Like age-old advice from a wise elder, tarot tells us stories about our lives and ways we could live them better. Each card is packed with information — though some systems rely on numerology and astrology to give deeper or slightly different levels of meaning. Created in the 14th century, tarot cards were originally used to play games. It wasn't until the 18th century that they began to be used for divination purposes and finally gained popularity in the United States in the 20th century. Any given tarot deck consists of 78 cards, sorted into the minor arcana and the major arcana. The minor arcana similarly resembles a deck of traditional playing cards — it has four suits, as well as kings, queens and jacks — though there are 56 cards in the minor arcana, while the major arcana consists of the 22 cards normally associated with the tarot known to most in pop culture — Death, the Devil, etc. Similar to a magic 8 ball, tarot cards are not meant to tell or predict the future. The cards are there to give guidance around what is happening in your personal orbit: love, money, career, goals, and general life path. The process of reading tarot is known as synchronicity, a term coined by psychologist Carl Jung to describe the temporally coincident occurrence of events. In synchronicity, there is no distinction between inner and outer — the choice of a card is exactly what your higher self already knows — which is what tarot occultists refer to as a conversation with your higher self. It’s not magic—tarot cards are a sacred mirror.