The Cards part 1
The BASICS…
There are 78 cards.
22 are the Major Arcana
The Major Arcana tells the Fools Journey from 0 to 22 The World. These 22 major arcana cards describes experiences of the soul (if you like) from the start of it starts its journey of what Jung called ‘Individuation’ , in other words finding ourselves and becoming whole. The Fool represents the start of our journey in life from an innocent fearless full of optimism and trust (think a baby or child even) setting out on their path of growth and travelling through the experiences of the major arcana cards until we come to the final card ‘The World’ where we feel complete. Realise we are fully formed and ‘ enough’ just as we are. We belong in this world, we are complete as we are, a moment of harmony and perfection 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, fearlessly facing the unknown, open, enthusiastic, joyful
1 The Magician …now we learn we have all the tools, pentacles, swords, cups, wands, on the table in front of us to play with, to MANIFEST what we want. We start to learn how to weave our magic using all four elements. Fire, Water, Earth, Air.
2. The High Priestess…..she teaches us about a 5th element 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 be able to tune into this wisdom and follow her instincts.
3.The Empress….she reminds us of our innate Creativity, Fertility and ABUNDANCE and that we are born with such an abundance of creativity, both from the point of view of literally being able to give birth, but also being able to give birth to new creations. From this place we are encouraged to harvest all our talents. The Empress embodies the Queens of the pack in body, heart, mind and spirit. She embodies Abundance.
4. The Emperor…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 domains of Intellect, Material Wealth, Emotional Maturity, Entrepreneurial Spirit.
5.The Heirophant….he teaches us about PURPOSE, both spiritual and moral, what we want to offer in marriage to Life.
6. The Lovers teaches us that is it our CHOICE which apple we choose to pick. It is in our CHOICES that we also choose the life we want. With the help of Divine Guidance, we recognise this and that we get to pick the apple every day in event, thought, word and deed.
7. The Chariot and our heroic quest reminds us to still shoot for the stars. Even though the journey is fraught with 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 need to follow your vision with a split beam.
8. STRENGTH. Where we learn to connect with our inner strength and from that place be able to communicate without the need for confrontation. Her quiet inner strength is powerful enough whereby the expresses herself in a peaceful manner and is heard and received, there’s no need to succumb to Ego.