There are many, many places on the web to stumble over promises of reading your future and finding your luck by looking to the stars. But this is not what the worthwhile side of esoteric is about, this would be to state that a trailer park is all there is to housing.

If you want to get full benefit of these cards, you definitely want to read up on their past and get an understanding of their development. I do believe this also gives a bigger appreciation of their wisdom and a detachment of getting hypnotized by the symbolism of it.

A good place to do research and to read up on tarot is Tarotpedia with a wealth of information.

Tarot History

“Tarot” refers to a family of games played with an augmented deck, (that is, decks with a fifth “suit” serving as permanent trumps), and also to the decks themselves. Most other card games using trumps select one of four regular suits to serve as trumps for a particular hand. Tarot is commonly played in various areas of Europe, and has been played in Italy since the 1440s. Outside Europe, there has been a revival of interest in Tarot card games especially amongst participants in Medieval and Renaissance re-enactments. “Tarot” also refers to similar decks that are used for fortune-telling and other esoteric purposes. In English-speaking countries, despite a slow but growing interest in Tarot’s gaming heritage, fortune-telling is currently the only common use of Tarot cards, even though such use did not begin until roughly 350 years after their invention.

— (Via Tarotpedia » Tarot History).