DIVINATION · LESSON 1 OF 16 · 14 MIN · FREE
78 cards, four suits, 22 trumps — and how cards became occult.
Tarot cards were invented in northern Italy in the early 15th century as a card game, tarocchi, played with an extra suit of allegorical trumps. Their use for divination and esoteric teaching came later — and that later history shapes how we read them today.
Tarot cards were invented in northern Italy in the early 15th century as a card game, tarocchi, played with an extra suit of allegorical trumps. Their use for divination and esoteric teaching came later — and that later history shapes how we read them today.
The Major Arcana — 22 cards. Numbered 0 (The Fool) to XXI (The World). They depict archetypal stages of a journey — often read as the soul's journey — and in a reading they point to big themes and turning points.
The Minor Arcana — 56 cards in four suits of 14: Ace to Ten plus four court cards (Page, Knight, Queen, King). They describe everyday events, people and moods.
| Suit | Element | Domain | Golden Dawn quality |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wands | Fire | Will, energy, ambition, creativity | Hot & dry |
| Cups | Water | Emotion, love, relationships, intuition | Cold & moist |
| Swords | Air | Thought, conflict, truth, communication | Hot & moist |
| Pentacles | Earth | Money, work, body, the material world | Cold & dry |
| Number | Theme |
|---|---|
| Ace | Seed, pure potential of the suit |
| Two | Balance, choice, partnership |
| Three | Growth, first results |
| Four | Stability, structure |
| Five | Disruption, challenge |
| Six | Harmony restored, exchange |
| Seven | Assessment, testing |
| Eight | Movement, mastery |
| Nine | Near-completion, intensity |
| Ten | Completion, ending and new cycle |
Combine number + suit and you can read any minor card even without memorising it: the Five of Cups is disruption in emotion — loss and regret.
Use the Tarot tool to draw a daily card. Before reading the meaning, work it out from its number and suit. Then compare.
4 questions — choose an answer to check it.
1.How many cards are in a standard tarot deck?
2.Which suit is usually associated with the element of Water?
3.Who first claimed (in 1781) that the tarot contained ancient Egyptian wisdom?
4.Who linked the 22 trumps to the 22 Hebrew letters in the 1850s?
Reading once is not remembering. Study Cards bring each fact back just before you would forget it, until it is yours.
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