Alright folks, let me tell you about this little experiment I did with tarot cards. I was bored, okay? And I’ve always been curious about how these things work, or if they work at all. So, I decided to dive in and see if I could make sense of the order of a tarot deck.
First thing I did was to actually get a tarot deck. Just a standard Rider-Waite one – nothing fancy. Then, I spread all 78 cards out on my dining table. It looked like a mystical yard sale exploded in my house, seriously.
Okay, so next, I grabbed a notebook and a pen. Old school, I know. I wanted to physically write down my observations. I started by separating the Major Arcana from the Minor Arcana. Major Arcana are the big hitters, the ones with the cool names like “The Fool” and “The Tower.”
I then started looking at the numbers. The Major Arcana are numbered 0 through 21. I lined them up in order, trying to see if there was some kind of story being told. It was… abstract, to say the least. The Fool starts the journey, and it seems to go through all sorts of life events and lessons. I’m not gonna pretend I understood it all perfectly, but I saw a progression there. I wrote down keywords for each card, just what popped into my head when I looked at them.
Next up were the Minor Arcana, those are split into four suits: Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles. Each suit has cards numbered Ace through Ten, plus the court cards: Page, Knight, Queen, and King. I separated them all by suit and then lined them up numerically.
Here’s where I started to see some patterns. Each suit seemed to have its own theme. Wands felt like action and energy, Cups were all about emotions, Swords were logic and challenges, and Pentacles were practical stuff like money and work. I noted these connections down, suit by suit.
Then, I took each suit individually and looked at how the numbered cards progressed. For example, in the suit of Swords, the Ace felt like a new idea or challenge, and then as the numbers went up, the challenges got more intense. By the Ten of Swords, it’s like hitting rock bottom. I felt like there was a story happening inside each suit as well. So more scribbling in the notebook.
Finally, I looked at the court cards. These guys are tricky. I tried to think of them as different personality types or different aspects of myself. The Page seemed like a beginner, the Knight was all about action, the Queen was nurturing and intuitive, and the King was authoritative and in control. I jotted down how each court card might play out within each suit’s theme.
I’m not going to lie, after a few hours of this, my brain was fried. But, I felt like I had a much better understanding of the tarot deck’s structure. Did I suddenly become a tarot master? Nah. But I got a better feel for the symbols and the potential meanings behind the order of the cards. It’s like learning a new language – I know the alphabet now, but I still need to practice making sentences.
Key takeaways:
- Separating the Major and Minor Arcana helps you understand the different levels of meaning.
- Looking at the suits individually shows you the core themes of each one.
- Thinking of the court cards as personalities can make them easier to interpret.
Was it a waste of time? Probably not. It was a fun way to spend an afternoon and I learned something new. Who knows, maybe I’ll even try doing a real reading sometime. But for now, I’m just happy I sorted out that crazy deck of cards!
