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The tarot is a pack of playing cards, used from at least the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play games such as Italian tarocchini, French tarot and Austrian Königrufen, many of which are still played today. In the late 18th century, some tarot decks began to be used for divination via tarot card reading and cartomancy leading to custom decks developed for such occult purposes.
Like the common playing cards, tarot has four suits which vary by region: French suits in Northern Europe, Latin suits in Southern Europe, and German suits in Central Europe. Each suit has 14 cards: ten pip cards numbering from one to ten, and four face cards. In addition, the tarot has a separate 21-card trump suit and a single card known as the Fool; this 22-card section of the tarot deck is known in divinatory circles as the Major Arcana. Depending on the game, the Fool may act as the top trump or may be played to avoid following suit. These tarot cards are still used throughout much of Europe to play conventional card games without occult associations.
Among English-speaking countries where these games are not as widely played, tarot cards are used primarily for novelty and divinatory purposes, usually using specially designed packs. Some using tarot for cartomancy believe that the cards have esoteric links to ancient Egypt, Iran, the Kabbalah, Indic Tantra, or the I Ching, though scholarly research has demonstrated that tarot cards were invented partly in northern Italy in the 15th century and combined with a deck of four suits, 'the Mamluk deck'. The Mamluk deck of cards followed the invention of paper from Asia into Western Europe and was invented in or before the 14th century. By the late 1300's Europeans were producing the Mamluk deck with variations to the suit symbols and 'court cards'.
Though some believed the usage of tarot for divination did not occur until the late 18th century, evidence of an early tarot deck, each card with an image and verse, was "used in divination to determine the querent's prospects in love".