Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Tarot primer (part one)

Four is a magic number. There are four elements of nature, four parts of our being, and of course, four suits in the tarot. This is how they all fit into one another.

Wands are spiritual cards represented by fire.
Pentacles are physical cards represented by earth.
Cups are emotional cards represented by water.
Swords are mental cards represented by air.

There are also four elements of a Tarot card reading, including the person reading the cards, the person having their cards read, the cards themselves, and the universe that dictates which cards appear.

This deals with a section of the Tarot known as the Minor Arcana, which are set up a lot like a deck of playing cards. Think of Ace to Ten, and then the face cards, or in this case, the court cards. These are represented by a page, a knight, a queen, and a king.

Of course, since there are many different decks, many of the cards might be different. Court cards may have different names and the suits may be different. I use the Voyager Deck, which in many ways is vastly different from the standard Rider-Waite deck.

In the next blog, I will write about the Major Arcana.

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