Beginners Guide to Tarot - The Major Arcana Part 1

Ok so you’ve bought and cleansed your deck. It’s been charged and you want to practise. Now you need to learn what the cards all mean.

The first place to go for this information is the guidebook that came with your deck as some may vary slightly, however this will give a general overview. In this post we will be focusing on the first 11 Court cards, or the Major Arcana. There are 22 in total, so I’ll chat through the final 11 in the next post.

0 - The Fool

Main Themes - fresh hope, new beginnings, take chances, adventures, innocence, optimism.

The fool can also be taken quite literally, in that it means you’re being foolish or naive in your actions.

1 - The Magician

Main themes - focus, creativity, turning visions to reality, manifestation, willpower, talent

This cards main message is that you have everything you need to complete whatever task is in hand, and you should act on it.

2 - The High Priestess

Main themes - secrets, mystery, intuition, the feminine and inner world

This card tends to signal towards secrets with positive outcomes and not to overthink how these will affect you. It can also be directly linked to a female deity if that is more in line with the question asked of your deck.

3 - The Empress

Main Themes - abundance, fertility, pregnancy, mothering, creation

While this card can represent new life, it can also signal positive outcomes to situations.

4 - The Emperor

Main Themes - respect, leadership, father, masculinity, discipline.

This card can represent finical stability and ambition. It also informs you to keep behaving in a logical way.

5 - The Hierophant

Main Themes - religion, organisation, conforming, expectations, traditions.

This card symbolises self reflection, and looking more into your own belief systems. It may also mean a trusted figure will soon be giving you advice.

6 - The Lovers

Main Themes - love, soulmates, deep love, romance, choices

This card can be taken literally to mean that you will find a partner or lover. It can also mean its time to take a step in an existing relationship.

7 - The Chariot

Main themes - Action, change, Journey, willpower, control, vehicle

This card can mean that you are about to embark on a journey or something is going to change within your life. Also with the theme of control it can mean to either let go more or gain more control.

8 - Strength

Main themes - self love, unconditional love, courage, calm

This is another card which can be taken literally. It can mean both physical and mental strength, depending on the persons own situation.

9 - The Hermit

Main themes - go within for clarity, loner, solitude, withdrawal

This card, like the one mentioned before, can also be literal, in the sense that it is claiming you are isolated and becoming similar to a hermit. It most likely represents either needing to go within yourself for clarity on a situation or loneliness.

10 - Wheel of Fortune

Main themes - luck, change, karma, fate, destiny

The Wheel of Fortune usually symbolises a change in luck or fortune, and a destiny which can be forth coming for the subject of the reading. It can also be symbolic of gambling in some situations.

11 - Justice

Main themes - cause and effect, solutions, win-win, truth, integerity, law, legal issues

If pulled this card tends to represent the legal system and any ongoing legal issues the subject of the reading is having, based on other cards pulled it may be either a positive or negative card.

So there are the first 11 cards of the Major Arcana. I’ll soon be uploading the next 11 cards to give a brief introduction to this part of your new deck! Which card sounds most interesting to you?