The previous period is often referred to as the 'pre-occult Tarot'. It was in France that the story of Esoteric Tarot starts to emerge. Little is heard about the game of Tarot until an occultist Court de Geblin (1724-1784) came across a Tarot card game being played at a friend's house. This can be said to be the beginning of Esoteric Tarot, the use of the cards as a divinatory instrument.

De Geblin believed that cards were Egyptian in origin with connections to the great god Thoth. He speculated on other connections but did not develop them, publishing his theories in 1781 in a nine volume set of books titled Monde Primitif. The Rossetta Stone was decoded in 1799 with no mention of the Tarot. However, by this time De Geblin's work had been popularized.

In 1783, the French occultist known as The Grand Etteilla was the first professional Tarot reader and the first person to design a Tarot pack to be used for divination. The word 'cartomancy' for card divination is said to be coined by him. He strongly maintained that the origins of Tarot lay in Egypt. In 1785 he published A Way To Entertain One-Self with a Pack of Cards Called Tarot. He also wrote on astrology and alchemy.

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