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 The Major Arcana of the Tarot
The standard structure of the Tarot divides the deck into two groups, the Major Arcana and the
Minor Arcana. The 22 cards of the Major Arcana ("Greater Secrets") are also known as the
Trumps or Triumphs, and are sometimes referred to by the French atouts or the Italian atutti or trionfi. These are the cards
containing strong prototypal symbols and meanings. In earlier decks, these were often the only cards specifically illustrated
according to meaning, the cards of the Minor Arcana being illustrated in a rather literal way with, for example, the Four of Swords
shown simply as four swords.
The figures, forces and qualities depicted in the Major Arcana are highly archetypal. Even those with no previous knowledge of
Tarot tradition can get an immediate sense of what each card conveys, though the full richness of meaning will only be gained
through study and application. This resonance of the cards with the human psyche can be viewed in many ways, from
Carl Gustav Jung's theory of
archetypes and the collective unconscious to the all-encompassing spiritual archive of the occultists'
anima mundi ("world soul") or akashic records. In Memories, Dreams,
Reflections (1962), Jung wrote: "The collective unconscious is common to us all; it is the foundation of what the
ancients called 'the sympathy of all things'." The Major Arcana of the Tarot is one of the great doorways to this archetypal realm.
The Trumps are not merely a collection of 22 individual images: they follow an ordered sequence from I to XXI, with the Fool
unnumbered or assigned 0. The Fool is sometimes placed in order before the rest of the Trumps, after them, between XX and XXI,
or even no place at all. The sequence is important and can be considered in numerous ways; for example, as an allegory of the
evolution of the soul. The most usual ordering and attribution of the Trumps is as follows (illustrations from the
Marseilles Tarot):
0
Fool
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I
Magus
Magician
Juggler
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II
High Priestess
Popess
Female Pope
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III
Empress
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IV
Emperor
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V
Hierophant
Pope
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VI
Lovers
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VII
Chariot
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VIII
Justice
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IX
Hermit
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X
Fortune
Wheel of Fortune
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XI
Strength
Fortitude
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XII
Hanged Man
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XIII
Death
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XIV
Temperance
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XV
Devil
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XVI
Tower
House of God
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XVII
Star
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XVIII
Moon
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XIX
Sun
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XX
Judgment
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XXI
World
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This order is fairly standard, though certain decks do tinker with it: Arthur Edward Waite
transposed Strength and Justice in the Rider-Waite deck, for example. In keeping with his Thelemic
system on which his Thoth deck is based, Aleister Crowley
changed the names of some of the cards: Justice becoming Adjustment, Strength becoming Lust, Temperance becoming Art, Judgment becoming
the Aeon, and the World becoming the Universe.
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