Tarot Basics: Major Arcana

In my last Tarot piece, Tarot Basics: Suits, I talked about the four suits in the Tarot and what they mean. Now, I would like to take a look at the cards comprising the Major Arcana.

The Major Arcana are the cards that have writing on them. Everything from The Fool to the Aces, and the Court Cards, are part of the Major Arcana. We already know about the numbers and the suits, so we already have the Aces figured out. Aces are the number 1 of each suit … that means they are new beginnings. The type of new beginning depends on the suit … Wands, for example, would be physical new beginnings.

At this point I’m sure that you are thinking that the reading that you are going to be doing will be pretty general … and you’re right. When you’re first learning the Tarot, the readings are bound to be general. But as you choose to learn more and add your intuitive information to it, they are going to be more and more specific as time goes on. Let’s talk about the Court Cards of the Tarot.

The Court Cards are the people cards in the deck, Knights, Pages, Kings and Queens of each suit. These cards literally represent people. By knowing the sign of each suit, you can even tell what signs that person may be.

The King of Swords for instance is going to be a man that is a Libra, Aquarius, or Gemini. Kings represent men that are usually adult males, Queens are adult females, Knights are young adult males — sometimes teens, Pages are children and can be male or female. There is usually not a card for young adult females and this is mainly because females tend to mature faster than men, so there is no need for a female young adult card. Now you know not only the Aces and the Minor Arcana, but the Court Cards as well.

Now we are going to go into the other Major Arcana cards. This is usually where people get a little freaked out because of the memorizing, but you already have some information on them because you know the numbers. What I am going to do here is list the cards as well as one keyword for each. Using your powers of word association, you can string together other words in order to interpret the cards more fully. You will then have a solid base understanding on reading the Tarot Cards!

0: The Fool: New Beginnings

1: The Magician: New Beginnings

2: The High Priestess: Secret Knowledge

3: The Empress: Nurturing

4: The Emperor: Stability

5: The Hierophant: Religion/Spirituality

6: The Lovers: Choices

7: The Chariot: Travel

8: Strength: Courage/Strength

9: The Hermit: Guidance

10: The Wheel of Fortune: Cycles

11: Justice: Harmony/Law

12: The Hanged Man: Objectiveness

13: Death: Change

14: Temperance: Healing

15: The Devil: Bondage

16: The Tower: Rebuilding

17: The Star: Optimism

18: The Moon: Reflection

19: The Sun: Vitality

20: Judgment: Understanding

21: The World: Success

Now you know all of the Tarot Cards and can begin to do a reading based on what you have learned in these articles. After you have practiced with this, go out to a locally owned bookstore and find yourself a book on Tarot and begin to learn dome of the deeper meanings of the cards as well as the symbolism that they possess. After that you will be able to do very accurate readings and you will open your intuitive abilities as well. That information can come from your psychic side too!