You may have read Tarot: Exploring the Major Arcana or Our Guide to Tarot Cards and wondered, “What about the Minor Arcana!?” We’re here to answer that question. This post will overview the 56 cards that make up the Minor Arcana.
As a reminder, your tarot deck includes two types of cards: the Major Arcana, of which you will find 22 cards, and the Minor Arcana, of which you will find 56 cards. The 56 Minor Arcana cards address what’s happening in your everyday life, while the Major Arcana represents the long-term bigger picture. These cards might be called “minor,” but that doesn’t mean they can’t significantly impact your daily life.
The Four Minor Arcana Suits
Four different card suits make up the Minor Arcana: Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles. Each suit contains 14 cards: 10 numbered cards and four court cards that include Page, Knight, Queen, and King. Court cards most commonly represent specific people or personality traits.
Suit of Cups:
The suit of cups directly relates to your relationships, emotions, and intuition. These cards most often appear in readings about love, relationships, or emotional turmoil.
Suit of Swords:
The suit of swords mirrors your direct actions, thoughts, and words. These cards often represent a challenge in your life, whether that be change, an outside force, asserting power, or making a big decision.
Suit of Wands:
The suit of wands represents creativity, invention, and passionate energy. These cards often mean new ideas, spirituality, and what you truly want at the core of your being.
Suit of Pentacles:
The suit of pentacles is associated with financial and work matters. You often see these cards in a reading about your career or long-term financial goals.
Numbered Cards:
Each numbered suit card carries its own energy, meaning, and interpretation.
Aces:
Aces, or card one, represents beginnings. Aces generally hold positive connotations and can mean good change is coming.
Twos:
Twos represent the duality that lives within each of us. When a two pops up in your tarot reading, there may be an issue that needs to be resolved before you can move on in harmony and unison with your intuition.
Threes:
Three is a very energetic number. Threes often represent growth, your potential for creativity, and your desire for collaboration (working in groups of three, maybe?).
Fours:
Fours represent an unbreakable foundation and strong base for success. They can also indicate the need for a pause or a break before moving forward.
Fives:
Fives remind you that you’re working toward your goals, but you’re not quite there yet. Fives can indicate change, instability, or conflict somewhere in our lives.
Sixes:
Sixes represent overcoming challenges and indicate a particular security or stability in a new opportunity.
Sevens:
Sevens may appear at challenging times in your life. These cards remind you to have faith in yourself through any hardship. The struggle will always end, and you’ll come out stronger.
Eights:
Eights represent work and change. This card may indicate that what you want from life may only be reached if you work to make the necessary change.
Nines:
Nines can represent your manifestations finally coming to the light. Things are coming together, for worse or for better, and even if you don’t like what you see right now, it’s for the best.
Tens:
Tens represent the end of a current cycle. As the last numbered card in the Minor Arcana, these cards tell you to move on and leave the past in the past.
Court Cards:
Court cards represent specific people or personality traits in a tarot reading.
Pages:
Pages are the lowest members of the court. Page cards often physically represent young people or those with youthful energy. These cards can also represent the beginning of a new journey or a unique opportunity.
Knights:
Knights are centered around action. Knights are constantly on high alert, and they’re always on the move. These cards can mean significant change, movement, or activity and often represent someone 20-30 years old.
Queens:
Queens are oozing with nurturing, feminine energy. On a physical level, Queens can represent middle-aged women or those with feminine energies. These cards can also be mile markers for significant moments like motherhood, girlhood, or exploring your sexuality.
Kings:
Kings are the highest members of the court. These cards represent maturity, power, and authority. They often represent males over 40 years old and mean acting upon ideas is crucial to moving forward.
What Does a Minor Arcana Card Mean in a Tarot Spread?
When a tarot reading reveals mostly Minor Arcana cards, this can indicate that your problems are mostly surrounding your day-to-day life. These issues may or may not have a long-lasting effect on your life, but they hold essential life lessons that are crucial to your future development. Why are you being presented with these issues? What is the less here here?
Reversals of the Minor Arcana
Note: You may also be interested in the exploration of reversals. A “reversal” occurs when a card is revealed from the deck in a reverse orientation rather than upright, which could tell of a potential growth and improvement area. While some readers choose to do without reversals, others believe exposure should not be taken lightly. The choice is yours regarding whether you wish to consider reversals in your reading! As a beginner, you may be more comfortable leaving out reversals for now.
Want to learn more about tarot? Check out Tarot: Exploring the Major Arcana and Our Guide to Tarot Cards for more witchy wonder.
