The 78-card deck: major and minor arcana
The deck holds 78 cards: 22 major arcana and 56 minor. The majors speak of big themes and turning points; the minors of the everyday. The minors split into four suits: Wands are energy and action, Cups are feelings, Swords are thought and conflict, Pentacles are money and matter.
The major arcana: 22 cards
From the Fool (0) to the World (XXI). The big archetypes: the Magician, the High Priestess, the Empress, the Lovers, the Wheel of Fortune, Death, the Tower, the Star, the Moon, the Sun. Many majors in a spread means the matter depends little on you and will matter long.
The minor arcana: 56 cards
Four suits of 14: Ace to Ten plus four courts — Page, Knight, Queen, King. The minors cover daily life: conversations, money, work, small decisions. A spread of mostly minors means the situation is in your hands.
The four suits
- Wands — fire: energy, initiative, enterprise, passion, beginnings.
- Cups — water: feelings, relationships, intuition, what fills you.
- Swords — air: thoughts, words, conflicts, decisions, truth.
- Pentacles — earth: money, body, work, everything material and solid.
Numbers carry meaning of their own
Aces are the beginning and the suit’s pure potential. Fives are crisis. Tens are the theme exhausted and passage onward. Courts most often describe people, or roles you play.
How to learn it
Not from a list. Take one card a day via the card of the day, read it yourself first, then compare with Viki. The deck passes in about two and a half months, and the meanings settle through your own days.
Ask Viki about any card or suit.