it may come as a surprise to some people, that tarot cards were used for games rather than divination. the divinatory usage comes from the year 1781, when a french mystic, antonie court de gerbin published a book about their use ( aldough people have been using such cards for divination on and off several centuries prior, antoine really got it started)
another misconception is that normal 52 card decks stem from the tarot. false. more like the reverse . tarot decks were added by extending a 56 card deck (more about that later) with a suit of 21 numbered cards, and a unnumbered one called the fool ( or matto, or excuse, or skus, or 'gesteiss, depending on where you live)
speaking of the fool, the joker did NOT evolve from that. rather, the joker came from the game of euchre, (pron. juker) when the players felt that a top trump was needed.
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