Tarot Card Meanings
Want to learn about the
Major Arcana, but not sure where to begin?
Simply hover over any card to find its main themes, and click on it to get further information.
The Major Arcana
The Major Arcana comprises 22 cards, each representing a significant archetype or universal life experience, such as The Fool, The Magician, The Empress, The Lovers, The Tower, Strength and The World. These cards depict powerful and transformative forces in our lives. In using the Major Arcana in my one card tarot reading tool, you can meditate on questions or issues that are dominating your life at the present time.
The meanings and numerical order of these tarot cards have been inspired by the Rider Waite tarot deck (also known as Waite-Smith deck), arguably the most influential deck in all of tarot. This deck, first made in the early 20th century, was designed by Pamela Coleman Smith in a beautiful art nouveau style under the guidance of occultist Arthur Edward Waite. Coleman Smith's colourful and bold designs were very forward thinking for the time, for example, up until this point The Lovers card had always previously depicted a clothed couple receiving a religious blessing, whereas her design shows Adam and Eve naked in the Garden of Eden.
The Rider-Waite-Smith deck also incorporated new names for the cards and deeper symbolism, which encouraged Tarot readers to look for more intuitive answers, and no doubt influenced the continued popularity of Tarot reading today. If you would like to see images of this deck, click here.
All tarot deck illustrations by Veronica Oliinyk (WinWinArtLab), background illustration by YuHasar, all purchased through Dreamstime & Shutterstock.