Tarot Deck Parts

The Tarot deck most commonly used today is actually two decks combined. The Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana.

The Major Arcana are 22 cards, numbered from 0 (The Fool) to 21 (The World).

The Minor Arcana are the suite cards. 

• Wands
• Cups
• Swords
• Pentacles

Like modern playing cards, the Minor Arcana has 4 suites numbered 1 (Ace) to 10. Each suite also has 4 court cards – Page, Knight, Queen, King. (Over the years, the Page and Knight were merged into the Jack that is used in a deck of playing cards.)

Note: Sometimes the suite of Pentacles is called Coins and the suite of Wands is called Rods depending on the deck and who you are learning from.

As I stated in my About Page, I am using Eileen Connolly as my mentor and her book Tarot, a New Handbook for the Apprentice as my guide.

She suggests learning the deck in the following order:

1. Minor Arcana (minus the Court Cards)
2. The Court Cards
3. The Major Arcana

Start with the Minor Arcana

Go through your deck and separate the Major Arcana, and Minor Arcana. Then remove the court cards from the Minor Arcana and divide the remaining into suites. So that in the end you have six piles of cards.

• 22 Major Arcana
• the Court Cards of all Suites
• Ace -10 of Wands
• Ace -10 of Cups,
• Ace -10 of Swords,
• Ace -10 of Pentacles

Breaking down the Minor Arcana into "bite sized chunks"

Know the SUIT KEYS
The ACES
The SEED PATTERN
Twos
Threes
Fours
Fives
Sixes
Sevens
Eights
Nines
Tens

Court Cards