The Tarot, of which there are now many kinds, can trace their roots back to the origins of the playing cards.  Playing cards first came to Europe in the late 14th century with suites very similar to the Latin suits of Swords, Staves, Cups and Coins.  Although there are many theories of where and when the first Tarot decks were produced, it is widely recognised that they were produced in Northern Italy between 1410 and 1430. 

Before 18th Century, there is no documented history of Tarot being used as divination tools, though it is recognised that many ancient civilisations used cards with either pictures or symbols to read the future and ask for answers to the spirit world.

As the earliest Tarot cards were hand painted, it is thought that the number of cards produced were very limited and it was only with the invention of the modern printing press that cards ere able to be mass produced.

The first public display of divination through Tarot came with occultist Alliette through his pseudonym of Etteilla (His name reversed). Etteilla designed the first esoteric Tarot deck, adding astrological attributions and "Egyptian" motifs to various cards, altering many of them from the Marseilles designs, and adding divinatory meanings in text on the cards. Later, Mademoiselle Marie-Anne Le Normand popularised divination in general during the reign of Napoleon I.