What is Tarot? – 101 Guide

Tarot is a mind card that encompasses our journey through life, both spiritually and physically.

A tarot reading is the act of divination for wisdom and guidance through the distribution (or arrangement) of tarot cards. However, contrary to popular belief, the cards are not the only way to tell your fortune, and you don’t need to be a psychic to give a tarot reading.

These cards are meant to provide insight into the deeper reality of your higher self. In other words, the cards provide insight from what you already know inside. The origin of Tarot is unknown, but we have compiled a reference to the use of tarot cards dating back to 14th century Europe. Tarot has been used as an oracle, in the basic form we know today, since the early 17th century.

What Tarot Means?

There are 22 Major Arcana cards, which reveal great secrets, and 56 Minor Arcana cards, which reveal lesser secrets and are divided into four suits. Minor Arcana suits include Wands, Swords, Cups and Pentacles. The 14 cards of each suit are numbered from ace to ten, plus the court cards: page (queen), knight (prince), queen, and king. Ports may vary by category. Not everyone’s suits and cards are called the same, but their key meaning is pretty universal. For example, in some carriages, the knights fit the king, not the prince. 

Most chairs come with a booklet that you can use to familiarize yourself with the details. The Minor Arcana of the Tarot represent aspects of everyday life, providing insight into our challenges, abilities, opportunities and experiences of our ups and downs. Each suit represents an element: wands are fire, swords are air, cups are water, and pentacles are earth.

A combination can express personality and anger, such as someone who is hot or someone who is “up in the air” or “down to earth”. Determining the importance of a card depends on the question, the reader, the recipient of the reading, and the placement of other cards in the media. The major arcana are numbered from 0 to 21, starting with The Fool and ending with Earth. 

These cards correspond to a remarkable life story or hero’s journey that can be well explored in Joseph Campbell’s book “The Hero of a Thousand Faces”. In this sense, the Major Arcana cards represent 22 inevitable stages or stages of any journey, which we will all encounter during our lives (not in that order). 

It is possible that these processes repeat and repeat themselves repeatedly throughout life, creating a cyclical nature that has no real beginning or end. The types of Tarot spread

There are many types of tarot readings. Perhaps the best is the 11-card suit called the Celtic Cross (11 cards including the Significator). The Tree of Life is also expanded, the planets expanded, the Tetraktys expanded, and the Pentagram expanded, among many, many others. Some players like to use only three cards to keep the expansion simple and small. 

A three-card spread can have many meanings on its own, such as Past-Present-Future, Mind-Body-Spirit, or Situation-Action-Result. The differences in the three card spread are almost endless. flip tarot cards

Tarot card illustrations are usually a single image in a vertical position, unlike normal playing cards which display double images in the upper right and lower right corners. 

When tarot cards are collected and rearranged or moved, they can appear face up during a reading. Tarot cards can be interpreted in different ways. Many people believe that this means that the card is important in your life, but something makes it weak or blocked. 

Others think it means you don’t want to use the card’s meaning. Still, others interpret the tarot card back to mean something different or change the meaning of the card. Some books (like the classic Rider-Waite) give you a “reverse” interpretation of the official meaning and the main divine meaning of each card.

When studying the Tarot, it is wise to stick to the correct interpretation, turning the card over if it falls to the ground, even at first. Many people ignore the complexity of the cards turned over by turning them all right side up and exploring the different forces in play, including the manifestation of light and darkness.

Whichever tarot deck you buy or use, and wherever you buy it from, the same structure and principles will apply (so you only need to learn tarot once, which is good news!).

There will be 22 major arcana cards and 56 minor arcana cards, divided into four suits (Coins, Wands, Swords, and Cups) of 14, each one containing cards numbered 1 to 10 plus a Page, Knight, Queen and King.

Here we are focusing on the major arcana cards. These are the ‘power cards’ of the deck, representing unseen forces at play in your life, major changes, impacts and influences beyond your own control.

They tend to be characters and symbols and, in film and TV, are the cards you always see used, especially Death, The Lovers, and The Devil.