Tarot is an ancient divination tool. It’s been used for centuries to help answer questions about any topic.
While you can find countless sites about the history of tarot cards, they don’t shed much light on how tarot cards actually work or what each card means.
The following guide will give you a deeper understanding of how to use tarot cards and their meanings to perform a tarot reading for yourself or others.
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Tarot is a tool to help you see what’s happening in your life. It can be used for spiritual guidance, advice on relationships, career direction, or anything else that you would like insight about.
Tarot cards are one of the most popular forms of divination. They’re based on a deck with 78 cards, 22 more than regular playing cards.
A tarot deck is made up of two parts: the major arcana and minor arcana cards.
The major arcana consists of 22 cards. It represents the individual, and each card has a meaning that relates to life experiences.
Within the Minor Arcana are 4 “suits” of cards: coins, cups, wands and swords. Each suit contains 14 face cards (ace through ten, page, knight, queen, and king), for a total of 56 cards.
Each card has symbolic meanings associated with it. The meanings will change depending on whether the cards appear in an upright or reversed position.
Two cards together may have either a positive or negative effect which will be determined by other factors such as surrounding cards or the general theme of the reading itself.
The Major Arcana refers to the first 22 cards of any tarot deck, which consists of trump cards and are considered to be the most important cards in the deck. The major arcana cards are distinguished from the minor arcana cards, which consist of the remaining 56 cards in a Tarot card deck.
Major Arcana is usually used in Tarot card readings to gain a more accurate reading of what’s going on with a particular person or situation.
This is because these 22 cards tend to focus more on spiritual and personal growth, so they will not necessarily be as focused on specific details that may affect your future as accurately as other minor arcana cards would be able to do.
Each major arcana card holds a different meaning and symbolizes something different about the past, present, or future of you and/or your question. By combining these meanings together, you will get a reading that can tell you what lies ahead.
The Major Arcana consists of 22 images that represent different archetypes of human experiences: the fool, death, justice, judgment, temperance, love, etc. One way to interpret them is to look at them as “phases” in our life.
So for example, if you drew Justice then it would mean that you have reached an important phase in your life where justice has been served or is being served to you. Such as winning a court case or receiving compensation for some kind of injustice inflicted upon yourself or others by someone else’s actions or words.
The suit of wands represents the passion and energy that you need to get yourself through any situation. It is the suit of ambition.
The suit of wands also represents fire and flames. This means that you should be careful to avoid burnout or becoming stubborn about your goals or ideas.
The wands suit represents action or energy moving forward into the future. The wand may be a staff of office or a scepter. The wand is the creative power of the world and represents the ability to create anything out of nothing.
The Suit of Cups represents emotions, intuition and imagination. The Suit of Cups are associated with Water in its many forms - oceans, lakes or rivers are all water sources representing this suit’s energies.
This suit also relates to emotional strength which allows you to work through your emotions rather than being controlled by them. This suit governs love affairs including marriage or other committed relationships (often represented by the Ace card).
Many people associate this suit with female energy due mainly to its association with water - which can be seen as a female element that gives birth!
The Suit of Swords represents energy, power and courage. It is the suit of the mind, intellect and strategy. It is a two-edged sword, the blade cutting both ways.
The Suit of Swords is associated with Air, which is related to communication and intellectual activity. It is also related to travel by air, such as planes, hot air balloons and helicopters. This suit tends to be associated with male energy such as aggression and ambition.
The suit of pentacles is represented by a set of five coins. In tarot, the suit represents material wealth and finances. It also corresponds to the planet Mercury.
The pentacles are associated with the element of earth. In this suit, the coins themselves represent the four basic things: fire, water, air and earth.
The fifth coin is considered a counterfeit coin representing materialism and greed. This symbolizes how money can become corrupt if it is not used wisely.
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