Tarot cards are associated with occult practice throughout much of the modern world. But they were formally used just like normal playing cards. With elaborate decks of 78 cards, games were complicated but played throughout France and Italy.  Their use as occult or ‘fortune telling’ devices has increased through the past few centuries.

While I do not subscribe to fortune telling, palm reading, and past lives per se (which I view as different from reincarnation), tarot cards as a meditative device intrigue me. Most likely it has to do with the art and imagery on the cards.