Tarot Guide – Understanding the Big Picture, Major and Minor Arcana Overview
This tarot guide is designed to give you the overall big picture of the tarot reading process. We will start with the deck itself. The typical tarot deck consists of 78 cards. The most common version used is the Universal Waite Tarot Deck. Arthur Edward Waite wrote a book complete with card designs. In his book he discussed the history of the tarot and gave detailed overviews of each card.
Organization of the Tarot Deck
The tarot deck is divided into two major sections. The first section is the Major Arcana which consists of 22 cards, and the second section is the Minor Arcana which is made up of 56 cards. The word arcana is the plural of arcanum which means “profound secret.” To the alchemists of the Middle Ages, the arcanum was the secret of nature. The tarot cards are therefore a collection of the “secrets” that underlie and explain our universe.
Major Arcana
the essence of the tarot deck are the 22 cards of the major arcana. Together they represent the common aspects of the human experience as they relate to all of us. Each card in the major arcana has a name and number. Some cards represent individual approaches to life in general like the Hermit and others signify direct meanings such as Stregnth or Justice. Others represent outside astrological forces such as the Moon or the Sun. The Major Arcana cards weigh heavily in a reading when they show up and the often influence the meanings of the Minor Arcana cards.
Minor Arcana
The Minor Arcana brings the large themes of the Major Arcana down into the daily workings of our everyday lives. They represent the drama, emotion, and ongoing activities that we experience on a daily basis. These 56 cards are the precursor to our modern day playing cards and they are organized in almost the same exact manner.
There are four suits: Cups, Wands, Swords, and Penticles
- Cups are the suit of our spirituality and emotional experience.
- Wands are the suit of our movement, action, and creativity
- Swords are the suit of our thought, reason, and intellect
- Pentacles are the suit of our material desires, security, and practicality.
These suite cards are numbered Ace through ten, just like our modern deck of cards. each number in the suit represents a different variation of the overall theme of the suite. some are positive and some negative.
There are also court cards in the deck: King, Queen, Knight, and Page
- A King is masqueline, mature, and wise. He demonstrates control, mastery, and authority areas represented by his suite.
- A Queen is feminine and mature. Rather than acting out the qualities in her suite, she embodies them. A queen represents joy and the inner experience of the world around her. Feelings, self expression, and relationships are her strong points.
- A Knight is an immature young teen. He is unbalanced in all areas and swings wildy from thing to the next. Although he is sinsere and honest, he is subject to excess. He is full of energy.
- A Page is a playful adolescent. He acts out the qualities in his suite with a care free attitude. His approach is simple yet pure. He represents the hopes and dreams of an innocent child. As you may have noticed these are the four cards left out of the modern decks
That is the basic make-up of the tarot deck. Next up is how the cards are displayed and that’s called the The Spread.
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