What Even Is Tarot?

Tarot Overview

Welcome to the wonderful world of tarot! I feel like anybody can learn, understand, and read tarot. In my experience, there are many cases where tarot is just a tool to use for someone who is strengthening any of their Clairs (clairaudience, clairvoyance, clairsentience, etc.). More on that another time. Anywhooo --

Let’s redirect back to our cards. There are 78 cards total. These cards are split into two main categories - Major Arcana and Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana houses 22 of the “more crucial” cards. These, unlike their minor counterpart, aren’t split into separate suits. The Major Arcana are sometimes even used by themselves for readings to receive a more direct message.

As mentioned, Minor Arcana cards are made up of suits and each suit is composed of 14 cards to include Ace (1) through 10, Page, Knight, Queen, and King. Let’s explore these a bit further…

Suits & Their Elements

In the Minor Arcana world of tarot, there are four suits – Wands, Pentacles, Swords, and Cups. Each suit represents an element. And in turn, each suit and element is representative of different areas of our everyday lives. Let’s begin with Wands. The suit of Wands is connected to the element of Fire, which is representative of willpower, strength, confidence, and knowing oneself. Oftentimes, this suit will show up in a reading to convey there is a battle of sorts and/or self reflection to be discovered.

Next up, in no particular order, we’ll discuss Pentacles. Pentacles, or “Coins” as recognized in some practices, is Earth and Earthly things. Much of what you can read within Pentacles is materialistic. However, it isn’t so vain. Finding this suit pop up in a reading may also be a signal to ground and come back to reality. It could also be associated with greed, depending on the spread in totality.

Swords is quite possibly my favorite suit if I had to pick one. Swords’ elemental companion is Air. In the suit of Swords, you’ll find mental health, wisdom, shadow work, studies, and pretty much anything that has to do with the mind. For example, both the Two (II) of Swords and Eight (VIII) of Swords depicts blindfolded persons with swords (of course) and water. Which gives the hint of emotions being intertwined, and honestly it only makes sense when you’re doing shadow work.

Hinting towards water and emotions, brings us into our next suit – Cups. The element for Cups is Water. Water has always been seen as a flowing element, which would make it a no-brainer to be in relation to our emotions, feelings, inklings, and such. Revealing a Cups card in a reading can help you navigate what you’re currently feeling. Whether that’s a sign for you to realize, release, or recenter some emotions, that’s up to which card comes up and how it resonates with surface-level feelings, as well as, ice-glacier-like, beneath the surface grievances.

Major Arcana Highlights

In the Major Arcana, you’ll be able to follow along with a story being told. Starting with the Fool and ending with the World, there are trials, introspection, ups, downs, and ultimately, a message within each card. Below we’ll explore just a few of our Major Arcana cards and their upright keywords.

The Fool (0)

• new beginnings

• desire to start

• free spirit

• idealism

• adventure

• freedom

The Hermit (IX)

• introspection

• withdrawal

• solitude

• enlightenment

• receiving and fiving guidance

Death (XIII)

• transformation

• letting go

• ending of a cycle

• birth of new opportunities

The Tower (XVI)

• disaster

• sudden change

• chaos

• painful

• tragedy

• revelation

The World (XXI)

• completion

• fulfillment

• wholeness

• integration

• harmony

• celebration

Tarot Wrap-up

The traditional - and probably most used - tarot deck is the Rider Waite Smith deck. This is usually the recommended deck for beginners. But not everyone starts there. Some people are gifted their first deck (or all of them). Some people find the deck that calls out to them, or rather, the deck finds them. I break down each of the 78 cards on my YouTube channel here. There, you'll find a playlist aptly titled, LLTT - Let's Learn Tarot Together, housing a YouTube Shorts vid for each individual card.

Tarot can become easy with practice and intention, but it is a lot to jump into with no prior knowledge of what it involves or how it works. Take your time. Learn each card meaning. Get a better understanding of card meanings when paired or grouped with others. And start to feel the message. It's said to read tarot daily to get more comfortable with it. I say, do it as often as you feel comfortable. Always remember to protect yourself when opening yourself up to the spirit realm. Start with questions that you already know the answers to so it'll be easier to identify card meanings without always peaking at the guidebook.

If you want more tarot content, deck recs, and other spiritual and witchy things, check out my TikTok. You can also book a personal reading right here on my site!