Tarot From Scratch · Lesson 1 of 5

The structure of the deck

Fifty-six cards collapse into four suits and ten numbers. Learn the grid, not the cards.

8 minute read

The Minor Arcana is a grid, not a list. Four suits — Wands for will and energy, Cups for feeling and relationship, Swords for thought and speech, Pentacles for money, body and time — crossed with ten numbers and four courts. Learn four suit words and ten number words and you can generate fifty-six meanings from fourteen pieces of information.

The numbers carry a consistent arc: ace as raw offer, two as choice or pairing, three as first result, four as consolidation, five as loss and friction, six as exchange, seven as assessment in the dark, eight as mastery or departure, nine as the near-complete thing held alone, ten as the full cycle with all its accumulation.

Test it. Five of Cups: loss, in the suit of feeling — grief and what remains unnoticed behind you. Eight of Pentacles: mastery through repetition, in the suit of work — the apprentice at the bench. You did not memorise either.

Key points

  • · Four suit words plus ten number words generate the whole Minor Arcana
  • · Courts are roles or people, not events
  • · The Major Arcana is the only part that needs learning card by card

Exercise · Generate ten

Pick a suit and write your own meaning for all ten numbered cards before reading any book definition. Then compare. The gaps are the interesting part.

Card library

Check yourself

Course contents