Tarot

One of the most popular methods of divination in recent years is the Tarot. perhaps it the air of mystery and the exotic that surrounds the cards themselves. However it was exactly this that in past history and a more suppositious age saw the tarot condemned and labeled "the devils picture book" Even today there are still some which treat them with supposition.

The tarot deck consists of 78 card with pictures of archetypes on them.  It is subdivided as follows:

The Major Arcana - 22 of the cards that show archetypal forces, which are either religious representations or different mythological figures.

The Minor Arcana - 40 cards numbered 1-10 in four different suits, similar to a regular deck of playing cards.

The Court Cards - 16 cards throughout the four suits…page, knight, queen and king or princess, prince, queen and king, depending on the deck you are using.

The Four Suits:
· Pentacles - Usually represents everyday matters, sensation
· Swords - Intellect and illusion
· Cups - Feeling, emotions and imagination, matters of the heart, hearth and home.
· Wands - Instinct and Intuition

Equated with the four suits of a regular playing deck as follows:

Cups = Hearts
Wands (rods) = Clubs
Swords = Spades
Discs (pentacles) = Diamonds

Equated with the four elements of magick as follows:

Cups = Water
Wands = Fire
Discs = Earth
Swords = Air

The Numbers:

Ace - Beginnings, conception of an idea, the seed.  Also stands for the self.
Two - Creation, idea takes form, coming together, choices, duality.
Three - Understanding, planning, developing, nurturing, sometimes confusion.
Four - Expression, manifesting, materialization, structure, building.
Five - Movement, continuation, adjustment, restless, energy.
Six - Flowing, cycle, element at its best, harmony, order, beauty.
Seven - A rest, waiting period, hidden, hesitation, pausing, time for evaluation.
Eight - Going forward, resolution, reaction, use of power, will, strength, entering a new phase.
Nine - Completion, culmination, the answer to a question, finality, end of a phase.
Ten - End of all energy.  Success, beginning of new cycle on higher level. 

This is very much a brief introduction and explanation of the cards. as each and every card has it's own meaning and corresponding element, planate and suchlike. A more detailed explanation of these 78 cards will be shown here but it will take a while : ) if you want to learn more about the cards now there are many websites out there that will give you an explanation : ) or I can strongly recommend the book "Collins Gem Tarot" out of the few books I have on tarot I find this one the most useful as it's very easy to understand and to the point avoiding longer and more complicated words that some of the other books use : )

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