What the Major Arcana are
A tarot deck has 78 cards, and 22 of them stand apart. They carry names instead of suits — the Magician, the Lovers, Death, the Star — and numbers from 0 to 21. In the Italian card games of the fifteenth century these were the trumps, the cards that beat all others; when tarot became a tool for reflection in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they were called the Major Arcana, the «greater secrets».
Each of them is an archetype: a figure or situation that every person meets sooner or later. The Empress is care and abundance, the Hermit is solitude and inner search, the Tower is a sudden collapse, the Sun is plain joy. When such a card appears in a reading, it says that the question touches something larger than everyday matters.
The pictures on this site come from the deck drawn by Pamela Colman Smith and published in 1909 with Arthur Edward Waite. In this deck Strength is number 8 and Justice number 11; older Marseille decks have them the other way round.
The Fool’s journey
The Major Arcana are often read as one story: the journey of the Fool, card 0, who sets out with nothing but trust. In the first seven cards he meets the world outside — the Magician’s will, the High Priestess’s intuition, the Empress and the Emperor as mother and father, the Hierophant’s teaching, the Lovers’ choice and the Chariot’s first victory.
The next seven turn inward: Strength teaches gentle courage, the Hermit solitude, the Wheel of Fortune shows that life turns, Justice asks for honesty, the Hanged Man for surrender, Death ends an old self and Temperance heals. The last seven are about the spirit: the Devil’s chains, the Tower’s lightning, then the Star’s hope, the Moon’s fears, the Sun’s joy, Judgement’s call and finally the World, where the circle closes and the Fool can begin again.
How to read the Major Arcana in a spread
When a Major Arcana card appears among Minor ones, it marks the heart of the matter: the lesson behind the everyday details. Many Major Arcana in one reading point to an important period, a turning point that is shaped by larger forces than a single decision.
A reversed Major Arcana card does not reverse its meaning into a disaster. It usually shows the same energy blocked, delayed or turned inward: the Star reversed is hope you have not yet allowed yourself, the Emperor reversed is order that has become rigid or is missing.
Questions and answers
How many Major Arcana are there?
Twenty-two, numbered from 0 (the Fool) to 21 (the World). The other 56 cards of the deck are the Minor Arcana.
Why is the Fool number 0?
The Fool stands outside the sequence: he is the traveller who walks through all the other cards. Zero is pure potential, the moment before anything has begun, so he can stand at the start or at the end of the journey.
Why are Strength and Justice numbered differently in some decks?
In the old Marseille tarot Justice is 8 and Strength is 11. Waite swapped them in the 1909 deck to fit his astrological scheme. Both orders are in use; this site follows the 1909 deck.
The Minor Arcana: all four suits
Which Major Arcana is your birth card? Calculate it by your date of birth