Major and Minor Arcana: how the tarot deck is built
A tarot deck can look like a jumble of 78 different pictures. In fact it is carefully organised, and once you see the structure, readings become much easier to follow.
The Major Arcana: 22 big themes
The Major Arcana are the named cards numbered from 0 to 21, from The Fool to The World. They describe major life themes and turning points: love and choice (the Lovers), sudden change (the Tower), hope after hardship (the Star), completion (the World).
Many readers see them as a journey. The Fool sets out with nothing, meets teachers and challenges along the way, faces endings and upheaval, and finally arrives at the World, whole. When a Major Arcana card appears in a reading, it signals that something bigger than everyday life is involved.
The Minor Arcana: 56 everyday cards
The Minor Arcana describe the day-to-day: conversations, small wins, worries, plans. They come in four suits of fourteen cards each, ten numbered cards from Ace to Ten and four court cards.
The four suits
- Wands (fire): energy, ambition, creativity, action.
- Cups (water): feelings, love, friendship, intuition.
- Swords (air): thoughts, truth, decisions, conflict.
- Pentacles (earth): work, money, the body, practical life.
The numbers
Each number has a rough meaning that holds across the suits. Aces are beginnings, Twos are choices and partnerships, Threes are growth, Fours are stability, Fives are challenge, Sixes are harmony, Sevens are tests, Eights are movement, Nines are near-completion and Tens are endings that lead to new cycles. So the Ace of Cups is a new feeling, the Ace of Pentacles a new practical opportunity.
The court cards
Pages are students and messengers, Knights are action and movement, Queens are mature inner mastery and Kings are outward authority. Court cards often describe a person in your life, or a way you are being asked to act.
Using the structure in a reading
Before reading any single card, glance at the whole spread. Lots of Major Arcana? A significant chapter. Mostly Cups? It is about feelings. Several Fives? A testing time. The summary at the end of every Deckmoon reading does this for you, and the card pages go into each card in detail.