h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I believe that the Tarot was developed by the early Knights Templar from an idea borrowed from the Saracens - who used similar picture cards to conceal hidden teachings. A version of the Tarot deck was known to have existed in 1140, but these cards were never designed to fortell the future, merely to conceal the secrets of the past.

I'm not sure "conceal" is the right verb. Perhaps "veil." Fact is, there are things that can be said far better in signs and symbols and pictures than in words. That is, I might call it a "coin" and you a "disc" and someone else a "pentacle," but it has the same position in the cards and the same meaning, in the long run: earth [i.e., not fire, water or air], material resources, even plain old money. But the symbol is ALL those things, not just one part. Then there is the fact that, while many people use different words (languages), a symbol is what it is to all who know it.

There are a number of good sources online that point to Tarot's strong originary links with the gnostic Jewish tradition - so that put on a symbolic wheel, Tarot and Torah (law) are derived from each other. The various levels of the Tarot symbolized by their numbers and card positions then are synonymous with kabbalistic stages of emanation and symbolism.