Tarot Deck 2: The Minor Arcana

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In my personal studies of the Tarot, I have found the Minor Arcana to be the hardest to translate into meaningful interpretations. The symbolism is complex and vague all at the same time. The Rider-Waite deck is the hardest for me to translate as most decks give a one word summary of the meaning and the Rider-Waite uses only pictures. What I believe Waite was trying to accomplish (though I have not read his Tarot research), was to use certain scenes from daily life, medieval times, and mythology to describe the broad meanings of the card based on a specific formula. Anyone who owns other esoteric decks such as Crowley’s Thoth Deck or The Golden Dawn Magickal Tarot will notice that the cards of the Minor Arcana contain astrological symbols. These symbols may even confuse the reader as they do not always seem to correspond with the written interpretations of the card. I have written on this subject previously in my blog but I will go through all the symbol systems involved to clarify.

The Minor Arcana is the second deck of the Tarot, the court royal cards being a separate deck all together. There are 40 cards in the deck all together. The number 40 has a long history of symbolism found throughout the Bible and ancient cultures. The great flood was accompanied by 40 days and nights of rain, Jesus walked the desert for 40 days and nights, and the Israelites wandered the desert for 40 years. According to Ernest Busenbark in his book, Sex, Symbols and the Stars, the number 40 may had been attributed to turmoil and hardships followed by a renewal as it coincides with the cycle of human gestation being 40 weeks or 10 twenty eight day months (18).

The tetragrammaton is the four lettered name kept sacred to Judaism and paganism across the world and is encrypted into various components of the Tarot. This ‘holy’ or ‘sacred’ name has often been described as a representation of the four elements. The four fold nature of being, as articulated by Carl Jung’s quaternary, are intellect, intuition, emotion, and sensation (http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=1722). This can be seen as we think thoughts, feel emotions, use instinctive decision making combining thought and emotion, and sense the world around us. The four suits of the Tarot, the four elements (fire, water, air, earth), and the four fold nature of being are all symbolically equal. The Tarot in conjunction with Kabala, describes each of these natures further by inscribing the Tree of Life in each of the four worlds. The Tarot is graphically and symbolically describing what the written tradition of Kabala has been teaching at least since the 10th century.

The symbolism is completely holographic with the existence of each of the four worlds in each separate world:

This allows for many levels of information to be encoded into the symbolism as we apply Kabala to Tarot, as it was meant to be. There are other symbolic relationships engrained into the tree itself, such as pillars, triangles, paths, etc. Any understanding of these will further advance your study of Tarot and your ability to draw information from the spreads.

SYMBOL KEYS

Each card of the Minor Arcana contains a NUMBER that represents the SPHERE on the Tree and a SUIT which represents the mode of being or ELEMENT. There is one more system of information added to the Minor Arcana that is not easily perceived. It contains the entire Zodiac, though in a different format than the Major Arcana.

http://www.skyscript.co.uk/heritage/egyptians2.html

Each house of the Zodiac contains 3 sub houses called decans or decantes. Decan means ‘division or ruler of ten’ as the whole Zodiac is 360 degrees and each decan is 10 degrees making 36 decans. Extracting the 4 aces from the 40 cards gives us 36 (40-4=36). The ace of each suit is not represented in the wheel because the ace is considered to be the pure emanation of that element. For example: the ace of cups can be seen as the pure emanation of emotion (water) in its highest form; love. It is rather simple. As we move into the 2 or Chockmah, the card takes on the symbols of the decan and house.

Venus in Cancer with Chockmah in Briah is a very balanced energy. It is the love that we can understand as we live in a dualistic reality. Venus represents love, art, the mother, and the divine feminine. We know that Cancer is a water sign, making it compatible with Venus (love, female, water). Cancer is a motherly, protective shell as illustrated by the crab. Chockmah is the first split off of Kether, and it still holds stability of divine energy. Combining all of these concepts, love is weighed as a balanced force, not like the duality of good and evil but the idea of active and passive.

THE FORUMULA

For you math majors:
(Decan + House) + (Element + Modality) = Minor Arcana

A great site to get to initiate an understanding the role Kabala plays in Tarot is:
Raven’s Tarot Site
http://www.corax.com/tarot/

I believe this book is essential to beginning Tarot studies, especially to those people serious about studying Crowley’s Thoth Deck:
Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot
By Lon Milo Duquette

The Book of Thoth
By Aleister Crowley

Good Reading:
http://www.alphaorion.com/MinorArcana.pdf

Tarot Hierarchy: Deck 1 symbols

This will be an outline of the basic understanding of the tarot symbolism so that we may ultimately become more intuitive readers.

We know that the Tarot deck is broken down into three different decks. I would like to further break down each symbol archetype in each deck. The first deck is consisted of three elements, seven planets, and twelve zodiac signs. Each card represents a path on the tree of life, with negative and positive attributes. The elements are easy enough, the planets are a little harder, and the zodiac sings can be broken down into sign, element, modality, and planetary ruler. The complexity of the symbolism builds as we go from element to planet to sign and each I will explain how each component contributes to the personality of the overall symbolism.

The Elements




Fire is represented by the Aeon or Judgment card. A basic understanding of fire says that it is a purging energy. Represented by the letter Shin, which embodies the spiritual life force of the Universe, fire can be thought of as thought, spirit, insight, and new beginnings.


Water is represented by the Hanged Man and the letter Mem. This card represents the end of a cycle, baptism, the feminine, emotion, intuition, peace, and tranquility.

Air is represented by the Fool. What symbolic associations can you think of for air? What takes place in the air? Communication, spirit, action, relationships, intellectual reasoning.

Earth is not represented in the Hebrew aleph-bet, but is considered to be represented in the combination of the other three elements. Symbols commonly associated with the earth in Tarot are materialism, money, stability, and final outcomes.

The Planets

From here on out I would recommend the card interpretations of Michael Tsarion:
http://www.taroscopes.com/tocardmeanings.html

He includes positive, negative and reversed interpretations in the cards and I can’t find any that compare.

The Sun
The Sun is considered one of the strongest symbols in the Tarot, and for good reason. Anyone involved in synchromystics or conspiracy study knows the prominence of solar symbolism in our society. Representing ego, Sun Card and everything that comes with waking consciousness, we can compare the sun symbol to fire representing creativity, will power, clarity, success and purpose.

The Moon
The Moon represents the unconscious as a whole and is associated with Cancer and the 4th House. This symbol can be associated with The High Priestess Card, water and represents emotions, habits, intuition, and sensitivity .

Mercury
Mercury represents our communication and mediums for that communication, associated with Virgo and Gemini in the 3rd and 6th houses. Mercury is represented by logic, reasoning, thinking and communication. Mercury is represented by the Magician in Tarot and the element air.

Venus
Venus represents the goddess of love and is associated with Taurus and Libra and the 2nd and 7th Houses. We find Venus in the Goddess Card and can also represent love and relationships, family, compassion and heart and is associated with water and earth.

Mars
Mars is the pure masculine energy and represented by war with Aries and Scorpio and the 1st and 8th houses. The fiery Tower Card is the representative of Mars as a chaotic, brave, confident and cataclysmic change associated with air and fire.

Jupiter
Jupiter is the objective perspective with Sagittarius and the 9th house. Jupiter symbolizes expansion, growth, luck, revolution and good will and can be associated with the fire and earth energies.

Saturn
Saturn represents the material world with Capricorn and Pisces and the 10th and 12 houses. Saturn represents structure, duty, and rules associated with water and earth.

The Signs of the Zodiac

I will not be listing all of the meanings of the zodiac signs but I will just show a few examples to show how the symbols interact to come about with stronger, broader meanings.
The meaning for the zodiac signs follows a general formula:
Meaning = sign (element + modality) + planetary ruler
The sign itself holds a personality that is not completely derived from, but majorly influenced by the element and modality of the sign. Other components of the card can add further complexities to the meaning. I’m just trying to outline the basic understandings and you can go on to add at your own discretion: Hebrew letter, number, color, etc.

Lets take my sign for instance: Sagittarius

Represented by the Art Card, ruled by Jupiter with the element of fire and mode of mutable. According to the formula, the sign or card represents an objective yet flexible energy that is on the move and strives for higher thinking.

One of the tricks is to learn how the symbols play together, and to see how the different cards play together in the spread. You will be able to objectively see patterns in the layouts that will add to the information you can intuitively pull during the reading.

A basic understanding of astrological signs and symbols is pertinent to tarot, and the two systems work beautifully together. MacGregor Mathers, Michael Tsarion, Aliester Crowley, Dione Fortune, the Ciceros, and one of my new favorites, the Raven have been documenting the correlation between divinatory systems, painting a new picture for understanding the inner workings of the mind. I would recommend learning how each planet reacts in each sign and this will help with your Tarot work tremendously.

This concludes my summary of the symbolism of the first deck.