Learning Virtues Through Tarot Cards Reading
When tracing the history of the tarot back through the ages, one can pinpoint when the first decks appeared in Italy in the 14th century. It is believed that the royal court designed the cards and gave them out to the masses as a way to help teach virtues and to entertain at the same time. One of those virtues, Strength, is the eleventh or the eighth card in the major arcana, depending on the deck that you are using.
Strength is one of four virtues, although prudence is missing in most tarot decks, while strength, temperance and justice all have managed to find their place within the average tarot deck.
Most folks would attribute these virtues being depicted on tarot cards as direct link between the Italian people and the ironclad grip the Roman Catholic Church had on the local populations in the 14th century.
While most western tarot decks did become Christianized over the years, the four major virtues actually go back to the teachings of ancient Greek philosophers like Aristotle.
It should not be any surprise that the original number of virtues were four. Four has been a powerful number throughout human history because of the association of four seasons in a year, four points on a compass and so on. In later years, Christian influence added three more virtues, love, hope and faith, raising the number of basic virtues to seven, an even more powerful number.
The varying position, even to this day, of the Strength card is not much of a surprise to tarot scholars. Cards have always found different places in the deck, even the trump cards, depending on what region you were visiting. Many decks place the three tarot virtues, Strength, Temperance