A tarot deck has 78 cards. Twenty-two are the Major Arcana. The other 56 are the Minor Arcana: four suits, each with ten numbered cards and four court cards. You don’t have to memorize 56 meanings. Learn the suits, the numbers and the court ranks, then put them together.
1. The four suits
| Suit | Element | What it’s about | Remember it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cups | Water | Feelings, love, relationships, intuition | Cups hold feelings |
| Wands | Fire | Will, passion, ambition, creativity | Wands do things |
| Swords | Air | Thoughts, words, truth, conflict | Swords cut through |
| Pentacles | Earth | Body, money, work, home | Pentacles you can touch |
2. The ten numbers
Each number means the same thing in every suit.
| Card | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Ace | A new beginning, raw potential |
| 2 | A choice, balance or partnership |
| 3 | Growth or collaboration |
| 4 | Stability, sometimes stagnation |
| 5 | Conflict or loss |
| 6 | Recovery and harmony |
| 7 | A challenge, a test, or reflection |
| 8 | Movement and mastery |
| 9 | Almost there, intensity |
| 10 | Completion, the end of a cycle |
3. The formula: number + suit
Put the number’s meaning and the suit’s meaning side by side and you have the card. This one formula covers 40 cards.
- 5 of Cups: conflict or loss + feelings = grief, disappointment.
- 8 of Pentacles: mastery + work = steady, careful craftsmanship.
- 2 of Swords: a choice + the mind = a hard decision, being stuck in your head.
- 3 of Wands: growth + action = plans expanding, looking ahead.
4. The court cards are people
Court cards can be someone in your life, or a part of you, at a certain level of maturity with their suit.
| Rank | Who they are |
|---|---|
| Page | The student: curious and new |
| Knight | In motion, sometimes too much |
| Queen | Masters the suit inwardly: nurturing, wise |
| King | Masters the suit outwardly: leading, directing |
So the Queen of Swords is someone with clear, sharp insight, and the Knight of Wands is someone charging toward a passion.
Reversed cards: when a card shows up upside down, its energy is usually blocked, delayed, or turned inward.
Bonus: the Major Arcana as one story
Read cards 0 to 21 as the Fool’s Journey. The Fool sets out, meets teachers (the Magician, the High Priestess), learns how the world works (the Emperor, the Hierophant), faces inner trials (Death, the Tower) and arrives at the World. Many learners lay them out in three rows of seven: I to VII is the outer world, VIII to XIV the inner world, and XV to XXI the spiritual world.
Try it
- Pull one card a day. Write down what you notice before you look anything up.
- Read the picture: who looks sad, who is working, who is celebrating? Many classic decks were drawn to be read this way.
- For any Minor Arcana card, say the formula out loud: “number meaning plus suit meaning.”