The tarot ( often tarot cards ) are a set of seventy-eight cards , comprising twenty-one trump cards , one Fool , and four suits of fourteen cards each and four Face cards . Hand-painted tarot cards remained a privilege of the upper classes and , although some sermons inveighing against the evil inherent in cards can be traced to the 14th century , most civil governments did not routinely condemn tarot cards during tarot 's early history . In fact , in some jurisdictions , tarot cards were specifically exempted from laws otherwise prohibiting the playing of cards .