What Are The Minor Arcana In Tarot

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What Are The Minor Arcana In Tarot
What Are The Minor Arcana In Tarot

Video: What Are The Minor Arcana In Tarot

Video: What Are The Minor Arcana In Tarot
Video: Minor Arcana Patterns - Understanding the Tarot Suits & Four Elements 2024, December
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The minor arcana in tarot decks are the forerunners of modern playing cards, and also consist of suits, or series. This is their difference from the older arcana, in which each card is a separate plot.

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Instructions

Step 1

The series, or suits, of the minor arcana are wands, swords, cups and denarii. As with playing cards, each suit starts with an ace, followed by two, three, and then up to ten. Among the curly cards, the same king, queen and knight are present, and a new figure is added - the page. The origin of the cards is unclear, it is still not clear whether the minor and major arcana Tarot appeared at the same time or were combined into one deck later. Most occultists have never attached much importance to the minor arcana and are of the opinion that these groups of cards are not related to each other in any way. It is believed that the senior lasso is a special philosophy, while the younger ones are just fortune-telling and playing cards.

Step 2

Until the beginning of the 20th century, the minor arcana of the Tarot did not carry practically any information, differing from ordinary playing cards only in suits and quantity. Only symbols were depicted on them in the amount that corresponded to the card number. On the five of cups, 5 cups or bowls were depicted, on the three of swords - 3 swords. In divination, they were as difficult to interpret as popular playing cards. The meanings were either memorized for each card, or the meaning of the number, the number of the card, was recalled and associated with the suit, the element. The deck, in which the minor arcana also had a plot drawing, appeared only in 1910, based on the idea of the artist Pamela Colmen Smith. This innovation stuck, and since then, all 78 cards have a storyline.

Step 3

In fortune telling, minor arcana are used if you need to find out exactly how events will develop in order to clarify the meaning of a particular card. For a more accurate knowledge of the attitude of a particular person, the layout of small arcana is also used. Staves, or wands, are considered to have come from the green forest, therefore, greenery is always present in their drawing, being a symbol of growth. Next to other cards, staves always carry energy, creative or destructive. They correlate staffs with ideas of all kinds, with craft and with agriculture.

Step 4

Cups, or bowls, always symbolize love, feelings, happiness, beauty. Cups are associated with water, can serve as a symbol of the subconscious, instincts, as opposed to consciousness and mind. Denarii, or pentacles, are material gain. A pentacle was a coin with a five-pointed star depicted on it, and such a star, or pentagram, has been a symbol of man since ancient times. Swords are aggression, strength, courage and ambition, struggle, a sign of activity, positive or negative.

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