What is Tarot

What is Tarot? Spiritual and Practical Significance

One of the definitions goes like this — Tarot cards are 78 doors through which wisdom enters. We wholeheartedly support this definition and have even named the section of our site dedicated to the Tarot Arcana precisely that — "78 Doors." Through each of these doors, certain lessons and experiences enter our lives. Each of them deserves respect. The appearance of ANY Arcanum in a spread is an event. Each card carries its own lesson, possesses deep philosophical and mystical meaning. How much a person can learn from it depends on the depth of that person as an individual.

Ultimately, the general meaning of a card is merely a stimulus for reflection. It demands not stopping, not clinging to it, but a further journey of free thought processes and associations. Tarot adapts, grows accustomed, and attunes itself to each person — it can become something deeply personal. Each person, in essence, creates their own language of interpretation, their own understanding of the imagery of the cards! It is simply a matter of time and practice.

Practice may consist of drawing a single card for the day (though three is more interesting!), or laying out a Celtic Cross from time to time, just out of curiosity. The best way to study Tarot is to set no goals for yourself and simply enjoy the journey from day to day (while keeping a travel journal). Deep study of Tarot is a long-term endeavor. In essence, there is enough work with it for an entire lifetime.

For Us, Tarot Cards Are...

A spiritual oracle, a mantic instrument that helps analyze a situation, comprehend experience, and make decisions. A friend and companion with whom you are never bored, whose language sounds unique to each person. A teacher that helps see the connection between the inner path of the soul and the lessons of external life situations; it teaches how to ask the right questions and make the right decisions, sharpening both logic and intuition. A guide into the world of inner transformation, because the images of Tarot are archetypal markers on the path of self-discovery.

What Tarot Can Teach

Tarot can teach a great deal. With it, you can look at a situation from an unexpected angle, gain additional insight when making a choice, develop a deeper understanding of life processes — while simultaneously studying the history of culture, mythology, and psychology, for example — and arrive at profound personal revelations. Or you can simply give your soul a rest or find inspiration for new endeavors.

Tarot is a powerful resource for a person in a difficult situation, in a challenging phase of life. Even simply drawing three cards a day can provide great support on your path. Those who have gone through such an experience (provided they did not demand the impossible from Tarot, such as a promise of fulfilling all wishes) know that Tarot is a friend and helper. But even laying out cards simply out of curiosity, one never tires of being amazed by them. Perhaps the most important thing you need for working with Tarot, besides a deck, is the readiness to enjoy the process of reading a spread! Whatever it may be.

Structure of the Tarot Deck

A Tarot deck includes 22 Major Arcana (twenty-one cards plus the zero Arcanum) and 56 Minor Arcana. A total of 78 cards. The structure of the Minor Arcana is familiar to virtually everyone who has ever held ordinary playing cards. There are 4 suits — Wands (clubs), Swords (spades), Cups (hearts), and Pentacles (diamonds). Each suit contains cards from Ace to Ten. There are also Court Cards or Cards of the Court for each suit — Page (jack), Knight (absent in regular playing decks), Queen (dame), and King. Thus, ten numbered cards and four court cards — each suit contains fourteen cards. Since there are four suits, that makes 56 Minor Arcana cards.

Minor Arcana — The "Lesser Mysteries"

The Minor Arcana are the "lesser mysteries." And usually these "lesser mysteries" are understandable to everyone without any special mystical knowledge. The sequence from Ace to Ten describes the development of events from the beginning, the seed (Ace) to the culmination, the final result (Ten), so you can see what stage the process is at, easily imagine what came before, and what the next step in this sequence might be.

Cups naturally relate to matters of the heart, emotions, and feelings. Pentacles — to money, resources, the most earthly interests. Wands are the suit of ambition, career, social responsibilities, projects, and plans. Swords describe struggle, active efforts, problem-solving, and the work of our mind. Four suits — four paths of human self-realization in the world, four fundamental rhythms. There is nothing complicated here.

Major Arcana — The "Greater Mysteries"

The Major Arcana accordingly signify the "greater mysteries," and their presence in a spread is highly significant. While the Minor Arcana are connected to earthly elements (Cups — Water, Pentacles — Earth, Wands — Fire, Swords — Air, though interpretations may differ), the Major Arcana represent the element of Spirit — a narrative of the soul's journey and the stages of spiritual development. This is the mystical, sacred layer of existence.

The Major Arcana describe the most important part of life — the acquisition of spiritual experience. Of course, the Major Arcana have a purely event-based character as well, but when looking at them, one must remember that these are "greater mysteries," and the Chariot does not simply mean a trip. The character of a Major Arcanum that appears in a reading determines the spirit of the situation, its overall significance, the experience it carries; often it reveals the spiritual state relative to the question — what kind of person this situation is turning you into.

If the majority of cards in a spread are Major Arcana, this describes a very important theme, key to personal development, one that will require great attention. Even if the question seems very simple, the situation has deep significance, and its consequences may be far more serious and interesting than they appear at first glance. If only Minor Arcana are present in the spread, then the problem has a very simple solution, events will most likely unfold quickly and visibly, on the level of everyday situations.

It is precisely this interweaving of the inner secret path of the soul with the working through of external life situations that makes Tarot a "spiritual oracle" — a very subtle and powerful instrument. The more persistently one strives toward spiritual truths, the more important the lesson of the external world becomes, with whose problems one must cope. The spiritual is found not only on mountain ridges, in deserts, and ashrams — it is here too, in the thick of existence, where the most ordinary life situations reveal the true worth of your inner work.

What Qualities Matter When Working with Tarot?

INTUITION. Among other things, Tarot cards are excellent at training this quality, and can serve as a professional development tool for people whose work requires it — for example, psychotherapists and business consultants. Working with Tarot, a person learns to assemble a complete picture from any scattered facts. The idea that all phenomena and events in life are permeated by interconnections and mutual influences, not always rational or obvious, is manifest in every spread. The more complex the spread, the more it demands the ability to see these connections.

INNER HONESTY. This requirement sometimes becomes a stumbling block during readings — feeling deeply personally involved in a situation and overly invested in a specific outcome, the querent decides to turn to another person to do the reading for them. It is not that the other person is wiser, but the risk of one's own inner honesty failing due to emotional "overheating."

TRUST IN TAROT. Note that this is not listed first, because practice shows that initial trust may not be present. Sometimes the relationship with Tarot begins with skepticism. But the cards are wise and forgive people their weakness, providing information under whose influence trust forms naturally (as long as the person has not set themselves the goal of consciously denying the obvious).

A WORLDVIEW in which a person views their life as a project and a PATH — a fascinating journey through an astonishing world of existence, meant to make them wiser, kinder, stronger, and more complete. Every life is a legend. Every person in spirit is a wandering knight seeking the sacred Grail. And there are Higher forces helping us along the way. The Arcana of Tarot are one of the instruments through which a person can receive this help. Of course, one can manage without them, or use other ways to receive it, reading other signs. Wisdom can be drawn from the most varied sources. This is each person's free choice.

CONCENTRATION. This quality, in the form that working with Tarot requires, is difficult to define. It is not the concentration you need in the gym or over a mathematics textbook. Outwardly, the state may appear not particularly focused, almost lighthearted. But at the same time, without this concentration, reading becomes literally impossible. Only those who have experienced losing it can understand this. It is like attentiveness during a conversation — if you don't gather your mind, you simply won't understand what the person is saying, and you won't be able to recall what was discussed. The same thing happens when communicating with the cards.

Practical Advice

Rein in your impatience. The process of reading does not tolerate any forcing of events. Rushing here is tantamount to failure. And this rushing often arises when the spread concerns some "life-and-death question." Few of us possess great spiritual endurance and the necessary composure. For this very reason, even those who know the spreads and card meanings often turn to an outside person in difficult situations. So — no hurried shuffling, no feverish throwing of cards. No re-asking five times over. It is truly better to draw one card and think it over well than to frantically lay out ten, then another fifteen to check, and freeze over them in complete mental chaos and emotional exhaustion (still without an answer to the question).

Break free from stereotypical perceptions of the Arcana. This advice applies more to those who have already gained experience in regular communication with the cards. Beginners are still trying to develop initial stereotypes, and that makes sense. But afterward, the directly opposite process must follow! As soon as you feel that interpreting the Tower takes you one second... as soon as the King of Cups leaves you no room for imagination... as soon as you catch yourself thinking the Empress is a piece of cake... START HEALING YOUR PERCEPTION. Engage in deep study of the Arcanum's energy. Do exercises from good books. Write a whole treatise on the manifestations of each Arcanum. And of course, be observant — sometimes the cards shake things up splendidly on their own, showing such manifestations and turns of events that are in no books and could never be imagined on your own.