The Building Blocks of the Tarot
We’ll start our study of tarot and astrology by going over the basic structure of a tarot deck.
The Infinite Universe of the Tarot
When you shuffle a deck of tarot cards and lay them on the table, you’re actually putting an entire universe into motion. Every time you deal the cards, you’re creating a new reality—just as the planets and signs of astrology align to represent a new reality for every child born on Earth.
A typical tarot deck has seventy-eight cards. At first glance, the sheer number of cards can seem overwhelming—and some people spend years trying to memorize them, studying the symbols and signs of each image, and attempting to decode the hidden meanings of the deck.
While that’s a fascinating pursuit, you don’t need to devote countless hours to a study of the cards before you can read them. You just need to understand the structure of the deck.
The tarot’s seventy-eight cards are divided into two groups: the Major Arcana, which is Latin for “greater secrets,” and the Minor Arcana, which means “lesser secrets.”
The Major Arcana cards are the big-picture cards. They depict monumental, life-changing events and experiences, like falling in love, giving birth, starting a new job, or finding a new home. Sometimes, because the Major Arcana cards are so dramatic, the experiences they depict seem as if they’re outside our control.
The Minor Arcana cards, on the other hand, are the everyday cards. They picture ordinary people doing everyday things, like dancing, drinking, eating, and sleeping. The Minor Arcana cards are divided into four suits, just like a deck of ordinary playing cards. Each suit has ten numbered cards and four Court Cards, and each suit represents a separate area of life: spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and physical. As a whole, the Minor Arcana cards are just as important as the Major Arcana cards, because they show us how we live out big events on a day-to-day basis.
Together, the major and Minor Arcana cards combine to form a cosmology—a framework for seeing the world and for categorizing the human experience.
The structure and the symbolism of the tarot deck make it easy to study the human condition—and even to grasp some of life’s greatest mysteries.
The Major Arcana
The Major Arcana cards are the cards people tend to remember most after a tarot reading. That’s because Major Arcana cards are forceful and dramatic. They feature figures and characters that seem larger than life, and which just happen to correspond to the planets and signs of astrology.
The figures on the Major Arcana cards are archetypes—cosmic stereotypes that transcend the limits of time and place. They are the heroes of ancient myth and legend, and they still populate the lead roles in contemporary movies, television shows, plays, and books. Artists, writers, and musicians regularly tap into the waters of the collective unconscious for inspiration and explanations of the human condition. Psychotherapist Carl Jung believed that the symbols, myths, and archetypes that regularly appear in our dreams, our myths, and our stories all spring from that same source—which explains why so many people and cultures share similar legends and make use of the same symbols, regardless of time and place.
The Major Arcana cards all depict major events that can change one’s life. While we can classify them as cosmic mysteries, they’re not inexplicable puzzles: each one also depicts a life lesson that makes each mystery clear.
On a symbolic level, the Major Arcana cards are also mentors, teachers, and guides: they hold the keys to the mysteries of life, and they help guide our passage through every station of the journey.
The Minor Arcana
The Minor Arcana is divided into four suits, just like a deck of ordinary playing cards. Those four suits are usually called Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles. Depending on the deck you use, Wands also can be called Rods, Batons, Staffs, or Staves. Cups may be called Chalices. Swords may be called Blades, and Pentacles may be called Coins, Disks, Stones, Worlds, or Stars. Those subtle variations, however, don’t make any difference in how the cards are read.
While the Major Arcana cards depict the mysteries of life, the Minor Arcana cards show how you experience those mysteries on a daily basis. They depict the way you live your life, and how you manage the various facets of your existence.
Spheres of Influence
Some people call the Minor Arcana the “pip” cards, because pips are the marks that indicate the suit or numerical value of a playing card—six hearts, for example, or seven diamonds.
In the tarot, however, pip cards take on a significance that most poker players would never dream of, because each one of the four suits corresponds to a separate area of life.
There’s also a second, equally important layer of symbolism to consider—one that’s so simple, it’s elementary.
The Four Elements
The four elements—fire, earth, air, and water—have played an important role in science and philosophy for thousands of years, ever since the ancient Greeks identified them as fundamental components of the physical world.
Obviously, modern science has changed our understanding of the universe. Even so, the four elements still serve as a useful psychological model. We often describe people as “fiery,” “airy,” or “earthy,” for example. Elemental associations are essential to an understanding of astrology, and they’re a fundamental component of some Eastern beliefs, too, such as feng shui.
In the tarot, each one of the four suits of the Minor Arcana is associated with one of the four elements, and each element corresponds to a separate area of life. The imagery on each card makes those associations easy to remember.
Wands, the fiery cards of spirit, are associated with passion and inspiration. In most tarot decks, Wands look like wooden branches that could be set on fire like a torch. Wands can be a source of illumination and, sometimes, they can spark an entire conflagration of ideas.
Cups, the watery cards of emotion, are associated with deeply felt affairs. Cups can hold water, of course. We also use Cups to hold other liquids with emotional significance: we toast each other in celebration. We commune with others during religious ceremonies and, sometimes, we even try to drown our sorrows.
Swords, the airy cards of the intellect, are associated with conscious awareness and communication. Swords symbolize our thoughts, ideas, and attempts to communicate. Swords, like words, move through the air. We even compare our words to the double-edged weapons when we say, “The pen is mightier than the sword.”
Pentacles, the earthy cards of material existence, are associated with the physical realities of life in our four-dimensional world. In most tarot decks, Pentacles look like coins with star-shaped designs. That pattern is symbolic of the human physical form. Think of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man: his body, with arms outstretched and legs spread wide, creates the shape of a five-pointed star. Pentacles symbolize the tangible realities of physical existence: the things you can touch and feel, and the money you need to keep body and soul together. Pentacles also symbolize spiritual and emotional treasures, including the values you hold dear, the traditions you cherish, and the people you love most.
Those people, by the way, have their own place in the structure of the tarot deck.
The Four Royal Families
Each suit in the Minor Arcana has a set of four Court Cards: a page, a knight, a queen, and a king. Depending on the deck you use, the Court Cards could have other titles. Crowley’s royal families in the Thoth tarot, for example, consist of princesses, princes, queens, and knights. The cards themselves are roughly equivalent between decks, as long as you can keep their respective hierarchies straight in your mind.
The four members constitute an ideal family on a symbolic level: a father, a mother, a son, and a daughter. Some of the Court Cards are masculine, and some are feminine. Some are active, and some are receptive. Together, the sixteen Court Cards are well suited to reign over the four realms of the tarot—spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and physical—and to describe the unique combinations of qualities and characteristics that make up your personality.
Pages, knaves, and princesses are young and enthusiastic. They are students and messengers, children who must learn the fundamentals of the family’s rule. During the Renaissance, pages were the youngest members of the royal court. It was their job to study—and to run errands, like ferrying messages from one person to another.
When pages show up in a tarot reading, they typically represent young people, students, or messages.
Knights. When pages grow to the age of knighthood, they must be tested. They’re expected to embark on a quest, master a challenge, and demonstrate that they are not only strong enough and smart enough to succeed, but also that they can live up to the family’s heritage. Historically, knights were rescuers and adventurers.
When knights show up in a tarot reading, they may suggest that a new quest or adventure is about to begin, or that rescue is on its way.
Queens. As adults, both men and women ascend to the throne, where they control the monarchy. Generally speaking, the tarot’s queens are all mature women who tap into their feminine qualities to safeguard, nurture, and protect their realms. Queens are stereotypically female; they represent ideal women. They are compassionate, creative, receptive, empathic, and intuitive. They also are able to exert their power behind the scenes, convincing—or cajoling—others to adopt their point of view.
When queens show up in a reading, they often suggest that a similarly caring person will be working to safeguard, nurture, and protect your realm.
It’s interesting to note that in Crowley’s Thoth tarot, the transfer of power from one generation to the next takes on a complicated, soap-opera quality, as the Court Cards battle it out for power and authority. In an endless, overlapping cycle, the princes fight the knights for the throne. When a prince vanquishes the knight, he marries the princess, and she assumes the throne of her mother, the queen. And then, the cycle repeats.
Kings. The tarot’s four kings are protectors, providers, and seasoned, experienced leaders. All four successfully managed to complete the mission they undertook as knights. They are skilled commanders, confident in the knowledge they acquired during their quests. They are also stereotypically masculine: they are authoritarian, assertive, and alert. They can even be aggressive. They guard their kingdoms with passion and force, and they’re not afraid to make executive decisions.
When kings show up in a reading, they may suggest that someone is willing to mount an aggressive defense or even wage war on your behalf.
Your Own Royal Court
Obviously, the Court Cards are more than characters in a Renaissance drama. They sometimes represent the people in your life, such as family members, friends, employers, and coworkers. But at the same time, they also depict facets of your own personality, whether you’re young and enthusiastic, or savvy and experienced. The connection is forged in a psychological principle called projection. When you like or dislike other people, it’s often because they remind you of your own strengths and weaknesses.
When you find yourself dealing with people—or Court Cards—that you like, it’s probably because they remind you of your strengths—your clever sense of humor, your keen intelligence, or your spirit of fun. You share similar ideas about the state of the world, and similar plans for the future.
When other people or Court Cards rub you the wrong way, it might be because they reflect aspects of your personality that you normally keep hidden—like your occasional selfishness, laziness, or bitterness. (But don’t worry. Those weaknesses are between you and the cards.)
By the Numbers
In the Major Arcana, the numbered cards are often said to represent stations on the journey through life. In the Minor Arcana, the numbered cards also symbolize a progression of events: Aces represent beginnings, while tens represent conclusions. The suits, of course, indicate which events are unfolding: Wands symbolize spiritual experiences, Cups represent emotional affairs, Swords depict intellectual issues, and Pentacles relate to physical realities.
Obviously, the tarot deck is meant to be shuffled, so Minor Arcana cards rarely turn up in sequential order during a reading. You might be surprised, however, by how often you’ll see the same numbers pop up in a tarot reading: it’s not uncommon to find a preponderance of early, middle, or end cards in a tarot spread, or various cards relating to, say, the number seven.
All in all, if you can remember the significance of each suit, as well as the fact that each numbered card represents a separate stage in that area of life, you’ll be able to interpret the cards without memorizing the individual meanings of all seventy-eight cards in the deck. The Ace of Wands, for example, often symbolizes the beginning of a spiritual quest. The Five of Wands suggests the halfway point of a spiritual experience, and the Ten of Wands typically signifies the conclusion of a spiritual journey.
Tarot Spreads and Layouts
Most tarot readers have two or three favorite tarot spreads and layouts. Several new astrology-based spreads are illustrated in this guide.