Online Tarot Course
The first three chapters from 'Tarot for Life'
The Structure of the Tarot
The Tarot deck is divided into two sections, the twenty-two Major Arcana (or Trumps) and the Minor Arcana, which are further divided into four suits, Wands (or Rods), Cups, Swords and Pentacles (or coins). (A pentacle, by the way, is a plate used in ritual magick.) Each suit has four court cards (King, Queen, Knight and Page) and ten "pip" cards.
The Major Arcana
These are the "movers and shakers" of the Tarot deck. Their emphasis is on inner consciousness rather than external life events but when they turn up in force in a spread it indicates a pattern of destiny, one which is very difficult or impossible to break and which will provide many lessons and realisations if seen in the right way.
Collectively, the Major Arcana can be used as a map of human consciousness. Each card has an attribution linking it to a planet, sign or element. Everyone has a full set of planets and signs in their chart and we all have all of the character components represented by them. To own and use all of these elements as one organic whole is the task referred to by the psychologist as integration and by the occultist as The Great Work.
The Four Suits
These are strongly linked to the four Elements. Sometimes referred to as the Aristotelian Elements, these are a recurrent theme throughout Western esoteric thought. They represent four "levels" which are all included in anything which exists.
Fire represents the fundamental energy
of things, the vitality and movement of life. It
is represented in the Tarot by Judgment and the suit
of Wands.
Water represents the emotional and the creative/intuitive
level. It is represented in the Tarot by the Hanged
Man and the suit of Cups.
Air represents the mental level, intellect, reasoning
and logic. It is represented in the Tarot by the
Fool and the suit of Swords.
Earth represents the physical level, the body, money,
naterial possessions and the outer, physical world.
It is represented by the World (arguably) and the
suit of Pentacles.
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