Tarot Major Arcana

The Tarot card deck consists of two parts - the Major Arcana (also called Trumps) with 22 cards, and the Minor Arcana with the remaining 56 cards in four suits. Here are all the Tarot's Major Arcana cards and what they mean in divination.

     The Major Arcana are the unsuited cards of the Tarot deck. The 22 Major Arcana cards don't belong to any of the four suits of the Tarot: Wands, Pentacles, Cups, and Swords. Instead, each Major Arcana card represents a dignity all of its own: a character of great significance, a mythical component, or an event of crucial importance.

     Each Major Arcana card of the Tarot can be described as an archetype, a symbolic figure or situation of great significance and meaning in human thought and culture. The Major Arcana figures are larger than life, representing different basic aspects of what it is to be human and to live in this world.

     Some of the Tarot Major Arcana cards are easily recognizable and their meanings are intuitively clear to just about anyone familiar with Western culture and tradition. The Devil, the Lovers, the Hermit, the Emperor, and so on - these are Major Arcana characters we can relate to because they are well-established symbols in our culture, and have been so for thousands of years.

     Other Major Arcana cards of the Tarot may be slightly less familiar to modern minds, such as the Chariot, the Wheel of Fortune, and the Hanged Man. But you only have to glance at the descriptions of those Major Arcana cards to recognize what they represent and relate to it. All the 22 Major Arcana cards are archetypes, their meanings obvious to us all, once we're introduced to them.

     In Tarot divination you should pay particular attention to Major Arcana cards appearing in your spread. Not only does each Major Arcana card carry its archetypical meaning, but it also points out the gravity of it. Someone very important enters, or some very significant event is afoot. I can't stress this enough.

     The Tarot's Major Arcana cards don't bother with everyday events and people you meet daily. They appear when something extraordinary happens, something that you'd remember to put in your autobiography. So, pay attention when a Major Arcana card pops up in your Tarot spread.

     Here are all the 22 cards of the Major Arcana and what they mean in Tarot card divination:

	1 The Magician A sudden solution, as if by magic - but it may be just an illusion. A. E. Waite's description: Skill, diplomacy, address, subtlety; sickness, pain, loss, disaster, snares of enemies; self-confidence, will; the Querent, if male. Reversed: Physician, Magus, mental disease, disgrace, disquiet. More about the card's meaning here.
	2 The High Priestess Secrets and hidden circumstances stand in the way and need to be understood. A. E. Waite's description: Secrets, mystery, the future as yet unrevealed; the woman who interests the Querent, if male; the Querent herself, if female; silence, tenacity; mystery, wis­dom, science. Reversed: Passion, moral or physical ardour, conceit, surface knowl­edge. More about the card's meaning here.
	3 The Empress The gentle power that still rules, almost unnoticed and rarely opposed. A. E. Waite's description: Fruitfulness, action, initiative, length of days; the unknown, clandestine; also difficulty, doubt, ignorance. Reversed: Light, truth, the unravelling of involved matters, public rejoicings; according to another reading, vacillation. More about the card's meaning here.
	4 The Emperor You're up against real power, so yield or suffer the consequences. A. E. Waite's description: Stability, power, protection, realization; a great person; aid, reason, conviction; also authority and will. Reversed: Bene­volence, compassion, cre­dit; also con­fusion to enemies, obstruction, immaturity. More about the card's meaning here.
	5 The Hierophant The dependency on approval from an elevated dignity. A. E. Waite's description: Marriage, alliance, captivity, servitude; by another account, mercy and goodness; inspiration; the man to whom the Querent has recourse. Reversed: Society, good under­standing, concord, over­kindness, weakness. More about the card's meaning here.
	6 The Lovers Deeply felt mutual attraction - for as long as it lasts. A. E. Waite's description: Attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome. Reversed: Failure, foolish designs. Another account speaks of marriage frustrated and contrarieties of all kinds. More about the card's meaning here.
	7 The Chariot Triumph - but beware of its con­sequences at length. A. E. Waite's description: Succour, providence also war, triumph, presumption, venge­ance, trouble. Reversed: Riot, quarrel, dispute, litigation, defeat. More about the card's meaning here.
	8 Strength Strength of a kind that's superior because of its clever application. A. E. Waite's description: Power, energy, action, courage, magna­nimity; also complete success and honours. Reversed: Des­potism, abuse if power, weakness, discord, sometimes even disgrace. More about the card's meaning here.
	9 The Hermit The lesson and reward, but also mis­fortune, of solitude. A. E. Waite's description: Prudence, circum­spection; also and especially treason, dissimulation, roguery, corruption. Reversed: Concealment, dis­guise, policy, fear, unreasoned caution. More about the card's meaning here.
	10 Wheel of Fortune An uncertain outcome, with an after­math to be carefully considered. A. E. Waite's description: Destiny, fortune, success, elevation, luck, felicity. Reversed: Increase, abundance, super­fluity. More about the card's meaning here.
	11 Justice Justice without blindfold is not always fair. A. E. Waite's description: Equity, rightness, probity, executive; triumph of the deserving side in law. Reversed: Law in all its depart­ments, legal complications, bigotry, bias, excessive severity. More about the card's meaning here.
	12 The Hanged Man Great personal sacrifice that still doesn't hurt much. A. E. Waite's description: Wisdom, circumspection, discernment, trials, sacrifice, intuition, divination, prophecy. Reversed: Selfishness, the crowd, body politic. More about the card's meaning here.
	13 Death A costly loss - sometimes, but not always, the death of someone. A. E. Waite's description: End, mortality, destruction, corruption also, for a man, the loss of a benefactor for a woman, many con­trarieties; for a maid, failure of marriage projects. Reversed: Inertia, sleep, lethargy, petrifaction, somnambulism; hope destroyed. More about the card's meaning here.
	14 Temperance Moderation in all is ultimate per­sistence. A. E. Waite's description: Economy, mode­ration, frugality, man­agement, accommodation. Reversed: Things connected with churches, religions, sects, the priesthood, sometimes even the priest who will marry the Querent; also disunion, unfortunate combinations, competing interests. More about the card's meaning here.
	15 The Devil The pain and delight of giving in to temptation. A. E. Waite's description: Ravage, violence, vehemence, extra­ordinary efforts, force, fatality; that which is predestined but is not for this reason evil. Reversed: Evil fatality, weakness, pettiness, blindness. More about the card's meaning here.
	16 The Tower A spectacular ambition that ends with disaster. A. E. Waite's description: Misery, distress, indigence, adversity, calamity, disgrace, deception, ruin. It is a card in particular of unforeseen catastrophe. Reversed: According to one account, the same in a lesser degree also oppression, im­prisonment, tyranny. More about the card's meaning here.
	17 The Star Time to pause and reflect, contemplate what's precious and what's not. A. E. Waite's description: Loss, theft, privation, abandonment; another reading says-hope and bright prospects, Reversed: Arro­gance, haught­iness, impotence. More about the card's meaning here.
	18 The Moon Longing for the sake of longing, and the hope of fulfillment. A. E. Waite's description: Hidden enemies, danger, calumny, darkness, terror, deception, occult forces, error. Reversed: Instability, inconstancy, silence, lesser degrees of deception and error. More about the card's meaning here.
	19 The Sun Great resources at your disposal, but constrain yourself since it's possible to have too much. A. E. Waite's description: Material happiness, for­tunate marriage, contentment. Reversed: The same in a lesser sense. More about the card's meaning here.
	20 Judgement Ultimate judgment, whether we wel­come it or not. A. E. Waite's description: Change of position, renewal, outcome. Another account specifies total loss though lawsuit. Reversed: Weakness, pusillanimity, simplicity; also delibe­ration, decision, sentence. More about the card's meaning here.
	21 The World Success in anything worldly, but not for free. A. E. Waite's description: Assured success, recompense, voyage, route, emigration, flight, change of place. Reversed: Inertia, fixity, stagnation, per­manence. More about the card's meaning here.
	0 The Fool Blissful carelessness, the power of ignorance. A. E. Waite's description: Folly, mania, extra­vagance, intoxication, delirium, frenzy, bewrayment. Reversed: Negligence, absence, distribution, care­lessness, apathy, nullity, vanity. More about the card's meaning here.