries or online yourself.  (This is one place where I plan to add some more text because ... well, it needs it.)

The origins of the Tarot are obscure, controversial, and sometimes hotly debated by those to whom this point matters.  (That's a kind way of saying, I'm not one of them.)  Answers as to where the cards originated sometimes include even Ancient Egypt and China. Some say the Tarot came to Europe with the Crusaders, Nomads, or Gypsies.  (And some people get really hot, scoffing at that.)

The origins of Tarot date back into the 1400's where it first appeared as a book containing pictorial concepts of major symbols common to the religious and spiritual teachings of many different cultures. (And where it promptly ran afoul of The One True Church in Europe ... which put it in danger.)  The Tarot further described various personality types and recognizable life experiences encountered in the process of personal growth and evolution.  (And to mollify the politics of the time, the card images were sometimes altered to represent the reigning monarch of a country -- to, you know, massage some massive egos.  Imagine Donald Trump as The Fool in a Tarot today.  Come to think of it ... I can!!)

In time the pages of this book were disassembled into what became the 78 cards of the Tarot deck. In this form, they could be shuffled, rearranged, randomly accessed and otherwise manipulated -- at which point, it seems, an understanding emerged -- somehow to someone -- that certain patterns of distributing cards in response to questions, dilemmas or requests for "hidden" or unknown information ... would often result in an uncannily intelligent description of how certain future events were likely to unfold.  (I have explanations for why this happens -- which I'll write up and stick in this series.  Somewhere.)

Thus the Tarot gained its present popular reputation for being a predictive tool, a forecasting prop, and / or a fortune-telling device. The Tarot certainly has general applications as such a possible source of knowledge and information. But in truth, the Tarot is a symbolic representation of the process of human life -- as each of us in time experiences it.  (Pay no attention to that woman behind the curtain.  She has no idea what she's talking about.)

There is evidence that the Tarot may have once been used as a game, or even as a gambling device, at some points in its history, but there is no doubt that it has been used for centuries now as a tool that aids intuitives and psychics to probe the deeper secrets of life, personality, themselves, and the future. (See previous note.)  

The Tarot does have an uncanny ability to clarify one's present circumstances ... and yes, indeed, it appears able to give advice and predictions about what may be unfolding in the yet unseen future.  (Enough that I seriously consider at times whether I want to start this conversation -- or stay in the dark.  For a while.)

The potency of the Tarot as a means of facilitating these aims, clarifying one's surrounding conditions and present circumstances, and describing a probable outcome of unfolding events makes it still one of the best tools for psychic development, self-understanding, and spiritual education available today.  (Dang!!  *Truth!!)*

Although contemporary artists have fashioned a kaleidoscope of options when it comes to selecting a Tarot deck, including some highly non-traditional options, the time-honored structure of the Tarot remains largely constant in most commercially available Tarot decks.

Although you can see in the structure of the Tarot the outlines of the more familiar playing card decks which probably derived from the Tarot and became almost exclusively applied to gaming, there are important and striking differences between "regular cards" and the Tarot.  (And that, boys and girls, is part of the story.)

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