Minor Arcana

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The Minor Arcana, sometimes Lesser Arcana, are the Suit (cards)">suit cards in a cartomantic tarot deck.

Ordinary tarot cards first appeared in northern Italy in the 1440s and were designed for tarot card games. They typically have four suits each of 10 unillustrated pip cards numbered one (ace) to ten, along with 4 court cards (face cards). Tarot games are still widely played in central and southern Europe and French Tarot is the second most popular card game in France after Belote.

By contrast, cartomantic tarot cards emerged in France in the late 18th century popularised by occultists such as Etteilla. The terms "Major" and "Minor Arcana" originate with Jean-Baptiste Pitois (1811–1877), writing under the name Paul Christian.Ronald Decker, Thierry Depaulis, and Michael Dummett. ''A Wicked Pack of Cards. The Origins of the Occult Tarot''. New York. St. Martin's Press, 1996

In their contemporary versions, the Minor Arcana are often illustrated—a convention popularized by the Rider-Waite Tarot in 1910. Used in a tarot card reading in conjunction with the Major Arcana, the cards of the Minor Arcana suggest subtleties and details and signify day-to-day insights.

Tarot variations derived from Latin-suited packs typically have a Minor Arcana of 56 cards, with 14 cards in each suit: Wands (alternately batons, clubs, staffs, or staves), Cups (chalices, goblets, or vessels), Swords (or blades), and Pentacles (coins, disks, or rings). The four court cards are commonly page, knight, queen, and king. Some variations have princess and prince cards replacing the page and knight cards; the historic Visconti-Sforza Tarot expands the court with two additional cards: the damsel and the mounted lady. While the historical Tarot of Marseilles contains 56 cards, later decks based on the French suits of clubs (♣), hearts (), spades (♠), and diamonds () have only three face cards per suit, with a jack (or knave) in addition to the queen and king.

Symbolism

In divinatory, esoteric and occult tarot, the Minor Arcana are believed to represent relatively mundane features of life. The court cards represent the people whom one meets.

Each suit also has distinctive characteristics and connotations commonly held to be as follows:

Gallery of card suits

Illustrations from the Rider–Waite Tarot, the most popular amongst English speakers, divided by suit and arranged in ascending order of face value.

Wands

image:Wands01.jpg, Ace of Wands
image:Wands02.jpg, Two of Wands
image:Wands03.jpg, Three of Wands
image:Wands04.jpg, Four of Wands
image:Wands05.jpg, Five of Wands
image:Wands06.jpg, Six of Wands
image:Wands07.jpg, Seven of Wands
image:Wands08.jpg, Eight of Wands
File:Tarot Nine of Wands.jpg, Nine of Wands
image:Wands10.jpg, Ten of Wands
image:Wands11.jpg, Page of Wands
image:Wands12.jpg, Knight of Wands
image:Wands13.jpg, Queen of Wands
image:Wands14.jpg, King of Wands

Cups

image:Cups01.jpg, Ace of Cups
image:Cups02.jpg, Two of Cups
image:Cups03.jpg, Three of Cups
image:Cups04.jpg, Four of Cups
image:Cups05.jpg, Five of Cups
image:Cups06.jpg, Six of Cups
image:Cups07.jpg, Seven of Cups
image:Cups08.jpg, Eight of Cups
image:Cups09.jpg, Nine of Cups
image:Cups10.jpg, Ten of Cups
image:Cups11.jpg, Page of Cups
image:Cups12.jpg, Knight of Cups
image:Cups13.jpg, Queen of Cups
image:Cups14.jpg, King of Cups

Swords

image:Swords01.jpg, Ace of Swords
image:Swords02.jpg, Two of Swords
image:Swords03.jpg, Three of Swords
image:Swords04.jpg, Four of Swords
image:Swords05.jpg, Five of Swords
image:Swords06.jpg, Six of Swords
image:Swords07.jpg, Seven of Swords
image:Swords08.jpg, Eight of Swords
image:Swords09.jpg, Nine of Swords
image:Swords10.jpg, Ten of Swords
image:Swords11.jpg, Page of Swords
image:Swords12.jpg, Knight of Swords
image:Swords13.jpg, Queen of Swords
image:Swords14.jpg, King of Swords

Pentacles

image:Pents01.jpg, Ace of Pentacles
image:Pents02.jpg, Two of Pentacles
image:Pents03.jpg, Three of Pentacles
image:Pents04.jpg, Four of Pentacles
image:Pents05.jpg, Five of Pentacles
image:Pents06.jpg, Six of Pentacles
image:Pents07.jpg, Seven of Pentacles
image:Pents08.jpg, Eight of Pentacles
image:Pents09.jpg, Nine of Pentacles
image:Pents10.jpg, Ten of Pentacles
image:Pents11.jpg, Page of Pentacles
image:Pents12.jpg, Knight of Pentacles
image:Pents13.jpg, Queen of Pentacles
image:Pents14.jpg, King of Pentacles

Planetary associations

In the Order of the Golden Dawn, number cards are associated with planets, corresponding to their placement in Kabbalah.

*Threes - Saturn
*Fours - Jupiter
*Fives - Mars
*Sixes - Sun
*Sevens - Venus
*Eights - Mercury
*Nines - Moon
*Tens - Earth

References

External links

{{Authority control

Cartomancy

de:Tarot#Die kleinen Arkana