Ordinary playing cards have been connected with divination as early as 1487. The gypsies were adept at reading plain playing cards for centuries before the Venetian magicians got their hands on a French Tarot Deck. It is safe to assume that the Tarot card meanings and spreads that are used today are based on a hybrid of techniques derived from the Tzigani system of reading playing cards, French parlor games and Venetian interpretations of occult symbols!
To understand the Tarot you need to familiarize yourself with the meanings of the four suits and the meanings of their symbols. The cups, coins, disks and wands of the Tarot deck derive their meaning from cartomancy. Cartomancy is the art of reading playing cards.
There are 78 cards in a traditional Tarot Deck. These 78 cards are divided into the Major and Minor Arcanas. The Minor Arcana relates to the ordinary playing deck. Most of the cards in the Minor Arcana represent events or qualities.
The additional 22 Major Arcana cards included in the traditional Tarot deck represent the stages of a person’s individual passage through life, from non-existence, birth, love, marriage, death spiritual ascension and back to non-existence again. The Fool Card, numbered 0, is indicative of this eternal cycle.
The 22 Major Arcana cards are an addition to what otherwise could be described as an ordinary playing deck that consists of four suits.
The meanings of the 22 Major Arcana cards are based on an old French parlor game that was used to predict the lives of the celebrities of the day. Since then, they have mutated to symbolize major life events and personal attributes.
When you are first learning to read the Tarot cards, sometimes it is valuable to have a list of the card’s abbreviated meanings to refer to while you are throwing the cards. Though not all diviner’s use the same correspondent meanings.
Here is a list of the classic meanings of each of the 22 cards of the Major Arcana.
0 The Fool – choices offered, folly, going in circles
1 The Magician – creative energy, psychic power
2 The High Priestess – mystery, hidden influences, female supremacy
3 The Empress – abundance, fertility, motherhood
4 The Emperor – leadership, control, fatherhood
5 The Hierophant – convention, society, restrictions
6 The Lovers – love, relationships, intimacy
7 The Chariot – mind over matter, conflicts, war
8 Strength – courage, power, stamina
9 The Hermit – wisdom, spirituality, connection with Higher Self
10 Wheel of Fortune – unpredictability, changes of luck for good or bad,
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