| What is Tarot? |
| Tarot is a set of seventy eight cards, each featuring
different symbolic pictures. A standard Tarot deck is
made up of twenty two cards called the Major arcana
or trumps. Four suits of fourteen cards are called the
Minor arcana. Tarot cards could be used
for creative visualization, meditation, practical problem
solving, self-improvement, as a tool of understanding,
for divination and fortune telling. A Tarot deck is based
on the seventy eight cards structure of fifty
six minor cards and twenty two major
cards. An oracle deck is any other deck of cards
used for similar purposes to a deck of Tarot cards, and
may also be called a divination deck or cart mantic deck. |
 |
| The History |
| Historical evidence proves its beginning in Italy, in
the fifteenth century. The cards had been used in Italy
in the fifteenth century as a popular card game. Wealthy
patrons commissioned beautiful decks, some of which have
survived. The Visconti-Sforza created in 1450 or shortly
thereafter, is one of the earliest and most complete.
Later in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the
cards had been discovered by a number of influential scholars
of the occult. These people were intrigued by the tarot
and recognized that the images on the cards were more
powerful than a simple game. They revealed the "true"
history of the tarot by connecting the cards to Egyptian
mysteries, the Kabbalah, alchemy, and other mystical systems.
These pursuits continued into the early part of the twentieth
century when the tarot was incorporated into the practices
of several secret societies. |
| How Tarot works |
| We do not know the full range and power
of the unconscious mind, but there are ways to explore
its landscape. Many techniques were developed for this
purpose, visualization and meditation dream interpretation.
The tarot is another such aide. When we do a tarot reading,
we select certain cards by shuffling, cutting and dealing
the deck. Although this process seems random, we still
assume the cards we pick are special. This is the point
of a tarot reading after all to choose the cards we are
meant to see. Now, common sense tells us that cards chosen
by chance can not hold any special meaning, or can it
be? The other feature of a random event is that it has
no inherent meaning. If we roll a dice and get a six,
but there is no purpose to this result. We can just easily
roll a two, and the meaning would be the same or not?
Do we really know these two out comes are equal? Perhaps
there is meaning and purpose in every event, great or
small, but we do not always recognize it. We are meant
by nature to rely on the wisdom of our Inner Guide, but
somehow we have forgotten how to access it. We trust our
conscious minds instead, and forget to look deeper. But
unfortunately, they just don't have the full awareness
we need to make appropriate choices day by day. When we
are operating from our conscious minds, we often feel
as if events are forced upon us by chance. Life seems
to have little purpose, and we suffer because we do not
really understand who we are and what we want. When we
know how to access our Inner Guide, we experience life
differently. |
| Major Arcana |
Major Arcana have twenty two cards, depict major symbols
or archetypes. Among them are the Fool, the Lovers, Death,
and the World, all of them signifying major ideas, phases
or forces of life? The term "Major Arcana" actually
means the "Greater Mysteries."
It is believed that the progression of the cards in the
Major Arcana actually tell the story of a soul's progression
through Karma, or a seeker's path through his or her life.
The word "Arcana" had been originated Latin
for "life secrets." The deck begins with the
Fool, an enthusiastic and a person eager to set out on
his life path, regardless of what lies ahead, and ends
with the World, which represents a perfect attainment
of completion, or Nirvana. They are the most powerful
cards in the deck. These cards are used alone when reading
for divination since they are the archetypal symbols of
human existence and mark stages of self-discovery and
self-awareness. When a Major Arcana card is drawn, special
attention should be paid to its position. |
| Minor Arcana |
| The Minor Arcana is made up of four suits; cups, wands,
swords and pentacles. In fact, the modern deck is evolved
from the Minor Arcana, and if you feel comfortable reading
the jack as both the page and knight and doing without
pictorial cards. You can read a playing deck. Each suit
consists of sixteen cards and four court cards. The four
Court cards of each suit make up the Court Arcana. These
cards tell of the lesser events in our everyday lives.
Like the Major Arcana, each suit tells a story as you
progress from the Ace to the King, but each suit tells
a slightly different story, depending upon which facet
of life the suit reflects. Not only does each suit represent
a different area of life (i.e. love, money, work) but
they are each connected with an element, a direction on
the compass and some of the court cards are associated
with zodiac signs as well. In the past they had significance
- suit was connected with a different social class: clergy,
peasant, noble and merchant. |
| Colors of Tarot |
| Colors and their significant meanings |
| • Magenta |
: |
Sense of higher cognition |
| • Red |
: |
Survival, instincts, action and security |
| • Orange |
: |
Liveliness and happy memories |
| • Yellow |
: |
Intellect |
| • Turquoise |
: |
Deep compassion and inner healin |
| • Green |
: |
Healing and well being |
| • Pink |
: |
Love, compassion and femininity |
| • Blue |
: |
Friendship, communication |
| • Purple |
: |
Insight and wisdom |
| • Indigo |
: |
Knowledge we need to progress along our path |
| • Lavender |
: |
Calming, meditation |
| • White |
: |
Truth, knowledge, illumination |
| • Gray |
: |
Balance must be achieved |
| • Brown |
: |
Conventional |
| • Black |
: |
Thwarted ambition |
| Swords |
| Ace |
Two |
Three |
Four |
Five |
| Six |
Seven |
Eight |
Nine |
Ten |
| Page |
Knight |
Queen |
King |
|
| Cups |
| Ace |
Two |
Three |
Four |
Five |
| Six |
Seven |
Eight |
Nine |
Ten |
| Page |
Knight |
Queen |
King |
|
| Wands/Staves |
| Ace |
Two |
Three |
Four |
Five |
| Six |
Seven |
Eight |
Nine |
Ten |
| Page |
Knight |
Queen |
King |
|
| Pentacles/Coins |
| Ace |
Two |
Three |
Four |
Five |
| Six |
Seven |
Eight |
Nine |
Ten |
| Page |
Knight |
Queen |
King |
|
The Major Arcana (The Minor arcane) for above tables
:
| Pentacles/Coins |
| The Fool |
The Magician
|
The High Priestess |
The Empress |
| The Emperor |
The Hierophant |
The Lovers |
The Chariot |
| Strength |
The Hermit |
Wheel of Fortune |
Justice |
| The Hanged Man |
Death |
Temperance |
The Devil |
| The Tower |
The Star |
The Moon |
The Sun |
| Judgment |
The World |
|
|
| Top |
|
|
|
|
