The Venetian or Piedmontese tarot served as the inspiration for the typical modern tarot deck. There are 78 cards total, split into two groups: the
In This Article...
How many cards should there be in a tarot deck?
The Venetian or Piedmontese tarot served as the inspiration for the typical modern tarot deck. The major arcana, which contains 22 cards and is also known as the trumps, and the minor arcana, which has 56 cards, make up the 78 cards that make up this deck.
Do the cards in each tarot deck differ?
Despite their vastly different designs, all tarot decks share a few characteristics. Each one has 78 playing cards, divided into the main and minor arcana. The major arcana, which are the deck’s 22 trump cards, generally allude to bigger influences and disclosures when they are revealed during a reading. These cards stand alone without a suit and represent key occasions or people in a person’s life.
In contrast, the minor arcana refer to influences and issues that are more commonplace. Wands, swords, pentacles, and cups make up the four suits that these 56 cards are divided into. (Occasionally, tarot decks will use different terminology, such as “Pentacles for coins, but they are exact equivalents to the four original divisions.) A different aspect of life is represented by each outfit. Wands typically represent imagination and passion, swords intelligence, pentacles work and wealth, and cups emotion. Additionally, each suit is associated with a certain set of astrological signs, such as wands being associated with fire, swords with air, pentacles with earth, and cups with water.
Since we’re beginners, the meanings you’ll most frequently refer to are the functional definitions, albeit these meanings can be used when cards symbolize people and their zodiac signs. For example, a three-card spread with three pentacle cards strongly denotes a financial concern. (More on the various spreads will follow.)
While much of this is up to the deck’s owner and what resonates with them, there are a few conventions that apply to the majority of tarot readings. If you’re reading cards for someone else, you should ask them to provide you with a question or suggest something they’re interested in, and keep that question in mind while you shuffle the deckalso referred to as “removing the effects of earlier research and readings. (An illustration would be, “When will I discover love?” Am I pursuing the correct career? “How can I get through my block?
Then you could query the person you are reading for (also known as “cutting the deck, once more concentrating on the querent. Although some readers will cut the deck for the querent, we prefer this option since it gives the querent a chance to feel linked to the deck personally. In any case, you will draw the necessary number of cards for your spread and, if you’re reading for yourself, place them between you and the querentor directly in front of you.
What number of cards make up a tarot suit?
The suit cards in a tarot deck are known as the Minor Arcana, or Lesser Arcana.
Pip cards numbered one (ace) through ten, combined with court cards (or face cards) in each of the four suits, make up the Minor Arcana cards, which first appear in tarot card games. The Minor Arcana are frequently drawn in modern tarot cards, a practice made famous by the Rider-Waite-Smith deck in 1910. The Minor Arcana cards are used in tandem with the Major Arcana in tarot card readings to denote everyday insights and to suggest subtleties and intricacies.
The Minor Arcana in Tarot decks inherited from Italian and Spanish decks normally consists of 56 cards, with 14 cards in each of the four suits (Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles)alternatively, batons, clubs, staffs, or staves (coins, disks, or rings).
Commonly, the court cards are the page, knight, queen, and king. The court is expanded by two new cards in the classic Visconti-Sforza tarot deck: the damsel and the mounted lady. Some variations substitute princess and prince cards for the page and knight cards. There are 56 cards in the traditional Tarot of Marseilles, but later decks based on the French suits of clubs (), hearts (), and swords (
How many different kinds of tarot cards exist?
The Renaissance allegorical motifs are abandoned in the pictures of the French-suited tarot trumps, which significantly deviate from the earlier Italian-suited design. French-suited tarot cards are almost exclusively used for card games, with the exception of novelty decks. Around 1740, the first French-suited tarots appeared. These cards were known as “Tiertarock” because they featured animal pictures on the trumps. Around 1800, a wider range of decksmany with genre art or vedutabegan to appear. There are now four patterns for French-suited tarot decks:
- Industrial and Gothic Roman numerals are used for the trumps in the Central European genre art tarock deck known as Industrie und Glck (“Diligence and Fortune”). The red suits 5 to 10 and the black suits 1 to 6 are not included in the set of 54 cards that are sold with it. There are 3 patterns: Types A, B, and C, with Type C being the norm while Types B and C are only offered sometimes or as specials.
- A 78-card deck of Tarot Nouveau, often known as Tarot Bourgeois, is available. In France and Denmark, it is frequently used for Danish Tarok and Tarot games. Cego is occasionally played in Germany as well. Arabic numerals in the corner indices are not as important as the genre art.
- Use of the Adler-Cegothis animal tarot is widespread in the Upper Rhine Valley and nearby mountainous areas like the Black Forest and the Vosges. It features 54 cards that are arranged similarly to how the Industrie und Glck packs are arranged. Arabic numbers are used in its trumps, but only within centered indices.
- The Schmid-Cego pack, designed by F.X. Schmid, features Tarot Nouveau-style genre pictures, but the Arabic numerals are centered like in the Adler-Cego pack.
What tarot card has the most influence?
The Fool is typically seen as a card from the Major Arcana when performing a tarot reading. Contrary to popular belief, the Fool does not fall under either category in tarot card games. Instead, the Fool serves a function that is distinct from both the simple suit cards and the trump cards. As a result, the Fool has no number assigned to it in the majority of tarot decks that were initially created for playing games. Although Waite assigns the Fool the number 0, in his book, the Fool is discussed between Judgment (number 20) and The World (number 21). The Tarocco Piemontese is the only traditional game deck that numbers the Fool 0. Since the 1930s, the corner index for the Fool in Tarot Nouveau decks has frequently been a black inverted mullet. The Fool is one of the most expensive cards in practically all tarot games.
Can you perform a self-tarot reading?
It’s normal to be a little clumsy when you first start practicing the tarot. Tarot study is similar to learning a new languageit takes time to become proficient. But what happens if you no longer require the booklet and have intimate familiarity with the deck? Are you able to read yourself? No, except for a few rare instances. Simply put, it’s a horrible idea.
You see, the majority of us turn to astrology or tarot when we’re looking for clarity amid a period of ambiguity. In contrast to astrology, which is quite technical, our consciousness restricts our capacity to read tarot cards. Working with your personal interpretation of the cards, you are not constrained by short- and long-term cycles like the planets’ orbits. It might be tricky to go beyond your current circumstances while utilizing the tarot to better understand a trying scenario. Even if all the cards are spread out in front of you, putting them together requires such a broad perspective that it is all but impossible to fully understand the meaning of each card. Basically, any biases you already have will always be reflected in your tarot reading!
What Tarot deck is the most popular?
The RiderWaite tarot deck is one of the most extensively used decks for reading tarot cards. It is also referred to as the RiderWaiteSmith, WaiteSmith, or Tarot deck. The cards were first released by the Rider Company in 1909, based on the guidelines of scholar and mystic A. E. Waite and illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith, both of whom are members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The deck has been released in several versions and served as the model for numerous variations and knockoffs. The deck is thought to exist in more than 20 countries in more than 100 million copies.
What society are tarot cards a part of?
The sniper threatening Greater Washington, D.C. placed a taunting tarot card near the shooting scene with the words “Dear Policeman, I am God.” Where are tarot cards made?
In the late 14th or early 15th century, northern Italy is where tarot cards most likely first appeared. The Visconti-Sforza deck, the oldest surviving set, was made for the family of the Duke of Milan sometime around 1440. The cards were used to play tarocchi, a bridge-like game that was then quite popular among nobility and other leisure enthusiasts. The whimsical designs on the cards, from the Fool to Death, were reportedly inspired by the costumed characters that marched in carnival parades, according to tarot historian Gertrude Moakley.
What do the 16 tarot court cards represent?
The minor arcana includes the 16 face cards of the tarot, also known as “court cards” (that is, the pages, knights, kings, and queens, among other names depending on your deck).
Because they adhere to their own system within the four suits, they have their own part in this library. They more or less serve as a demonstration of the vitality of each suit held by various individuals rather than a direct introduction to or continuation of the “pips” (the aces through tens) cards.
Consider these cards to be various stages in the process. The pages could represent early childhood, the knights youthful adolescence or adulthood, the kings fully developed, accomplished people, and the queens older and wiser figures who have a profound understanding of life.
Or a person going through any kind of trip could be in these stages. A course of study, a communal initiative, a piece of art, a self-development objectiveanything with a beginning, middle, and end. As I already mentioned, many decks give these stages different names. For instance, the Collective Tarot refers to pages as “Seekers,” knights as “Apprentices,” queens as “Artists,” and kings as “Mentors.” You can see how the cards’ various titles alter how we might read them.
Further reading: Tarot court cards renamed beyond Kings and Queens. a look at various decks that opt for names other than the conventional page/knight/king/queen arrangement. These decks contain a wealth of information.
Structure and hierarchy
The king is typically placed at the top of each suit in decks and publications, suggesting that each king stands for the pinnacle of development in that field. I am opposed. Working with my deck of cards, I’ve come to believe that the queen, who fully internalizes the lessons of their suit and applies those lessons to advance individually, truly sums up the tale of a suit. The king, on the other hand, is skilled at applying the suit’s attributes for outside purposes in a more social setting.
Realistically, there is no hierarchy at play here; both manifestations are essential to creating stable, just societies. I refer to the queen as the “culmination” since I believe her abilities are the most difficult to learn and hone. As we go through the court cards, we will observe this.
These card interpretations are not grouped into categories like I did with earlier cards. Whereas in the past it was beneficial to have a general understanding of the themes of the cards before examining how they would appear in a reading, there is no differentiation to be made in this case.
One character per card. They showcase your abilities, strategies, frame of mind, and emotions. As a result, they represent their own meaning, and as such, they urge you to do the same or, failing that, consider how you currently do this.
