Tarot Concepts
Instead of memorizing 78 separate meanings, learn the patterns that repeat. Every card expresses a few core structures in different contexts.
Browse
Choose a section below to explore how tarot is organized into arcana, suits, and ranks.
Table of Contents
On this page
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Major Arcana
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Minor Arcana
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Suits
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Pentacles
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Cups
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Swords
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Wands
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Ranks
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Numbered Cards
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Court Cards
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Arcana
The deck is divided into two foundations: Major Arcana and Minor Arcana. Major Arcana describe universal archetypes. Minor Arcana describe daily situations and patterns within lived experience. Choose one to begin.
Major Arcana
Universal archetypes and enduring themes that shape meaning, identity, and perspective.
Minor Arcana
Situational patterns and daily experiences shaped by context, choice, and response.
Suits and Ranks
The Minor Arcana can be read through suit and rank. Suits describe the domain of experience. Ranks describe how that energy expresses and develops over time. Choose a framework to explore.
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Suits
Organize the Minor Arcana into four domains of experience, each emphasizing a distinct kind of energy.
Ranks
Describe how meanings progress within each suit, from beginnings through development to completion.
Suits
Each suit highlights a different domain of life. Browse the suits to explore the emotional, mental, practical, and creative energies that show up in readings.
Pentacles
Concerns material life, work, resources, health, and long-term stability.
Cups
Concerns emotions, relationships, intuition, and inner experience.
Swords
Concerns thought, communication, truth, and decision-making.
Wands
Concerns creativity, motivation, action, and personal drive.
Ranks
Ranks show how an energy expresses itself. Numbered cards track a cycle of development, while Court cards describe people, roles, and ways of showing up.
Numbered Cards
Describe how situations develop through stages, from beginnings to completion.
Court Cards
Describe how energy is expressed through roles, behavior, and personal approach.
Aces
Represent beginnings, potential, and the initial emergence of energy.
Twos
Represent choice, balance, and the first interaction between forces.
Threes
Represent growth through expression, collaboration, and expansion.
Fours
Represent structure, stability, and the establishment of foundations.
Fives
Represent disruption, challenge, and the testing of stability.
Sixes
Represent adjustment, restoration, and movement toward balance.
Sevens
Represent evaluation, uncertainty, and the need for discernment.
Eights
Represent sustained effort, momentum, and developing mastery.
Nines
Represent culmination, insight, and readiness for completion.
Tens
Represent completion, saturation, and the end of a cycle.
Pages
Represent learning, curiosity, and early engagement with an experience.
Knights
Represent action, pursuit, and active engagement with goals.
Queens
Represent inner mastery, integration, and mature understanding.
Kings
Represent leadership, responsibility, and outward authority.
Aces
Represent beginnings, potential, and the initial emergence of energy.
Twos
Represent choice, balance, and the first interaction between forces.
Threes
Represent growth through expression, collaboration, and expansion.
Fours
Represent structure, stability, and the establishment of foundations.
Fives
Represent disruption, challenge, and the testing of stability.
Sixes
Represent adjustment, restoration, and movement toward balance.
Sevens
Represent evaluation, uncertainty, and the need for discernment.
Eights
Represent sustained effort, momentum, and developing mastery.
Nines
Represent culmination, insight, and readiness for completion.
Tens
Represent completion, saturation, and the end of a cycle.
Pages
Represent learning, curiosity, and early engagement with an experience.
Knights
Represent action, pursuit, and active engagement with goals.
Queens
Represent inner mastery, integration, and mature understanding.
Kings
Represent leadership, responsibility, and outward authority.