Everything about The Minor Arcana totally explained
The
Minor Arcana of the
Tarot deck consist of 56 cards, which are closely related to the deck of 52
playing cards used in most modern card games. It comprises four
suits, derived from the older Latin playing card suits most commonly named Wands or Batons, Cups, Swords, and Coins (also called Pentacles or Disks), although there's a wide variety of different names and suit symbols used in different decks. The name
Minor Arcana is used only in esoteric practice; Game players using Tarot decks for
playing call them suit cards and sometimes use the more modern hearts, spades, diamonds, and clubs suit system.
Symbolism
Often, the suits are associated with one of the four
classical elements, with a common set of associations being the following: Wands with fire, Cups with water, Swords with air, and Coins with earth. In other sets of associations, Fire is occasionally exchanged with air for the Swords suit. Other associations are also possible:
Each suit has 14 cards, being
Ace (One), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Page, Knight, Queen, King. These last four are called the
court cards, and often have different names in different decks. One common variation, introduced by the Victorian-era Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (for the Order's tarot deck) and later followed by occultist
Aleister Crowley, is to replace the Page and Knight with a Princess and Prince (for more, see
Thoth Tarot). There are Italian playing card decks which have a page, maid, knight, mounted lady, king and queen.
Modern decks often have the numbered minor arcana cards (Ace to 10 of each suit) named and numbered, although many resemble early decks in that there are no titles or numbers on those cards. The numbered minor arcana cards usually have the appropriate number of symbols for the suit depicted, and the court cards usually have the corresponding person depicted holding the symbol of their suit.
Modern divination decks, especially if based on the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck (
circa 1910), will often have a symbolic scene depicted on the numbered Minors, although this was generally not the case before the
Rider-Waite-Smith deck was published. Before this, with only the exception of a handful of decks, the numbered cards of the Minors showed merely a geometric arrangement of the appropriate number of suit symbols.
Some decks reverse the correspondence of Swords to Air and Wands to Fire and, instead, have Swords representative of Fire and Wands of Air.
Cards by Suits
Wands
image:Wands01.jpg|Ace of Wands
image:Wands02.jpg|Two of Wands
image:Wands03.jpg|Three of Wands
image:Wands04.jpg|Four of Wands
image:Wands05.jpg|Five of Wands
image:Wands06.jpg|Six of Wands
image:Wands07.jpg|Seven of Wands
image:Wands08.jpg|Eight of Wands
image:Wands09.jpg|Nine of Wands
image:Wands10.jpg|Ten of Wands
image:Wands11.jpg|Page of Wands
image:Wands12.jpg|Knight of Wands
image:Wands13.jpg|Queen of Wands
image:Wands14.jpg|King of Wands
Coins
image:Pents01.jpg|Ace of Coins
image:Pents02.jpg|Two of Coins
image:Pents03.jpg|Three of Coins
image:Pents04.jpg|Four of Coins
image:Pents05.jpg|Five of Coins
image:Pents06.jpg|Six of Coins
image:Pents07.jpg|Seven of Coins
image:Pents08.jpg|Eight of Coins
image:Pents09.jpg|Nine of Coins
image:Pents10.jpg|Ten of Coins
image:Pents11.jpg|Page of Coins
image:Pents12.jpg|Knight of Coins
image:Pents13.jpg|Queen of Coins
image:Pents14.jpg|King of Coins
Cups
image:Cups01.jpg|Ace of Cups
image:Cups02.jpg|Two of Cups
image:Cups03.jpg|Three of Cups
image:Cups04.jpg|Four of Cups
image:Cups05.jpg|Five of Cups
image:Cups06.jpg|Six of Cups
image:Cups07.jpg|Seven of Cups
image:Cups08.jpg|Eight of Cups
image:Cups09.jpg|Nine of Cups
image:Cups10.jpg|Ten of Cups
image:Cups11.jpg|Page of Cups
image:Cups12.jpg|Knight of Cups
image:Cups13.jpg|Queen of Cups
image:Cups14.jpg|King of Cups
Swords
image:Swords01.jpg|Ace of Swords
image:Swords02.jpg|Two of Swords
image:Swords03.jpg|Three of Swords
image:Swords04.jpg|Four of Swords
image:Swords05.jpg|Five of Swords
image:Swords06.jpg|Six of Swords
image:Swords07.jpg|Seven of Swords
image:Swords08.jpg|Eight of Swords
image:Swords09.jpg|Nine of Swords
image:Swords10.jpg|Ten of Swords
image:Swords11.jpg|Page of Swords
image:Swords12.jpg|Knight of Swords
image:Swords13.jpg|Queen of Swords
image:Swords14.jpg|King of Swords
Further Information
Get more info on 'Minor Arcana'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://minor_arcana.totallyexplained.com">Minor Arcana Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
