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The Meaning of The Tarot Cards
Introduction to The Major Arcana
Tarot Card reading lyns

There are 78 cards in a standard tarot card deck. The Major Arcana (Latin meaning "big secrets") is composed of 22 cards or "trump cards" the remaining 56 make up the minor cards.The Major Arcana represent our spiritual journey and significant events in our lives and the forces of fate in the universe.  

 

The Fools journey in the Major Arcana is an analogy for our own personal spiritual journey through life to become whole with his journey through the trump cards from the innocence of The Fool to completeness with the World Card. Each card represents a stage in our development. The proportion of the Major Arcana in a tarot card spread shows the influence of these universal influences or the forces of fate and the lessons and messages from the universe that we need to learn. The more present the more things will seem out of our hands but the greater your own spiritual growth. The number value assigned to each card together with the visual image provides a great deal of information on the meaning and message of the card. We will be exploring first the meaning of each of the Major Arcana on this website. For simplicity we will be focusing on the upright meaning. As a guide only the reversed lessens or delays the influence of this force or it represents the reverse. We will go into this later and I do cover a lot of this in my classes. Look up individual pages for each card from the drop down menu.

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The Minor Arcana (or little secrets) includes four suits (wands, pentacles, swords and cups) which correspond to the four elements fire, earth, air and water with fourteen cards in each suit numbered 1 -9 plus the court cards pages, knights, queens and kings in each suit. The Minor Arcana represent every day affairs and events. The Elements correspond to various areas of life. Pentacles relate to earth and are concerned with  the material world, work, savings, investments, security. The Wands relate to the element Fire and all aspects of inspiration, ideas, business, originality and ideas. Cups relates to the element water and all aspects of emotion and feelings. Cups corresponds to relationships and emotional attachments. Swords relates to the element air and logic, decisions, though processes and communication. If you understand the basic meaning of numbers it is easy to work out the meaning of the Minor Arcana cards. For example 2s represent relating, balance, cooperation and harmony. Cups represents emotion so when the two of cups turns up in a reading there is no doubt that relationships will be the focus. It could be the beginning of a new romance or a commitment of some kind to a partner or any other emotional attachment. The court Cards can represent people in the client's life with personalities of the elements. The pages are usually young people or children. The Knights young adults and the Queens and Kings mature individuals all with physical attributes and personality types fitting with the suits and the elements.  The court cards can also represents stages or situations on a plan. For example the pages can be the initial idea, the Knights movement forward and change or progress, the Queen the formation of the plan and the King the end result.

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Personality Card in the Tarot

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The Personality Card is worked out by adding up the numbers in your date of birth as shown in the photo. The number then needs to be between 1 - 22 (the number of cards in the Major Arcana including The Fool). If it works out to be Number 22 then your Card is The Fool Card.If its larger you need to reduce it further to obtain the number between 1 and 22. The Soul card is the reduced number from the original number. Sometimes they are the same.

If we look at another example e.g someone born 23.2.2002 = 
23 +
2+
2002 
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2+2+7 = 11 The Justice Card (although some decks assign Strength to this card)
This person will have a very strong sense of social justice and will want to help others. They will gravitate to legal interests, social welfare, psychology or allied health most likely. This is a master spiritual number and will give them the ability to make a difference to the wellbeing of others on a large scale.

The Soul Card will be the number 2 (1+1). This Card is the High Priestess. Intuition, sensitivity and psychic gifts are highly likely. As they get older they will learn to develop their intuition and to trust it. This will also give them insight into others as they pick up the vibrations of those they are close to (the number 2 influence). This card is ruled by the Moon and is all about potential and guidance and wisdom from a higher source.

Have a go at working out your own Cards. If you are not sure which card it is look back through my previous posts or look it up on the net. It really is quite interesting. and will give you some insight into why you are as amazing as you are! Those court card can wait until Monday. It is a bit daunting for me as it is difficult to show you on this platform. I really need to get on to those classes Ive been planning! Have a great day!

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The minor Arcana are also called the Pip cards. There are 40 numbered cards. In contrast to The Major Arcana which tend to show experiences of a spiritual nature and forces of fate and destiny beyond our control the Minor Arcana Cards represent ordinary events in the client's life and personal feelings about those events. Look on the drop down menus for updates. I will be focusing on the number value of the cards and then how to apply this to the suits.

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The Aces

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The Ace of each suit represents the full and undivided energy and power of the element it is associated with. The Ace of wands represents Fire; The Ace of Cups represents water, The Ace of swords represents Air and the Ace of Coins represents earth. The aces are the first card in each suit so they also represent new beginnings or the beginning of something: inspiration, projects, new ideas and new starts.

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Starting with the Ace of Wands

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Being the element fire it stands for inspiration, intuition, ambition, excitement, initiative and enthusiasm. In this suit it is often associated with new projects in business or career. Creative ideas and intellectual plans are more associated with this Ace than practical or financial.

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Reversed

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The creative energy is misdirected when reversed and seems to be weak or drained in some way. There may be wasted energy and frustrations and confusion about where to start projects or how to come up with new ideas. If they ace reversed turns up in a spread you may feel unproductive and frustrated and there may be a lot of wasted energy. You need to organise yourself more efficiently and decide what you really want to achieve.

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The Minor Arcana
Introduction to The Minor Arcana
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