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Understanding Tarot Cards for a Fluent Reading
Understanding tarot cards can be a daunting task if you try to memorize the meaning of all Minor Arcana one by one.
But the good news is your don’t have to! Tips to learn tarot cards effortlessly.
A quick way to learn tarot meanings is to visualize the structure of the Minor Arcana.
The structure of the tarot deck is similar to that of a deck of playing cards.
There are four suits (wands, cups, swords, pentacles) with ten pip cards numbered one to ten plus four court cards (page, knight, queen, king).
Combining the meaning of each card suit with the progression of the numbers will give you an immediate insight of the card interpretation.
Understanding Tarot Cards: The Suits
Each card suit is associated with one of the four basic element and defines one aspect of our daily lives.
Wands
Fire. Career, inspiration, projects, activities.
Cups
Water. Emotions, creativity, relationships, love life.
Swords
Air. Intellect, challenges, rationality, conflicts.
Pentacles
Earth. Physical world, resources, money, home, stability.
Understanding Tarot Cards: The Numbers
Each number of the cards has a meaning and and can be associated to a particular passage in the succession of numbers.
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One New beginning, opportunities. |
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Two Duality, balance, choices, decisions. |
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Three Achievement, development. |
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Four Structure, stability, foundations. |
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Five Instability, conflict, change. |
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Six Cooperation, harmony, communication, balance. |
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Seven Assessment, reflection, turning point. |
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Eight Change, action, reorganization. |
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Nine Attainment, last step before conclusion. |
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Ten Completion, end of cycle |
Keeping in mind these information, we can already try to interpret tarot cards.
For example, what would be the meaning of Six of Cups? On this card we see two children playing, this image represents a moment of shared feelings and childhood memories, an emotional renewal.
Or the Three of Swords? A heart pierced by three swords heralds emotional turmoil and maybe suggests the necessity of cutting ties.
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Court Cards
The court cards bring into play real people, personality traits or the role played by a person in a particular situation.
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Pages Young people, naive and enthusiastic. A messenger. |
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Knights Focused, energetic people, fast moving situations. |
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Queens Mature, nurturing and influential women. |
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Kings Authoritative , active, practical men. |
The easiest way to remember these characters and fix them in your memory, is to associate them with people you know, celebrities or members of your family.
Symbols and Colors
Observing the tarot symbols will give you a clue about the card meaning.
For example water can represents feelings and emotions, mountains signify major obstacles, animals can represent instincts and passions or birds higher aspirations.
On this page you can find more about recurring tarot symbols.
Also colors give you a clue about the tarot meaning of a card. In this list you can find the symbolic meaning of colors.
Black
Night. Mystery, death, darkness.
Blue
Ocean and sky. Emotions, unconscious, intuition, feelings.
Grey
Stormy sky. Sadness, turmoil, depression.
Green
Plants. Abundance, fertility, growth, vitality.
Orange
Fire. Vitality, strength, communication.
Purple
Royalty. Pride, knowledge, pump.
Red
Blood. Passion, desire, energy, courage.
White
Purity, joy, enlightenment.
Yellow
Sun and gold. Illumination, success, optimism.
Great! You have now the basic tools to interpret tarot cards and start reading a spread. Enjoy!
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