Tarot Cards

Tarot began as a simple deck of playing cards, which over time have had divination and other magical properties attributed to them. Unlike the full deck, most are now custom made including only the Major Arcana with no suits.
To those with actual knowledge of the occult and not just a passing interest, tarot cards are a cry for help. Used as bookmarks, they are symbols telling those who know that someone is currently enslaved by some being, usually some sort of demon. While most recognized with a copy of the Miranda deck, any deck and any card will draw note to those in the know. It is better to be safe than sorry.

History

One of the earliest reference to tarot triumphs, and probably the first reference to tarot as the devil's picture book, is given in the 15th century by a Dominican preacher in a fiery sermon against the evils of the devil's instrument. References to the tarot as a social plague continue throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, but there are no indications that the cards were used for anything but games anywhere other than in Bologna. As philosopher and tarot historian Michael Dummett noted, "...it was only in the 1780s, when the practice of fortune-telling with regular playing cards had been well established for at least two decades, that anyone began to use the tarot pack for cartomancy."
The belief in the divinatory meaning of the cards is closely associated with a belief in their occult properties: a commonly held belief in the 18th century propagated by prominent Protestant clerics and freemasons.
From its humble uptake as an instrument of prophecy in France, the tarot went on to become a thing of hermeneutic, magical, mystical, semiotic, and even psychological properties. It was used by Romani people when telling fortunes, as a Jungian psychological apparatus capable of tapping into "absolute knowledge in the unconscious", a tool for archetypal analysis, and even a tool for facilitating the Jungian process of Individuation.

Uses

Divination

The practice of divination using tarot cards differs from country to country and even sometimes from city to city. The most common deck is the Rider-Walte deck, which many other versions took influence from.
This table is a comparison of the five currently most used decks (of Major Arcana).

Position	Rider-Walte	Book Under the Tree	Paul Christian's Egyptian Tarot	Ettellia and Mirage's Egyptian Tarot	Unknown Deck
1	The Magician	The Magus	Will	Ideal/Wisdom	The Magus
2	The High Priestess	The Priestess	Knowledge	Enlightenment/Passion	Gate of the Sanctuary
3	The Empress	The Empress	Action	Discussion/Instability	The Muse
4	The Emperor	The Emperor	Realization	Revelation/Behaviour	The Stone
5	The Hierophant	The Pope	Occult Inspiration	Travel	Master of the Arcana
6	The Lovers	The Lover	Ordeal	Secrets/Truths	Two Roads
7	The Chariot	The Chariot	Victory	Support/Protection	Victory
8	Strength	Lust	Strength	Strength/Power	The Tamed
9	The Hermit	The Hermit	Wisdom	Justice/Law Maker	Wisdom
10	Wheel of Fortune	Fortune	Fortune	Temperance/Convictions	The Sphinx
11	Justice	Adjustment	Equilibrium	Tenacity/Progress	Scales and Blade
12	The Hanged Man	The Hanged Man	Sacrifice	Prudence/Popularity	The Sacrifice
13	Death	The Reaper	Transformation	Marriage/Love Affair	The Nameless Arcana
14	Temperance	Art	Initiative	Violence/Weakness	The Genius of the Sun
15	The Devil	The Devil	Fate	Chagrins/Illness	The Monster
16	The Tower	The House-God	Ruin	Opinion/Arbitration	The Beheaded Tower
17	The Star	The Star	Hope	Death/Incapacity	Star of the Magi
18	The Moon	The Moon	Deception	Betrayal/Falsehood	The Twilight
19	The Sun	The Sun	Happiness	Poverty/Prison	The Blazing Light
20	Judgement	The Aeon	Renewal	Fortunate/Augmentation	The Awakening of the Dead
21	The World	The Universe	Reward	Dispute	The Time of the Magi
0	The Fool	The Fool	Expiation	Madness/Bewilderment	The Unknown

Often tarot reading is used for seeking advice and learning how to grow spiritually. A practitioner uses the cards, reading both the card in question, its position in a variety of tarot layouts, and whether it is faced upright or upside down to give answers to their client.

Secret Symbol

When used as a bookmark, the tarot card in question is a description of what the demon is like to those who have heard of this use of the cards (though not always, as some people do not have access to the entire deck or know even what the correct card would be). While online resources use the Unknown Deck as a descriptor, any other deck (or even cards created by the person in question) are acceptable. The position of the card, its number, is the most important factor.
Sometimes the cards are used in tandem to give more information, if the victim has that information. However, one main card is always to be on full display as a bookmark, continuing the tradition of keeping this secret call for help an unknown by demons.

Position	Unknown Deck Arcana	Description of Card Usage
1	The Magus	With the Magus, the demon is a known magic user, with energy and spells known to the average magician.
2	Gate of the Sanctuary	The demon came from a portal, whether one created by a known summoner or not. With the Gate of the Sanctuary, others can try to get more information about the place the demon came from out of the victim, if possible.
3	The Muse	The Muse is used to explain that the demon in question was summoned for a reason, yet something went out of hand and the demon took control of the summoner.
4	The Stone	If the victim displays the Stone, the demon has yet to do anything. The victim may not even know if the demon plans to do anything with them, enslavement or not. The unknown can be the most frightening, after all.
5	Master of the Arcana	Like the Magus, the demon is strong in magic, however in this particular case they are known to have overwhelmed another magic user - the victim or someone else that the victim witnessed.
6	Two Roads	When displaying Two Roads, the controlling demon is up to something that might cause trouble or destruction at this very moment, unless something is done to counter them.
7	Victory	The victim knows the demon, either by name or what to do in order to free themselves. They simply cannot do so on their own and require outside assistance.
8	The Tamed	When the Tamed card is used, it is to say that the demon had worked well with the currently enslaved human, only for the tables to turn.
9	Wisdom	Wisdom is used to say the demon hasn't done much but use their victim for a source of information, perhaps the demon being a source of information themselves before taking control.
10	The Sphinx	For those who accidentally fell into a demon's trap, the upside down Sphinx warns potential saviours of the demon's tricky nature.
11	Scales and Blade	There is no reasoning with this demon. With Scales and Blades, the demon has made it very explicit that the only thing that will free the victim is the demon's death.
12	The Sacrifice	When the victim knows they have little to no time left, the Sacrifice card warns of blood sacrifice and likely impending death (or something worse than) from the demon's plans.
13	The Nameless Arcana	The victim might already be dead, either in body or soul, but is still able to give a warning through this card.
14	The Genius of the Sun	The victim displays the Genius of the Sun card when they are unable to give any further information. Not that they cannot speak of the demon, but the demon has cursed them or otherwise has bound their tongue so that the victim cannot be truthful aloud.
15	The Monster	The typical symbol. The Monster represents demons as a whole, so if one only knows that they are bound to a demon (not how or why), this is the card to use.
16	The Beheaded Tower	With the Beheaded Tower, the victim warns that in order to be captured this demon has killed many already and will continue to destroy more in order to keep them. The victim is of great importance to the demon for some reason.
17	Star of the Magi	This card isn't used by a victim of demonic possession/incarceration, but by those responding to the victims. They might take the card out and surreptitiously place it as a bookmark in their own book, or even give it to the victim if possible, to let them know someone has seen and that something will be done.
18	The Twilight	This demon is only active during the night, or is most powerful in shadows.
19	The Blazing Light	This demon is only active during the day, or is most powerful in light.
20	The Awakening of the Dead	When displaying the Awakening of the Dead, necromancy or some similar magic is at play with the demon in question. Whether the dead have risen, or if the demon uses dead bodies for something, either can be covered with this card.
21	The Time of the Magi	The Time of the Magi card can be used to warn how the demon might be anywhere. Whether through teleportation or through invisibility (or even through the use of time alteration) the demon might be there right at that moment. Do not approach the victim.
0	The Unknown	The demon in question has no rhyme or reason. They might, but it isn't something the victim can follow. While murder or blood magic might not have come into the victim's note as of this time, if the victim displays this card upside down they do not put it past the demon in question.

by pxhere, CC0

Item type

Religious / Ritualistic