Minor Arcana

From SourceryForge

The minor Arcana are a part of Tarot. They include the so called pip cards and the Royalty Cards. In the old Marseilles decks they were the part of the tarot deck that is more or less identical to an ordinary playing card game. The Spanish local playing cards still show suits similar to the tarot suits.

Quick Links

Wands: Ace, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Page, Knight, Queen, King.

Cups: Ace, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Page, Knight, Queen, King.

Swords: Ace, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Page, Knight, Queen, King.

Pentacles: Ace, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Page, Knight, Queen, King.

Correspondences

The next table basically shows two possible associations between tarot suits and Elements. The first one is the one usually associated with the Rider Waite deck and the Golden Dawn tradition, the second one is more associated with the french/continental tarot tradition created by Eliphas Levi. The spanish tradition goes back to the writings of Eudes Picard. Note that there may tarot decks/traditions promoting other associations with the western elements, or no such association at all.

Suit	Element (RWS tarot)	World in Kabbalah	Element (alternative Tradition)	Element (spanish tradition)	Corresponding playing card suit	Corresponding German playing card suit
Wands	Fire	Atziluth	Air	Fire
Cups	Water	Briah	Water	Air
Swords	Air	Yetzirah	Fire	Water
Coins (pentacles)	Earth	Assiah	Earth	Earth

The next table is about various associations of the number cards with Kabbalah, number symbolism the Sephiroth in the Tree of Life, and so on. Note that those are intended to be used with the Kircher Tree and the Golden Dawn path associations when using the Rider Waite or any other Golden Dawn derived deck. They may or may not apply to other systems.

The table is also providing links to the articles about the symbolism of the numbers. Many tarot teachers argue that the minor arcana meanings can be derived from a combination of the suit element and traditional number meanings. If the card meanings given by older authors are studied it is obvious that this approach has some merit. The problem here is that traditional number symbolism and Kabbalah/Sephiroth don't resonate well at all, which may mean that a tarot reader may have to decide which of the paradigmas to use, or work out one's very own synthesis of them.

Card	Sephira	Number symbolism
Aces	Kether	1
twos	Chokmah	2
threes	binah	3
fours	Chesed	4
fives	Geburah	5
sixes	Tiphareth	6
sevens	Netzach	7
eights	Hod	8
nines	Yesod	9
tens	Malkuth	10