Mysterious History of Tarot Cards
After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal
History Hit
4.7 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 March 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Maddy and Anthony get their Tarot cards read by Melissa Mercury! As well as reading their cards, Melissa tells us about the history of Tarot cards and who is responsible for their iconic design.
Find out why Swords aren't always bad and why the Death card can be good news!
This episode was edited by Tim Arstall. Produced by Tomos Delargy and Vilde Oksnes. The senior producer was Freddy Chick.
You can now watch After Dark on Youtube! www.youtube.com/@afterdarkhistoryhit
Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.
You can take part in our listener survey here.
All music from Epidemic Sounds.
After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The beaded curtain whispers as you step inside. |
| 0:07.0 | The air thick with incense and something faintly sweet like old flowers. |
| 0:13.0 | Candlelight pools across velvet draped tables casting shadows that sway like watchful silhouettes. |
| 0:24.7 | At the room's centre rests a single deck of cards, |
| 0:29.1 | its gilded edges glowing as if warmed by unseen hands. |
| 0:31.2 | You are not alone. |
| 0:34.7 | The reader sits opposite the table, utterly still, |
| 0:38.5 | their eyes holding more knowledge than they should rightly possess. With a graceful tilt of the table, utterly still, their eyes holding more knowledge than they should rightly possess. |
| 0:47.5 | With a graceful tilt of the hand, they invite you to sit. You obey, heart quickening. Your questions hover unspoken. The reader begins, and your future unfolds. A flaming tower struck by lightning, with people falling to the earth. |
| 1:24.2 | A figure stood perilously close to a cliff's edge, a skeletal figure clad in knight's armor. |
| 1:30.9 | These are just a few of the depictions found in the famous deck of cards used by fortune tellers and mystics in their practice of divination, seeing into the future. |
| 1:42.4 | The origins of tarot cards are clouded in mystery and rumor, |
| 1:46.3 | and today we'll be endeavoring to shed some light on the subject. Where do these cards come from? |
| 1:52.5 | Who were the key figures behind them? And what do they hold in store for us? |
| 1:58.6 | And to help us tell this history of tarot, and to give us a reading, of course, we have |
| 2:03.9 | Melissa Mercury, who's a professional tarot reader. Where are you based, Melissa? Is it in Camden or just |
| 2:09.8 | North London? It's in North London. North London. And you can Google and find out, right? You can |
| 2:13.9 | find all your details online. Yes, you can. So it's all there. And Melissa gives |
| 2:18.1 | tarot card readings. She runs tarot workshops. Ooh, that's interesting. And Pivotal for us gives |
| 2:23.8 | lectures on the history of taro. Melissa, welcome to After Dark. Thank you so much for having me. |
| 2:30.7 | We are so over-exciting about this episode. |
| 2:36.1 | We've been talking about doing this for ages. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.