What are the Minor Arcana? |

Removing the 22 Major Arcana from a complete deck of Tarot, we have the Minor Arcana – 56 cards referring to practical life, material everyday life, ideas and feelings. These arcana are divided into 4 suits or kingdoms – Diamonds, Cups, Swords and Wands – and each group of each suit has ten numbered arcana and four arcana with medieval court figures: Page (or Princess), Knight (or Prince), Queen and King.

Undoubtedly, the Minor Arcana are the ones that generate the most doubts among lay people, students and consultants. To understand what the Minor Arcana are, it is necessary to be aware of some symbolic fundamentals of the Tarot and how it influences the interpretation of the cards (to learn more about this, check out this article). The symbology of these arcana is based on the theory of the four elements of nature, which also determines their level of performance. Each suit corresponds and brings in its visual structure the objects and references linked to each of the elements.

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The Four Element Theory

The four elements refer to the natural elements: Fire, Water, Air and Earth, essential to human life on the planet. The concept of the four elements is very old. It goes back to the culture of India and China and is therefore at the foundation of Buddhism and Hinduism. But the roots of the Western theory of the four elements are in Ancient Greece, when pre-Socratic philosophers attested that these were the four basic forces that constitute matter.

The idea lasted until the Middle Ages and ended up being disseminated during the Renaissance period, when it seems to have influenced the structure of Tarot decks. They are present and decisive in various artistic and philosophical segments such as Literature, Alchemy and Astrology (click here to find out how the four elements perform in Astrology), for example. Each system appropriates the four elements and offers an almost unanimous interpretation of them, since they are universal forces that constitute and also affect the nature of the human being inside and outside.

In addition to being in the Minor Arcana, each one representing a suit, the four elements can be seen in the Major Arcana of decks considered traditional (Tarot de Marseille, for example): on the table of O Mago and around the maiden of O Mundo . They represent, there, the way in which the person handles or manipulates the available elements (The Magician; click here and learn more about this arcane) and what he achieves with them and through them (The World; to know the meaning of this arcane, Click here).

What is Tarot used for?

Bearing in mind the idea that the Tarot is a framework of symbols, it is easy to see that it basically works as a representation of situations or people. In the forecast approach, it serves to predict the future, analyze past events and assess what is at stake in the present, but always depending on the context in which it is used.

The orientation approach analyzes the cards, associating them with the stages we are in at a certain moment and how we can solve problems, take the right actions and enjoy what is important.

Reading the Tarot is projecting what we want to know about a moment, situation or person, representing the object and defining its course or the most prudent attitude towards it.