Major vs Minor Arcana: What Is the Difference?

Browse any list of tarot card meanings and you will keep running into the words Major Arcana and Minor Arcana. They sound complicated, but the split is simple. A deck of 78 cards is divided into 22 cards that tell the big story and 56 cards that show everyday scenes. Once you know the difference, it becomes much easier to decide where to put the weight in a reading.

The 22 Major Arcana: life's big themes

The Major Arcana are the 22 cards that run from 0, The Fool, to 21, The World. The word arcana is usually said to come from the Latin for secrets. These 22 cards are often read as a journey in which someone sets out, gathers experiences and grows along the way. The Fool takes a first step, learns from The Magician and The High Priestess, passes through big changes such as Death and The Tower, and finally completes the circle with The World.

So when a Major card turns up, it usually speaks to a theme that is moving in your life as a whole, rather than a small detail of today. For example, if Death appears while you are thinking about changing jobs, it does not mean something frightening will happen. It suggests you are standing at a turning point where one chapter ends and the next one opens.

A few Major cards to meet first

Here are a few of the 22 Major cards worth knowing early. The Magician is the power to start with the skills you already have, The High Priestess is intuition gained by quietly watching, and The Empress is the ease and abundance of looking after yourself. The Star speaks of hope that arrives after exhaustion, and The Sun of joy shining out with nothing hidden. Attaching one big theme to each card helps you see right away which part of your life a Major card is talking about.

The 56 Minor Arcana: everyday scenes

The Minor Arcana show the concrete moments we live through every day. The moment opinions clash in a meeting, the evening a coworker thanks you, the night you check this month's card bill. The 56 cards are divided into four suits of 14 cards each.

• Wands: the suit of Fire. Passion, drive, work and new challenges. The energy that starts things and pushes them forward.
• Cups: the suit of Water. Feelings, relationships, love and comfort. It shows how your heart is flowing.
• Swords: the suit of Air. Thoughts, words, judgment and conflict. It lights up the worries in your head and moments of choice.
• Pentacles: the suit of Earth. Money, results at work, your body and daily life. The things you can hold in your hands.

The four suits are easy to remember if you map them onto a workday. The drive to get going in the morning is Wands, the chats and feelings shared with coworkers at lunch are Cups, the thinking and deciding in the afternoon meeting is Swords, and payday and the dinner table are Pentacles.

Number cards and court cards

Each suit's 14 cards are ten number cards, from Ace to Ten, plus four court cards: Page, Knight, Queen and King. The number cards are easiest to read as the order in which that suit's story unfolds. The Ace is a seed of a beginning, the middle numbers are the joys and bumps along the way, and the Ten is the stage where a cycle ripens or wraps up. The Ace of Cups, for example, shows a new feeling or relationship just beginning.

Court cards are often read as people or attitudes. The Page is someone learning, the Knight is someone on the move, the Queen holds the suit's power inside, and the King directs that power outward. At the office you might picture them as a new hire, an eager team member, a caring senior and the leader who sets the direction. A court card can point to someone around you or to the attitude you need right now.

Reading them together

When you draw several cards and many are Major Arcana, it is a time when big currents are shifting. When most are Minor Arcana, the small choices of each day matter most. If one suit keeps showing up, that theme is taking up a lot of room in your mind lately. Lots of Cups points to feelings and relationships, and lots of Pentacles points to money and daily life.

You do not have to memorize all 78 cards at once. Read the 22 Major cards first in the tarot card meanings, meet one card a day through Daily Tarot, and the feel of the suits and numbers will come to you naturally.