T he major arcana is comprised of twenty-two cards that illuminate the powerful forces that move through our lives. When they show up in a typical tarot reading, they indicate complex insights into our personal lives and how to approach love, relationships, career, jobs, and home. On an even deeper level, the major arcana are a set of evolutionary keys that unlocks hidden aspects of our psyche and reveal our life journey as a spiritual unfolding.
Our birth, life, and death journey is our own personal spiritual quest. Mythologist Joseph Campbell offered the archetypal hero’s quest as a way to understand our own lives. As the hero embarks upon the sacred quest, they transform through a series of encounters, dissolving the smaller self into the larger Self of power, wisdom, and love. Similarly, the tarot offers a way to view the major arcana as a journey. Sometimes called the Fool’s journey, the Fool travels through the major arcana and passes through a series of gateways, initiations, life challenges, and lessons. On this epic journey, we travel through many landscapes, face and defeat our own inner monsters and demons, and discover that ultimately, we hold the secret elixir within. In our lives, we are continuously called to transform from one way of being into another: transitioning from child to teen to adult, getting a job, becoming a parent, working for an organization, starting our own business, being a partner. These roles require different parts of ourselves and growing beyond the small self of a limited, dependent ego.
As we step into each new role, like the caterpillar transforming into a butterfly, we also must shed our old ways. This may require letting go of attachments, relationships, jobs, or homes. We may face very difficult times such as death, illness, divorce, and trauma which often appears in cards such as the Tower or Death card. This is the human journey—to move through these times and meet our inner, resilient heart, the part of us that remains ever free and unbroken even beyond the worst situations. At each stage we are given the opportunity to let go of one phase of our journey and open the way for what is new to come in.
In ceremony, we have the opportunity to dissolve our smaller self and enter the greater mythic dream through embodied action. We can draw directly from the well of the collective dream and infuse this energy into our own personal life, thus coloring the mundane tasks with a more powerful meaning through the mythic lens. Tarot is an incredible tool to enrich our lives with mythic symbolism, archetypes, and elements. When we see ourselves as the hero of our own epic life, something curious begins to happen. Although in some ways we become closer to the unfolding story of our life’s journey, we also gain a kind of neutral perspective, as if we were watching a film or reading a book. We can pull back and see things from a bird’s eye perspective; we are characters in our own living story, our homes and towns are the landscapes of our adventure, and challenges are our monsters to slay and puzzles to solve. We can practice this kind of embodiment by looking back at a difficult time in our life and view ourselves from afar. If we use the mythic lens, we can cast each person as an archetypal theme or character. Our grumpy boss may be a wounded prince. Our raging daughter may be a warrior who has not yet received her initiation. Our divorce may be the destruction of a mighty fortress, freeing the queen and her people.
Humans are woven with stories as naturally as trees are with water and air; they are part of us and have been a way to understand, survive, and thrive in our natural world. Dreams, art, story, poetry, myth, and ceremony all offer ways of communication between the heart, mind, body, and soul. Similarly, tarot offers us this mirrorlike role of reflection, neutrality, and disengaged but compassionate guidance. Using the cards as signposts within the adventure story, we discover where we are in the plot and are shown ways to deal with a particular type of “monster” or challenge we are facing.
Like many before me, I view the major arcana card progression as a mythic adventure moving from one phase of development to the next. The Fool, number zero, and the first (or last) card of the major arcana is akin to the hero in many classic tales. In the hero’s journey, they set off to defeat a monster, slay the dragon, or find the secret elixir. In all stories, the Fool returns triumphant, which indeed makes them the hero, but not before facing a great many trials and challenges which symbolically represent the inner monsters, dragons, and ultimately discovering the elixir of the true Self. When we view the major arcana as a journey, we develop deeper relationships to the cards. The Emperor is the father figure in the Fool’s life; the Tower is the mid-life crisis that comes in the form of divorce or a sudden loss each of us will encounter at some point in our lives; the Star is eternal guidance that shows up in the right moment to assist us along the way. In this way, the tarot cards are universal and apply to all humans on the journey of life.
In the major arcana journey, each phase of life is symbolized by the major arcana archetypes, and each card holds within it all the lessons learned from the previous cards. When major arcana cards show up in a reading, they indicate not only major turning points in life but also a depth of wisdom in the layers of cards and cycles of seven that will be explored further as we enter the major arcana journey. Viewing the unfolding has profound connections not only in each of the major arcana themselves, but also in relation to the cards that come before and after it. Understanding the majors as markers on a path, we can then also look at what has come before and what will follow. This perspective will dramatically influence readings and orientation in any work with the cards.
The first card of the major arcana is the Fool, the zero card, who represents the beginning and the end. The path of the cards follows the journey of the Fool through each card as a step on the journey. As each card turns from one into the next, it includes all the previous cards. Working with each card on its own in the next section while also anchoring it in the awareness of the card as a progression helps provide more in-depth readings and insights into your own spiritual journey. Each section includes an explanation of the card, symbolic interpretations of the popular Waite-Smith and Crowley decks, and divinatory meanings.
To deepen your perspective, you may want to dedicate a certain amount of time getting to know just the majors. I recommend purchasing a “teaching” or “working” deck, one that you don’t use for readings for self and others but just for your study. It is helpful to lay out the cards in their full story progressively on a wall in your home or on the floor, starting with the Fool and ending with the World card. Perhaps you want to group them loosely in the cycles of seven to begin to understand the movement from one set of cards to the next. Seeing the entire major arcana as a visual journey on your wall helps you to get a sense of the majors as a journey or storyline. I also recommend giving yourself dedicated time for each card, perhaps a week or a month to connect deeply to the archetype. When we set intentional practices around these keys, naturally reflections, teachings, and growing opportunities will appear in our life to assist us in opening to deeper understanding of the card.
Cycles of Seven
The major arcana is naturally divided into cycles of seven. Seven is a powerful number in many alchemical or initiatory systems symbolizing spiritual truth and intelligence. There are seven main chakras in the Yogic system, seven lower stations of the Tree of Life in the Kabbalah, seven days of the week, and so on. Inspired by Rachel Pollack’s version of the cycles of seven, we see a distinct path emerge that the Fool takes on their epic quest.
The first seven major arcana, cards one through seven, are the outer influences of our lives and are associated with external consciousness and the outer concerns of society, including the general world of stories, culture, body, parents, teachers, religious doctrine, and imprints on the early parts of our lives. Each major arcana in the first set of seven include foundational ceremonies to direct you on your path.
The very first cards on the journey are the Magician and High Priestess, symbolizing our spiritual entry into the life journey at conception, birth, and the early dreaming stages of infancy and childhood. The Empress and the Emperor symbolize our parents, family, and upbringing. The Hierophant represents moral, religious, and social constructs and the imprints of authority and culture. The Lovers symbolizes our first experiences of love through family, friends, and teachers. How we move through the transition from this set of cards to the next set is represented by the Chariot.
The second set of seven cards represent our search inward, delving into the subconscious and inner workings of our multidimensional selves to include modern depth psychology, self-awareness, awakening, and heart-mind development. In this section, each major arcana card includes a uniquely designed ceremonial layout to investigate the inner aspects of our heart growth in relation to the second set of seven cards. These layouts are reflective of the archetype of that particular card and include ceremonial elements to inspire a more embodied reading.
The first card we meet in this second set is paradoxical—Waite switched the traditional Justice, card number eight, with Strength, card number eleven. We will work with this further in the book, but I personally follow Crowley’s restoration to the traditional path in which Justice is number eight—where we meet our inner equilibrium and balance and the transition from outer influences into inner depths of moral being. Next, the Hermit symbolizes the reservoir of our unconscious self and connection to nature. The Wheel of Fortune is the card of destiny and forces of karma, soul contracts, and the appearance of things that we cannot always control. The Strength card indicates our personal power and the appearance of an inward fire that begins to manifest outwardly. The Hanged Man symbolizes a time when things come to a standstill and life is viewed from a completely different perspective. The Death card symbolizes a metaphorical death, representing a deep transformation, the movement from one way of being to a completely new way. Lastly, the Temperance card transitions us into the final set of seven cards bearing the gifts of the inner seeking through the alchemical process of inward initiation, creativity, and mixing of opposites.
The last set of seven cards shows our interrelation with the huge forces at work connected to our superconscious, development of spiritual awareness, and evolution. Here the Fool experiences a confrontation and unity with great forces of life itself. There is a potential for spiritual liberation, and a deeper understanding of the mythical, quantum reality, that is essence-level soul development. On the one hand, we are small human forms seemingly at the whims of nature and culture; on the other, we hold the power to effect great change. This is the part of the quest in which the Fool’s ego has gone through a death and transformation and emerges as the larger self in concert with mythos of the collective. This section includes visualizations and oracle visions for each card to connect to the overarching spiritual aspects of the cards. Oracle visions are the voice of the cards themselves offering direct insights into their wisdom.
On the path, the Fool encounters the Devil, who brings up the dark residue remaining not only within ourselves but also as reflected by society. Following this is the Tower, which shakes any foundations in our world that no longer resonates with truth and authenticity. The card that follows, the Star, indicates the clear light after the storm and the presence of spiritual guidance. The Moon reminds us to take notice of relations, connections, or actions that still bear imprints of our old, clinging self before we are warmed by the Sun card which brings about the manifestation of dreams, beauty, and activation. The Judgement card heralds powerful guidance and an almost otherworldly view of the path, a reckoning and appreciation for the long journey that is almost finished. Lastly, the World offers us the potential for bringing all that has transpired to the collective as a final offering … before the adventure begins again!
The major arcana’s path gives us a sense of how you might use them to understand the depths of the Fool’s journey. As each card turns from one into the next, it includes all the previous cards. Working with each card on its own in the next section while also anchoring it in the awareness of the card as a progression will help to provide more in-depth readings and insights into your own spiritual journey.