Tarot is a form of Divination. A tarot deck is comprised of 78 cards, broken down into Major and Minor Arcana classifications. There are 22 Major Arcana cards numbered 0 to 21. The remaining 56 cards for the Minor Arcana and are broken into four suits with 14 cards each. The cards run from the Ace to the Ten, and then four court cards (Page, Knight, Queen, and King). Traditionally the suits are Pentacles (Earth), Swords (Air), Wands (Fire), and Cups (Water).
The Major Arcana cards deal with the big life lessons, while the Minor Arcana deal with the day to day trials and successes we all have.
The Major Arcana cards can be viewed as the Fool's Journey. The Fool being numbered zero travels through the other twenty one cards and learns the lessons they teach along the way, ending with the World and the cycle completing.
The suits of the Minor Arcana are broken down as follows:
Pentacles are Earth, Money, material goods.
Swords are Air, thoughts and intellect
Wands are Fire, actions and movement
Cups are Water, all aspects of emotions
The Court cards in each suit are a personification of the traits of the suit and different aspects, from the youthful energy of the Page's to the mature and balanced Kings. The Court cards will get their own separate post.
It is amazing to me that the Waite, Smith deck created over 100 years ago is still relevant today. The meanings of the cards have changed a bit to keep up with the times, but it is still the recommended deck to start learning. I have a book with Arther Waite's original meanings for the cards and it is fun seeing the changes from then to now. Even the changes in how it was prescribed to do a reading to how I do them is fascinating. I'm a geek like that though and love the learning.
If you have any questions please post them in the comments below. I will be doing more posts like this as we move along. Thank you for being here and reading my posts.
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