Tarot is probably the most well known divination method, and is therefore probably one of the first systems that people try, get used to, and use the most.

Tarot is believed to have started in France and it spread accross the world with the travellings of man. The main use of the Tarot is to not only look into the future, but to help analyse your present and reveal people’s past event so that events happenning in the present can be explained more clearly. The ways that Tarot work have many different views as well. Some people believe that when divining with Tarot, the answer is already in your subconscious mind and is brought forward with the use of the Tarot. On the other hand, some people like to believe that when they consult the Tarot they make a conection with the Spirits and the answer is revealed in the cards by them. Either way, what you want to believe is up to you, there is no right or wrong answer.

The Tarot is split up into two main sections, the Major Arcana containing 22 cards and the Minor Arcana holding 56 cards.

The Major Arcana is made up of twenty-two cards numbered from ‘zero’ (The Fool) to ‘twenty-one’ (The World). The Major Arcana represents the larger and more prominent events in a person’s life, whether it be past, present or future. Some people when they start using the Tarot choose only to use the Major Arcana until they get used to using them. This choise is usually made because people feel daunted by the sheer amount or cards in the whole Tarot deck. This is not an unwise choice to make, even though smaller events will be missed from a reading, the larger events will be easier to pick out. Once a user becomes used to the Major Arcana they usually move on to using the Minor Arcana as well.

The Minor Arcana is made up of four suits, very much like a deck of playing cards. These suits are, Swords, Wands, Penticles and Cups. Becuase there are so many versions of Tarot, these siuts may be changed slightly, for example, Penticles may be shown as Discs, but the basic meaning is the same. The cards of the Minor Arcana symbolise the smaller, subtle yet visible events of a person’s life. Each suit is split up into ‘pip’ cards which run from Ace to Ten, each suit also contains four Court Cards, Page, Knight, Queen and King. As with magic, each suit is bonded to an element, Swords to Air, Wands to Fire, Penticles to Earth and Cups to Water. The character of the card and the element it resides in determines its meaning. Any good Tarot deck will include a booklet of meanings.

Even though the whole Tarot Deck contains 78 cards and may seem too much to handle, frequent use and reading of the menings will help lodge the meanings into your mind. The general meaning can be seen in the picture within the card, so the best thing to do is read the meaning and attribute certain parts of the meaning to certain parts of the card.

Wiccan Tree