What do the various tarot card types represent?
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.
In This Article...
What do the tarot cards represent?
What do tarot cards generally stand for? As shamans like to say, “medicine around what is happening in your particular orbit: love, money, work, aspirations, and general life path” is what tarot cards are there for.
What is the Tarot’s most potent card?
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.
How do tarot cards function spiritually?
According to her, “Tarot cards do not predict the future; rather, tarot is a tool for spiritual guidance and allows the reader to connect to his or her inner wisdom.” “Tarot readings assist a person in learning the information required to make sense of a specific circumstance. As readings provide a person with insight into past, present, and future occurrences based on their current path at the time of the reading, decks are best utilized as a tool of inner wisdom and guidance. The cards don’t always predict what will happen; rather, they help a person analyze a situation and choose the best course of action based on what is already known and what the cards indicate.”
What is the tarot card’s order?
Because it reflects the overall perspective of the Tarot deck, we start counting with the Major Arcana. It talks about life-changing incidents and momentous occasions. Consequently, it prepares the reader for the “adventure ahead.
- High Priestesses (II)
- The Emperor (III)
- A Hierophant (V)
- The Horse (VII)
- Turn the Fortune Wheel (X)
- Hanged Man (XII)
How do the 21 tarot cards translate?
The World card has multiple tarot connotations, according to A.E. Waite’s 1910 book The Pictorial Key to the Tarot:
THE WORLD, 21
Guaranteed success, payment, travel, route, emigration, flight, and relocation.
Inertia, fixity, stagnation, and permanence inverted.
The World is the culmination of one cycle of life and the interim period between that cycle and the following one, which starts with the fool. Between the heavens and the earth, the figure is masculine and female from above and below. It’s completion. The possibility for perfect oneness with the One Power of the universe is claimed to be represented by it as well as cosmic consciousness. It teaches us that in order to truly be happy, we must also give to the world by imparting what we have learned or acquired. According to Juliet Sharman-Burke and Liz Greene’s book The New Mythic Tarot (p. 82), the woman’s image, known in Greek mythology as Hermaphroditus, represents wholeness unrelated to sexual identity but rather of combined male and female energy on an inner level, integrating opposite traits that emerge in the personality charged by both energies. The opposite traits of male and female that cause us stress are united in this card, and the idea of becoming entire is portrayed as an ideal goal rather than something that can be attained.
The four creatures on the Universe card, according to Robert M. Place in his book The Tarot, symbolize the fourfold framework of the physical world, which encloses the holy center of the world, a location where the divine can incarnate. The fifth element is spirit, or the sacred center, and its name is Sophia, which means Prudence or Wisdom (the dancing woman in the middle). The fourth Cardinal virtue in the Tarot is prudence. The woman in the middle represents the aim of mystical seekers. This prominent character can be Christ in some older decks or Hermes in others. This card represents what is actually desired whenever it appears.
Is it possible to learn tarot on your own?
Is it feasible for a beginner to perform Tarot spreads on themselves? Yes! It most certainly is. Tarot is a technique that aids in deepening our understanding of the present moment, honoring our intuition, and predicting future possibilities.
Which zodiac signs are represented by which tarot cards?
The astrological signs that correspond to the major arcana tarot cards are as follows:
- The Emperor rules Aries. Aries people enjoy taking charge of situations and being in leadership roles.
- The Hierophant is in Taurus.
- The lovers sign of Gemini.
- The Chariot of Cancer
- The Hermit, or Virgo.
Questions you don’t really want answered
Even though it might seem apparent, it’s advisable to refrain from asking the tarot cards questions that you aren’t prepared to hear the answers to. That’s because answers to these questions can reveal information you’re just not quite ready to hear.
“Tarot can definitely come off as offensive if you’re not willing to hear the truth or consider an opposing opinion. Tarot reading Nicole Fortunaso
According to tarot reader and life coach Nicole Fortunaso, “tarot may truly come out as offensive if you are not willing to hear the truth of the problem or look at an alternate viewpoint.” She advises analyzing why you’re reacting the way you are in order to reflect on how to effectively address the underlying problem if you ask the question and aren’t satisfied with the response.