What is Tarot? The Written in the Stars Explained
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Most people ask: what is tarot? Here's the Emporos edit.
Simply, tarot is information in your palm, laid before you. All you need to do is ask, shuffle, and read the cards.
"It is with this foundation that I curated the Written in the Stars Tarot Deck, honouring the ancestry of tarot and the nuances of both decks with specific art and intention that triggers your intuition. At its core, this deck is inspired by history, but it also homes in on Sekhem and can be used for healing, altars, meditations, and more. Use it to activate your Soul Spark, and I would love to hear where your journey with this deck takes you." — Dominic, Maker at Emporos
What you'll learn in this article:
- The universal human instinct for divination and where tarot fits within it
- The layered ancestry of tarot, from Egypt to Europe
- How the Higher and Minor Arcana work together and why they feel different
- How to read tarot cards intuitively, without memorising every meaning
- How tarot connects to Sekhem, healing, and ancestral magic
- How the Written in the Stars deck was designed and made
The Written in the Stars Tarot Deck
Designed for tarot reading for beginners and seasoned practitioners alike. Designed in Devon, printed in Cornwall. One of the only fully plastic-free tarot decks available, without ever compromising on quality or durability.
The Written in the Stars deck was built to honour a tradition whose true origins, much like the source of the Nile, remain beautifully unknown. What we do know traces back some 5,000 years to ancient Egypt, and that alone is humbling. Rooted in Sekhem energy healing and designed to be used: for daily draws, healing sessions, altar work, meditation, and more. These cards are made to travel with you, age with you, and speak to you in your own language.
Access the free Emporos Tarot Guide →
A Universal Human Instinct
Historically, soothsaying, reading the stars, oracles, and tarot readers have been revered across the globe. Divination is in our blood. It is universal beyond continents: from palmistry to tea leaves, smoke signs and deciphering clouds, humans have always found the need to stand still, to contemplate, and to ask the world and the universe for signs.
Tarot is one expression of that ancient impulse, and one of the most sophisticated.
The Ancestry of Tarot
There are many paths that branch from the modern tarot to its relatively unknown origin, much like the source of the Nile.
When I learnt tarot at 18, my mentor told me of the ancestry tethered to Egypt, where it is believed that the Fool's Journey had been used to explore great life journeys, daily cycles, monthly patterns, and more. This powerful reflection shows us where we are today and where we can be tomorrow.
From Egypt, it is thought that the Romani people travelled with the Higher Arcana to Europe, where they blended it with the playing cards, also used for divination, in Spain. This added the Minor Arcana to the deck, and the tarot as we know it was born.
Two Decks, One Song
For me, this history explains why the Higher Arcana holds a deeply rooted magic. It tells a story from birth to enlightenment. The Minor Arcana, by contrast, adopts the elemental structure of four houses, or suits, including the royal cards. Energetically, these two decks are different: integrated, singing the same song, but in slightly different languages.
The Higher Arcana speaks in archetypes and great life themes. The Minor Arcana speaks in elements, in the texture of the everyday. Together, they form a complete picture.
Reading Intuitively
I don't expect you to remember the specificities of what the Seven of Swords means, especially when that meaning may wax or wane depending on the cards surrounding it. When you step into your power, embracing the art of Sekhem and divination, the elements, numerology, and cosmology will speak to you. Patterns will show themselves: mirrors, reflections, shadows, and light.
Let me show you what I mean.
The Seven of Swords: a worked example
Swords, as a suit, carry the energy of Air. They seek balance and harmony, they require communication, and they demand decision. They are the cards of the mind, of truth, of the clarity that sometimes cuts before it heals.
Seven, numerologically, is the number of change. It is a challenge you must overcome to shed the skin of the past and step into the eternal power of eight: your path of enlightenment. Seven asks you to look honestly at what is no longer serving you, so that you can move forward with intention rather than habit.
So the Seven of Swords is not simply a card of deceit, as it is so often labelled. It is a card of necessary change, of the moment before transformation, of the push that breaks you free from the past. Yes, change can feel uncomfortable. But it doesn't have to be feared.
This is why we adopted a neutral approach to the Minor Arcana in the Written in the Stars deck. The nuance of that information lives primarily in the cards before and after this one, in the spread as a whole, in what you feel when you look at it.
That is why I designed the Written in the Stars Tarot to be a "say what you see" deck, but also a "say what you feel" deck. Your intuition is not a shortcut. It is the point.
Your Star Sign, Your Element, Your Cards
The four suits of the Minor Arcana map directly onto the four elements, and those elements map onto the star signs you already know:
- Cups — Water: Emotion, intuition, healing, flow. Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces.
- Wands — Fire: Passion, courage, creativity, transformation. Aries, Leo, Sagittarius.
- Swords — Air: Clarity, communication, intellect, truth. Gemini, Libra, Aquarius.
- Pentacles — Earth: Grounding, abundance, patience, the physical world. Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn.
When you pull a card, you are receiving an elemental message. The elements are the grammar of the deck. And if you want to go deeper than your sun sign, the Emporos Birth Element system, rooted in the Sekhem tradition, offers 16 elemental identities calculated from your full date of birth.
Discover your Birth Element →
Tarot, Sekhem, and Ancestral Magic
It is with this understanding that I found a liberation through tarot, having read and taught it since my teens. In creating this deck, I truly felt the resonance with Sekhem, the stars, the elements, and this unique ancestry that comes from working with a deck that honours a tradition whose true origins, much like the source of the Nile, remain beautifully unknown. What we do know traces back some 5,000 years to ancient Egypt, and that alone is humbling.
After ascending through the Sekhem studies, we learn about Ancestral Magic. For me, tarot is the perfect representation of Vocational Ancestors. When we work with tarot, we work with the deeply rooted vocation that many priestesses, healers, and shamans have used before. And that is inherently beautiful.
How It's Made
Those who know me know of my passion for harmonising science with spirituality. I am naturally, inherently, a curious Aquarius who desires explanations. A little less known fact is my artistic side, which until recently has often been reserved for personal use. I studied design at school and continued to implement digital design in my work whilst sketching, painting, and working with clay.
Now, if you had told me three years ago that I would have successfully designed my own tarot deck, I would have found that laughable. But to have woven science, history, and art together? That feels like a true symbiosis and a beautiful pairing.
Simply: I trusted my instincts and my understanding. I mapped out the Higher Arcana first, identifying what needed to be included in each card: colours, themes, imagery, symbols. I started with the digital designs, and after the initial draft was complete, I decided they needed greater depth. So I sketched ideas down, enhanced them digitally, and wove extra components throughout, creating the cosmically enriched deck you hold today. All thanks to Paul, who pushed me along.
The next hurdle was printing, and the goal was clear: no plastic. I was horrified to find that most commercial laminations, especially the fancy finishes and gilded edges, were plastic. I also felt saddened by the sheer volume of paper and metal waste sent to landfill every year. Staples cannot be recycled or composted when part of a booklet. After much trial and error, our stringent vetting found us our printing partner in Cornwall: solar powered, vegetable inks, compostable laminations, and no compromise on shuffability or durability.
I was astonished at the craftsmanship of the finished product. My deck has since travelled the world with me, from England to Australia, Ibiza, and beyond. I have used them in all conditions, read them daily for over a year, shown them at festivals, and they have aged beautifully. Magnificently.
We are proud to be one of the only tarot decks in the world to be fully plastic-free and biodegradable, without ever compromising on quality or durability.
These cards are truly the foundation of Emporos, and our eco standards grow from the roots they have planted. I trust you will enjoy them as much as I do.
Meet the maker →
The Elemental Connection: Fire and Soul
Every star in the night sky is a burning fire in the dark. From them we draw inspiration, we plant a wish, we connect, and we dream. They tether us to our lineage, to our Sun Star Signs, to the moon and to something far beyond: to Sirius, to the ancient light of Lemuria, to the cosmic gateway of the Lionsgate portal, where the veil between worlds grows thin and the soul remembers what it has always known.
This is why the Written in the Stars Tarot Deck belongs to Fire. And why Fire, in the Emporos elemental philosophy, is Soul.
Soul is not a fixed thing. It is transformation, enlightenment, empowerment, and connection. It is the part of you that reaches toward the stars and recognises something familiar there. Fire does not destroy: it illuminates. It burns away what no longer serves so that what remains is true.
In Sekhem, Fire sits in the third eye, the seat of intuition, vision, and inner sight. It is the chakra of perception, of pattern recognition, of seeing beyond the surface into the deeper truth beneath. When you work with the Written in the Stars Tarot, you are activating that centre. You are inviting your third eye to open, your intuition to speak, and your soul to lead.
This deck was designed for the stars. It is a gateway: for your Soul Spark to ignite, for your inner world to be explored, for creativity, curiosity, and connection to flow. Not a destination, but an expedition. One that begins the moment you ask, shuffle, and read.
Discover your Birth Element →
Eco Score: Written in the Stars Tarot Deck: 9.96/10
Every Emporos product is assessed against our five-pillar Eco Score framework, measuring the environmental impact of materials, sourcing, transit, packaging, and workspace operations. Each score is also benchmarked against market equivalents, so you can see not just how we perform, but how we compare.
MATERIALS — 10/10 FSC-certified card stock, zero plastic coating, vegetable-based inks, solar-powered print, biodegradable lamination
SOURCING & TRADE INTEGRITY — 10/10 Independent Cornish printing partner
TRANSIT LOOP — 9.8/10* Printed in Cornwall, finished in Devon. Domestic dispatch only, no international freight. Minor last-mile transit acknowledged.
CIRCULAR PACKAGING — 10/10 Plastic-free throughout
WORKSPACE OPERATIONS — 10/10 Small-batch, low-waste production
*Scores reflect our domestic supply chain. International orders are fulfilled by air freight on request. We made a conscious decision to avoid sea freight due to the documented impact of shipping lanes on whale and marine ecosystems.
