7. The Cards - part 1
The BASICS…Part 1.
There are 78 tarot cards in a deck.
22 are the Major Arcana
The Major Arcana tells the Fools Journey from 0 to 22 The World. These 22 major arcana cards reflect specific experiences or life lessons as we travel through life. Jung called this ‘Individuation’, meaning how we learn and understand ourselves as unique individuals and thereby live the life that is right for us. The Fool represents the start of our journey in life, innocent, unskilled fearless and full of optimism and trust (think a baby or child even) setting out on our life path. We travell through the experiences of the major arcana cards until we come to the final card ‘The World’ where we realise we are fully formed and ‘enough’ just as we are. The World represents a moment of perfection when we feel one with the world, complete and whole, when we realise we are in need of nothing except this knowledge. And then we start all over again. Another cycle of life.
The 22 major arcana cards describe pivotal moments of learning and experience.
The rest of the 78 cards are split into 4 suits.
Cups/the element of water that represent our Emotions. Love, Loss, Fulfilment
Pentacles/ the element of Earth represent the physicalities of life, money, property, society, health.
Wands/the element of Fire are about inspiration, creativity, passion.
Swords/Metal, represents the mind, our intellect, integrity, truth, identity…..
THE MAJOR ARCANA
0 The Fool. embarks on a BRAND NEW JOURNEY, innocent, trusting, a bit clueless but who cares, fearless and trusting he faces the unknown, open, enthusiastic, joyful.
1 The Magician …now we learn we have all the tools on the table in front of us to play with, to MANIFEST what we want. We have wands, cups, pentacles, swords, each represent the elements of Fire, Water, Earth, Air. We start to understand the skill of weaving our magic by using all four elements.
II The High Priestess…..she teaches us about a 5th element (if you like) INTUITION. By which we begin to understand the duality of the world, that the material and spiritual exist side by side, that life is neither one thing, material, or the other spiritual, it is both. The High Priestess teaches to understand this duality, that alongside Light is Shadow. She keeps her feelings (the Moon) at her feet in order to intuit this wisdom and follow her instincts.
III The Empress….now we are reminded of the innate Creativity, Fertility and ABUNDANCE we are born with, both from the point of view of literally being able to give birth to a new life, but also being able to give birth to new creations. We realise the power of combining Imagination and Creativity in our lives. The Empress encourages us to use these skills to harvest all our talents for abundance.
4. The Emperor…now teaches us how to EMPOWER ourselves. He is determined, disciplined, hard working, he armours up his feelings (doubt or fear) and heads for his goal. Like the Empress he embodies all the Kings and the domains of Intellect, Material Wealth, Emotional Maturity, and Entrepreneurial Spirit.
5.The Heirophant… teaches us about PURPOSE, our spiritual and moral purpose. And the power of harnessing our sense of purpose and sense of morality in partnership with Life.
6. The Lovers teaches us about the power of CHOICE and reminds us that we need to CHOOSE which apple to pick. It is our CHOICE to choose the life we want. With the help of divine guidance, we get to pick the apple every day in every thought word and deed.
7. The Chariot and our heroic quest reminds us to shoot for the stars. Yes life has its challenges. The driver of the Chariot has to be courageous as it’s quite a skill managing different aspects of our lives and still keep going in the direction we want. The black and white spynx reflect being torn in different directions and the challenge of heading for our highest desires.
8. STRENGTH. Where we learn to connect with our inner strength and communicate without needing to be confrontational or too forceful. She has a quiet inner strength that is strong enough whereby she expresses herself in a peaceful manner and is heard, and received. She has no need to succumb to Ego. Communicating and living from this place has power.
9. THE HERMIT (with all the skills we have learned so far) the Hermit teaches us to tune into ourselves and follow our own inner light to lead the lives that are uniquely for us. He doesn’t follow the pack, he knows and trusts himself and his own inner guidance to take the path that is right for him.
10. THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE. Now we are learn about CHANGE and the cycles of life and how we can activate our own fortunes by jumping into life to turn the Wheel at the right moment.
11. JUSTICE Where we learn about finding the BALANCE between Justice and Fairness, on the one hand being truthful to ourselves and upholding the rule of law and on the other holding the scales of Fairness and Compassion whereby we give others the benefit of the doubt and leniency
12. THE HANGED MAN. Here we learn that there is a price to pay for our enlightenment. There is something we have to surrender. The Hanged Man is forced to hang upside down and see the world from a different perspective. The Good news even though its not something we want to do it will be for our benefit in the long term.
13. DEATH. The ultimate surrender. The Death card means it is an end of an Era and the beginning of a new. While is reflects a definite ending it also heralds the possibility of transformation.
14. TEMPERANCE. Here we learn patience. We learn there are times when we need to wait, by cooling our desires, keeping one foot grounded on dry land and the other in our emotions, for the universe and divine guidance to show us the way.
15. THE DEVIL. Now we encounter the opposite of Temperance. We encounter passion and desire. Wonderful in its pure form but dangerous when we become over attached. The card of passion and addiction to passion, be it love, work, play.
16. THE TOWER. often reflects a sudden sharp shock when the edifice of a situation comes crashing down. Here we understand there was something faulty with the foundations all along, often of our thinking, that needs to be rebuilt.
17. THE STAR….following disaster, the air is cleared, and there is the possibility of bright hopes and new prospects.
18. THE MOON. Now we face challenges from our subconscious emotions, when our ‘inner demons’ come out to play, where illusion and projection lurk. This is moment we need to shine a light on our shadow side, face our fears, in order to come out into the sun.
19. THE SUN. Where there is energy, positivity, where we can materialise things into the world.
20. JUDGEMENT. Break through. We hear the wake up call. We know what to do. And with that we feel fully alive.
21. THE WORLD. The card of completion. Perfection. We are whole. We are enough, in the right place at the right time in the world.