Tarot decks are a type of playing card used for divination (cartomancy).

Unlike card games (e.g., Poker, Solitaire, Rummy, etc.), which are played for
recreational purposes, users of Tarot seek to gain knowledge via occult/mystical
means (loosely termed “fortune telling”). Cards are drawn at random and placed
in various ‘spreads’ (i.e., layouts whose positions are designated with certain
significance). For example, the most basic is the standard ‘three-card spread,’
wherein the first card represents ‘the past,’ the second ‘the present,’ and the third
‘the future.’ There are more complex spreads, such as the ‘Celtic Cross,’ which
features ten positions representing ‘the self,’ ‘hopes/fears,’ ‘external influences,’
etc. Cards are then ‘read’ (i.e., interpreted) for their insight regarding the
circumstances or specific question of the querent (“seeker,” i.e., one who consults a
‘fortune teller’ or oracle).

Tarot has undergone numerous incarnations over the past several

centuries, so this application profile will focus on decks from the 20th century
onward. The quintessential version of the Tarot would undoubtedly be the Rider-
Waite deck, published in 1909. This is the version most people are familiar with,
and being the most popular and influential, it has served as the prototype for
subsequent decks. Whereas standard (French) playing cards come in decks of 52
cards (excluding the 2 joker cards), the Rider-Waite deck has 78 cards. These are
divided into Major and Minor Arcana (see Fig. 1 below). The Major Arcana are
the Trump cards, depicting iconic scenes with occult or mystical significance (e.g.,
the Magician, the Lovers, Justice, Death, the Moon, Judgment, etc.). These can
bear both a name and number, either, or none. In the Rider-Waite deck, these
consist of 22 cards with both name and number (0-21).
 Fig. 1

The Minor Arcana are the Suit cards. There are typically 4 suits. As
opposed to the more familiar French suits (Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, and Spades),
the Rider-Waite deck uses a variation on the Latin suit-system seen in Italian and
Spanish playing cards (Cups, Coins, Clubs, and Swords): Cups, Pentacles, Wands,
and Swords. Within each suit, there are Court cards (sometimes called Face
cards) and Pip cards. Court cards refer to unnumbered cards within a suit, often
named with courtly titles. Similar to French playing cards (which have a Jack,
Queen, and King), the Rider-Waite deck uses the following: Page, Knight, Queen,
and King. The remaining cards within the suit are Pip cards (N.B. ‘Pips’ refer to
countable symbols, which on playing cards indicate the suit and are repeated to
indicate rank). In the Rider-Waite deck, these also feature a Roman numeral,
except for the Ace card (the name of which is written out, e.g., “Ace of Wands”).
There are 4 Court cards and 10 Pip cards, equaling 14 cards per suit for a total of
56 Suit cards per deck.
 Over the past several decades, the number of Tarot decks has exploded,
with hundreds of varieties currently on the market. Often these are themed by
culture (e.g., Celtic, Egyptian, Native American), historical period (e.g., Medieval,
Renaissance, Victorian), spiritual tradition (e.g., Ceremonial Magick, Pagan
Reconstructionism, Christian Mysticism), aesthetic style (e.g., Japanese
Manga/Anime, Steampunk, Gothic), genre (e.g., Horror, Fantasy, Erotic),
concept (e.g., Angels, Fairies, Dragons, Vampires, Aliens), etc. These typically
retain the traditional structure of the Rider-Waite deck (itself based upon the
older Tarot of Marseilles), with Trump cards (the Major Arcana) and Suit cards
(Minor Arcana) featuring Court and Pip cards, merely substituting names and
artwork. For example, the Wildwood Tarot by Matthews, Ryan, & Worthington
(Sterling 2011) is inspired by pre-Celtic shamanism. It has 78 cards, 22 Major
Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana (just like Rider-Waite). However, the Major Arcana
share none of the original names (e.g, the Seer, the Green Man, the Stag, the
Journey, the Blasted Oak, the Great Bear, the World Tree). The suits have also
been re-named: Arrows, Bows, Stones, and Vessels.

For our purposes here, we regard any deck of cards intended for divination
and retaining this basic structure (Trump cards and Suit cards) to qualify as
‘Tarot.’ Any divination cards lacking this structure will not be considered ‘Tarot’
and thus will not be included in this collection. For example, Lenormand cards
(named after Marie Anne Lenormand of France) are sometimes called “Tarot,” yet
they traditionally consist of only 36 cards which are not differentiated into
Trump and Suit cards, each only possessing a name (e.g., Ship, Bouquet, Child,
Garden, Ring, Key, Anchor, etc.) and/or number. Similarly, many decks mistaken
for Tarot are often titled “Oracle” decks. For example, the Druid Animal Oracle by
Carr-Gomm & Worthington (Connections 2006) consist of 33 cards named after
various animals (e.g., Hare, Blackbird, Adder, Salmon, Crane), again lacking
Trumps or Suits.

As creative works, Tarot decks necessarily have creators, which can be

multiple people in different roles spanning several stages of the development: the
designer responsible for the conception and the artist responsible for its
rendering (sometimes separate artists are responsible for sketching and coloring
the artwork). The designers can be referred to as ‘authors,’ since they often write
accompanying booklets explaining the deck and card meanings (or full-length
instruction manuals sold separately). Like books, decks are printed and
distributed by a publisher at a specific time in a specific place. Modern decks have
unique retail identifiers, two of which are most common: an ISBN (International
Standard Book Number) used by publishers and SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) used
to track inventory in retail stores. They can also have a UPC (Universal Product
Code), ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number), or EAN (European
Article Number). In Tarot decks, every card is essentially a painting and can
serve as stand-alone artwork. For example, the ‘Moon’ card from the Rider-Waite
Tarot deck was featured in the liner notes to Tom Petty’s 1989 album Full Moon
Fever (tinyurl.com/y45ay4o5). Therefore, an element set must be able to
accommodate descriptive metadata for each individual card within a deck.

Tarot cards are traditionally physical objects, though they can be

represented digitally (such as application software that will “cut,” “shuffle,” and
“draw” cards for users); however, this application profile will only apply to
collections covering physical versions. Just like playing cards, the material can
vary, but they are typically made from card stock (which is paper-based), they
may be laminated with plastic, and occasionally are embellished with gold leaf or
silver foil accents and edging. Cards within a deck are of uniform measurement.
They are usually larger than standard (French) playing cards, some are oversized,
while other novelty decks are miniaturized. Their physical dimensions include
height, width, and depth (i.e., thickness). Like playing cards, they are usually
rectangular shaped, however some decks feature other shapes, such as round
cards in the Circle of Life Tarot by Lo Scarabeo (Llewellyn 2008).

There are several museums throughout the world in which a collection of

Tarot decks might be housed, such as the well-known Museum of Witchcraft and
Magic in Cornwall. We have a similar institution here in the United States: the
Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Cleveland, OH. There is even a
museum entirely devoted to Tarot: the Museo Dei Tarocchi in Bologna, Italy.
Would-be patrons might include curiosity seekers, mystics, paranormal
enthusiasts, occult and magical practitioners, members of various spiritual
traditions, as well as academics such as art historians, religious scholars studying
Western Esotericism, anthropologists studying folklore and folk magic,
psychologists studying Jungian archetypes or magical thinking, etc.

For the Tarot decks within this collection, users might want to be able to
find all cards by a certain artist or publisher, to browse decks by theme. Someone
might have seen a card in isolation and want to know to what deck it belongs (in
which case, they would need to be able to search by any distinguishing features,
such as the name of the card, pips used, or symbolism depicted). They also might
want to know how many cards are in a given deck, what suit names are used,
what the court cards are called, etc. Thus, any successful metadata schema for
Tarot card decks must be able to accommodate all these details and more.