by Thelemic Waves Tarot Services

Created on: February 12, 2007   Last Updated: May 11, 2007

A true Tarot deck consists of 78 cards. These cards can be divided into five separate groups. The first group is called The Major Arcana, or Trumps, and the other four groups, the Suits, are called The Minor Arcana (or minors or pips). The reason for this division makes much sense when we view the cards as psychological and spiritual tools.

Archetypes, as defined by Carl Jung who coined the term, are the original models or types after which other similar things are patterned. In Jungian psychology, an Archetype is an inherited pattern of thought or symbolic imagery derived from the past collective experience and present in the individual unconscious. The first group of cards, 22 in all, are the archetypes.

In actuality, all 78 cards represent archetypes of particular human conditions, but the Trumps represent the archetypes of psychological or spiritual growth. So they are very important cards to study and understand.

The Minor cards are divided up into four suits and also each are representative of archetypal concepts. The four suits are Wands, Cups, Swords, and Disks. Wands are symbolic of fire, and so represent the archetype of things, the energy behind life, the will. Cups are symbolic of water, and so represent the emotions, romance, and relationships. Swords, air, represent the mind, the intellect or idea of things, and written communication. Disks represent the physical presence of things in and of themselves, money, and business transactions.

One way to relate to the four suits is to think of creation itself, and the more specific your imagining this concept the better. So lets pick a specific creation - a cookie.

First, there's the concept of "cookie" itself. Cookie exists whether you ever bake one or not. It exists as a Will in this Universe, meant to manifest through the other suits until it becomes an actual physical disk someone can call "a cookie" and eat. Let's call this concept of "cookie" the Ace of Wands.

Now, in order to become an actual cookie, the concept must transpose through the other four suits. So now that someone has gotten this "cookie" inspiration, they have an emotional attachment to it. This is the suit of cups.

Following the suit of cups is swords, the mind - the planning, the recipe formation. And then, finally, the sweet little disk itself exists and you get a cookie.

Ah, but it isn't really as simple as that sounds. That's why each suit has ten numbered cards and four court cards (we'll discuss the courts separately later). It's these

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