Major Arcana

Hello, Happy New Year and I hope you had a great Christmas! I’ve been rushed off my feet with all the New Year readings and I have to say I have a GREAT feeling about this year - I’m really buoyed up!!

I wanted to kick off 2010 with a few words on the major arcana cards as I have seen a much higher incidence of them in my readings of the last week due to this being a time of change, emotional ups and downs and new beginnings.

Major Arcana
There are no real hard and fast rules to the tarot but it is generally accepted that the major arcana cards are the big ones, the heavy weights of the pack (click here to see a list of what the cards are). The first thing I do when I lay out a spread is take a quick look to see the what major arcana cards feature and where they are placed as it will often feed me the ‘mood’ of the reading. They’re fundamentally important!

What are Major Arcana cards?
A tarot pack will have 2 main types of cards - the major and minor arcana. The minors are the 4 suits of cups, swords, wands and pentacles and show more every day concerns.

The major arcana stand alone and are depictions of scenes and people. They are more symbolic and their presence in a reading will show you that significant changes will occur, or special attention should be given to this aspect of the querant’s life.
How to Read the Major Arcana
This all depends on what tarot spread you are using and what position the card falls in. For example, using the Celtic Cross spread, position 4 will show you what has occurred in the very recent past and indicates what has led them to the position they are in now.

So if the Judgement card is drawn here, we can see that decisions and hopes to improve his or her life have been influential. Because this is a major arcana card, we will be aware that the past needs particular focus, recommending ways to come to terms with it or turn it around.

If you read for yourself or are just starting out, it can be really helpful to pay particular attention to these cards when you lay out any spread. Tarot readings are very complex beasts! Simplifying the process by concentrating on the majors can be very enlightening as it will help you to tune into the major themes before you get overly confused by all of the other messages. As you develop your expertise, you will start to be able to cope with more layered interpretations, but most likely you’ll never drop the habit of honing straight in on these principal keynotes!