Okay, folks, gather ’round. Today I wanted to share how I actually went about learning the Major Arcana tarot cards, you know, in their proper order. It wasn’t some magic trick, just plain old sitting down and doing it.
Getting Started – Just Diving In
So, I got myself a standard Rider-Waite deck. Heard it was the classic one to start with. Honestly, looking at all 78 cards felt like a lot. So, I took the advice I kept seeing: focus on the Major Arcana first. Those are the 22 big picture cards.
First thing I did? I physically separated those 22 cards from the rest of the deck. Put the Minor Arcana and court cards aside for later. Just having that smaller stack felt way less scary.
One Card at a Time – The Actual Process
Then, I literally started with card number 0, The Fool. I just looked at the picture for a good while. What did I see? What did it make me feel? I grabbed a cheap notebook and scribbled down my first impressions. Didn’t worry if it was ‘right’, just got my own thoughts down.
Next day, or maybe later the same day, I did the same for card 1, The Magician. Looked at it, thought about it, wrote stuff down. Compared it to The Fool a bit. Saw how different they felt already.
I kept this up, day by day, card by card. Some days I only had time for one, sometimes I’d do two or three if I felt like it. The important part for me was doing them in order: 0, 1, 2, 3… all the way to 21, The World.
- The Fool (0)
- The Magician (1)
- The High Priestess (2)
- The Empress (3)
- The Emperor (4)
- …and so on…
- The World (21)
Seeing the Story Emerge
Doing it this way, sequentially, was a game-changer. Instead of just random pictures and meanings, I started to see a kind of story unfolding. You know, people call it the ‘Fool’s Journey’. It started to make sense – this character starting out naive (The Fool), learning things (The Magician, High Priestess), facing challenges (The Tower, Death), and eventually reaching some kind of completion (The World).
I’d lay them out sometimes, all 22 cards in a long line across my floor or table. Just looking at that visual progression really helped cement the flow in my head. It wasn’t just 22 separate ideas anymore; it was a path.
Making it Stick
Of course, just looking once wasn’t enough. I kept reviewing. I’d shuffle just those 22 cards and pull one, trying to remember its number and what came before and after it. I used my notebook a lot, flipping back through my initial thoughts and adding new ones as I looked up guidebook meanings (but only after writing my own ideas first).
Sometimes I’d get stuck, especially around the middle cards. Like, Temperance, Death, The Devil – remembering their exact order took repetition. But I just kept laying them out, saying the names and numbers out loud. Sounds silly, but it worked for me.
The Payoff
After a few weeks of consistently doing this – separating the cards, going one by one in order, writing down thoughts, laying them out visually, and reviewing – it finally clicked. I could pretty much list them off 0 to 21 and had a basic feel for each card’s place in that journey.
It wasn’t about memorizing rigid meanings perfectly. It was about understanding the flow and the overall narrative arc of the Major Arcana. Doing it in order was definitely the key for me. It built a solid foundation before I even touched the Minor Arcana.
So yeah, that’s how I did it. Nothing fancy, just consistent effort and following the sequence. Hope that gives you some ideas if you’re just starting out!
