ExplainTarot

Meaning and Philosophy of every Tarot card

Meaning of Tarot Cards – Secrets of Life in Your Hands

Friends, welcome to the site that reveals the meanings of tarot cards. We have created a detailed overview of each card and developed recommendations for interpreting them in different situations and spreads.

This site brings together all our tarot knowledge accumulated over many years of work. With the materials on this site, you can easily study tarot cards and gain incredible insights for your life!

Major Arcana in Tarot: Meaning and Philosophy

The Major Arcana in tarot consists of 22 cards (from 0 to 21) with deep symbolism. These are characters with their own vibe that reveal the energy of the situation you are asking about.

Major Arcana Cards

All Major Arcana cards are united by a common philosophy. They tell the story of an event from its beginning and inception to its conclusion and outcomes. It is important to understand these cards as a whole.

Can You Use Only Major Arcana for Readings?

Many tarot readers assure us that it is possible to do readings using only Major Arcana cards. However, caution is advised.

Such questions are often asked by beginners who find it difficult to study the Minor Arcana. While readings with only Major Arcana cards are possible, they may not provide a complete understanding of the issue. Major Arcana cards reveal the core energies of the universe and contain profound knowledge about the structure of our world. However, without the Minor Arcana, they can be too categorical and not always clear.

We recommend studying tarot in its entirety. It is a vast field of knowledge that works best as it was originally designed thousands of years ago.

Can You Do Tarot Readings Without the Major Arcana?

Our answer remains the same—it’s not advisable. By removing the Major Arcana from the deck, you receive very limited and incomplete answers to your questions. You see the facts but miss the underlying energies.

Tarot is not about specific answers to your questions; it’s more about the energies and moods surrounding certain situations. The Major Arcana are an integral part of tarot.

Although there are systems for readings using only Minor Arcana cards, we do not recommend relying on them.

How to Interpret Major Arcana in a Spread?

On our site, you may have noticed that each card has many meanings and can represent different things in spreads. This multi-layered nature is especially characteristic of the Major Arcana. So, how do you interpret them?

Here are a few tips to help you:

1) Study All Card Meanings

Thoroughly memorize the meanings of each card to understand their energy fully. For example, this could be the start and active actions or the destruction and dismantling of old structures. Each card has a specific energy.

2) Trust Your Intuition

Each tarot card features specific imagery. All these images are not there by chance. Each card can act as a metaphorical map. What did you notice first? What caught your attention? This might be the answer to your question.

3) Ask the Right Questions

Learn to ask questions that reveal the energy of the situation, allowing you to draw conclusions. Tarot does not favor questions about time or “yes/no” queries. Avoid these at the beginning.

4) View the Major Arcana Cards Broadly

Often, Major Arcana cards communicate through riddles. Combine the energies of different cards in the spread, refine your guesses with additional spreads, and explore further meanings of the cards.

How Accurate Are Major Arcana Cards?

These cards will not give you a definitive YES or NO. They are not the cards that will advise you to accept a proposal or quit a job.

Instead, they reveal the energies that will prevail if you follow a certain path and make specific decisions. They show the current situation concerning a question and what certain people think about it.

Major Arcana cards provide advice and warnings, cautioning against wrong decisions and highlighting the right ones. But they are not categorical. Keep this in mind.

Minor Arcana of Tarot – Meanings and Philosophy

The Minor Arcana in tarot cards are represented by four suits:

  • Wands
  • Cups
  • Swords
  • Pentacles

Each suit has ten numbered cards—from Ace to Ten—and four court cards: King, Queen, Knight, and Page. So, each suit in tarot has 14 cards.

What Does Each Suit of the Minor Arcana Mean?

Suit of Wands

Wands represent fire, action energy, ambition, strength, and creativity. This suit often symbolizes raw power, weapons, and tools for achieving goals.

Suit of Cups

Cups represent water, inner experiences, emotions, relationships, intuition, and the inner world. This suit often relates to human relationships and the emotional side of interactions.

Suit of Swords

Swords represent air, intellect, reason, data analysis, justice, and truth. Swords are often associated with ideals, communication, and the external aspects of relationships.

Suit of Pentacles

Pentacles represent earth, the material world, health, money, and labor. This suit is often related to stability, security, resources, and personal education.

How Do the Minor Arcana Differ from the Major Arcana?

In tarot, the Major Arcana cards deal with universal energies, grand truths, and the energetic aspects of your questions. They are more categorical, philosophical, and multi-layered. Often, they can be interpreted intuitively and creatively.

The Minor Arcana cards, on the other hand, focus on more practical matters. They provide specific advice or warnings and offer valuable information about our questions.

While the Major Arcana signal significant life transitions and transformations, the Minor Arcana address our daily decisions, problems, and issues.

Numbered Cards of the Minor Arcana

The numbered cards range from Ace to Ten, progressing in intensity. The Ace holds a special place, having a certain advantage over the other numbered cards, similar to its role in a regular deck of cards.

The Two is the weakest card in each suit, with increasing strength and influence up to the Ten. These cards are always in the same energies, but the quantity and power of this energy vary.

Court Cards of the Minor Arcana

The court cards are Page, Knight, Queen, and King. They represent specific personality types and often appear in spreads to represent people involved in your situation.

It is essential to thoroughly study the characteristics and archetypes of each court card in every suit. This will help you quickly and intuitively understand who exactly the card represents in your spread.

Is It True That the Minor Arcana Are Less Important Than the Major Arcana?

No, this is not true. Every card in the deck is equally important. Each card reveals specific energies and aspects of the situation. Often, without the Minor Arcana, it can be difficult to fully understand the advice provided by the cards in a spread.

Therefore, it is important to learn all the cards before you start reading for your situations and practice. You need to know the “personality” of each card well to connect with your intuition and quickly interpret any spread.

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