Tarot Tip 1# WHAT ARE TAROT?
Let's put the basis to tarot. Tarot is a deck of 78 cards: 22 which are called Major Arcanas and 75 which are called Minor Arcanas. The Minor arcanas are figures going from 1 to 10, with court figures like a King, a Queen, a Knight and a Knave.
The Minor Arcanas are divided in 4 families, related to the 4 elements:
Wands with Fire: they are linked to the Zodiac Fire Signs (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius). They represent Action.
Cups with Water: they are linked to Water signs like Pisces, Cancer and Scorpio and represent Emotions.
Pentacles with Earth: linked to the earth signs of Capricorn, Virgo and Taurus, they represent materiality, work, money, and professionnal career.
Swords with Air: they are linked to Air Signs Gemini, Libra and Aquarius. They represent thoughts, our mental state, lies and truths, immuable as well as the hard ones to swallow.
The Minor Arcanas represent human actions. It is what matter you can take in hand: stay or leave, speak or shut up, doing a good deed or harm someone, think or dismiss a thought. They also represent the Other's actions towards us, good and bad.
The Major Arcanas are quite mysterious and the significance of a card is rooted in occultism, sometimes on religion, and this is what the figures tell us. They are inherited from a 500 years old History of Tarot at least.
The oldest Tarots may date back from the Renaissance Era. The Major Arcanas represent in Tarot the things we cannot really control, the things we have to undergo from Universe (call it like you want: God, Destiny, Fate...). But it is not engraved in hard stone. It does not mean you cannot change your actions. The actions that happened in the Past are immutable, but you still can control your words and your actions.
Each Tarot card has a special message and is also attributed to a planet or zodiac Sign. Depending of the kind of deck you buy, imagery may differ. Some decks like the Tarot de Marseille are less illustrated whereas the Ryder-Waite Smith is an excellent tool for beginners!
Arcana n°0 or 1 depending on the decks is the Fool: it represents a character walking down a path going to a cliff. He seems happy and is escorted by a dog.
Arcana n°1 is the Magician: he has a wand, a sword, a pentacle and a cups and seems to do an experiment that allies all the elements for his purpose. One hand is pointing to the sky and the other the earth: as says Occultism, it is As above, so Below.
Arcana n°2 is the High Priestess: she is generally represented with a moon crescent and seems stern.
Arcana n°3 is the Empress: it is usually the representation of a woman with regalia and royal attributes. Sometimes, depending on the deck, she may be represented as a pregnant woman, adding to her powers, the major fertility trait.
Arcana n°4 is the Emperor: like the Empress, he is represented with regalia and embodies power.
Arcana n°5 is the Pope or The Hierophant: he is represented as an austere man with two people bowing to him.
Arcana n°6 is the Lovers: usually, the lovers are represented by a man and a woman embrassing each other.
Arcana n°7 is the Chariot: it is the representation of a warrior on a chariot pulled by two sphinxes.
Arcana n°8 is Justice: it is the representation of Justice with weighing scales and usually, a woman who is blind.
Arcana n°09 is the Hermit: it is the picture of a monk-like man with a lamp.
Arcana n°10: is the representation of The Wheel of Fortune. It is usually represented as a kind of wheel that can turn and have results good or bad.
Arcana n°11 is Strength and represents a character taming a Lion.
Arcana n°12 is the Hanged Man. It is a strange hanging because only one foot is and he is hanging head down. Somehow HE chose to be in this disposition.
Arcana n°13 is the Death arcana. You have NOTHING to fear, I promise. It is very rare that this card signifies Death. More of its significance implies transformation and a change in your life. Usually, a skeleton knight is riding a horse on it.
Arcana n°14 is Temperance. It shows a character sharing water in two different cups.
Arcana n°15 is the Devil and usually represents a Demon, sometimes a female demon like Lilith.
Arcana n°16 is the Tower and represents a crumbling tower, inspired by the destruction of the Babel Tower in the Bible.
Arcana n°17 is the Star: it shows a woman getting water from a pond, just like the Aquarius symbol.
Arcana n°18 is the Moon: usually, there is a Moon and 3 special characters: 2 dogs who seem to fight and a lobster who may have provoked one of them, but he is so small nobody sees him...
Arcana n°19 is the Sun: usually, there is the Sun and a man and a woman on it.
Arcana n°20 is Judgement and could echo to Judgement day, because there is usually an angel with a trumpet on it.
Finally, Arcana n°21 is The World. It usually represents a central character with a bay laurel decoration and surrounded by four characters: an ox, a lion, an eagle and an angel.
The Futur Tarot Tip will detail the signification of a card. Tell me bellow which card you want me to begin with, a minor arcana card or a major arcana card?
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